Practical application

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

This has all been very fun (for me at least), but in terms of teaching, what can you do with it?

First, have you figured out the gibberish further below? This is a playful way to stimulate learners who are strong in linguisitic abilities. For avid (and perhaps older) readers, the clue may have stimulated the idea to go back to the gibberish with a mirror. The audio version gives you the answer- in more ways than one, focussing on listening for the auditive learning types, but with an offer of the written version. Here too, there was a hidden activity - scanning a text for specific information.

Although I didn't give a specific task, I may have sparked an interest in you, the reader, to discover what was behind the last few posts. In a eaching situation the input can be exploited by analysing the language. What kinds of words are they? How can you know whether they are nouns, adjectives or verbs? This kind of analysis can provoka a deeper understanding for the language system in a fun way.

Of course, a blog, the web and using a computer are very practical resources for the 'word smart' and the ideas are endless using the given technology. However, the key idea is to stimulate! I hope you have a few ideas of how to do this. Further ideas are to share books or poems on a blog and comment on the contributions. Tell each other your favorite story, either in writing or as an audio post. Write a joint story. Feel free to add other ideas.