SP08B "The Wave" discussion week 21

Welcome to join us, Collège Albert Camus, in our discussion about the book The Wave we are reading at the moment.

I would like you all to add a comment here below. SP08B, you are now approximately half way through the book. I would like to read your individual comments on:

- 2 scenes you have reacted on. Describe them, analyse them and compare them to yourself/society today/ your school/ another book / a film etc.

I and Dominique look forward to reading your texts.

English A - SP08B - week 20

Lamb To The Slaughter - short modern school versions

Welcome Collège Albert Camus and SP08B to share our video including 4 versions of Lamb To The Slaughter. We were 6 groups, but when the last 2 were about to perform their versions the video camera broke down. We were lucky to get these four. The quality is unfortunately quite bad due to the camera giving up.

Before writing and performing our plays we read the text and discussed it. We wrote comments on the French weblog and answered questions.

We have after that moved on to the film "Billy Elliot", watching, discussing and writing.

Today we started reading "The Wave". Discussion on French Weblog and/or here.

Novel reading SP08B - BF08

Morton Rhue (Todd Strasser) "The Wave"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_(book)

- The English Wikpedia site on the book

http://www.thewave.tk/

- "This page is set up to document the many different appearances of 'The Wave'."

Many links. You can also watch the movie, buy it and the book.

Links to the new German film at the cinemas in December 2008. Look out for it!

Teaching resources as well.

http://www.ronjoneswriter.com/

- the website of the American writer Ron Jones who, in 1967, was the teacher creating the experiment of The Wave at a high school in Palo Alto, California.

http://www.welle.film.de/

- the official website of the German film "Die Welle" of 2008.

Novel reading SP08B - BF08

Margaret Bechard "Hanging on to Max"

http://biography.jrank.org/pages/1840/Bechard-Margaret-1953.html

- a biography of the author

http://www.answers.com/topic/margaret-bechard

- learn who Margaret Bechard is and what she has written

Novel reading SP08B - BF08

Mark Haddon "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time"

http://www.markhaddon.com/

- official website of the author

A wonderful site where you can spend a lot of time. Go to Virtual tour and click on Other stuff and Mark Haddon. Also check LIFE and the Links. At the link for the novel the first lines are read by a young boy. Do go here and listen!

SP3A Novel reading weeks 45-48

Useful links:

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-lecture.html

- read and listen to Toni Morrison's Nobel lecture at this site of the Nobel prize foundation.

http://www.tonimorrisonsociety.org/

- the Toni Morrison Society. Go to Resources and read the Newsletter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison

- the Wikipedia site on Toni Morrison, where you also can click to read more about the novels.

http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/morrison_toni.html

- the Toni Morrison site of the University of Minnesota

http://www.visionaryproject.org/

- the wonderful site of the National Visionary Leadership Project!

Video-clips and interviews. Highly interesting teaching resources.

SP3A Novel reading weeks 45-48

Useful links:

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Plath

- the Wikipedia site on Sylvia Plath

http://www.sylviaplath.de/

- thorough homepage on Sylvia Plath run by Anja Beckmann, Ulm, Germany

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/11

- the site of the Academy of American Poets, where, as a teacher, I find excellent ideas for teaching and lesson plans by clicking "For Educators", top right. Fine site.

SP3A Novel reading weeks 45-48

Useful links for your reading:

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Salinger

- the Wikipedia site on J D Salinger. Also go to the site on the novel.

http://www.salinger.org/

- a fan-site

http://www.wix.com/curlefry/citr

- a multi-media site by Hitesh Patel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Copperfield_(novel)

- the Wikipedia text on the novel "David Copperfield"

SP3A Novel reading weeks 45-48

Useful links

The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing

http://www.dorislessing.org/

- the most official website

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Lessing

- Wikipedia on Doris Lessing with related links

http://www.discussing-books.com/?p=154

- a blog where it is possible to discuss all kinds of books, just click the list with names of writers. By clicking this address you arrive directly to an interesting discussion about The Fifth Child.

SP3A Novel reading weeks 45-48

Useful links to support your reading

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

References in The Collector to The Tempest by William Shakespeare through Miranda, Caliban and Ferdinand.

Robinson Crusoe is also connected to The Tempest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tempest_(play

http://www.mccarter.org/Education/tempest/index.html

SP3A Novel reading weeks 45-48

Useful links connected to your novels

The Collector by John Fowles

We find themes of loneliness, power, human behaviour and the need for love. Describe them and also where you find their opposites in the novel.

http://www.fowlesbooks.com/ - The official web site of the author

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fowles - Wikipedia on John Fowles including related links at the end.

SP3A Novel reading weeks 45-48

Useful links connected to your novels

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe

Read about the novel at Wikipedia, in particular read the text under Colonial. You also have related links at the end including full length text and a link to LibriVox where you can listen to the text.

Chasing Crusoe - http://www.rcrusoe.org/

Multimedia-site where you click around to learn about facts and fiction in the story. Interesting and very well done in certain aspects, but no analysis and almost nothing about Friday. How is this possible in 2008? What do you think?

Chasing Crusoe was produced by students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Universidad de Los Andes, Facultad de Comunicación

SP2B week 38-39

"About a Boy" - Nick Hornby

* Watch the film "About a Boy" based on the novel with the same name by Nick Hornby. The film both begins and ends with the famous phrase "No Man is an Island" and is a modern illustration of John Donne's (1572-1631) Renaissance poem "Meditation XVII".

* Discuss in groups the questions about the film handed out

* Go to the site of The British Council - Arts - Literature - Contemporary writers and read about Nick Hornby

http://www.contemporarywriters.com/

* Go to the site of Indiana State University to understand the origins of the famous phrase and see an example of how modern texts are interconnected with classical ones. There are explanations to the text and it is also possible to listen to the poem.

http://isu.indstate.edu/ilnprof/ENG451/ISLAND/

* Analyze the lyrics, watch the video and sing the song by Simon and Garfunkel " I am a Rock"

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=My9I8q-iJCI



* Write at least 1/2 a page and not more than one page of reflections where you show
how the film illustrates
- the isolation vs. the interconnectedness that John Donne refers to in his poem
- the part from the same poem, "...for whom the bell tolls..."

* Send your text to my e-mail-address at school