How To Teach Writing

CHAPTER 2

HOW TO TEACH WRITING

Eye- catching presentation:

In this chapter I shall explore some examples of

writing activities inspired from literary texts and from manuals;

how we can evaluate them and some inspiring lesson plans

useful in the classroom according to the children’s level of study.

Good to keep in mind: Stages within the process of writing

While engaging into such a complex task, all writings are treated as a creative act, which require time and positive feedback to be done well. The teacher moves away from being someone who sets students a writing topic and receives the finished products for correction without any intervention into the process of creation itself. The teacher also encourages the students to think about the audience: who is the writing for? The students are told that their write can be changed: things from inside texts can be deleted, added or re-phrased.

There are three stages within the process of writing:

pre- writing activities: The most important thing is the flow of ideas. The focus is on the audience, the content, the vocabulary. The role of the teacher is to stimulate the sudents’creativity, to make them talk/ write as much as they can and to get them thinking how to approach their writing topic. Students produce ideas on the given topic. The teacher may use different methods: brainstorming, planning, generates ideas or questioning. In relation with their subject, the students may adopt a very detailed set of instruments to make their work easier and to get them closer to what they are about to write: describe, compare, associate, analyze, apply, argue for or against the topic. Or they can follow the five Whs from journalism: who, what, where, when, why, how.

The students use the fast writing to write down as many ideas as they can in such a short time, without worrying about correct language or punctuation, which will be revised later. They can also work in groups and share ideas. This collaborative task is valuable as it involves other skills too (i.e. speaking). Within the discussions, the students can change everything within the initial text.

while-writing activities: Students are engaged in recursive writing, self- editing and revisions. As students are guided through writing and re- writing, the teacher will help them with different areas of composition, such as syntax. In order to start writing, students need clear instructions and resources to complete the next steps of their activity: writing drafts, revising, editing, expanding. Students are allowed to use information from the previous stage and any instruments at hand (dictionaries, spell- checker).

post- writing activities: They help students reflect on and revise their activity based on feedback from an audience (peers and/ or teacher). After they have finished the task, students re- read the story and make sure that the sentences make sense. They may add phrases to make the story flow smoothly (cohesion markers, pronouns, conjunctions). They eliminate the unnecessary details and check the spelling and grammar mistakes. They share the new texts with the class and are evaluated by the peers and teacher.

II. Teaching writing through literary texts

Of all the literary texts used in the manuals and in the literature books for children, I will select here the most common used in the classroom and I will give the models to start from. Taking into account this richness of ideas and materials, I shall choose some significant ones to work on. What will produce the students will be included in the last chapter together with the analysis of the whole process of application.

Activity 1 – Novel

Activity 1.1. – Novels’ covers

Organization: individual work

Level: Intermediate

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: novel

Description: The teacher gives the students the sheets of paper containing images of a novel and she asks them to analyze them.

2.

3.

4.

5. 6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

12. 13.

11.

14. 15.

The students are asked to choose the one they like the most, then write down the motivation and read it or speak about it in front of the class.

E.g. I like number 7 because it presents the mystery in the book which is very much present especially in the beginning. …

Variant: Novels covers’ painting

Organization: group work

Level: Intermediate

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: novel

Description: The teacher asks the students to draw the cover of a novel they have read so accurate that they must surprise the essence of the book.

E.g.: The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

(http://nerdalicious.com.au/books/ten-of-the-weirdest-book-covers-for-the-hobbit/)

This activity can be adapted to any work they have read (poem, novel, short story, article etc.) and to different levels of learning.

Activity 1.2. – Novel’s pitch

Organization: individual/ pair work

Level: Upper Level

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: novel

Description: The students are asked to choose a literary work and write down its pitch.

E.g.

Part 1

a. Capture the essence of the book in a couple of lines.

e.g. Patience and throughness overcomes haste and laziness in this timeless story of brothers facing a deadly threat.

b. A brief summary of the book, providing gist, not details.

e.g. This coming of age fairy tale sees three little pigs living home to build a new life. Yet, faced with problems of building regulations and a vicious serial killer known as the Big Bad Wolf, each pig must find its own solution.

Part 2

The book as marketable product: who is it for, why it's appealing, other examples that have sold well.

e.g. The Three Little Pigs is a timeless story that spawned countless imitations for generations- not to mention merchandise!

Part 3:

A very brief synopsis that builds on part 1: it includes details: characters, the problem they face, the location, time/era.

e.g. Set in the fairy tale land of medieval Europe, this tale seeks three pigs leaving home to make their way in the world. However, their coming-of-age is overshadowed by the presence of the serial killer known as the Big Bad Wolf. The first pig opts to build a house of straw, but it offers little protection from the wolf. The second wolf tries sticks, but with the same results and he ends up as the wolf's second victim. The third pig develops a plan that involves a brick house, a chimney and a pot of boiling water- but will it be enough?

Part 4

You as a writer: a brief biography and relevant bibliography.

(adapted from Gary Smailes' to Writing a Book Pitch for Penguin Books, bubblecow.co.uk)

Activity 1.3.- ”Bridges” between real literary world and imaginary world

Organization: group work

Level: Intermediate

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: narrative/ short story

Description: The teacher asks the students to identify different means of stepping from the real world into an imaginary world and to describe adventures that may happen there.

E.g.: Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice 'without pictures or conversations?'

So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again. (extract from CHAPTER I- Down the Rabbit-Hole; http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11/11-h/11-h.htm)

(http://alldataindia.ru/index.php)

Activity 1.4.- Interviews

Organization: group work

Level: Upper-/ Intermediate

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: novel/narrative/ short story

Description: The teacher asks the student to choose one of the literary work they master and to make the author’s presentation and/or the action of the book as an interview.

E.g. Katherine Mansfield – A Cup of Tea

Rosemary Fell was not exactly beautiful. Pretty? Well, if you took her to pieces… But why be so cruel as to take anyone to pieces? She was young, brilliant, extremely modem, exquisitely well dressed, amazingly well read in the newest of the new books, and her parties were the most delicious mixture of the really important people and… artists – quaint creatures, discoveries of hers, some of them too terrifying for words, but others quite presentable and amusing.

Rosemary had been married two years. She had a duck of a boy. No, not Peter – Michael. And her husband, Philip, absolutely adored her. They were rich, really rich, not just comfortably well off, which is odious and stuffy and sounds like one's grandparents.

One winter afternoon she had been buying something in a little antique shop in Curzon Street. The man shoed her a little box, an exquisite enamel bx. Rosemary liked it very much.

"Charming!" But what was the price? For a moment the shopman did not seem to hear. Then a murmur reached her. "Twenty-eight guineas, madam."

"Twenty-eight guineas." Rosemary gave no sign. Even if one is rich… "Well, keep it for me – will you?"

The discreet door shut with a click. Rain was falling, and with the rain it seemed the dark came too. Suddenly, at that moment a young girl, thin, dark, shadowy – where had she come from? – was standing at Rosemary's elbow and said quietly:”Madam, would you let me have the price of a cup of tea?”

"A cup of tea? Then have you no money at all?" asked Rosemary.

"None, madam," came the answer.

"How extraordinary!" And suddenly it seemed to Rosemary such an adventure. Supposing she took the girl home? And she heard herself saying afterwards to the amazement of her friends: "I simply took her home with me," as she stepped forward and said to that dim person beside her: "Come home to tea with me."

The girl drew back startled. "I mean it," she said, smiling. And she felt how simple and kind her smile was. "Come along!”

"You're – you're not taking me to the police station?" the girl stammered.

"The police station!" Rosemary laughed out. “No, I only want to make you warm and to hear – anything you care to tell me."

Hungry people are easily led. The footman held the door of the car open, and a moment later they were skimming through the dusk.

"There!" said Rosemary. She had a feeling of triumph. She could have said, "Now I've got you," but of course she meant it kindly. She was going to prove to this girl that rich people had hearts, and that women were sisters. (adapted from Katherine Mansfield – A Cup of Tea; Reward Intermediate; Macmillan Heinemann, p. 58)

Activity 2- The Deserted Island

(adapted from Speaking Elements, OUP)

( inspired from Robinson Crusoe)

Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 3 – Wrecked On a Desert Island

(http://imgkid.com/deserted-island-clipart.shtml)

…I was now landed and safe on shore, and began to look up and thank God that my life was saved… I walked about on the shore … I cast my eye to the stranded vessel, when, the breach and froth of the sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it lay so far of; and considered, Lord! How was it possible I could get on shore…

Chapter 4 – First Weeks on the Island

Where I was, I yet knew not… . There was a hill not above a mile from me, which rose up very steep and high, and which seemed to overtop some other hills, which lay as in a ridge from it northward. … after I had with great labour and difficulty got to the top, I saw any fate, to my great affliction – viz. that I was in an island environed every way with the sea: no land to be seen except some rocks, which lay a great way off; and two small islands, less than this, which lay about three leagues to the west.

I found also that the island I was in was barren, and, as I saw good reason to believe, uninhabited except by wild beasts, of whom, however, I saw none. Yet I saw abundance of fowls, but knew not their kinds… At my coming back, I shot at a great bird which I saw sitting upon a tree on the side of a great wood. I believe it was the first gun that had been fired there since the creation of the world. I had no sooner fired, than from all parts of the wood there arose an innumerable number of fowls, of many sorts, making a confused screaming and crying, and every one according to his usual note, but not one of them of any kind that I knew…. .

I got on board the ship as before….and…I brought away several things very useful to me; as first, in the carpenters stores I found two or three bags full of nails and spikes, a great screw- jack, a dozen or two of hatchets, and, above all, that most useful thing called a grindstone. All these I secured, together with several things belonging to the gunner, particularly two or three iron crows, and two barrels of musket bullets, seven muskets, another fowling-piece, with some small quantity of powder more; a large bagful of small shot, and a great roll of sheet-lead; but this last was so heavy, I could not hoist it up to get it over the ship's side.

Besides these things, I took all the men's clothes that I could find, and a spare fore-topsail, a hammock, and some bedding; and with this I loaded my second raft, and brought them all safe on shore, to my very great comfort…..(http://literature.org/authors/defoe-daniel/robinson-crusoe/chapter-03.html)

Activity 2.1.- Draw and describe your deserted island

Organization: individual work

Level: Beginner

Skills: writing and speaking

Type of literary text: description

Description: The teacher asks the students to imagine that they are on a deserted island and draw and paint it. After that they will have to tell/ write down their choice of drawing.

E.g.: My island is called ……………………….. . It is situated………………………….. . There are many………………………. on the island. The weather is……………………… . There are also……………………………… . Animals that live here:………………………………, ………………………………………, …………………………………………. . There are no…………………………. here. From the top, you can see …………………………………………………………………………………….

Activity 2.2.- The Constitution

Organization: group- work

Level: Intermediate

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: debate

Description: The teacher says: Your group has gone to live together on an island of great comfort and beauty where you have everything you want. You are on a contest. You and your team are the inhabitants of the island. If you spend five years on the island, you will receive

1 000 000 euro each at the end of that time. So you must resist here to win the big prize. For this, you must write down a ten- points Constitution and motivate your choices.

What about this one? You must take a ten- points Constitution and motivate your choices.

E.g.

Constitution

No one is allowed to own property. 8. ” Love thy neighbour.”

Everybody has total freedom to do 9. Everybody decides how much

what they want. they help the group.

The group will meet once a month to 10. Only two people will leave the island

discuss the problems. at any time.

The group will have a leader. 11. Women may only have one child.

Nothing will be brought to the island 12. There will be severe punishment if

without total consent. any of the rules are broken.

There will be a compulsory 13. Television is forbidden.

programme of sport.

Entertainment is only

allowed at the weekend.

E.g.: The group will discuss once a month.

Optional programme of sports and 1 hour TV programme. …

Activity 2.3.- The Wheel

Organization: individual work

Level: Intermediate

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: debate/ essay

Description: The teacher gives the students The Wheel worksheet. It contains some quotes from literature.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. (Orwell, Animal Farm)

Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches. (Aldous Huxley, Brave New World)

Is it better for a man to have chosen evil than to have good imposed upon him? (Burgess, A Clockwork Orange)

Live in the present, make most of it; it’s all you got. (Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale)

Yes, and civilization is sterilization. (Aldous Huxley, Brave New World)

Better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse for some. (Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale)

We must be all alike. Not everyone born free and equal,…., but everyone made equal. (Bradbury, Fahrenheit)

Who controls the past,…, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. (Orwell, Animal Farm)

The students are asked to draw a point on each quote line: if (s)he agrees, the point will be to the margin, if (s)he doesn’t, it will be inside the circle. Then, the students will have to join the point and make the diagram of their motivations. After that, they will have to motivate their answers.

E.g.

E.g.: 1. I totally agree with this quote: ”Better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse for some.” (Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale) because….. .

Activity 3- Poems and/or songs

Activity 3.1. Poetry- Haiku

Organization: individual work

Level: Intermediate

Skills: reading, writing

Type of literary text: poem

Description: The teacher gives the students some sheets of paper containing haiku poems.

E.g.

early winter

I teach baby

to hold chopsticks. (Kato Kiotai)

She asks students to identify the specific elements of such a poem.

simple language,

meditation,

short concentrated form,

ordinary objects become symbols,

clear, no rhyme,

senses and feelings,

feeling of solitude and melancholy,

flexible structure.

The students are asked to write down haiku poems.

E.g.

quince-sun

ripe air

flash-wind

autumn.

Activity 3.2.- Inglan Is A Bitch

Organization: pair/group work

Level: Upper/ Intermediate

Skills: reading, writing

Type of literary text: poem/song

Description: The teacher gives the students the sheets of paper folded in halves. She asks one student in turn to read the text aloud. It may seem unreadable, but the students are reminded the reggae music and style through a few examples (Bob Marley). It is a funny activity as the students get involved into the music ”attitude”.

Then the teacher asks the students to re-write the text into literary English and read all the solutions they found. They may have different answers.

(Add song meaning

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Activity 3.3: Non-sense funny poems

Organization: group work

Level: Upper/ Intermediate

Skills: reading, writing

Type of literary text: poem

Lewis Carroll- Jabberwocky

(from Through the Looking-

Glass and What Alice

Found There, 1872)

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
  And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
  The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
  Long time the manxome foe he sought –
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
  And stood awhile in thought. …

Description: The teacher asks the students to read the poem and express their feelings about it. Most probabely, their reaction will be that they don’t understand a thing, which is right. This is a poem with an invented language, where words may have any meaning the reader can give. For instance: the borogoves may be huge marsupials; raths may be other creatures and outgrabe may refer to their action to hide underground. Or all these may mean anything else.

The teacher asks the students to agree to give each such word a meaning- the title including- and re-write the poem by using their meaningful words.

Activity 4.- Prose

Activity 4.1.- Character and place creation

Activity 4.1.1.- Aunt Helen in New Zeeland

Organization: group- work

Level: Upper- Intermediate

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: short story

Description: The teacher asks the students to think about a real or an imaginary eccentric person and to describe it, without mentioning his/ her personality.

E.g.:

My Aunt Helen in New Zeeland

My Aunt Helen in New Zeeland is a retired person; short, skinny, old and sick. She lives in a three- roomed apartment, on the third floor. She has two kids. They rarely visit her. She drinks coffee and loves animals- she has ten cats inside and she feeds all the cats outside her house by throwing them food on the window. She listens to music and watches TV news channels. She has lots of guests to whom she serves a lot of tea. She has old furniture in the house and a nice modern balcony. Aunt Helen reads a lot, goes to the supermarket and to all the events she is invited to, pays the bills to different centres. Sometimes she goes to sleep late… very late; sometimes she gets up early. She works with different types of fabrics and does many useful things for the house or for her friends.

The teacher asks each group to introduce the character to the class and they will have to guess what kind of person she is; i.e. from facts, the students will have to draw the conclusion about the character’s personality.

Activity 4.1.2.- Questionnaire

Organization: group- work

Level: Upper- / Intermediate

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: short story

Description: The teacher gives each group of students the worksheets questionnaire to create their own character:

Situation 1: Tim Bentley- an unsuccessful film- maker with a young family.

Situation 2: Mavis Staples- a maiden aunt who regrets selling the stationer's she used to own.

Situation 3: Don Bulton- an engineering student, fond of football, beer and lingerie.

Situation 4: Gita Patel- policewoman by day, karaoke queen by night.

Questionnaire

Address:

Job:

Hobbies:

Transport:

Laugh:

Smile:

Clothes:

Nervous habits:

Addictions:

Passions:

Fears:

Relationship to food:

Relationship to money:

Spiritual life:

Politics:

Family life:

Romantic life:

The students must fill in the hints in the questionnaire. Thus they create a character and share it with their colleagues.

E.g. Tim Bentley lives on Colorado Lane, USA.

He is a film- maker. He likes horses and horse- races.

Tim goes to work by car every day. He doesn’t laugh

too loud. When he smiles he says ”Hm”, like

”I understand your joke, but could you be funnier

next time?”, he says to himself nodding. Fashion is very

important for his job, but he’s not very good at it.

So, sometimes he is very chick and sometimes he seems much uninspired in matching the clothes. He wears suit and tie, a hat and a bag. He often bites his lips when he get nervous, which happens very often. His wife tried to make him give up his upmost addiction: the Cuban cigars. As a means of relaxation, he is keen on adventures in the wild. He is so frustrated that he won’t succeeded and he won’t be famous, that he wants to feel the power of ”the lion” there, in the jungle or on the highest mountain. He enjoys spending long dinners in a nice company, with drinks, good food and in different locations. He tends to get bored quickly. He has lost his patience. Tim loves money, but he doesn’t have it now. The success is what he hopes to get. Money is a religion, so he doesn’t go to church every Sunday. He hates politics, but he sees its benefits. He has a child he wants to be a great father. It’s a part of his success. Tim used to be a romantic person, but now he is just… a film- maker.

Activity 4.1.3.- My photo is my soul

Organization: individual- work

Level: Upper- / Intermediate

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: novel/ short story

Description: The teacher gives an image to each group of students and she asks them to create the story and the character behind the image, looking closely to the picture and using the details in the background too.

1.

2.

3.

4.

(http://www.landscapephotography.info)

Activity 4.1.4.- The box of the lost objects

Organization: group-work

Level: Upper- / Intermediate

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: short story

Description: The teacher puts a box with lost objects on each group's desk. The box may contain objects such as: false eyelashes, currants, photos, teddy- bears, toy wheels, feathers, grandpa’s clock, bishop's crook, dice, a mask, a bell. The teacher asks the students to create a short story by relating as many objects as they can.

Activity 4.1.5. – The silent – yoga- travel short- story

Organization: individual-work

Level: Upper- / Intermediate

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: novel/ short story

Description: The teacher asks the students to close their eyes and relax. The students will not write down now. Just picture the story. Then she induces the mood and the inner story:

You are walking towards a big door. Open it. How is the door? What do you feel? How is inside? What building is it? What is the weather like? Then you're in. How is the room? How are you feeling? What can you see? How is the light? Is it warm? How is the furniture? Then you are going to the window. How is the window? Is it tall, large, small? What can you see outside? Now, open your eyes and write down what you pictured.

Activity 4.1.6. – Newspaper images

Organization: individual-work

Level: Upper- / Intermediate

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: short story/ article

Description: The teacher distributes an envelope to each group. The envelope contains different images cut from newspapers. The students are asked to create a short story by relating the images. Depending on the level of learning, the teacher can attach a list of specific vocabulary to be introduced into their compositions.

E.g.

http://www.syracuse.com/news

http://rt.com/op-edge/169908-australia-economic-boom-ending/

http://www.messengernewspapers.co.uk/news

Activity 4.2. – Change the story

Organization: pair -work

Level: Upper- / Intermediate

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: short story/ novel

Description: The teacher brainstorms the students regarding the changes that can be done within writing:

– message,

– setting,

– language,

– genre,

– characters: the look, sex, appearance, personality,

– place,

– style.

e.g. Romeo is a girl and Juliet is a boy.

Then the teacher gives the students a piece of text and she asks them to make as may changes as they can to get an original story.

E.g. Jimmy's father said to come by the church, they should have a talk. Everybody knows what that means. But what his father said was that he had been out to the Ponderosa Restaurant on Saturday and there were all of Jimmy's classmates from Bible College with their wives and children and they were all happy, why wasn't he? He wanted Jimmy to get down on his knees and pray right there and Jimmy wouldn't and his father accused him of betraying his wife Linda and running around with that other woman- were these rumours true or untrue? They were untrue said Jimmy. So his father said: do you have doubts? And Jimmy …agreed to pray with his father. He decided to take the church at Mount Hebron.

(Kent Thompson, Ponderosa, from Flash Fiction, 1992, Norton, Ed. Thomas- Thomas and Hazuka)

http://www.mccartyassociates.com/ponderosa.htm

Activity 4.3. – A gothic board game

Organization: group work

Level: Upper- / Intermediate

Skills: writing, speaking

Type of literary text: short story/ novel

Note: Gothic fiction, which is largely dominated by the subgenre of Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines fiction, horror and Romanticism. Its origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled (in its second edition) "A Gothic Story." The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel. Melodrama and parody (including self-parody) were other long-standing features of the Gothic initiated by Walpole. It originated in England in the second half of the 18th century and had much success in the 19th, as witnessed by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Another well known novel in this genre, dating from the late Victorian era, is Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The name Gothic refers to the (pseudo)-medieval buildings in which many of these stories take place.

Description: The teacher asks the students to design a board game related to one of the ghost stories they know according to the instructions. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction)

Instructions for creating a gothic board game:

Pick whether you are going to base your board game on: a gothic story you know well; elements of different gothic stories; a story from your manual; a story which you create.

Pick the players.

Pick the START and FINISH- what do you need to achieve to win?

Pick the board type: snakes and ladders; trivial pursuit, others.

Pick the rewards and penalties: what elements bring about rewards and penalties and what are these? Are you going to include an element of chance? Are you players going to collect items? Are you going to create cards for these or write them onto the board? Are you going to introduce a revenge element (e.g. landing on another player sends them to START)?

Create the board and any cards or counters.

Write the instruction to your game.

Play it.

Play the other games in the class and other groups will play yours.

Game e.g.:

Instructions:

– the green numbers are to receive a question;

– rewards and penalties are on the cards;

– land on another player- send him to START;

– there are two sets of cards: one containing the questions, one containing the answers;

– players must throw the dice in turn;

– players must answer questions whenever they are on a green box (it could happen ones, twice or three times);

– GOOD LUCK!

Card sets (to be cut):

Activity 5 – Drama:

Activity 5.1: The Witches' Chant

Organization: group -work

Level: Upper- / Intermediate

Skills: performing, writing

Type of literary text: drama

Description: The teacher gives the students a sheet of paper containing the Witches' Chant from Macbeth.

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble- Annotations for the Witches' Chants (4.1.1-47)

A dark cave. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. Thunder. Enter the three Witches
First Witch
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
Second Witch
Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
Third Witch
Harpier cries "'Tis time, 'tis time."

First Witch
Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.
All
Double, double, toil and trouble; (10)
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Second Witch
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

All
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Third Witch
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe (30)
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.
All
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Second Witch
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
…………………………………………..
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks!
(http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/witcheschants.html)

She asks the students to circle the words which they believe that are the most important in the text. Then the students are asked to stress these words. In the end, the students are asked to drum the rhythm.

The students having been divided into groups, they will act the chant, each group performing its part.

The students are asked to write down a similar chant inspired from their tradition.

Activity 5.2: On the spot drama- Jay's Grave

Note: Jay's Grave (or Kitty Jay's Grave) is supposedly the last resting place of a suicide victim who is thought to have died in the late 18th century. It has become a well-known landmark on Dartmoor, Devon, in South-West England, and is the subject of local folklore, and several ghost stories. … In Volume 1 of the Western Antiquary, dated October 1881, one F. B. Doveton asked for further details of a grave that he had noted by the side of the road to Hey Tor. Doveton's guide had told him that it was called "Jay's Grave" and was that of a young woman who had hanged herself years ago in a barn in Manaton, the bones being subsequently buried here (Doverton, F. B. (January 1882). "A Dartmoor Tragedy". The Western Antiquary; or Devon & Cornwall Note Book (Plymouth: Latimer and Son) 1 (3): 106–7). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay's_Grave#cite_note-6)

Jay’s Grave

Many years ago, possibly in the late seventeen hundreds, a young orphan girl, Mary (or Kitty) Jay was employed at a farm close to Manaton in Devon. She had lived there from about the age of five and, although boyfriended by the farmer’s son, Jamie, it is believed that she led a solitary life. Her living conditions were primitive and her work long and hard and miserable. She had no one to turn to in time of sorrow.

When she was 17, she became pregnant, probably after being raped by a youth who had been working on the farm for the summer. As so often happened in those days, poor Mary was left to carry the blame whilst the man escaped scot-free.

She was so ashamed that she went to a barn on the farm where she committed suicide by hanging herself. Such was the stigma attached to this form of death that the three local parishes refused to bury her within their boundaries. Eventually, as a compromise, she was buried at an unconsecrated spot at a point where the three parishes joined.

In 1860, in order to investigate the site and confirm the various stories surrounding it, the area was dug overbuy a team led by Mr. Bryant. Human remains were found which were identified as those of a young girl. These were placed in a wooden coffin and reburied at a site, but this time the grave was marked with a rectangle of granite stones, which stands to this day.

The grave still receives regular posies of yellow flowers, the same colour that Mary and Jamie used to pick together in childhood. No one knows who places these flowers, maybe children, passes gypsies, pixies, or as the locals say, either the spirit of Jamie comforting his sad sweetheart, or her murderer seeking atonement. Ghostly figures have been seen at night only to disappear without trace. (adapted from https://www.grantham.karoo.net/paul/graves/jay.htm)

Organization: group -work

Level: Upper- / Intermediate

Skills: reading, speaking, writing- performing

Type of literary text: drama

Description: The teacher asks the students to read the text individually one/several times. After they read it silently, the students are asked to turn off the page and re-tell the story, in turn, within their group, by adding as many details as they can remember from it. Each student will remember something new and they will re-build the story. Then, each group will designate a spokesman to tell a part of the story so as the whole class will re-build the whole story.

Then the students are asked to write a play by using the details mentioned in the story. The play must be organized according to the following criteria:

-dialogue lines;

– five words or less;

– all the group involved: each student in the group says one line;

– the group may have one or more narrators;

– important aspects to be pointed: key- words, gestures, intonation, the improvised scene, the objects around and originality;

– students may read from their ”prompters”.

E.g.

Background:

N1: late 1700s, Mary, an orphan,

N2: living on a farm,

N1: boyfriended by the farmer’s son

N2: Jamie.

Mary: What a miserable, hard-working life!

Youth 1: Come with me!

Mary: Oh! No, no, no!

Youth 2: You have no choice!

Youth 1: You’re so pretty!

N 1: Some time later:

Mary: What a shame! … Pregnant!

N 2: She went to the barn

Mary: I will kick the bucket!

N 1: She hung herself.

( Taking her to the cemetery)

Priests (x3): No in our graveyards!

N 2: She was buried

N 1: at an unconsecrated area.

N 2: 1860

Bryant: Let’s dig here! Hmmmmm! Interesting!

N 1: Mary’s remains are buried

N 2: in a wooden coffin.

All together: Let’s put some flowers here!

Activity 6: Essay/ Speech- Julius Caesar

Organization: individual work

Level: Upper- / Intermediate

Skills: writing, performing

Type of literary text: drama/ essay

Description: The teacher stresses that the basic purpose of a speech is to convince the audience, to send a message and to form a specific bound between the speaker and the people in front of him. This is a fine example of a wise man’s speech.

William Shakespeare- Julius Caesar

Marcus Antonius: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest–
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men–
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

(The Complete Works of William Shakespeare; Julius Caesar; The Shakespeare Head Press Oxford Edition, 1996, p. 598)

The teacher asks the students to read, analyze and act the speech. Then she asks them to write a speech/ an essay on a given topic.

Note: Julius Caesar, the most famous Roman leader, a great general, statesman, orator and historian, is slain by a group of conspirators in the Ides of March, 44 BC. The head of the group is Marcus Brutus, a noble idealist, who thinks that, by killing his friend, Cesar, he will save the Roman Republic. In fact, the assassination will only bring about political anarchy. After Caesar is murdered, in the Senate House, Brutus tries to justify his deed to the Romans, whom he manages to convince of the rightfulness of his cause. Yet he makes the mistake of allowing Mark Antony, Caesar’s loyal friend, to give the funeral speech. Through artful eloquence, Antony will finally turn the tables on Caesar’s murderers. He uses gradation of rhetorical effects and the changes of the dramatic moods.

Activity 7: Letters

Organization: individual work

Level: Intermediate

Skills: writing

Type of literary text: letter

Description: To exemplify this type of literary text, the teacher chooses a poem, which looks very much like a letter. The motivation for this choice is the unusual symbol used to mirror the idea of love: the onion.

Carol Ann Duffy- Valentine

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.

Here.
It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.

Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
if you like.

Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.

(Reward Intermediate, Macmillan Heinemann, p.54)

The students are asked to identify other unusual symbols of love and to write down love letters.

III. Evaluation

3.1. Testing

The instruments used for evaluation sustain an entire process uses to promote and assess learning. It has two purposes: to enhance learning in students and to give the teacher the feedback regarding the efficiency of her work.

As far as the typical testing technique of traditional learning (i.e. grammar- translation approach) is concerned, there are used oral interviews:

questions to verify the text understanding- used to cover the informational and linguistic content of activities; often unrelated to one another;

translations from and into the target language- instruments used: dictionaries;

oral/ written compositions;

The means used to realise such type of evaluation are based on subjective testing. For example, a composition will be scored with one final mark, give according to the teacher’s subjective appreciation.

Objective testing, on the other hand, offers a different type of grading. For instance, objective tests results are detailed numerically: each individual item is given a number of points and the final grade is the sum of all the points obtained in different types of exercises (multiple choice items, dual choices, matching elements, arranging elements, joining elements, fill-ins etc.).But the great disadvantage of objective tests is that they cannot assess productive skills. Thus, testers decided to develop objective tasks that could rely on full texts and thus assess several of the learners’ skills simultaneously. (Adriana Vizenal, Strategies of Teaching Testing English as a Foreign Language; 2008, Ed. Polirom; Iasi; p 74)

Such tests are called global integrative tasks. Assessing productive skills is difficult and it is even more difficult to assess the learner’s ability to write his thoughts or inner meditation, attitudes or debates. That is why testers concluded that they must bring back subjective testing, but this must be improved by designing communicative tasks and increasing the objectivity of subjective scoring.

3.2. Instruments of evaluation

There will be used the following instruments of evaluation:

– pre-test;

– scales;

– marking schemas;

– evaluation yardsticks;

– check-up lists;

– questionnaires;

– final test.

Marking scheme for written tests:

Marking scheme for assessing oral performances (e.g. speeches, drama, poems, dialogues). All the students’ products will be “delivered” orally too. The purpose of this exercise is to practice the paralanguage.

*Poor Satisfactory Average Good Excellent (after Balan et al., 1999)

The detailed marking scheme is useful for both: tested and testers. The requirements were read to the students so that they will know the expectations the teacher has from them. Thus, their assignment is properly prepared, due to its guidance in the organization of the work.

The techniques for testing long-term work of the students rely especially on systematic observation. The teacher has the following instruments:

The evaluation yardstick, which recorded the frequency, relevance, consistency etc. Of the learner’s contribution along the course.

The check-up list, which assesses the presence of absence of certain features in the learner’s behaviour.

Students’ self evaluation- Questionnaire:

3.3. Correction of written work

Correction is a very delicate stage of learning. The students have different reactions to it, as the teacher develops different instruments for them. Students may want for the teacher to:

use red ink, so that they can see the mistakes more clearly;

correct the mistakes and not use the code of correction;

not to correct every mistake as it can become extremely discouraging;

not to give them the impression the grammar and spelling are everything;

write really nice comments at the bottom of the page;

not to correct everything, as it may be such a waste of time;

not to write ”good” at the bottom of the page as it may also be discouraging;

It is understandable that this is an essential step in language acquisition and it must be done. Nevertheless, it can be less ”painful” if the teacher establishes since the very beginning the manner and the instruments of correction, taking into account the students ‘desires and the type of writing she applies to the class.

IV. Experimental lesson plans

4.1 Helen Dunmore

Small reserach on the subject: Life and Work

Born in 1952 in Yorkshire, she was the second of four children. Her father was the oldest of twelve children. The fact of being grown up in a big family has a strong influence in her life because she is used to listen to different stories and it helps to understand others.

She studied English at York university and taught it in Filand for two years. This was before starting publishing her first book.

Her pleasure for writing comes from her childhood. She used to listen and learn by heart all kinds of rhymes and hymns and ballads.

She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and she has won the Orange Prize.

1. Novels:

2012 – The Greatcoat- a ghost story set during and after the second W.W. about the power of past to imprint itself the present and posses it.

2012 – The Betrayal- Soviet bureaucracy, hospital life and Leningrad in the 1950s.

2006- long- listed for the Orange Prize for Literature- House of Orphans- a portrait of life post-war Soviet Russia; a struggle for ordinary people to survive in times of violence and terror.

2003 – Mourning Ruby – the story of a mother abandoning her daughter in a shoebox in the backyard of an Italian restaurant.

2001 – short-listed for the Whitbread Novel Award and for the Orange Prize for Fiction – The Siege- A family and their friends during Hitler's times (1941) are trapped inside a besieged city. This is a novel about war experienced by ordinary people; a moving celebration of love, life and survival.

1998 – Your blue-eyed boy – a compelling and passionate thriller.

1995- Winner of the inaugural Orange Prize for Literature – A Spell of Winter – the incestuous story of Catherine and her brother Rob during and after World War I.

1993 – winner of Macktterick Prize- Zennor in Darkness – people living in Zennor, Cornwall, during the war in France and D.H. Lawrence’s time. Everybody seems to live a secret life.

2. Short stories volumes:

2005 – Rose, 1944

2000 – Ice-cream- a collection of stories which range from Victorian tragedies to the tale of a dinner lady's love for a Polish teacher; from death of a light-house keeper's wife to the birth of babies from the Super -stork Catalogue.

1997 – Love of a fat man- the pain woven into human relationships, the ambivalence of love between parents and children and the pleasure of sensuality.

3. Some poetry collections

1983 – The Apple fall

1986 – The Sea Skater

1991 – Bestiary

2001 – Out of the blue

2012 – The Malarkey

4. Young adults books collections:

Zillah and me (2004): The Lilac Tree, The Seal Cove, The Silver Bead;

The Ingo Chronicles: Ingo (2005), The Tide Knot (2006), The Deep (2007), The Crossing of Ingo (2008), Storm wept (2012).

Activities:

Primary Level:

Poem: Yellow

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Objectives:

Learn vocabulary related to colour yellow;

Learn a stanza from a poem;

Sing a famous song;

Scenario:

Think of something yellow and complete the sentence:

Yellow is….,

By using all these phrases we can create a poem and compare it with Helen Dunmore's.

e.g.

B. Use flashcards with yellow objects and try to identify the objects. Do this exercise in groups so they get much more motivated.

e.g. (GASESTE FLASCARDS PE NET)

End the lesson by singing and listening to the song: Yellow submarine.

Comprehension check: Listen to the song twice and complete the gap.

Yellow Submarine (BY THE BEATLES)

In the town where I was _________ (1)

_________ (2) a man who ___________ (3) to sea

And he told us of his life

In the land of submarines.

So we __________ (4) on to the sun

Till we __________ (5) the sea of green.

And we lived beneath the ____________ (6)

In our yellow submarine.

We all live in a yellow submarine,

Yellow submarine, yellow submarine.

We all live in a yellow submarine,

Yellow submarine, yellow submarine.

And our friends are all aboard,

Many more of them live ____________ (7).

And the band ______________ (8) to play…

We all live in a yellow submarine,

Yellow submarine, yellow submarine.

We all live in a yellow submarine,

Yellow submarine, yellow submarine.

And we live a life of _____________ (9),

Everyone of us has all we need,

Sky of __________ (10) and sea of ____________ (11)

In our yellow submarine.

Key: 1) born; 2) lived; 3) sailed; 4) sailed; 5) found; 6) waves; 7) next door; 8) begins; 9) ease; 10) blue; 11) green.

Secondary level (Upper level)

My Polish Teacher's Tie

by Helen Dunmore

I wear a uniform, blue overall and white cap with the school logo on it. Part-time catering staff, that's me, £3.89 per hour. I dish out tea and buns to the teachers twice a day, and I shovel chips on to the kids' trays at dinner-time. It's not a bad job. I like the kids.

The teachers pay for their tea and buns. It's one of those schemes teachers are good at. So much into a kitty, and that entitles them to cups of tea and buns for the rest of the term. Visitors pay, too, or it wouldn't be fair. Very keen on fairness, we are, here.

It was ten-forty-five when the Head got up to speak. He sees his staff together for ten minutes once a week, and as usual he had a pile of papers in front of him. I never listen to any of it as a rule, but as I was tipping up the teapot to drain I heard him mention Poland.

I am half-Polish. They don't know that here. My name's not Polish or anything. It was my mother, she came here after the war. I spoke Polish till I was six, Baby Polish full of rhymes Mum taught me. Then my father put a stop to it. "You'll get her all mixed up, now she's going to school. What use is Polish ever going to be to her?" I can't speak it now. I've got a tape, a tape of me speaking Polish with Mum. I listen, and I think I'm going to understand what we're saying, and then I don't.

`… long-term aim is to arrange a teacher exchange – several Polish teachers are looking for penfriends in English schools, to improve their written English … so if you're interested, the information's all here …'

He smiled, wagging the papers, and raised his eyebrows. I wrung out a cloth and wiped my surfaces. I was thinking fast. Thirteen minutes before I was due downstairs.

The meeting broke up and the Head vanished in a knot of teachers wanting to talk to him. I lifted the counter-flap, tucked my hair under the cap, and walked across. Teachers are used to getting out of the way of catering staff without really seeing them.

`Excuse me,' I said, pushing forward, `excuse me,' and they did. Then I was in front of the Head. `Excuse me,' I said again, and he broke off what he was saying. I saw him thinking, trouble. The kids chucking chips again. He stitched a nice smile on his face and said, `Oh, er – Mrs, er – Carter. Is there a problem?'

`No,' I said, `I was just wondering, could I have that address?'

`Address?'

`The Polish one. You said there was a Polish teacher who wanted an English penfriend.'

`Oh. Ah, yes. Of course.' He paused, looking at me as if it might be a trick question. `Is it for yourself?'

`I'd like to write to a Polish teacher.'

`Oh,' he said. `Yes. Of course, Mrs Carter.'

I took the address and smiled at him.

When Steve's first letter came I saw he'd taken it for granted I was a teacher. The person he had in his head when he was writing to me was an English teacher, a real professional. This person earned more money than him and had travelled and seen places and done things he'd never been able to do. He was really called Stefan, but he said he was going to call himself Steve when he wrote to me.

Jade saw the letter. `What's that, Mum?'

`Just a letter. You can have the stamp if you want.'

In the second letter Steve told me that he wrote poetry.

`I have started a small literary magazine in our department. If you want, I am happy to send you some of our work.'

I told him about Jade. I told him about the songs my mother taught me in Polish, the ones I used to know but I'd forgotten. I didn't write anything about my job. Let him think what he wanted to think. I wasn't lying.

The first poem he sent me was about a bird in a coal mine. He sent me the English translation. This bird flew down the main shaft and got lost in the tunnels underground, then it sang and sang until it died. Everyone heard it singing, but no one could find it. I liked that poem. It made me think maybe I'd been missing something, because I hadn't read any poetry since I left school. I wrote back, `Send me the Polish, just so I can see it.' When the Polish came I tried it over in my head. It sounded a bit like the rhymes my mother used to sing.

At first we wrote every week, then it was twice. I used to write a bit every day then make myself wait until the middle of the week to send it. I wrote after Jade was in bed. Things would suddenly come to me. I'd write, `Oh, Steve, I've just remembered …', or `… Do you see what I mean, Steve, or does it sound funny?' It made it seem more like talking to him when I used his name.

He wrote me another poem. It was about being half-Polish and half-English, and the things I'd told him about speaking Polish until I was six and then forgetting it all:

`Mother, I've lost the words you gave me. Call the police, tell them there's a reward … I'll do anything …'

He was going to put it in the literary magazine, `if you have no objection, Carla'. That was the way he wrote, always very polite. I said it was fine by me.

One day the Head stopped me and said, `Did you ever write to that chap? The Polish teacher?'

`Yes,' I said. Nothing more. Let him think I'd written once then not bothered. Luckily, Mrs Callendar came up to talk about OFSTED.

`Ah, yes, OFSTED. Speaking of visitors,' said the Head, raising his voice the way he does so that one minute he's talking to you and the next it's a public announcement, `I have news of progress on the Polish teachers' exchange. A teacher will be coming over from Katowice next month. His name is Stefan Jeziorny, and he will be staying with Mrs Kenward. We're most grateful to you for your hospitality, Valerie.'

Mrs Kenward flushed. The Head beamed at nobody. Stefan Jeziomy, I thought. I had clicked, even though I was so used to thinking of him as Steve. Why hadn't he said he was coming?

I dropped Jade off to tea with her friend. There was a letter waiting when I got home. I tore it open and read it with my coat still on. There was a bit about my last letter, and poetry, and then the news.

`You will know from your school, Carla, that I will come to England. I am hoping to make many contacts for the future, for other teachers who will also come to English schools. I hope, Carla, that you will introduce me to your colleagues. I will stay with an English Family who offer accommodation.'

I felt terrible. He sounded different, not like Steve. Not just polite any more, but all stiff, and a bit hurt. He must have thought I'd known about his visit from the other teachers, and I hadn't wanted to invite him to stay with me. But what was worse was that he was going to expect to meet me. Or not me, exactly, but the person he'd been writing to, who didn't really exist. `I have been corresponding with a colleague of yours, Carla Carter,' he'd say to the other teachers. Then he'd wait for someone to say, `Yes, of course, Carla's here, she's expecting you.'

Colleagues don't wear blue overalls and white caps and work for £3.89 an hour. Somebody'd remember me asking the Head for his address, and there'd be a whisper running all round, followed by a horrible silence. They'd all look round at the serving-hatch and there I'd be, the big teapot in my hand and a plate of buns in front of me. And Steve'd look too. He'd still be smiling, because that's what you do in a foreign place when you don't know what's going on.

He'd think I was trying to make a fool of him, making him believe I was a teacher. Me, Carla Carter, part-time catering assistant, writing to him about poetry.

I could be off sick. I could swap with Jeannie. She could do the teachers' breaks. Or I could say Jade was ill.

No. That wouldn't work. Steve had my name, and my address. I sat down and spread out his letter again, then I went to the drawer and got all his other letters. I'd never had letters like that before and I was never going to again, not after Steve knew who I really was.

I didn't write, and Steve didn't write again either. I couldn't decide if it was because he was hurt, or because he knew he'd be seeing me soon anyway. The fuss Valerie Kenward made about having him to stay, you'd think the Pope was coming for a fortnight. I never liked her. Always holding up the queue saying she's on a diet, and then taking the biggest bun.

`If you're that bothered,' I said, `he can come and stay in my flat, with me and Jade.' But I said it to myself, in my head. I knew he'd want to be with the other teachers.

I couldn't stop looking for letters. And then there was the poetry book I'd bought. It seemed a shame to bin it. It might come in for Jade, I thought.

A week went by, eight days, ten. Each morning I woke up and I knew something was wrong before I could remember what it was. It got worse every day until I thought, Sod it, I'm not going to worry any more.

The next morning-break the buns were stale. Valerie Kenward poked them, one after another. `We ought to get our money back,' she said. But she still took one, and waited while I filled the teapot from the urn.

`How's it going?' Susie Douglas asked her.

`Hard work!' stage-whispered Valerie, rolling her eyes.

`He's not got much conversation, then?'

`Are you joking? All he wants to talk about is poetry. It's hell for the kids, he doesn't mean to be funny but they can't keep a straight face. It's the way he talks. Philippa had to leave the room at supper-time, and I can't say I blame her.'

You wouldn't, I thought. If ever anyone brought up their kids to be pleased with themselves, it's Valerie Kenward.

`And even when it's quite a well-known writer like Shakespeare or Shelley, you can't make out what he's on about. It's the accent.'

`He is Polish. I mean, how many Polish poets could you pronounce?' asked Susie.

`And his ties!' went on Valerie. `You've never seen anything like them.'

I looked past both of them. I'd have noticed him before, if I hadn't been so busy. He was sitting stiffly upright, smiling in the way people smile when they don't quite understand what's going on. The Head was wagging a sheaf of papers in front of him, and talking very loudly, as if he was deaf. Steve. Stefan Jeziorny. He was wearing a brown suit with padded shoulders. It looked too big for him. His tie was wider than normal ties, and it was red with bold green squiggles on it. It was a terribly hopeful tie. His shoes had a fantastic shine on them. His face looked much too open, much too alive, as if a child Jade's age had got into an adult's body.

`Isn't that tea made yet?' asked Valerie.

I looked at her. `No,' I said. `It's not. Excuse me,' and I lifted the counter-flap and ducked past her while her mouth was still open. I walked up to where Steve was sitting. He looked round at me the way a child does when he doesn't know anyone at a party, hoping for rescue.

`Hello,' I said. He jumped up, held out his hand. `How do you do?' he asked, as if he really wanted to know. I took his hand. It was sweaty, as I'd known it would be. He was tense as a guitar string.

`I'm Carla,' I said.

`Carla?' He couldn't hide anything. I saw it all swim in his eyes. Surprise. Uncertainty. What was he going to do? And then I saw it. Pleasure. A smile lit in his eyes and ran to his mouth.

`Carla! You are Carla Carter. My penfriend.'

`Yes.'

Then he did something I still can't quite believe. He stood there holding on to my hand right in the middle of the staffroom, his big bright tie blazing, and he sang a song I knew. It went through me like a knife through butter. A Polish song. I knew it, I knew it. I knew the words and the tune. It was one of the songs my mother used to sing to me. I felt my lips move. There were words in my mouth, words I didn't understand. And then I was singing, stumbling after him all the way to the end of the verse.

`Good heavens. How very remarkable. I didn't realize you were Polish, Mrs … er …' said the Head as he bumbled round us flapping his papers.

`Nor did I,' I said. But I wasn't going to waste time on the Head. I wanted to talk about poetry. I smiled at Steve. His red tie with its bold green squiggles was much too wide and much too bright. It was a flag from another country, a better country than the ones either of us lived in. `I like your tie,' I said.

Objectives:

Read a short story written by a contemporary writer;

Identify and make predictions about the main object in the story;

Make a presentation about Poland;

Write a diary entry;

Learn and use vocabulary related to feelings and physical descriptions;

Imagine an unusual conversation;

Write Stephan’s letter/poetry to Clara;

Act a dialogue between the characters;

Logos;

Discuss pros and cons opinions about people going out of their own country to work and the effect their departures have on the kids.

Scenario:

Pre- reading activity:

What does the tittle suggest? Make predictions

While- reading activities:

Write a diary entry about the day Carla meets Stefan: express personal feelings and expectations;

Imagine a physical description of Carla and Stefan;

Read aloud the story but finish just before the conversation between Carla and Stefan. Try to imagine the conversation they may have been.

Think of an ending for the story.

Post- reading activities:

After a quick reading of the short -story, in groups, create a quiz with different aspects about the story.

Write down a sample letter or a poetry between Carla and Stefan.

– Re-write the story from the perspective of a cup of tea, or a dialogue between the uniform and the cups; the tie and the hat or any other combination of objects in the story.

Make a presentation about Poland (Geography, some historical aspects, literature, culture, etc). You can make a poster.

Imagine logos and draw them on Carla's cap.

Build the classroom to look like a court and dress the students as lawyers. Introduce pros and cons to motivate people’s work outside the frontiers of their country. Invite other students to act as witnesses and confess the stories they have heard or lived because of those departures.

4.2. John Fowles’ The French Lieutentant’s Woman (Upper level)

Aims:

Learning about the author and the novel: The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles;

Understanding the writer’s connections with the South-West;

Discussing human relationships and gender issues;

Developing listening, reading and writing skills;

Exploring Media Education and Literature.

Leading students to creative writing.

Participants: 19 year-old students, high level of English, group of 10.

Materials: – paragraphs of the first chapter of the novel;

related youtube trailer: Scene on The Cobb, Lyme Regis – from The French Lieutenant's Woman (http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=oFZPSQKjwwc)

Language: Give the students the following tasks:

– Write down new words heard in the video;

– Write down a suitable ending to the story.

Procedure:
The students approach the novel and the author through this lesson unit:

interview with the writer (links with the South-West);

silent video viewing and related speaking activities in the group;

writing down the dialogue in pairs;

comparison of the original in the video / text from the first chapter and their dialogues in small groups;

elicitation of new vocabulary and structures in the group;

introducing the characters and the plot;

follow-up/ extention activity: write new endings to the story and writing the dialogue to the ‘Scene on the Cobb’.

4.3. Micro teaching lesson on John Le Carrè (Upper level)

Aims:

• Introducing the writer's biography;

• Introducing the main topics of his novels;

• Introducing the main features of genre of spy stories;

• Raising awareness of the topic of trust and betrayal;

• Developing speaking, listening and reading skills;

Learners: group of 25 secondary school students, aged 17-18, level B2;

Classroom organisation: whole class, two students role-playing the introductory interview, pair works;

Materials:

• Script of the interview;

• Questionnaire;

• Quote from The spy who came in from the cold;

Time: 50'

Procedure:

1. write and act an interview with the writer (10');

2. Questionnaire (pair work awareness) on trust and betrayal (10');

3. Analysis of the extract from The spy who came in from the cold (30');

Extension activity:

Find two or more definitions of “Communism” and “Capitalism”, compare the two terms

commenting on Le Carre's statement:

"What would your famous master spy say about the current state of affairs?

Well, first of all Smiley would be very dead by now. And if not, he would say “We have

dealt with Communism, now we have to deal with Capitalism." (adapted from

www.johnlecarre.com)

1. Interview sample product:

Today, we spend some time with world-renowned British novelist John le Carré, the pen name of David Cornwell. Le Carré’s writing career spans half a century, during which he

established himself as a master spy writer.

Reporter: "Welcome to Literature. Now, David Cornwell, where does the pen name John le Carré come from?

JOHN LE CARRÉ: Well, I’ve told a lot of lies about that in my time, I have to confess. I

began writing when I was still in the British Foreign Service, and it was then understood

that even if you wrote about butterfly collecting, you used another name. So the fact that I

was in a secret department does not play a part. Then, I think I decided that I needed three

pieces to a name. Then the word carré in French has a bunch of ambiguous meanings: I

think an homme carré is a little bit a dubious guy. That seemed to me to suit me perfectly

at that time.

Reporter: How did your former job in the British Foreign Service inspire your novel?

JOHN LE CARRÉ : I worked in the British Secret Services from the late '50s to the early ’60s, at the height of the Cold War.

R: The relationship with your father has been another source of inspiration, hasn't it?

JOHN LE CARRÉ: My father, Ronnie, made and lost his fortune a number of times due to elaborate confidence tricks and schemes which landed him in prison. This was one of the factors that led my fascination with secrets.

R: Your gritty depiction of the realities of the spy world contrasted sharply with the characters in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series, how's that?

JOHN LE CARRÉ : With the Bond type of novel, the reader thinks “I wish I was him”. With the stuff I'm writing, they think “I hope I'm not him!”

R: You've represented a pessimistic view of human relationships and morality…

JOHN LE CARRÉ : My books are about the peculiar tension between institutional loyalty and loyalty to one's self. Do you know what love is? I'll tell you: it is whatever you can still betray.

2. Trust Questionnaire sample product:

Respond to the statements below to the best of your ability.

Agree (Y) or disagree (N). Then discuss in pairs possible disagreement.

1. I believe that most people are basically good.

2. I tend to trust people.

3. I forgive too easily and trust people that I shouldn't.

4. Trust issues have been a serious issue in my relationships to friends.

5. I can respect people although I do not trust them.

6. My difficulty trusting has led me to try to control others.

7. Learning to trust is one of life's most difficult tasks.

8. Trust yourself, then you will know how to live.

9. You are usually betrayed by those you love most.

3. Extract

Read the passage on your own. In pairs, underline keywords (6 maximum) which will help you imagine the situation. Create a context and explain the meaning of the words you have underlined. Share the results in class with your mates.

" 'Thus we do disagreeable things, but we are defensive. That I think, is still fair. We do disagreeable things so that ordinary people here and elsewhere can sleep safely in their beds at night. Is that too romantic? Of course, we occasionally do very wicked things.' He grinned like a schoolboy. 'And in weighing up the moralities, we rather go in for dishonest comparisons; after all, you can't compare the ideals of one side with the methods of the other, can you now?"' (John le Carrè, The man who came in from the cold, Chapter 2)