The following selections represent some of the tasks and activities which I have found to be particularly successful during my own teaching. For more ideas, see both the British Council handout on working with cartoons and the resource sheet which accompany this session. Part 1 Working with single frame cartoons Translating captions Note 1. As a homework task, ask the students to find their own German language singleframe cartoons (this could also be done with cartoon strips), and to translate the captions. 2. In class, put the students into small groups and ask them to go through the cartoons and captions and discuss any possible corrections. 3. Cartoons are displayed, students vote on the funniest. This can often be a useful exercise in language awareness and cultural studies, as many captions will rely on e.g. puns and cultural references that the learners may not be aware of. What s the joke? 1. Choose a selection of single-frame cartoons suitable for your group. Alternatively, invite the learners to bring their own cartoons in (you could direct them to one of the online cartoon banks recommended on the resource sheet). 2. Remove the captions and post the cartoons around the classroom, together with a sheet of paper. 3. Learners walk around the class and write their own suggested captions. This generates lots of language that can be the basis of grammar and spelling work, as well as discussion work on which captions the class thought were funniest. 4. Display the original captions on e.g. OHP learners decide which caption goes with which picture. Variation Provide the students with captions, students draw their own single frame cartoon to go with it. This can also be done with multi-frame cartoon strip. Caricaturists styles 1. Choose a well known international personality about whom the learners will have an opinion, and who has been widely caricatured. 2. Choose a selection of single-frame cartoons, each by different cartoonists. 3. Students discuss/write descriptions of which aspects of the person s personality/features the different cartoonists have focussed on. 4. With which of the interpretations are they most sympathetic? Variation As a homework task, students find a German cartoon featuring the same personality. What are the differences and similarities?
Cultural Studies Notes 1. Choose a series of cartoons that illustrate different aspects of the target culture. 2. Students discuss the cartoons and captions in pairs, making notes on which jokes they understand (or get) and which jokes they don t. 3. For the cartoons they don t understand, ask the learners to identify what information they need to have order to get the joke. 4. Allow students time to look through all of the cartoons. 5. Elicit which cartoons were the favourites, and why. 6. Question students on the cultural aspects of the cartoons they understood, and invite questions on those they didn t.
Part 2 Working with comic strips The Missing Frame 1. Give pairs a short comic strip with one of the frames blanked out. 2. Using the clues provided by the other frames, they draw their version of the missing one. 3. Learners compare and comment on each others different versions 4. Teacher reveals missing frame on e.g. OHP Variations Learners bring their own strips in to work with, edit etc. Learners are each given a single frame cartoon containing at least one or two key words or objects. They then choose one word or object to blank/cut out. Partner has to guess missing word/object Jigsaw Toons! 1. Take a short comic strip of about 5-7 frames. Letter each frame in the top left-hand corner, but do not use consecutive letters e.g. Frame 1 V, Frame 2 A, Frame 3 P etc. Make a larger copy of the whole cartoon strip, and cut out each individual frame(use tough card, or laminate). 2. Divide class into small groups give each group one frame 3. Each group decides how best to describe what is going on in each frame. This could also be done as a short writing exercise. The frames are then taken in by the teacher. NB it is important that the learners remember the letter of their frame! 4. One person from each group joins one person from each of the other groups. Learners must describe what was happening in their individual frame. The group then decides on the correct order of the frames in the cartoon e.g. V, A, P etc. and collectively write a prose version of the complete cartoon. 5. One or two are read out in class before the whole cartoon strip is revealed on e.g. OHP differences discussed. Variation (adapted from Maley, Alan and Duff, Alan Drama Techniques in Language Learning) NB this variation works best with fairly detailed frames, or a sequential series of cartoons 1. Divide class into small groups so that each group has one frame from the series. 2. Each group examines its frame, making notes on what it contains. 3. Information Exchange: any group may send one person out at any time to any other group to find out about its picture.any group may receive one visitor at a time. Each group tries to build up a detailed idea of the pictures contained in the series. 4. The groups try to work out what the story of the whole sequence is. 5. Each group then works on a dramatization of the incident, as they have interpreted it. These are then performed, before the complete sequence is revealed by the teacher.
Changing genres 1. Class brainstorms different genres of writing, e.g. newspaper report, gossipy letter, instruction manual, problem page in a magazine etc. 2. Each pair is given a cartoon strip, or chooses a strip from the teacher s cartoon file. 3. Pairs have to rewrite the cartoon according to one of the above genres 4. When finished, the texts are pinned on the wall the cartoons placed on a desk. 5. Students read each others work and guess a) what genre is being employed and b) which cartoon is being described. What has just happened? This provides useful practice of the present perfect. 1. Choose a comic strip that you think your class will appreciate. Show them the last frame and elicit What has just happened? 2. Pool together ideas, providing language feedback. 3. Class compares their ideas with the original. Variations All the tenses, conditionals and aspect! Cartoons really do lend themselves to useful grammar work. Show learners the first frame, What s going to happen?, What s happening etc. Show cartoons the whole cartoon and elicit what happened, then What would have happened if? etc. Other ideas? She says/he says - A fun variation of a classic parlour game, Consequences Acknowledgment: This activity is adapted from Dobbs, J 2001 Using the Board in the Language Classroom CUP 1. Draw a comic strip on the board/ohp containing stick figures interacting (see Andrew Wright s excellent 1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy for examples of such strips, and how to draw them).the comic strip should contain as many different scenes as you have pairs or small groups of students. If you want the students to practice specific vocabulary, draw scenes that will provide opportunities for them to do this. 2. Draw empty speech-bubbles above each figure s head. 3. Assign one scene to each pair or group of students, giving each group a copy. 4. Ask them to decide what each character in the dialogue is saying, and to write the dialogue in the speech-bubbles. 5. As a class, go through the whole cartoon strip together, asking each pairs to read their dialogue aloud as all the pairs will have been working independently of each other, the dialogue can be very funny!
Listening and speaking 1. Invite students to bring in their own short comic strips (no more than about 5-6 frames) 2. Students sit back to back in pairs 3. Each student takes it in turns to tell his or her partner what is happening in each frame. 4. The partner draws each frame, according to his or her partner s description. 5. The interpretations are compared with the originals, the sets of two are then posted on the walls. Variation The same activity can be carried out as a genre-changing task e.g. students find a short story (or write their own) as a homework task. The stories are read out to a partner, who interprets the as a cartoon. The stories and cartoons could then be jumbled up and posted around the class. Students read the stories and try to match them with the cartoons. Shaping facts to fit the purpose An excellent activity for raising awareness of different genres, taken from Wajnryn, Ruth 2003 Stories (CUP). See separate handouts. Using pictures to introduce story writing A nice variation on a classic idea taken from Taylor, Eric K 2000 Using Folktales (CUP). See Andrew Wright s 1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy for further ideas on using pictures and storyboards in language education. See separate handout. Notes
Part 3 Working with DVD/Video As with parts 1 & 2, the following can only represent a small number of the limitless possibilities open to the teacher. I have chosen those activities which are particularly successful with humorous cartoons and short scenes, and which haven t been demonstrated at my previous Volkshochschule and TEA (Teachers of English in Austria) Summer School sessions. For more ideas on working with DVD and video, see: Cooper, Richard et al 1991 Video OUP Firth, Matt 2005 DVDs in English Language Education (Handout: Volkshochschule Hietzing) Sherman, Jane 2003 Using Authentic Video in the Language Classroom CUP Stempleski, Susan & Tomalin, Barry 2001 Film OUP Say it! I often found myself doing the first stages of the following activity as a child during my year in Canada attempting to mimic North American accents, and more recently whilst listening to Austrian and German radio. It is particularly useful for pronunciation and form. Choose a short clip featuring several speakers and useful language. Play clip once and ask students to select a speaker. Play the sequence, asking learners to repeat what their speaker says as they are saying it. Repeat two or three times, then play again with the sound off. Learners dub the actors voices. Variation (From Sherman, 2003) Hotseat: Learners prepare their characters in small groups. Each group selects one learner to sit in the hotseat and be quizzed on his/her background, behaviour, relationship, feelings etc. This technique can be used equally well with drawn cartoons, characters from books, films etc. Daily life Acknowledgment: Adapted from Sherman, 2003 1. Together with the students, draw up a simple flow diagram of a normal routine, e.g. the process of getting up and going out: asleep wake up get up wash/shower get dressed have breakfast go out 2. Decide which aspect of this routine you want to focus on (cultural differences, dialogue, the difference from students own lives, problems), using one of the variations below. 3. View the cartoon sequence and discuss what makes it different from the norm and from our own experiences. What aspect of character and circumstance does the sequence reveal? Variations Culture (if the cultural differences are interesting) Discuss any cultural differences Words (if the dialogue is interesting) What is said during the sequence?
Conditions (to compare the clip with the norm) Ask students to think of the conditions for one or more of t stages of the process (e.g. what are the possibly answers to the questions in the diagram below?) This will also prepare vocabulary for variation 4. How? When? Where? What? asleep wake up get up wash/shower get dressed have breakfast go out When? Who with? etc. Personalisation - students compare the process to their own lives. Problem (if the clip highlights the problems in the process) Focus on one or more parts of the process and discuss the possibly problems, the possible solutions and the words that come up. For comedy sketches - discuss the norm before playing the sketch ask students to take notes on the differences from the norm for discussion. Cartoons Acknowledgment: Taken from Stempleski, Susan & Tomalin, Barry 2001 Film OUP (see accompanying worksheet) Students compare comic strip and film/tv versions of a cartoon (e.g. Superman) You will need a comic strip and film/tv version of a cartoon (e.g. Marvel comics Superman compared to the cartoon series from the 1940s and/or one of the many film and TV versions) 1. Give each student one copy of the comic strip and a worksheet. 2. Go through the worksheet to make sure they understand the questions. 3. Play the clip, or full cartoon (if relatively short) 4. Students work alone, completing the worksheets. 5. When students are ready, divide the class into small groups. Groups compare their answers. 6. Class vote: which version does the class prefer, and why? Puzzle Acknowledgment: Adapted from Sherman, 2004 This activity stimulates questioning and speculation, and is a good ten-minute lesson filler. 1. Choose a short cartoon with a good visual joke. 2. Before viewing, present four frames from the heart of the joke as a puzzle (i.e. mixed up). The frames could be copied or printed from the DVD, or simply drawn on the board as simple stick sketches. 3. Students ask questions and speculate what happens, how and why. Write the best suggestions up on the board. 4. Show the sketch.
How do they say it? 1. Choose an area of functional English that you wish to work with or revise (e.g. paying for an item in a shop, checking in to a hotel etc.), and for which you have a suitable cartoon illustrating such dialogue. 2. Brainstorm key vocabulary. 3. Ask the students to write down a typical dialogue in pairs. 4. Invite one or two pairs to perform their dialogue. 5. Compare the students versions with the cartoon version was their anything unexpected in the cartoon? What differences were there to the norm? Tone up Acknowledgment: Adapted from Sherman, 2003 Practising shifts of register (e.g. neutral/colloquial, distant/intimate etc.) 1. Play the sequence and discuss what makes it formal/informal etc. How would the words change if the setting or characters were different? 2. As a class, or in pairs/small groups, students work on an alternative script. Have thesauruses and dictionaries available this is a language awareness exercise in choosing appropriate vocabulary. It is easier to go from colloquial to neutral, but more advanced learners will enjoy colloquializing a formal exchange for comic effect! Notes