After engaging with course materials today, I reflected back on an activity that I did as part of the course a few weeks ago. In this activity, we had to examine some activities and consider how we could use these in the classroom.
I would like to share my answer for one of the activities with you all, but first I would like to say that while the activity had some great benefits, I felt that it was not something that I would choose to do in the classroom. Yes, it could be modified so that students do not post their comments – but I think this takes away the excitement, don’t you?
Celeb Grammar Cops (Red Balloon, 2013)
Students examining their idols’ social media tweets to uncover instances of spelling and grammar mistakes, and tweeting back the corrections in a constructive manner.
Teachers can use this to give examples of when although a person has succeeded in one field, they do have other areas of weakness, in this case correctly using the English language. Students can use this to develop their critical thinking and constructive criticism skills.
It highlights the necessity for students to learn and use correct grammar and spelling, something that according to Root and McKay (2014), students do not consider as important.
The part of this example that could be used would be analysing celebrity tweets. However, I would be extremely hesitant for the students to correct the celebrities on social media, as I believe that given the large proportion of negative replies or ‘trolling’ on social media, the students are being put in a situation where they are exposed to these negative comments and this could have severe negative impacts on the students. Of equal concern too is another cyber safety aspect – the unregulated exposure that students will face during an activity such as this MAY inadvertently connect students with online predators.
Root, T., & McKay, S. (2014). Student awareness of the use of social media screening by prospective employers. Journal of Education for Business, 89(4), 202 – 206. doi: 10.1080/08832323.2013.848832.
Red Balloon. (2013, June 7). Celeb grammar cops [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g1nqOu29zE