Tolerance

Warm-up: What do you see in the picture? 

In what ways are we different? 

Let's learn about bullying in the UK: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/uk-now/read-uk/bullying 

Yearbook

“We’re in this together”

During the last weeks of year nine, you are going to work on creating a yearbook for the class which will hopefully be a nice memory for you to look back into. When you are finished, we will put your texts together in a booklet and everyone will get a copy of it. You can also choose to make a graduation speech for your class. Then the script of your speech will be your yearbook contribution.

We are going to watch and discuss different clips about the future and you will also get to write a letter to your future self if you have time. The letter will be sent back to you after a year.

The text you write for the yearbook and your speech will be assessed (see rubric) the letter will not.

For your yearbook contribution, you can choose to either write a hand-written letter (keep in mind that your classmates and your teachers should be able to read it…) or on your Chromebook. Your text should be about a page and a half long and should be handed in by Friday, May 24. Here are some tips on what you can include in your contribution to the yearbook:

a.                            Your best memories of your school year

b.                            A time you laughed, or cried.

c.                             A piece of advice to your classmates for the future

d.                            Something you hope you never forget about this time in your life

e.                            Something you feel proud of having done

f.                              Something you would like to do all over again

g.                            Write about an imaginary class reunion year 2039

h.                            A letter from yourself in the future to your classmates

i.                              What you want to do in the future
j.                Your högstadiet survival guide for the future year 7's 

If you choose to write a graduation speech, you will present it to your class during week 22 (Monday, May 27 and Tuesday, May 28/Monday June 3) and your speech should be between two and three minutes long. Here are some tips on what you can include in your speech:

• A thank you to your classmates and teachers
• Something you remember from your years at Vallås.
• Advice for the future

You will get more tips during our lessons and we will also watch a few examples of graduation speeches.

Here are some examples of Yearbook texts from students that graduated from year nine a few years ago. 

Practice

Two lessons before the national tests. For today's lesson, you are going to practice individually, depending on what you need to work on.


1) Finish your essay on Exam.

2) Test yourself on old reading exams
Native Languages: https://nafs.gu.se/digitalAssets/1448/1448176_native_lang.pdf
Odd News: https://nafs.gu.se/digitalAssets/1448/1448171_odd_news.pdf
Small Talk: https://nafs.gu.se/digitalAssets/1448/1448337_small_talk.pdf

3) Use headphones and test yourself on old listening exams
Environmental News: https://nafs.gu.se/digitalAssets/1448/1448152_env_news.pdf
Sound file: https://nafs.gu.se/digitalAssets/1269/1269266_env_news.mp3

What's It All About? https://nafs.gu.se/digitalAssets/1448/1448178_whats_about.pdf
Sound file: http://www4.gu.se/audio/pil/whats_about.mp3

4) Need more of a challenge?
Try language assessment tests at a higher level
B2: https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/cbpt/2015/fce-reading-and-uoe/index.xhtml
C1: https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/cbpt/2015/cae-reading-and-uoe/index.xhtml

Let's talk about Holes!

When you have read the book Holes and seen the movie, you guys will have lots to talk about, so that is what we are going to do during the lesson after.

You will work in groups of three or four and discuss the questions that you have got on the cards. Take turns and pick cards from your pile and discuss the questions that you see on your card. Remember to be active and speak English all the time. Help your friends out if they need it, ask them questions to help keep the conversation going.

The discussion questions are about...

• Fate and destiny
• Friendship 
• The curse (?) on the Yelnats family
• Green Lake now and then 
• Changes that Stanley and the other boys go through 
• Zero and his family
• The other characters in Holes 
• Differences between the book and the movie 

And... Explain the pictures. Give examples of when you have read about this in the book or seen it in the movie. 

Talk about how fate and destiny affect Stanley and his family. Stanley's great-great-grandfather was "cursed" because he did not carry Madame Zeroni up the mountain as he had promised.
How was this promise fulfilled over a hundred years later?
How did the story of Stanley's great-grandfather's survival help Zero and Stanley survive their escape from Camp Green Lake?
(fate = a power that is believed to control what happens in the future, destiny= what happens in the future : the things that someone or something will experience in the future)

One important theme in Holes is friendship. At home, Stanley did not have many friends. But at Camp Green Lake, he and the other boys in his group develop a strong bond. Stanley forms a special friendship with Zero, whom he teaches to read.
Discuss the bond that develops among the boys – how do they become friends?
How can you tell that Zero and Stanley are friends? Give examples.

The Yelnats believed there was a curse on their family for generations.
Do you believe there was a family curse?
What do you think the Yelnats family believed by the end of the book?
Do you think people have control over their own lives? Or is something else at work?

Camp Green Lake seems like a place from another world — a dry, flat wasteland covered with hundreds and hundreds of holes. Green Lake had once been the largest lake in Texas, surrounded by peach trees.
Why did the area change all of a sudden?
Predict how Camp Green Lake will look ten years after Stanley leaves. What clues in the story lead you to this conclusion?

Stanley goes through many changes during his time at Camp Green Lake.
Describe Stanley at the time he arrives at Camp Green Lake.
What is he like a few months into his sentence?
How does he change by the time he leaves?

Stanley slowly develops a friendship with a fellow inmate named Zero, a small, quiet boy who rarely speaks.
Is Zero stupid, as most people think?
What clues are given to prove that Zero is really very smart?
What role did Zero's family play in Stanley's family generations earlier?

Stanley is placed in group D. Besides Zero, which of the characters in the group do you remember the most? Why?
What is the relationship between the boys and the guards?
Stanley and Zero were not the only characters to develop throughout the story. How do the rest of the boys at Camp Green Lake change by the end of the book?

What are some of the differences you noticed in the Holes movie from the book?

Was it easier to understand the story in the book or the movie? Which did you enjoy more and why?
When you watched the movie, did you imagine the characters looking like the actors who played the main roles? Did anyone surprise you with the way they looked in the Holes movie? Why or why not?

Inventions - Leonardo da Vinci

One of the smartest people in history was Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian who was  born in 1452. He was an inventor, a scientist, an engineer, a sculptor, an illustrator and an artist. And, as if this was not enough, he was very good at singing and played a lot of musical instruments! It is said that he loved animals so much, he used to buy caged animals just to set them free.

We will read a short text about da Vincis life and inventions. 

Work with words here first: http://ovningsmastaren.se/ovningsmastaren/index.php/exercise/glosmastaren/3786

Work with this exercise: http://ovningsmastaren.se/ovningsmastaren/index.php/exercise/skrivtext/5250