that’s great both David and Mike. I love the use of colours and can imagine doing lots of substitution activities with this which would get people to think in all sorts of directions and in the end get them to think about themselves. I think this is the most powerful poem I have ever read about the holocaust and one which I had up as a big poster on my wall when I was at university.
Thanks to both of you for developing this. Am looking forward to using it somewhere and I’ll let you know how I get on.
Thanks, Mark. It did take a bit of explaing from David and a bit of work late last night to get to the final result you can see above, but it was worth it I think. The learners found it quite challenging (they are intermediate to upper-intermnediate, more or less), but in the end finished up with exactly the Niemöller quote!
Will be posting with their feedback later.
I look forward to hearing about if/where you get to use this.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Shelly S Terrell, Adam Simpson and mark andrews, David Dodgson. David Dodgson said: By @harrisonmike HMD 2011 – Martin Niemöller http://bit.ly/gec6OR #ELTchat [...]
Hey Mike. It is not only a great visualization of a poem and all the activities you can think of to learn a language. I feel touched by each and single word because that is exactly what we are going through in our country right now. “First they came for the oligarchs, the dissidents. And I did not speak out because I thought I could hide behind silence” … Great idea…Great language exercise…
Well your comment certainly brings home the fact that atrocities like this (although maybe not always with the actually killing of certain groups) exist even today. We all appreciate your reporting of events in Venezuela and send our best wishes for all of you living in this troubling time.
This is something I immediately liked about the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust resources – the linking to other genocides around the world, some of which are still going on today. I intend to look a bit further with this topic and focus on these other places where people have been affected by similar atrocities.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Shelly S Terrell and Adam Simpson, Miguel Mendoza. Miguel Mendoza said: RT @ShellTerrell: rt @harrisonmike HMD 2011 – Martin Niemöller http://bit.ly/grtDoR [...]
Yes, the contrast between the presentation and the content above is something that is interesting – I don’t know if it was totally intentional! Using colour was the best way I could think of to make the deciphering the language plant a realistic task for the classroom. As it was, there was still a little bit of confusion around the ‘they came for the/me…’ section and whether you could follow both with the words in green. I can say that it certainly generated some interesting group work.
Hi Mike, the comments and your replies seem to point to a very worthwhile activity. I hope you all did enjoy it. I am certainly very impressed by your willingness to try this out, and the quality of the plant. I could follow it from memory having read the poem yesterday on your powerpoint. When I’ve done activities like you’ve done here, getting students to work with the plant (before and/or after the linear text), I think there is a theoretical backing to this. Students are trying different possibilities, so thinking about meaning, grammar and overall effect. It would be good to see how much of the poem they have remembered by next lesson, even though I don’t think that was a priority. In fact, you know the desert island activity, where you’ve got to say what you’d find most useful, they found that people remember the items more by finding a use for them than by being told just to remember them (to be tested on later). It’s the deep processing. I think there is an element of that here too.
I do think it was a worthwhile activity for the lesson, but I’m not sure it was for everyone (nor should it be). I got some feedback from the students not just about the plant ‘puzzle’, but also about addressing topics like HMD, as well as the book extract and podcast I used at the beginning of the lesson this afternoon. I’ll write up another HMD post to document the response and think of ways in which to integrate these approaches more into my teaching (where appropriate).
Thanks again for the guidance in making the plant =)
I just tried out this version with a pre-int adult, and he was able to memorise it after looking at the plant and hearing it once from me. Obviously the substance and language of the poem make it memorable, but the plant was a huge help.
That’s great, Alan. I’m glad you could make use of the plant and that it helped in your teaching/learning context.
Thanks to David again, as I’m not sure I would have thought to tackle the poem/quote in the style of a language plant. I was thinking before about just cutting it up and asking the students to reorder the text. As it was, although not all the students found the plant and the discussion interesting (more on this later), I think the language plant will help them a lot with thinking about types of words, collocations, rhythm, among other things.
[...] Martin Niemöller in this poem, which has been interpreted by Mike in the language plant above as part of his Holocaust Memorial Day lesson, as he coldly [...]
[...] I started reading David Warr’s blog regularly, and then collaborating with him to produce my own larger plant for Holocaust Memorial Day. I’ve also tried out his musical plant to the Bellamy [...]
[...] at the lyrics and writing poems in English; Mike Harrison collaborates with David Warr to create a language plant of Martin Niemöller's poem: First they came; Claudio Azevedo shows us how to use the film, Did you hear about the Morgans, [...]
that’s great both David and Mike. I love the use of colours and can imagine doing lots of substitution activities with this which would get people to think in all sorts of directions and in the end get them to think about themselves. I think this is the most powerful poem I have ever read about the holocaust and one which I had up as a big poster on my wall when I was at university.
Thanks to both of you for developing this. Am looking forward to using it somewhere and I’ll let you know how I get on.
Thanks, Mark. It did take a bit of explaing from David and a bit of work late last night to get to the final result you can see above, but it was worth it I think. The learners found it quite challenging (they are intermediate to upper-intermnediate, more or less), but in the end finished up with exactly the Niemöller quote!
Will be posting with their feedback later.
I look forward to hearing about if/where you get to use this.
Mike =)
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Shelly S Terrell, Adam Simpson and mark andrews, David Dodgson. David Dodgson said: By @harrisonmike HMD 2011 – Martin Niemöller http://bit.ly/gec6OR #ELTchat [...]
Hey Mike. It is not only a great visualization of a poem and all the activities you can think of to learn a language. I feel touched by each and single word because that is exactly what we are going through in our country right now. “First they came for the oligarchs, the dissidents. And I did not speak out because I thought I could hide behind silence” … Great idea…Great language exercise…
Hi Miguel,
Well your comment certainly brings home the fact that atrocities like this (although maybe not always with the actually killing of certain groups) exist even today. We all appreciate your reporting of events in Venezuela and send our best wishes for all of you living in this troubling time.
This is something I immediately liked about the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust resources – the linking to other genocides around the world, some of which are still going on today. I intend to look a bit further with this topic and focus on these other places where people have been affected by similar atrocities.
Un abrazo
Mike
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Shelly S Terrell and Adam Simpson, Miguel Mendoza. Miguel Mendoza said: RT @ShellTerrell: rt @harrisonmike HMD 2011 – Martin Niemöller http://bit.ly/grtDoR [...]
With the colors and the way it is written, this language plant gives off a child-like feel, and yet the message is so adult. Interesting contrast.
Thanks for the comment, Brad.
Yes, the contrast between the presentation and the content above is something that is interesting – I don’t know if it was totally intentional! Using colour was the best way I could think of to make the deciphering the language plant a realistic task for the classroom. As it was, there was still a little bit of confusion around the ‘they came for the/me…’ section and whether you could follow both with the words in green. I can say that it certainly generated some interesting group work.
Mike =)
Hi Mike, the comments and your replies seem to point to a very worthwhile activity. I hope you all did enjoy it. I am certainly very impressed by your willingness to try this out, and the quality of the plant. I could follow it from memory having read the poem yesterday on your powerpoint. When I’ve done activities like you’ve done here, getting students to work with the plant (before and/or after the linear text), I think there is a theoretical backing to this. Students are trying different possibilities, so thinking about meaning, grammar and overall effect. It would be good to see how much of the poem they have remembered by next lesson, even though I don’t think that was a priority. In fact, you know the desert island activity, where you’ve got to say what you’d find most useful, they found that people remember the items more by finding a use for them than by being told just to remember them (to be tested on later). It’s the deep processing. I think there is an element of that here too.
Hi again, David,
I do think it was a worthwhile activity for the lesson, but I’m not sure it was for everyone (nor should it be). I got some feedback from the students not just about the plant ‘puzzle’, but also about addressing topics like HMD, as well as the book extract and podcast I used at the beginning of the lesson this afternoon. I’ll write up another HMD post to document the response and think of ways in which to integrate these approaches more into my teaching (where appropriate).
Thanks again for the guidance in making the plant =)
Mike
Hi Mike (and Dave of course)
I just tried out this version with a pre-int adult, and he was able to memorise it after looking at the plant and hearing it once from me. Obviously the substance and language of the poem make it memorable, but the plant was a huge help.
That’s great, Alan. I’m glad you could make use of the plant and that it helped in your teaching/learning context.
Thanks to David again, as I’m not sure I would have thought to tackle the poem/quote in the style of a language plant. I was thinking before about just cutting it up and asking the students to reorder the text. As it was, although not all the students found the plant and the discussion interesting (more on this later), I think the language plant will help them a lot with thinking about types of words, collocations, rhythm, among other things.
Mike
just so you know, Alan is my best mate… He’ll be expecting payment of some sort.
Ahaha =)
Has anyone ever done a ‘Six Degrees of ELT Separation’?
[...] Martin Niemöller in this poem, which has been interpreted by Mike in the language plant above as part of his Holocaust Memorial Day lesson, as he coldly [...]
[...] I started reading David Warr’s blog regularly, and then collaborating with him to produce my own larger plant for Holocaust Memorial Day. I’ve also tried out his musical plant to the Bellamy [...]
[...] at the lyrics and writing poems in English; Mike Harrison collaborates with David Warr to create a language plant of Martin Niemöller's poem: First they came; Claudio Azevedo shows us how to use the film, Did you hear about the Morgans, [...]