Friday, November 16, 2012

English Lit in 60 Seconds (Your Teachers Will Either Love or Hate You)

OK, as an English teacher I suppose I ought to hate these:  Think video Cliff's Notes.   Except they're pretty awesome, and could be a good tool if used in the right way.

60 Second Recap is a clever series of  videos describing the gist of various novels in, well, 60 seconds.  Each novel has four or five videos covering the symbol, plot, theme, etc.  giving students a framework for further study.

They would be great discussion starters or writing prompts.  Though I will say, in the Mice and Men trailer I watched, she pretty much gave away the entire plot, which would lessen a lot of the book's impact. Couldn't she grab kids' attention without telling them EVERYTHING?!

You can access them from the website or the YouTube channel.

And as long as we're talking summarized lessons, you should also check out John Green's longer, but equally entertaining,  Crash Course series, which I ran across a month or so ago, and now include on pathfinders whenever possible.  (And, yes, THAT John Green, of Looking for Alaska fame.)




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