The Road Not Taken

England, Great Britain and the UK. Do you know the difference?

2011-02-02T10:26:00.001+01:00

The other day a friend of my daughter said: "I have lived in England for three years". " Have you?" I asked. "Yes," she said, "when we all lived in Scotland". The girl has just turned six, and I really do not blame her for not quite knowing the difference between England and Scotland. It is a fact, however, that quite many Norwegians do not know that England is only one of three countries in Great Britain, and that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom and has Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. I usually spend some time explaining this to my students, using the board and a map. Next time, however, I think I will play this video to them, simply because it explains it much better than I can do (even though he might consider making a new version where he speaks a bit slower...).

Group assignment on the English-speaking world

2010-09-30T21:46:00.001+02:00

The last couple of weeks, my first year students have worked on a group assignment on various countries in the English-speaking world. I split the class into six groups, and each group was asked to prepare a presentation on an English-speaking country. For this project I also challenged the students' creative sides. I am just feed up with boring power point presentations, and therefore asked them if they could come up with something more creative. All in all I am quite happy with the results. A couple of groups had prepared role plays, two groups had made films, and the others tried to include creative elements in their, well, PP presentations. I must say that my favorite as far as creativity is concerned, was the group who had made their whole presentation into a "Who wants to be a millionaire"-show. The content of their presentation could have been better, but I was nevertheless happy to see that some of the pupils really stepped up and showed their talents as actors/actresses!

As far as assessment is concerned, I asked all the groups to hand in suggestions for assessment criteria, and I used these criteria when making this rubric for assessing the presentations. In addittion, I asked the students to assess themselves afterwards. They needed to say something about how the group had cooperated, how they themselves had contributed in the process, and also what they had learned from the presentations of the other groups. Here are some of the comments from the students:

The assingment was actually very nice. It was fun to have the opportunity to be creative.
I actually learned a lot about the English-speaking world from the presentations of the other groups, it was fun to watch, and I liked that it was a different learning method then we usually use. Eventhough I feel that I am going to forget a lot. This is not the way facts get stuck in my brain.
I think it was fun to do something different in our class. I think it’s good to use different kind of ways to learn English.
The assignment was interesting, but hard.
I enjoyed the assignment very much actually. I'm very interested in geography, and countries, so this project suited me perfect. Although I would have preferred a different country, like Jamaica or South Africa. The reason to this is probably my interests would have suited better to these countries. Like the World Cup in football (South Africa) or Bob Marley’s life and career. But it was interesting learning about Canada too.
From the other groups alltogether, I learned that English is a very common language. The presentations taught me that whereever I am, there is always someone who knows the English language, and that's why it's so important to learn English at school.

I may as well admit that not all the students were just happy about the project. Some were not happy about the country they had been assigned, others complained about groups that did not work. In other words, the usual stuff... My overall impression is nevertheless that they liked the creative part of the project, and that they had some fun working on their presentations. Time will show how much of the material they will actually remember though...

Teaching Roald Dahl's "Lamb to the Slaughter"

2010-09-27T15:42:00.000+02:00

I like to use a lot of oral activities when starting up a new class. There are, at least, two reasons for this. First, I believe it is absolutely necessary for the students to start speaking in class as soon as possible, or else they will remain silent throughout the year. Second, it is important that the students learn to know each other well in order to cooperate in class.

In addition to the oral activities, I usually start a new school year by reading one of more short stories that I know, or hope, the students will like. This year I decided to read Roald Dahl's "Lamb to the Slaughter" with my first year students. Most students are familiar with Dahl's stories for children, like Mathilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. His short stories, however, are not all that well known.

I prepared both pre-reading questions and some questions that were to be answered as we read the story. I believe in close reading, but I also think it is necessary to give the students some questions to help them along. Most of the students could contribute in the discussion that followed the reading of this story; maybe one of the reasons was that quite a few had already read the story. I nevertheless think that this story has quite a lot to tell, both about the relationship between the sexes at the time the story was written, and about how you need to read between the lines in order to catch the author's message.

When searching the internet for material to use in class when working on this story, I came across a film version of the short story on YouTube. I guess the film can also be used in class in order to make the story more alive.

Hello! Is there anybody out there?

2010-08-26T22:03:00.000+02:00

No, I am not going to write anything about Pink Floyd music (although many of their lyrics might be used in class), but I hope there is someone out there who might be interested in cooperating with me and my students. The thing is, I started up with a new group of students today, and one of the first tasks I gave them was to come up with suggestions on how they were to improve their English skills. I do believe all the "creme de la creme" students have come to my English class this year! They had a lot of interesting ideas on how to work with English, and I am happy to see that they share many of my ideas, too. Blogging was suggested (jippi!!), and I have therefore put out a survey for them to see how many would like to start blogging in English. An other idea I found interesting was getting in contact with students elsewhere, either native English speakers, or EFL learners, who could be our online pen pals. Therefore, I ask, "Is there anybody out there?" Are there any teachers out there who would like to cooperate? Please, leave me a comment or send me an e-mail if your students would like to get in touch with mine, and then we will see what we can work out.

Picture: "Atlas,it's time for your bath"

On the road again

2010-08-16T21:25:00.000+02:00

I'm back! It is time for me to go back to school and start teaching again (only for 8 weeks, however), and I must say I have really enjoyed coming back to all my friends and colleagues at school. This first day has been filled with hugs and hellos, but also with information, thoughts and reflections on the school year ahead. I always have plenty of ideas at this time of the year, and I also have ambitions about doing things better, being more organised and more creative than the year before. However, I have been "in the game" for quite a few years now, and have begun to understand that I cannot change dramatically overnight. I guess that my dream is to be one of those teachers who can make an everlasting impression on my students, and change their way of thinking totally - like Professor Keating in Dead Poets Society, or Ms Watson in Mona Lisa Smile. A bit over the top? Probably, but I need to believe that the things that I do in the classroom may be an eyeopener to some of my students, that I actually have something valuable to teach them. At the same time I find it important for me to try out new things, to test new methods of teaching, to teach new groups, courses and topics. Each August therefore represents a new start for me, as it does to many of my students. It is therefore a privilege to start a new school year with a group of first class students. It is a new start for all of us, and I feel lucky to be with them as they start a new chapter in life.

Picture: "Encadré"

Mary Glasgow Magazines

2010-06-11T16:55:00.000+02:00

I am still on maternity leave, but I am always on the lookout for internet resources the can come in handy when I return to the classroom. Earlier today, I received an e-mail notifying me about "Mary Glasgow Magazines". I guess the magazines themselves are familiar to many, but I have not come across the online resources before. On these pages you can find "English resources for teenagers. Grammar, speaking, pronunciation, listening, reading and writing activities in print, audio and video format." I will definitely check out these pages later on!

"The the impotence of proofreading..."

2010-06-09T12:49:00.001+02:00

This is for all teachers around the world who are working day and night marking papers before the summer vacation. Take a look and have a good laugh!

Blog on hold!

2010-03-04T18:25:00.000+01:00

Here is the reason why my blog has not been updated lately, and here is also the reason why it will not be updated frequently the next months. So long!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

2010-02-16T13:14:00.000+01:00

I have received an e-mail from a lady asking me about my experiences when it comes to teaching Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and rather than sharing my experiences with just one person, I will post it here for more people to read.

I have read this novel two times with my first year students. I am sure there are various ways of teaching a novel, but when it comes to this particular novel, I have asked the students to do most of the reading at home. I ususally give them some time in class in the beginning, though, just to make sure they all get started. As they read along, I have asked them to fill in information about plot, themes and characters in a table like this:

One of the advantages of taking notes like these, is that the students are forced to make up their own minds about certain central points in a literary text, and they also need to dig deeper into the text in order to find relevant paragraphs and chapters to illustrate their points of view.

When all the students have finished reading the novel, I have set aside time for group discussions on the text. I usually split the classes into groups of 5-6 so that they will all have to participate. The students' performance in these discussions is assessed. The kind of questions I ask, and how many questions I have to ask each group depend on how talkative the students are, but I usually find that most 16 year olds have quite a lot of things to say about Christopher's story so that I do not have to go through a long list of questions.

All in all, I like using this novel with my classes. Most students find the text quite easy to read, and they can also see that Christopher is different, but not all that different from themselves. I guess it is a good idea that we all see the world through someone else's eyes at times, and I am sure I will read this novel with more students in the future.

I have also written about the novel in these blog posts:

Focus on Haiti

2010-01-28T09:53:00.003+01:00

During the last couple of weeks, we have all seen the pictures and heard the cries for help from Haiti. People have donated money and there seems to be a genuine wish to help the victims of the earthquake. But what will happen to the people of Haiti when the pictures from Port-au-Prince will not reach the front page of our newspapers and the headlines on TV? It is a fact that life goes on and that we tend to forget the things we are not exposed to day in and day out. There is still time, however, to put focus on this disaster in our classrooms, and on the New York Times Learning Network, you can find five ways to teach about Haiti right now. Have a look at these ideas and see if you can find 30 minutes to put focus on Haiti in the week to come!

Photo from nytimes.com

A year on the road not taken

2010-01-15T13:45:00.002+01:00

A year ago I decided to start writing a blog on which I shared some of my experiences from the classroom, tips and ideas for teaching, and reflections on various things related to the English language and teaching English as a foreign lang uage. During this first year "on the road", I have published 103 blog posts and I must admit that it takes quite some time updating this blog. Nevertheless, I find inspiration in the feedback I get from people around the world and am happy to see that others can find some of the things that I publish useful. Since I was first introduced to blogging a couple of years ago, I have spent increasingly more time reading various blogs. If I search for something specifically related to school and teaching, I visit certain blogs, if I need a recipe for my Friday pizza I visit others. There seems to be a blog out there for everyone, and being a blogger can certainly open doors that would otherwise be closed. So I guess what I am trying to say is that I will continue writing on this blog, regardless of the number of readers and followers I have (I have understood that if you really want to brag about the number of visitors to your blog, writing about interior design is a better choice than writing about teaching English...), simply because it gives me something in return. Right now, however, I will enjoy a weekend without preparing classes or correcting papers. That is a joy of life, too, is it not?

Picture: "Birthday Baby"

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”

2010-01-12T19:34:00.003+01:00

It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.
A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity but that would be asking too much of fate!
Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it.
Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?
John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.

At the university, one of the short stories that I really liked was Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper". I have often thought that I should reread the story about the lady crawling around in her room trying to sort out what happens to her yellow wallpaper, but still after so many years I have not found the time to do so. One way of browsing through literature, however, is to visit "Book-A-Minute" web page. Here you can find very short versions of many classics; Perkins Gilman’s 6000 word story is shortened to the following dialogue for example:

The Wife:
I think I'm sick. What do you think, my husband and noted physician?
The Husband:
Nah. But stay inside and don't talk to anyone until you're better.
The Wife:
Now I'm insane.

Perhaps this is the way to impress people by telling them about all the books you have read in just a very short time… I think I would stick to the original versions, though, and the complete version of “The Yellow Wallpaper” can be found on this page. If you have not read the story already, I strongly recommend that you find the time to do so in the near future.

Picture from scaryforkids.com

Native Americans

2010-01-04T17:50:00.003+01:00

One of the benefits of this blog, is that I can go back and find lesson plans I have made earlier and use them all over again. I can also read about the things that worked and the things that did not work in class so that I can make changes and adjustments. With a busy week ahead, it is nice to find plans that I have used and that I remember worked quite well in class. Last year I read W.P.Kinsella's short story "Panache" with my students, and I plan to use the same story tomorrow. I find that one of the challenges teaching literature is to make the students dig into the literary text, to read between the lines and also try to come up with their own reflections on the text. Last year I therefore made this list of activities to the story that were meant to force the students to be active participators that had to think and not just recite what others had already said. Hopefully these activities will work with my students this year as well.

Learning about the Native Americans simply by reading literature is not enough, however. As a point of departure I have therefore planned for us to use a couple of factual texts from the NDLA pages, one text dealing with the present day situation of the Indians, and another focusing on the Trial of Tears. I am really happy with most of the resources on the NDLA pages and find them to be of great help when planning a new topic, so I just want to say thanks to all those who have contributed with material!

Picture:'aniishnabek' from FlickrCC

Bridget Jones's Diary

2010-01-02T14:26:00.003+01:00

In 1996 Helen Fielding published her first novel about the "thirty-something career woman" Bridget Jones, and the book quickly became a bestseller among women. I remember that we all loved this novel, and that some of my friends even started writing e-mails in the style of Miss Jones. Quotes from the book were frequently used, and I guess we deep inside were all happy we were still "twenty-something" and not going to end up like Bridget Jones... Later on, the two films based on Fielding's novels have also come into my DVD collection, and I have seen them both numerous times. This morning while I was searching for a proper picture for my first blog post this year, I came across a reading guide for the novel from Penguin, and although I have never even considered using Bridget Jones's Diary in any of my classes, I must say I got some ideas from this reading guide. Perhaps it would be an idea to compare the novel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, or study the two Mr Darcy's? Perhaps my students would not like it, but I am sure I would...

Picture from workingtitlesfilms.com

… and a happy new year!

2010-01-02T14:09:00.002+01:00

It is the 2nd of January, and in just a couple of days it is time to go back to school. I wonder what the new year will bring. 2009 was a great year in many ways, and I know that I am a priviledged person and do not really have anything to complain about. Still, I realise that I way too often talk about all the things I have to do and that I hardly find the time to do anything fun during the week. My friend and colleague Ingunn wrote on her blog yesterday that one of the things she wanted to do in 2010, was to have more fun. I guess we should all make the same resolution, and if we do not feel that we have the time to have fun, we need to make time. I am not talking about having big parties in the middle of the week, but simply finding a few things in our everyday life that can give us more energy to do the things we actually have to do. Sometimes calling a friend, watching a film, reading a book or listening to some music can be enough to get your spirit and energy up again. Seize the dayand capture the moment!

During my Christmas vacation, I have spent some time correcting some essays, and this time I was really pleased with most of them. And talking about having fun, I just like to share one of the sentences I found in one of the papers. This student was writing about all the things that influence our personalities and actions, and among the aspects she listed, I found the following statement: “ I have a lot of religious ants that have influenced my upbringing…” Who says spelling mistakes cannot make you laugh?

Wish you all a happy new year filled with fun and laughter!

Picture: New Year London Eye 2008

24th of December

2009-12-24T13:05:00.004+01:00

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.

And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

YYY

23rd of December

2009-12-23T23:20:00.000+01:00

The end of a busy day, and we are almost ready for Christmas in my little family. The tree is decorated, every room has been cleaned, and most of the presents are wrapped. The last days before Christmas are always busy, and I guess that is part of the Christmas spirit, too, but now it is time to sit down and relax. One of the Christmas songs I associate with the late night of the 23rd of December is Silent Night performed by Mahalia Jackson. At home, we used to listen to a radio program the night before Christmas Eve, and we all had to hear this particular song before we could go to bed. Then we knew that Christmas was just around the corner!

22nd of December

2009-12-22T18:30:00.002+01:00

Finally, Christmas vacation is here! This has been a busy autumn, I must say I am thrilled to know that I do not have to go to work for the next 12 days. This will be a time for relaxing, playing outdoors, meeting family and friends, reading good books, watch telly, etc. My plan was to come home from work filled with energy today and finish all the Christmas preparations in the house. At the moment, however, I am totally exhausted, and the only really useful thing I think I will do tonight, is watch another film I have to see every December, The Holiday. I simply love this movie, and cannot think of a better start on my own holiday than watching it tonight!

21st of December

2009-12-21T14:42:00.003+01:00

Advent is soon over, and there are only four doors left in my calendar. Today I want to share with you another hillarious moment from the TV screen, "Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean". Maybe we should all set aside some time for playing while we go shopping for the last presents...

20th of December

2009-12-20T23:25:00.000+01:00

My apologies to those who find that my advernt calendar is not useful at all and that it is more or less a collection of YouTube clips. I guess most teachers are busy, busy, busy the last days before the vacation, and I am no exception. I still have huge piles of papers I need to correct, and at the same time I am trying to be super Mum at home, making sure my children will have a Christmas to remember. Therefore, I have not spent a lot of time writing long pedagogical posts on my blog in December. What I have tried to do, however, is collect various songs and film clips that I like to see or listen to in between all the things I have to do in December. Today's blog entry is strongly connected to yesterday's. Among other things, this is a part of Christmas to me!

19th of December

2009-12-20T20:00:00.004+01:00

Back on track after some computer problems during the weekend...

For most of us who grew up in Norway in the 1970s and 80s, watching Disney films on TV was a once in a year happening. On the early afternoon of the 24th of December we could visit the magical world of Cinderella, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck . To me these films and the song that came with them are still among my favorite Disney films, and they bring back good memories.

18th of December

2009-12-18T10:05:00.002+01:00

For some reason, all artist seem to record Christmas songs and give out Christmas CDs. Some of these artists are more successful than others, and I am sure the world would have been quite all right without some of these CDs. On the other hand, I am convinced that the world of music would not have been the same without the one and only Bruce Springsteen. In my opinion, he is one of the best American artists, and sometimes I have also used his lyrics in class. I believe both "Born in the USA" and "Living on a Dream" can be used successfully with students. The video in today's entry is just for fun, though. It is a live performance of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" from London in 2007. Enjoy!

17th of December - Actually!

2009-12-17T12:20:00.002+01:00

Going to work today was quite easy, and planning my lessons has not taken to much effort either. Ever since I started working at Sandvika, I have shown "Love Actually" to my students in December, and today was the day. I cannot claim that there will be any great pedagogical outcome from watching this film, but December is also about traditions and getting into the right mood before Christmas. There are many things I love about this film; great actors, intertwining stories, pictures from London in December, humour and music. "So if you really love Christmas, come on and let it snow"!

16th of December

2009-12-16T08:25:00.002+01:00

This morning it is actually snowing outside my window, and it looks as if we will have a white Christmas this year! Living in an area where we only have daylight for about six hours a day at this time of the year, it is a great help to see something white and bright outside. I hope the snow can give me the energy I need in order to finish the things I have to before the Holidays, so that there will actually be some time for relaxing during Christmas.

Picking something for today's calendar was quite easy, thanks to the snow, because even if the ground is covered in white right now, I am still dreaming of a white Christmas...

15th of December

2009-12-15T21:11:00.002+01:00

Yet another Christmas song on my calendar. "Adeste Fideles" is probably one of the most beautiful songs that I know. It has been a busy day at work today and not all that funny, so it is nice to sit back, to relax and just listen to Enya's version of the song.

14th of December

2009-12-14T10:45:00.004+01:00

I know that not much of what I have published here in December can be used in the classroom, so today I thought I would present something that can actually be used with our students. About a year ago I tested the program GoAnimate, a site where you can crate your own cartoons and animations in just a few seconds. Some of my students tested it, too, and they really loved to play with it. It can be used with all sorts of topics we deal with, and although many of the cartoons do not turn out as serious as we might want them to, it is still a nice activity for student at this time of the year, I believe. The very short animation I have included here was made by one of my daughters last year. It has not been sensured by her mum before being published.

13th of December

2009-12-13T21:24:00.000+01:00

I believe that one of the first English Christmas songs I learned was "Mary's Boy Child". We learned it is school at the age of 9 or 10, and although our pronunciation was probably quite "interesting" and funny, I remember us singing it almost every day in December. The most funny part was when we had one of the other teachers at my school coming in with his guitar and made us all perform a rock 'n'roll version of the song (I must also mention that this teacher changed his hair style every other week, red one week, black and white the next, and that he was far from the stereotypical teacher most of us think of). Sometimes I wish I had more time to sing with my students, but I have realised that it is so much easier to get a group of 10 year olds to sing than a group of 16 year olds. I guess playing some Christmas songs for my students in class would be a nice activity, though, and showing them some "real quality" music videos to go along with the songs may also be an idea. For today's calendar I had planned to find a nice and quite version of "Mary's Boy Child" for you, but when I found this Boney M version I had no choice...

12th of December

2009-12-12T15:23:00.004+01:00

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know..." I guess I am not the only one hoping for a white Christmas. Honestly, I was in my twenties before I had a Christmas that was not bright white. I guess it is just one of the benefits of growing up in a part of Norway that is first and foremost known for its winter activities. As years have passed, I have realised that the green, or rather grey, Christmas is the usual, and that some snow will only come as an extra bonus some years. This weekend, however, the whole family have all gone to the mountains, to the skiing resort Beitostølen. Outside there is a lot of snow and we have been skiing and playing outdoors most of the day. It is a great place to get into the right Christmas mode, and I therefore want to share a picture taken today with all of those who still dream of a white Christmas whereever they are.

11th of December

2009-12-11T15:15:00.002+01:00

Another Christmas song today; "The Little Drummer Boy". I know there are many who have recorded this song, but to me there is only one version and one video that really counts, the one with David Bowie and Bing Crosby. A happy memory from my childhood when we did not have MTV and music videos available 24/7.

10th of December

2009-12-10T21:52:00.000+01:00

Today has been a busy day in Norway and especially in the Oslo area. The most powerful man in the world has come to our capital to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and it seems as if Obama-mania has reached us once again. I have not had the time to watch his speech yet, but I hear many are impressed by the President's way of capturing the audience and convincing those who listen to him. I hope I will find the time during the next few days to watch the speech and read some of the reactions to it, and hopefully it is something we can use in class next week.

Right now, however, it is time to open another door in my blog advent calendar, and today I have picked an extract from a classical novel, namely Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Earlier I have said that I love the book and the film, and to me the scene showing their celebration of Christmas is really nostalgic. I have tried to search the internet for a filmclip of the scene with the sisters singing by the piano, but without result. What I did find, however, is this extract from the novel, and perhaps it is an idea to read the text with the students and then watch the scene together in class afterwards. Sometimes it just works better to read first and then watch, so that the students have the opportunity to make up their minds about the content without watching an adaptation.

Picture from Teach with Movies.

9th of December

2009-12-09T13:04:00.002+01:00

If I were to make a list of my favourite Christmas songs, I am sure "A Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues would have been among the top ten. A different Christmas story, full of energy and power. Enjoy!

8th of December

2009-12-08T22:40:00.004+01:00

There are many films I plan to see when they come to the cinemas. For some reason, however, I hardly ever find the time to go, and I therefore end up watching most films on DVD at home. Hopefully, I will find the time in the busy December month to go see the new version of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol". I find the trailer quite promising and believe it is a film worth watching on a big screen rather than on my rather small television set at home. I know that some of my colleagues plan on taking the student to the cinema to watch it before Christmas, too. Has anyone seen it, and is it a film that most 16/17 year olds would like? I remember showing an older version to a group of students once, and I must say it was not a success at all...

Picture from ba.no

7th of December

2009-12-07T23:55:00.003+01:00

Another "classic" for today's calendar, Band Aid's "Do they know it's Christmas" from 1985. Watch the video and study the hairdos. Those were the days...

6th of December

2009-12-06T23:15:00.000+01:00

I have been in doubt about whether or not I should include today's "Christmas gift" on my blog calendar, but since I have already established that these blog posts are far from serious, I have decided to confess that the "Home Alone" movies are films that I associate with December and Christmas. I would not say they are films that are worth watching if you are looking for some "serious" entertainment, but I at least know that I sometimes just need to sit down and be entertained without having to think at all.

5th of December

2009-12-05T11:07:00.000+01:00

In primary school we had this picture book that we always brought out for Christmas. The book had all the typical Christmas words in it and also some short stories and legends, and I remember that we were quite eager to learn about Christmas and Christmas traditions in the UK. One of the stories I remember from this book is the legend about how the robin got its red breast, and up until this day I have thought that this story was originally from England. I was therefore quite surprised this morning when I realised the the story was written by the Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf. Nevertheless, there are various versions of the story on the internet, and I still find the story to be very beautiful!

Picture from LucyLearns.com

4th of December

2009-12-04T10:55:00.000+01:00

One of the many benefits of working in a team, is that you get great ideas and tips from others. A couple of years ago I was first introduced to the film "The Nightmare before Christmas Eve" by my colleague Rune. I had not even heard about the film before, and since I have never been a big fan of animation I guess I never would have picked up the film at all if I had not been "forced" to see it. At first this film is not at typical "Christmas film", but on the other hand, it is hard not to smile and think of Christmas when watching it. If you have not seen it, you find the whole film on YouTube.

3rd of December

2009-12-03T20:09:00.004+01:00

I have been looking on, this evening, at a merry company of children assembled round that pretty German toy, a Christmas Tree. The tree was planted in the middle of a great round table, and towered high above their heads. It was brilliantly lighted by a multitude of little tapers; and everywhere sparkled and glittered with bright objects. From "The Christmas Tree" by Charles Dickens.

I believe many teachers look for things to do with their students the last lessons before the holidays. At the moment I and most of my colleagues have just too much to do trying to correct as many student papers as possible before Christmas, and we all want something to bring to the classroom that can engage the students without us spending too much time preparing the most brilliant lesson plans. Being a fan of literature, I have therefore searched the internet for literary text about Christmas. The text that I present today is "The Christmas Tree" by Charles Dickens. I believe it is "a must" for all students to read something by Dickens at school, and hopefully this short text can give them an all right introduction to one of the most well known British authors of all time.

Picture

2nd of December

2009-12-02T13:54:00.002+01:00

Today's gift is Wham's classic "Last Christmas". Ever since I first heard this song it has been on my top ten list of Christmas songs. I have also brought this song and video to the classroom today and asked my students to translate the lyrics from English into Newnorwegian. In this way, I hope to make the students repeat Newnorwegian grammar and have a good laugh. When they have all finished I will ask the students to present their results and the class then has to decide on the best translation.

1st of December

2009-12-01T08:38:00.003+01:00

Some years ago I asked my students what they needed in order to get into the right Christmas spirit. I had predicted them to list things like gifts, gingerbread cookies and a Christmas tree, but obviously, they did not have the same expectations to Christmas as their teacher... "We need the Coca Cola Christmas commercial" they all shouted. OK, so I have never been a big fan of Coca Cola, simply do not like the taste and prefer Pepsi or the Norwegian Solo instead, but I do understand why my students like this commercial and that to them this is Christmas. Can it be used in my teaching of English? I do not think so...

A small December gift...

2009-11-30T13:04:00.002+01:00

Some weeks ago, one of the many nights I was awake in the middle of the night thinking about all the things I had to do, I got the idea of having my own Christmas calender on this blog. I guess I have always been one of those who loves December and everything “Christmassy”, and cannot wait to turn the page of the calendar from November to December, and am sorry that there is so little time to relax and enjoy the days before Christmas. I have therefore decided that I will try to post one blogpost every day from the 1st of December to the 24th, and though I will not promise that everything I post will be strictly useful in the classroom, my aim is nevertheless to get my reader into the Christmas spirit. You are hereby warned…

Picture from Clip Art

Pursuing the American Dream

2009-11-20T18:28:00.002+01:00

“America was where all my mother's hopes lay. She had come here in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls. But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better.” From Amy Tan, “Two Kinds”

We all know that the people living in the USA come from every corner of the world and that the US is a multicultural nation indeed. Still, what most of my student mention when they are to describe Americans is either extremely obese people, or wealthy white Americans living in mansions and having more money than most of us can ever dream of. This week, this image of the American people was challenged in class. Rather than putting the focus on the stereotypical American, we have had a look at various groups of immigrants in the USA. Concepts like the “melting pot” and “the salad bowl” have been central, and I have also made an attempt at making the students see that the American Dream is still alive today, even if its nature has changed since the term was first introduced.

As my starting point I have used resources from the NDLA, Nasjonal Digital Læringsarena. I found that they have several interesting factual texts on the topic, like this introductory text about immigration inthe USA. It is not too long, not too complicated, and the questions following the text can provide food for thought for all the students (at least all the students in my class). Further, I have used texts about Norwegian immigration to the USA and the “Melting Pot”. What I plan to do next week, is turn to the experience of different groups of immigrants in the US, and we will read Amy Tan’s story “Two Kinds”. This text can also be found on the NDLA pages along with a reading of the story and various tasks. I also plan on using some of the activities on this page as we read the story (thank you, Ann, for the tip on your blog!). I have not sorted everything out yet, so I will come back to more details and some lines about how things worked in the classroom later on. My hope, however, is that all these texts can help my students understand that the American Dream comes in different colours, and that the US society is way more complex than what the Hollywood movies can show us.

Marking with Markin

2009-11-13T11:46:00.002+01:00

For weeks I have had the program Markin 4.0 on my computer, but I have not come around to using it until today. I had some problems at first finding out how to actually open the students' work in a way that let me use the program, but after some frustrating minutes I finally managed to make it work. My first impression is that this program can actually help me a lot in the future. I do not think it will revolutionise the way I assess the papers, but I believe the students will get much better and more detailed feedback than I have been able to give them earlier. Including statistics that can show them black on white the frequency of certain mistakes will hopefully show them that I have a point when I mention these mistakes in my comments, and including links to resources on the web where they can find more information on the issues can also help some overcome these mistakes and errors. Correcting papers is still a time consuming activity, and I do not belive Markin can help me speed the process up all that much, but if it can help the students get rid of some of the most frequent mistakes, it will, as time goes by, be of great help to me in the future.

Thank God, it’s Friday, by the way. Wish you all a pleasant weekend. I already know how I will spend most of mine – correcting more papers using Markin 4.0!

Dear Mr. President

2009-11-02T17:04:00.004+01:00

The last few weeks we have had an interesting project going on at our school. All the students have been asked to come up with suggestions on how Presiden Obama should spend the Nobel Peace Prize money. They have all written their suggestions into one etherpad-document, and our pricipal has also sent an invitation to the President and the US Ambassador in Norway, inviting them to our school. You find the school's invitation here, and all the suggestions from the students are collected in this document. I am still hoping Mr. Obama will come to Sandvika in December...

Photo: blackcelebkids.com

So, what type of "Halloween teacher" are you?

2009-10-30T11:25:00.000+01:00

I just came across this article on the internet describing four types of "Halloween teachers". I had never thought that teachers would fall into categories according to their likes or dislikes concerning Halloween, but then again, until recently, Halloween has not been a big thing here in Norway either. I am no big fan of Halloween, and try my best every year to prevent my children from joining the others in the street for "trick and treat" (knowing that I am probably not the coolest mum in the neighbourhood either...). I therefore admit that I probably easily would fall into the Scrooge-category and "will treat this day like it was any other day, and may even try teaching more information than normal because he feels it is his duty to make up for the lack of education your other, more fun teachers are offering up on Halloween." My students should probably be happy that Halloween comes on a Saturday this year! Happy Halloween!

Picture from this page.

Checks and balances - more resources

2009-10-27T13:54:00.006+01:00

I just came across this lesson plan about the US system of government. For me it is too late, and also a bit too detailed, to use it all, but I liked the flow chart and plan to use it in class. The internet is great; there is no end to all the useful material I find there!

The Presidents of the USA

2009-10-26T12:50:00.000+01:00

Regionalism, federalism, checks and balances

2009-10-26T12:44:00.002+01:00

I have spent this morning planning tomorrow’s teaching, and as the title here suggests, our main focus in class will be on the USA. Ususally, the students come to class with a lot on their minds when we are dealing with the US, but my experience is that their knowledge about American politics and geography is not the best. This should not come as a surprise, but I believe ~~most~~ many teachers tend to forget that we have been just as ignorant at some point in life as our students are when we meet them in the classroom. I also believe we sometimes forget that one of the reasons we know quite a lot about certain topics, is because we have been interested in learning about them, not only because we were told to. I know for sure I was not all that into American politics either when I was 16.

Anyway, last week I gave all my students a small group assignment on regions in the US. My aim is for them all to know that the USA consists of 50 individual states (if someone can explain to me why so many Norwegians think there are 52 states, I would be happy to know, by the way…), and that there is a great variety from one region to the other when it comes to history, economy, attitudes, etc. As a point of departure, all the students were asked to read the text “America the beautiful”. Then each of the groups were given one specific region they were to present to the others. In the presentations I want all the groups to include information about

history

population

economy, business and industry

geography

famous cities and attractions

and I really hope they have managed to dig up information about all the five points, not just the last one.

After all the presentations, we will turn to politics. I have tried to find some resources on the internet that can help them understand the three branches of government and the system of checks and balances, and I also plan on giving them a short lecture on the topic. If the texts and my lecture are not enough, perhaps these short films can help out:

My entire lesson plan can be seen here.

Presentation from last week's conference at Sandvika

2009-10-14T14:23:00.000+02:00

Hemingway's "Soldier's Home"

2009-10-13T12:46:00.004+02:00

So far this semester we have hardly read any literary texts at all in class apart from Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident, which the students have read more or less on their own. I therefore think it is about time we get around to some short stories. Every year we read at least one short story by Hemingway with the first year students, usually "Indian Camp" or "A Day's Wait". Of the two, I prefer the first one, but having used it in class for some years now I am ready for some change. My colleague Kjetil suggested "Soldier's Home" the other day. I remember spending hours studying this short story in school ages ago, and I cannot remember finding the story very interesting. However, my reading preferences have changed since the early 90's, so I decided to at least find some resources on the text. I did believe that there would be an ocean of pages for us to use out there, knowing for sure that Hemingway is still regarded as a "must" for students to read, but I was proven wrong. Yes, there are many pages on the internet dealing with Hemingway and this story, but most of those I visited were mediocre school papers analysing the theme and the characters, and not what I wanted at all. What will come in handy if we are to read this text, however, is the text itself, which I found on this page.

Photo from "Give me your hands if we be friends..."

Obama and the Peace Prize, part two

2009-10-12T14:17:00.007+02:00

Just a short blog entry to tell a few words of my plan of the week (concerning my English class that is). Originally me and my colleagues had planned to work on the UK the next few weeks and then turn the focus to the USA after Christmas. After we had heard the news about Obama and the Peace Prize, however, we decided to do the USA before Christmas and leave the UK for spring 2010. Last week our students worked on news from the English-speaking world, and this week we will take it one step further by letting them browse the internet for responses to the Nobel Peace Prize. We have also planned for them to write a short news article on the topic. Hopefully the fact that this event will influence Oslo in just a few weeks will make the students see the benefit of working on the assignment, too.

PS! Thank you, Kjetil for finding the online resources!

Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize

2009-10-09T11:14:00.004+02:00

I have just heard that the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize this year will be given to President Barack Obama because of "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples". I must admit this was a surprise to me, but being a fan of Obama, I know I will use this event as a point of departure for my English teaching in November/December. I also know that there is an exhibition at the Nobel Centre in Oslo called "From King to Obama", so planning some work on Civil Rights in the USA seems reasonable. If someone could also tell me how we can get Obama to visit our school, I would be thrilled...

Photo:kosmorama.no

"English - the Language of Rock"

2009-10-08T10:03:00.006+02:00

This week our students in the field of health and social services have started working on the topic "English - the Language of Rock". It is a fact, like it or not, that most Norwegian artists sing their songs in English rather than Norwegian, and one of the things I wanted the students to think about why this is so. It is quite obvious that artists in the whole of Scandinavia have to sing in English in order to reach out to a wider audience than just the other Scandinavians, but why do most Norwegian teenagers prefer listening to English texts rather than Norwegian?

When working on this topic, we want all of the students to prepare a presentation of a Scandinavian artist or group singing in English, and they are also going to present a song by the same artists. To prepare them for this mini-project, we have used the text "English - the Language of Rock" in the textbook "Tracks", and also some pre-reading activities dealing with English and music. You can read my entire lesson plan on this page. As you will see, I also included some grammar in the lesson plan, trying to make the students aware of the use of the definite and indefinite article.

Photo: "Guitar hero"

Markin 4.0

2009-10-06T14:32:00.004+02:00

The week before our autumn break, my first year students all had an all-day test in school, and throughout the vacation I have postponed correcting these papers. Marking papers is not my favorite hobby! Today, however, I received a tool which I hope can help me when assessing written assignments, namely Markin 4.0. I have heard about this tool for some time, and I have also read blogs written by other teachers recommending it. Therefore I am quite excited, and actually looking forward to testing it myself. I guess it will be a slow start and that I will need some time getting used to the buttons and this way of working, but I am still optimistic and do hope Markin will be useful to me, too. I will come back to my experiences later on, but for the time being, I would just love to hear from others who have used it when correcting English papers.

Tip of the day; John Boyne's Website

2009-10-06T11:34:00.006+02:00

The other day I came across an interesting web page, the home page of the Irish author John Boyne. I must admit I had not heard a whole lot about him before, but I guess The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is well known to many. One of the objections to not using an ordinary textbook in class has been that it is hard to find modern literary texts elsewhere. On Boyne's page, however, there is a selection of short stories that at least can serve as a starting point when looking for texts to use in class. Give it a go; the page is well worth a visit!

Photo: John Boyne's Website

Thoughts on a sunny autumn afternoon.

2009-10-02T14:44:00.000+02:00

I know that there has not been much activity on my blog the last weeks, but I simply have not had the time to write anything lately. Last week our school had 21 students and 2 teachers from Delft in Holland visiting, and that kept me busy 24-7. Though it was busy, the week was a success, (at least that is my impression...). We started off by taking all the students to the mountains for two days, and then had some days for sight seeing in Oslo and workshop in school. I believe this is a good way for young people to get to learn each other better, and I also believe some of them learned a few things about themselves during the week. As for the teachers, I hope the exchange gave them a glimpse of what life is like at Sandvika upper secondary.

This week we have had our autumn break, and I have just enjoyed a week off from school. On Monday it is "back to business", however, and I really need to start thinking about the weeks ahead. Usually the period between the autumn break and X-mas is filled with activities, tests and projects, and this year is no exception. One of the things I am really looking forward to, though, is the huge ICT conference at our school next week. It is always inspiring to attend events like this and to get some ideas for my own teaching.

I have just listened to a debate on the radio where people from all over the country have phoned in and discussed teachers in Norwegian schools. It still amazes me that they never invite any teachers to these debates. While Tom, Dick and Harry are free to express their frustration and spell out what a lousy job we do teaching their children, the voice of the teachers is absent. I am not one of those who believe that things cannot and should not be better in our schools, but I find it quite hard believing that everything can be blamed on the teachers. I will not let this debate ruin my lazy autumn afternoon, however. Time to go out in the sun and just enjoy my day off!

Paired reading

2009-09-10T09:18:00.007+02:00

It has been a bit of a slow start in my class this morning. Only half of the students were in the classroom on time, and quite many very obviously too tired to do anything before their first break... Knowing that time flies (and I have also heard that some pigs might fly on a lucky day...), I still have to rush the students through the lesson plan of the week and the topic of Global English. The class I am teaching this morning are the first year students at the course "Health and Social Services", and even if the curriculum is the same as for my other English class, I have to do things quite differently with this group. First of all, almost none of the students in this class likes to speak English in front of the others. Second, many of them are not all that positive when it comes to learning English and some say that there are just too many things they have not learned, so that the gap between their knowledge and our curriculum is too big.

So what do I do? I decided to just go for the text I had planned, "A Global Language" from their textbook Tracks. What I really like about this book is that there is a "shortcut" to many of the texts, so that the weakest students can read a shorter version of the original texts. Today, however, I asked all the students to read the longer text and to use the method of paired reading when doing it. Paired reading is a fairly simple activity and I am sure most have used some kind of version of it at some point in their teaching career. To students sit together and take turns reading one paragraph each. When the first student has finished his/her paragraph, his/her partner has to repeat what the first one has just read. In this way, both students have to be active all the time, either as reader or as listener. I use paired reading a lot in my classes, and I strongly believe this is a good way of working with longer texts. The twist of the day was that I opened up for the students to speak in Norwegian, hoping that that would help them understanding the text.

By now all the students have been through the text twice, once by the paired reading, and once by listening to the text on CD. At the moment the classroom is all quiet and the boy (yes, there is only one boy in this class) and the girls are busy working on some of the activities to the text. The combination of activities from the textbook and from Track's web pages seems to be working fine, and it seems like the slow start this morning has turned into quite a productive working session after all. Indian summer has also come to this part of the country and the sun is shining. I am quite sure it will be a nice day!

Picture: "Early Morning Reading"

Killing them softly?

2009-09-08T14:07:00.004+02:00

Tuesday afternoon and my students are working on a text on English as a global language. It has been a long day for them and for me, and we still have 45 minutes to go. They are all quiet, and it seems most of them are doing what I have asked them to do. On the front row one of the girls has fallen asleep, however. It makes me wonder if I am killing my students rather than teaching them English. Today's ordeal is to apply this reading strategy to the reading of the text, believing that it can help them understand the text, remember the content and also learn a few new words. Perhaps this is not the kind of activity to do at the end of the day, but I simply cannot come up with any creative idea on how to do this differently, and they just have to work their way through this text sooner or later. Maybe next week will be more fun and more action? My dream is to have a collection of activities that are not too time consuming that I could use to spice up my teaching. Any ideas out there?

Picture: thisishowyoudoit.com

"Yes, I can"

2009-08-31T18:45:00.001+02:00

Subject-verb agreement, a never ending story

2009-08-31T18:17:00.004+02:00

Time and time and time again throughout the school year I have to tell my students to check their written texts for subject-verb agreement. It seems like getting rid of these mistakes is almost impossible for some. Several times students have also come to me towards the end of the year and asked me what I actually mean when I say "concord mistakes. I know that we sometimes just have to spell things out to the students, but I must say I get a bit frustrated that they do not ask until the end of the year if they have not understood anything about this grammatical topic...

As an attempt to prevent this from happening this year, and in an attempt to try to teach them all what I mean by "concord" at an early stage, I start off this week's lesson by putting focus on the problem. My plan is to give the students a short introduction to the topic in which I tell some of the basic rules, and that they then work on various tasks individually. Since this will be the first day of English with their brand new computers, most of the activities are taken from a couple of web pages, NDLA and Exploring English. These pages and the activities they offer show me that I am not the only teacher fighting this problem in the classroom...

Picture from "Common English Grammar Mistakes"

The English language - how did it all start?

2009-08-24T12:08:00.003+02:00

One of the competence aims for the first year students that really scared me when I first saw it, is the one that says that the students should be able to "explain the main characteristics of the development of English from an Anglo-Saxon language to an international world language". I guess I have always taught my students about how English came to be a world language, but the history of the language was not a part of the curriculum here in Norway until "Kunnskapsløftet" in 2006. Honestly, I believe the first time I really learned something about the history myself was as a master student at the university, and I therefore thought it a bit over the top to teach my own students about the topic. My opinion has changed, however, and knowing that they have to learn something about the history of the Norwegian language, too, it makes sense to point out some of the similarities between our own language, spoken only by 4,5 million people, and the number one world language English.

Using online resources for most part of my teaching, it has been a challenge to find pages on the internet dealing with the history of the English language in a way that is not too difficult for my students. EnglishClub.com has a page that can serve as a starting point, and I am also happy to find that Norsk Digital Læringsarena, NDLA, has come up with varoious resources on the topic. On this page we can read a short text about how the English language has developed through history, and I particularly liked the audio clip with examples of various varieties of English. I guess the students will also like the "Drag and drop" activities trying to place the origin of various words in the English language. So now that I have found some internet pages that I can use in class, I hope neither language history nor the teacher will scare away the students tomorrow afternoon. It will, after all, be our first meeting this year...

Picture: http://www.llp.armstrong.edu/5800/histho.html

The extended name tag

2009-08-18T18:45:00.005+02:00

It is time to get down to the nitty-gritty stuff and start thinking about teaching again. The students come back to school tomorrow, and the first classes are just around the corner. As an EFL teacher I strongly believe that one of the most important things we can do with the students, is to make them start speaking English as soon as possible. I know for sure that way too many students believe that their English is not good enough, and that speaking a foreign language in front of 29 other students is a nightmare. I was one of those students myself when I went to school. My English is still far from perfect, but I have realised that the only way in which I can improve it is by using the language as much as possible.

I would like to share an activity that I have used in my classes the last couple of years, an activity which usually makes all of the students say at least a few words during the first English class of upper secondary school. It is called (I think...) the "extended name tag" and is something I learned at a course in cooperative learning in Canada three years ago. It goes like this:

Give all the students a sheet of paper and tell them to write their names.

Give them instructions about what to draw in the four corners, like "your favorite city", "a place you would like to go if you could choose anywhere in the world", "your number one hobby", "a place you visited this summer", etc.

When I have done this activity in class before, I have usually put the students pairs of two and asked them to present their name tags to their partner. The partner then has to remember what he/she is told, so that he/she can retell it either to a small group of students or to the rest of the class.

My experience is that most students like this activity. They can talk about things that are familiar to them, and, abracadabra, they have spoken English and learned something about at least one of their classmates at the same time.

Back to school!

2009-08-08T18:58:00.009+02:00

How can seven weeks pass so quickly? What happened to all the things I had planned to do during the summer holiday? Is it possible for me to do them all in the one week I have left before going back to school? Probably not! I believe I had an idea about having everything lined out before the new school year started, but to be honest, I have hardly spent a minute thinking about it at all. The fact that I have not been online for the largest part of the summer can give me some kind of excuse, but strictly speaking, it is called summer holiday for a reason, is it not?

Even though I know the start of the new year will be as busy as the last weeks before the summer, I am nevertheless looking forward to going back to work, to meet all my great friends and colleagues and all the students. A new year means a new start, and hopefully all the work we put into preparation and planning last year will pay off now. Surely we will be able to improve some of the things we have already tried out in the classroom, too; nothing is perfect! Last year I made a "to do"-list for the school year before I started. In January, however, most of the things were still undone, so this year I will not make long term plans and not try to fool myself into believing that I can become this super woman who has all the lectures and projects planned weeks ahead. I am getting older and more realistic as time goes by...

Picture:www.dealio.com

Summer time - and the living is easy...

2009-06-20T18:30:00.004+02:00

The first day of the summer holiday! All papers are assessed, all the students have got their results (luckily my students did quite well in their exams), we have wished each other a pleasant summer, and I am so ready to relax! Eight weeks of lazy summer days lay ahead of me, and I just love it! During the last weeks of the school year I always make a lot of plans about things I should do during the summer in order to make next year's teaching better and less stressful. My ambitions are high this summer, too, but I have learned to be realistic as I have grown older. However, summer has always been the time of the year when I get some reading done. I usually bring a huge bunch of books to our cabin, and since I neither have access to internet nor television there, I actually manage to get through quite many. I have picked five book for a start this summer:

J.M.Coetzee, Boyhood and Disgrace. I have never read anything by Coetzee, so I thought I should give these a try.

Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides. The third year students at my school read this novel this year, and it might be a pick for next year too.

Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar. This novel I read at the university ages ago. I remember that I really loved it, but I cannot quite remember why...

Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway. Another novel from my years at the University. The first time I read this novel I told myself time and time again that I just could not make any sense out of it. In the exam, however, everything in this novel made sense, and I promised myself that I would definitely read it again one day.

I guess this will make me busy for quite some time; at least it is a good start. If anyone in the world of blogging has suggestions for English novels to use in class, please let me know. I really appreciate tips about novels that work!

A real American classic, Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women"

2009-06-17T20:53:00.005+02:00

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.

Louisa May Alcott

I have began preparing the reading list for the course in English culture and literature that I am to teach next year. I actually feel quite privileged doing this job; there are so many literary texts I just love, and now I can pick and choose more or less what I want. Tonight I have tried to search for information on Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, a novel I read many, many years ago, and a film that I have seen time and time again. I guess I am a bit soft hearted; I cried when I read the novel, and I cry every time I see the film...

On a page hosted by the University of Virginia, you can find the entire novel online along with other resources. Although I do believe books are to be read on paper, rather than on a computer, an online version may come in handy if students have problems getting hold of copies, have forgotten their books (yes, that happens in my school too!), if I only want to use an extract of the novel, etc. On a page from Yale - New Haven Teachers Institute they promise various activities which can help "21st century students appreciate Alcott and Little Women." Yes, please! Web English Teacher also has resources on the novel (and a whole lot of other texts), and online-literature.com has information on Alcott herself, resources on her works of literature, and also online versions of her texts.

I loved the novel when I read it, and I would have liked to read it with my students. On the other hand, it is an undeniable fact that this is a really girly book, and I am not sure it would appeal all that much to the boys in my class. Any comments?

It is such a joy being able to spend some time in front of the computer doing things I do not really have to do right now. The last few weeks have been so busy, but now it is time to do things for fun. I found this quote by Alcott on the internet tonight, and believe it illustrates quite well how I am feeling at the moment: "Now I am beginning to live a little and feel less like a sick oyster at low tide." Enjoy your night! Y

“For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice.” T.S.Elliot

2009-06-16T12:03:00.000+02:00

Three days left before the summer holiday and it is time look back at the months that have passed, and it is also time to look forward to August and a new school year. As always, I have learned quite a few things this year, and even if I have now taught the same courses for three years in a row, the experiences are different from the previous years. I feel that this year has been a busy one; new students, new projects, new colleagues, seminars at various places in Norway, student exchange in Holland. Looking back, I do think the year has been great. Some of the things that I have done in my English classes this year have been a success, and here is a list of some of the things I know I will do next year:

Continue using discussion groups rather than class discussions with the first year students. I really feel that these groups have made the students more active and more talkative, and also that this has been an all right way to dig into various topics from the syllabus.

Read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time with the first year students. Almost all the students liked the novel, and my plan is to start reading it quite early in the first semester. Perhaps I will let them read a second novel in the spring term. Reading is good, and can really help all of us to improve our language skills.

Using Exploring English when dealing with grammar, language and text structure. My school has also bought a lot of copies of the book, which I believe will be a nice supplement and quite useful.

Make the students use glogsters and photostories as a way of presenting their material. Much more fun than the ordinary power point presentations!

Watch the film Crash. It always works well with the students, and it is worth seeing time and time again!

So which things will I not do again next year? Honestly, I believe that most of the things we have done this year have worked quite well, and therefore I cannot come up with anything I know I am sure I will not do again another time. There is, however, room for improvement in various ways. As I have said above, I have taught the same courses for three years now, but this does not mean I have done the same things every year. I definitely hope that we can manage to find a way to assess the works of the students that can be less time consuming, but at the moment I am not sure how to do it. I also have some ideas about new things to do in class, new texts to read, etc., but I think I will wait until after the summer holiday to present these.

I would like to end this blog entry by a quite by Napoleon Hill. I think these words can be useful to keep in mind when planning a new school year and in life in general: "Do not wait; the time will never be ''just right.'' Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along. "

Photo: "Papion"

Sylvia Plath reading "Daddy"

2009-06-10T21:03:00.003+02:00

I am one of those who neither liked nor understood poetry in school. My teachers could try their best to teach me about stanzas and metaphors, rhymes and symbols, I simply could not make any sense out of the words. During my years at the university, however, the doors to the world of poetry were opened to me.

At the moment, my brain has began thinking about the courses I am going to teach next year. One of the courses I will teach is English literature and culture, and in tonight's search for material on the internet, I found an interesting YouTube film. It is Sylvia Plath reading her own poem "Daddy", one of the poems I know I spent a lot of time reading and interpreting at the university. I guess this film can be used in class both as an introduction to the poem, if I decide to use it, and to show how the author herself intended the poem to be read.

Mississippi Burning

2009-06-02T18:12:00.004+02:00

There is not much time for blogging these days; the much longed for summer vacation is just 21/2 weeks away, and there is so much to do before the end of term. It is almost time to start looking back at this school year and begin planning the next; I am really looking forward to making the reading lists for my courses next year, but I guess I have to wait at least one more week before I have the time to do so.

In this blog entry, however, I just want to write a couple of lines about one of my favorite films (I guess all the films I have mentioned here so far have been on my list of favorites...), Mississippi Burning from 1988. The first time I saw this movie I really did not want to believe that it is based on a true story. How can something like this happen in a country like the USA? Is it really possible that you cannot even trust the police?
I guess I have always been particularly interested in the US in the 1950's and 60's and in the Civil Rights Movement, and this is also a topic many of the students have some knowledge of, too. But reading about Rosa Parks, the March on Washington and Martin Luther King jr. hardly gives us enough information on what segregated USA was like. Perhaps this film does not give the true picture either, but in my opinion it is definitely worth watching when working on this period in American history. I have therefore listed some resources on the story under and hope they can be of some help when preparing how to use this film in the classroom.

Mississippi murders revisited

Mississippi burning trial account

The "Mississippi Burning" Case

On this day (from the BBC)

O, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

2009-05-27T21:30:00.002+02:00

One of the great things about being a teacher and not using an ordinary textbook, is that I am free to present material that I really like myself to my students. This week, for instance, my two groups have worked with "The Road Not Taken", and tomorrow we will watch Romeo and Juliet, the modern version. I guess that I would actually get more credit if I asked my students to read the "original" Shakespeare, but I quite honestly believe that a short extract from the play, the obligatory balcony scene, and the film will be sufficient for the first year students. After all, students and teachers are both tired at the moment; with the summer vacation only 3 1/2 weeks away we all need to tie the loose ends.

I have seen Romeo and Juliet many times, and even if the ending is so well known to me, I cannot help but hoping that this time, Juliet will actually wake up in time. I guess I am not the only one hoping for this happy ending, and Anne has suggested we let the students watch the video and read the lyrics to Taylor Swift's "Love Story", so that Juliet can finally get her Romeo...

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

2009-05-20T13:44:00.004+02:00

My colleague Anne and I are planning next week's teaching, and Anne came up with the great idea of working with poetry. So far we have picked four poems, one of them being my favorite "The Road Not Taken". The way I see it, Frost poem is fairly straight forward so that everybody can say something about it without going too deep into metaphors and rhyme patterns. It has always been my belief that we need to help our students see the beauty of poetry before killing the joy by putting too much focus on terminology. I guess that deep inside I would like to be a teacher like Mr. Keating in "Dead Poets Society", a teacher who dares to be different, controversial and who really manages to make a change.

However, at the moment I am far away from being controversial in my teaching (at least I hope so), and I am not sure I will manage to make any great changes either. I do hope though, that our day with poetry can make the students see that there are different kinds of poems, and that somebody may find pleasure in reading them too.

I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you - Nobody - Too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise - you know!

How dreary - to be - Somebody!
How public - like a Frog -
To tell one's name - the livelong June -
To an admiring Bog!

Busy as a bumble bee and far away from home

2009-05-18T20:47:00.003+02:00

OK, so I might as well admit it: I am exhausted! The last days have been busy from beginning to end. I have just returned from Holland where I spent a week with my colleague Anne and a group of 21 students from my school. We were invited in an exchange program at Grotious College in the city of Delft, and I must say, this school really knows how to take care of their guests. We were taken around in Delft and also to Amsterdam and Zeeland, and we also had the time for lectures and workshops at the university. The topic of the week was “Water management”, and it is fascinating to see how the Dutch actually deal with the fact that such a great part of their country is below sea level!

All our students lived with Dutch families this week, and the feed back they have given so far is united: they loved it! Some had, of course, seen that there are cultural differences between Norway and the Netherlands, even if it only takes us a couple of hours getting there. The overall impression, however, is that they had met great people, and some have, I am sure, made friendships for life. Today they told me that they had been busy on the MSN during the weekend, and they have already started planning what to do during the return visit in September.

For me, this was the first time ever going abroad with students, and I am sure it will not be the last. During the week in Delft we also had the time to talk to not only Dutch teachers, but also teachers from Rome and Milan, and hopefully, the result of these talks will be more exchanges for Sandvika Upper Secondary.

Two days of recovering from the week in Delft was not enough for me (maybe Norway’s triumph in the Eurovision Song Contest and the celebration of Norway’s national day also are to be blamed), and coming back to school was harder than I had expected. No time to rest, however; 13 of my students will be doing their English exam on Wednesday and they had a lot of questions to ask their teacher today… There are also more papers to correct, presentations to assess and new projects to plan. – Must be a sign summer is not too far away!

"The Darling Buds of May"

2009-05-04T21:54:00.003+02:00

We have now come to my favorite month of the year, May. Spring has come quite early to the Oslo-region this year, and already the grass and the trees outside my window are green. I have just spent three days at our cabin in Østfold and had a real taste of summer; children walking barefoot in the grass (even if their mother told them repeatedly to put some shoes on!), boats on the sea and birds singing in the trees around. It all tells me that my much longed for summer vacation will come this year, too. At the moment, however, "rough winds do shake the darling buds of May", and I barely have my head above water. How come there are always so many loose ends that need to be tied at the end of the school year? Why could I not for once have made plans that did not leave me with piles of papers to correct at the most beautiful time of the year?

Nevertheless, the next few weeks will be quite interesting, too. This Saturday, my colleague Anne and I are going to the Netherlands with 21 of our students. We will spend one week at Grotius College in Delft; all our students will be staying with Dutch students, and we will stay with Dutch teachers. Although it will not be a vacation, I am really looking forward to going there, and I believe this is a great chance to get to know my own students even better and in a different way.

Shortly after we return from the Netherlands, I will go to Kristiansand, Førde and Ålesund to participate at three workshops on evaluation and assessment. The plan is for me to share some of my experiences in that area, and hopefully planning the presentation can also make me see what I need to change. I one day hope to find a magical formula which can really help me when it comes to correcting papers; at the moment I feel that I just spend too much time showing the students what kind of mistakes they make, without really knowing how much they actually learn from my comments. Know the feeling?

Photo: "Through the glass"

Helpdesk

2009-04-29T11:05:00.000+02:00

She's a lady!

2009-04-27T15:31:00.005+02:00

Today one of my students asked if she could do her individual project on Barack Obama, but as we spoke I asked her if she did not find it more interesting focusing on Michelle Obama. I do like President Obama a lot, and I am also fascinated by the first lady. She seems to "have it all", and in just a few months she has grown to be well respected and tremendously popular. The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten wrote yesterday that Michelle Obama is actually more popular than her husband, and that American women run to the fitness studios hoping to get biceps like her. Why has she become an idol and role model for American women in such a short time? How important is it for the President of the USA to have a popular lady by his side? "Behind every great man, there has to me great woman"?

Anyway, all people interested in the daily life of the first lady of the US might want to visit "Michelle Obama Watch" or "The Obama Family White House".

Resources to be trusted?

2009-04-23T09:26:00.007+02:00

When working on a topic and searching on the internet for information, one page leads you to another, and almost by coincident you can come across many interesting sites and articles. But sometimes, I wonder about the quality of what I find on the web. This morning, I just very quickly needed to check the years of the Anglo-Irish War, and a google search led me to some BBC-pages on the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Irish War of Independence. The pages seem to be written according to the "Wikipedia principle". I would like to know more about these pages, as they promise to be "your guide to Life, the Universe and, well, Everything". Does anyone know anything more? Has anyone used these pages in their teaching, or maybe someone has actually written on of the articles? I would be happy to get some comments.

Photo: "Wired"

Preparing a project

2009-04-20T14:54:00.007+02:00

The last thing on our "to do"-list with the students this year is a project. Our curriculum says that the student shall be able to "choose an interdisciplinary topic for in-depth studies within his or her own programme area and present this". At first this seems to be both an interesting task and an activity in which all of the students should be able to show themselves at their best. However, the last two years have shown that this is not always the case. Many find it hard finding an approach to their projects and end up handing in cut-and-paste essays on famous football players and film actors. Boring! My question is: how can we help our students come up with interesting topics for their projects? How can we teach them to actually do some kind of research rather than spending a whole lot of time copying from the internet? I have made a suggestion to a project outline, but would very much appreciate some tips and help from others improving it, and hence making the projects more interesting.

Photo: "Help"

In between correcting papers..

2009-04-20T09:51:00.000+02:00

There has not been a whole lot of time for blogging lately. I guess all teachers recognise the feeling of despair when you have too many papers to correct and simply not enough time to get your head above water? I really hate those weeks (and there seems to be more of them every year!) when I have to spend every night and every weekend correcting termpapers! However, it can also be kind of an inspiration when I see that some of my students have actually taken the advice I have given them, and really done a great job on their all-day tests.

I guess correcting papers would not be such a burden if I did not have to plan all my lessons and teach the entire week at the same time, but that is life. Some weeks ago I told about planning how to deal with the troubles in Northern Ireland in class, and that I find it quite hard knowing where to put focus. Due to various circumstances, we have not come around to teaching this topic until this week, and in the last minute I made some adjustments to my original plan. Teaching English in the same group for five hours (5 x 50 minutes to be accurate) in one day, means that I have to make sure the activities are varied and that the students are given "food for thought" in various ways. As an introduction to Northern Ireland I played Sinead O'Conner's This IS a Rebel Song to the class, and asked them what they knew about Northern Ireland and the conflict there. Most of them knew quite a few things, and it felt great to see that they actually tried to explain what was going on, even if they really did not understand it all (who can blame them...). The students were then to work in pairs with the text called "13 questions on Northern Ireland" and U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (see here for more details on the activities), before I gave them a short lecture on some central historical events.

We finished off by reading the short story "The Sniper". I have used this text in class the last four years and it works every time. It might be that it appeals more to the boys than other stories and that they get more talkative, or it might just be that the students find the ending surprising and perhaps even shocking. Anyway, my exerience is that they really like to talk about this short story, and when asked to pick any story that they have read in school, quite many pick this one.

So much for Northern Ireland and this week's teaching. Sometimes when I correct papers Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by woods..." comes to my mind:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

I am looking forward to running around in the woods soon!

Photo: "Leave me alone, I know what I'm doing!"

"A little madness in the Spring!

2009-04-15T21:32:00.004+02:00

A little madness in the Spring

Is wholesome even for the King,

But God be with the Clown —

Who ponders this tremendous scene —

This whole Experiment of Green —

As if it were his own!

Poem 1333, Emily Dickinson

Photo: "Daffodils on black"

Cooperation makes my world go round

2009-04-07T12:03:00.000+02:00

Earlier on this blog I have told how much I appreciate cooperating with my colleagues, and how important team work is to me in my everyday life. The internet gives us the opportunity to cooperate also across boarders. My colleague Ingunn introduced the network "Del og bruk 09" in February, and already the network has almost 1000 members. This shows that people want to share and want to cooperate with others. For a long time, I have hoped to get in touch with teachers from other countries and to get some kind of network which can help me and give me information in my everyday life and work. My dream is also that I can get in touch with teachers in English-speaking countries that want our students to start communicating. I am therefore quite pleased that I have received comments and e-mails from England, South Africa, the USA and from every corner of Norway since I started writing this blog. Thank you, all! It is a great inspiration!

At the moment I am enjoying ten days off from work. Although I have piles of papers to correct, I spend most of the time outdoors skiing, playing with my children and really enjoying the beautiful spring weather that has finally come to our area. It feels great to unwind and to refill the batteries after a long and busy winter!

Happy Easter!

Photo: "With you on our way...Let's go!"

Easterbunny from: http://thediaperdiaries.wordpress.com/2008/03/

Please, do not forget...

2009-03-28T12:27:00.001+01:00

Electing a US President in plain English

2009-03-26T09:28:00.000+01:00

Blogs in plain English

2009-03-25T20:17:00.001+01:00

When different cultures meet

2009-03-24T11:19:00.000+01:00

Last weekend, while I was preparing this week's teaching, I searched the internet for texts that could tell us something about the present day situation for young immigrants in the UK. I believe things must have changed since the early 70's when East is East is set, and I have realised that I simply do not know enough about the situation today. I cannot remember having heard about racial problems in the UK in the news lately, and I do not know too much about Britain's policy either. So, if someone has any good ideas, please enlighten me!

What I found, however, are many texts which illustrate the conflict between first and second generation immigrants, and I include a list of these under. What I fear when dealing with texts like these, is that they only focus on the negative aspects of growing up as part of two different cultures. Surely, there must be good examples of people, in Britain and elsewhere, who find that this is actually a positive thing too?

Texts:

Brick Lane

A Home from Home

A Pair of Jeans

My Son the Fanatic

How I was taught to be a proper English schoolboy

An immigrant story

Generation conflicts in Asian families in Great Britain

Born abraod

Photo: 'I have rised up by my university+books...'

Term papers, grammar, multiculturalism and a dog

2009-03-22T15:42:00.018+01:00

Right now I feel panic and frustration lurking in every corner and corridor; there are so many things I should have done, and there simply is not enough time for it all. Tomorrow I will meet one of my groups for the last time before their term tests next week, and the main focus will be on the upcoming tests. This term test will be the last chance for the students to really show their skills when it comes to writing English papers, and I will therefore start this week's lesson by giving them time to browse through all the comments I have given them on their papers this year, and also time to dig into various grammar topics. I made this collection of task and activities on grammar last week, hoping that everyone would find some exercises that could help them improving their grammar. We started working on these exercises last week, and I hope that some saw that this could actually help them; many asked if I could explain a bit more, and some said that they finally understood why I corrected them when they wrote "everybody are doing their best." Most of the exercises in this lesson plan are taken either from the Tracks/Passage pages or from Exploring English. I find it useful that these pages explain the grammatical topics in Norwegian, and that the English terminology is listed at the same pages.

This week I have also planned to continue working on multicultural Britain. The film last week was a success, and this week it is time to look at some facts and figures concerning immigration to the UK and how multiculturalism affects the British society. As I have said before, I have had some problems finding up to date-information on the topic, but hopefully we will manage by the resources available. My idea is that the students are to work in groups of four preparing a presentation on multiculturalism, hoping that a group activity will keep most of them busy and forcing them to read some of the texts I have picked out for them.

Last stop on this week's agenda is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Most of the students have managed to get hold of a copy of the novel, and it is time to start working on it. Knowing that reading is not the favourite occupation of many of the students, I believe it is necessary to give them time for reading at school, at least in the beginning. I suppose most of the students will find that reading the novel is not all that hard, and therefore I want them to do a close reading of at least parts of the book. My colleague Ann gave me the idea of letting the students pick out central paragraphs in the novel and then to explain their choice. I have therefore planned this rubric for them, and I will introduce it before they start reading so that they know what to put focus on. My colleagues Anne and Kjetil also suggested that we put focus on the characters and Anne has prepared this rubric in which the students have to fill in information and reflections on the various characters we meet in the novel.

My guess is that I have more than enough activities to fill the days this week, too, and that I have probably tried to squeeze too much into one day. My main goal, however, is to present activities that will engage my students in various way, and that they feel that they have actually done a good day's work by the end of class.

Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/62518311@N00/86907303

American slang vs. English slang

2009-03-17T20:17:00.006+01:00

We sometimes like to think that there is just one kind of English, but closer examination shows that there are so many expressions that are to be found in one part of the English-speaking world only. So if you are one of those who believe they are in total control of the English langage, take part in this competition between Hugh Laurie and Ellen Degeneres and see if you know the meaning of expressions like "flossing", "chin wag" and "ba-donka-donk".

To blog or not to blog, that is the question!

2009-03-17T09:26:00.005+01:00

Lately some people have asked me if I use blogs in my classes, and the answer is yes and no. I teach both Norwegian and English, and I use blogs in my Norwegian classes and my goal is to start using it in my English classes, too. I was first introduced to blogging by my colleague Ingunn Kjøl Wiig in January 2008, and we decided that we wanted to try it out with our students. The project was met with some scepticism, but we nevertheless got all our first year students to create their own blogs and to use them in the Norwegian classes for roughly five months. When analysing the response from the students, we saw that the majority of the students were positive to blogging, and that quite many liked blogging as a means of communication. We therefore decided to continue using blogs with the first year students this year. Most of the time I give my students various assignments on a blog called DigiTalt, and ask them to write their answers on their blogs, but I have also told them to write about things that interest them. Personally, I like this way of working. It gives the students a chance to write more freely than in the traditional papers, and I also believe I get to know them in a different way than through ordinary classroom activities.

Having used blogs in my teaching for about a year, I am now ready to start using it in my English classes, too, but I have put it on hold until the next school year. There is simply too much going on right now, and neither I nor the students have the capacity to start new projects at this time of the year. My colleague Ann S. Michaelsen, however, has had all the students in her English class use blogs this year, and I recommend you all to have a look at their pages (you find links to their blogs on Ann's page). If you consider using blogs with your students, I just want to say: give it a go! It is great fun!

Picture: Blogging Readiness

East is East and multicultural Britain

2009-03-16T15:08:00.017+01:00

Walking the streets of almost any British city you meet people from all corners of the world, and stating what is typically "British" gets harder and harder. Ever since World War II a great number of people from the former British colonies have come to England in pursuit of a better life. All these people have, of course, given their contributions to the British society and influenced post-war Britain in various ways. This week we wanted to put focus on multiculturalism in Britain in class, and as an introduction to the topic we showed the movie East is east. The film is hillarious, but there is also a serious tone throughout, displaying the problems second generation immigrants face in Britain early in the 1970s. Growing up with a strict Muslim father from Pakistan and a more liberal British mother, the seven children in the Khan-family find themselves torn between the wishes of their father and their ever-growing identity as British.

In an interview the author of East is east, Ayub Khan-Din, tells that there are many parallels between the story of East is east and his own life: The parents are drawn directly from my own family. The youngest boy, Sajid, is me as a child. All the arguments in the film, all the theories behind the father's way of thinking, are my own arguments and theories which I developed from writing the first draft of the stageplay to the last draft of the screenplay. The different issues, the different aspects of different relationships - they're all very similar to my own background. Hence we can probably see the film as a realistic portrait of what life was like for young, ethnic Brits at the time. But what is the situation like today? Is the gap between the generations as wide as it used to be? Do second generation immigrants face other problems in Britain today than they did 40 years ago? I have tried to find some resources that could highlight some of these questions, but I have not found many yet. "The truth of multicultural Britain", published in The Guardian in 2001, is quite informative, however, telling how there is not "a single 'ethnic minority experience' of life in Britain", but a complex pattern of opportunity and disadvantage with as many differences within and between different ethnic groups as can be found by comparing the 'ethnic minorities' to the general population. An other page I like is the UK in the USA-page where we can read about the history of immigration, and also about how Britain is a result of its post-war immigration history. "Everything in modern Britain - from music and fashion to food and language - has been shaped by different ethnic communities, cultures and social groups," the article says, and in this way we may all be seen as influenced by this multiculturalism. One final page worth mentioning is the BBC page on the history of immigration from the 250 AD to the present.

Photos from allmoviephoto.com

"By working together we can change the world!" - Bono

2009-03-12T15:55:00.010+01:00

Lately I have started watching and listening to the TED talks, and since I am in the middle of planning my lessons on Northern Ireland, I decided to have a look at this speech given by U2 vocalist Bono in 2006. We all know that Bono is so much more than a rock star, and that he has shown so much commitment when it comes to aid for African countries. Of course, this is also his main focus in this TED talk, but what I find interesting is that he starts off talking about how technology has really changed the world and how this development can actually help us helping the poor people in the world, too. Bono's speech and what he tells is really a wake up call for me, and though it has not really anything to do with my teaching of English at the moment, I really recommend others to take the time and listen to what he says. "By working together, we can change the world," he says, so lets start networking and actually do something!

Northern Ireland - trouble once again

2009-03-10T17:29:00.014+01:00

The last couple of days we have seen that the conflict and the trouble in Northern Ireland have not come to an end. Since Saturday two soldiers and one policeman have been murdered, and there is much unrest in the Ulster region. The Continuity IRA, a dissident republican group, today claimed responsibility, saying that "as long as there is British involvement in Ireland, these attacks will continue."

For years I have tried to really understand what this conflict is all about, and though I believe I have managed to see some of the lines, I find it really hard teaching this to my students. First, I find that they do not have enough knowledge of British history to understand how the problems could have started in the first place. Second, I believe that most Norwegians think that the conflict is just about religion and that you can simply say that Catholics and Protestants disagree on how Northern Ireland should be governed. How much should we teach them? Do Norwegian students have to know all the details about the conflict, or should we just try to give them a simplified version of Irish history? I have often used the textbook Passage's "Thirteen Questions about Northern Ireland" to be a good starting point when teaching this topic. This text gives answers to many of the questions that the students have, and it helps correcting misconceptions. I like to present more facts than there is in this text, but for some students these thirteen questions will suffice. For those who really want to go in depth on the topic, I believe this BBC page is a place to start. Here you find information on all the central events and people involved, and the page is well structured, so finding what you are looking for should be fairly simple. I have also browsed through a couple of pages on the internet, and I guess both BBC's history page and infoplease.com can be used, at least when preparing for the lesson.

I still have a few days left before putting focus on Northern Ireland in class. I guess I must wait almost until the last minute before I decide my approach this year. After all, it would not make a whole lot of sense talking about history only when the situation is as it is in the region at the moment.

PS! Please take the time to listen to Sinead O'Conner's beautiful song "This Is a Rebel Song". It is really worth the time!

What is English?

2009-03-09T18:52:00.002+01:00

We are surrounded by the English language. Everywhere we go we can see or hear English words, and if you know some English you can make yourself understood in any part of the world. As English teachers we know, however, that English has not always been a world language, and that there are several factors that can help explaining how English gained the position it has nowadays.

One of the competence aims for my students is to be able to "explain the main characteristics of the development of English from an Anglo-Saxon language to an international world language". Earlier this year we put focus on colonisation and how English became a world language. This week, however, our focus has been on how English developed from Old English into the language we know today. When preparing for this class, I came across this timeline on a BBC-page. This is quite informative, even if it takes some time clicking into all the different objects on each page, and I really like that it has some examples of how the various variants of English sounded like. I also used a page from Gyldendal's book, Experience while working on this topic in class (click "Global English" and then you will get to texts and activities). What I like with both of these pages is that they engage the students, and that they present the information in more than one way. I know that many of the students find it a bit uninteresting learning about how the English language has developed, and that some of them therefore do not read the information as carefully as I wish for. In order to make sure they heard it all once more, I gave them a lecture dealing with the same material that they had already read. In this lecture I have tried to make it quite simple and not give too many details, and I have also tried to give examples of central texts from various literary periods. I have published my power point presentation at SlideShare, and I have also posted in below for those who would like to have a look.

View more presentations from lkhogvold. (tags: language english)

At the end of the day I asked my students to do a "Find someone who...", in order to make them rehearse the material. "Find someone who..." is quite simple actually, and it engages the students and gives them some energy. What you do is that you prepare a sheet with questions like"Find someone who can tell you about the Celts", "Find someone who can name the cases in Old English", etc. The students then walk around in the classroom trying to find someone who can actually help out. The person who gives away the information has to sign the sheet, and the owner of the sheet then has to move on to find someone new who can answer the next question. When they have had all the questions signed, I usually spend some time going through the questions in class, and the idea here is that it is the one who has signed the paper who has to answer, not the one who owns the paper.

I will probably not spend a whole lot more time on the development of the English language this year, but I just want to include a couple of web pages which might be useful the next time I work on the topic. The first one is from EnglishClub.com and it gives the short-short version of the development. The second article is written by Philip Durkin, Principal etymologist at the Oxford English Dictionary, and here he has chosen five events that all participated in shaping the English Language.

I do not expect all of my students to give a detailed account of how English has developed from being an Anglo-Saxon language into being the language number one in the world today. My hope is, however, that the texts that they have worked with this week can give them a better understanding of what English really is.

Photo: Wikipedia

Guns, violence and school massacres in the USA

2009-03-09T12:10:00.008+01:00

One of the topics that most of my students find interesting is gun control and school violence in the USA. The debate about gun control is quite far from our everyday life here in Norway, and this might explain why the students have so much to say when talking about it in class. This week I gave my students two articles from BBC, one called "America's Gun Culture", the other "Firearms: A Civil Liberties Issue?", and asked them to prepare a list of arguments for and against stricter gun control. Then, in groups of six, they were asked to discuss and to defend their arguments regardless of their personal opinion. The discussions were a bit slow at first, but when someone dared to present a provocative statement, the others were quick to respond.

Other years, I have used Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" when working on gun control. This year, however, I have not found the time to do so. I have nevertheless shown this presentation of American history taken from the film.

Under is a list of more articles on this topic. Some of these articles are a bit old, but they can still work as a point of departure in discussions and for giving more information.

When children kill

Case studies: Gun control

Guns: The Law As Selling Tool

You should also visit my colleague Anne's blog to see her lesson plan on gun control.

About "About a Boy" and reading in general

2009-03-02T14:02:00.002+01:00

Earlier I have told that I have used Nick Hornby's novel About a Boy in class several times. I think this novel is great, that it provides food for discussions, and that the language is not too complex and difficult for Norwegian 17-19 year old students to cope with. It is a pity, though, that many of the students think that they can just watch the film instead of reading the novel. Personally, I really love the film, too, but I believe some central scenes have been omitted and that the book is so much better. I also find it a bit sad that so many of my students are so negative when it comes to reading literature. I know that it takes a whole lot more time getting through 300 pages in a novel than watching the film, but what about slowing down the pace once in a while, enjoying a good book and a moment of peace? Since I have always loved reading, I really have a hard time understanding that some people simply do not like reading, and that well-equipped bookshelves are not to be found in every house. On the other hand, I have never liked football, and know that many cannot understand how I survive without watching a single match...

Anyway, About a Boy has been replaced by The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time this year, but I have nevertheless collected some online resources on the novel, in case I will use the book another time. British council has this page on Nick Hornby and his works, whereas at Penguin Readers I found a factsheet which can help us teachers preparing for this novel. On the page of Manitowoc Public Library I also found a page on the novel, on which there are also some questions for discussion, and finally, we have the Nick Hornby homepage where there is material both on About a Boy and on the other Hornby novels. Enjoy the novel!

Building paragraphs

2009-02-26T10:13:00.012+01:00

I have just corrected another pile of papers written by my students. The topic of these papers was the film Whale Rider and the culture of indigenous people. Many of the students said that they found the essay questions a bit harder than usual this time (but that is just natural, is it not, knowing that the exam is just three months away), but I still feel that many had managed to come up with fairly good answers anyway. What I usually do when the students write at school, is that they write for a certain amount of time, they hand in their papers and I correct them. Then it is time for feedback and for the students to read my comments and correct their own mistaks. This time we decided to do it a bit differently, however. The week after they had written the papers, they were all given some time to go back to their texts and work on the language. We even allowed them to work in pairs and to give each other feedback on what they had written. When correcting the papers I could clearly see who had taken this seriously and who had not. In many of the papers there were almost no spelling mistakes, and there were also fewer grammar mistakes than usual. This made my job a whole lot easier.

Even though the language part seemed to be better, many of my students still have problems structuring their papers. There is often no logical order in how the various points are presented, and sometimes the paragraphs are so poorly structured it totally ruins the message of the paper. My number one task this week was therefore to put focus on paragraph building and text structure. I first gave them a presentation in which I told them some of the basic rules when it comes to writing papers. In this presentation I have also included some small exercises to keep the students busy. They were then to work individually on various exercises and activities I have found on the web page of Exploring English. The students all worked quite well on these exercises. Hopefully it will pay off when their writing their term papers next month, too.

Image: Introspection

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, part one

2009-02-25T09:10:00.007+01:00

'The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs Shears' house. It looked as if it was running on its side, the way dogs run when they think they are chasing a cat in a dream. But the dog was not running or asleep. The dog was dead. There was a garden fork sticking out of the dog.'

This year I have decided that I want to read Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time with my first year students. I have heard about this novel since it was first published in 2003, but this is the first time I have read it. This is not the hardest novel to read when it comes to the language part, and I believe many will find the story quite simple. I nevertheless believe this novel can help my 16 years old students understand that a novel can be read and understood at various levels.

I have just started planning how to teach this novel (please leave a comment if you have any great tips!), and I will come back with a lesson plan later on. When searching on the internet for resources, however, I came across this Swiss page, which has various ideas for teaching literature. My plan so far is to use the audio book-version of the novel in the beginning, so that all of the students get into the novel as fast as possible. My experience is that even students at 16 like to listen when someone reads to them, and even if the language here is not a challenge, it may help them through the first pages. At Randomhouse you can also read an extract from the novel and also listen to a section from the text.

More resources on the novel:

Picture: http://www.markhaddon.com/curious.htm

CRASH - colliding with prejudice

2009-02-25T08:54:00.001+01:00

"It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."

One of the films I have learned to love is Paul Haggis's "Crash" from 2004. This is a film that really works with students. This is the third year I have shown it to my classes, and so far only one of my students has said that he did not like the movie. Several times students have actually come up to me after class, just to tell me how much they liked it.

The plot in "Crash" is quite complicated, and though I have seen the film 7-8 times, I still see new, interesting things in it. We may think that the themes in the film apply to Americans only, being a film set in LA, but I believe this film is quite accurate in describing how afraid we all are of the unknown, how little we know about other cultures, and how quickly we put the people we meet into boxes and categories. Our own feelings and beliefs are challenged here, and I believe most people actually have to admit that we have some prejudices towards people different from ourselves.

What I like about "Crash" is that this film has it all; you laugh, you cry, you scream, you get upset. It is also a film that sparks off interesting discussions in class. Some of the students may not have seen all the connections between the various plots in the film, but they all have something to say. On damaris.org, I have found some questions for discussion which can serve as a starting point for a class discussion on the film. Filmeducation.org also has some questions/discussion topics that work well.

Before watching the film this year, we worked on the topic "Race and ethnicity in the USA" in class. This is a huge topic, and spending only a couple of lessons on the topic as we did this time, does not allow us enough time to really go into the complexity of the US society. I nevertheless find it important for us here in Norway to put focus on this and to stress that the US is so much more than what is presented in the traditional Hollywood-movies.

Resources on South Africa and Cry Freedom

2009-02-16T16:27:00.001+01:00

I love films and one of the films that is on my top ten list is Cry Freedom from 1987. Here we meet the white journalist Donald Woods who gives up almost everything in order to tell the true story about what happened to political activist Steve Biko.

I believe this film can be used to illustrate how rotten the Apartheid regime in South Africa was at the time, and how much the black population had to suffer.

I do not think we will have the time to deal with South Africa this year, but I have gathered some online resources on the country. Hopefully these text can also teach our students something about South Africa after Apartheid and after Nelson Mandela's presidency.

The brutal imprint of apartheid
Country profile, South Africa:
Rainbow nation - dream or reality?
South Africa's widening divide
South Africa in transition

Sugata Mitra: Can kids teach themselves?

2009-02-08T10:55:00.002+01:00

Earlier I have told how we used a "hole in the wall"-approach to our work on indigenous people last year. Here you can watch Sugata Mitra telling about his experience.

Discussion groups, "The Bottle Queen" and "Panache"

2009-02-06T13:29:00.013+01:00

Some days ago I wrote about how I had worked with the topic Native Americans in my groups. The glogsters turned out to be quite a success, even if not all of the students had managed to save theirs properly, and most of them also liked Kinsella's story "The Bottle Queen". We read this story together in class and I also gave the students some study questions for homework. This week we have been talking about the story in groups of four. Since Christmas I have started using group discussions rather than going through a whole bunch of questions in class, and this works quite well. Most times I have given each of the groups some time for preparation, so that they can compare notes and start speaking English before the discussion. The feedback from the students is that they like these dicsussion groups, and for me it is a way of seeing, and indeed listening to everybody, not just those who generally have a lot to say. I have told the students that these discussions will influence their grade at the end of the semester, and I use a rubric like this when assessing them.

Having finished this week's discussions, we turned to another short story by William P. Kinsella's, "Panache". I had planned for the students to work on this story in groups and a roleplay was one of the activities. You find my plan for how to work on "Panache" here. Summing up the two short stories at the end of the day, many of the students suggested themes, topics and possible interpretations, and it seemed to me that they had also learned quite a few things about the social conditions of the Native Americans.

Photo: "Drops of spring"

Billy Elliot

2009-02-02T18:37:00.009+01:00

Teachers love it, many students simply hate it: the film "Billy Elliot". I have shown this film to my students several times, and time and time again I have heard that this is a film for sissies. Neverthelsess, I believe this film can illustrate many elements in British society, if the students are just willing to look beyond the plain story of a boy who finds more pleasure in ballet classes than in boxing. In this film we can see the fragile relationship between father and son, an eleven year old boy missing his mother, and a community which is totally paralysed by the longest lasting miners' strike in British history. When working with this film, it also makes sense to discuss regional differences between the northern and southern parts of England, social classes, what kind of expectations out society has to boys and girls, and to which extent it is important to pursue your own dreams in life. It is a fact, though, that this film is almost ten years old, and that most of our students believe 1984 to be in the Stone Age... Anyway, under I have listed some resources on the film, and despite protests from the students, I believe I have not shown Billy Elliot at school for the last time in my career.

Photo: Arts journal

Serendipity moment in the classroom

2009-02-02T15:34:00.005+01:00

I just wanted to share one of my "serendipity moments" ( I am not quite sure this is a serendipity moment by definition, but I just love the expression) from the classroom this year. Since late August I have given my students time to read English novels at school. They have been free to chose whatever English novel they like, and my number one aim is for them to expand their vocabulary. As this picture illustrates, my students quite enjoy this reading time. Most of the boys occupy the floor in the back of the classroom, the girls like to curl up in the corners in front, and the teacher really enjoys the silence of the room for 30 minutes.

Exploring English!

2009-02-02T15:13:00.003+01:00

A while ago, I came across a book called Exploring English written by Magne Dypedahl and Hilde Hasselgård. Remembering Hilde Hasselgård as one of the greatest teachers I met at the university, I started reading the book, and I soon figured out that this was just what I had been looking for. This is a book in which the students can learn more about language and communication skills. I have also become an eager user of the Exploring English web page, where you can find exercises and tips on how to improve your skills. My students have liked working with these activities, and I believe some find it useful that there are short texts in Norwegian explaining the grammar. To me, this page has also come in handy when commenting on my students' papers; whenever I spot a particular problem at hand, I can give them the link to this page and they can read up on the topic. The idea is that this will save me a lot of discussions in the classroom. Am I the only one who has had questions like: "Why is this wrong? It sound natural and correct to me? What you have suggested is just odd, I think..."

You can read more about Exploring English here.