A blog to help secondary school students improve English. You can find mind maps, worksheets, videos and songs as well as some of the project works and activities done by the students.
Hello! My name's Liliana. I'm a teacher of English (Language and Literature) to Italian teenage stu
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Saturday, March 16, 2024
YOUNG FOREVER-SONG+ QUESTIONS
ANSWER
THE QUESTIONS
related to the song YOUNG FOREVER
1. Would you like to live forever?
2. Does money really want people live
forever?
3. Don’t we often hear of rich people
getting depressed? Give some examples and tell his/her story in 20 lines
4. Can’t life be beautiful even without
much money?
5. The singers of the song seem to say
that if you have a good time, you won’t be unhappy when you die. How does it
sound to you? Do you agree?
6. Luxury goods and ambition are a
remedy for all the bad things in today’s life. Do you agree with that statement?
7. Do you believe that such an attitude
(giving too much importance to material things)is strictly connected to being
young?
8. Is a desire for immortality a
feature only of youth?
9. Can life be hard and turn into a
thunderstorm when things go wrong even when you’re young?
10. What’s real happiness, for you?
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Who was the first to set foot in America?
QUESTIONS
- Who was Leif Eriksson?
- Who was his father?
- Which country did his father discover? What was the name that he gave to it?
- What was Leif Eriksson good at?
- After a difficult, dangerous voyage where did Leif Eriksson land?
- What was the name that he used for the new land?
- When was it quite clear that the Vikings were the first explorers to get to America?
- Where was the Norse settlement found?
- What did it prove?
- What can we find in many American cities to celebrate the Viking explorers?
- So, who was the first to set foot in America?
Saturday, March 2, 2024
To kill a mockingbird and human rights
To Kill a Mockingbird (IL BUIO OLTRE LA SIEPE), novel by
American author Harper Lee, published
in 1960. Enormously popular, it was translated into some 40 languages, sold
more than 40 million copies worldwide, and is
one of the most-assigned novels in American schools. In 1961 it won a Pulitzer Prize. The novel
was praised for its sensitive treatment of a child’s awakening to racism and prejudice in
the American South.
Plot summary
To Kill a Mockingbird takes
place in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression. The protagonist is
Jean Louise (“Scout”) Finch, an intelligent though unconventional girl who ages
from six to nine years old during the course of the novel. She is raised with
her brother, Jeremy Atticus (“Jem”), by their widowed father, Atticus Finch. He is a
prominent lawyer who encourages his children to be empathetic and just. He
notably tells them that it is “a sin to kill a mockingbird,” alluding to
the fact that the birds are innocent and harmless.
When Tom Robinson, one of the town’s Black residents, is falsely accused
of raping Mayella Ewell, a white
woman, Atticus agrees to defend him despite threats from the community. At one
point he faces a mob intent on lynching his
client but refuses to abandon him. Scout unwittingly diffuses the situation.
Although Atticus presents a defense that gives a more plausible interpretation
of the evidence—that Mayella was attacked by her father, Bob Ewell—Tom is
convicted, and he is later killed while trying to escape custody. A character
compares his death to “the senseless slaughter of songbirds,” paralleling
Atticus’s saying about the mockingbird.
The children, meanwhile, play out their own miniaturized drama of prejudice and superstition as
they become interested in Arthur (“Boo”) Radley, a
reclusive neighbour who is a local legend. They have their own ideas
about him and cannot resist the allure of trespassing on the Radley property.
Their speculations thrive on the dehumanization perpetuated by their elders.
Atticus, however, reprimands them and tries to encourage a more sensitive
attitude. Boo makes his presence felt indirectly through a series of benevolent acts,
finally intervening when Bob Ewell attacks Jem and Scout. Boo kills Ewell, but
Heck Tate, the sheriff, believes it is better to say that Ewell’s death
occurred when he fell on his own knife, sparing the shy Boo from unwanted
attention. Scout agrees, noting that to do otherwise would be “sort of like
shootin’ a mockingbird.”
Friday, March 1, 2024
HUMAN RIGHTS and THE HANDMAID'S TALE
Homework
Assignment
Research
project to investigate a contemporary human rights issue.
Students present
their findings and propose solutions, connecting the real-world issue to the
themes explored in "The Handmaid's Tale."
FIRST STEP
Do some
research on Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (UDHR). Discuss the key principles outlined in the UDHR and
relate them to the events in "The Handmaid's Tale."
Focus on
one or two of those rights
SECOND STEP
Explore and
analyze human rights issues depicted in Margaret Atwood's "The
Handmaid's Tale" and connect them to real-world human rights
concerns. Analyze the experiences of one or more characters in the book
concerning their human rights. Focus on the violation of rights,
consequences, and emotional impact.
THIRD STEP
Draw
parallels and discuss the consequences of rights violations.
FOURTH STEP
Focus on
the importance of safeguarding human rights in both literature and reality.
You can work on Google
slides or Canva.
PAY ATTENTION
1)WORK INDIVIDUALLY (8 slides)
2) CHOOSE DIFFERENT HUMAN
RIGHTS AND POSSIBLY DIFFERENT CHARACTERS
3) DON’T COPY LONG PASSAGES
(you don’t need)to be put onto your slides
To better understand what
happens in the book do some research on the Internet and watch all the videos I’ve
posted on Classroom