Language is a Manipulator

Brainstorming

Brainstorming (see http://pblmm.k12.ca.us/PBLGuide/Activities/brainstorm.html) is the process by which students note down all the information that they know on a topic. In order to model the process you could chose to examine in more depth the language used in one of the contexts chosen in the Establishing Prior Knowledge (see prior.rtf) section. 

We will look at the context of the Iraq war. (Remember that this Language Research project requires students to closely analyse the language used to manipulate people.)

Students should read the following documents, noting any language features/ effects/ word/ phrases/ attitudes which are evident. Students should work in groups, writing any knowledge they have on sticky notes, then placing the notes on a large sheet of paper. As students write information on sticky notes they should say their idea aloud to avoid duplication. Some examples follow:

Saddam Hussein (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,946805,00.html)

George Bush (see http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030317-7.html)

Once students have included all the information they can think of they should move to the next stage of the process: mapping (see mapping.rtf) information into categories. 

© Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand (First published 1998)