Minglish is a combination of Media Studies and English - what that means is that we'll study texts together (think short stories, poems, novels and films) and then do a range of activities around those two learning areas.
Last term we sampled a range of novels, then voted on one as a class to study further: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's an epic sci-fi, and at some point (spoiler alert) it's revealed that the world was saved by an alien invasion by a brilliant Māori strategist! Go New Zealand! We're reading and analysing the novel together, and learning how to...
- Turn a section of the novel into a script for a film
- Digitally storyboard a sequence from the book
- Create a new book cover, using themes from the novel as inspiration
- Learn how to represent stuff like sets and character designs from the text into image form
So there'll be a lot of reading in this class - like all the time. One of my aims for this year is to help people realise how cool reading can be - if I can nudge you further down the track of being an independent reader and thinker, I consider that a massive success! :)
If any students new to the class wish to join for Term Two, they will need to organise their own copy of Ender's Game, and have read halfway through the book by the start of term. Please do this, otherwise you'll be very lost with our discussions and activities in class!
Students will need access to a device, and it'd be preferable for them to set up a goodreads.com account beforehand (you can just use your school email to do this if you like).
If you haven't been in a class with me before, you should know I have some pretty high standards around device use. You simply won't be welcome to scroll through your feed or play games while the lesson is active: you'll be expected to be an active contributor to the class. I promise there'll be interesting content to keep you engaged! And you'll promise not to make me have that boring conversation with your HBLA and parents about inappropriate device use :p