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. 

Padlet for words to "Chinasa" - SA16P

Student short story about love and overthinking - inspired by the art of Alice Pasquini

A short story about love and overthinking things, inspired by the art of Alice Pasquini, written by a student of mine. 

Love and Overthinking: A Short Story

Photo credit: http://www.isupportstreetart.com/we-all-swim-in-the-same-waters-by-alice/

Jack is your typical teenage boy, bearing long, blonde hair, and blue eyes. His most distinguishing feature is his height, reaching up to about an incredible 7 feet tall, making him an oak among sticks. 

Even though he is a whole lot taller than other boys, or even men, he is still just like everyone else inside, an apple of the apple tree.

Because of his height, he has always been pushed to play sports like basketball, or other activities where he can utilize his amazing height, although he hates playing sports.

Jack has always been lazy, but for a reason. He is far too skinny to hold up his height healthily, which means he gets tired a lot easier than other kids his age, which means height is not his only black duckling feature.

Something he does like, however, is something we all do, but do not see as an actual favorite hobby. Thinking.

He loves to think deep thoughts, questioning this and that, wondering why and how…

Because of these factors, he does not have many friends, as most boys don’t prefer the same cup of tea. Therefore he sees himself as his own best friend, and prefers to keep away from the bunch.

Even though he prefers to be alone, there is one person who catches his eyes, who makes him prefer not to be alone for once.

Her name is Mary.

Mary is just like Jack. She is tall. She is lazy. She prefers to be alone and does not have many friends.

She is also beautiful. She has short, brown hair, and big, brown eyes which you can get lost in for hours.

Jack snaps out of it. ”I don’t like her”, he tries to convince himself. ”I don’t like her”, ”I don’t like her”, ”I don’t like her”, ”I like her”, ”I love her”.

Butterflies start flying around in his stomach, tickling him up to his chest. He doesn’t want to have feelings for her, as he is certain she would never feel the same way.

”I’m not enough”, he thinks to himself.

He asks to go to the toilet, and when given permission, he gets out of the classroom, and goes outside to get some fresh air, to cool down his overthinking mind.

She’s there, outside, sitting on the bench.

He has no choice but to sit next to her, so he does so. He has to let her know what’s on his mind, or else he will always be swimming in a sea full of grief.

Jack decides to leave that sea, and fish in other troubled waters.

He turns to her, and sees that she’s already looking at him. His heart immediately started beating faster when he saw her big, brown, beautiful eyes, staring right into his.

Mary then breaks eye contact and looks down like the shy girl she is, and Jack could do  nothing but admire how cute she actually was. It was like sweets for his eyes.

But then, he started to wonder. Why did Mary look at him in the first place? Why was her expression so adorable? And why did she look away out of shyness?

”You have a cute thinking face”, Mary says out of nowhere, with a smile on her face.

Jack didn’t know what to answer. He was simply too astonished, and was fighting the butterflies in hopes of stopping himself from getting too worked up. Jack isn’t the best at keeping his calm, to say the least.

”Don’t worry”, Mary adds, ”I’m just like you, I get it”.

She turns her body towards Jack, and lets off a gorgeous giggle. Jack immediately falls in love with it, and smiles.

”You’re thinking face isn’t your only cute expression, is it?”, she says with a gentle voice. It was more of a statement than a question.

Jack can do nothing but to try and keep calm, as the feelings are too much for him. He refuses to ruin this chance to get everything off his mind.

But is it really the best time? What happens if it ruins the relation between the two? And what if these are all false signs?

Jack clenches his teeth and fists, realizing he is too weak to stop overthinking.

His favorite hobby is his biggest weakness, his biggest flaw. Every upside has its downsides.

Is it worth it? Does she really show true signs? Will she hurt me? Will I hurt myself?

Jack snaps out of it once again, this time feeling uneasy and nauseous.

He grabs a hold of his blonde, long hair, trying to calm himself down. Mary is still turned towards him, but now with a confused and worried look on her face. She looks as if she wants to ask him what’s wrong, but doesn’t want to go fishing in troubled waters.

Jack can’t contain himself anymore. He has to leave.

”I’m sorry”, he forces out of himself, and gets up, walking away fast, getting as far away as possible from the beehive. He couldn’t do it, and now has even more to think about, making him feel worse and worse, like more and more salt on the wound.

Mary watches him walk away, until he is no longer visible, and then dries her cloudy eyes. She has no idea what she did wrong. Did she say something wrong? Was she not pretty enough? Or was she simply not good enough?

Mary realizes she’s overthinking, not knowing Jack was doing the exact same thing.

All she can think about is his beautiful smile, even though she doesn’t want to.

”I don’t like him”, she tries to convince himself. ”I don’t like him”, ”I don’t like him”, ”I don’t like him”, ”I like him”, ”I love him”.

Thinking can be good, it can change your mind for the better, it can do a lot for you. But it also has its downsides, as thinking can also hurt you. You might think you’re not enough, while you’re someone else’s world. Some people think more than others, but those who think the most are the ones who are affected by it the most.

Therefore, even if overthinking can be a bad habit, one should never let their own brain be their own undoing. In other words, don’t pull the trigger to your own death trap.

We all swim in the same waters, but that doesn’t mean we should drown in our own thoughts.

Presentations about female short story writers

On Monday my students in NA16F finished their studies on female short story writers and one part was to - in their study groups - gather information about one female writer and additionally summarize one short story by the same. The questions to be answered were:

• Where and when was she born? Include a photo of the author in the presentation.

• Where did she live growing up?
• With whom did she live during her childhood?
• When did she decide to become an author?
• Has she won any awards?
• What kinds of books has she written? (Themes in the books?)
• Summarize the short story you read by the author and tell it to the audience.
• Comment on how easy/difficult is was to find information about the author. What sources have you used? Were your sources reliable? Why/why not? Include a list of sources at the end of the presentation

The students worked with a joint Google Presentation and made an oral presentation in addition. Here are some of their presentations:

Reading comprehension strategies

Snapshot from today - reading different text genres

We are focusing on reading in English 6 - different kinds of genres such as scientific articles, poems, short stories, non-fiction texts and integrative texts. These are the ones we are using, practicing before a reading comprehension test in early January. Discussing reading strategies too.

Comprehension questions to "The Famous Poll at Jody's Bar"

Story map - write notes while reading your short stories - NA16F

Reading - All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury

Summer = reading. Here's a wonderful - and terrifying - short story by Ray Bradbury. A classic that needs to be read - that yearns to be read - and one that will stay with you for quite some time.

Some summer reading?!

Keep your English alive and kicking by reading a little this summer - here's a digital version with short stories, novellas and audiobooks at various levels. Maybe something for a rainy day?? :)

I read therefore I am! - year 8

Here's the link to the new theme: I read therefore I am

Plan for year 9 + instructions for first theme

Here's the plan for the fall semester for year 9:

and here's the link to the plan, if you prefer that:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A4JZ18zgbAu4b25HeNZqlRoLlYbrzU6QKkfRXEwxmWk/pub


Here are the instructions for the first theme of the school year - "I read therefore I am!" - reading a short story and writing a summary.

Short story template

I'm continuing working with Canva a bit, I really like it and I hope to have the time to make good templates for various assignments in reading and writing. Today I made the one above - my students will read short stories at the beginning of the semester and this might be a good way for them to make notes while reading. In the long run this will also help them when writing a summary of the short story later on. Feel free to use if you want.

Reading and listening - ESL Bits

Slowly I'm phasing myself into work again after a wet summer here in the south of Sweden. Next week I'll sit down and do some planning for the coming school year, but I know for sure that I'm going to use ESL Bits again for some reading and listening. ESL Bits is a fantastic page where you can access short stories, novellas, songs and audiobooks for free. Yes, for free.

Right now I'm looking at a short story called "The Elephant Vanishes" by Haruki Murakami and I'm thinking of including this short story somewhere in the beginning of the semester as a reading exercise for year 8 or/and 9.

Another interesting short story is  "You're ugly, too" by Lorrie Moore ...haven't finished reading it yet, but I really liked the beginning....promising.