Learning activities for the lead up to our Star Wars event

Star Wars - The Last Jedi

The new Star Wars film is out next week and the Learning Resource Centre is putting on a Star Wars themed event in the Enterprise Lounge between 1.30 and 3pm. Different curriculum areas will be providing activities including a Yoda maze, a make up stall, quizzes, crafts and the Imperial March on Boomwhackers! We hope you can be there.

Darth Chester
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Online Star Wars-themed learning activities

In the run up to the event or even afterwards, we thought you might enjoy some of these activities which help with English and other skills or are just a bit of fun to do.

• Download a Star Wars Apostrophes worksheet on the TES website here. There are also other Star Wars themed activities here which may be useful where they aren't aimed at too young an audience. 
• Learn how to draw R2D2 on the Andertoons website (beginner). Tescos also have a link to the official Lucas drawing instructions which look a bit more complicated.
• The English Caddy website has a whole lot of ideas for Star Wars English language activities (they seem to be aimed at learners of English as a second language but could still help anyone brushing up on their English). However, I am unsure of the authority of this site. The Correct Yoda activity could be useful as a grammar exercise and there are other ideas including a critical thinking activity mainly around a scenario from the Force Awakens film.
• The BBC have created a What Star Wars character are you? quiz - aimed at children, but when it comes to Star Wars, age doesn't seem to matter!
• For those of you more musically minded, try watching this parody by the Piano Guys called Cello Wars: the Phantom Cellist

Hopefully we can report back in next week's blog on how the event went.

Live streaming and Fake News 

Meanwhile in the news this week, attention has been drawn to the risks of streaming apps. Go the thinkuknow website for more information. This website also has videos to help explain online safety to young people with learning difficulties.
The BBC have also announced that they are so concerned about fake news that they are launching a service to help children understand what is true and what is fake. IFLA (The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) have a poster available for download on their website in different languages and we have some of these displayed in the LRC.

Proofreading

Proofreading

At this time of year, we receive quite a few enquiries from UCP students wanting someone to proofread their work. The College or UCP will not do this for you but you can get advice from a Specialist Support tutor (they are based in room 31b) and there is information to help you on the ARU website. See their guide to proofreading here.

For all students, it is a good idea to check your work before handing it in. It can boost your marks up to 10%. 

What is proofreading and how do you do it?

Proofreading is checking your work and making sure it is the best it can be before you hand it in. It involves making sure it can be understood as well as structure, spelling, grammar and referencing.

CC0 image from www.pixabay.com

Proofreading tips

Here are a few pointers which I’ve taken from ARU’s guide.

·         Wait a few days after writing your assignment/ essay/ dissertation before reading it through (otherwise you are more likely to miss mistakes).

·         Look at it in a different format (e.g. why not print it out?)

·         Read it differently – read it aloud (or ask a  friend to), read it slowly or by starting from the last paragraph.

·         Pretend to be your reader – someone who has never read it before and needs to understand it. A marker will be looking for mistakes.

·         Concentrate and focus - block out outside noises and disturbances.

What should you be looking for?

• Have you said what you mean? Does it make sense?
• Have you said it concisely – or have you rambled on?  (Rewrite it if it doesn't read well).
• Have you written consistently in the right tense?
• Does each paragraph just explore one idea?
• Have you mistakenly used slang?
• Is your grammar correct? (including punctuation)
• Are there words missing? Is there correct spacing between words?
• Is your spelling correct? (Don’t just rely on your online spellchecker)
• Have you cited and referenced all your resources?
• Have you kept within the word count?

Other proofreading guides and help

For a simple introduction try BBC Skillswise.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/topic/editing-and-proofreading

Hull University has a guide http://www2.hull.ac.uk/lli/PDF/Proofreading.pdf which also contains links to other sites.

If you want to have a go at some exercises, then you may find  http://www.uefap.com/accuracy/accfram.htm useful. There are practice activities on punctuation and grammar which anyone may find useful.

The importance of punctuation - the Oxford Comma

Using the correct punctuation

In order to write well and make yourself understood, it is important to use the correct punctuation, but for many of you this can be a struggle (and I suspect there isn't one of us in College that doesn't find themselves at some point not sure when to use a form of punctuation).

Last week, the humble comma was shown to be far more important than the little squiggle it is, when it made headline news in a court case concerning whether drivers in a dairy in the USA were entitled to overtime pay. The whole decision rested on the use of what is known as the Oxford comma. It cost Oakhurst Dairy 10 million dollars. Read about it here.

The Oxford Comma

The Oxford Comma (or serial comma) is an optional comma used after the penultimate item in a list of 3 or more items, before 'and'  or 'or'.

Usually in a list we are told not to put a comma before the final 'and', but in some cases (and the Oakhurst Dairy case is a prime example) putting a comma here helps to make the sentence clearer and better understood.

Bristol University explains simply how this is the case.

It is Bristol University's jelly and ice cream example which helps me remember this (perhaps I'm feeling hungry!)

His favourite puddings were ice apple pie, rhubarb crumble, and jelly and ice cream.

The comma after crumble keeps jelly and ice cream together as one item, one dessert, one dish (albeit made up of 2 items).

Punctuation games/ quizzes

For those of you wanting to brush up on your use of the comma (Oxford or otherwise) or who need some exercises to use in class to help test punctuation, you might find these useful:

BBC Skillswise quiz   -some funny example in here. It does need Flash to work.

How good is your punctuation? - from the Telegraph
Commas game.