591 Summary response
What makes writing interesting and fun?
Often incorporating popular culture, or known characters into our teaching can help motivate
students as well as teachers.
In order to think more about this topic, please 1) read the article titled, students as well as teachers.
"Increasing English Language Writing Fluency with Fanfiction," in TESOL Connections
and then respond to the questions below.
- What is the "gist" or the main take-away from this article?
- What are your general thoughts about using Fanfiction when teaching?
- Is this a technique you could or would incorporate into your teaching? Why or why not?
- List 3-5 novels, movies, TV shows, or short stories that would be interesting to your students (or you!).
- Post your responses (answers to the questions) by Tuesday, October 2nd at 22:00.
- Read and respond to at least two students’ posts by Thursday, October 4th at 22:00.
You can "post" below in the "enter a comment" area.
Please write your name in your post and your responses.
Natalja Juhhimenko:
ReplyDeleteIn the article “Increasing English Language Writing Fluency With Fanfiction” author presents technique of teaching English based on development reading and writing skills of students. The author writes about the concept of Fanfiction, goal and advantages of it, is presents examples of practical use of Fanfiction during lessons. In my opinion it is very interesting and unusual method. By this method students increase not only their knowledge of English but also develop creative skills and critical thinking. It increases students’ potential as a creator or author of own “сomposition”; gives self-confidence in using English as well. I would use this technique at school with students from 7th grade to 12th. The most important is to find a text that will be apopriate for students’ age, reading interests and level of English. I think this technique will give them confidence, interest in further learning of language, develop their creativity. I can use it in basic school but working with text during 1-2 lessons and text should be short and understandable for students. At a gymnasium level I can spend more lessons working with the text and use different kind of Literature, because students’ English level is higher and they are more motivated in doing such “creative” tasks.
List of material that my students will be interested in:
Basic school:
1. Animation like Pixar or Disney or short films (genres like detective, mystery, historical. Using of links (youtube.com, fluentu.com and etc)
2. Bank of stories from everyday life. (Example of stories: https://www.rd.com/true-stories/inspiring/the-best-life-stories/ )
3. Fairytales (for example, Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty).
Gymnasium:
1. Modern Literature (romance, fantasy, science fiction, detective, mystery). I wouldn’t use classics, because there are many archaisms and words that are not used in English anymore.
If a book is big, I would use only 2-3 chapters.
Examples:
Romance: “A cute love story“ (https://www.bookrix.com/book.html?bookID=nidhi.agrawal_1272188264.1893169880#0,486,15210 )
Fantasy: Melissa Nichols “Dragon girl” (https://www.bookrix.com/book.html?bookID=anya03_1298686687.4790201187#4860,486,61812 )
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteDear Natalja,
DeleteYour answer is fully represents the main idea of the article you read and your own view on Fanfiction as a "very interesting and unusual method", which can be used by your students to broaden their minds, encrease their confidence and simply improve writing skills.
The examples of books/films are good. I argee that it will be hard for students to read old books like "Jane Eyre", but it doesn't mean that they can't use a translated version and write a fanfic about it in English. The thing is, we will never know in what language students read a book. So, it is their responsibility. Only if it will be the inclass assignment, well, then they will read it in English.
Dear Natalja,
DeleteYou have mentioned all important points which every teacher who uses this method shoud remember about. Your summary is great too, you picked up the main idea of the article and rewrote it just in a couple of simple words. Also your examples seemed to me very original, thank you very much.
Natalija, thank you for such a complete summary. You make such a good point when you said that when students see them selves as "creators" or "authors" their self-confidence can improve. It's really valuable to think about how class activities are linked to self-confidence and self-esteem. I am also glad you listed the links to the two books - "A cute love story" and "Dargon Girl." We all benefit from knowing of useful resources. Great post!
DeleteJelizaveta Ivanova:
ReplyDeleteThe author claims that using Fanfiction as an activity in a classroom can motivate students to learn English language, especially if they use their favourite books as source materials. The creation of stories will put students in the eyes and boots of author, but with their own perception.
Fanfiction is more beneficial than doing ordinary written assignments, for instance, it is fun, it develops critical thinking, receptive and writing skills. Also, such creativity gives children an opportunity to express their thoughts, feelings, beliefs.
I am sure that Fanfiction is more interesting for students of 12-18 age group, so I would use it as a creative task, but not too often because it can eventually become boring. To prevent such circumstances, I would say that once a week is enough, but it depends on number of lessons per week and students’ level of English.
Books:
“Howl's Moving Castle” written by Diana Wynne Jones – fantasy novel which also has a beautiful Japanese screen adaptation
Popular books for teenagers: “Divergent” by Veronica Roth; “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins; “13 Reasons Why” by Jay Asher (all written by 21st century writers)
Films: “Titanic” – everyone wants to rescue Leonardo DiCaprio
Games (why not, we live in 21st century where every child plays video games): „God of War“
„The Witcher“
Dear Liza,
DeleteI totally agree with every word from your summary and your personal opinion about fanfiction. And a huge thanks for the idea about games, I didn`t thought about it!
Dear Liza,
DeleteI liked your summary, it is very short and informative. I agree that this method is not appopriate for primary school, because students only become learning English (mostly from the 3rd grade). I didn't understand about books. How will you deal with books that are big and have got many chapters.
Thank you. You've bring up "fresh" ideas!
Natalja Juhhimenko
Dear Liza, I think your comment about using games is so logical. As teachers we are trained to find our students (pupils) interests and try to incorporate their interests into our teaching. Lately, I have been thinking about how to incorporate gaming into my teaching. I know my own children are very motivated by collecting points and avatars. Additionally, I really appreciate reading your suggested books for different age groups. I always want to know what young people are reading and are interested in - it's so helpful to have different perspectives and ideas. Have you read those books for teenagers? I really enjoy reading young adult literature. I recently read "Paper Towns" by John Green. I enjoy his work a lot. I also like reading what my kids read.
DeleteKristina Tairova:
ReplyDeleteAuthor of this article tells us about very exciting activity in ESL-fanfiction or comic drawings. Katie suggests different ways of how can this activity can be realized- may be it will be just retelling of changed by students novel, TV show or a movie or even better- students can insert themselves into the story. There is provided couple of web-sources which make this activity real and also benefits of this idea have been discussed.
I absolutely love this article! I belive that comic drawings are benefitial for listening, reading, writing and creative thinking but also I think that it is great fun! Starting from 5th form almost all students are able to read individually and write some not very complicated texts. Even 12graders will be happy to be authors of something cool, to draw and wtire their own stories.
First things for comic drawings which came to my mind were:
-Eragon by Christopher Paolini (for rantasy lovers)
-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (for younger learners and rebelious ones)
-Lord of the Flies by William Golding (this one is classic I think, still about adventures but more realistic)
-“Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu (reading level is easy but the idea is great)
-Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? (wonderful short story with open end so you can only guess what will happen at the end, and it is based on real events. For older learners)
-“Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu ()
All of these students also can either wach or read what is great, I think.
Dear Kristina,
DeleteYour summary was interesting to read. I havem't thought about comics, but it is so obvious. Students love comics and they would be much more interested that working with books or chapters. I will keep this idea in my mind. What will you count with using this technology on lessons? Any criteria? Thank you.
Natalja Juhhimenko
Dear Kristina,
DeleteI feel your passion towards creativity, which is great because a good teacher has to be intelligent and creative. The idea about comics is awesome! Students can draw by themselves and create a personal comic book with your help as an English teacher.
Dear Kristina,
DeleteThank you so much for your thoughtful summary and comments. I am so glad you mentioned the book Paper Meagerie by Ken Liu. I just googled it and started reading it: https://io9.gizmodo.com/5958919/read-ken-lius-amazing-story-that-swept-the-hugo-nebula-and-world-fantasy-awards. I also looked up, "Where are you going and where have you been." Like you mentioned, there is a movie based on the Joyce Carol Oats story.
I, too, like to incorporate comics into my teaching. I firmly believe that when students are motivated and interested, they learn more and at a deeper level. Excellent suggestions!
I am very grateful you did share your knowledge here. It is an excellent post
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Jana Kolga:
ReplyDeleteFrankly, before reading the article, and getting to know the different ways to incorporate fanfiction into the lessons, I did not think much of it and regarded this as a phenomenon that rather pollutes or ruins the original literary work.
However, I have to admit that the worldwide popularity of the genre speaks for itself. It seems that it is especially beloved by young adults and subsequently by teenagers and their younger siblings. That is why we as teachers should not miss the opportunity to use it to our advantage and their good.
The article wonderfully summarizes the essence of fanfiction and how it can develop students' analytical skills and encourage their creativity. It also showed that there are multiple options in applying the genre, and it is infinitely adjustable.
That said, I believe I would give it a try by starting with the textbook stories that are usually required to be retold. Since I encourage students to use their own wording when retelling a story, the methods used in working with fanfiction would be perfectly applicable and fun!
Depending on the age of the students I would use:
- with the third/fourth-graders I would choose a cartoon most of them are obsessed about and that has the easiest language e.g Peppa Pig (http://glamour-and-discourse.blogspot.com/p/peppa-pig-episode-transcripts.html)
- with sixth-graders it would be still be wise to take a book that has been made into a movie, so that the students are interested in comparing the two as well as be interested in recreating and changing it, e.g How To Train A Dragon or The Hunger Games (https://www.imsdb.com/scripts/How-to-Train-Your-Dragon.html) - it's obvious that only some parts would be required to read (unless, of course, the students would be sucked in the books)
- with the older students (grades 10-12), I would choose classics that have been already remade such as 10 Things I Hate About You (Taming Of The Shrew) (https://www.imsdb.com/scripts/10-Things-I-Hate-About-You.html)
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