How to Online Teach Homeschoolers Analytical English and Literature.
Analytical English: What Is It?
The author means that teachers can do more than just teach basic grammar and speaking when she talks about analytical English. Reading with literary analysis can be used to improve speaking skills at any stage or level. Analytical English teachers look at plot, setting, conflict, crisis, character, rising action, symbolism, foreshadowing, theme, tone, subplots, and more in literature. Grammatical analysis is entwined with these ideas. Their students set out on a journey that involves delving into the intrigue that makes a story so compelling. This kind of analysis stimulates the mind and helps students learn to think analytically in a way that can be used in science, social studies, and other subjects. Together with their teachers, students create their questions and contribute to the curriculum’s development. It is of the utmost importance for students to ask questions and apply their analysis to both their dreams and real life alongside their teachers.
incorporating great books and literature.
Even though grammar has always been taught in schools in the United Kingdom and the United States, other European schools, like those in Italy, emphasize grammatical structure rather than literary analysis. Native English speakers frequently emphasize the importance of meaning and content over grammatical structure. Reading a lot of great books and articles helps great writers and speakers improve their writing and speaking skills. In the classroom, whether online or in a traditional setting, even authentic resources like popular books, newspapers, and magazines encourage hands-on investigation. The author believes that teachers should use the online format to emphasize the importance of literary and communicative analysis because using literary analysis enables students to become familiar with collocations, idioms, and the natural rhythm of the language. One could start with an “essential question” that gets students thinking in the classroom: How does Shakespeare’s depiction of women in his plays reflect the role of women throughout history?
This subject matter can be simplified for lower-level classes, despite the fact that the Shakespearean example is suitable for learners at the upper intermediate and high levels. If you teach people who are learning the English language, the materials should be easier to find and at a lower level. The instructor might use pages from a fashion magazine or simple articles about fashion, and then she or he might ask the class a question about how important fashion is to our lives today. For instance, one might inquire: At a first meeting, how important is it to be fashionable? Which style is “your” favorite? Which hues are currently popular? Keep in mind that literature about family, friends, and pets is not only appropriate for very young students but also entertaining and helpful for their development, so it’s okay to be very basic when teaching them.
General design, including props and visuals.
To get the group talking, teachers might want to start with slides or presentations from PowerPoint. Visual presentations are time-consuming, but they are well worth it because they can stimulate visual learners’ knowledge. PowerPoints like these make it easier to talk and allow the discussion to follow a clear path. A window into the natural outdoors or other multicultural environments can be provided by using visual presentations. Also, teachers might ask students to create and present their own visuals to the class because this is much more creative than just giving them information. In a world where digital communication is essential, the process of creating digital presentations for classmates encourages everyone to become active communicators. Additionally, the time spent researching for these presentations stimulates the students’ minds.
Another three-dimensional form of visual presentations is the use of props. Items in the room are examples of such props. Drawing on whiteboards is a favorite activity for many educators. The use of a digital whiteboard is also implemented. The room is full of potential props. Toys with stuffed animals, water bottles, dolls, small statues, flags, phones, puppets, food from plastic toys, purses, phones, and drawings on paper are typical props. The author enjoys using props made of artificial intelligence. During the lesson, she asks Alexa, Cortana, and Hey-Google questions. Hearing responses from these bots is a huge hit with students. Students are asked to share objects related to the literature they are studying in order to be very creative. Young students could, for instance, talk about a precious necklace from O’Henry’s short story “The Necklace.”
allowing students to present.
Students of all ages feel a sense of accomplishment when they present a recorded performance or live theater for an online class. In addition, the project’s research boosts scholars’ self-confidence. For a better understanding of the history of recorded radio shows, teachers can find recordings of 1900s radio shows to share with students or assign as homework. Students will improve their linguistic proficiency through homework that requires them to listen to recorded discussions. Hearing about the history of Received Pronunciation, Posh Language, the Mid-Atlantic Accent, and any other language registers that one might find is helpful for advanced learners. It will be helpful to give special consideration to the business language register, the teen language register, and other speaking styles.
It goes without saying that some students will be more open to group oral presentations than others. Teachers may offer a more difficult alternative assignment to address students who are uninterested in a given task. Making puzzles for the class, drawing diagrams, singing, or just writing poems are all options. Adults ought to provide input on how a particular project will satisfy their career requirements. Children may be encouraged to express their feelings about their preferences and will learn about their preferences.
Text messaging and message boards
People can write their thoughts and questions in a section on the majority of online platforms. One builds a general outline by adding new words and ideas as the class progresses. Students who enjoy writing can use the message board to post questions and receive feedback, while students who prefer to speak up can do so. Students who enjoy writing but are afraid to speak up will find something they can relate to on the texting message board. Students can contribute without interrupting anyone else in the class by texting. Students can even use a function on some digital platforms to raise their hands and smile to show their agreement. Contributors can engage in conversation with one another after class or leave questions for the instructor. It is acceptable to text the class at any time of day or night throughout the week; however, it is essential that the instructor monitor the messages to ensure that they are considerate, appropriate, and respectful.
Documents and videos.
It’s simple enough to share books and videos online. During class, teachers use screen sharing to share videos with students. There is a link in Skype that can be clicked to show the videos to everyone at once. Alternately, instructors may assign the videos as homework to be viewed prior to or after class. If one does not make their own videos, the internet offers a plethora of audiovisual options. When it comes to selecting audiovisuals that are appropriate for the target audience, especially when working with children, educators need to exercise caution. When selecting tutorials that provide additional practice outside of the classroom, teachers must exercise caution. In a similar vein, they have access to a plethora of free PDF books, most of which are classics, that can be found in online libraries. On a message board, where students can download them, sharing them is simple. Otherwise, teachers might give students links to online libraries where they can conduct useful research that will help them in the future.
Design and drawing.
Allowing students to express themselves through design and drawing, as well as sharing concepts through the creation of drawings on digital drawing pads or tablets, is worthwhile. Some fields are more likely to benefit from these designs than others. They can be especially helpful in an analytical English class that encourages students to draw characters or sections of stories. Perhaps students are able to deduce what their classmates are attempting to illustrate. Non-native speakers are encouraged to improve their interpretive abilities through art critiques. Students might also use these made-from-scratch digital drawings as the subject of guessing games, in which they draw a person, place, thing, or idea and ask their classmates to guess what they tried to represent.
Games.
Games help students get to know each other and form bonds with one another, depending on the audience in the classroom. Even if the instructor does not teach in a physical classroom, they can still make use of engaging online games. Students should be divided into teams in larger groups. During or outside of the digital class, teamwork can be practiced. Classmates might look up a writer, a book, or a time period in history that they want to describe so that other teams can guess what they are talking about. The game of guessing the job is very popular. Students play the fill-in-the-blank game by writing a word and the other group guessing which letters are missing. In order to assist their classmates in determining the answers, students provide hints. For the class, players might make crossword puzzles about literature, or the teacher might make acrostics. Games shouldn’t just be about guessing words; they could also be competitions that require students to solve a problem. In a similar vein, students might invent new games.
Structure versus the Big Idea: Teaching communicative English.
Students are captivated by the Communicative English Teaching Method (CLT) because it encourages them to have conversations about real-world situations. Every scene in a book provides new material for life-related discussion. It is the responsibility of the teacher to initiate such discussions by asking pertinent questions. The teacher’s ability to formulate questions and lead the class on a unique path is crucial to the activity’s success. Even though communicative English instruction is geared toward ESL students, it is inextricably linked to analytical literature instruction that focuses on literary terminology. Communicative instruction is the foundation, and advanced literature analysis is the end result that can be applied to any endeavor. In the end, the big idea wins out over simple structure.
The dialectic method of Sophocles, which entails having a conversation between two or more people who ask and answer questions in order to extract new ideas, has a distant connection to CLT. A deeper comprehension of any subject can be gained through exploratory questions. Teachers, for instance, look for inferences, outcomes, perspectives, and motivations. In his book “Syntactic Structures,” published in the early 1960s, Noam Chomsky made the argument that the function and creativity of language could not be explained by language’s structure alone. As a result, British teachers wanted to teach more than just grammar; Through guided communication, they needed to teach practical function.
The main goal of communicative education is to get students to communicate a lot of information so they can fully express themselves, even if they make mistakes. Students must communicate about real topics that matter to them in their lives. In the online format, you can do this while having fun talking about books and real-world situations. The author of this article maintains that it is possible to connect pleasant literature with natural communication related to real lives in an online context after taking into consideration these connections between literary analysis and CLT. Roleplay, task completion, jigsaw, and opinion sharing are all examples of these exercises, which can all be done online.
Online instruction to advance the future
Teaching analytical literature forces students to consider a variety of contexts, cultures, and scenarios. Students’ minds are opened by science fiction, allowing them to imagine the future. Students are able to observe human relationships through romance novels. Students are given a foundation for a wide range of English communication skills when they share their own narrative choices or write their own stories. This includes specific jargon related to medicine, law, business, and a variety of other fields. An effective online lesson plan can be customized to meet the needs of students with a variety of learning styles and backgrounds. Learning how to communicate with classmates and collaborate online gives everyone the ability to support one another as a unified community in a world that is increasingly interconnected. Teachers, like other employees, use smart working while modeling it for their students, who will also benefit as future smart workers in other professions and the field of analytical English.
