OUTLINE: Final Paper_2009

Christmas Carol:

Introducing literature to young children

I. Introduction:

There are many ways to introduce reading into EFL classrooms

a. Thesis:

There are different activities which can be used to introduce reading to young children

II. Body:

Christmas Carol story

Activities to introduce reading to young children

Examples

III. Conclusion:

Literature can be adapted and introduced to any EFL classroom

"September 1, 1939" by W.H Auden

W.H Auden was one of many people who were hopeless by the events that were happening in 1939. Reality was not what you wanted to see and the future became vague.

I believe he wrote because he needed a way of keeping hope. He could see how the world was becoming apart but he had a need to save all those images about a better world.

He believed that the only way to save us is by loving each other. Through love we can be reeducated and understand the importance of seeing everybody as an equal in order to keep peace and love among us.

The way he wrote and the words he chose to express his feelings are still appealing to our own reality nowadays. He wrote about problems that we still have and do not know how to face.

This is one of the aspects why I would use this poem in a EFL classroom. So students can appreciate how societies still don't learn from their mistakes, and we should start to helping by learning from our own mistakes. Look at ourselves and learn from the best and worts that we can do to each other.

Ivette: The rocking-horse winner

It is really amazing to see the way the author mixes his own life with an irreal one. This is possible to observe in both stories.The most noticeable in the stories is the existence of a very complex issue for society which is the desire of money. In the first tale, the protagonist is a boy that suffers because of the conflicts that the wish of money brings to his family. That is why he hides his sad feelings by gambling for money.The second story is focused on the relationship between life and death. The relationship is mainly presented by the inhuman work world of the mine and the beautiful and vulnerable, natural world. For example, the important things that we can lose if the attention is payed to money instead of love relationships. Thinking on what is happening in our society, it is part of our common sense notice that money cannot buy happiness and it represents a harmful force as well as alcoholism. Nowadays is really common to observe children working in the streets or even worse begging for money. Is that what we want for our children? I am totally sure the answer is no. So, I think that our effort in schools can make the difference. If we contribute children to be comfortable at least when they are learning, things can improve. D.H Lawrence points out very contemporary issues. I really enjoyed reading both stories because of the many issues that they bring, and that make sense in our society.

I really believe Ivette was able to give the main idea of both short stories. Although it can be appreciated that she described more the rocking-horse winner over the second short story. I think this decision had to do with the interesting topic this story develops and how well it can be connected to our own reality.
I totally agree with the idea of happiness beyond econominal issues. However we need to consider that money rules our life. We need to be aware of the decisions we take in order to keep or gain more money. Nowadays most people are capable of almost anything to "rise in social/economical class". This is the moment when we as future teachers need to do something about it. As Ivette pointed out "we need to make an effort to do things differently". I beleive we need to start from giving a good example to our students and teach them values according to our beliefs and the society in which we live in.
Finally I would like to say that maybe this post could be improved by giving a more explicit relation between both stories because I think the author notoriously takes aspects of his society and values from his own experience, which he beleives are important to share with the readers.

"The Waste Land" by T.S Eliot

T.S Eliot was born as an American citizen however he decided to become a great British poet in those years. He experienced what a post war period was and the decline of human beings as a community.

“The Waste Land” is one of his well-known pieces of work in which consist in 5 different stories, being told by many different narrators. What I think the author tried to develop was the idea of many people being affected by the inclemency of war and how everybody felt: lack of hope and regrets of what had happened.

According to Wikipedia.com “The Waste Land” takes into consideration 5 traditional elements: earth, air, fire, water and aether. The first element, EARTH has a direct relationship with the burial and understanding the importance of land as the place where people exist. Then, AIR is represented by the many voices or narrators that this work has, implying that there is a developed intellectual mind behind the creation of this work. FIRE is represented by the passion the author put in this work, understanding that the only way of writing all those complex feelings is by feeling them yourself. WATER represented by the use of images of sea and a voyage. And finally, AETHER as the material that fills all the region of universe, this means that even though you talk about a waste land there must be something in that place besides nothingness.

2 short stories by D. H Lawrence

These are two everyday objects which can be found in any place or story. However, D. H Lawrence has the ability to transform them into the main objects of his stories which have a fundamental role of keeping strong feelings within them.

On one side, Chrysanthemum is a flower that may grow in many parts of the countryside. But, for Mrs. Bates they were the memory of a promise that never was completed, a process of suffering and the end of his husband’s life.

On the other side, Rocking-horse is a toy which usually is related to boys’ entertainment. But for Paul this was the beginning and the end of his life. He got so much immersed with it, that his life depended on it and what was the result? Death

Imagination and creativity are part of this author's work. He created new roles for those objects that are very well-known but he gave them a new set of actions which influence the past, present and even future of his characters. Being creative is part of writing, and having the ability to take your readers to new worlds and see whatever that the author sees, it's what makes you successful.
It has been awhile since I don't get engaged with a good short story, and this was the case. After discovering Dickens, I must say D.H Lawrence is an author that I will read and recommend to my friends, colleges and students.