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Summary for Lesson 1
In today’s lesson we began our study of <i>The Alchemist </i>by Paulo Coelho. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help plan and write the mini paragraphs assigned for homework. The powerpoint contains all our work on the context of the story, thinking in particular about the notion of personal legends and how Coelho’s varied and turbulant life can deepen our understanding of his work. The class spoke beautifully about how they felt they could apply the novel’s philosophy to their own lives, thinking about personal callings and what they have felt moved to do. They also analysed the themes of the book brilliantly, and very effectively navigated the thoughts raised in the introduction of the book, looking at how this holds the key to the meaning and thematic landscape of the entire novel. I was super impressed by their work and their enthusiasm today, and thought they all dealt with some very complex content amazingly. Well done everyone, keep up the fab work and I’ll see you soon! 🙂
Homework
Here is the interview we watched of Coelho: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT8Fkd3CdZs
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Dear Beth,
Thank you for the ultra-fab lesson! Glad to meet you again!
Have a scrumptious Summer Holiday!
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Yiwei
12th July, 2021
To Summer Club Reading-Year567-MonWedFri-0900
Lesson 1: The Alchemist
The MoralThe moral is you must to keep going on your personal legend and to concentrate on the thing that you dream or think that that thing is the best I’ll do it so do not stop at any time of your hope, because when you’re said “This is hard, I don’t want to do it” then it’s all done. You stop and go to do another thing and it waste lots of your life so even though it’s hard you still need to go on your track and when you go to another track you will find that this is hard to and at last you didn’t done anything
The Alchemist tell you that every time you start your life you’ll find out that one of one million try is the best and every time you go ,go ,go ,go you will find that one part is hard and do not give up just keep going. When you go through this you can keep going and to do this thing as the best. And become famous and the entire world will known and proud of you.
Example: I play piano for four years but when I find out that the Grade 3 test is quite hard but I didn’t want to just give up so I keep practicing and finally I pass the test and now I’m grade 5.
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Summary for Lesson 2
In today’s lesson we continued our study of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to revise our work from today. The powerpoint contains all our work on the role of myths and legends in the book, thinking about the significance of The Prologue. We also discussed the notion of metaphorical journeys, which the students shared their own experiences of beautifully, and thought about how ancient the trope is and why. Finally we discussed genre, with the class giving some excellent suggestions and explanations for their interpretation of the genre of the novel. Well done everyone, you were all absolutely fab today! Keep it up 🙂
Magical realism video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZtdhLndVYg
Prologue analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMNiO68gUJg
Narcissus story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35jVsyWFss4
Homework
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decided to have some fun
The alchemist
Resume explained by an idiot
The whole story starts with a kid called Santiago, a shepherd, he always dreamed of traveling. But his dad thinks that this was a bad idea so the speech must have gone like this
Santiago: hey dad I want to be a traveller
Dad: nah mate it’s too bad. At some point in life, you will find that our women are the most beautiful and our food is the best.
Santiago:
One day when he was sleeping in his dilapidated church, he gets the same dreams repeatedly and the dream goes “yeah so I’m going to make you travel across the world to find a “treasure” mate I’m not going to tell you what it is, deal with that. The only thing I’m going to tell you is that it’s near the pyramids.
In the morning he goes to a gypsy to tell her what it was “it’s near the pyramids” (very useful) now she is charging him one tenth of the treasure. He also meets an old king with a shiny breastplate and gives him two pieces of stone (he even gave them cute names) he said “smting smthing omen smthing smthing god and treasure” this made Santiago want to go. He arrives to Tangier where he meets a thief who stole all of his cash (boohoo I know) but he meets a crystal merchant and Santiago be like “hey so I think I can work with you and we can sell tea in crystal cups and they will love it” the whole merchandise blew up and soon Santiago was bathing in money. He decides to move on to his treasure. He finds a desert express and meets a British lad who is looking for the alchemist.
they arrive to an oasis where he finds the most beautiful woman in the world, her name was Fatima and it was love at first sight, then he had some visions that bad guys are going to come and steal all their gold and women, Santiago told the chiel and he agreed. The bad guys really did come, and he got one gold piece for every ten dead, and he ended up with… * dumb kid doing math* aha 50 gold pieces and on top of all that he also find the alchemist. He decides to have tea with him and eat his flying bird of preys they go on a long trip to the pyramids and on their way, Santiago lost: his money, all of it to an enemy tribe the alchemist also said that the kid can turn into wind, and they got three days to prepare. Poor Santiago was horrified, he did not know how to turn into the wind.
Three days later he asked the sand if he could turn into the wind and had to explain how love works and the answer was “sorry mate but you have to ask the wind himself” that was anticlimactic. And after more asking he finally turned into methane and landed next to the troops the chief of the army was shocked to see the young alchemist and said, “oh it’s the power of Allah smthing smthing he’s on our side yay!” and they got let go. The alchemist got bitten by a snake and he put in an incantation with circles and stuff and because he was an alchemist he did not die (that makes me want to be an alchemist) and they arrived at a church. He did some hocus pocus and turned a whole pan of lead into gold and gave a bit to the monk and half to the kid because he could no longer help him.
Santiago arrives to the pyramids and finds a beetle” ah it’s an omen” he thought and started digging, he dug and dug but he found nothing. Some kids found him and started to beat him up and took the gold, one of them said that he once slept here and dreamed of treasure under a tree in Spain. Santiago now knew where the treasure was.
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This is fab Leo! It’s a super creative summary od the book and plays around with the crucial themes beautifully. I love how you’ve written it using colloquial language to make it more accessible and how you’ve used humour to lighten the often very reflective, insular tone of the novel. This is a lovely creative task- well done 🙂
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Summary for Lesson 3
In today’s lesson we completed our study of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help with the homework. The powerpoint contains all our work on symbolism in the novel, which the students analsyed and interpreted fantastically before coming up with some brilliant symbols of their own to insert into the world of the novel. They also gave some fab feedback about the narrative structure of the book, the role of conflict and finally the importance of the danger of fear and how this is communicated through the landscape. They responded to the book creatively coming up with their own excellent re-tellings of the story, and reflected beautifully on what they had learnt. Amazing work today and for the whole of this week- you should all be super proud of yourselves. I look forward to seeing you all again next week, have a lovely weekend! 🙂
P.S. The homework grid is attached below. I’ve put some questions you might want to consider in the left hand column to help you answer, you only need to write a few lines per answer. You can do some research to help you if you get stuck too.
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 1
In today’s lesson we began our study of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help think about the poems assigned for homework. The powerpoint contains all our work on the context of the book, thinking in particular about Victorian ideals, the role of women in society and the extent to which the novel manipulates and rebels against those norms. We discussed the most important themes of the novel, settling on love, hatred, race, revenge and death as some of the most key, and thought about the scandal the book caused when it was published, analysing Charlotte Bronte’s claim that it may not have been “right or advisable to create things like Heathcliff”. Everyone worked beautifully today, I was so impressed with the class’ grasp of what is a very sophisticated and dark story. Amazing work guys, keep it up and I’ll see you in a couple of days! 🙂
P.S. Remember to read Slide 10 which explores the female violence of the novel, and I’ll post the videos I mentioned below
Video on Emily Bronte’s strange life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfl8BeeVs6g&t=1s
Video summing up the context- this is important to watch if you can, it’s only 1.5 mins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYmDyV6OqOo
Feminist critique of the book which you may find interesting: http://carys-jane-bookblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/wuthering-heights-feminist-criticism.html
Homework
Homework poems to read (remember you don’t need to submit anything, just come to the lesson prepared to share thoughts on what these poems tell us about the author and her work): https://interestingliterature.com/2016/01/8-short-poems-by-emily-bronte-everyone-should-read/
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Summary for Lesson 2
In today’s lesson we continued our study of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to revise our work from today. The powerpoint contains all our work on how Emily Bronte’s life and poetry cna give us a lens through which to view the morbid, dark landscape of the novel, the prompts for our discussion on who Heathcliff is and the role his race and social class plays in the novel. The class conducted a fantastic debate on whether or not Wuthering Heights can be considered a love story, and we had a really interesting discussion about why we make excuses for men like Heathcliff, and how the notion of the cycle of abuse plays into that. Really, really incredible mature work today everyone; today’s lesson touched on some complex and difficult material and you all handled it beautifully. Keep up the amazing work! 🙂
I’ll post the articles you can read for homework below too.
Homework
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Heathcliff article: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180725-heathcliff-and-literatures-greatest-love-story-are-toxic
Emily Bronte article: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/21/emily-bronte-strange-cult-wuthering-heights-romantic-novel
Race and class blog post: https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/engl-711-fall2017/2017/10/10/race-and-class-in-wuthering-heights/
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Summary for Lesson 3
In today’s lesson we completed our study of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help with the homework. The powerpoint contains all our work on narration and perspective in the novel, thinking about the notion of unreliable narrators and their motivations, alongside the work we completed on the importance of heightened emotions in the novel (typical of gothic literarture) and the use of pathetic fallacy throughout. The class also participated in a fantastic debate about the supernatural, where we considered its importance to Victorians and analysed Cathy’s death through this lens. Everyone was super enthusiastic and lively today, and I loved hearing all of their brilliant thoughts on the narrative of the book, the presentation of Heathcliff through Nelly’s eyes and their personal opinions on ghosts and ghost stories. Excellent work today guys, see you all on Monday! 🙂
P.S. The links below are really interesting. Give them a look if you can!
Here is the thesis arguing Nelly is an unreliable narrator that we scanned over: https://lsa.umich.edu/content/dam/english-assets/migrated/honors_files/Caywood%20Thesis.pdf
Here is the article on the Victorian obsession with ghosts, with that video about Victorian ghost stories: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/23/ghost-stories-victorians-spookily-good
Homework
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Dear Beth,
Thank you for your scrumdiddlyumptious lesson! I enjoyed it immensely, have a wonderful afternoon!
Have a spectacular Summer!
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Summary for Lesson 1
In today’s lesson we began our study of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which can be used to revise the lesson and also contains the reading homework. The powerpoint contains all our work on the background and introductory elements of the story, including our work on genre, satire and parody, our thoughts on Adams’ view of the absurdity of human life, and the prompts for the class’ evaluation of the best and worst elements of the book. They all worked beautifully today, considering in great depth the ways in which humour is utilised in the novel and gaining a great understanding of the meaning of parody and which Hitchhiker’s qualifies as such. Really fantastic work today everyone, keep it up and I look forward to seeing you next lesson! 🙂
Here is the video on satire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io58hl1Z0TY
Here is a video on parody for an extension task, if you have time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOFB0ZN0piM
Here is the extension article to read (especially if you have been a bit confused about the things Adams is satirising): https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/oct/12/hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-douglas-adams
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 2
In today’s lesson we continued our study of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which can be used to revise the lesson and also contains the thinking prompts they should consider for homework. The powerpoint contains all our work on the themes of the novel, our ideas on the rules of the universe Adams creates, the prompts the class used to create their own ridiculous Hitchhiker-esque rules, and our thoughts on absurdism and how it governs the world of the novel. Everyone worked beautifully today, the class were super energised and excited throughout and came up with some amazingly humourous and creative ideas. I loved hearing about their ideas for their version of ‘Towel Day’, all of which demonstarted The Absurd gorgeously. Well done everyone, I look forward to seeing you on Friday and keep up the wonderful work! 🙂
Here’s the link to the audiobook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmakHVY7xeU
Here’s the link to the video on Towel Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsknPTN1fGI&t=1s
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 3
In today’s lesson we completed our study of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which can be used to help write the paragraphs assigned for homework. The powerpoint contains all our work on the philosophical background of the novel, thinking about the meaning of the number 42 and what Adams is saying about the human drive for meaning. It also contains the students’ work on literary archetypes, thinking about where they can identify these in the novel, their thoughts on different types of humour in the novel, and finally the prompt for their work on Vogon poetry. Everyone worked brilliantly today, they all came up with some fantastic creative responses to the novel and I loved hearing all their thoughts analysing the quotations on Slide 4. Fab work everyone, keep it up and I’ll see you all soon! 🙂
Character archetypes resource if you’d like to learn more: https://blog.reedsy.com/12-common-character-archetypes-every-writer-should-already-know/
Vogon poetry generator: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/vogonpoetry/lettergen.shtml
Clip from the film we watched on the number 42: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZLtcTZP2js
Homework
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<b>Why is Arthur Dent a good choice for the protagonist?</b>
The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the galaxy is a comedic book. The importance of carrying a towel, the moral don’t panic and the number 42, the answer to the crazy question of life, the universe and everything are 3 examples of Douglas Adams wild imagination. But what is the meaning of this book? Surely, the message isn’t the absurd features included?! Actually, he is mocking how mature and yielding us humans are!
As this book is for earthlings to read, Douglas Adams needed a main character who is connected with earth. Arthur Dent is a perfect fit. His personality is very unimaginative, yielding which makes it very clear that he is not curious in what there is in outer space or any places other than the earth and will do anything even if he is unwilling.
Arthur Dent’s action towards the destruction of earth is the reaction of an average person. However, do not forget, the demolition was for just a trivial matter, to create space for an intergalactic bypass. Usually in sci-fi, the earth is destroyed for an essential reason. This would be roughly the reaction from a prudent, not very imaginative person: ” The world’s going to end! Well, I can’t do anything to help so I’ll just wait until it ends.” This person would be a person very alike with Arthur Dent.
Arthur Dent’s reaction to the world ending, which was due to an insignificant reasons instead of a vitally crucial reason, was extremely similar, if not, the same as the prudent, very unimaginative person. Another example of his matureness is how he agreed to be taken into space to become an intergalactic hitch hiker, even though his unwillingness clearly exceeded his willingness.
Arthur Dent is the citizen archetype, his stewardship and accountability are shown in the book. He is loyal in a way that he will do something even though he is not willing. He is also liable as he always seems to be the killer of a hapless hare.
The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is very amusing with its entertaining events but it wouldn’t be like it is if Arthur Dent wasn’t its protagonist. Let’s imagine that Arthur Dent wasn’t the protagonist and visualize that Ford Prefect was. It would be unlikely that people would regard it as comedy. Humour would become scanty as there aren’t enough surprises. Ford Prefect is an explorer and as encountered many surprises before so the reader remember them and become bored. Surprises and imagination are very important in comedy. So if Ford Prefect was the main character in the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, it would be recognized as science fiction.
So thanks to Arthur Dent, Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a success!
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Summary for Lesson 1
In today’s lesson we began our study of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help the students think about the diary entries they need to read for homework. The powerpoint contains all our work on the context of the story, thinking in particular about the history of the Holocaust and how the book handles these themes, thinking about the key relationship between Bruno and Shmuel and how this contradicts Nazi ideology. We also discussed the experience of living in a concentration camp, and the class heard testimony from a Holocaust survivor to help them get a better insight into the experience Shmuel is going through in the book. The class did fantastically today, they dealt with a really tough and emotional subject in a very mature way, considering the history of Nazi Germany with a great deal of thoughtful reflection. Really great work today everyone, keep it up and I’ll see you next lesson! 🙂
Anne Frank’s diary extracts: https://alphahistory.com/holocaust/anne-frank-diary-1942-44/
Here are the stories of the people who survived the Holocaust: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4W3yzYG6DzPBH08Ld0H9L9j/six-stories-of-children-who-survived-the-holocaust
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 2
In today’s lesson we began our study of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help the students with their homework next week. The powerpoint contains all our work on the themes of the story, along with our thoughts on genre and the role of classical tragedy in the novel. We also discussed the ending of the story and ran up against the idea that the tragic ending does not handle the events of the Holocaust in the most sensitive way- which the class discussed in a wonderfully thoughtful and engaging way. They also evaluated whether the ending constituted a plot twist and thought beautifully about how historical fiction can both elucidate and twist reality. Everyone worked fantastically today- well done guys, super impressive work. I look forward to seeing you all on Friday! 🙂
Video on tragedy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6Vz2TCGTKs
The extension reading article on the problem with the ending of this book/ the film version of it: http://opiniojuris.org/2009/02/04/the-problem-with-the-boy-in-the-striped-pajamas/
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 3
In today’s lesson we completed our study of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which can be used to help write the paragraphs assigned for homework. The powerpoint contains all our work on the inferences that can be drawn from the text about the hierarchy of the household in the story, our work on the notion of rebellion in totalitarian states and whether this is reflected in the novel, and our ideas on the perspective of the story and how it is influenced by Bruno’s role as ‘the innocent’ and his misunderstandings over what is going on. Everyone worked beautifully today, the class all shared some gorgeous ideas and were really on the ball when thinking about the effect of the language used throughout the book. Fantastic work everyone, keep it up and I’ll see you all on Monday! 🙂
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 1
In today’s lesson we began our study of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help the students think about the history of book burning. The powerpoint contains all our work on the context of the story, thinking in particular about the history of the Cold War and the McCarthyism that followed, alongside our discussions surrounding the significance of book burning as a historical practice and how the notion of propaganda and altering the truth play into this. We also discussed the genre of dystopia and considered Heinrich Heine’s famous quote: “where they burn books they will also in the end burn human beings”. Everyone contributed wonderfully today, I was super impressed by the sophistication of the debates we had over the nature of truth in a totalitarian society and how the class were able to articulate what books symbolise and represent. Amazing work everyone, I really look forward to our next lesson and hope you have a great week! 🙂
Here is the homework video on the history of book burnings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W01W3yMmxew&t=95s
Here is the video we watched on McCarthyism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N35IugBYH04
Here is the video we watched on the context of the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE2JVmJxQFk
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 2
In today’s lesson we completed our study of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help with the homework. The powerpoint contains all our work on quotations and reimagining quotations from the book, our thoughts on the themes of violence and rebellion, thoughts on the motifs of the book and finally the prompt for students to think about why imagining societies such as the one in the novel is important. Everyone worked beautifully today, I loved hearing the class’s letters of rebellion and thought their consideration of the question of violence was outstanding. It was a pleasure to teach you all and I really look forward to seeing you all again in the future. Excellent work guys, keep it up and have a lovely rest of the summer! 🙂
Here is the video from the lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMZcp0EQO2s
Homework
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