Showing posts with label literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label literature. Show all posts

World Book and Copyright Day





"Books are both object and idea. Tangible in form, intangible in content, they 
express the mind of an author and find meaning in the imagination of readers. 
Reading is this private conversation, but books are all about sharing –- sharing 
experience, knowledge and understanding." 


Irina Bokova, Director-General of  UNESCO


23 April is a symbolic date for world literature for on this date and in the same year of 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died.


It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. 


It is a natural choice for UNESCO's General Conference to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.



A Menina que Roubava Livros/ Markus Zusak 

The idea for this celebration originated in Catalonia where on 23 April, Saint George's Day, a rose is traditionally given as a gift for each book sold. 

The success of the World Book and Copyright Day will depend primarily on the support received from all parties concerned (authors, publishers, teachers, librarians, public and private institutions, humanitarian NGOs and the mass media), who have been mobilized in each country by UNESCO National Commissions, UNESCO Clubs, Centres and Associations, Associated Schools and Libraries, and by all those who feel motivated to work together in this world celebration of books and authors.


Buenos Aires (Argentina) fue elegida por la UNESCO como la capital del libro 2011. Pueden acceder al sitio web para leer todas as actualidades aqui


"Books embody the human capacity to conjure up worlds of reality and imagination and to express them. They are the best voices of tolerance. They provide the strongest signs of hope. Books are pillars for free and open societies. "

Irina Bokova, Director-General of  UNESCO


G-Souto
23.04.2011
Copyright © 2011G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®


References:


UNESCO - World Book and Copyright
http://portal.unesco.org


Irina Bokova, Director- General of UNESCO (Message)
http://www.unesco.org
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A Contemporary History live lesson!




Miner Claudo Yanez (9th miner rescued)
(AP Photo)

http://l.yimg.com

"It's a miracle, a wonderful event," 

Bernard Carr, mathematics and astronomy professor

With anxious anticipation increasingly yielding to exuberant celebration, the haggard men trapped under a half-mile of rock for more than two months have been emerging to the arms of their families and an electrified nation.
NYT

The 15 miners already rescued emerge like clockwork, jubilantly embracing wives, children and rescuers and looking remarkably composed today, the 13 October, after languishing for 69 days in the depths of a mine where easily they could have died.


Chile | Fénix
AFP Photo

http://www.google.com/images

Not only Chile or Bolivia or even so Latin America! All over the world people  follows and rejoices with the bravety of those men and the courage of a people who believed always in the rescue of those 33 miners and didn't give up on anyone and worked to protect and save every life.


Chile | Waiting for rescue
http://www.google.com/images






Communications technology — including live video from within the mine — turned the entire world into a global village hoping for the safe release of men they did not know and would probably never meet. It was as if each of us could see ourselves in their place, wondering how we would cope with the sustained terror and then the sudden emergence into the light.


news.yahoo.com




Education:

What a courageous Contemporary History live-stream lesson teachers and students can learn,  following on their media devices this increadible lesson of courage, faith, science and high technology! 

Don't miss this opportunity to enhance the learning in classroom! Today the world made History! 


  • Invite your students to contact on Twitter a Chilean classroom (secondary school) and share with them this wonderful lesson! They can write amazing essays.

  • And why not read and explore in a literature classroom this poem by Ernest Henley, same as well the images of the rescue. Ask students to discuss this poem sharing ideas, and as creative activity, to write some poems (individual or group)  about human courage! 






OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
(...)
It matters not how strait the gate,



How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley, Invictus (1875)




G-Souto

13.10.10
Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®


References:

New Yort Times/ World

Yahoo.News

William Ernest Henley


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Celebrating Agatha Christie's 120th Anniversary at school




Google doodle Agatha Christie

Did you had noticed already? Google are featuring a special Agatha Christie Google Doodle, the "Queen of Crime", on their home page to celebrate Agatha Christie's 120th anniversary. 

It is appearing on the Google homepage in all these countries: UK, Ireland, Slovenia, Romania, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Slovakia, Hungary, Israel, all Arabic speaking countries, Korea, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Spain, Norway, New Zealand, Australia, Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, UAE, Uzbekistan, Finland, Suriname, Macedonia, Japan, & Lithuania.









 Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is the best-selling author of all time.  She has sold over two billion books worldwide and has been translated into over 45 languages.  

In a writing career that spanned more than half a century, Agatha Christie wrote eighty novels and short story collections.  She also wrote over a dozen plays, including The Mousetrap, which is now the longest running play in theatrical history.



Education:

A. Are you a teacher at middle school? Why not motivate your students to participate at Christie Week 2010?



Agatha Christie tea


Students can organise an "Agatha Christie's Week" at your school, share with another students of the school or other schools in another city or country.
They can begin with a pedagogical research on the oficial site:

1. Stories and Detectives
2. The stories of Agatha Christie (using the filter to browse through her stories)
3. Christie's Detectives (M. Poirot, Miss Marple, others) 
4. Reading order (to a bibliography)
5. Sidekicks ( the role of the sidekick in crime fiction) 

But you have more! Let your students have funny moments by gaming learning!

1. Mystery figure game
2. Christie quizzes
3. Christie crosswords (vocabulary in English language)

B. And for the youngest, why not "Play 4.50 from Paddington" (free trial)?
All these activities are available here 

C. If you are a teacher in a High Junior School, don't miss the BBC archive! 



To mark the 120th Anniversary of Agatha Christie's birth, BBC Archive is realising a small collection of radio and television items in tribute to the world's most famous crime writer. We can hear from the lady herself!

What a fantastic tool to introduce crime fiction at English Literature curriculum?! Don't you agree?


For example, don't miss the audio The Misterious Dame Agatha (1st broadcast 1975) or Agatha Christie Interview (recorded 1955) where the writer talks about her lack of formal education and how boredom during childhood led her to write "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", wich was completed when she was still in her twenties...


Some Conclusions:

So as you see, even now we are talking about a formal learning as a non captivating method!

Well, there are a lot of funny and engaging activities about the "narrative text" that you can create and share with your students, on an informal learning in face-to-face teaching. 

Believe me! You will have a motivated classrooom that will learn literature, crime fiction, vocabulary, grammar... to you, "the attitude" of changing methods, and the creative mind to facilitate different learning activities at your young students!


"Colourless green ideas sleep furiously" 

Chomsky


G-Souto

15.09.2010
Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com® 


References:

Agatha Christie

BBC Archive Agatha Christie







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