Task 4) Comment on a teaching idea
In this entry I will comment on a teaching idea provided by the vzl (Virtuelles Zentrum für Lehrerfortbildung) called "Tagul- Texte individuell gestalten". You can have a look at the teaching idea here or the pdf below.
Preparation:
It is really quick and easy to get started with tagul and does not take a lot of time. Usually as a teacher you have got a content you want to talk about and afterwards you decide which method you use. Therefore you would just have to create your wordcloud by typing in the text in Tagul or using the copy and paste functions, In comparison to wordle.com you have got more features concerning the shape and the font used as well as different colors and special effects.
Preparation:
It is really quick and easy to get started with tagul and does not take a lot of time. Usually as a teacher you have got a content you want to talk about and afterwards you decide which method you use. Therefore you would just have to create your wordcloud by typing in the text in Tagul or using the copy and paste functions, In comparison to wordle.com you have got more features concerning the shape and the font used as well as different colors and special effects.
| tagul.pdf |
Teaching idea:
The idea of using specific words for creative writing is not new but the tagcloud also has got an aesthetic effect on the observer. The instructions described in the part" im Unterricht" follow a logical order and I like the idea of introducing a poem using Tagul but I can see some difficulties. First of all, I would like the instructions of the teaching idea to be more specific because there is no time limit given how long the students need to write their own poem. The tagcloud itself seems to be a little bit too large because it would keep the students busy for a while to write their own poem which content should at least make a little bit sense. I would say that the students need about 15-25 minutes for the first task. This obviously depends on your students which leads us to the problem of internal differentiation within the learner group- one student might only need 10 minutes to do the task and another needs 25. Therefore one has to think about additional tasks before you start talking about the original poem by Alfred Lichtenstein.
The idea of using specific words for creative writing is not new but the tagcloud also has got an aesthetic effect on the observer. The instructions described in the part" im Unterricht" follow a logical order and I like the idea of introducing a poem using Tagul but I can see some difficulties. First of all, I would like the instructions of the teaching idea to be more specific because there is no time limit given how long the students need to write their own poem. The tagcloud itself seems to be a little bit too large because it would keep the students busy for a while to write their own poem which content should at least make a little bit sense. I would say that the students need about 15-25 minutes for the first task. This obviously depends on your students which leads us to the problem of internal differentiation within the learner group- one student might only need 10 minutes to do the task and another needs 25. Therefore one has to think about additional tasks before you start talking about the original poem by Alfred Lichtenstein.
The teaching idea entails a content, a goal and logical methodology which is important for teaching units. Moreover it could be really fun listening to the poems the students created although a more serious part follows afterwards- the analysis of stylistic devices of the original poem and the individual ones. Maybe the analysis of "Die Stadt" could be done in class and the students could compare the stylistic features of the original poem and their individual on as a homework.
Conclusion
If the tool is used by the teacher only, it is a really good tool because of the criteria we discussed in a previous class. The small disadvantage when the tool has been chosen to be used in class is that the students need to get their own account which requires an email address. This would take a bit of time into account but I think the tool is also useful for students if they have to create a poster or have to do a presentation. Obviously this idea is also applicable for foreign language teaching. In my opinion the teaching ideas is a combination of creative writing, listening and speaking, but also a good mixture of theoretical and "fun" tasks. I would definitely try it out as I mentioned earlier, some additional tasks should be available for fast students.
