Link to St Finian´s wikispace

Here you are the link to St Finian´s School in Swords (Ireland). They have uploaded your projects and have also included some messages for you.

Topics for presentation (E1C)

These are the topics. Remember you won´t know your topic beforehand! Presentations will begin Monday 18. You should speak for about 2 minutes.

 

-The best thing that has ever happened to me

-The worst thing that has ever happened to me

-Something funny that has happened to me

-What I really hate!

-What I really like!

-A surprise I had

-An exciting place you have visited

-A memory from childhood I´ll always remember

-My best friend

-What is friendship?

-A problem I have

-My favorite TV show

-Bilingual education: pros and cons

-Strange experiences you´ve had

-Your most embarrassing moment.

-What have you always wanted to do?

-What would you like to change and why?

-Things I can't understand.

-Your most curious dream.

-Great places to go in the world.

-High school is the best time in your life. Or not…

-Things you would change in our high-school

-What do you think about Nelson Mandela?

-What do you like and dislike about Edgar A. Poe´s stories?

-What is your favourite musical band or singer? Why?

-Your dream job

-Tell me about a film you have really liked

-Romeo and Juliet

-Will robots replace humans?  Will robots take our jobs?

-Would you want to live on another planet?

-What will future houses look like?

-The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde

Tell-tale heart

Watch the animation of the story by Edgar A. Poe here.

Poe´s "next world"

I told you to comment on the idea of "the next world" as it appears in Poe´s The Maelström: "I saw a rainbow at the bottom of the whirlpool. It was like a bridge between this world and the next world". And these are your thoughts:

"With the `next world´ he meant that the next world was death. It is represented as a rainbow because the protagonist wasn´t scared of death; he had lived a horrible experience, his two brothers had died, the only thing he was thinking of was death". (Carla Casalengua)

"I think it is said because the protagonist thought he was going to die when he was inside the Moskoe-ström; so he thought that the rainbow would take him to the afterlife. Maybe the rainbow gave the protagonist hope to feel that he didn´t have to die yet so he started looking around him to see if it was possible for him to survive".(Lidia Jiménez)

"I think the protagonist is referring to the world where no one can die for a second time and no one thinks about making something bad, and nothing bad can happen to us. The world of death. A very bright and colourful world without any dark places or shadows, where our dead family is. That is why the "door" between this world and that world is represented with a rainbow".(Marina Lago)

"Poe wasn´t afraid of death because his wife and his parents have died and he wanted to die to be with them. He sees death as a good place to be because there he could be with his wife and parents. A rainbow is beautiful, it is like an arch so it is similar to a bridge".(David Jiménez)

"I think that the next world is the world of death, sadness and darkness, it is the world where all the dead people go, also where the sad people go, and no one is happy, the ones who have dark souls and a dark heart inside, people that have made others unhappy. It is a place where "you will nevermore be happy again", the worst place in the world". (Daniel Posadas)



"I think that the ´next world´ will be without sadness, sacrifices and with the people that you love. It will be a beautiful and colourful place where you could live in peace forever. There you could meet all the people that you knew and meet new people. All the people will be happy and with a smile on their faces, there wars will not exist and peace will reign forever".(Andrea Quero)

Very deep. Good work!

Painting descriptions

Edgar A. Poe quiz (B1A)

Answer these questions about Edgar Allan Poe. Look for the answers on this website.

1.When and where was we he born?
2. What literary genre did he invent?
3. What had happened in Poe´s life by the age of three?
4. Where does the Allan in his name come from?
5. Was Poe interested in his foster father´s business?
6. How did Poe have to get money while he was studying at the university of Virginia?
7. What did he even have to do to keep warm?
8. Who was Elmira Royster?
9. Why did he leave his foster parents´ house?
10. What´s the name of the first book he published?
11. Who was Maria Clemm?
12.What kind of articles did he write for the Southern Literary Messenger magazine? 
13. Who did Poe marry?
13.  How did Poe try to become famous when he arrived in New York in 1844?
14. What piece of work made Poe famous?
15. How old was Virginia when she died?
16. How was he affected by his wife´s death?
17.  Who was Rufus Griswold?
18.  Edgar A.Poe lived and died in Baltimore. What is the name of the Baltimore Football team? Check it out here. Why that name?
19. Did you know a film based on Poe´s stories and life is going to be released soon?  Watch the trailer here. What´s the name of the film? What can you see hanging from the chimney? Does it remind you of something (It should...).

There will be several secret questions about the plot of the stories by Poe we have worked with. 

Now remember these important dates: June 1 (Friday): quiz on Poe; June 5 (Tuesday): exam on Poe´s stories; June 6 (Wed): picture description exam; June 12, 13 (Tuesday, Wed): interviews.

Picasso´s Guernica

Describe the picture and comment on it.

More on Poe

-Do you know what´s the relation between the city of Baltimore and Edgar A.Poe? Come on, check it in your notes! Good. Now, make a guess: what do you think the name of the Baltimore Football team is? Check it out here.

-Now, watch this special animation of "The Raven" poem...

A scary story (in Poe´s style)

The Burning House
"One day I was walking through the forest with a friend in a stormy and bleak night. We heard the wind whispering: "Don´t drink in the fountain". But we didn´t listen to it. At the end of the forest, we saw a light and we went towards it. Near the path there was a fountain with a lot of ravens perched on the trees around. We were very thristy so we drank from the fountain. Suddenly the ravens attacked us and we fell down. When we woke up we were in a graveyard. We felt dizzy and I thought that the water from the fountain was toxic. Then, a rap under a tomb interrupted my thoughts and I tried to stand up, but something didn´t let me do it. My friend was near me sleeping. Then it started to rain, so I took my friend to a cave that was near. There, we went to sleep. When we soke up we weren´t dizzy, but someone put a rock in the entrance of the cave. We were very frightened, but thanks to some matches that my friends had we entered the cave until it finished in a wall with stairs. We went upstairs and we appeared in a house. We investigated there but there was no one. When we entered the chamber room the fireplace had some embers and then the chamber room door closed. We tried to open the door, but we couldn´t. Some ravens were in a window and when we opened it they entered and the wind closed the window. The ravens entered the fireplace  and suddenly they turned into ghosts. When the sat in the sofas, they burnt and all the house was burning with us inside". (by Alejandro G. and Daniel G.).


The October midnight of a Human-raven
"A midnight during a bleak October, I was standing in the old chamber room at my grandmother´s house when I heard a strange noise coming from the kitchen. I decided to go and see what had happened.
For the first time in my short life I felt weak and my soul within me burning: my grandmother was lying on the floor covered in blood. The window was broken, and for a few seconds I could see a man peering from the dark forest through the window... but he disappeared in the foggy, dark night. On the floor there were some notes about the transformation of a living human being into a raven and some drawings of hearts. I raised my eyes to my grandmother´s heart and the only thing I saw was a deep and stained hollow in the part of my grandmother´s chest, where her soft heart  was supposed to be. In was in a shock and I didn´t understand anything.
I decided to go to explore, because the night was bathed in moonlight in that ember-like and bleak night of that cold October. The hours passed and I found a haunted-house. A light was illuminating one of the windows. In that moment something inside me thought that the man, who was peering from the window when my grandmother died, was standing at the window. A note came from the window: "Dear girl: you should know my story, the story of your grandmother´s death, the story of the human-ravens. the legend says every fifty years, when the full moon is so bright that it can illuminate  almost all the city, a human-raven (a mixture of a raven and a human) can die. Your grandmother was a human-raven. Every night she turned into a raven and in the morning she became human again. I was also a human-raven. In order for a human-raven not to die, it had to collect three human-raven´s hearts and put them under the light of the shiny moon. I decided to take off the the life of three honest raven-women and now...I don´t have any words. I could never live feeling so guilty. My last words in this paper are filled with pain and sorrow". (By Elena R. and Eva B.)

Good work to you all! Did you know a film based on Poe´s stories and life is about to be released? It´s called The Raven (of course). Watch the trailer here.

A story (2AB)

"The story is about three friends that get lost in a big forest, when the day got dark they looked for a place to sleep. And they saw an old house where nobody lived. They went into the house and when they went to bed, one of them heard a noise and went to investigate. He didn´t come back and another boy went to look for him. He shouted and didn´t come back. The last boy went where the shout came from and saw his two friends dead in the room with a lot of blood. He ran away from the house and when he realized he was in the graveyard he turned round and shouted. The following morning the police found him dead and tracks of a wolf next to him and on his dead body it was written "Don´t run, it´s worse!" (Laura O. and Natalia C. Good work! Especially taking into account you had only 10 minutes, great!)

The gun control debate in the USA

Watch this video about gun control in the US. What are the arguments for and against the issue mentioned in it?

A story (2AB)

Watch this videoclip, it is based on the story we are going to read next. Answer these questions:

-What kind of story is it? Why do you think so?
-What is the setting of the story?
-How is the house that appears in the clip?
-Does anyone live in the house? Why do you think so?

-Invent a plot for the story.

The Raven by Edgar A. Poe

-Animation of the poem The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe (with music by Alan Parsons Project).

-Listen to the poem  here.

BECAS CURSOS DE VERANO, 3º,4ºESO Y 1ºBACH

Click here for more information.

The Present Perfect and you.

Some of you seem to have problems when using the Present Perfect. These are excerpts from your compositions, is the tense used correctly? If not, correct the mistake:

1."I have been in Luis García Berlanga high-school for seven months."
2."In the first course of Primary I met Laura, Eva, Paula, Lidia, Ana... Since first course I had been her friends".
3."So I have been learning English since then and now I know a lot".
4."When I was a child I couldn´t be relaxed so I had broken many times my arm, my leg, a finger..."
5. "Since August last year, for several months, I have been proposing a trip to London and Ireland and finally we are now preparing it".
6. "I am in a football club since 2009, it´s called E.F. El Olivo".
7. "I have been living in Ecuador since I was born till I was 3 years old".
8. "For four years I have been going to an English academy with some friends in Coslada".
9."I have being living in Coslada all my life with my parents".
10."I have been studying in the school or high-school since 2002".
11."Since 2000 I go every summer to France".
12."Our class is famous because teachers have been angry with us since the first day".

13."I love tennis. Since I was a baby I was playing tennis with my grandfather".

14."When I was little I have played a lot with my cousin".

15."I like playing the piano, I have been playing it for 3 years".
16."Since I was small, I love playing football".
17."Since I was a child I had been living in Coslada".
18."In the 1st course of ESO I have made much more friends and my life has changed, but I like those changes".
19."In 2011 I started high school. My marks were not brilliant but they weren´t bad".
20."I have gone to karate classes when I was 4 years old".
21."I have started the high-school in 2011".