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TITLE: Read More to Acquire an Active Citizenship - created by Speranza Rosa D'Alessandro

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TITLE: Read More to Acquire an Active Citizenship - created by Speranza Rosa D'Alessandro

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STUDENTS:
the project is addressed to  30 students of the 4th form of Liceo scientifico (class 4B/sc)

TIMES:
4 weeks for the activiies of Extensive Reading. 2 weeks for final products

SUBJECT INVOLVED:
History and English

OUTCOMES:
Students are expected to work collaboratively towards the achievement of a final product, writing a report on specific topics and content-area lecturers will be  used effectively to promote communicative language learning and develop students’ social and curricular experience.

DESCRIPTION- PHASES:
Steps of the project are  as follows:

o   Students are initially briefed about the goals of the project and the principles of extensive reading. The methodology is also explained to them so that they can benefit from the project as much as possible.

o   An initial placement test will be held to determine who would work with whom in task groups. Those who are  good at speaking or writing are selected so that they can be appointed as the speaker or writer of the groups in order to provide peer scaffolding.

o   The students considered are shown, as part of the orientation, how to read texts or hypertexts critically and how to purposefully prepare projects for presentation.

o   In the class, 4 topics will be chosen to be taught in content-area classes

o   With the aim of providing peer teaching through collaboration, 4 groups of 7/8 sts each will be  formed out of the 30 students according to their competence levels and strengths. The groups are then instructed to choose their topic .

o   Each student is told to find at least two files of research papers or other type of texts, such as popular history magazines, related to their group’s topic from various sources at least two/four weeks before their presentation. These will be  mainly taken from the Internet or found in the school library. Students are  not only taught how to cope with this information effectively but also how to organize it for their own use.

o   Students are  given the flexibility to choose other texts besides the ones provided by the teacher, according to their own level of comprehension and they could read them wherever and whenever they want.

o   While preparing for their  presentation, each group will meet in the classroom and at home to decide what to talk about, for how long and in what way.

o   Audio-visual aids may be used during presentations, facilitating comprehension and the perception of scientific processes through diagrams, charts, pictures or videos.

o   The teacher acts as a role model for students by being an active member of the classroom reading community and by demonstrating what it means to be a reader and the rewards of being a reader. He advises the students about rewriting, editing, and correcting presentation papers. The teacher also has a fair amount of content knowledge in the topics chosen.

ASSESSMENT:
Generally speaking, these activities involve using secondary classroom skills such as taking clear and brief notes and asking and understanding questions and they also involve using cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies. Students will be engaged in activities that involve the development of language learning skills, such as reading from different sources, writing summaries of the information they have collected, reporting on their experiences to the class and listening to the reports presented by their classmates. Secondly, students produce their own output, providing them with the opportunity to be creative, show critical awareness and communicate with others.

In order to assess their  language and content proficiency, periodically multiple-choice tests will be set for all groups. The tests might be also in the form of fill-in-the blank questions which measured reading comprehension of specific texts and knowledge of word meaning and sentence structure. The assessment will include reading comprehension passages, cloze test questions, sentence or paragraph completion questions, reflecting the reader’s grasp and correct implementation of the resources necessary to construct meaning

TOPICS and BOOKS:

1. THE FEUD:

(civil wars, intifada)

Romeo and Juliet by W. Shakespeare.

Dreaming of Palestine by R. Ghazy

2. SLAVERY IN THE PRE-COLONIAL AND COLONIAL AGE.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin di by Harriet Beecher Stowe . (the idea of slavery- and the white man/black man  relationship)

Robinson Crusoe  by Daniel Defoe

3. The problem of diversity (social, racial or religious diversity)

The Merchant of Venice by W Shakespeare

I have a dream by Dr Martin Luther King Jr

4. Women in literature  (two examples)

Virginia Woolf - Orlando
Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre

Daniel Defoe- Moll Flanders

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Jane Eyre is a complex, self-aware woman in the Victorian age whose work as a governess eventually leads to love. Independent, strong, and feminist, Jane Eyre is an unforgettable character in a classic novel exploring social classes, love, sexuality, and morality

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The Merchant of Venice has been described as a great commentary on the nature of racial and religious interactions. The title itself is misleading, and is often misconstrued as a reference to Shylock, the Jew. However, in reality it describes the merchant Antonio. This ambiguity and misinterpretation has not surprisingly led scholars to continue hotly debating whether Shakespeare meant to be anti-Semitic or critical of anti-Semitism. His depiction of Shylock, the Jewish moneylender, causes the audience to both hate and pity the man, and has left critics wondering what Shakespeare was really trying to achieve.

The choice of Venice can hardly have been arbitrary. The Venice of Shakespeare's day was renowned for its wealth and diversity of cultures, for it was a cosmopolitan market where Eastern goods made their way into the West. Since Shakespeare's interactions with Jews in England would have been limited, if at all, Venice provided him with the example of tolerance and heterogeneity that he needed.

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I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Introduce studentsto the history of racial tensions in the U.S. with the simplicity of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous text. The book comes with an audio CD so kids can listen to Dr. King’s speech and follow along.

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Topic 2 - SLAVERY IN THE PRE-COLONIAL AND COLONIAL AGE.

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Topic 2 - SLAVERY IN THE PRE-COLONIAL AND COLONIAL AGE.

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While the plot of Robinson Crusoe does not explicitly revolve around slavery, the institution of slavery serves as a basis for much of the action of the novel. When Crusoe heads to Africa, it is to purchase slaves. He himself becomes a slave and then soon becomes a slave owner. This idea of ownership and superiority impacts his relations with such people as Xury and Friday. Plus, Crusoe's wealth from his sugar plantations at the end of the novel would have come from slave labor.

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Dreaming of Palestine is a work of astonishing insight that takes us into the hearts and lives of a group of young people caught up in the Palestinian drive for independence.

Writing in a passionate blend of poetry and prose, fifteen-year-old first-time novelist Randa Ghazy creates a convincing portrait of a group of friends who have grown up surrounded by fighting and know no world other than one with war or at least the threat of it (Intifada). With eloquence and sensitivity, Ghazy creates a portrait of life in the Middle East that alternates the horrors of living amid war with the experiences of life-altering friendships, growing-up, falling in love, and dreaming of the future

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Topic 2 - SLAVERY IN THE
PRE-COLONIAL AND COLONIAL AGE.

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Topic 2 - SLAVERY IN THE
PRE-COLONIAL AND COLONIAL AGE.

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Uncle Tom's Cabin is the most popular, influential and controversial book written by an American. Stowe s rich, panoramic novel passionately dramatises why the whole of America is implicated in and responsible for the sin of slavery, and resoundingly concludes that only 'repentance, justice and mercy' will prevent the onset of 'the wrath of Almighty God!'.

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The Montagues and Capulets are two rivalry families.They are involved in a family feud that goes back years before any of the members were born.

Yet the feud still continues due to the fact that neither family is ready to forgive and forget the past.

Even the townspeople are involved because the families do not keep the feud in the privacy of their own home but have been seen fighting in the public streets and displaying violence. They disrupt the peace of Verona and even Prince Escalus personally had to break up a fight, where the family members were heavily fined . They were also given a warning that another public fight could result in death.

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Moll Flanders is a story about the fall and rise of a beautiful woman who was born in Newgate Prison. Because of her determination to be someone other than a servant, and because of her great greed, she sought to marry a wealthy man. She married some with money and some without. One of her husbands, she learned to her horror, was her brother, by whom she had several children. Her fear of poverty led her to commit many criminal acts. However, even when she had obtained a large store of cash and goods, she continued stealing.