Recorded Swedish Poem

 

In Swedish Aa, Ursula Lindqvist and Suzanne Martin had students watch a recorded video of the poem "Accounting of Summer" to practice singular and plural nouns, learn new words, experience Swedish poetry, and hear the melodic sound of Swedish.

Suzanne used the software Camtasia, a screen recording and video editing software, to record herself reading the Swedish poem along with slides of the poem. The slides included four lines and a picture. For homework, students were to view this reading and practice it with a sheet that either highlighted the plural or singular nouns. They also were encouraged to use the website Virtual Flora to look up the Swedish botanical terms.  In the next session, the students were split up into two groups (A and B) based on who had worked on the singular noun forms and who had worked on plurals, and the two groups produced a collective list on each blackboard that the class went through together, looking for patterns and discussing certain culturally specific words.  

The process of listening, reading, and practicing the program helped them get a sense of how Swedish is supposed to sound. Suzanne and Ursula note that the students liked this activity, and that it was clear from their in-class work that they had practiced. This poem lended itself well to this activity because it contained a lot of repetition.

The handout used in class is attached.

handout.doc43 KB