Multimedia in my Classroom

In too many instances, people associate any class dealing with language and literature as boring. This is a mentality that we as English teacher must fight from the first day of class. Sadly enough, there are many high school students who come into contact with English teachers having little to no reading and/or writing ability. This creates a conundrum for some English teachers as much of their content comes from reading books and writing about them. There are some other ways to present information in class.

Video is a great way to reach students who are more visually oriented. A student may have difficulty picking up on the character development of Jem and Scout in "To Kill a Mockingbird" as they read the novel. A great way to help them make connections is to let them watch the movie. This way they can see the story unfold in front of them.

Audio is another great method of teaching in the English classroom. As a student, it was quite a struggle for me to understand "Beowulf." In one of my college classes my teacher showed us a video of a poet performing the epic poem in the old tongue. Technically, I was able to understand the poem even less because of the Old English that was used, but the reading was so beautifully haunting that I found myself holding the poem in a higher regard than I had before. Poetry is a part of an English class that can benefit greatly from use of audio. Many times a poem can take on new meaning when a student is able to hear it rather than just read it.

I think video and audio are great technological aspects that can be utilized to help students in English class. However, I still don't believe they should take the place of text. In my mind they should only ever be supplements to the texts a teacher uses. Reading and writing should always be the focus in an English class.


http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/08/11-techy-things-for-teachers-to-try.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+freetech4teachers/cGEY+(Free+Technology+for+Teachers)