1st BACHILLERATO

Title: The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde
Year/s: 1st Bachillerato
Proposed by: Elena Tsymbal

The main objective of this lesson is  to deepen their previously acquired knowledge of the language and develop their communicative competence through the use of different strategies, together with their linguistic and functional skills in the appropriate context, establishing a balance between form (vocabulary and grammar) and function (use).

It is also aimed at the development of the students’ personality and their social integration, supporting a self-motivating spirit with attitudes of creativity, flexibility, initiative, teamwork, self-confidence and a critical self-awareness.

Click here to access to the activity.

 

 The introductory lessons are ideal for giving students sufficient knowledge regarding the cultural and social setting of the novel and Wilde’s importance as a literary figure.

Title: “My papa’s waltz” by Theodore Roethke
Year/s: 1st Bachillerato
Proposed by: Mª Victoria de Lera

Literature is authentic material that makes students become more motivated since they can directly link it to their own real lives or travel to foreign countries and fantastic worlds.  It also improves students´ language learning. 

Teachers should use literature as a powerful and useful tool to learn English but the teacher must take responsibility in using different and motivating techniques to integrate literary works within language teaching. However, not only is the use of persuasive methodology relevant but the choice of the right material is also essential in order to keep pupils engaged.

“My papa’s waltz” by Theodore Roethke

The whiskey on your breath

 Could make a small boy dizzy;

But I hung on like death;

Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans

Slid from the kitchen shelf;

My mother’s countenance

Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist

Was battered on one knuckle;

 At every step you missed

My right ear scraped a buckle.

 You beat time on my head

With a palm caked hard by dirt,

Then waltzed me off to bed

Still clinging to your shirt.

 First, students number off in groups of four. Then, after  the poem has been read aloud in class, I ask my students to make two columns on a piece of paper with the headings “positive” and “negative”; the aim is that they have  to  fill in the columns with words from the poem. I give them thinking time to complete the assigned task. 

Then, by means of the cooperative learning strategy “Numbered Heads” designed by Kagan (2004), students stand up and “put their heads together” to show their answers and discuss. Finally, I call a number and the ones with the number respond using choral response. The columns are then discussed and should reveal the ambivalence of words like ‘beat’, ‘battered’. The students consider whether the father in the poem is ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

Another activity that can be related to the poem is to ask our students to improvise a conversation between the child in the poem and his mother, or between the father and mother. This usually reveals assumptions about the relationships which are implicit in the poem.

Webgraphy:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2307/3586905

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43330/my-papas-waltz

https://youtu.be/3yurYXtkbwU  "My Papa's Waltz", by  Theodore Roethke poem             recited by the poet himself (he uses a "waltz" rhythm when reciting!).

A poem where we can access a recorded version of the poet reading it (especially using an interesting rhythm!) is a wonderful resource. 

Title: Little Red Riding Hood, by Roald Dahl
Year/s: 1st Bachillerato
Proposed by: Luis Muñoz

Onomatopoeic words

What or who does the following? Listen to each sound and put the correct number (17).

Bangs (  ) Blares (  ) Chimes (  ) Clicks (   ) Crackles (   ) Creaks (   ) Crunches (   ) Gasps (   ) Groans (   )

Howls (   ) Plops (   ) Roars (   ) Shrieks (   ) Squeaks (   ) Squelches (   ) Taps (   ) Thumps (   )

Now, choose the right word for those provided in this passage with one (or two, but not three words) from the previous exercise.

She crept quietly down the stairs and along the hall. The floor boards (a) squeaked/ crunched/ creaked and the heart (b) tapped/ thumped/ groaned inside her chest. However, the television was (c) roaring/ blaring/ shrieking in the living room, so they didn’t hear her. She reached the front door. As usual, it was locked. She turned the old iron key, and the lock (d) tapped/ clicked/ crunched back. As she opened the door, a sudden gust of wind blew it back against the wall with a (e) gasp/ plop/ bang. She (f) gasped/ groaned/ shrieked with fear, and waited to hear her father’s angry voice. Seconds passed, and still only the (g) howls/ shrieks/ blares of laughter came from the Saturday night quiz show they were watching. She hurried out into the stormy night. The mighty wind (h) crackled/ roared/ howled through the trees, causing the branches to (i) groan/ creak/ tap. It had only just stopped raining, and her feet (j) squelched/ crunched/ plopped in the mud as she ran across the lawn and out of the gate at the back of the house. Now the heels of her shoes (k) clicked/ thumped/ tapped even more quickly along the pavement. She felt her sense of freedom growing. The church clock (l) blared/ tapped/ chimed eleven o’clock. In a few more minutes she would be in her lover’s arms, and they would journey into the future together!

 Use these ideas and expressions to write/ tell a similar story that contains onomatopoeic words.

Click here to download the rest of the activity.

 Considering the age of the students you could further develop these stories by turning them into short plays using the 2.0 tools to make comics (see Drama page for info about these tools).

Title: The Veldt, by Ray Bradbury
Year/s: 1st Bachillerato (students coming from Bilingual program)
Cross-curricular links: Ethics- Are we giving too much attention to technology?

Proposed by: Clara López Colado

Click here to download the short story by Ray Bradbury.

ACTIVITIES

1.     Comprehension questions

·       What information can you elicit from the title?

·       Enumerate the different activities that the house made for them.

·       When did George change his mind about the nursery? Why?

·       Why do you think they blinked at George and not at their mother?

·       What did you expect when the boy threatened his father?

·       What does the author imply about the children’s personality?

2.     Let’s analyse the text

·       What is the plot of the story? ( When, where, who, what) Try to summarise the story in no more than 300 words.

·       Analyse the setting of the story, the house and also the African scenery.

·       Analyse the personality of the characters, their main flaws that led the story to its denouement.

·       What is in your opinion the main theme of the story?

·       What kind of text is it?

3.     Work on literary descriptions

The lions were coming. And again George Hadley was filled with admiration for the mechanical genius who had conceived this room. A miracle of efficiency selling for an absurdly low price. Every home should have one. Oh, occasionally they frightened you with their clinical accuracy, they startled you, gave you a twinge, but most of the time what fun for everyone, not only your own son and daughter, but for yourself when you felt like a quick jaunt to a foreign land, a quick change of scenery. Well, here it was! 

And here were the lions now, fifteen feet away, so real, so feverishly and startlingly real that you could feel the prickling fur on your hand, and your mouth was stuffed with the dusty upholstery smell of their heated pelts, and the yellow of them was in your eyes like the yellow of an exquisite French tapestry, the yellows of lions and summer grass, and the sound of the matted lion lungs exhaling on the silent noontide, and the smell of meat from the panting, dripping mouths. 

·       Now the students work on this description trying to simplify it as much as possible as a way of helping them to realise how a literary description creates an image.

·       After that they are going to write a “literary” description of a place ( forest, desert, jungle…) in groups of 4 and they are going to read them to their partners to check if they recognize the place that is being described.

4.     Students engage in a discussion about the role of technology in our lives. After that, as homework, they are going to be asked to write an essay on the topic.

  This great short story it's really engaging and should provoke an interesting debate about the role of technology in our lives – something that all teens can easily relate to. The language in the story may be difficult at times for some but a strong group or a billingual class shouldn’t have too much of a problem. 

Title: A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness
Year/s: 1st Bachillerato (students coming from Bilingual program)
Proposed by: Encarna Hernández

ACTIVITY 1: YOU ARE GOING TO LISTEN TO A SHORT EXCERPT FROM “A MONSTER CALLS” BY PATRICK NESS.

“A monster calls” BBC Reading:        https://archive.org/details/AMonsterCallsByPatrickNess

Vocabulary you need to know: 

·        Yew tree

·        Graveyard

·        Berries

·        Poisonous

·        Whisper

OPEN QUESTIONS:

1.      What characters are mentioned in the text?

2.       What do you think is the relationship between the three characters: the yew tree, Conor and his mother?

3.      Do you notice any changes in the mother’s reaction to the yew tree?

4.      What colours can you “see” while listening to the text?: (think about the colour of the yew tree, the graveyard, the stone, the church….) And what do you think this means?

5.      Who do you think is whispering his name…..Conor….?

Short EXCERPT FROM “A MONSTER CALLS” BY PATRICK NESS (read aloud to the students)

“Conor could also see the great yew tree that rose from the centre of the graveyard, a tree so ancient it almost seemed to be made of the same stone as the church. He only knew it was a yew because his mother had told him, first when he was little to make sure he didn´t eat the berries, which were poisonous, and again this past year, when she´d started staring out of their kitchen window with a funny look on her face and saying: “That´s a yew tree, you know”.

And then, he heard his name again.

Conor…..

Like it was being whispered in both his ears.”

ACTIVITY 2:  LOOK AT THE LIST OF VOCABULARY BELOW. PAY ATTENTION TO THE MEANING OF ALL THE WORDS (VERBS, NOUNS) AND EXPRESS YOUR FEELINGS WHEN SEEING THEM ALL.

cracking n	(snapping of a whip)	chasquido nm
groan⇒ vi			gemir⇒ vi
rush⇒		md)	correr⇒ vi
creaking n thump [sb]⇒vtr growl⇒ vi whoosh n (rushing sound) billow⇒ vi FEELINGS:		(board, metal: sq)	chirrido nm golpear⇒ vtr gruñir⇒ vi silbido nm zumbido nm hincharse⇒ v prnl inflarse⇒ v prnl

ACTIVITY 3: YOU ARE GIVEN ANOTHER EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK. COMPLETE THE BLANKS WITH THE CORRECT FORM OF THE WORDS YOU HAVE LEARNT BEFORE. (PAY ATTENTION TO THEIR CATEGORIES, THAT IS, VERBS OR NOUNS).

“What?”, Conor said, his heart……………., suddenly impatient for whatever was going to happen.

A cloud moved in front of the moon, covering the whole landscape in darkness, and a ………….of wind ……………down the hill and into his room, ……………..the curtains. He heard the …………….and …………….of wood again, ……………….like a living thing, like the hungry stomach of the world ……………..for a meal.

Then the cloud passed, and the moon shone again.

On the yew tree.

Which now stood firmly in the middle of his back garden.

And here was the monster.

HERE THEY CAN SEE THE WHOLE EXCERPT:

“What?”, Conor said, his heart thumping, suddenly impatient for whatever was going to happen.

A cloud moved in front of the moon, covering the whole landscape in darkness, and a whoosh of wind rushed down the hill and into his room, billowing the curtains. He heard the creaking and cracking of wood again, groaning like a living thing, like the hungry stomach of the world growling for a meal.

Then the cloud passed, and the moon shone again.

On the yew tree.

Which now stood firmly in the middle of his back garden.

And here was the monster.

ACTIVITY 4: WE KNOW NOW WHO IS CALLING CONOR´S NAME IS THE MONSTER, THE YEW TREE. CONOR´S MOTHER IS DYING OF CANCER. HE KNOWS THAT, BUT PRETENDS THIS IS NOT HAPPENING.

COULD YOU GUESS WHAT THE MONSTER IS TRYING TO SAY TO CONOR AND WHY IT TRIES TO THREATEN HIM????

WRITE YOUR IDEAS[ .

ACTIVITY 5:  NOW, YOU WILL DISCOVER THE REAL PURPOSE OF THE MONSTER. LISTEN CAREFULLY TO THE END OF THE STORY.

“She opened her eyes, briefly, catching him there. Then she closed them again.

               But she'd seen him.

And he knew it was here. He knew there really was no going back. That it was going to happen, whatever he wanted, whatever he felt.

And he also knew he was going to get through it. It would be terrible. It would be beyond terrible. But he´d survive.

And it was for this that the monster came. It must have been. Conor had needed it and his need had somehow called it. And it had come walking. Just for this moment.

               “You´ll stay?”, Conor whispered to the monster, barely able to speak. “You'll stay until…..”

               “I will stay”, the monster said, its hands still on Connor´s shoulders. “Now all you have to do is speak the truth”

               And so Connor did.

               He took in a breath.

               And, at last, he spoke the final and total truth.

“I don't want you to go”, he said, the tears dropping from his eyes, slowly at first, then spilling like a river.

“I know, my love”, his mother said, in her heavy voice. “I know”.

He could feel the monster, holding him up and letting him stand there.

“I don't want you to go”, he said again.

And that was all he needed to say.

Connor held tightly onto his mother.

And by doing so, he could finally let her go.

ACTIVITY 6: WRITING.

WRITE A NARRATIVE WHERE YOU DESCRIBE WHO OR WHAT YOUR MONSTERS ARE AND WHY THEY FRIGHTEN YOU. 

(USE THE WORDS YOU HAVE LEARNED THROUGH THE ACTIVITY , AND SOME OF THE ADJECTIVES YOU CAN FIND BELOW TO DESCRIBE THE DIFFERENT STATES OF FEAR YOU SOMETIMES FEEL).

Consider the following when planning this activity:

• Would students  at any point be expected to read further parts or chapters of the novel itself or would they solely be exposed to the two extracts dealt with here?
• In terms of the vocabulary exercises, you could also explore the effect of using such vocabulary on the reader rather than focus solely on feelings. This could be useful when students go to write their own narratives. 

Title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Year/s: 1st Bachillerato 
Proposed by: Isaac Nebot
Attachements:
Click here to listen to the audio
Click here or on the image to download the planning.

Click here to get the handout.

The activities outlined here will  help break the text down into manageable segments. It would prove to be a very enjoyable lesson for students and they would be quite surprised when they listen to the audio solution. Consider if  students who are able to engage with literature on this level could be able to produce a longer piece of creative writing (at least 120-160 words).

Title: The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Year/s: 1st Bachillerato 

Proposed by: Julia López

Download the activity here.

1.     Description	This activity is based on the idea of using unabridged literary texts in the English class. This lesson plan is devised for students of Bachillerato and it should take one session (approximately 50 minutes) to complete.
2.     Objectives	·  To develop their reading and writing skills. ·  To give students practice in analyzing a text. ·  To improve student’s critical thinking.
3.     Set up	v  First, students will analyze the format of the text, and they will make predictions about its content taking into account that it was written almost three decades ago. v  Then, they will read the letter and they will answer the questions in pairs. v  After discussing the text, they will write a short letter describing how they felt their first day in Bachillerato. v  Finally, they will watch the trailer of the film version of the book.

 Both the topic and content are appropriate for teenagers and they can really engage with and understand quite easily. The language is straightforward and they should all be easily able to locate it within a U.S. setting.

As an assessment idea – you could ask them to write a similar diary-style letter that describes their first day in Bachillerato after they have reflected on the same.

Title: The Selfish Giant, by Oscar Wilde

Year/s: 1st Bachillerato. This is a really interesting story from which you can extract many different readings. The language of the story is straightforward and could even be used with a younger class, depending on their level of English.

Proposed by: Miguel Herrero

  The year / course it is aimed at: 1st Bachillerato (17 year old students). Most of them have been in a bilingual class the previous year. Their level is medium-high.

  Description of the activities:

1.     The first activity I have designed would be a listening activity in which they can listen to the whole story and then do a kind of gap-filling exercise. I can read the text myself or go directly to youtube ( https://youtu.be/CZmvaj05xekand ) and get the students to listen to it. Once they have listened to it, they can go on finding and filling the blank spaces with the missing words. As the story itself is quite brief and simple, there is no need for these students to listen to specific parts of it. In fact, reading and listening to the whole story would be much better, not only to understand the overall meaning, but also to find the word or expression to be used in each of the blank spaces.

2.     Then, the second activity would be some comprehension questions about the text.

-        After reading the story, why do you think the Giant left? Or let? the little children play in his garden?

-        Why do you think the little boy was standing under a tree and it seemed to be winter in that part of the garden?

-        Finally, the Giant found the little boy. Is it a happy ending? Is it a sad one? Why?

3.     In third place, there would be a True / False activity in which they would have to look for evidence within the text. That is, they have to provide information from the text in each of their answers.

-        The Giant was determined to never let the children play in his garden.

-        The garden changed as the Giant changed his mind.

-        The Giant was happy living in winter conditions.

-        After watching the children play again in his garden, he ran outside to tell them to go away.

4.     Next, we can get the students to analyse the Giant’s behaviour by finishing these sentences according to the information given in the text. They have to use their own words without repeating literally from the text.

-      Snow, Frost, Hail and Wind were important for the story because…

-        The Giant was waiting for the Spring to come because…

-        The Giant changed his view of life after….

-        The Giant was looking desperately for that little child because….

5.     The fifth activity consists of different words or expressions for which they have to find a similar one within the text. The ones that I have chosen are the following.

-        Rough

-        To move around without a definite purpose

-        Stopped

-        Flowers on a tree

-        Polished or massaged

6.     The last activity designed for these students would be a written composition. They have to write (150 – 180 words) about the following topic.

-        Being selfish is one of the main problems for human beings. Do you consider yourself to be selfish? If you had a selfish friend, how would you manage to change the way he / she behaves?

  Details on any cross-curricular links:

The story itself talks about how we can change our personality to make it better. Every single activity is focused on the development of reasoning in each of the students. 

We can connect each of the comprehension questions to some other aspects of life such as the importance of friendship or the need to behave correctly with regards to social rules. The aim is for them not only to understand the story but also to recognize the importance of togetherness and social relationships.

In the same way, there are constant references within the text with regards to nature and life. The garden in itself is like a playground in which everybody can have fun and enjoy the beauty of life and friendship. Taking care of what surrounds us in terms of nature and environment can make our living easier.

This is a really interesting story from which you can extract many different readings. 

The language of the story is straightforward and could even be used with a younger class, depending on their level of English.

Depending on the group, you could focus on further readings of the story; there’s certainly an environmental (ecocritical) reading there and the ending of the story has very evident religious imagery that could also be explored. 

   Title: The Client, by John Grisham

Year/s: 1st Bachillerato. 

Proposed by: Olga Sánchez

We are going to read and analyze the first chapter of the book

Mark Sway was eleven and had been smoking occasionally for two years. A few days earlier, his eight-year-old brother, Ricky, had seen him and threatened to tell their mother unless Mark showed him how to smoke. Mark had agreed, and was now taking Ricky into the woods behind the trailer park where they lived for his fist cigarette.

Mark felt uncomfortable about teaching Ricky how to smoke. His usual role was to take care of his little brother. In fact, he felt like an 11- year- old father. He’d taught Ricky how to throw a football and ride a bike. He’d warned him against drugs and protected him from the older, more aggressive kids at school. And before their parents’ divorce two years earlier, he had protected Rick from their father, who was usually drunk and had often beaten Mark and their mother…..

1.     Who are the main characters of the book so far?

2.     What do you learn about Mark in these two paragraphs?

3.     What is his relationship to his brother like?

4.     How is their life and environment? And their family life?

5.     Imagine what is going to happen next.

6.     In pairs, act out the dialogue that follows between Mark and Ricky.

Consider the following when planning this activity:

How would you initially introduce the novel to the class? 

How would you approach reading the first chapter of the novel? 

Would it be done in various segments in class or as homework? 

   Title: Lord of the flies, by William Golding

Year/s: 1st Bachillerato. 

Proposed by: Mª del Camino Valbuena

1.   Lesson plan and activity based on a literary text

As I do not want the students to consider the novel as another compulsory book to read, I would try the students to approach to it in a different way. I would introduce the novel by talking about the writer and the Nobel prize and I’d invite them to watch the film together in two sessions. 

Once everybody has seen the movie, they choose one special scene for them; the chapter or excerpt which has appealed their attention for any reason. Then, I’d ask them to look up this scene in the novel, read it aloud and explain why he / she has chosen this particular episode.

In this way they would read as many chapters as different students had chosen, with no effort, just by listening to their classmates.

According to the different readings, different themes would appear, and these would be subject of discussion. In this discussion, with the help of the teacher and the opinion of the rest of the class, the symbolism may appear in the context of the novel, and with the help of the game.

https://jeopardylabs.com/play/lord-of-the-flies-jeopardy-game-39

    The game would help them to understand the novel, in particular the different values shown in the book such as friendship, wickedness, power, fear, evil… The game will make them think of these principles and they can start a discussion. The game may help them to focus on the characters, to clarify the plot and understand the different symbols and what these symbols stand for.

Time:

First and second classes:

-     Introduction about the writer, the Novel Prize,…and instructions about what they have to do after watching the film.

-        The film.

Third, fourth and fifth lessons:

-        Students show the chapters they have chosen and read them aloud. Then, they explain the reason for their choice.

Last class:

-        Instructions about the game.

-        During the game, we can clarify some of the concepts about symbolism.

-        Yes, I would dedícate a whole class to the game, since at the same time, as questions are appearing, you can discuss about the different symbols and the ideas of philosophers, trying to complete the gaps they may have.

You may consider the following while preparing this activity:

The game also may help with the comprehension questions because there are several questions about identifying symbolism.

Students can discuss on some philosophical aspects, standing out the ideas of Hobbes (“man is a wolf to man”), and Rousseau (“man is born pure, it is society that corrupts”), and how these aspects are shown in the book.