After reading the extract, students answer the question stated before - why Krystal is in Tessa's office. Then ask students to fill in the chart (in pairs or in small groups). Aim: to check comprehension and draw students' attention to details. The chart with possible answers is presented below. Check the task orally all together.
Таблица 10 - Информация о главной героине (ответы)
|
Evidence |
Statements from the text which prove it |
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|
Krystal didn't like school. (lines 20-23) |
Krystal frequently walked out of school when upset, angry or bored … escaped into days of truancy |
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Krystal wasn't a polite girl. (lines 27-32) |
Don't swear at me, please, Krystal (or any rude word from Krystal's speech) |
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Schoolchildren laughed at Krystal. (lines 32-35) |
They glanced through the glass pane in the door; one of them grinned at the sight of the back of Krystal's head. |
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Krystal often lied. (lines 45-49) |
… they lied, misbehaved and cheated routinely... Tessa thought she recognized this as authentic outrage, as opposed to the synthetic kind that Krystal was adept at producing. |
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Krystal was a frequent guest at Tessa's office. (lines 56-60) |
Nearly two years of gossamer-fine trust, laboriously spun between them, was stretching, on the point of tearing. |
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|
Krystal wanted to look older than she was. (lines 55-59/62-65) |
…girl's heavily pencilled eyes … the fingernails were … untidily painted Besides, teenagers tend to think that if they swear, they look older |
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|
Krystal was nervous. (lines 70-74/80-84) |
She heard Krystal fidget. Krystal banged the leg of Tessa's desk with her foot, beating out a rapid rhythm. |
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|
Krystal's family situation was from ideal. (lines 90-95) |
People in Krystal's mother's circle died … with such frequency that they might have been involved in some secret war of which the rest of the world knew nothing. Krystal had told Tessa how, when she was six years old, she had found the corpse of an unknown young man in her mother's bathroom. |
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|
Krystal was sure she would give up her hobby. (lines 99-103) |
The rowing eight would be finished. Nobody except Barry could have brought Krystal Weedon into any group and kept her there. She would leave, Tessa knew it; probably Krystal knew it herself. |
When you've made sure that students have understood the text, you can proceed with discussing it. First the questions can be suggested for pair-discussion and later you can ask some students to share their ideas with the whole class. Aim: to discuss the characters and their behavior thus enhancing comprehension of the extract and improving speaking skills.
Discussion questions
1. Do you think Tessa Wall was behaving as a school psychologist should behave? Was she carrying on the dialogue with this girl in the right way? (Should she have been stricter or more supporting?)
2. If Barry Fairbrother were alive, could he be the person who would completely change Krystal's life in your opinion? Do you believe that one person like a teacher or friend can change your life, making you a much better person and leading you to a happier future?
3. Do you think Tessa's and Krystal's second names are speaking? (Wall and Weedon (from `weed' meaning a plant that grows very quickly where it is not wanted and covers or kills more desirable plants)?
4. Can you try to imagine what future the girl will have?
After that students look closer at Krystal's speech. Aim: to focus students' attention on some language peculiarities they come across while reading, reminding them of how speech is important in analyzing characters because it can tell a reader a lot about them.
The following questions can be asked:
1. In the text you've come across some spelling peculiarities, for example: 'Your 'usband said sumthin' abou' Mister Fairbrother, right, an' I couldn't hear …'. This method is called eye dialect. It means nonstandard spellings that indicate a standard pronunciation, deliberately used by an author to indicate that the speaker uses a nonstandard or dialectal speech. Do you think the person speaks incorrectly or it's just one of the ways to show everyday colloquial speech?
2. Is her speech polite?
3. Can people's speech tell us a lot about a person? What? (age, social status, educational level). What conclusion can we make about her social status judging by her speech?
Focus on socio-linguistics
This text has quite a lot of socio-linguistic components which can be studied. Divide students into 4 groups and give them the following task (jigsaw reading). Aim: to introduce students to some names of English realities thus creating background knowledge, to introduce them to the etimology of the word `boycott', thus increasing students' motivation. The usage of jigsaw reading allows a student to speak more than in a usual whole-group discussion and introduces forms of peer learning which increases students' motivation and engagement in the learning process.
Task: You are divided into 4 groups. Each group has an explanation of one reality there's in the text. You read the text in group and become experts in this sphere. In your group fill in the blank about the realia you've read about. Be ready to explain the ideas to your classmates.
When the students have read the text, divide them in different groups so that now each group consists of 4 people who have read different texts. Students listen to each other's explanations and complete the information in their Workbook.
The explanations for the groups can be as in Worksheet 1 (См. Приложение 7).
The approximate answers are as follows (written in underlined italics):
1. “A group of sixth-formers carrying folders had arrived in the library”.
Is the sixth-former in a British school the same as in Russia? If not, who are they?
They are 16-18 years old.
They study at Sixth Form Colleges.
They study to pass the exams which allow them to go to a university.
They study for 2 years.
2. “The room set aside for the guidance department at Winterdown Comprehensive opened off the school library”.
The people who work in a guidance department are called guidance counselors or school counselors.
There functions are to help students with difficulties in interpersonal relationship, with family problems that affect the school life, with improving child's self-esteem, etc.
Their main focus is on students' career development.
3. “An' he's still gave me … detention!'“
Detention is a kind of punishment.
If you are given detention, you have to go to a certain part of school during a specific time and remain there for a specific period of time.
If you've committed something really bad, you'd probably have to go to school on a non-school day, for example, on Saturday.
4. “Tessa hardly ever looked at herself in full-length mirrors, and boycotted shops where this was unavoidable”.
Initially, the word `boycott' (either verb or noun) was the surname of Captain Charles C. Boycott.
This man was a (retired) British army captain and lived in the 19th century.
At that time there was a conflict between Irish farmers and landlords, because there was a crisis in the country, farmers were poor and couldn't pay the rent.
Boycott tried to punish the farmers but they united against him: Boycott's laborers and servants stopped working, and his crops began to rot as no one worked on his fields.
Since then his name has been used to describe this particular protest strategy.
Students complete the information in their Workbooks and you may check it when you'll collect the Workbooks at the end of the topic. You can also address some questions to the students. Aim: to check how efficiently students have worked in groups. The questions can be as follows:
1. What do schoolchildren go to Sixth Form colleges for? (to study at universities after finishing these colleges)
2. What do guidance counselors do? (help students with difficulties in interpersonal relations, with family problems that afeect school like, with improving their self-esteem and with student's career development)
3. What does a detention mean? (it means that you have to go to a certain part of school during a break or after lessons or on a non-school day and stay there for a specific period of time)
4. How did the word boycott appear? (in the 19th century there was a confich between nirish farmers and landlords because farmers were poor and couldn't pay the rent. Boycott was a retired British army captain, he tried to punish his farmers but they united against him, stopped working and his crops began to rot. Since then his name has been used to describe this particular protest strategy)
Focus on language
After that students work closer on the language used by the writer. Aim: to enlarge students' (passive) vocabulary by working on collocations and phrasal verbs.
Task 1. Match the words to make the phrases from the text
1. boosting
2. walked out
3. devoid
4. filled
5. sarcastic
6. authentic
7. numb with
8. rueful
A. with dread
B. of workaday morals
C. self-esteem
D. smile
F. fatigue
G. of school
H. outrage
I. remark
Key: 1.C 2.G 3.B 4.A 5.I 6.H 7.F 8.D
Task 2. Choose the right particle for the phrasal verb used in the text
in up out in up
1. Can you imagine that he turned ______ at the party?! Nobody expected to see him there!
2. She entered the room suddenly, with a lot of noise, just burst _____ it.
3. He was listening to music and beating _______the rhythm of his favourite songs by a hand.
4. I was comfortably sitting in an armchair, watching TV but I had to get ____ to walk my dog.
5. My elder sister is always listening ____ my talks with friends. She knows all my secrets!
Key: 1.up 2.in 3.out 4.up 5.in
Task 3. In the next sentences three verbs which in the story were used with preposition `down' are missed. Insert them in the appropriate form.
slump slow let
1. When you close the roller-blind, you _____ them down.
2. If a person is very tired or depressed or angry, he can ______ down in a chair or on a sofa meaning that s/he sits heavily and limply.
3. When you start to calm down and stop breathing so fast, your breaths _____ down.
Key: 1.let 2.slump 3.slow
What meaning does usually the preposition `down' has? (From a higher to a lower point of something, also figurative)
Can you give any examples with other verbs used with it? (calm down, bring down)
Finally, there's a fun fact about Harry Potter books which you may use as you wish.
Multiculturalism and Kazuo Ishiguro
Multiculturalism is a typical feature of English literature nowadays so it seems necessary to get students acquainted with it. The text presents a short explanation of multiculturalism which students may read aloud or in pairs. Aim: to introduce students to multiculturalism. Then students are to answer the questions suggested below. It can be organized as pair work; then you may ask several students to share his/her ideas and opinion with the whole class. Aim: to provide better understanding of what multuculturalism is through discussion and drawing interdisciplinary connections, at the same time developing speaking skills.
Notes. Question 1. What is multiculturalism to do with globalization? (Students should remember what they have learnt about globalization at their social studies class and draw a conclusion)
Question 2. What qualities do we need to live a globalized world? List 5 of them. (possible answers: be tolerant, know English (maybe several foreign languages), know about other cultures not to unintentionally offend foreigners, be open-minded, etc.)
Question 3. Can you think of any Russian writers who left the USSR/Russia and wrote their works in other languages? (V. Nabokov and I. Brodskij are probably the brightest examples)
Question 4. Who are called marginal people? What is it like to be a marginal person? Is marginalization nowadays a typical, unavoidable feature of our society? (Students have already spoken about these issues at their social studies classes so they can recall information and express their opinions)
In the text there is information about the Booker Prize. If students know what it is, they proceed with other tasks, but if they do not know, read the information given in their Workbook.
Kazuo Ishiguro
Ask students to read the text and to try to remember as much as they can. Then ask the mto turn over the page and fill in the crossword. Aim: to introduce students to Ishiguro's biography, encouraging them to remember more facts about the author and motivating them by using a crossword in order the check their comprehension.
Answers:
Рис 11 - Кроссворд по биографии Кадзуо Исигуро (ответы)
After reading and filling in the crossword it may be interesting to watch the following video (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqDUstHYx4Q). This is a short official interview taken soon after his winning the Nobel Prize in which Kazuo Ishiguro speaks about his childhood memories, genres in literature and his teenage dreams to become a musician. Aim: to find out more about the writer and improve listening skills. The pre-listening task suggested below will also contribute to the development of students' probability prediction mechanism.
You may organize pre-listening as follows:
Task. Now we are going to watch a short interview with Kazuo Ishiguro taken by the official Nobel Prize YouTube Channel and learn some interesting facts about the writer. But before watching, please, discuss the following questions in pairs and make some predictions.
1. Why has the reporter brought Ishiguro his favorite childhood toy?
2. Why does he think that we should not classify books according to their genres?
3. What did he want to become when he was a child?
After the pair discussion ask several students to share their predictions with their classmates. Then they listen to the interview and write down Ishiguro's answers to the questions above. After that they go through them and check all together. See Worksheet 2 (См. Приложение 8).
Author's words
Aim: to introduce students to a view on life that migrants have and to what an international novel is, give students opportunity to express their thoughts thus deleping reading and speaking skills.
Ask your students the following question: Ishiguro was born to Japanese parents but lives in the UK since his childhood. Do you think he feels more like an Englishman or a Japanese? They express what they think and then read Ishiguro's words. Translate unknown words.
“I'm not entirely like English people because I've been brought up by Japanese parents in a Japanese-speaking home. My parents didn't realize that we were going to stay in this country for so long, they felt responsible for keeping me in touch with Japanese values. I do have a distinct background. I think differently, my perspectives are slightly different." When he was asked to what extent he identifies as either Japanese or English the author answered, "People are not two-thirds one thing and the remainder something else. Temperament, personality, or outlook don't divide quite like that. The bits don't separate clearly. You end up a funny homogeneous mixture. This is something that will become more common in the latter part of the century--people with mixed cultural backgrounds, and mixed racial backgrounds. That's the way the world is going”.
“I am a writer who wishes to write international novels. What is an 'international' novel? I believe it to be one, quite simply, that contains a vision of life that is of importance to people of varied backgrounds around the world. It may concern characters who jet across continents, but may just as easily be set firmly in one small locality”.
Ask students if they can think of any `international novels' they have ever read. Why do they think they are international?
Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (2009)
When students have learnt a bit about the author, they can move on to reading an extract from his short story. Before doing it, ask them to read the text. Aim: for students to get some general information about the nocturnes.
As the nocturne under study (Come rain or come shine) has the same title as a song, it could be a good idea to listen to the song first. Aim: to introduce students to the song with the same title thus providing ground for students' suppositions about the plot and the mood of the story (to develop students' probability prediction mechanism): to improve listening skills and to introduce students' to the music of 1950-1960s, creating some background knowledge.
In the Workbook there's a note about the song and students may read it if interested. The task for students may be as follows:
Now we are going to read some extracts from the nocturne Come rain or come shine. But before doing it we will listen to a song that has the same title as this nocturne.
`Come rain or come shine' and `rain or shine' mean always, no matter what happens, in any case.
Your task while listening is to the song is to fill in the gaps.
The answers they should fill in are written in underlined italics.
Come rain or come shine
I'm gonna love you, like nobody's loved you Come rain or come shine High as a mountain, deep as a river Come rain or come shine I guess when you met me It was just one of those things But don't you ever bet me 'Cause I'm gonna be true if you let me You're gonna love me, like nobody's loved me Come rain or come shine We'll be happy together, unhappy together Now won't that be just fine The days may be cloudy or sunny We're in or out of the money But I'm with you always I'm with you rain or shine
After that in a whole-group discussion ask the following questions: Did you like the song? What is it about? Keeping in mind that the song has the same title as the nocturne, can you try to predict what the story will be about? Some facts about the plot, about the relationships of the main heroes? Will it be a happy story or a sad one?
Reading the story
Aim: to introduce students' to one of K. Ishiguro's Nocturne (by reading extracts).
During a lesson it is not possible to read the whole nocturne. To acquaint students with the nocturne, three extracts have been chosen. They are taken from the first part of the story and present its outset, where readers meet the main characters, find out the relationships between them and the current situation they are in. Not to spend much time on reading in itself, use jigsaw-reading strategy. Divide your class into two groups and give each group one extract or two. They are almost equal in length. Together with the extracts each group receives a set of questions. However, they can answer only some of them. To find answers to all of them they need to mingle. Aim: to check students' comprehension of the extracts or to correct it (if needed) during the group discussion. So when students are through with reading and answering the questions, divide them into groups again, this time so that in each group there are people who have read different extracts. Communicating in this small group, students find out answers to all the questions. The cards for students with texts and questions are presented in Worksheet 3 (Приложение 9).
The answer to the questions are found in the following extracts:
1. What is the narrator's name? (both) (answer: Ray/Raymond)
2. What are the relationships between Charlie and the narrator? (group 1) (answer: close friends)
3. What were the relationships between Charlie and his wife Emily at the time when the narrator arrived? (group 1) (answer: rather tense)
4. What does the narrator do for work? (group 1) (answer: English teacher)
5. What do Charlie and Emily think about Ray's work? (group 2) (answer: terrible, exploitative, not at the level of his abilities)
6. Why do Charlie and Emily think that Ray is not a successful person? (group 2) (answer: not wealthy, not married, etc)
7. What is Emily unsatisfied with? (group 2) (answer: she wanted Charlie to achieve more)
8. What does being Mr Perspective mean? (group 2) (answer: be a bad example of how a person wasted his talent and his whole life)
9. Why did the narrator go to London at the beginning of summer? (group 1) (answer: to stay with his friends)
10. What favour did Charlie want the narrator to do? (group 1) (answer: `let Emily look after you, get her in a good mood and keep her that way', be an example of an unsuccessful person so that Emily understands that Charlie is doing great)