Sunday 12 April 2015

Language 8: Satire Unit

Assalam alaikum,

After the March break, the students began a new unit of study; Satire. In this unit, we will explore how words and images have the ability to change us. We began by discussing the various figurative language elements that are used to convey satirical messages (such as juxtaposition, puns, parody,  irony, and exaggeration ). We also discussed the importance of using humor to convey a message, but not going "over the edge" to offend others .

An example of a lesson can be seen in the pictures below. Students  were search asked to research "World Food Day" . We discussed the importance of bringing awareness of world hunger and how we can use satire to get a strong message across. Students were given a group assignment where they had to create a comic about world food day where the aim is to use words and images to encourage us to critically think about the important message. They were given guidelines to ensure their message would not offend anyone or single out any group of people or nation. They were also asked to encorporate  the figurative elements of satire learnt thus far.

Geography 8

Assalam alaikum,

Over the past few weeks,  the students have been introduced to the Geography unit of study, "World Human Patterns". The focus will be examining and understanding how patterns in human geography affect people around the world.

We started the unit with a focus on recognizing community patterns and the different types of communities that exist. The pictures below show a lesson where students were asked to bring in various photos that represent each community. Then, they were randomly handed out to them and they were to decide under which community each photo belonged and providing a rationale for their choice by discussing characteristics of each community. Finally,  students were asked to come up to the boards and write the advantages and disadvantages of living in each community.