This week’s app has to be the ‘The fantastic flying books of Mister Morris “. If you have been paying attention to the news then you might have heard of it. At the Oscars ceremony, the film won the oscar in the short animated film category. If you have 15 minutes then go watch it on youtube.
The app (book) came out last year and is widely regarded by many of one of the best apps yet to grace the Ipad. It is currently on sale for £2.99 in the itunes store.
If you never use it with students, £2.99 is a snip for an absolutely gorgeous book. With sound, text, and animations it is an excellent example of a multimodal text and as such is a good way to introduce multimodal literacy to the EFL classroom.
As you can see from the picture, a 'page' has a picture, text and in a gesture controlled animation. However through the menu system on the right you can also jump pages, turn on the audio and sound effects. You can even switch the text off so there is just a picture or change the text into one of ten languages. All of these options allow for a number of lesson ideas so here are 7 ways you can use it.
1. Pictures only to guess the story - either by screen shooting just a few of the images or by turrning off the text and audio get the students to work out the story. Then use the pictures to come up with the ideas (or even develop the whole story if the students like writing). Once they have done, they can read / listen to the story and compare.
2. Picture Description
A 'skill' needed for almost all oral exams is picture descption and the book has some wonderfully colourful pictures, perfect for developing spoken skills.
3. Audio Only - students listen to the story and try to visualise what the pictures are for each page. As well as allowing for creatvity, this checks students comprehension of what they heard.
4. Book versus film - The students read the book on the ipad then watch the youtube clip and talk about any differences and / or how the film was adapted for the app. Would they have done it the same way?
5. Translation - since the book has 9 other languages (10 with English) for the written text, students can listen to the English and then compare the translation.
6. Recording the story. Though there are many arguments about the worthwhileness of students reading aloud, students could record themselves telling the story using the written text then compare their way of telling it to the audio.
7. Simply read, listen and enjoy the story making the most of it's features