There’s been a discreet but powerful new tool added to BrainPOP UK movies: Subtitles.
If you look at the movie player bar on any movie you will now see an “S” button.
Clicking this button will show and hide subtitles for that movie. Like this:
Why have we added subtitles?
There’s a range of benefits to transcribing the movie and displaying subtitles.
- The most obvious benefit is to students with a hearing impairment, or even students at the back of class who may not be able to hear Tim & Moby as well as those at the front.
- Subtitles encourage reading – just having the subtitles showing will make the students read without even knowing they’re doing it (stealth reading?). Be default this will improve reading and spelling skills.
- We highlight key vocabulary in the movie directly where we can but the subtitles means that ALL vocabulary is picked up and displayed.
- Some schools have headphones in their ICT suite and some do not. Or as a teacher you may not want the noise of a movie playing on one machine to disturb other parts of the class. Subtitles mean the sound can remain off, if needed.
- Shared multimedia text – the class will be reading the subtitles, hearing the audio and seeing the animation as as a group. This means that reflection or extension work post playing the movie can be confidently delivered knowing the subtitles will have helped everyone to better understand the concepts Tim & Moby are delivering.
- Pausing – stopping the action is a tip we’ve promoted before. But with subtitles on you can stop and focus on key vocabulary too, encourage note taking or allow the class to catch up on specific points.
- You can turn the subtitles on and off at any point, without interrupting the movie. This means you remain in control of displaying the text.
We’re sure you will find other ways to use the subtitles to suit certain teaching experiences. If you have a tip or trick of your own please share it below.
December 9th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
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December 19th, 2012 at 5:45 am
Hi. My name is Ann Agnew. Yesterday I attended a Brainpop workshop presented by Tim Pitman, hosted by UNHCR at Dignity for Children The Harvest Training Centre Kuala Lumpur. I am Scottish and a UNHCR voluntary teacher working at the Harvest Centre School-a School who aim to provide quality education and training for refugees and local poverty challenged people to change their lives. You may want to google Dignity for Children Harvest Centre to learn more of Dignity. Together with the school principal and Head of Secondary School, we are planning to introduce Weekly Spoken English lessons for the students, at the start of the academic year – mid-January 2013, with a view to founding a speakers/debating club next year, open to interested students.
I am very excited to have discovered Brainpop UK, and plan to use it as the main resource to start the programme. DIGNITY IS A charity working in a 3rd world environment and we have limited resources so the coming months will be a huge challenge. I’ve had experience concentrating in teaching Spoken English before. Firstly at a Leprosy, TB Referral Centre (TBL} at Eku – Delta State Nigeria, then at De Walvis-a state primary Dutch School in THe Hague Holland. For both of these venues it was difficult to find guided programmes and ideas to create lessons especially in a Third World situation at the TBL. However, I think that the content in Brainpop will prove to be a resource that may be able to support us, as we found a sustainable Spoken English programme at The Harvest Centre which will encourage self expression amongst our students.
This will be the first time that I will be dependent on web resources to create lesson plans and also the first time that I will be using my computer and over head projector as my principle teaching aid-this school is only one step ahead of chalk and blackboard teaching with some classrooms having white-boards and limited teaching expertise! I’m planning to team teach with at least one local volunteer who can help to keep the programme alive when I leave Malaysia in a few years time.
Can you point me in the direction of any other web material that would help us plan, present lessons and create a structured programme?
Also, I am just beginning to find my way around Brainpop UK. PLease could you tell me how to find topics that have other activity outcomes apart from quizzes? Do like printed pictures and word centred work-sheets to adapt – to stimulate the spoken word and to allow students written expression.
Thanks for allowing us the user name and password to access Brainpop free of cost.
Kind Regards,
Ann Agnew
Kind Regards,
Ann Agnew
December 19th, 2012 at 9:23 am
Hi Ann,
Wow, where to start! What an amazing contribution you are making, thanks for sharing your story. Hopefully web access will enable you to explore many different avenues and resources.
Re. your question about other web materials it’s almost too big a topic to usefully advise on in a blog comment. My advice, if this is possible, is to open a Twitter account if you don’t already have one and tap into the incredible community of global educators that can advise you on such issues. I’d advise starting with Ian himself who can be followed @ipittman and see who he may recommend following. Soon you’ll build a network that can support your work.
Re. your question about activities there is an “Activities” button on each topic page. In there you will find activities to extend learning on the topic in question. For an example have a look through our “Explore a Topic” range of blog posts where we dissect movies and you’ll see more detail about all the resources surrounding a topic.
http://www.brainpop.co.uk/blog/category/explore-a-topic/
Good luck with your work and with BrainPOP UK!
Chris