Tag: Reading

Literature

Literature: Character poster

Astrid van Houwelingen

We all know characters in literature that feel like real people. It seems as if they existed before you started reading the novel and continue on existing and living their lives when you finish the story. For students it is important to be aware of what tools and techniques there are for an author to create a character so vivid that we wonder what will happen to them after the story ends. When students are able to gain a deeper understanding for character building, their appreciation for literature will increase and their pleasure in reading will too.

Of course it is possible to deconstruct the complexity of a character with a question-answer series. But there are more fun ways of doing so. I like to make use of student’s creativity by asking them to create a poster, in which they display everything they have learned about a character throughout the novel. They then share their knowledge by presenting their poster to the class, practising their speaking and presentation skills and allowing the other students the benefit of their work. How is that for a win-win-win?

The Basics

Level: B1-C1 (Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Reading, speaking, presenting, listening, co-operating, literature
Time: 60 minutes
Materials: Poster sized sheet of paper, markers, literary work

Aim

Students learn how characters in literature are created and how they can be analyzed. They give a short presentation.

The task

Before starting to analyse, students are introduced to the basics of character creation and the different functions they can serve in the story (see slideshow). Once the basics have been covered they are given a poster sized piece of paper, some markers and a character to investigate.

Step by step:
1. They title the poster with the character’s name and draw a simple stick figure.
2. They dig through their literary work to find physical descriptions, character’s thoughts and examples of dialogue revealing the character’s demeanour.
3. They note down these quotes and explain in their own words what these quotes say about the character.
4. They might want to ‘dress up’ their characters by drawing the described clothes, hair and other physical features as well as typical attributes. This makes the text visual to all students (Students will need about 25 minutes to finish the poster).
5. When finished, students present their poster to the rest of the class. They describe both the function of the character and how the author has brought the character to life.

Additional ideas

This character poster discusses the characters in isolation. If you want students to also be aware of the connection between different characters you could do a follow up activity where you let students make a sociogram or family tree with the posters. This will help students to see the connection between the different characters. Who is family, who likes whom and who are archenemies?

Over to you: Do you have interesting lessons that teach students to look more critically at literature?

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid

writing

Presentation: Infographic

Astrid van Houwelingen

Occasionally we are presented with a unit in the language coursebook that lends itself very well for further investigation. When that is the case I find myself jumping for joy and seizing the opportunity to make something more out of the unit than the regular reading, writing, listening and grammar activities.

In this instance the unit in our coursebook dealt with the history of the English speaking world. It included five chapters with topics ranging from the Amish community to the early colonisation of Australia. These topics were presented in each of the reading texts for the units. In order to intensify students’ learning of English culture around the globe, I presented them with the task of creating an infographic and presenting their work to the rest of the class for a mark. This task forces students to dig deeper into the culture and history and at the same time invites them to read, write, speak and listen in English while doing their research. It also allows them to master some of those all important 21st century skills. Now who doesn’t love that?

The Basics

Level: B1-C1 (Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Reading, speaking, listening, writing, computer skills, co-operating
Time: 3 hours + time to present (depends on how large your group is)
Materials: Laptops/computers

Aim

Students learn about English-speaking cultures, doing research and making an infographic. They prepare a 2.5 minute presentation.

The task

The task of creating an infographic was mainly done in class. Students worked in groups of four and used their laptops to find information online. They worked with an online free programme in order to make a neat looking infographic on the topics listed in their coursebook. The remainder of the work as well as preparing for the presentation was done at home.

I found that students were confronted with a great amount of target language. Some students decided to watch a documentary to learn more about their topic whilst others dug into historical sites. Because students were able to choose their topics within their unit of study many students were motivated to create something satisfying. Some students even came up with their own ideas to include on the infographic. How’s that for ownership? 😉

Additional ideas

This presentation task was designed to expand on a unit of study about historical periods in the English speaking world. However, there are many other units that would be very suitable for creating a task like this. Think of units on student life, culture related units or units on technology. As long as the basis is there and you have some idea of building on it, your options are endless.

Over to you: Do you have coursebook material that would lend itself well to being expanded? Have you made use of this opportunity in the past?

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid