My students introduced me to a comedian named Victor Borge last week. He was a comedian and pianist that was very popular in the 40’s and 50’s. Part of his comedy act about punctuation has been added to YouTube. His skit starts off with a funny explanation about how we use punctuation in writing to separate or emphasize ideas and how we do not always clearly use the same intonations while we are speaking. As the students were explaining the skit to me, they were so excited and engaged in expressing punctuation. I thought that this was a great video to start a discussion on the importance and uses of the various punctuation marks.
It also led me to think that other engaging education videos on YouTube that could be viewed at home to encourage children to learn language and reading skills. I went on to YouTube and then started searching key terms of popular language arts skills that are taught in school and found a wealth of educational videos that could be used for learning and reviewing material.
One of the keywords that I typed into the YouTube search was “pronouns.” One of the first links I came across was a School House Rock video that teachers children about pronouns through silly animations and rhymes. The next link was a video with Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and Duffy Duck. In this cartoon Bugs and Daffy have an argument based on the confusion about the pronouns him, me, and he. These videos could be used for review of the topic or as a starting point for learning more about pronouns.
Another video includes a teacher explaining singular and plural pronouns. The teacher goes on to explain the differences of a pronoun as a subject, object, possessive adjective, and possessive pronoun. This video is great for high school students wanting to learn advanced uses of pronouns.
Literary elements are also a topic that is discussed in reading classes. The elements include plot, character, conflict, theme, and setting. There are great videos online to learn about the different literary elements. One video I found is called flocabulary. They teach children all of the elements in a rap song with visual representations and examples that kids will relate to easily. There are also other “flocabulary” videos on other language arts topics.
Figurative Language/Literary Devices
Examples of simile, metaphors, personification, alliteration, and hyperbole are used in a video about literary elements found in songs. This video is great for middle school aged children as it used popular songs that the children will relate to while learning about the literary elements. The video is set up like a question and answer activity where the students have to answer the questions after they heard the song.
When actually searching figurative language, there was a great series of videos created by figurative-language.com. This video uses a flow chart method to help a child learn about how to use and recognize figurative language.
YouTube is a great learning resource for children to use at home for an extension of what they are learning in school, practice on subjects they may be having difficulty with, or just for fun!
Article By Laura Ketcham-VanHellemont
Picture By courosa
Free Educational Resources by SmartTutor.com