CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

Tolerance and Pages of English History

обобщающий открытый урок

Цели:

развитие всех видов речевой деятельности с помощью ролевой игры (project);
повторение и закрепление пройденного материала (modal verbs);
знакомство с шедеврами истории (The Bayeux Tapestry, достопримечательности Франции и Англии).

2. Развивающие:

развитие творчества, фантазии, воображения;
умение работать с картой.

3. Воспитательные:

воспитание чувства толерантности;
умение работать в команде, помогать друг другу.

Materials:

1. иллюстрация гобелена из Байо
2. карты
3. декларация толерантности
4. эмблемы
5. девиз

Warming Up

Тeacher: Good morning! I hope you are fine. Where are Kostya and Helen? Any suggestions?

Students (work in pairs):

1. – Kostya may be playing football in the gym.
– You can’t be serious. How careless of him!
– Helen may be phoning her friend.
– Yes, she may be congratulating her friend on her birthday.

2. – Kostya may be writing a composition “Ireland in My Life”.
– Can that really be true?
– Helen may be composing a poem “Ireland in My Heart”
– I’ve already read it. It’s good.

3. – Kostya may be swapping computer games with friends.
– Yes, I know. He has got a lot of them.
– Helen may be listening to Rammstein?
– I refuse to believe it. Only you are crazy about Rammstein.

4. – Helen may be meeting and greeting our Irish friends.
– That’s not possible. They must be discussing some project
with Galina Petrovna.
– I’m sure, you are right.
(Kostya and Helen come in.)

Lena: Sorry for being late.

Kostya: We were busy discussing the project “The 21st Century and Tolerance”.

Lena: This is a unique opportunity to participate in the contest held by the newspaper The First of September. The project is called “The 21st Century and Tolerance”.

Kostya: Of course it’s a challenge, but I think we should take part in this project and we call it “Tolerance and Some Pages of English History”.

Тeacher: Would you like to take part in this project?

Possible answers:

– I find this idea exciting.
– It’s great to face a challenge.
– Why not?
– I’m afraid it’s a lot of work.
– Yes, of course!

Тeacher: I’m ready to meet this challenge and I’d like to introduce our jury, with chairwoman – Natalya Sergeevna. The jury is going to decide if our project is worthy of the contest. Then there are some awards (the Smartest, the Brightest, the Most Creative, and so on). It is for the jury to decide which title each of you (or a group) deserves.

Тeacher: The first step is to create a bank of Ideas. Let’s start the ball rolling.

Students:

– To begin with, tolerance means willingness to accept or allow behaviour, beliefs, and customs which one does not like or agree with, without opposition.
– I’d like to add, tolerance is also respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world’s cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human.
– I quite agree with you. I think that tolerance means that everyone should respect other people. God created us all equal; so we should respect everyone in an equal way.
– Well, as a matter of fact, you shouldn’t judge people by their looks (the colour of their skin and so on). Some people don’t treat others as they should. I am sure it’s a good idea to talk about this kind of thing.
– Personally, I think that tolerance is harmony in difference. We are people of different beliefs, religions. I wouldn’t like to go into details. Every person might have his own secrets. We should find a place for tolerance deep in our hearts and live in harmony.
– I’m convinced that tolerance makes peace possible. It can contribute to the replacement of the culture of war by a culture of peace. If we had more tolerance nowadays there would be less fighting all over the world. That’s why tolerance is important.
– I will start by saying that tolerance means to be able to put up with something you disagree with. It also means not to start an argument over something you disagree with (music, films, books, preferences). One example of tolerance is if you don’t like something or someone, you shouldn’t start fighting, or calling them bad names.
– The point I wish to stress is that tolerance is above all an active attitude, you recognise the universal human rights and fundamental freedoms of others.
– From my point of view, tolerance is a responsibility to live in accordance with human rights. It is an ability to appreciate others and let them live by their own beliefs. Tolerance is to be exercised by individuals, groups and states.
– My opinion is that tolerance is essential for international harmony, that individuals, communities and nations accept and respect, the multicultural character of the human family. Without tolerance there can be no peace and without peace there can be no development or democracy.

Тeacher: You have written your main ideas on pieces of paper. Thank you for your exciting and thrilling ideas. We’ve got our bank of ideas. They are here in the box. Now it’s time for a game. This game is a kind of a questionnaire, because you are going to work in groups. Certainly it is advisable for you to know if you are tolerant enough to work as a team.

Game: Are You Tolerant?

1. Your team is losing...
a) You break things
b) You support it right to the end

2. Your team loses...
a) You congratulate the winners
b) You refuse to shake their hands

3. Your team wins...
a) It’s thanks to you
b) You say: “We played well”

4. You don’t like someone on the team...
a) You act as though he doesn’t exist
b) You pass him the ball when you can

5. You miss an easy goal...
a) You feel useless
b) You’ll score next time

6. A beginner plays badly...
a) You remember you were a beginner once
b) You want him or her to be replaced

7. The referee whistles...
a) You accept the rules of the game
b) You argue anyway

8. You feel violent...
a) You hit someone
b) You kick a ball

Key: 1. b, 2. a, 3. b, 4. b, 5. b, 6. a, 7. a, 8. b.

Count your correct answers:

– All 8: Well done! You are very tolerant! You have character; you are a good sport and you can keep yourself and others from being aggressive. Tell your friends how you do it!
– Between 3 and 7: You aren’t very tolerant! You can be touchy but you are brave and you can improve. Start practicing now.
– 2 or less: Oh, dear! You aren’t tolerant! If you respected yourself and others a bit more, you’d be much happier. Give it a try!
The captains of the teams say a few words about the results of the game.

Тeacher: Congratulations on your positive results. You can work as friendly teams. Our catchphrases can be the following. Look at the blackboard. “Dear Teacher, Try and show some _____. Dear Students, Try and show some _______, too.”(guess)
Back to our Bank of Ideas. Look at the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance. It was proclaimed and signed by the member states of UNESCO, 16 November 1995. UNESCO! What do these letters stand for? (guess). They’ve got an emblem (I’ll show it later). Would you like to have your own and tell us what idea your emblem expresses? The first step – in your groups choose one idea and draw your design/symbol. 5 minutes for you. (The best emblems).
Nowadays we take much of this for granted and know little of how difficult it was for society to arrive at such a state of things. That’s why I think it’s high time to turn to some pages of English history. Your task was to read some pages of history at home. You were asked to think over how you would adapt them for a documentary film. Do you think that some parts of the texts would be difficult or even impossible to show on the screen? You work in groups. I want each group to write up a camera script for their sequence. You should describe the sequence in not more than three different shots. Each shot should be described in the same way.

• What the text says

• What the camera shows

• What words are spoken

There are pictures on the blackboard, some scenes (the Bayeux Tapestry).

Student 1: In conclusion I’d like to say that we can’t help admiring the Bayeux Tapestry. It’s needless to say that it’s one of the world’s masterpieces. It certainly belongs to humanity and we come to understand that the human race had never been tolerant – centuries passed under the motto: “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”. The only person who was tolerant was crucified long ago.

Student 2: British historians consider that the Tapestry gives a decidedly Norman view of events. Although ironically it has been established that the work of embroidery was almost certainly carried out by English hands.

Student 3: It’s high time they stopped arguing. They should exercise more tolerance nowadays and keep admiring this masterpiece.

TEST

The first paragraph is done for you, the rest of the story about “1066” is in the wrong order.

1. Read the text and number them in the correct order.
2. Explain how you worked out the order.

A. The year was 1065 and in London the English king, Edward the Confessor, was dying. He had no children and three men claimed the throne of England: Harold Godwin, the Earl of Wessex, William, the Duke of Normandy and Harald Hardraada, the King of Norway.

B. The Normans attacked but the Anglo-Saxon soldiers were safe on the top of the hill. They pushed the Normans back. Then the Normans pretended to run away. Some of the Anglo-Saxons chased them down the hill. But the Norman knights turned round and killed them.

C. And that was all that Hardraada received. By the end of the day he was dead and the Norwegian army had been destroyed. But, while Harold and his soldiers were resting after the battle, news arrived from London: Duke William had landed on the south coast near the town of Hastings.

D. When the news reached Duke William, he was very angry. William was the Duke of Normandy in northern France and he was Edward’s cousin. Edward had grown up in Normandy and had promised William the throne. Duke William was tall and he was a famous soldier.

E. After the Battle of Hastings, William marched to London and was crowned king of London. He is now called William the Conqueror and 1066 is the most famous date in English history. It was a turning point for English history and the English language.

F. William stayed near Hastings and waited for Harold Godwin. The English king returned to London, collected a new army and marched to Hastings. They stopped on a hill and the battle began. The Anglo-Saxons fought on foot, but the Normans were on horses.

G. Harold Godwin was the most important of the Anglo-Saxon lords. Edward had been a weak king and Harold had been the real ruler of England for many years. When Edward died at the end of 1065, Harold was crowned king.

H. Harold and most of his army had stayed on the hill. But then the Norman archers attacked. They fired their arrows into the air. King Harold looked up and an arrow hit him in the eye. The last Anglo-Saxon king was dead and Duke William had won.

I. But if William was tall, Harald Hardraada was even taller. He was a giant almost seven feet tall. Hardraada’s ancestors had been kings of England before Edward and now he wanted the throne for himself.

J. The Anglo-Saxon and Norwegian armies met at Stamford Bridge near the city of York. Before the battle, Hardraada asked King Harold: “How much of England will you give me?” “Seven feet”, Godwin replied, “enough for your grave”.

K. The first challenge to King Harold Godwin came from the north. In 1066 at the end of the summer, Harald Hardraada landed in north-eastern England. Godwin marched north with his army.

By Natalya Balkarova,
School No. 19, Moscow