Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Teaching tomorrow's best and brightest...

This was on my whiteboard for a couple of days, as a sample poster for analysis:



Questions were:
What is the main idea of the poster?
Why is that idea important for people's health and well-being?
What's a visual technique used in the poster, and what effect did it create?
What's a verbal technique used, and what effect did it create?

8 comments:

Matt said...

This is a slightly skewed photo - the original was a little more square :-)

Idiot/Savant said...

Following the precedent of the British High Court, I should point out that you are presenting a highly skewed and one-sided case here. Why don't you mention the good features of trepanation? It's entertaiing, saves you from the insects from Shaggai, and you can do it with a broken bottle! Also, there is no proven link between trepanation and bleeding to death; many people bleed to death and die from causes other than drilling a hole in their head.

Why don't you just admit that the idea that trepanation is bad is just a myth put about by ignorant socialist hippies who want to control what people do and don't put in their heads.

[/DENIER]

But seriously, this is cool. Your students will come out knowing words for icky medical procedures. Hopefully none of them will take up DIY...

Matt said...

I showed one of my classes the wikipedia page about trepanation, which includes lots of links to pro-trepanation sites.

It was also done on an episode of Grey's Anatomy, with a drill out of someone's toolkit, to save a guy with a swelling brain, so some kids knew it had medical benefits in some situations :)

Idiot/Savant said...

For some reason, the idea of a "pro-trepanation site" freaks me out even more than the idea of Ana-Mia (pro anorexia / bulemia) sites does.

And emergency trepanation makes a change from that traditional medical drama staple, emergency tracheotomy.

Anonymous said...

Your poster is making me feel stupid. I don't understand what you want me to write in response to "why is that idea important for people's health and well-being?"

Do you just want me to repeat what the poster says?

I don't do much better on the other two questions.

2. Er.. there's a picture? It uses the traditional "red line through" to indicate "don't do". That's all I got.

3. It uses words? Words that are strung together to form sentences?

:(

- Mash

Matt said...

The questions are written in NCEA-speak: the kiddies get a lot of training in knowing that 'verbal techniques' = 'poetic techniques' = 'language features' = 'poetic devices' etc.

1. The main idea of this poster is to warn people about the dangers of trepanation. The poster says that trepanation is not good for you and "it can make you die". It aims to stop people trying trepanation.

2. This is important for people's health and well-being because there are side effects to trepanation that are harmful, such as 'stings like a bee sting'. Also, people could die, which is not good for their health.

3. Visual techniques used include colour, symbol, and border.

Colour - there are 2 colours used, black and red. Red is used to emphasise the subheading 'don't do it yo!'. This is the key message (don't do trepanation) so it is emphasised.

Symbol - there is a circle with a line through it, the classic anti-smoking or anti-whatever symbol. It is placed over a picture of a head and a drill, to visually symbolise that you shouldn't drill your head. This reinforces the poster's main message.

Border - there is a border around the information on 'why it's bad'. The effect of the border is it separates the list of effects from the main message, making the poster easier to read and find relevant information.

4. Verbal techniques used include slang, personal pronouns, imperative verbs, repetition and simile.

Slang - 'Don't do it yo!' is a piece of slang. The intended effect is to make the poster appeal to a yonger audience.

Personal pronouns - the repeated use of 'you' in the poster is intended to directly address the audience, and target the message right at them.

Imperative - 'don't do it' is a direct instruction to the audience, it's telling them what to do.

Repetition - the words 'die' and 'bleed' are repeated several times, to emphasise the negative consequences of trepanation and make them more memorable.

Simile - 'stings like a bee sting'. This compares the pain of trepanation to that of a bee sting, to convince the audience that trepanation hurts. (I'd also accept analogy here, with a similar explanation).

Anonymous said...

Hmm... yep, I now feel dumb. :/ I can see what the questions called for, now that I have the answers.

Oh well, I may fail NCEA, but at least I have two degrees... lol.

Matt said...

It's crazy but there's a whole set of learning that kids need to do which is 'what does NCEA language actually mean'. Every year the English exams consist of new and interesting ways to ask the same 5 or 6 questions.