Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
In partnership with English Year 5: Onomatopoeia sequences Introduction Children will create a sequence of pictures or comic strip with a discernible story but containing no text apart from onomatopoeic words. What will the children learn? Children will explore the use of words whose meanings are represented in their sounds. What prior experience do the children need? Children will be familiar with a range of onomatopoeic words, but probably will not know the word ‘onomatopoeia’. Children often like the word because it seems outlandish and strange. Spend some time simply looking at it, practise saying it, and practise spelling it. Children need prior experience of using an art or graphics package, and of inserting pictures into a word processor page. Equipment A digital projector could assist you in introducing this activity, but it is not essential. The activity could be done effectively in an ICT room or suite – children need a computer each, or one between two. Computers need an art or graphics program capable of including text, and a word processor capable of importing graphics, preferably into a table. The Lesson Introduce the class to the idea of onomatopoeia. Stress that onomatopoeic words are not necessarily just sound effects (zap, boing), but that their essential characteristic is that they sound like their meanings (gurgle, hiss). Ask children to write down as many as they can think of (not their own inventions at this point), then collect in examples in alphabetical order, and create a long list. Children work individually or in pairs. They choose six words from the list, and decide how they could incorporate them into a series of pictures that tell a story. You might like to impose some other rules, like choosing words starting with particular letters, or prescribing that the words must appear in alphabetical order. You may wish to ban the production of violent stories. The cleverest stories do not use the onomatopoeia simply as sound effects. Children use the graphics program, or whatever else you have at your disposal, to create a their sequence. Each picture should contain only one (or perhaps two or three) onomatopoeic words, perhaps presented in speech balloons, thought bubbles, starbursts, or whatever is appropriate. If you have clip art collections available to you, you may well be able to find and import these devices, otherwise children can draw them for themselves. It may be possible to speed up the process of creating the pictures by some judicious saving of files. For example, if the story is all set in the same place it would be sensible to create the background, save that, and then re-load it as the basis for each picture. Children who are good at drawing may wish to create their own characters; otherwise it might be expedient to use clip art. If you have the capacity to do it, you might also use a digital camera and add images or characters from real life. Usually the onomatopoeic word should be added last. When the six pictures are complete, copy and paste them onto a single page on the word processor, reducing their size as necessary. Arrange the page as a table of two columns and three rows, and leave space at the top of the page for a title. When pages are complete, save them and print them out – in colour if you have the facilities to do so. Join the pages together to make a class book. Alternatively, children could arrange the six pages into a PowerPoint presentation. © Becta, 2006 http://schools.becta.org.uk ‘Direct2U’ Service Week 40: Strand English In partnership with Why are we using ICT? You could complete this activity without the use of ICT, but using the graphics program allows pictures to be edited, adjusted, re-sized and rearranged in ways that would not be possible on paper. References National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching Y5 T2 W11: To explore onomatopoeia. Collect, invent and use words whose meaning is represented in their sound… Y5 T2 T24: To evaluate their work. http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/literacy/teaching_resources/nls_framework/ 5-14 National Guidelines for the Curriculum in Scotland: English Language Listening/Watching - Listening in order to respond to texts; Talking – Talking about texts; Audience awareness; Writing – Imaginative writing - Level C; ICT - Creating and presenting - Level C http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/5to14/guidelines/index.asp Where do we go next? Several children read another child’s story, and compare notes about how they interpret it. They then ask the author/s to explain the intended meaning. How effectively was this communicated? Differentiating the activity This activity probably requires little differentiation. Children who have little confidence in their drawing ability should perhaps be paired with more confident partners. Reflecting on their work If you produced the same story but omitted the onomatopoeia, what difference would it make? © Becta, 2006 http://schools.becta.org.uk ‘Direct2U’ Service Week 40: Strand English