III Media - Jim Crow Personal Narratives

Hi Class!

I really appreciated your attention and participation during yesterday's lesson.

For homework, I would like you to choose a personal narrative from the Jim Crow era, read it carefully, define any words you do not know and write a seven sentence summary of the person's experience.

Please do this for next Wednesday.

Thanks!

Prof. Aldigé

II Liceo - Exam Preparation

In preparation for your exam tomorrow, I've posted some links to the videos we watched (or that you watched for homework) over the course of our unit.

• Here's John Green's explanation of the conflict in Ukraine.
• Here's John Green's crash course on The Cold War.
• Here's the documentary we watched on the Afghanistan War. 

II Liceo - Israeli Palestinian Conflict Reading

Here are some articles that will be helpful in understanding a bit of the history and context of this ongoing conflict.

BBC Israel Profile
BBC Palestinian Territories Profile
BBC Hamas Palestinian Movement Profile

II Liceo - Grammar HW

For tomorrow, please complete 2-5 for homework.

II Liceo - FCE resource

Here's a great list of phrases you can use for the report section of your FCE exam.

III Media - Invictus Discussion guide

1. What did Nelson Mandela risk by promoting reconciliation (forgiveness) between black and white South Africans after he was elected president?

2. How would you describe the relationships among Mandela’s security guards as the story progresses?

3. Why did Mandela take risks to bring all the citizens of South Africa together?

4. Describe the relationship between Mandela and Pienaar?

5. Do both characters gain from this relationship?

6. Matt Damon’s character, Francois Pienaar, took many of his own risks after first meeting Mandela. What were they and what was his motivation?

7. What scenes stand out as pivotal to the development of Pienaar as he struggles with the many challenges he faces? What is revealed about Pienaar through these scenes?

8. How do different groups in South Africa begin to come together as the movie proceeds?

9. See the poem “Invictus” on page 2.  How does this poem relate to the movie? Why do you think it was used as the title for the movie?

10. The poem talks about an individual facing challenges, and yet the movie is about individuals working together, eventually in solidarity. Is there a contradiction between individualism and the common good?

11. Fifteen years after the events in this film, South Africa faces many problems, including great poverty; centuries of injustices have left their mark on this nation. Is there a value of celebrating the potential of South Africa through a film such as Invictus at this later date, with so many challenges remaining for this African nation?

12. Do you believe that art, such as poetry and film, and sport, such as rugby and soccer, can have a role in the ongoing work of justice and peace?  Why or why not?

13. Mandela says: If we remove the rugby team, “we prove that we are who they feared we would be.”  What does he mean in this statement?

 
 

14. What was the point of the team’s trip to Robben Island to see the prison where Mandela was held?

15. In 1969, three years after arriving on Robben Island to serve a life sentence for sabotage, Nelson Mandela’s eldest son, died in a car crash. Prison authorities refused to allow Mandela to attend the funeral. After 27 years in prison, how is it possible to not only forgive your captors, but to seek reconciliation with the white population and the apartheid leaders?

16.  What did François Pienaar, the captain of the Springboks rugby team, learn from Nelson Mandela?

17.  What was the significance of Mandela wearing the green and gold jersey and matching cap of the Springbok rugby at the end of the film? Why was it so important to his strategy?

18.  In what ways did watching the movie Invictus impact you as a person?   

           

III Liceo - Merchant of Venice Spring Break Project

Project for Merchant of Venice

Choose one of the following options.  Complete your project for Wednesday, April 30th. 

 

1.      Using lines from the play to “hook” a potential audience, create a film trailer for a new film adaptation of The Merchant of Venice.

a.       Your video must be 3-5 minutes.  Try to include as much imagery as possible.

b.      You are free to be creative with this.  Either you, yourself (or your friends) can interpret the characters, or you can use images/video from the web to create your trailer.

c.       You must choose music you feel is appropriate to the tone and theme of your trailer.

 

 

2.      Create a casting director’s book. For each of the characters in The Merchant of Venice, develop a description of each character, qualities an actor needs to portray that character, and potential actors for the role and their acting credits. For each of the potential actors, write a rationale citing reasons that actor would be the best for that role.

a.       Please create a mini-book in which you dedicate a single page to each character.  The page must contain the following.

                                                              i.      An image of the actor.

                                                            ii.      Their acting credits (most important films they have been in, 2-3)

                                                          iii.      A brief description (2-3 sentences) of the character they are assigned for the play.

                                                          iv.      Your rationale for why you, as the director, feel these actors would be best for the roles. (4-5 sentences for each character/actor)

 

*You must prepare a 5-7 minute presentation that introduces your project and explains it.

*Imagery counts a great deal for this project, so try to make your projects as visually engaging and organized as possible.

III Media - Reported Speech HW

Please complete ALL the exercises you find at the bottom of this page for Friday.

III Liceo - Grammar HW for Friday

Here you go! Please complete numbers 7-12.

Also, read to the end of Act III of Merchant of Venice.

II Liceo - IPCC reports things are bad

The headlining article this morning reinforces the importance of what we learned in our unit on climate change.  Please read this article for Wednesday.

III Media - Grammar Homework

Grammar Homework for this week

Tuesday: English Page Ex. 1+2
Thursday: English Page Ex. 3+4+5+6
Friday: English Page Ex. 14+15

*Please copy down the corrections of any mistakes you make.

*Also, copy down your score at the end of each exercise.

II Liceo - FCE Listening Practice

Here you go!

III Media - Margot's last letter to Anne

For Friday, April 4th, please read from pages 180-200 and complete the mini-project below.

On page 185, Anne responds to Margot's latest (and last) letter.  Pretend that you are Margot.  Use all the information you know about her character to write your "last" letter to Anne.
- Respond to Anne's letter.
- Tell her everything you are feeling.
- Confide in her your fears and desires.
- Please use the format you see in your book.
- Write your response in clear paragraphs.
- 350 words

III Media - Exam Prep

1. Global Citizenship: class handout
2. Global Citizenship: PowerPoint
3. United Nations Declaration of Human Rights: Plain language version
4. To Educate A Girl: Unit Plan with link to film and info on Nepal and Uganda
5. Gender Equality: class handout
6. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: class handout
7. UNCRC: cool chart with child rights, which is on our wall
8. Globalization and Distribution of Wealth: Article 1 and Article 2
9. The United Nations: history + purpose

III Media - Geography Homework

Please define the following words in your geography reading on Japan for April 2nd.

1. Edge (n.)
2. Slightly (adv.)
3. Rugged (adj.)
4. Steep (adj.)
5. Shrine (n.)
6. Deposit (n.)
7. Swift (adj.)
8. To Intertwine (v.)
9. To Shape (v.)
10. Blend (n.)
11. Enlightenment (n.)
12. Dense (adj.)
13. Scarce (adj.)
14. Network (n.)
15. Arable (adj.)

III Media - Homework for Monday March 29th

You are about to embark on an adventure travelling across Italy! I would like you to write a 300 word letter to your friend, Johnny, who just got back from his school trip to London. He had a really good time with his schoolmates and he learned a lot about English history. He wrote you a letter last week asking you what kinds of things you did on your fieldtrip. " Did you have fun? What was your favorite part of the trip?" 

Please write carefully as this WILL BE COLLECTED FOR A GRADE.

Have a wonderful time and I'll see you next week! 

III Liceo - Reading Assignment for Monday

Please finish the article we began reading in class.  Prepare an oral response on the following question:

How did the article Shylock and History change yiour perception of the character of Shylock?

II Liceo - Geography, Chasing Ice

Your assignment for Wednesday is to read the first half of the this article. (You will need to sign up to NGM's site.  Don't worry, it's free!)

I'd like you to develop three thoughtful questions you have in response to your reading.

Also, translate any words you don't know!

Happy reading.

III Media - Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi

Here are some of the sites we used during our geography class last week:

1. Gandhi's story. You should begin to read over and study this site.

2. Gandhi: A Life in Images PowerPoint.

III Liceo - All That Glisters Is Not Gold

Read the following Wikipedia excerpt to gain a better understanding of the origin of Shakespeare's phrase: "All that glisters is not gold," which he admits "often you have heard that told." You have heard that phrase told many a time, but where. Your mini-project for Monday will be to interpret the phrase in J. R. Tolkien's, "The Riddle of Strider," and find three other examples in literature, music or art that use any variation of the phrase "all that glisters is not gold."

STEP ONE:
All that glitters is not gold is a well-known saying, meaning that not everything that looks precious or true turns out to be so. This can apply to people, places, or things that promise to be more than they really are. The expression, in various forms, originated in or before the 12th century[1] and may date back to Aesop.[2]

Chaucer gave two early versions in English: "But all thing which that schyneth as the gold / Ne is no gold, as I have herd it told," and "Hyt is not al golde that glareth."

The popular form of the expression is a derivative of a line in William Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice, which employs the word "glisters," a 17th-century synonym for "glitters." The line comes from a secondary plot of the play, the puzzle of Portia's boxes (Act II - Scene VII - Prince of Morocco):

All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs, in judgement old
Your answer had not been inscroll'd
Fare you well, your suit is cold.

STEP TWO:
J.R. Tolkien's The Riddle of Strider

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

Write your interpretation of Tolkien's poem in a paragraph. Compare and contrast it to Shakespeare's golden-casket poem.

For those of you who have read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, here is a bit of background on the poem: It appears twice in The Lord of the Rings' first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring. It appears first in Chapter Ten, "Strider", in Gandalf's letter to the hobbits in Bree, before they know that Strider (Aragorn) is the subject of the verse. It is repeated by Bilbo at the Council of Elrond. He whispers to Frodo that he wrote it many years before, when Aragorn first revealed who he was. 

But we know this isn't true ;)

STEP THREE:
Find three references to the phrase in pop culture (so, in music, literature or art). Print out your reference and summarize it in one complex sentence how the reference is used.



III Liceo - Sentence Building Sites

Here's the site we looked at last Wednesday for coordinating conjunctions.

Here's the site we've been using over the past few weeks for various types of clauses.

III Media - Best Birthday Surprise Ever!

Thank you for making this birthday especially special!

III Liceo - Homework (Merchant of Venice)

Homework for Monday: Read Act II, scenes vi, viii and ix and summarize each scene in one complex sentence. Homework for Wednesday: Review for writing test on complex sentences. Homework for Friday: Review for oral test on Elizabethan theater, the life and times of William Shakesspeare and his sonnet style.