A Thinglink with podcasts suitable for high school students

Starting up with a project about CLASSICS

This week we are starting up a project called "CLASSICS" and we will focus on both poetry and excerpts from novels as well as short stories. Ten writers were chosen, five women and five men from various times of history, but a definite focus on the 1900's.

The short stories that the students get to read and analyze will be deconstructed using a short story map/template. This one I made using Canva. 

Test - Media and Information Literacy

Media and Information Literacy - SA16M

Padlet for words to "Chinasa" - SA16P

Summary of scientific article

Words and sentences from scientific article

Drabbles - by students in English 6

Photo credits: www.nolimitboras.com 


 

No Limits - a theme project in EN 6

In English 6 we started the year with the theme project "No Limits," with the idea of connecting the theme to the street art festival No Limit that will take place in Borås in a week. Ten street artists will arrive here and paint murals/make installations that will enhance the cultural impact of the city. I saw this as a good way of incorporating the real world with the local community into a project that would focus on limits or the lack thereof. So far, my students have prepared smaller presentations about the artists which they will present to the rest of the class during next lesson. After that we will turn the attention to limited writing (drabbles) and limitless writing (stream of consciousness). The artworks found around the city will be the inspiration for the writing tasks. Finally, putting an end to the project, the students will get to individually record their thoughts about a "world without limitations - pros and cons" using Flipgrid.

The final Skype session of the school year - Dunkirk and Joshua Levine

The final Skype session of the school year was guest lecturer Joshua Levine, British author, barrister, actor and historian. He has currently worked as historic advisor on Christopher Nolan's new film "Dunkirk," due for release this summer. We had a chance today to ask him questions about the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940, the Second World War in general, the significance of the event on world history and the shooting of the film. Levine told us that Harry Styles did a good job as soldier in the upcoming film and that was to the delight of a few of my students... :) We were left with the impression of an extremely vivacious (despite the early hour and the British general election) man with a wide field of expertise about World War II. What a great Skype year it has been! 

Majken, Emilie and Tilly listening to Mr Levine.

Joshua Levine telling us about the trick with the wooden soldiers on the filmning of Christopher Nolan's movie"Dunkirk".

The director himself and Harry Styles on the set. Joshua Levine at the bottom of the picture. 

Snapshot from today - writers through time and place

Starting tomorrow the national tests for English 5 kick off with the writing test. On Friday the same procedure for the students in English 6. At the same time I am starting the first part of the final project in English 6 by giving them a picture of a famous person. Their job is to find out who the person is and to present their findings in a keynote accompanied by a voice-over. A critical evaluation of the sources used should also be included. Handing out the pictures I quickly understood that the majority of the writers were unknown to them, only Shakespeare and Churchill were subjects for identification. Below a few of the ones I handed out.

From top left to bottom right: Alice Walker, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, Toni Morrison, Arundhati Roy and Oscar Wilde.

Preparing for the national tests - things to have a look at before the tests

Click HERE for preparation material for the national tests. 

In the material you will find 1. Reporting verbs 2. Linking words and phrases (sentence connectors) and 3. Useful phrases for oral interaction - giving and asking for opinions. Have a look at all of them as they will be useful for the writing and speaking tests. There will be more preparation in class when we meet. 

Asking for opinions + giving opinions - phrases for oral interaction

In English 5 we have focused on oral interaction - discussions - for a couple of lessons. Often we have taken a look at a short film and then discussed the content, characters, theme and/or message of the film. The discussions have been good and generally students have been very proficient in stating their own opinions. However, I see a need of getting the students more engaged when it comes to interacting, asking for other people's opinions and ideas. Consequently, I put together a list of phrases (with linkings to the source) that will come in handy before we have our next session with oral interaction.

Shakespearean insults - my addition

We have been working with Shakespeare for a couple of lessons now and today it was time to record ourselves throwing insults around, as a way of playing around with some of Shakespeare's special words. Here is my version of an insult, recorded using the phenomenal digital recording tool FlipGrid.

Shakespearean insults - Snapshots from today

I am currently preparing for a literary history theme in my English 6 course, and, naturally, William Shakespeare will pop his nose in to say "hello"! So, while looking for some good sources I bumped into this page collecting Shakespearean insults. Some great insults to be found here - lol-funny indeed! This gave me an idea so now I am prepping for a lesson on just Shakespearean insults!

Link to site

Snapshots from today - Skype session with Flower Mound, Texas, USA

Today we were fortunate enough to be able to join Melissa Rhoades and her students at Lamar Middle School in Flower Mound, Texas, on their Skypeathon. We found out that our call was their 16th Skype session for the day and that they were awfully tired, the time also being 5.30 am in Texas. We learned a few new things about Texas (top picture), among other things, that the state animal is the armadillo. Thanks Melissa and students!

Preparing for Spoken Word for English 6

Making entry and exit tickets in Canva

I have been using exit tickets for quite some time now, not every week but a few times a month and I use them to either evaluate, assess or check something before the students leave the classroom. Now I have decided to also start using entry tickets to get the students active right away when coming into the classroom. Here is a newly made version! Feel free to use, if you want. :)

Entry and exit ticket by pnillaelander

Reading "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck - SA15M

Last week we started reading "Of Mice and Men," the classic by John Steinbeck, and as we continue this week there is also an opportunity to listen to the audio file simultaneously while reading.

The book as audio file

Here is the mini-biography that we took a look at last week

Link to video about the Great Depression

Link to video about the Dust Bowl

Tell the Wolves I'm Home - first discussion