Idioms and jargons are used everyday in our lives. We know that for our EL Learners and a lot of students in our classes, idioms and jargon can be difficult. As a literary device, idioms are extremely effective and add to “style” of writing. Idioms are colourful, personal and vivid. I could describe our WWP project as an effective or as a well oiled machine. In order to have students use and understand we need to explore idioms for all our learners.
Exploring the literal meaning of an idioms is fun and allows students to be creative with pen and pencil, or specifically with an app (Pic Collage, Explain Everything, Drawing Box etc) .
Years ago, students and I watched a funny podcasts from Animal Planet called Animal Crackers. In this podcast actors portrayed two fictional and one historical story of where specific idioms originated.
After watching one podcast an activity would be to challenge the students to create a similar type of media presentation.
- They could research meaning and origin of an idiom.
- Create a literal and actual visual representation of idiom (as above)
- Create a script for two fictional origins and true origin. (Pages or Doc)
- Use another App to illustrate
- Explain Everything
- Bookcreator
- iMovie
- StopMotion
- Scratch Junior