3.en.49 Great microstories! From a poem to 29 versions. “Brevity is the soul of wit”

Where do poets get their inspiration from? the Muses?  What about writers? This is the first set of  your microstories. I will publish the rest as soon as you type them in Google docs. I am really impressed. Robert Graves’  poem “Legs”  triggered your response, which was great indeed.  Your versions of Graves’ poem are varied and fun.  I  hope you enjoyed writing them as much as I enjoyed reading them . Check how witty and surprising  your classmates texts are. You,  the muses and Robert Graves’ inspiring poem deserve all the credit. My proof reading has been limited to a couple of words. Congratulations again! 2nd ESO E might be a class made of wannabe writers and nobody has noticed it…

With Emili, you have been working with scientific microstories http://1esoe1011.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/3-es-50-microrrelatos-cientificos/ Your stories show that you have grasped the potentiality of the genre and that long stories are not necessarily better than short ones. Remember Polonius’ words  in Hamlet“ brevity is the soul of wit” 

2nd ESO E 2011/12 microstories  unchained by   Robert Graves’ poem  “ legs”

Toni Torner

Yesterday morning I was walking along the street when, suddenly, I saw a bike that appeared from the upper part of the stairs. It did a big jump, and then it landed onto the stairs, without falling to the ground. All the people were very surprised (or scared), but not because of the jump. They were surprised because who/what drove the bike wasn’t a person, they were two legs, two legs from the knees down.

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Marina Escarpa:

One day, in the morning, I was talking  with my left leg about our relationship because it was getting worse. This day, I saw my left leg with another right leg. I was destroyed and my heart was blind. At night,  my right leg and me had a argument about the event and finally we broke-up. I was happy and sad with myself, but I was born again.

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Elena Flaquer:

I woke up, in the middle of the night, or that’s what I thought. I opened my eyes and jumped out my bed. I went downstairs, barely awake, and got an umbrella. I got out to the street and stood under the rain a few minutes, holding my umbrella. I was surprised because there were a lot of legs, wandering around. I put my umbrella down, to see the people. I chuckled, surprised.  Was I dreaming? Was that possible? The legs were just legs, walking without knowing where they were going. Coming, going, walking, running. A few drops of rain fell on my shoulders while I was looking to that show, amazed. The rain on the road kept on tapping loudly, and the shoes of the legs splashed in the water. I asked myself, may I start walking like them? I touched my shins, and suddenly, I woke up, but this time I was really awake. Did I dream that? Most probably. I took off my sheets and stared at my legs. They were there, intact. Yes, I dreamt it. But it had been the best dream I’ve ever had.

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Ariadna Balufo:

I was walking along the road on my way to my house. I was looking down, thinking about all my problems. Then it seemed that the road started to move like a ribbon on the air.
There were lots of people going in opposite directions.
Suddenly, my alarm clock rang, it was a nightmare!

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Marta Serra:

The last time I saw my legs, they were running by the wet road full of puddles. I tried to call them but they couldn’t listen to my voice and I saw how they disappeared against the gray sky.

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Silvia Martin:

Two tiny, beautiful, silky legs. They had a small or large problem depending on how you think about it. But let’s get to the point, their problem was that they didn’t find the rest of their body. They went on looking for it for a long time, but they didn’t know what  it  looked like. One day they were in the park trying to get tan. And suddenly they heard someone crying behind them. And so there it was! a beautiful body crying because she couldn’t move and the legs realized that this espectacular body was theirs. They decided to hang out together. Today I still don’t know if they managed to make it work.

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Jhazmín Mármol:

I am a puddle of the forest. I’m never alone, sometimes birds bathe with my water. Yesterday something amazing happened, I think magical. A pair of legs were reflected in my water. When I closed my eyes for a moment, suddenly, those legs were 4! From this day on they have always been together, playing and running without stopping.

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Maria Santos:

INSTRUCTIONS:

-they have a rhythm ( 1,2,1,2, left, right, left, right)

-they can walk, they can run, they can jump, they can’t fly.

-they can’t be separated.

-you can’t control them.

-they are legs and they are free.

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Marga Bauzà:

I’m a puddle in the woods, I feel like my surroudings are wet and the smell of cold in the air.

The shoes and the legs of the people pass over me and I hear that they say: -Oh! The water of this puddle is very cold!

Some animals come and drink from my water, and when the sun reflects its light, I turn bright.

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Vladislav Nikolov:

One night I saw two legs with two shoes running, so I followed them. They ran in a very narrow street, but I followed them. The shoes started to run towards me, and I only saw 2 legs with 2 shoes. I was an inspired poet, so I wrote about it.

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Clara Mulet: THE RAIN

Some people hate me, some people love me. Some people use umbrellas when I fall, some people prefer to enjoy the water. I only know that when I fall from the clouds it is as if I did skydiving. And I like it so much!

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Miquel Blanch:

One day a man got up and saw that he had lost his legs. He found them alone and sad. So he asked them what had happened and his legs told him that they didn’t  want to stay with him because he never did sport and his legs where bored. So he promised them that he was going to do sport and he recovered his legs.

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Júlia Mulet

Hello, I’m a puddle. I’m going to tell you a secret: my hobby is watching the anger of the people when they step on me. Wait! Oh my god, the poet in the grass is coming with his sons wearing rubber boots. Splash!…

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Isabela Igorova.

Message from an umbrella.

Today I have to stay  home, because the sun is  shining outside. I know that you only think about  me when the day is grey and cloudy. No one can protect you like me when the drops fall down from the sky and crash in your black hair.

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Andrea Fernández:

Hello, we are two legs without body. We search a body without legs. The body has to be friendly, beautiful, funny… And you have to like walking  and running over the puddles, which is  fun. If you are interested, call to : 156239654 . If you call now , we’ll give you a pair of shoes!

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Andreu Vidal.

Legs are useful for lots of things: to cycle, to play football, to do karate… But I think the most important thing that we can do is take a walk with them and think in all things in which they help us.

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Josep Pomar

One rainy day in the afternoon, when I was returning home from work I fell down in the grass near the road side. When I got up, I saw that there were no people walking in the street. They were all legs and I didn’t know what was happening because the umbrella didn’t let me see the whole body of the people walking in the street. I was so scared and I fainted but I got up in my house watching TV.

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Isidro De La Torre

I was there, in the center of the road, nobody in the street. Everything was very dark when suddenly a big car stepped on me. I dispersed and disappeared. I was a puddle and this is my death story.

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Joan Vidal

There was a roadside full of legs, without their bodies, just  legs. Some were entering the shops and some were running, with trainers. It was a cloudy day and I was sick, I thought it was real, but it was not.

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Goran Dimitrov:

Two legs are running, two legs are walking.

One leg is running, one leg is walking.

-Where’s my left one?

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Joan Sebastià Bosch

That day was horrible, legs began to appear in the buildings, stepping on all the puddlels of the city and constantly splashing and splashing and annoying everyone. These were somebody’s legs, but just the legs, with no owners, walking without control.

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Tomás Golomb:

When Robert Graves was going to his house along a little road, he heard a sound and coming out from a bush he saw a pair of feet. Robert was scared , it rained and he ran. He slipped, but quickly he got up and went home and he was safe. After this time he never saw anything like that again.

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Ariadna Oliver;

Confessions of a leg.

I, a right leg, I see things from an unique perspective. My knees, my waist, my belly button and neither my eyes can see the world like me. From down here everything is so big, everything is so simple. From down here I really understand that everything falls down. From down here I can see how other people progress. When you’re down here you learn how to appreciate what you see, even  small ones. When you are standing on the ground you can see how quick things progress, you also realize that the others do not care what happens around. Come and go and never stop.

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Marina Bàrcenas:

LEGS 1: Hey Robert!

LEGS 2: What are you doing Robert’s legs?

ROBERT’S LEGS: I don’t know. I’m lost.

LEGS 2: Oh, Good luck, bye bye. I have to go to my sister’s house. Sorry.

ROBERT: What is this? I see only legs!

(Robert’s legs start to run)

ROBERT: Eh, where are you going? I need you.

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3.en.48 More opinions on homework

You have already discussed in Emili’s class (  http://1esoe1011.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/3-es-49-huelga/)  whether homework is beneficial for students and your opinion on the strike called by French parents against homework. Here  you have more food for thought, an article from the Guardian. We shall analyze it  in class together.

We have worked with newspaper articles several times this year (see post 2.en.29) . In fact, one of the aims of this year joint language syllabus is helping you read and understand  the language used in newspapapers.  Don’t panic if the article is long and not adapted, you’ll find your way.  Use the same  worksheet  we used before .

Check the following words in a dictionary.

• to achieve
• research
• background
• disadvantadged
• to support
• “against the odds”
• resilience
• policy
•  to scrap

Now, read the full article. While reading keep the following questions in mind. You will have to answer them. 

1. What triggered the piece of news?
2. How many students were object of the study?
3. How long was their school progress studied?
4. What is the organismo responsible for the research?
5. Is the article supported by experts’ opininions? Who?
6. Are the facts/opinions backed by any organisation? Which one?
7. Does the current government favour a homework policy? Why? 
8. What  were the previous government guidelines?
9. What is your opinión? Do you think there should be a homework policy in every school?
10. Should  homework policies be decided by individual teachers?
11. How many hours of homework do you do as an average? What about last year?  What about in your former school? At what age did you start doing homework?

Click here to read the Guardian article

Spending more than two hours a night doing homework is linked to achieving better results in English, maths and science, according to a major study which has tracked the progress of 3,000 children over the past 15 years.

Spending any time doing homework showed benefits, but the effects were greater for students who put in two to three hours a night, according to the study published by the Department for Education.

The finding on homework runs counter to previous research which shows a “relatively modest” link between homework and achievement at secondary school.

The academics involved in the latest research say their study emphasises what students actually do, rather than how much work the school has set.

Pam Sammons, a professor of education at Oxford University, said that time spent on homework reflected the influence of the school – whether pupils were expected to do homework – as well as children’s enjoyment of their subjects.

Sammons said: “That’s one of the reasons Indian and Chinese children do better. They tend to put more time in. It’s to do with your effort as well as your ability.

“What we’re not saying is that everyone should do large amounts, but if we could shift some of those who spend no time or half an hour into [doing] one to two hours – one of the reasons private schools‘ results are better is that there’s more expectation of homework.”

The study controlled for social class, and whether pupils had a quiet place in which to do their homework, but still found a benefit, Sammons said.

The research was conducted by academics from the Institute of Education, Oxford and Birkbeck College, part of the university of London. It has tracked around 3,000 children from pre-school to the age of 14.

It also finds that students who reported that they enjoyed school got better results. “This is in contrast to findings during primary school where ‘enjoyment of school’ was not related to academic attainment,” researchers said.

Schools could ensure children had a better experience by improving the “behavioural climate”, making schoolwork interesting and making children feel supported by teachers, Sammons said.

The research shows that working-class parents can help their children succeed “against the odds” by having high aspirations for them.

Children who did well from disadvantaged backgrounds were backed by parents who valued learning and encouraged extra-curricular activities. “Parents’ own resilience in the face of hardship provided a role model for their children’s efforts,” the research says.

The study underlines the importance of a good primary school. Children who attended an “academically effective” primary school did better at maths and science in later life. The study did not find a link with performance in English.

Ministers have scrapped guidelines setting out how much homework children should be set amid criticism that it can interfere with family life.

Under the last government, guidance was issued to all schools recommending they have a policy on homework.

The guidelines suggested children aged five to seven should be set an hour a week, rising to half an hour a night for seven- to 11-year-olds. Secondary schools were encouraged to set up to two and a half hours a night for children aged 14-16.

Scrapping the guidelines frees headteachers to set their own homework policy, the government says.

Homework Tuesday 3rd April: post your comments to the blog and copy them in your notebook. 

3.en.47 Poetry: ” legs” by Robert Graves

Onomatopoeia  is a word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes. Onomatopoeias are not the same across all languages. Onomatopoeia is one of the resources of language more often used by poets than prose writers; this is because poetry is made for the ear as well as the eye, and depends more heavily than prose does on sound-effects.

Robert Graves was an English poet who lived and died here in Majorca. He is buried in a beautiful

place. Do you know where?

In these verses  from a poem called “legs”, he uses onomatopeia to make us think of a rainy day.

Read the poem aloud. Now you know what a gurgling sound is, don’t you?

And the gutters gurgled

With the rain’s overflow

And the sticks on the pavement

Blindly tapped and tapped

Robert Graves

Tap, tap, tap,

What’s tap dance?

In Gene Kelly’s famous tap dance in the rain, he stands with his big black umbrella under a gurgling gutter overflowing rain.

GURGLE; TAP; TAP….

tap, tap, tapping in the rain, Clip, clip, clip……Xof,xof, xof

gurgle, clapoteig, borboteo

Well, now that you know much more English, you are ready to read the whole poem. We’ll recite it together in class. It is an intriguing poem.

Legs… seem to run away… out of control

let’s see if you like it

• Click here to watch a short video

Difficult words:

rout 1  (raʊt)
— n
1.	an overwhelming defeat
2.	a disorderly retreat
3.	a noisy rabble

dd

3.en.46 Welcome to our new German friends from Friedrich-von-Alberti-Gymnasium!

A year ago, a group of German  students came to visit us (Check the post on our blog).

 We enjoyed their visit and it seems they did too, so here they are again.

Today 15 German  students and their teachers will be our guests during English class. Though they are a bit older than you, we thought it would be a good opportunity for you to meet them. You were asked to prepare a short  presentation  about our local traditions and festivals ( Sant Joan, Sant Sebastià and Sant Antoni).

These are the students who will be with us today:

• Veronika Reichle
• Jacqueline Bloch
• Melissa Ebel
• Lena Schlembach
• Michelle Messner
• Laura Herzog
• Jacqueline Grötz
• Hanna May
• Mirian Hërst
• Nicole Fritz
• Victoria Röhrle
• Linda Schmidt
• Selina Sprenger
• Christian Thren

Welcome to all of them! we wish them a happy stay with us.

 

Here follow some links you might find useful to get further information on our local traditions.

Majorca Daily Photoblog is an old time friend and a priceless source of information about our island. It is written in English by Klaus, a German man who lives in Majorca and whose posts and photos about Majorca show and inquisitive mind and a deep knowledge and love for Majorca. He has visited our school, talked to our students about his activity as a blogger and  has kindly given us permission to use his blog and his pics for our lessons.

I have chosen some posts for you, but I encourage you to run a search and find out more about local traditions and holidays.  After the break, you’ll have time to work at the computer room. Post your findings to our blog .

Some posts on   Sant Sebastià and Sant Antoni

What was the most inspiring pic?

What was the most surprising tradition?

Post a comment to Majorca Daily Photo Blog. I’m sure Klaus will appreciate it.

http://mallorcaphotoblog.com/2011/01/20/correfoc-fun-at-sant-sebastia/

http://mallorcaphotoblog.com/2012/01/16/light-my-fire/

http://mallorcaphotoblog.com/2012/01/10/campos-and-the-re-animated-cossiers/

http://mallorcaphotoblog.com/2011/08/29/the-pandemonium-of-the-correfoc/

2.en.45 I wonder whether this was the kind of workshop you were interested in

This week you told me you were interested in a sexuality workshop. This is what sexuality lessons were like in the “Wonder Years” a famous American TV series set in the late 60′s and early 70′s . Maybe similar to “Cuéntame”

I find this episode hilarious. What about you?

What is a milestone?

Who is the narrator?

What is giggling?

Who was responsible for sex education in the  high school?

How old do you think the kids were?

Have you  seen any of the series episodes?

What was going on in America at that time?

2.en.42 If you were…, I would be… Sing along with conditional clauses

NOD YOUR HEAD, honey bee, flower, pod, bride, sway, ocean, wood,fire, nod, wink, tree, moat, castle, rug, seed

If you were a seed, I’d be a pod

Well, by now you must know pretty well what the word seed means, probably you have learnt about them in Science lessons , but I’m not so sure you all know the meaning of “pod” even though some of you have got an I pod.

Let’s see if images help you guess the hidden words. We are going to listen to a song where all these words appear. In the song, there is a repeated  conditional structure

If I/you  was/were…  a…, You/I’d be a…

First let’s sing and guess the words, then, we’ll talk about grammar.

The song is from a film “Juno” and it is a love song. I hope you like it.

Look at the images and see if you match them with the words.Can you pair them?

honey bee, flower, pod, bride, sway, ocean, wood, fire, nod, wink, tree,moat, castle, rug, seed

Now  try to fill in the blanks in the lyrics of Barry Louis Polisar’s song “All I Want Is You” from the film JUNO. In the grids, the conditional clauses are jumbled, sort them out.

If I was a (1) _________ growing wild and free,

All I’d want is you to be my sweet honey bee.

And if I was (2)_________a growing tall and green,

All I’d want is you to shade me and be my leaves

All I want is you, will you be my(3) _________

Take me by the hand and stand by my(4) _________

All I want is you, will you stay with (5)_________?

Hold me in your arms and sway me like the(6)_________.

 

If you were a river in the mountains tall,

The rumble of your water would be my call.

If you were the winter, I know I’d be the snow

Just as long as you were with me, when the cold winds blow.

 

All I want is you, will you be my(3)_________

Take me by the hand and stand by my(4)_________

All I want is you, will you stay with(5) _________?

Hold me in your arms and sway me like the. (6)_________

 

a) If you were a wink,	I know I’d be a hug
b) If you were a seed,	I’d be a nod
c) If you were the floor,	well I’d be a pod
d) And if you were a kiss,	I’d wanna be the rug

All I want is you, will you be my (3)_________

Take me by the hand and stand by my(4)_________

All I want is you, will you stay with (5)_________?

Hold me in your arms and sway me like the. (6)_________

a) If you were the wood,	I’d be your moat,
b)If you were the love,	I’d be the fire
c) If you were a castle,	I’d be the desire.
d) And if you were the ocean	I’d learn to float.

All I want is you, will you be my(3)_________

Take me by the hand and stand by my(4)_________

All I want is you, will you stay with(5) _________?

Hold me in your arms and sway me like the.(6) _________

Now listen to the song and enjoy!

look at this cloud of words, do you understand all of them?

HOMEWORK:  Copy the lyrics in your notebook. Post your answers matching the conditional clauses to the blog. You must also post a comment on the pair you liked best and add some more you can think of. Let’s see if you are inspired.

Which conditional sentence did you like best? post it to the blog.

2.en.41 Renaissance Man: Learn while singing in English

With Vicent,  in your History Lessons, you are currently working on the Renaissance, so you are familiar with some of the most emblematic figures and artworks of this period. In English lessons we can learn about this epoch while  singing along.

Historyteachers channel in You Tube aims at making learning history fun. Do you think they achieve it?

Try to identify the artworks, philosophers, writers and artists you had learnt about in your History lessons. The music is by a band called the violent femmes

Here you can see another video about Reanaissance painters with some comments written in English.

• Which of the two videos did you like best?

Homework: You have a week to sort out the lyrics of the Violent femmes video. You know how we do it. Each person in the class must contribute. Write a sentence to the blog. Then,the next person must continue writing where the previous student left it. Hurry up! the sooner you do it, the easier.

2.en.40 Are you ready to repeat your Self Esteem test?

After being away from the blog for a while, I’m back again to ask you to check whether your self esteem is higher if you take the test in English.

I know you took a test in your Spanish class. Let’s see if the results are the same when you take a test in English.

Try this one, written by Karl Perera, and let me know if you find it reliable.

Go to his site to find out what your score means and post your comments to the blog.

2.en.39 Some figures: Incarcination rates in the European Union and in other European countries

This morning we watched a video about the prison system in Norway. We also compared the incarcination rates of Norway and the US. Have a look at this graph. What is the position of Spain. I have taken these figures from a detailed report from the Justice Department of the Generalitat. You can have a look yourself. http://www20.gencat.cat/docs/Justicia/Documents/ARXIUS/SC-1-076-09_cas.pdf

2.en.38 The prison system in Norway and in the USA a comparison

Tomorrow we shall visit the prison in Palma. Here follow a couple of videos to make you reflect on the topic.

You will need to know the following words: rehabilitation; inmate; to serve a life sentence; incarcination; recidivism

Watch  the videos and answer the following questions

The first one is about Halden prison in Norway.

What do you think about its facilities?

This is the first part of a USA TV program that discusses whether the prisons in Norway are a good system to rehabilitate prisoners

What are the journalists objections against such facilities?

Can you compare the figures of both countries? Why?

 

Are prison conditions relvant to the rehabilitation of the inmates?

What are the figures given in this TV program?

What is the incarceration rate in the USA campared to Norway?

What about the recidivism rate?

What are some of the reasons for such a high rate of incarceration?