Friday 11 March 2011

Anita Neo -- Using films to teaching literature.

Part One: the three sites


1. http://www.learner.org/workshops/hslit/session7/index.html


Site name: The Expanding Canon: the teaching of multicultural literature in high school. This site suggests various methods that can be used to engage students with the text.

Rating: (5/5) I really liked it because other than offering the ideas, it also shows us videos of real life applications of the methods.



2. http://www.lessonplanet.com/directory_articles/language_arts_lesson_plans/31_August_2009/100/creative_ways_to_teach_characterization_lessons


Site Name: Lesson Planet: The Search Engine for teachers. This section provides various interesting ways to conduct lessons on characterisation. It includes lesson plans which can be used for references.

Rating: (4/5) Good start for lower secondary students to gain exposure to literary techniques.



3.http://www.readwritethink.org/search/?resource_type=6&grade=18

Site Name: ReadWriteThink. This site provides lesson plans for various levels and for every method suggested and even provides additional resources that can be used to further develop the lessons.

Rating: (4/5) One draw back might be that it is very much in the context of the Western countries, hence, some of the lesson plans might not be as useful.


Part Two:


5 Interests:


1) Baking


2) Writing Journals, noting down various signficant moments of life.


3) Films, especially films that end with happily ever afters.


4) Music


5) Television series/dramas.



Topic Area: Films -- happily ever afters


Rationale for topic area: Watching films are always a pleasurable experience and it offers some form of escapism into an alternate reality. Hence, watching films with happily ever afters lifts one's spirits, probably making learning a more enjoyable experience. On top of that, students would have been exposed to the theme of happily afters and thus, be familiar such movies. Therefore, it would allow them to engage their prior knowledge and further build upon it or even to look at things in a different light.



1) Watch Shrek and disucss the notion of satire,and then, work on Clockwork Orange, a social satire (lower secondary)


2) Watch Cinderella and discuss the text by seeing it through a feminist lens. Then, disucss Caryl Churchill's Top Girls (JC)


3) Compare Wall-e to Ursula Le guin'sThe Dispossessed. A discussion of technological advancements in today's world in relation to the texts.

5 comments:

  1. Clockwork Orange is banned la! haha

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  2. huh?i thought the film is banned but the text isn't?

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  3. wow. Should we include a class on handling censorship and literature?!

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  4. Text is not banned - I would much prefer if you deal with a text on the syllabus if you are dealing with O and A level especially if you are presuming a knowledge of the entire text rather than excerpts.

    My other consideration is that 'happily ever afters' seem to be the norm - wouldn't it be more interesting to study the NOT so 'happily ever after' or the open ended resolution? A lesson plan on endings sound interesting but it should take into consideration alternative endings (just like there are in some DVD special features)

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