Literature

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Malorie Blackman was born in 1962 in London and lives in Kent. She qualified in Computer Science and followed a successful career in computing, before becoming a writer at the age of 28. Her first published book was Not So Stupid! (1990), a book of short stories. The novels in her Noughts & Crosses (2001)series have won several awards, including the Children's Book Award. She writes about a diverse range of characters, including those who are often marginalised in society, such as teenage fathers in her novel Boys Don't Cry. When she isn't writing she loves reading, messing around with her piano, watching films and play computer games.

Malorie Introduces Tell me No Lies

Gemma longs for her lost mother, taking comfort from the cuttings in her scrapbook; pictures of mothers who loved their children. 
Mike is new to the area; a boy with a terrible secret to hide. A secret about his missing mother. 
Gemma and Mike - two kids hurt by their past and now inextricably linked. Their effect on each other's lives will be explosive.

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Roald Dahl (1916-1990)

His webpage

His biography

The lamb to Slaughter - Read online

Read the first paragraph and answer

1- The first paragraph describes the place. How do you imagine it? What sort of people live in this kind of place?

2- What does the last sentence tell you about Mary Maloney? How do you imagine her?

Read the test of the sotry and answer the questions

3- What did Mary Maloney do every day?

4- How can you describe her?

5- Describe the couple’s relationship. Consider the way she treated her husband and the kind of treatment she received from him.

6- At a given moment her husband stopped her and asked her to sit down and listen to him. The author doesn’t tell us what he told her, why? And what do you think her husband told her?

7- What do you think will happen? What will Mary do?

Are the following sentences True or False? Correct the false ones.

a- After he told her the bad news, she pretended nothing was wrong and went to prepare supper.

b- She planned carefully how to murder him.

c- After she killed him, she knew what to do to avoid punishment.

d- She placed the leg of lamb in the oven to eat it for supper.

e- She went to the corner shop because she needed some vegetables for supper.

f- On her way back home, she was practising how to act naturally.

Match the halves of the following statements. There are some extra parts in the second column. Then put the statements from activity 11 in chronological order.

A-She put the lamb B-More policemen arrived at C-She acted quite normally D- Patrick was killed by a blow E-The police discovered some blood F-Mrs Maloney laughed because the policemen G-The policemen searched the house H- Mrs. Maloney began I-She told Noonan and O’Malley she had gone to the corner shop J-She went to the corner shop K-A policeman went to L-She persuaded the policemen M- She phoned N-Jack Noonan thought

1- to plan her alibi. 2- were eating the lamb. 3- Jack Noonan. 4- to eat the lamb 5- to have an alibi. 6- the police. 7- were having some drinks. 8- in the oven. 9- the corner shop. 10- on Patrick’s head. 11- she had forgotten to turn the oven off. 12- in the corner shop. 13- with a hammer. 14- for the murder weapon. 15- Mr Maloney’s house. 16- on the back of the head. 17- to buy some vegetables.

The Leg of Lamb 

  Watch the video of an old episode of the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents 

Tales Of The Unexpected, Season 1, Episode 4 Lamb to the Slaughter (1979) — with the introduction by Roald Dahl — based on the short story of Roald Dahl The Lamb to Slaughter

The Leg of Lamb

  Before reading

·          What do you understand by the idea of a perfect crime?

·          What characteristics does it have?

·          Have you heard about a crime which was considered to be perfect?

  While reading

·        Will Mrs Maloney be caught or  will she get away with the murder. How might the police catch her?

  After reading

  Mrs Maloney thinks she has committed the perfect crime and that the police will not       catch her.

  In groups, students imagine their perfect crime:

·        Will it be a robbery, a murder or something else?

·        How will they do it? What will be involved? Why will they not be caught?

   Make a chart with at least 6 the similarities and differences between the book and the    television episode.

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Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, performer, and artist whose work explores the lives of the working-class. Sandra Cisneros is a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico and earns her living by her pen.She currently lives in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico 

“My Name” from The House On Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros

In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.

It was my great-grandmother’s name and now it is mine. She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horse–-which is supposed to be bad luck if you’re born female--but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexican, don’t like their women strong.

My great-grandmother. I would’ve liked to have known her, a wild horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn’t marry. Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier. That’s the way he did it.

And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn’t be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but don’t want to inherit her place by the window.

At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth. But in Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like silver, not quite as thick as sister’s name--Magdalena--which is uglier than mine. Magdalena who at least can come home and become Nenny. But I am always Esperanza.

I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees. Esperanza as Lisandra or Maritza or Zeze the X. Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do.

Directions: After reading the model essay by Sandra Cisneros, use the following prompts to guide you as you write your own personal essay on your name. The essay should be a full page in length, legibly handwritten. (120-150 words)

1.      What’s the story behind your name?  How and why was it chosen for you?

2.      What people, places, events, things or ideas do you associate with your name?

3.      Do you feel like your name represents/reflects who you are?  

         Explain why or why not.

4.      If you go by a nickname, did you choose it or did others? 

         What is the story behind it?

5.      How would you describe the connection between your name and your sense of who            you are?

6.     What do you know about the history of your last name? 

        Do you feel a connection to an ancestor who also had your last name?

7.     If you could change your name, would you?  Why or why not?  

        If you changed it, what would you change it to?  Why?

Sandra Cisneros talks about the story behind The House on Mango Street

and its connection to her own life.

Sandra Cisneros talks about her childhood and the role libraries

and education played in her life.

Sandra Cisneros talks about writing, the authors who inspired her,

and the advice she has for aspiring authors.

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The importance of being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde

Movie

OSCAR WILDE WEBQUEST

OSCAR WILDE padlet

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Oscar Wilde Lord Arthur Savile's Crime A Study of Duty

Links of interest

Wikia

Auggie Wren's Christmas Story

Paul Auster

Understanding the short story, "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story"

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"Holes" by Louis Sachar 

EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT, Kindle

Listen to chapters 1-3; Listen to chapters 4-6; Listen to chapter 7 pt. 1; Listen to chapter 7 pt. 2; Listen to chapters 8-10; Listen to chapter 11; rest of chapters ...

Holes by Louis Sachar- "Pig Lullaby"

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COPIAR

Frankestein project

Frankenstein or   The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

Webquest

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Work on Animal Farm - to hand in 8th January

1. Author (some/few lines about his life and works)
2. Plot summary (250-300 words)
3. Characters in the book; a)Main b)Secondary
4. The seven commandments 
5. Personal opinion. Justify it (+/-100 words)

We

Animal Farm Audio book

DATES FOR PROYECT PRESENTATION:

Wednesday 8th Group 1 Victorian Era: general overview

Wednesday 8th Group 2 Industrial Revolution and scientific progress

Friday 10th       Group 3 Victorian society and class: general overview

Tuesday 14th    Group 4 Victorian society as reflected in the novel: 

                                     The English countryside in the late 19th century.

                                     ‘Old World’ England vs. ‘New World’ America .

  Wednesday 15th Group 5  Victorian literature: 

                                      Oscar WIlde, his life and works & other writers of the time.

    

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https://createwebquest.com/canterville-ghost

Each group will be assigned one of the topics below:

 

Group 1 Victorian Era: general overview

Group 2 Industrial Revolution and scientific progress

Group 3 Victorian society and class: general overview

Group 4 Victorian society as reflected in the novel: 

             The English countryside in the late 19th century.

             ‘Old World’ England vs. ‘New World’ America .

Group 5  Victorian literature: 

              Oscar WIlde, his life and works & other writers of the time.

READ

The Canterville Ghost

by Oscar Wilde

ALSO IN WIKISOURCE 

The Canterville Ghost (audiobook)

    Read about The Canterville Ghost

Oscar Wilde