English It Is!

Welcome to the world of fiction where anything goes and everything is possible! Each English group has its own blog and Work and Study Schedule. The blog theme is also discussed in the In Touch course book so the students will be able to use the same vocabulary and grammar. At the beginning of the course each student should choose a book from the list of suggested literature below, borrow it from a nearby library or buy it from a bookstore, and start reading it as soon as possible. Enjoy!

Instructions and Study Material:

• Introduction to Into the Wild
• Study Questions about the movie Into the Wild
• How to Write a Character Analysis in 10 Easy Steps + How to Write a Character Analysis Essay
• How to Make a Speech
• Modern Art Review Instructions + the Museum of Modern Art in New York

Useful Links:

• A Handy Guideline on How to Make a Bibliography
• Save the comma game and BBC comma games and quizzes
• Tim Burton’s The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories
• Giggle poetry and Poem Source
• Architecture in English
• Daily Science Fiction Stories
• What Makes a Good Story? Tips for Young Authors by Aaron Shepard
• Young Writer Amanda Hocking’s Success Story

Evaluation (mandatory requirements):

1. reading a book
2. vocabulary quiz on units 1-2
3. portfolio (including a cover page, an index and a foreward)
   • creative writing: a short story (genres: love or horror + macabre poem)
   • a short book review + author biography (quoting sources)
   • a character analysis, mind map, ten challenging words from the novel
   • a modern art review
   • a speech
   • self-evaluation + peer evaluation
4. final exam on course vocabulary and grammar + listening comprehension + film review (Into the Wild or Piano)

Grammar:

• articles and proper nouns
• how to use the comma
• shortened clauses
• geographical names

Suggested Literature (in alphabetical order by author):

1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979) by Douglas Adams (science-fiction, fantasy, humor)
2. The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood (fantasy, women’s rights)
3. Pride and Prejuduce (1813) by Jane Austen (romance)
4. Noughts and Crosses (2001) by Malorie Blackman
5. An Instant in the Wind (1976) by Andre Brink (South-Africa, race, love)
6. BFG (1982) or Matilda (1988) by Roald Dahl (dark humor, children vs. adults)
7. Desert Flower (1998) by Waris Dirie (an autobiography, women in Africa, Somalia, women’s rights, fashion)
8. The Graveyard Book (2009) by Neil Gaiman (fantasy)
9. Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding (suspense, brutal drama, Lost)
10. A Farewell to Arms (1957) by Ernest Hemingway (Spanish Civil War, love)
11. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962) by Ken Kesey (insane asylum, fighting authority, humor)
12. Firestarter (1980) or The Eyes of the Dragon (1987) by Stephen King (fantasy, horror)
13. Watchers (1983) by Dean R. Koontz (fantasy, suspense, horror)
14. Life of Pi (2002) by Yann Martel (India, travel, philosophy, survival)
15. The Time Traveller’s Wife (2004) by Audrey Niffenegger (fantasy, romance)
16. In My Sister’s Shoes (2008) by Sinead Moriarty (sisterhood, drama, romance)
17. 1984 (1949) by George Orwell (science-fiction, politics, social criticism)
18. My Sister’s Keeper (2008) by Jodi Picoult (leukemia, sisterhood, family relationships)
19. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (2001) by Louise Rennison (humor, teenage girls, sex)
20. Interview With the Vampire (1976) by Anne Rice (vampires, erotic romance)
21. The God of Small Things (1997) by Arundathi Roy (colonialism, India’s caste system, love, children)
22. Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J. D. Salinger (teenage boys, friendship, growing up, gangs)
23. The Number 1. Ladies’ Detective Agency (1998) by Alexander McCall Smith (Botswana, life in Africa)
24. Of Mice and Men (1937) by John Steinbeck (immigrants, North-America, 1950s, human nature)
25. The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker (African-American women, racism)

ENGLISH GROUP 6

• ENA 5.6 Work and Study Schedule
  

Blog Theme 1: Fictive Characters Come To Life

• Character Analysis
• Book Review
• Create a mind map for your character using Mindmeister
  • Here is a mind map of Bella, for example: Mindmap

Blog Theme 2: Creative Writing

• Genre: horror, love or both

A Poem

• A macabre, twisted poem about a little misfit child in the style of Tim Burton’s poetry.
• What happens to the strange creature and how do the adults and other children treat him/her?

A Review

• What do you think about your class mates creations?
  

[teachertube=http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=160151]

The girl who silenced the world at the UN for 5 minutes. Severn Suzuki, a 13-year-old Canadian who formed ECHO (Environmental Children’s Organization), speaks on behalf of the environment.