Last week we introduced Charles Dickens' story, "The Christmas Carol," and watched "Mickey's Christmas Carol" to give us an idea of the plot. This week we're going to read the play outloud, but before we get to the reading of the script, here are a few facts about "The Christmas Carol" you may not have known:
A Christmas Carol was written by Charles Dickens in 1843.
What happens? Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by 3 ghosts at Christmas time, who encourage him to be a nicer person! Charles Dickens full name was Charles John Huffam Dickens and his pen name was Boz. The famous plum pudding that Mrs Cratchit made was not made of plums, but raisins. The main characters of the story include Fezziwig, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit and most famously Ebenezer Scrooge. Ebenezer Scrooge’s famous catchphrase ‘Bah Humbug’ was only said twice by him in the book. A
Christmas Carol was written by hand and a typesetter (someone who set the type to print the book--the old fashioned way!) would have had to
make sense of Charles Dickens’ crossings out and spelling mistakes
before making the books. There
have been more than 50 film versions of A Christmas Carol including
versions starring The Muppets, Barbie, Mickey Mouse and Mr Magoo. One of the morals in A Christmas Carol is ‘To live our lives in a way that benefits others as well as ourselves’.
Now, it's time to have a little fun with the play and act out the script for ourselves. We used two class sessions to read, discuss vocabulary, and try out our acting skills. I'll have to say, we have some quite talented students!
The man you see in this photo is the famous and prolific English writer, Charles Dickens, who lived from 1812 to 1870. Have you heard of the story of Oliver Twist? Dickens wrote it. Great Expectations? Dickens wrote it. A Tale of Two Cities? Dickens wrote that too, and many, many others. If you would like to know something about the life of Charles Dickens, watch this short video.
One of the most well known of Charles Dickens' stories is The Christmas Carol, first published in 1843. It is a story that is told time and time again--especially at the Christmas season. The main character is Ebenezer Scrooge, a grumpy, miserly (cheap) old man who needs to be taught the true meaning of Christmas. He's visited by three spirits (kind of like ghosts), who each teach him a lesson about generosity, kindness, the value of life, and goodwill toward all people. Do you think Ebenezer Scrooge learns his lesson at the end? Will he emerge from this a changed man? Below is a picture of a stage performance of A Christmas Carol. It shows the visit of Jacob Marley, a man who worked for Scrooge for a long time, but is now dead (wait, if he's dead, then how...? Oh right, he's a ghost!--Pretty scary!). He warns Scrooge of the coming of the three spirits.
Scrooge and Marley
There are many versions of Charles Dickens The Christmas Carol, which shows its immense popularity even after all of these years.
Here's an animated version with Tim Curry doing the voice of Scrooge: A Christmas Carol
If you like old black and white films, this classic called Scrooge is from 1935.
This one is my personal favorite, a musical, also called Scrooge, based on A Christmas Carol
For good fun, you may like to watch Mickey's Christmas Carol, starring none other than Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and a whole cast of Disney characters!
Below is another nice version of the film starring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge.
For the Next few class sessions, we'll be working on a reading of The Christmas Carol.
If
you have been speaking English for awhile, you've probably heard these
phrases enough times to be able to fill in the blanks with no problem.
See how you did (answers below)! For more on Cliches, take a look at the
link under "Sites You Might Find Interesting" at the right.
So, what, exactly, is a cliche?
A cliche is a phase that is considered overused (used too often)
which can be literal or figurative in meaning. Here are some examples:
the good old days (literal = in the past when things were better) - I
remember my years at college. Yes, those were the good old days.
tip of the iceberg (figurative = only the beginning, or just a small percentage) - The problems we are seeing (Source: About.comPopular Cliches Explained by Kenneth Beare)
This short video will give you some more examples: A Cliche?
Our students had some fun with Cliches by making new ones. Here are some clever examples:
Don't worry, be happy-----Don't worry, do something!
An apple a day keeps the doctor away----An apple a day isn't a pear.
Behind the clouds the sun is shining----Behind the clouds, there's air.
All good things come to those who wait-----All good things come to those who are lucky.
A penny saved is a penny earned-----A penny saved is a penny not spent.
Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today----Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
There's nothing to fear but fear itself----There's nothing to fear but swimming in a Speedo.
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again----If at first you don't succeed, reload the WiFi.
Don't bite the hand that feeds you----Don't bite me because I'll bite back!
Two's company, three's a crowd---Two's company, three's a number.
After
each student wrote a number of new cliches, they chose one to illustrate. Here are just a few of the examples:
Inger den Boer
Hannah Willeboordse
Miriam Jaffari
Romy Joziasse
Tara Vlierman
(Answers for above cliches: 1. thorn, 2. fonder, 3. eat it too, 4. get going, 5. fire, 6. never, 7. good news, 8. feeds you, 9. crowd, 10. silver lining)
There isn't enough space to show you all of the finished projects from our talented students, but for your viewing pleasure, take a look at these! (The YouTube links have the titles highlighted.)
The English Fluency classes have now completed their Music & Me projects and have created some very nice videos combining images and lyrics to the song they chose. Below are three examples. Take a look!
EXTRA INFORMATION for above video: On the end of the video, there are the words: "thanks to: Solange, Emma, Anouk and Nouria". They are really good friends, even they live completely somewhere else. But they have something special. This song reminded me of them, so I asked them to contribute drawings to my video, which I have included.
One more note about the other pictures in the movie: I made them by myself. Not that I owned that pictures I used, but I mashed them up till I liked it. So I took some pictures, mashed them up and made the lyrics on it. ~ Joy :)
New! Check out our section called "Student Blogs" on the right. More to to come!
We have been hard at work with our Music and Me projects--analyzing our song lyrics in detail and choosing images that best illustrate how we wish to portray those lyrics. The last step is to create a photo montage, bringing together both images and music in a coherent and entertaining way. Below you can see us hard at work with our projects!
Many students have already presented their finished creations to the class. They are being graded on their creativity, choice of images as it relates to the lyrics and music, the flow of the storyboard itself (most students are using iMovie), and their remarks about the video (why they chose the song, what the lyrics mean to them, why they chose their particular images, etc.) In the next post, we'll be sharing some of the videos for you to see!
“"The new job didn't pan out. I
had to quit because I couldn't work as many hours as they wanted me to."
The TTO classes have begun a new project drawn from the lesson "Music and Me." Here are the goals:
Analyze music and lyrics (English only!) of a song that is meaningful to you.
Choose words and photos that relate to the song and have a personal meaning to you
Use the text and images to create a movie that expresses how the music makes you feel and what the lyrics make you think about.
This project will be done in steps. For the first class, the goals were:
Make a list of your top ten favorite songs.
Narrow down that list, eliminating those with no lyrics, or lyrics in languages other than English.
Now, from your narrowed down list (3 to 5 songs), look up the lyrics to each and read them carefully, evaluating them for content. Eliminate those with inappropriate words or situations. How do you know if something is inappropriate? If you wouldn't want to sing it to your mother, then it should probably be crossed of the list!
Finally, choose the song that fits all the criteria, and begin looking closely at the lyrics for meaning.
Here's a nice song from Michael Jackson's younger days called "Music and Me." Sing along--the lyrics are below.
"Music & Me"
We've been together for such a long time now
Music, music and me
Don't care whether all our songs rhyme
Now music, music and me
Only know wherever I go
We're as close as two friends can be
There have been others
But never two lovers
Like music, music and me
Grab a song and come along
You can sing your melody
In your mind you will find
A world of sweet harmony
Birds of a feather will fly together
Now music, music and me
Music and me
According to a recent study done in the UK, posting too many selfies on Facebook and other social media may not be so good for your relationships. "Wait", you may ask, "what exactly is a selfie?" A selfie is a photo you take of yourself, simple as that! Read more about it here in this Wikipedia entry.
And for more see"What is a Selfie" explanation here:
For this first part of a 2 part lesson on the above-mentioned UK study on selfies, the students did this exercise below (thanks to Breaking News English for word list!):
See how many of these words you can use in a sentence. Work
in pairs.
study / social networks / relationships /
photograph / photo sharing / close friends / Wikipedia / popularity / buzzword
/ shocked / control / flattering / supportive / opposite
After students had time to go through the list with their partner, many students had the opportunity to share a sentence with the rest of the class. Here are few:
A study shows that posting too many selfies on Facebook might not be a good thing.
Facebook is the social network I use most often.
If you post too many selfies, you might hurt your relationships.
Taking a photograph of yourself is called a selfie.
One photo sharing app is Instagram.
I like sharing things with my close friends.
If I want to know something, I sometimes look it up on Wikipedia.
I was shocked when I saw Miley Cyrus dancing the other night on TV!
Don't post so many selfies. Try to control yourself!
My parents are very supportive people.
Good is the opposite of bad. Posting too many selfies: bad. Not posting too many selfies: good.
You may notice there are a few words missing from this list of sentences. The reason is because some of the words proved difficult to make sentences with. Below are those words, with definitions and sentences provided by The Free Dictionary
Popularity: the quality of being widely admired or accepted or sought after; "his charm soon won him affection and popularity."
Buzzword: A stylish or trendy word or phrase. "[Selfie] is the new buzzword."
Flattering: To portray favorably: "That photograph is flattering to you."
For a humorous look at selfies, here's a Selfie Song for you:
Coming up next week: Should there be rules to Social Media? What photos do you think are OK to post on Facebook? Which do you think are not?
This was the first week of classes for CSW. It was good to see the
returning students after the long summer, taller, rested, and ready for a
new school year! We welcomed two new sections of eager TTO students. I caught my first glimpse of them during their lunch break,
taking a look at their new iPads, which will be used in most classes (see photo on left).
As an introductory lesson for a new year of English Fluency lessons, the students learned I only have one rule in my class: RESPECT. Respect yourself, each other, and (of course!) the teacher. Respect means to have consideration for. What does respect look like in a classroom setting?
Here are some words with the root word respect:
respected
respecting
respectful
respectfully ...
Can you think of others? What is the opposite of respect?
During this first class, we spent time interviewing each other, using a list of some very thought-provoking questions (thanks to Institute for Research and Reform in Education for these suggestions). Here are a few from the list:
What is your favorite thing you did this summer? Why?
What books have you read lately? What was something you found particularly interesting in them?
What movies have you seen recently? How do you feel about the level of violence depicted in movies today?
What do you like to watch on TV? Is this a show you feel is appropriate for young children to watch? Why or why not?
Who are the members of your family? Who are you closest to? Why?
Are you the oldest, middle, or youngest child in your family? How do you like that position in the family?
What do you look for in a friend? How easy or difficult is it to find these qualities.
What is one thing you like about this school?
What is one thing you would change about this school?
How do you usually act when you're in a new group?
Students were divided in groups of two and spent time interviewing each other and discussing the questions and answers on their own. Then, some of the pairs came up to the front and conducted the interview with the rest of us as the audience in a Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon style!
And to close, just one last word on R-E-S-P-E-C-T by the great Aretha Franklin!
Scientists in Japan have been doing extensive research, using brain scans, to try to determine what a person is dreaming. The video below will give you more information about this study and how they are conducting their research:
This brain research is part of a larger study which hopes to find the way to read people's thoughts. What might be the ethical considerations of having the ability to read minds? Would you want to always know what people are thinking about? And, if so, what would you most like to know?
In our classes, we did a survey to see what our students would most like to know about another persons' thoughts. Here are the top two rankings:
#1. Their feelings about you.
#2. Their level of honesty (whether or not they're telling the truth).
What Do People Dream About?
These are some of the most frequent kinds of dreams. Which ones to you have most often?
1. Dreams about falling
2. Dreams about being chased
3. Dreams about teeth falling out
4. Dreams about flying
5. Dreams about being naked in public
6. Dreams about being lost or trapped
7. Dreams about missing a plane or a train
8. Dreams about failing an exam or test
9. Dreams about Spiders
10. Dreams about Death
Here are some of the things we've been dreaming about!
There was a really, really big spider and we all wanted to escape from the spider but we couldn’t move. Why I don’t know. I was in my bedroom and the spider was downstairs. It was very scary because the spider moved slowly upstairs. But there was one moment that I could move, so I jumped out of the window. When I almost touched the ground, I woke up. ~Daan
I had a dream that I was in
the space, in the universe. I was there with my family and it
was our holiday. We went there with a rocket and a guide was waiting for us.
There were more people on holiday in the universe. You could just walk over the
earth in your own clothes. You could fly too. The guide brought us to a few
special rooms. We were standing on a plant and the view was great. There were open
rooms and they were just flying in the universe. The rooms were very special
and famous, because there were a lot more people looking at the rooms. The
rooms were very different. In the first room there was a boxing ring and there
were woman who boxed against each other. One woman was hit so hard that she
flew away and never came back. In another room there was just a bed with
someone who was sleeping, it was a little girl and she was very cute. There were
a few more rooms but I didn’t see that anymore because then I woke up… ~Amber
When I was about 6
years old, I always dreamed that the police arrested me. I was sleeping and the
police woke me up and took me to the police office. I woke up. ~Micha
I dreamt that I flew in the sky and landed on a mountain. On
the mountain there were animals and they were friendly. But suddenly a dinosaur
came and tried to attack me. The sky became darker. I tried to fly away, but
when I jumped off the mountain, I couldn’t fly anymore and I fell down. I fell
in the water. Then I woke up. ~Davy
When I was young I dreamed that I woke up
and then I stood on my bed and I kind of jumped and then I could fly! I flew
back and forth in my room! And then when I stopped flying I went back to sleep
and when I woke up (for real) I wanted to stand on my bed and fly! But
then I jumped and then I landed on my feet… I had this dream a few times when I was
young. ~ Tara
When I was a little kid, I always had a dream. It was
the dream about ‘Finding Nemo’. You also can call it a nightmare.
I was a little fish, in a bid ocean. Alone. Nobody
around. And then, suddenly, Bruce came. The big shark named Bruce. He was very
creepy, with big white sharp teeth. I swam away, very fast. And then, he almost
eat me, I woke up. It was very scary, but now I can laugh about it... :) ~Miriam
I walked with Veerle around a funfair, and then we went into a big house! Then Veerle almost fell down and she stood up and ran through the toilets and began to vomit. I ran to her and said, "Verle is everything OK?" But she walked out of the toilet through the door outside. Then Mara came and both they walked away! I screamed: "BYE!" and they heard it but they didn't look at me and avoided me and walked away. Then I woke up. ~Iris
A long time ago I dreamed that their were people who wanted to kill me and it was very strange because I knew I was dreaming and I thought, "Wake up!" But I didn't wake up; that was so strange! But all the people didn't see me and I was sitting in a corner and I thought again, "Wake up! I know I'm dreaming and this is so strange." But then finally I woke up. VERY STRANGE! ~Mara
When I was young I dreamt that I met fairies. They showed me their ‘world’
and I became a fairy also… but... it doesn’t happen in real life
--haha!
I once
dreamed that I dreamed. In that dream I dreamed that I knew I was dreaming.
Then I woke up in my dream. Then I thought I was finished waking up. But I woke up
again, this time I really woke up. ~Sanne
I had a dream about that I couldn't move
forward and that someone was following me and that he was faster than I was. My
legs were like concrete. ~Richard
I dreamed that Eijse was hit by Boo (a little girl from
Monsters&Co) and when he was hit, he fell off a big building.
My dream is about going to the beach. One day
I was standing on the dunes and I had a body board in my hands. I held it and I
flew away and I landed right in front of my beach house. ~Yannick
I dreamed that I was
in the garden with little baby birds. My mother picked up a vacuum cleaner and
wanted to suck the babybirds in.I was
really angry, and I jumped between the baby birds and the vacuum cleaner. But my
mother didn’t see me. She sucked me up… After that –thank god- I
woke up!
~Joy
When I was young, I dreamed many times. If I had a dream or
a nightmare, I always went my parents' bed. Then they would ask me,“What did you dream this time?” And strange enough, I always had the same answer,
even if I dreamed something totally different. I always said that I dreamed
about a giraffe, which was on our roof of the house. The giraffe was going to
kill me. I always had that as answer. I think I dreamed that maybe one time,
but I always said that to my parents.
A few nights ago I dreamt that I had my exams for snorkeling and that I was too late and forgot my stuff. I had to swim lanes but the others were 5 ahead of me. After that we had to ice skate in the swimming pool and it was cold and there were mountains.
Being at my grandma’s house and going to the bathroom and shooting off of the toilet like a rocket launcher and ending up in some random place. ~Mees
I opened my eyes
and it was dark. I think I was in a house, but I am not sure. Then I walked outside. I opened the door, I didn’t see much. So I thought why shouldn't I walk around
the house and see if there is something. I did. There wasn’t much of anything special. There were
only trees. I walked back to the door and I stepped inside. I fell into a big
black hole. Then I woke up… ~Wanne
I dreamt that a wanderer
want to kill me with a knife. I was lying on the ground
and then I woke up.
~Rosalie
Once I dreamt about the end of the world. It wasn’t a long dream because al the people died in less than 2 seconds. ~Sander
I dreamt that I was an astronaut and I went to the space and it was very cool and nice. I found it very nice because I want to be an astronaut. ~Veerle
I dreamed that I was
Superman; I could fly over the world and see all. When I heard any cry of
distress I flew to Earth and saved him or her. But all that saving of lives
became too much for me and I was exhausted-- and then eaten by a Dinosaur. ~Nathan
What I would like to dream is that I am on a white beach with a blue sea with a temperature about 27 degrees, and just chill out with friends and drink milkshakes-- without school or schoolwork.
That would be a awesome dream. ~Boaz
Here are two of my dreams:
1. I was the boss
of a factory making mermaid paté.
2. I was a fly in
the room of my parents and there was a dinosaur there too. ~Josef
(A dream I'd like to have!) Iwas
walking in NYC and Sean o’Donnel comes up to me like,“ Hey
shall we go on a date?” And of course I
said: “yes!!!!" So we
went on our date and he asked if I want
to marry him and I said yes. And
then we lived happily ever after. ~Emma
One day I had a dream about an egg. The egg was very big--
almost as big a my house. I got into it and
found another egg in the egg. That egg was very
small. And a
chicken came out of it. Then I woke up. ~Wim
I had a dream that there was an epic golden
eye! Real gold! So I went to that eye to touch it and grab it and take it with me. When I
touched it, it became red and the sunny weather changed into rain and thunder! I ran away to my house, just one street
away, and when I came there… My house was crushed! My lawn was on fire and my
pond was not water anymore but only LAVA!!!! Then when I wanted to go inside to
look what was happened there… I woke up. And I needed to go to school…
~Marnix
Once I dreamt about the end of the world. The
world split up into 2 pieces and we all fell in the middle of the earth where we
burned.~Eijse
Charles Dickens full name was Charles John Huffam Dickens and his pen name was Boz.
