Teaching no­vels - tasks

First steps to task-based learning

A list of tasks used in the unit “Ire­land” and “The Tw­elfth Day of July”

1. Task 1
   Film sce­na­rio:
   
   • work in groups of 4
   • go through chap­ter 3 and find pas­sa­ges which would be sui­ta­ble for filming
   • make sure the scene does not ex­ceed 3 mi­nu­tes
   • make notes and think of a spe­cial si­tua­ti­on that would not look out of place in the con­text of our novel
   • think of some dia­lo­gues
   • think of some sce­nic di­rec­tions think of some music to ac­com­pa­ny your scene
   • pre­sent your work in any way you think sui­ta­ble
   • each mem­ber of the group takes on a spe­cial job:
     
   1. time­kee­per
   2. lan­gua­ge guard
   3. spea­ker
   4. tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor
   5. one pupil to sum­ma­ri­ze how the work was ac­com­plis­hed and to re­port back to the teacher (a memo is en­ough)
      
      
2. Task 2
   Crea­ti­ve wri­ting: In­te­ri­or mo­no­lo­gue/Work in pairs
   The si­tua­ti­on:
   • Sadie has just been taken pri­so­ner by the Ca­tho­lics in ano­ther part of Bel­fast
   • She is now tied up and lo­cked into an empty room
   • What is going on in her head?
   • Write a short text about what she might be thin­king about.
   • Try to con­sider her fears, her thoughts about her fa­mi­ly and her bad con­sci­ence be­cau­se of what she’s been up to
   • team work as above
     
     
3. Task 3
   A news­pa­per ar­ti­cle:
   • write a short ar­ti­cle for a news­pa­per
     
   • work on your own or with a part­ner
   • choo­se the kind of news­pa­per you pre­fer - eit­her sen­sa­tio­nal like The Sun or se­rious/fac­tu­al like The Times or The Guar­di­an
   • if you can, find a good photo or some form of pic­tu­re you can add to your ar­ti­cle
   • read it out in class
   • put all ar­ti­cles on the wall in our class­room
   • the ar­ti­cle ought to be about one of the more ex­cit­ing events in the novel, e.g. the fire in Sadie`s house.
   • team work as above
     
     
4. Task 4
   A let­ter to the edi­tor:
   • you are eit­her a Ca­tho­lic or a Pro­tes­tant li­ving in Bel­fast
   • you have just read one of the ar­ti­cles above and you are so angry that you want to write a let­ter to the news­pa­per strai­ght away
   • write a let­ter to the edi­tor of one of the above men­tio­ned news­pa­pers
   • read the re­port you want to an­s­wer to and note down the most im­portant points that make you so angry
   • brain­storm fur­ther ideas you want to add
   • in your first sen­tence men­ti­on the ar­ti­cle and the ge­ne­ral pro­blem you have and which you ab­so­lu­tely want to re­spond to
   • write your let­ter ac­cor­ding to your notes
   • bring in ex­am­ples from your own life (as a ci­ti­zen of Bel­fast)
   • watch out that your lay­out looks good
   • you can exag­ge­ra­te or make up new things
   • de­ci­de on how to fi­nish (emo­tio­nal­ly, full of hat­red, on a hap­pier note etc.)
   • check with a part­ner for mis­ta­kes
   • team work as above
     
     
5. Task 5
   Working with video clips:
   
   1. Pre-view­ing ac­tivi­ty
      • What ele­ments are ab­so­lu­tely ne­cessa­ry to pro­du­ce a good clip? Think of what has re­al­ly fa­sci­na­ted you while watching MTV or well - pro­du­ced ad­verts on te­le­vi­si­on. Collect some ideas with your part­ner and talk about them. Re­du­ce your choices to five ele­ments.
      • What ele­ments con­cerning the “Irish ques­ti­on” can be ex­pec­ted in the clip we are going to watch (The Cran­ber­ries “Zom­bie”)? Write down three ideas.
   2. While-view­ing ac­tivi­ty
      • Just watch and enjoy.
      • Collect as many striking points as pos­si­ble.
      • Con­cen­tra­te on the vi­su­al ef­fects.
        
   3. Post-view­ing ac­tivi­ty
      • With your part­ner talk about your im­pres­si­ons and ideas.
      • Put to­ge­ther the most im­portant ideas you can agree about.
      • Write a litt­le text about your view­ing ex­pe­ri­ence.
      • Read it out in class.
      
      
      team work as above
      (For fur­ther ideas look up ar­ti­cle in FSPU 60 “Mu­sik­vi­deo­clips).
      
      
6. Task 6
   Rea­ding log (fa­kul­ta­tiv, je nach­dem, wie lange und aus­führ­lich die Be­hand­lung des Ro­mans sein soll)
   • events: brief sum­ma­ries
   • cha­rac­ters: por­traits
   • set­ting: maps, pho­tos, buil­dings
   • names, re­fe­ren­ces: here es­pe­cial­ly his­to­ry and fa­mous peop­le
   • lan­gua­ge: mind-maps, vo­ca­bu­la­ry sheets
   • per­so­nal re­ac­tions
   • crea­ti­ve wri­ting

Add fur­ther tasks here:

Teaching no­vels - tasks: Her­un­ter­la­den [pdf] [101 KB]