Tag Archives: 4M

William Wordsworth “A worshipper of Nature”

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daffodils

What does this image of a field of daffodils make you think of? Which feelings does it convey? What is Nature for you?

I’m now going to introduce you to the great romantic poet from the Lake District William Wordsworth. Since most of you who haven’t been there, I’d like to start with a video documentary showing also the places where he was born, grew up and inspired his poetry.

  1. What should poetry be inspired by?
  2. What kind of life did he lead? Watch this short video

The next video is the poem Daffodils read by the incredible actor Jeremy Irons whose “liquid” voice is stunning. In my opinion it is just a brilliant, magic and a moving example of poetry reading. As someone commented : “He could read the phone book and make it sound wonderful.” 🙂

If you wanna visit Wordsworth’s Cumbria and the places that inspired his poetry here’s a beautiful website of photography. And the 10 best photography locations of the Lake District.

While surfing the net I also found a rap version of the same poem, an attempt to make a literary classic … more contemporary so to speak.  How do you like it? Does it sound significant or like a parody to your ears? How does it make you feel? ? Be ready to discuss in class orally. 

I’m also embedding the other poem we read  “The Rainbow” MY Heart Leaps Up so that you can listen to it at home.

It’s all by now. Hope one day you’ll visit the Lake District as, if you like hiking, it’s an area you should take into consideration 😉

4M RADIO FRANKENSTEIN: the Monster’s back!

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Hi! After studying and reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, (part 1 & part 2) we did a Cooperative Creative writing activity in groups, done partly in class and partly at home using Shared Google Docs. Here’s the assignment:

“Now, imagine that, for unknown reasons that you can make up, Frankenstein has come back. Situation: You are either a scientist or a computer nerd living in (say where) and have seen him (say where and when). Write down an e-mail to (say who) telling him/her what you have just witnessed (max 200 words).”

As a follow-up, in order to improve the oral skills, I decided to do a Podcast using the app Spreaker. So one morning we recorded their works in class 🙂 using my iPad. It was their first time and, for sure, since they are rather shy and reserved young women and men – at least in class am I right? 😉 -, they felt pretty embarrassed; nevertheless, they proved very cooperative, very committed and did a good job! Speaking while knowing of being recorded is not easy, nor comfortable and listening to our own voice & pronunciation is tough as we’re usually hypercritical and aim at perfection. Still, that’s good, as it will urge you to work harder to improve. Practice will make it perfect! Therefore … stay tuned!

Here’s their podcasts from RADIO FRANKENSTEIN!

Please leave a comment on the activity, what you liked, disliked and advice on how to improve it 🙂 Thanks.