Songs of Innocence and of Experience Project (4º ESO)

One of my favourite works of literature is William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Published in 1789 (Songs of Innocence) and 1794 (Songs of Experience), in the middle of a buzzing period to say the least (the French Revolution, the conflict with the American ex-colonies, the Englightenment, and more importantly for this particular project, the industrial revolution), these poems encapsulate the duplicity of progress, society, human relationships and many other issues which, over 200 years later, are still relevant.

As usual, I made a presentation to show my students:



Although all of them knew about the industrial revolution, as they had recently covered it in History (this is the beauty of inter-disciplinary topics!), none of them had heard of Blake and only a few of them had considered the artistic output inspired by it.

Connecting the 18th Century social issues with the 21st Century was a bit of a revelation for part of the class and triggered a fruitful, improvised class discussion on the effects our lifestyles are having on developing countries. My aim was to focus the issues on childhood, and the impact that adult decisions and actions have on children.

Although writing creatively isn't always received positively by students (most of them wanted to make a short film about this), because of time constraints, it is often the most sensible option. The visual part of this project, in the end, had to be abandoned because of the same reason; if I do this project again, I will certainly try to involve both the History and the Art teachers to fulfil its potential.

You can read the students' stories clicking on the Stories at Base blog.

Thanks for reading this post!

Maite

Year Zero (2º ESO)

Making students question their reality is part of their education if we want them to grow into critical thinkers. This doesn't mean making them question everything just for the sake of it. It means making them aware that there are other ways of doing things apart from the mainstream way, and that there may be a lot of valid reasons for doing so.

Usually, debates are productive class activities to encourage students to consider different points of view. However, I wanted students to produce some individual work this time, and I created the following activity, which I called Year Zero. You can have a look at the presentation here:



I showed my students the excellent 12,017 In a Nutshell video, in which the authors argue that using our current calendar is misleading and gives a distorted vision of History. If you haven't watched it, I recommend it, as I would many other videos in the same channel. My point was that our calendar is just one of our cultural conventions, and that conventions can be changed if there is a strong enough reason for it.

My students, then, were given the challenge to choose an alternative 'year 0' from any point in history. They had to explain why they had chosen it and the advantages of using it as the starting point in history. The aim was to make a 1-minute long video using Spark Video or Shadow Puppet Edu explaining their choice.

The students had to write their script and then, after arranging the pictures they wanted to use in their video in the correct order, they recorded their voices over the pictures. To ensure sound quality, I asked them to do this part at home.

The assessment was done by rubric, taking into account (1) Grammar and vocabulary, (2) Pronunciation and intonation, (3) Correspondence between images and text, (4) Originality and creativity.

The final part of the activity would have been to show all the videos in class and to have a vote for the best videos. Because of time constraints, we never did it- maybe next time!

With an activity like this, students develop their cultural awareness, their digital competence and their communicative competence--first, by reading information on a topic; secondly, by writing a script; and finally, by reading it out loud while recording it over a video. They also develop their critical thinking skills.

This activity definitely took a lot of my students out of their comfort zones!

Thanks for popping in!

Maite

A Christmas Carol (1º ESO)

Who doesn't like Charles Dickens? There's no doubt of Dickens's significant contribution to world literature, or of the effects some of his works had on popular culture even today. His works are still relevant, still alive, still connect with audiences far and wide, and that is why I thought it was a good idea to get to know him and his works in a little bit of detail.

Not long before Christmas, I asked my 1º ESO students to research the figure of Dickens, as we were going to read an abridged version of A Christmas Carol.




It is important for learners of English to read authentic material, even if it may have simplified language, written for younger native speakers. It gives them a sense of accomplishment, it makes them realise the usefulness of their learning and it also pushes them out of their comfort zone, which usually is to conduct research in their own language and then translate it into English (with varying degrees of success... ).

Their posters were interesting, although some of students limited themselves to copying and pasting text and pictures. The students had to present their posters to the rest of the class, drawing attention to the facts that had surprised them the most.

After reading the simplified version of the story and doing some comprehension activities about it, the students had to design infographs on each of the characters. They also had to present these posters to the rest of the class. 

I used a rubric to assess the students: 

We rounded up this activity watching the 2009 film version directed by Robert Zemeckis. 

In an activity like this, students develop their reading and speaking skills, their digital competence, their cultural awareness and expression, and since they have to work as part of groups, they also develop their social and civic competence and their teamworking skills. It was a great activity which the students really enjoyed. 

Thanks for popping in!

Edgar Allan Poe: Short Stories (1º ESO)

The master of horror, the father of detective fiction, the main contributor to the obscure and the macabre... Halloween wouldn't have been completed without  Poe. Last year, I got my Advanced students to read The Raven collaboratively. Because of technological glitches, I haven't been able to upload the recording anywhere... so this time I approached the task differently.

It was my 1º ESO students this time. First, we had a look at the following presentation, which I created specifically for this project:




The students were given a calendar to help them plan their work:


Then, we split the class into two groups, and having a close look at the (adapted) text of the two stories, the students began to unleash the performers within and finally... we made two recordings, added pictures and... voilà!

The project was complete.

In a task like this, students learn about literature, read a creative story, practice pronunciation and intonation, and develop their digital competence by putting together an audiovisual product. They also work as part of a team and develop collaborative working skills.

The assessment was done by using this rubric:




As expected, this project involved quite a lot of hard work, but the students really enjoyed it.

Thanks for popping in! See you next time!

Halloween Stories (4º ESO)

Hi all,

This is a bit of a tradition for me now, since it's the third year I have done this activity. As usual, I introduced the topic of Halloween and launched the creative writing task in my 4º of ESO class, which this year are working towards a C1 level. They're a really strong class, with plenty of creativity and language skills to match.

The stories have been published in Stories at Base blog, and you can enjoy them by clicking on the link.

Enjoy!

Maite

Better late than never

Before you even know it, it's been the whole school year and you haven't updated your blog.

This is what's happened to me this year. Distractions, a busier school schedule and other commitments have stopped me from keeping this blog active. Anyway, enough self-deprecation and procrastination.

In the next entries I shall share some of the work my students have done this year. Don't be surprised to see Halloween and Christmas in the month of May, though.

Enjoy!