Читать книгу English for Life Grade 12 Learner’s Book Home Language - Lynne Southey - Страница 8

Introduction

Many different kinds of people become famous and are regarded as influential figures in history: politicians, explorers, inventors, and also writers, composers and artists. Often, they have made a difference and that is why they are famous. You will read about some of them in this cycle.

You will listen to a film review about a famous book which was adapted as a film, read biographical articles about a famous archbishop, a South African composer and a novelist. You will read a sonnet by Shakespeare, also a historical figure, as well as a short story and a review of a well-known novel. You will write your own biographical sketch of a famous person, and a review of a book.

A listening exercise

Pre-reading:

When you know what you are going to be listening to, your mind searches for certain facts as you listen. This helps you listen well. In the activity below, the text you will listen to is a review of the film version of Othello. Listen for the main points: who are the characters played by, what is the reviewer’s opinion of the movie? What other information is given? Most people read such a review to see whether the film is worth going to see. You can decide this too, when you have heard the review. Remember that the reviewer’s opinion is personal. Another reviewer might say something different. Focus on the elements of a review during reading.

Activity 3.1 - Listening for comprehension (individual and pair)

 Listen as your teacher reads the review of the film to you. You can make notes as you listen.

A film review

OTHELLO (1995)

Rating (%): 79

Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Irene Jacob, Kenneth Branagh, Nathaniel Parker, Michael Maloney

Director: Oliver Parker

To condense Othello into a reasonable, two-hour running time, writer/director Oliver Parker has lopped approximately 50% of Shakespeare’s original text from the screenplay. Yet, even with so much gone, the movie remains faithful to the play’s central themes and conflicts, and the streamlined narrative is surprisingly easy to follow (well, as ‘easy’ as anything written by Shakespeare can be). For sheer impact, this Othello can stand side-by-side with the versions brought to the screen by Orson Welles (as restored in 1992) and Lawrence Olivier.

Laurence Fishburne plays the Moor, Othello, a gifted general who is commissioned to confront a Turkish army at Cyprus. Always by Othello’s side are his two right-hand men: Cassio (Nathaniel Parker) and Iago (Kenneth Branagh). However, for reasons that are never fully explained, Iago is not the faithful retainer Othello believes him to be. In fact, hatred bubbles just beneath Iago’s cool, rational exterior, and he has put a plan into action by which he intends to cause Othello’s downfall and shatter the relationship between the Moor and his devoted wife, Desdemona (Irene Jacob).

Othello’s ‘tragic flaw’ is his jealousy, and it is this quality that Iago exploits with his complex scheme. Much of the audience’s ability to identify with the characters is dependent upon the trio of central performances that grace Othello. It’s an entirely different experience to read the play or see a live performance than it is to view a cinematic rendition. The visual aspects of Parker’s production are especially noteworthy. Othello is dark, and makes creative use of light and shadow as only a motion picture can.

Laurence Fishburne, a black actor playing the black title role (in some of his various other film incarnations, Othello has been essayed by the likes of Orson Welles, Lawrence Olivier, and Anthony Hopkins – none of whom are black), gives a stirring and powerful interpretation of a man haunted by uncertainty about his wife’s faithfulness. Irene Jacob imbues Desdemona with far more vitality than she has had in any other movie version. Kenneth Branagh makes Iago a chillingly rational character whose acerbic asides to the camera draw the viewer into his plot, almost as an accomplice.

Certain Shakespeare purists will probably dismiss Parker’s Othello because of its sex scenes and liberal cuts. Such a reaction might be a mistake, however, since this director’s view of Othello’s tragedy has an unusual slant. Parker is careful to play up the love affair between the title character and his wife so that when the inevitable occurs, it has a more profound impact. When Othello declares, ‘My life upon [Desdemona’s] faith’, you believe him.

With this version of Othello, Parker wanted to create a Shakespearean film that anyone could see, relate to, and enjoy – a degree in English literature not being required. In many ways he has accomplished this. Othello has never been my favourite of the Bard’s plays, but, at times, I found myself engrossed by this adaptation. Using the visual aspects of film to enhance certain story elements, Parker has crafted a fine motion picture.

[Adapted from James Berardinelli, used with permission]

Post-reading:

1.Discuss the following questions with your partner.

a. What is different about this version, in terms of characters, to previous versions?

b. Does the reviewer tell the whole story of the play? Why or why not?

c. What is the reviewer’s view of the film and what are the grounds for his view?

2. Make a list of the elements of a review as shown in this example.

 Your teacher will read through the review a second time so that you can check on your answers, and will then go through the answers with you.

Reading for comprehension

Do you know what a biography is? It is a book written about someone by an author who does research on that person’s life. An autobiography is a book written about one’s own life by oneself. You are going to read extracts from the biographical sketches of three famous South Africans. These are very brief and don’t go into the detail that a biography would. They do, however, record important events in South Africa’s history.

When answering comprehension questions one needs to read intensively. Your aim is to gain an in-depth understanding of the text. Note that you often have to reread parts of the text a few times to gain a full understanding. Reread and review each answer to ensure that you have interpreted the question correctly, and given an appropriate, well-phrased answer. When you answer comprehension questions you are expected to find or deduce the answer from the text. Do not give your own ideas unless specifically asked to do so.

Activity 3.2 - Read about a famous South African (individual and pair)

 As pre-reading activity, think about what you know about Desmond Tutu. Read the extract, confirming and expanding your knowledge (during reading).

Desmond Mpilo Tutu

7 October 1931 –

1 Archbishop Tutu is best known for his belief in the possibility of ultimate interracial harmony – a conviction that becomes a feat when considering his personal history.

2 In 1962, apartheid reached the church. White academics could no longer teach black clergymen, and black academics were needed to fill the gap. Tutu’s teaching experience, his two degrees and his conscientiousness made him an ideal candidate for this duty, though he lacked a Master’s degree. In order to fill this gap, he left South Africa in 1962 to pursue a Master’s degree at King’s College, London University.

3 He returned to his homeland in 1967 and continued with his mission of teaching black clergy. In 1976, Tutu reached religious prominence and was consecrated as the bishop of Lesotho, an independent enclave within South Africa. The positive events in Tutu’s life were not matched by events at home. A month before his consecration, Soweto, a black community near South Africa’s commercial capital, Johannesburg, exploded in violence as 15 000 schoolchildren took to the streets. They were angry that Afrikaans, instead of English – their typical language of instruction – would be used to teach some of their classes. More than 600 people were killed.

4 Tutu did not return to South Africa until 1977, when he was asked to speak at the funeral of black activist Steve Biko, who died in police custody. Biko’s death was a turning point for Tutu, and he came to the conclusion that the church had to play a political role if apartheid was to be conquered without bloodshed.

5 In 1978, he accepted a position as general secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), a 10-year-old organisation with a decidedly political bent. The position gave Tutu increased media exposure, and he began to speak on talk shows around the world, pushing for economic sanctions against South Africa. In reaction, the South African government revoked his passport in 1979.

6 Tutu was just one of many voices in South Africa and abroad who called for sanctions, but his support for them helped legitimise what some considered a radical form of protest. The sanctions, eventually supported by much of the world, had a strong effect on South Africa. By the 1980s, the country’s economy was stagnant due to a critical shortage of investment capital, and diplomatic pressure led to the dismantling of apartheid. In 1982, Tutu’s isolation became a worldwide embarrassment for South Africa when Columbia University’s president had to travel to South Africa to present Tutu with an honorary degree. It was only the third time this precedent-breaking event was allowed in the famed university’s 244-year history.

7 ‘Your president is the pits as far as blacks are concerned. I think the West, for my part, can go to hell,’ said Desmond Tutu, after US President Ronald Reagan on July 22, 1986 called proposed sanctions against South Africa a ‘historic act of folly’.

8 Tutu found himself in the spotlight once again in 1984, when he became South Africa’s second black Nobel Peace laureate. He once more used the increased exposure to push for sanctions. South Africa’s first Nobel Peace laureate, 1961 winner Albert Luthuli, had been restricted to his remote Zululand village immediately on his return from Norway. A month after winning the Nobel Prize, Tutu was elected the first black Anglican bishop of Johannesburg. In 1986 Tutu was elected Archbishop of Cape Town, the highest position in the Anglican Church in South Africa.

9 Now South Africa’s highest-ranking Anglican cleric, Tutu denounced the White government’s failure to make fundamental changes as another wave of violence swept his nation. As the country went into elections in 1989, Tutu boldly engaged in a nationwide defiance campaign, leading a march to a whites-only beach, where he and supporters were chased off with whips. Soon after, F.W. de Klerk was elected the new president of South Africa on the strength of his pledge to speed reforms and abolish apartheid.

10 At the end of 1993, De Klerk’s promises came to fruition as South Africa’s first all-race elections were announced. On April 27 1994, South Africans elected a new president, the country’s most prominent black man, Nelson Mandela, and apartheid was finally over. But Tutu’s job continued. In 1995, he was appointed chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a group that investigated apartheid-era crimes.

11 He retired as Archbishop of Cape Town in 1996 to devote his full energies to the commission. In 1997, Tutu announced that he would undergo several months of treatment in the United States for prostate cancer. He continued to work with the commission.

[Adapted from: http://zar.co.za/tutu.htm]

Post-reading:

Questions

1. Use a dictionary to find the meanings of the following words: conviction; conscientiousness; prominence; sanctions; revoked; legitimise; stagnant; pledge

2. Discuss answers to the questions below with a partner.

a. Explain the second half of the first paragraph.

b. Explain the meaning of the word ‘feat’ in this context.

c. What was Bishop Tutu’s main purpose in involving the church in the politics of the country?

3. What is the meaning of the phrase ‘ultimate interracial harmony’?

4. What was Bishop Tutu’s position on apartheid?

5. What ‘gap’ is the writer referring to in paragraph 2?

6. What is a ‘turning point’ (paragraph 4)? Explain it in this context.

7. In paragraph 5 ‘bent’ is being used as a noun. What does it mean?

8. How did Tutu react to the discrimination he endured during apartheid?

9. What does ‘this precedent-breaking event’ in paragraph 6 refer to?

10. Explain the embarrassment South Africa faced.

11. Explain Tutu’s comment about Reagan.

12. Explain the phrase ‘came to fruition’ in paragraph 10.

13. What is the point of view of the writer of the passage towards Tutu?

14. Is the passage opinion or fact? Give reasons for your answer.

 Your teacher will go through the answers with you.

Two more famous South Africans

Here is a text about a man who died a long time ago: the composer of the anthem ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’. You are going to need your skimming and scanning skills. You will also need to read the passage intensively in order to understand it. Here is a reminder of what these skills entail.

You skim a passage to get a general idea about the contents of the passage, in much the same way that you skim a stone over a pond. The stone touches the water here and there, but it makes ripples over the whole pond. In the same way your eye ‘touches’ the text here and there but you have a general understanding of the whole text.

Intensive reading is reading closely for understanding. You may need to read something twice in order to understand it fully.

Scanning is what is done at the check-out counter in the supermarket. The cashier scans the bar-code of the product. The computer then matches the bar-code up with a price and the price appears on the screen. Scanning when you are reading is also a kind of ‘matching’ because you look for specific matching information. Let us say you want to know what percentage of goals land in an unsaveable zone. You will scan for the word ‘percentage’ or the percentage symbol (%) and a number. You will then read the sentence to make sure that it contains the information you need. Remember that when you scan you don’t read every word: you glance over the text, looking for specific information.

Activity 3.3 - A man who left his mark on South Africa (individual and pair)

Pre reading:

 Skim the biographical sketch below to see what it is about by looking at the title, the pictures and the first line of each paragraph. You have one minute to do this.

Enoch Mankayi Sontonga

circa 1873–18 April 1905

1 The humble and obscure life of Enoch Sontonga is an antithesis of the dreams he inspired in generations of Africans through his famous composition ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’. Details of his short life are hard to come by. He was born in Uitenhage (Eastern Cape), in about 1873. Trained as a teacher at the Lovedale Institution, he was sent to a Methodist Mission school in Nancefield, near Johannesburg. He married Diana Mgqibisa, the daughter of a prominent minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and had one son. A choirmaster and photographer, he wrote the first verse and chorus of ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’ when he was 24 (1897), one of many songs he wrote for his pupils. Later the same year, he composed the music. The song is a prayer for God’s blessing on the land and all its people. Sontonga’s choir sang the song around Johannesburg and KwaZulu, and other choirs followed them. It was first sung in public in 1899 at the ordination of Rev. Boweni, a Shangaan Methodist Minister.

2 Most of Sontonga’s songs were sad, recounting the suffering of African people in Johannesburg, but they were so popular that after his death choirs used to borrow them from his wife. According to sources, she eventually sold the rights to the song for a mere sixpence. She died in 1929. Sontonga died of unknown causes at the young age of 32, in 1905. He was buried in Braamfontein, Johannesburg and his grave has only recently been discovered after intensive research.

3 Sontonga wrote his songs down in an exercise book, which was lent out to other choirmasters and eventually became the property of a family member known as Boxing Granny. She never missed a boxing match in Soweto, hence the nickname. She died at about the time Sontonga’s grave was declared a heritage site in 1996, but the book was never found. Solomon Plaatje, one of South Africa’s greatest writers and a founding member of the ANC, was the first to have the song recorded, accompanied by Sylvia Colenso on the piano. This was on 16 October 1923, in London.

4 In 1925 the ANC adopted the song as the closing anthem for their meetings. In 1927 seven additional Xhosa stanzas were added by Samuel Mqhayi, a poet. The song was published in a local newspaper in the same year, and was included in the Presbyterian Xhosa hymnbook ‘Ingwade Yama-culo Ase-rabe’ in 1929. A Sesotho version was published in 1942 by Moses Mphahlele.

5 The Rev. J. L. Dube’s Ohlange Zulu Choir popularised ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’ at concerts in Johannesburg, and it became a popular church hymn that was also adopted as the anthem at political meetings. For decades ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’ was regarded as the national anthem of South Africa by the oppressed and it was always sung as an act of defiance against the apartheid regime. There are no standard versions or translations of ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’ so the words vary from place to place and from occasion to occasion. Generally the first stanza is sung in Xhosa or Zulu, followed by the Sesotho version. The song spread beyond the borders of South Africa and has been translated and adapted into a number of other languages. It is still the national anthem of Tanzania and Zambia and has also been sung in Zimbabwe and Namibia for many years. A proclamation issued by the State President on 20 April 1994 stipulated that both both ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’ and ‘Die Stem’ (the Call of South Africa), written by Afrikaans poet C.J. Langenhoven in 1918, would be the national anthems of South Africa. In 1996 a shortened, combined version of the two anthems was released as the new National Anthem. On 18 April 2005 Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan, said at the unveiling of the Enoch Sontonga Memorial:

6 There is a saying that goes “those whom the gods love die young” – Sontonga was one of those. His work will be immortalised as South Africa’s and other African countries’ national anthems.’

7 And so today, we celebrate Enoch Sontonga’s gift to us, a heroic message of calm, written in the eye of the storm. Today it forms part of South Africa’s national identity; and along with ‘Die Stem’, it brings together all the different strands of the country’s past in a union of inclusiveness, symbolising the oneness of South Africa’s people.

Enoch Sontonga Memorial

Questions

1. Now discuss your ideas of what this text is about with your partner. Do you have the same idea? How are they different?

2. So far you have skimmed the text. Don’t read it yet. You are first going to practise your scanning skills. You have three minutes to find the following information. This gives you 15 seconds for each question. Your teacher will time you and stop you. See how many answers you can find by running your eye over the passage.

a. Where was Enoch Sontonga born?

b. What was his wife’s name?

c. How old was he when he wrote ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’?

d. When was it first sung in public?

e. What year did he die?

f. What was the name of the family member that inherited the exercise book?

g. When was ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’ first recorded?

h. When did the ANC begin using it at meetings?

i. Who added seven additional stanzas?

j. What did Moses Mphahlele do?

k. What other African countries use it as their national anthem?

l. Who spoke at the unveiling of the Enoch Sontonga Memorial?

 So far you have skimmed and scanned the text. Now read it intensively, confirming your ideas (during reading).

Post-reading:

3. The opening line describes Enoch Sontonga as leading a humble and obscure life. How is this in contrast to what he is remembered for?

4. Can you explain the role this song played in the history of South Africa?

5. What explanation can you give for the song spreading across different languages and different countries in the way that it has?

Here are the first two stanzas with their translation:
Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrikaMaluphakanyisw’ uphondo lwayo,Yizwa imithandazo yethu,Nkosi sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo.Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso,O fedise dintwa la matshwenyeho,O se boloke, O se boloke setjhaba sa heso,Setjhaba sa South Afrika – South Afrika.	God bless Africa,Lift her horn on high,Hear our prayers.God bless usWho are Your people.God save our nation,End wars and strife.South Africa, South Africa.
[http://zar.co.za/sontonga.htm]Some of you might be able to read music. Here is part of the score for our National Anthem.
[no image in epub file]

 Your teacher will go through the answers with you.

Activity 3.4 - Read about a famous writer (individual and pair)

 As pre-reading activity, think about what you know about Nadine Gordimer. Now read about her, a third famous South African writer. During reading: focus on why she is famous.

Nadine Gordimer

20 November 1923 –

1 Novelist, essayist, screenwriter, political activist and champion of the disenfranchised, Nadine Gordimer was born of immigrant Jewish parents in Springs – a small gold-mining town in South Africa. In Seamus Heaney’s words, she is one of ‘the guerrillas of the imagination’, and became the first South African and the seventh woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991.

2 Her father, a jeweller, came from Lithuania (then in Russia); her mother, from England. Nadine Gordimer began to write at the age of nine and her first short story was published in a South African magazine when she was only fifteen. After being educated at the Convent of Our Lady of Mercy, she studied at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, for one year.

3 Her first collection of short stories, Face to face, was published seven years later in 1949. Her first novel, The lying days , appeared in 1953. Over half a century, Gordimer has written thirteen novels, over two hundred short stories and several volumes of essays. Ten books are devoted to her works, and about two hundred critical essays appear in her bibliography.

4 Gordimer endured the bleak apartheid decades, refusing to move abroad as so many others did. Her husband, Reinhold Cassirer, is a refugee from Nazi Germany, who served in the British Army in World War II. Her daughter settled in France, her son in New York. She remained inside South Africa out of commitment to black liberation – to be the voice for silenced, black South African writers and also for the sake of her own creativity.

5 She eventually rose to international fame for novels and short stories that stunned the literary world, and resulted in some of her books being banned in her native country. She painted a social background subtler than anything presented by political scientists, thus providing an insight into the roots of the struggle and the mechanisms of change that no historian could have matched. Her work reflects the road from passivity and blindness to resistance and struggle, the forbidden friendships, the censored soul, and the underground networks. She has outlined a free zone where it was possible to try out, in imagination, what life beyond apartheid might be like. She wrote as if censorship did not exist and as if there were readers willing to listen. In her characters, the major currents of contemporary history intersect.

6 In addition to her novels, collections of short stories and essays, Gordimer’s credits include screenplays for television dramas and the script for the film Frontiers. She won the Booker Prize in 1974 for The conservationist and in 1991, the Nobel Prize for Literature.

7 Her works have been translated into more than thirty languages. Her most recent novel, The pickup , published in 2001, was listed for the Booker Prize and won the best book category for the 2002 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in the Africa region.

8 Nadine Gordimer put the searchlight on a country that had painfully evolved from an oppressive racist state into a model of democracy. But beyond that, she is the writer that most stubbornly has kept the true face of racism in front of us, in all its human complexities.

[http://zar.co.za/gordimer.htm Biographies www.zar.co.za Proud to be South African]

Post-reading:

1. Try to infer the meanings of the following words from the text or use a dictionary to find them: disenfranchised; guerilla; bleak; intersect.

2. Write a paragraph explaining why Gordimer’s work stunned the literary world and yet was banned in South Africa. Use the information in paragraph 5, but write in your own words. Use the writing process and what you learnt about paragraph writing in the previous cycle.

 Swap your paragraph with your partner and evaluate each other’s work. Your teacher will ask several of you to read your paragraphs to the class for general discussion and feedback.

A magazine article

Anyone can decide to write a biographical sketch of someone, but the information must be accurate. It is possible to be biased by choosing only negative or only positive facts, but most writers would try to be factual. Now that you have read several biographical sketches of famous South Africans, you are going to research and write one of your own to be published in a magazine.

Activity 3.5 - Write a biographical sketch (individual)

1. You are going to do research on a famous South African with the purpose of writing a one page biography. Here is a list of some South Africans who have died whose biographies might interest you, but you are not limited to this list. You can research any famous South African.

 Chris Barnard: famous surgeon who performed the first heart transplant

 Miriam Makeba: singer and political activist

 Solomon Plaatje: literary pioneer

2. Decide whose biography you are going to write. Make notes of everything you already know about the person. What gaps are there? These are what you need to find out about. Find information in the library or on the Internet. Make notes of your findings.

3. Your biographical sketch should be approximately one page long. Do not simply copy directly from your source. Rewrite the information in your own words. Use the writing process. Pay attention to paragraphing, sentence length and clarity of expression. Edit your work.

Here is a checklist you can use:

My biographic article:	√
Contains birth date and place
Contains date and place of death (if the person has already died)
Mentions early influences (at least three)
Describes education (and role or significance in later life)
Mentions major accomplishments (including dates)
Explains significance (why this individual is important)
Names contemporaries (at least three individuals along with their occupations/roles)
Has been written and edited using the writing process

4. Your teacher will take in your article for evaluation.

A poem

The poem in the activity below is a Shakespearean sonnet. The poem starts by reassuring a friend or lover that he or she has not changed or grown any older. The sonnet’s fourteen lines are made up of three quatrains and a rhyming couplet.

Activity 3.6 - Reading a sonnet (pair)

Pre-reading:

 Scan to confirm the information above.

During reading:

 Listen while your teacher reads the poem, and follow in your books. Then answer the questions below.

Sonnet 104

by William Shakespeare

To me, fair friend, you never can be old,

For as you were when first your eye I ey’d,

Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold,

Have from the forests shook three summers’ pride. (4)

Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn’d,

In process of the seasons have I seen,

Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn’d,

Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green. (8)

Ah! yet doth beauty like a dial-hand,

Steal from his figure, and no pace perceiv’d;

So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,

Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceiv’d: (12)

For fear of which, hear this thou age unbred:

Ere you were born was beauty’s summer dead.

[Public Domain]

Post-reading:

Questions

1. How long has the speaker known the friend and how do you know?

2. What is implied in the word ‘seems’?

3. What is meant by ‘fresh’?

4. The word ‘three’ is used four times. What effect does this have on the meaning?

5. Analyse the following lines by answering the questions below them.

Three winters cold,

Have from the forests shook three summers’ pride,

Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn’d,

In process of the seasons have I seen,

Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn’d,

a. What do the first two lines mean?

b. What is the connection between April and perfumes?

c. What figure of speech is used to express the passing years?

6. What is implied by the ‘Ah! yet’?

7. What figure of speech is used in the third quatrain? Explain it.

8. What is implied by ‘methinks’ and which earlier word is linked to it?

9. Look at the last line of the third quatrain and explain what the speaker is actually saying to the friend.

10. Who is the poet/speaker addressing in the last two lines?

11. What is he saying to whomever he is addressing?

 Your teacher will go through the answers with the class.

A short story

Lionel Abraham, a South African author and literary figure, was responsible for bringing Herman Charles Bosman’s stories to the public, and received many awards for his contributions to literature during his life (1928-2004). He was born of immigrant Jewish parents and suffered from cerebral palsy. He was confined to a wheelchair until the age of 11 and was obliged to take to it again at the age of 66.

His short story in the activity below is unusual in that it doesn’t really tell a story. A chance meeting recalls to the mind of the narrator, Felix, incidents from his childhood, about which he reminisces. We are not given much information about the setting or the characters and have to fill this in for ourselves.

Activity 3.7 - Reading a short story (individual and group)

Pre-reading:

 Skim the story looking for the usual features: characters, setting and theme.

 Listen while your teacher reads the story to you or read it silently to yourself. During reading, focus on making sense of the narrative.