Professor Amanda Maitland KOTESOL Conference
This approach encourages: Adding a specific psychological goal to a CLT Class
Superhero and fantasy figures are useful themes for English Teaching
Everyone has a superhero! Creating a dialogue and motivating students to engage in literacy events. Stimulating thinking Taking the child away from the familiar rituals, the family, to a New world The superhero is their persona, a voice to express their feelings and desires.
Preparation for adulthood and higher language usage The student can act out at: A higher thought level than his language can express. Higher Age related experiences
Children need to feel powerful in the face of a scary uncontrollable world
Teenage Girls statements on Superheroes That s when you see their passion, when they fight! It s their passion that makes them powerful. I m them when I m reading about them, so I m powerful. (Gerard Jones) Killing monsters why children need fantasy superheroes and make believe.
Personal Power Teenagers can gain a feeling of personal power from fighting as the superhero during play and reading with character identification.
The need for discussion and acting out Adults can be afraid of violence and are reluctant to talk about it. Children act out their feelings and fears of violence in fantasy play. Learn impulse control and Dealing with aggressive emotions
Dealing with Inner Anger Playing with rage is a valuable way to reduce its power! Acting out and discussing the violence leads us into the position of becoming good people.
The dark and the light Children must learn to deal with the dark and the light in themselves.
Parents as heroes Children can learn and accept that parents, once God like heroes, are a mix of good and bad like everyone else.
Constructive Intervention and Discussion is Essential! It is essential that the teacher and peers discuss the imaginative play. It is through the discussion that the student learns about himself, his emotions and develops a strong sense of self.
Making it feel safer When children are afraid they have to play with the event until they feel safer Children in schools after 9/11 wanted to act out, read and write about the events till they felt safe.
The super hero and fantasy/ A child chooses a particular movie or game because his unique story has led him there.
Used to Teach Social Themes Respect for others Respect for laws Helping others Which superhero/fantasy character is bad and which good? Are people all good and all bad? What makes people good what makes them bad?
Don t Impose Heroes! Let them teach you about their heroes- Promotes dialogue Chance for critical intervention Literacy events.
Elementary Children and superheroes-cuddly cute!
Choose a Superhero that represents you. Answer the following questions. What is it about this super hero that attracts you? What are the dark sides of the hero s character? What are his good sides? How does he remind you of you? How does he remind you of what you would like to be? Does he or she do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable? What is your super hero s vulnerability?
In groups of 3 Make a new super hero family. 1) You need to give a name for each member. 2)And decide on: what they wear? 3)What is their super power? 4)What is their vulnerability? 5)How do they get on with the other family members?
Invent a Villain! Who will your superhero have to fight? 1) What has made your super hero bad? 2)Does he/she have any good side? 3)What skills does he/she have? 4)What is his/her personality like, habits? 5)What does he/she look like? 6)What is his vulnerability?
Using the story board 1)Draw a cartoon story using your superhero family as the main characters. 2)Add captions to the characters and a description at the bottom of each picture. (you do not need to be great artists stick people are okay)
Comic Strip Story board
Story Boards
The Super Hero Project! The Supers are back! This project allows students the chance to guess at the powers of certain superheroes, report on a superhero from their country and then create a superhero of their choice. They will describe the superhero (his or her powers and characteristics,) where they live, what they like, don't like, weaknesses, secret identities, etc. The target language for this activity is: can - for ability have - for description language for introduction 3rd person singular advanced - comparative, superlative and past tense narratives Time: The project can be done quickly in a single lesson or spread out as small parts over 3 or 4 lessons. It also depends on how far you wish to go with the project. I choose to spread it out and give students time to process the information and make changes.
Example of Super Hero Project work by Korean Students age 11/12 Name: His name is SSuckso. Personality: He is funny, brave, clever and kind. Super powers: He can shoot tornado when he coughs. He can shoot lightening. He can become invisible. He can t die. His fingernails are boomerangs. He can freeze things when he blows. He can change the weapons. He can clone himself. He has a Ssuckso 2 (lion). Weakness: He doesn t have a neck. He has many nosebleeds. He is short. Likes: He likes to smirk. He likes to Jay-Woo s friend.
Cheongdeok Elementary School,Seoul, South Korea Teacher: Jackie Her name is sky girl. She can fly. She can change the weather. She can run in the sky. She can freeze things and shoot lasers. She can talk to anything. She can become invisible. Also, she can become anything. Her weaknesses are she can t shrink. She can t breathe underwater, too. She likes boys. She likes her super powers. She likes her parents, too. She likes her pet. Her pet is a winged snake. She is tall. She is pretty. She has long hair. And she has big eyes.
Lesson Ideas If your principle was a superhero what would he/she wear? Make a mind map of what his her life would be like as a super hero? Superhero Scavenger hunt- Students take on superhero identities. You hide villains around the school or classroom, create clues and get your students in pairs or groups to attempt to find the villains. Superhero Research- using see, think, wonder. Students work out questions about what they want to know about super heroes and try and answer them.
Other Tasks! Make a superhero snack! Superhero board games-operation iron man Spiderman memory game Superhero readers Superhero Immersion Science/Maths books
ClassroomManagement - Super Hero Elementary Students 1)make one child the class superhero every day. The identity must be kept secret. 2)the student must try hard all day and be helpful to everyone in the class and the teacher. 3)at the end of the day the children try and guess the identity of the superhero. If the superhero has been well behaved the teacher names the hero, if not he must try again tomorrow.