Optional activity. Citizenship

The Pacific Garbage Patch

During this term, we have done the Pacific Garbage Patch reading. An interesting article about this topic was published last week. It is focused on a young man who wants to solve this pollution problem.

Boyan Slat is a 20 year-old man on a mission: to rid the world¨s oceans of floating plastic. He has dedicated his teenage years trying to find a way to collect the plastic from the osean and to dispose of it safely.

Look for more information to complete this story. You can give it to me in a separate piece of paper.

 Surf the web!!

Globalisation videos. Citizenship unit 4

Unit 4: Globalisation. 

To understand what globalisation means, here we have some videos about it. 

Firstly, you must write down the advantages and disadvantages of this process in two different columns.

Secondly, you should listen to these videos carefully to get some ideas about our global world.

We shall overcome

Human Rights is the present topic of our Citizenship lessons. To finish this unit, we are studying M. Luther King´s life by reading some  parts of I have a dream (his famous speech). We have listened to Pride, in the name of love, as we did last year.
Here you have another historical song called We shall overcome. It stands for the Civil Rights Movement and M. Luther King recited the words from the song in his final sermon delivered on in Memphis before he was shot. "We shall overcome" was sung days later by over fifty thousand attendees at his funeral.

We shall overcome. We shall overcome. Deep in my heart I do believe we shall overcome. And I believe it because somehow the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. We shall overcome because Carlyle is right; "no lie can live forever". We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right; "truth crushed to earth will rise again". We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell is right:

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the then unknown Standeth God within the shadow, Keeping watch above his own.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to speed up the day. And in the words of prophecy, every valley shall be exalted. And every mountain and hill shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain and the crooked places straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. This will be a great day. This will be a marvelous hour. And at that moment—figuratively speaking in biblical words—the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy

 The video is a version that Bruce Springsteen recorded in London during his 2006 Seeger Sesions Tour.

An optional task for the portfolio consists on looking for more information about this song.

Optional Task about GLOBALIZATION

We have learnt what globalization and multinational companies are. In your portfolio, you had included some international logos that can be found in any malls. That is the reason why malls stand for the inargueable symbols of our global world.

I would like you to look for information about malls. Some suggestions to gear your search:
Malls in countries like Dubai.
Which is the biggest  one in the world?
Which is the biggest one in Spain?
Weird, different malls around the world. 

 

Citizenship. Our Identity

CITIZENSHIP. Task for the begining of the second term.

OUR IDENTITY. You should do a writing about your identity covering , more or less, the points below.
 You must hand in this wirting to me and be ready to read it in class.

Where do you live:

Your family, friends:

Your interests and hobbies:

What matters to you:

What´s  special about you:

Your favourite subjects:

How do you define yourself?

The Elephant Man Citizenship

For the end of the term you should read The Elephant Man story and do the portfolio about it.

To understand life at that time, we have read some texts about workhouses and  some London neigbourhoods (Whitechapel).There,  it was seetled a permanent exhibition in which people could pay to have an up-close look at the Elephant man. Moreover we have learnt that staying in a workhouse was a very harsh and tough experience for children. The main chacarter -J. Merrick- entered the Leicester Union Workhouse when he was seventeen years old because his physical condition prevented him from manteining a job. Here, we have a painting of J. Crowther called Whitechapel High Street, Stepney, London, 1884.

To get an idea about life in those workhouses, here we have an accurate description written by Dickens:

Groves of babies in arms; groves of mothers and other sick women in bed; groves of lunatics; jungles of men in stone-paved down-stairs day-rooms, waiting for their dinners; longer and longer groves of old people, in up-stairs Infirmary wards, wearing out life, God knows how - this was the scenery through which the walk lay, for two hours. In some of these latter chambers, there were pictures stuck against the wall, and a neat display of crockery and pewter on a kind of sideboard; now and then it was a treat to see a plant or two; in almost every ward there was a cat.

 

 

" No man is an island,
entire of itself,every man is a piece of the continent,
a piece of the main"
  As we did last year, you must read this poem and:
1 Explain its meaning in three or four sentences.

2 Make a picture inspired on it.

This little poem will help us to understand the target of our subject and to be ready for the begining of the course. Besides, it will give us the opportunity to think about education as one of the foremost social activities of human beings.

The picture belongs to W. Homer, one of the American most relevant realistic painters  Its name is The Country School. It shows his interest in everyday life, childhood and schools. Pay attention to details as the flowers, the teacher´s hat, the sunlight throught the windows, the little boy crying...

Globalisation. Porfolio.

For the end of the term you should do your portfolio about globalisation, as we did with the Selfish Giant.Although I explained how to do it, I include some activities for those who want to improve their marks. These are focused on an important globalisation drawback: environmental damage.

Optional tasks:

- Look for information about one or two of these issues and include it in your portfolio. You may include pictures or photos as well:

1- a particular environmental problem such as massive deforestation, desertification, global warming or greenhouse effect.

2-animals or plants which are on the verge of being extincted.

3-a celebrity who is working to promote environmental protection.

The picture above is by John Falter, ilustrator best known for his covers paintings for the Saturday Evening Post. He depicts The American Dream, as he said " to put down on canvas a piece of America"

Citizenship: Food Traditions over the World. Homework.

For next Wednesday you have two different tasks:
-Answer the questions in the sheet called "Identity, Race and Membership". This exercise will allow you to take into account the reasons why people move away of their countries looking for a new life.
-Optative task: write an opinion (directly in this blog) about the videos we have seen in our last lesson. Going over these videos, you can learn others cultures point of view about food: what do we consider suitable for being or not being eaten? Therefore, Knowing others cultures is a good way to break our prejudices down.

This delightful picture belongs to Frederick Morgan, a famous English painter of childhood portrays and country scenes. The one which illustrates the post is called The Apples Gathering.

Citizenship unit 3. Communities and Identities

Communities and Identities

In this unit we will study what stereotypes, ethnic identity, religion and culture mean.
Belonging to diferent communities and cultures is part of what gives people their sense of identity. Culture includes religion, language, food, political ideas, traditions, place of birth...
The main target of this unit is to think about our identity and to compare it with others.
















There are two tasks for homework:

-an optative activity: a collage about our culture and identity. If you don´t know how to make it, I will show you a model during this week if you ask me to.

- a compulsory activity: you must read the letters of Laura and Taylania and write your own letter using them as an example. (no less than 200 words). You must do it in a separate piece of paper in order to read it in class and to hand it to me next Wednesday.

The picture Hip, Hip, Hurra (Gotemburg Museum) belongs to S. Kroyer, a norwegian painter. It depicts a happy group of painters who gathered in the remote fishing village of Skagen.The painting managed to capture the sense of camaraderie among the artists in Skagen.

The Selfish Giant - Oscar Wilde

To finish this term and just before Christmas, we are going to read a tale of Oscar Wilde.

This story will let us not only think about selfishness and goodness (therefore being a conclusion for Unit 2 on Friendship), but it will be also an approach to an excellent irish writer through one of his best texts and a good opportunity to improve your vocabulary. While reading it, you must answer the provided questions in the work sheets.
You can write, in this blog, a brief opinion of this story as an optative task to get better marks.

Here is a description from the tale. You will have to draw a picture from it:

"Then the Spring came, and all over the country there were little blossoms and little birds. Only in the garden of the Selfish Giant it was still winter. The birds did not care to sing in it as there were no children, and the trees forgot to blossom. Once a beautiful flower put its head out from the grass, but when it saw the notice-board it was so sorry for the children that it slipped back into the ground again, and went off to sleep. The only people who were pleased were the Snow and the Frost. “Spring has forgotten this garden,” they cried, “so we will live here all the year round.” The Snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak, and the Frost painted all the trees silver. Then they invited the North Wind to stay with them, and he came. He was wrapped in furs, and he roared all day about the garden, and blew the chimney-pots down. “This is a delightful spot,” he said, “we must ask the Hail on a visit.” So the Hail came. Every day for three hours he rattled on the roof of the castle till he broke most of the slates, and then he ran round and round the garden as fast as he could go. He was dressed in grey, and his breath was like ice".

This picture is called 'The Massacre of the Innocents' and it belongs to the painter G. Leytens(1586-1643) also known as the Master of Winter Landscapes.

Citizenship UNIT 2 FRIENDSHIP

Our objetive is to think about what frienship means and how to cope when frienship runs into problems (bullying). Moreover, our lesson target is to identify the importance of having a variety of social and personal relationships.

These are the questions that you must answer about the first reading of this unit.

1Which are the two forms of bullying ? Give some examples.
2 Is bullying a problem that only affects children?
3 Why does bullying happen?
4 What should you do if you see someone being bullied?
5 What do you think about the headmaster´s decision of calling the police.
6 Using a dictionary, write in English the meaning of these words and expressions from the text:
to frighten
confidence
upset
to skip school
huge
to take over
to provide
outbreak

The wonderful picture is The Painter´s Daughters Chasing a Butterfly. It is a depiction of youth and innocence, but it also shows that life is short and childhood passes quickly.
National Gallery. London

The way we were. Citizenship. Homework 2.

The questions about the first reading, The way we were, are the following ones:

1What was education like before 1870?
2 How were children taught to read?
3 Why did children need to go to school at that time?
4 What did factory owners and landowners encourage children to stay away from schools?
5 Explain these expressions using your own words.

-"school were mainly run by the church"
-"action was not always taken against boys and girls wo didn´t go to school"
-"children were a good source of cheap labour"

Citizenship Studies

IN THIS SUBJECT YOU ARE GOING TO STUDY SOME UNITS THAT HAVE A STRONG RELATIONSHIP WITH CITIZENSHIP. For instance:

1 What are schools for?

2 You and your friends.

3 Being a global citizen.

4 Communities and identities.

5 Rights and Responsibilities

6 Human Rights.

This subject is about YOU. It is about you as an individual, you as a part of a school, you as part of the communities to which you belong and you as an active citizen in the twenty first century. It is also about the people around you.

This subject is more about forming your own opinions and learning to understand people and how they work and live together. To get the most out of it, you need to think about the topics, listen to others people’s views and be prepared to discuss your own ideas.

The lessons are important because YOU are important and the people around YOU are important. Anything that helps us understand each other and live together peacefully is important. That’s quite enough for now.

THE WAY WE WORK

This subject is divided in two components: a theorethical part in which the main ideas will be explained and a practical part where we will use different resources like readings news, making original questions (and answering them), designing leaflets, discussing topics… to help you understand the ideas.

EQUIPMENT: There is no textbook available that you can buy in Spain, so the teacher will provide you with all the resources needed. However you need a ring binder to keep the photocopied sheets in order, and you will also need some crayons, scissors and glue.

ASSESMENT

The assesment will take into account your theoretical knowledge (60%), your behavior, punctuality and participation (30%) and your oral and written use of English (10%).

Comienzo de curso 2011-12

Comenzamos un curso que se presenta agitado debido a los recortes en Educación previstos para este año.

Por otra parte, este curso 2011-12 impartiré una materia especial Citizenship o Educación para la Ciudadanía en Inglés. Pertenece a la Sección bilingüe del instituto y representa un proyecto que afronto con mucha ilusión.

En esta materia se tratarán las mismas cuestiones que en Educación para la Ciudadanía, pero en inglés. Creo que resulta interesante que los alumnos de la sección bilingüe , además de estudiar determinadas materias en inglés, vayan conociendo algo sobre la cultura de los paises de habla inglesa. Escritores, pintores, científicos...pero también costumbres, símbolos, creencias, mitos... a veces muy diferentes a los nuestros.

Para comenzar con algo relajante, podemos tomar como ejemplo la costumbre del té de las 5.

Una de las tradiciones más típicas y populares en Inglaterra, es la de la llamada “hora del té”. Si bien los chinos, japoneses y árabes comparten con los ingleses una gran afición por esta bebida, podría afirmarse que el té para los ingleses, es algo más que una bebida. Es toda una tradición. Es todo un ritual, quizás menos místico que el que se celebra en Japón pero no por ello menos relevante en la vida social inglesa, sobretodo en épocas pasadas. El que actualmente conocemos como “Té de las 5″ o “Afternoon tea” no empezó a tomarse como tal hasta principios del siglo XIX.

Cuenta la historia que una tarde de 1830, Ana, la séptima Duquesa de Bedford, pidió que le trajeran a su habitación un poco de té y algún refrigerio ligero. Por aquel entonces en Inglaterra la comida solía servirse muy temprano y no se volvía a tomar nada hasta la cena, a las 8 o las 9 de la noche. A la duquesa le gustó tanto estos momentos de la ingestión de la bebida que decidió repetirlo tarde tras tarde, invitando a sus amistades a que tomaran té junto a ella.
Pasados los años esta inocente merienda ocasional se convirtió en toda una tradición, practicada por la aristocracia y las clases altas, que daban suntuosas y elegantes “fiestas del té”, normalmente entre 3 y 5 de la tarde, acompañando la bebida con algo ligero para picar, algunas pastas y sándwiches.No obstante hoy en día existe una gran variedad de pastas, dulces y saladas con las que suele acompañarse un típico té inglés. Sin duda, una tradición Made in England.

Por cierto, el dibujo que ilustra el post auna tres motivos de la cultura inglesa:

- el té, of course.

- Alicia en el pais de las maravillas.

- los dibujos del dibujante John Tenniel, nacido en Londres y conocido por ilustrar los libros de Alicia en el pais de las maravillas y Alicia a través del espejo.