Computer Assisted Teaching of Literature

1. Computer Assisted Teaching of Literature CREATING A THEATRE PROGRAMME

2. Theatre foreducational purposes has been continuously used together with many other educational strategies; it is useless to say that a good teacher is also a good actor. • Theatre usage in educationincludes all the interactive theatre practices that help, one way or another, the educational process. • Some of these processes include developing original scripts (or some of them can be inspired by those of World Literature’s Classics) using the performance of a play as a starting point for audience interaction and also discussing important topics or themes.

3. Learning objectives • possibility to write short critical reviews, using any targeted standard language at an adequate level of formality, explaining and supporting judgements by offering quotations and citing specific and relevant text fragments; • possibility to maximise the impact of student’s writing through making use of various devices for presentation which can enhance the textual message, PC, OHP, Video devices, etc.

4. Teacher use of ICT • This application will give the teacher the opportunity to develop skills in using desktop publishing / designing and word-processing software in order to: • investigate different possibilities of electronic (non)-literary texts; • Make use of presenting devices to enhance a text; • use search engines and online searches (both for text and image information); • select information from various sources, designing the material to meet the reader’s needs; • use a digital camera to improve the overall presentation.

5. Student’s use of ICT This will help them to: • develop word-processing skills in order to create texts for a specific audience; • use desktop publishing to combine text and images; • use a digital camera to create images for later digital usage.

6. Requirements A. Hardware • Enough computers or laptops for student’s pair work • Digital photo/video camera • Data projector and large display or interactive whiteboard B. Software • Word-processing software, such as Microsoft Word • Publishing software, such as Microsoft Publisher • Internet browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer • Hot Potatoes Software C. Other necessary elements • Internet connection • Different models of theatre programmes • Digital photographs of school plays and students in this class

7. An important element of this class module is, of course, a lesson that should be adapted and adjusted to the needs of your students’ knowledge level. • The teacher should decide exactly what the theatre programme will be based on - for example, this could be a performance of Romeo and Juliet, or it could be a performance that students have seen on stage at the theatre or watched on television, or even acted themselves.

8. Juliet O, Romeo, Romeo ! De ce eşti tu Romeo ? Uită-ţi tatăl ! Tăgăduieşte-ţi numele, ori dacă Nu vrei – o jură-mi că vei fi al meu Şi-atunci de tot ce sunt m-oi lepăda şi eu ! Romeo Să mai ascult, ori să-i vorbesc ? ………………………………….. Fac tot ce-mi spui: zi-mi doar “iubite” deci ! Primind aşa botezul nou, ţi-o jurâ Că nu mai vreau să fiu Romeo-n veci ! ROMÂNEŞTE Juliet O Romeo, Romeo ! Wherefore art thou Romeo ? Deny thy father and refuse thy name ! Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet. Romeo Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this ? ………………………………….. I take thee at thy word. Call me but “love”, and I’ll be new baptized; Henceforth I never will be Romeo ENGLISH

9. Students should already have the following knowledge and skills: • explored the text characteristics of theatre programmes and focused on the potential of presentation devices in enhancing their work; • be familiar with literary texts and quotations usage; • understand the need to use formal standard English/Romanian, and the need to write for a general purpose and audience; • be familiar with summarising information from a various sources, preparing the material to meet the reader’s needs with the use of the (electronic) library and the possibly to make use of ICT in other subjects.

10. When studying the theatre programme, the teacher will need to elicit from students the reason they think the respective theatre programme is presented as it is. • For example, why some certain images are placed in certain places on the page? • This, will actually, make them think about the (general) layout during the preparation for their personal designing of the programme when ICT is being used.

11. Students should already have the following ICT skills : • understand the functions of a desktop publishing application; • know how to cut, edit, import and paste information either written by themselves or found from online research; • know how to save images and text from documents on the Web; • understand how to use a digital camera and transfer images to documents; • have a number of suitable websites and search engines available for this specific use.

12. Students should have access to the Internet so that they can save images and gather information for their programme. The following sites are useful sources: Theatre website links: British & Romanian • www.rsc.org.uk - Royal Shakespeare Company • www.nt-online.org - National Theatre • www.shakespeares-globe.org - Shakespeare's Globe • www.londontheatre.co.uk - London Theatre • www.whatsonstage.com - Listings for all UK theatres and you can also buy tickets at this site • www.kentaylor.co.uk - Drama portal from Ken Taylor of Middlesex University • http://sites.micro-link.net/zekscrab - Shake Sphere - big guide from Michael Cummings • http://shakespeare.palomar.edu - Mr William Shakespeare and the Internet – portal • www.teatrul-national.ro –Official website of the National Theatre • www.nottara.org. – Nottara Theatre – Bucharest • www.teatru-cinema.ro –information website about plays & movies

13. Possible Search Engines • www.google.com - One of the best-known search engines • www.yahoo.com • http://vivisimo.com - Clustering engine • www.teoma.com - Search tool • www.aesop.com - Search engine • http://web.webcrawler.com - WebCrawler search engine • www.searchUK.co.uk - UK-based search engine • www.portal.ro - Romanian-based search engine • www.timpul-liber.ro - Search tool

14. Students should work in small groups and use these sites to begin researching for their own contribution to the programme; • This will enable them to subdivide what each person is searching for; work with one guided group each lesson to develop ideas on the structure, conventions and stylistic features of their part of the programme.

15. Inserting pictures of famous people/actors or of the students themselves, they will certainly improve the look and feel of the programme. • Pictures of famous people/actors can easily be found on the Internet and saved in shared work areas. • Similarly, most educational institutions have digital pictures of all their enrolled students - providing these will also liven up the programme.

16. Designing the Plot / Summary • The teacher decides how students should approach this. ICT may help students structure their text. Part of the skill will be in writing to a set number of words. • Displaying the main points in a diagram can help with summarising the plot clearly and gives a helpful structure.

17. It is not intended that students should complete the whole programme in one lesson. Draw groups together to discuss the work completed so far and plan ahead for the following lesson. • Ask nominated individuals from the guided group to describe what they will aim to include, how to write a critical review and how to use quotation. Ask one pair of researchers to outline their findings. Discuss editing and refining certain sections that might be too long or need adjusting to fit in with the final theatre programme.

18. Extension Activities Create a presentation • A multimedia presentation really helps bring the subject alive and is easy to create. There are a great many sites that include the whole text of Shakespeare plays on the Internet, which can be copied and pasted to save typing. • In addition to this, there are audio and sometimes movie clips that can enhance a programme by making it multimedia. • Students can also be recorded reading scenes from a play. The digital sound file can be inserted directly into a programme.

19. Hot Potatoes Directing The Stage • By using Hot Potatoes the teacher will turn into a “cybernetic” Steven Spielberg when directing on the electronic stage of Worldwide Literature. • So, Ladies and Gentlemen, get ready for the immortal Romeo and Juliet acting on ……desktops…….! Curtains up and …..click !