Kudos

It was nice to watch the presentations because I got a lot of ideas from people. I really liked Jennifer’s presentation. I think it works great with a secondary school audience. I don’t teach elementary school, but it would probably go over well there too. I was completely into the activity and I learned a lot. I never read it before and to me, knowing the background of Lewis Carrol and his notes about the meaning of the words helped me understand where he was coming from. We have had the debate of background knowledge vs. non-background and I think knowing this knowledge helped me understand the work better. It was a very fun activity and I think that’s important when teaching kids. It’s all about keeping them engaged. Nicely done!

3 thoughts on “Kudos

  1. jtemple1

    I enjoyed the presentations as well.  I wonder if Jennifer’s lesson on Jabberwocky could also be used in a lower grade level to teach the parts of speech.  I think learners often "know" things, but  just don’t know that they know them.  This seems to be the case with parts of speech since we use verbs, nouns, etc. appropriately at a much earlier age than the age at which we are able to identify those words as specific parts of speech.  Just as Jennifer’s lesson teaches that poetry is more accessible than we think, using a lesson like this seems as if it would make the identification of parts of speech seem more accessible.  I think it would be a great alternative to diagramming sentences–if that’s still done. 

  2. Edith

    I don’t know if Jabberwocky would work with the lower grades because I don’t know that much about the lower grades. But I do use the poem in my college classes when we discuss grammar. It is sort of funny to watch the ESL students get out their dictionaries. I know I shouldn’t be amused, but they are so sure that a poem must mean something!

    Edith 

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