multimodial assignment

https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/AvmQBaymso6EGQ/

LRU-215O Assignment 2

Characters in Matilda:

The main character, Matilda, is a little girl who you follow from she’s around 3 years old and until she starts preschool. She is a very smart little girl. She’s especially good at math and reading. Matilda is also a very kind and precious little girl, but she doesn’t take abuse from anyone, and if she does, she plots her revenge immediately. The name Matilda means: Strong in battle, so she’s no pushover. Matilda is a dynamic and a round character, which means she has both good sides and naughty sides, and her character changes in the story. For example, she transforms from being a sweet little girl to a smart powerful girl who is not afraid of anyone.

Matilda is the protagonist of the story, and every protagonist needs an antagonist. In the book, Miss Trunchbull is the main antagonist in the story. Miss Trunchbull is the headmistress of the Crunchem Hall Primary School where Mathilda attends. She is a big, mean and scary looking woman. She hates children she says in the book and she will go great length to discipline the children. At one point in the book, she flings a little girl by the hair. The character of Trunchbull is static; she does not change during the story.  

To enhance The Trunchbulls character she has a character foil in her niece Miss Honey. Miss Honey is Matilda’s teacher at the Crunchem Hall Primary School. She discovers that Matilda has unusual attributes in reading and math, and she is the complete opposite character vise of her aunt. Miss. Honey is smart, kind, pretty and loves her pupils. These two characters enhances each other character traits in an appropriate way.

How can the book Matilda be used in relation to K06?

Matilda is a great book to use for teaching in the classroom, in my practice period we showed pupils in seventh grade the movie, and they really like the movie. I think that shows that the story still relates to children in all ages. Personally, I would really like to use Readers theatre as a teaching scheme in accordance to Matilda. The reason why is because there’s a lot of plays already made that’s available on the internet, and it’s a good method to work with a lot of skills in accordance to K06, for example: “Express himself/herself creatively, inspired by English literature from various genres and media (Culture, society and literature, after 7^th. grade). “(fremmedspraksenteret.no). In the classroom I would divide class in different groups and have them rehearse different plays and then perform for the class. Reader’s theatre is also great because the pupils do not have to memorize the lines, so they can use more time on the pronunciation instead.

Sources:

Gamble, Nikki. (2013). Exploring Children’s Literature (text book)

http://fremmedspraksenteret.no/nor/fremmedspraksenteret/larings---ressurser/leseveiledning-i-engelsk/methodological-approaches/readers_-theatre?lang=nor#Competence%20aims%20in%20K06

The characters in Matilda

In this blog entry I will discuss the themes and characters from the book “Matilda” by Roald Dahl. Afterwards I will discuss how I think the book can be used in teaching.

“Matilda” is a book about the titular character, a young girl that has an amazing mind, and some magical powers as well. She lives with her very dysfunctional family; a father that verbally abuses her, and a mother and brother that neglects her. Despite of this Matilda is a genius that learnt how to talk by the age of two and learnt to read by the age of four. She spends her days at the local library reading books that librarian Mrs. Phelps finds for her. Eventually Matilda starts at school and her teacher is the young Miss Honey. Miss Honey is the only adult that sees Matilda`s potential and lets her read more complex book than the rest of the class. Meanwhile the schools headmaster, Miss Trunchbull, is ruling the school with an iron fist. The story revolves around how Matilda has to constantly fight back against her oppressors, mainly Miss Trunchbull and her own family.

The themes of the book revolve around the fact that Matilda is different, and the fact that being different is fine. Matilda`s fight against evil that is her parents and Miss Trunchbull is another theme in the book.

How to use it in the classroom?

In relation to how I would use Matilda in the classroom, I think there exist a lot of options. The book is quite long and will be difficult for many readers, so I would read the book aloud to the pupils. I also would use this book on some of the older pupils, maybe 4-7. Grade.

First and foremost after reading the book I would encourage a discussion about the themes described in the book. The book opens up for many questions that the pupils can think about. “What does it mean to be different?” “What do you think about the way Matilda is treated by her family?”

After this discussion I would make the pupils work with character cards related to the story (Munden & Myhre, 2015 s. 113) I would distribute the characters in the book amongst the pupils in small groups. With the help of a planning sheet the pupils will write about how the book describes the characters appearance, developments, statements and actions etc. This will help the pupils understand the contents of the text they have written better. They can also express their own reactions to the different characters.

The aims from LK06  (after 7. Year) that i think are relevant to this subject are:

•        Use basic patterns for pronunciation, intonation, word inflection and different types of sentences in communication.
•        Use reading and writing strategies
•        Understand the main content of texts one has chosen
•        Read children’s and youth literature in English and converse about persons and content
•        Express own reactions to English literary texts, films, internet culture, pictures and music

References:

• Dahl, R. (1988). Matilda. London: Puffin Books.

• Munden, Juliet and Myhre, A. (2015). Twinkle Twinkle. Oslo: Cappelen Damm.

• Utdanningsdirektoratet. (u.å). National Curriculum for Knowledge Promotion in Primary and Secondary Education and Training. Retrieved 19.11.2015, from http://www.udir.no/kl06/eng1-03/Hele/Kompetansemaal/kompetansemal-etter-7.-arstrinn/?lplang=eng

By Marius A. Johansen

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Summary

Most likely, most of us are familiar with Matilda, a book by the famous almost -Norwegian author Roald Dahl. To make a good story short, Matilda is born into a family who is neglecting her, and refusing to offer her any sort of support or love. Matilda loves reading books, and quickly grows fond of her new school, and especially her teacher Ms. Honey. Ms. Honey is helpless against the book`s antagonist Ms. Trunchbull. Have you noticed the names? Anyway, Matilda and Ms. Honey wins the conflict against Ms. Trunschbull, and Matilda get to move away from her parents.

Themes

From my point of view, there are arguably many visible themes in Matilda. Firstly, Ms Thrunchball demonstrate abuse of power in several situations. For instance, when she threw one of the pupils out of the window.

 

Secondly, child abuse/neglect is clear in Matildas parents approach to upbringing of Matilda. “Just keep your nasty mouth shut, will you! (Dahl, 1988). Moreover, the parents demonstrate lack of respect for Matildas interests. 

Thirdly, what I have come to believe, as one of the most significant themes of Matilda is the importance of knowledge. To Matilda a book is equivalent to a safehouse, a place where you can dream, and escaping her parents. Furthermore, does it provide her with knowledge, intelligence, motivation, hence do books symbolise great importance. 

It seems that by using round characters such as Ms. Trunchball and Mr. Wormwood, the author seek to recommend and promote certain social, moral and political beliefs to the reader. From my point of view this is a didactically way of subtly convey children, by (Gamble, 2013) referred to as an explicit way of promoting an ideology. The reader is getting access to both direct-dialogue and Matilda`s feelings. As a result, the reader has to make up his own mind about the moral, or the theme.

Teaching programme

So far, I have discussed the theme, but how can working with Matilda be of any relevance in my teaching programme?

Kunnskapsløftet entails a section about culture, society and literature. One of the sentences explains that pupils must read children’s literature in English, and be able to convers about the different themes and content. Hence, the pupils could write bio -poem being Matilda or Ms. Honey (Lillevangstu, Tønnessen, & Fhall-Larssøn, 2011), exploring the characters and their feelings. Additionally, the pupils could read the profiles aloud in class or in small groups. Additionally, the pupils could draw a timeline based on the happenings from the book, working on their post-reading skills. Moreover, I could use Matilda or Ms. Honey`s profile to discuss the importance of respect, empathy or kindness. Ideally, this teaching-scheme could lead to a better learning- environment, since the class feels more secure amongst each other. My recommendation would be to use Matilda to work on oral skill among the students, human-relations or characters, rather than explicit writing or grammar skills. The book entails a lot of text, and many low-frequent words, which could make the book too difficult for many pupils. Therefore, may radio/readers theatre be of more adequate activities, which 

Bilography

Gamble, N. (2013). Exploring children`s litterature. London: SAGE.

Lillevangstu, M., Tønnessen, E. S., & Fhall-Larssøn, H. (2011). Inn i teksten : ut i livet. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

Utdanningsdirektoratet. (u.å). National Curriculum for Knowledge Promotion in Primary and Secondary Education and Training. Retrieved 08.11.2015, from http://www.udir.no/kl06/eng1-03/Hele/Kompetansemaal/kompetansemal-etter-4.-arstrinn/?lplang=eng

Dahl, R. (1988). Matilda. London: Puffin Books.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

By Eirin Jensen

The Three Billy Goats Gruff is a Norwegian folk tale from the 19th century, which children hear and learn at a very young age in Norway. It was collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe and published in 1841 in Norske Folkeeventyr. The fairy tale is about three billy goats on their way to summer pastures. To get there they have to walk on a bridge over a river. Under the bridge lives an ugly troll that threatens to eat the goats. The troll lets the two first and smallest goats pass the bridge because he wants the biggest and fattest goat. The third goat butts the troll into the river. The fairy tale has the traditional beginning once upon a time, it contains animal, an event that occur three times, repeating dialogue, contrasting sizes, and an obstacle, - a troll (magic creature). The theme can be good versus evil, prudence, greed, and that you can overcome obstacles. 

The Three Billy Goats Gruff exists in many versions, but it has a main pattern and are often adapted to the culture one lives in (Gamble 2013:141). The version I have chosen is retold by Joan Stimson (1993) and is a part of a Ladybird Favourite Tales series. The text is supported by marvellous illustrations by Chris Russell. His illustrations have different perspectives and varies between chasm and closeness, which helps to drive the story forward (Gamble 2013:212).

 There are many transparent words in the text, e.g. day, grass, troll, hear, eat, will. These words are easy to understand, remember and reproduce, since they are so similar to the Norwegian words (Munden & Myhre, 2015:39).

In the competence aims after Year 4 fairy tales are mentioned under oral communication. The aim is that the pupil should be able to understand the main content of fairy tales and stories. By using a fairy tale the class has prior knowledge to can increase the level of comprehension. It will function as an including element so that every pupil can participate at some degree. By talking about the Norwegian version of the fairy tale before presenting the English one, can be helpful in understanding and learning new English words. The teacher can read the fairy tale aloud, which is a way of scaffolding (Gamble, 2013:31).  After reading the fairy tale, the pupils can practise to find similarities between words and expressions in English and his/her own native language, which is an aim that I find suitable when working with fairy tales. The action and phrases are repeated, which re-inforce the language learning. The repeating dialogue and the fact that the fairy tale is well known by the children, can make it easier to find similarities and to create a dramatized presentation or radio theatre. The aim is for the children to participate in presenting stories in English. Then they can practise pronunciation and use body language and sounds in the presentation, for instance when the goats are crossing the bridge (trip, trap, trip, trap). 

References:

Stimson, Joan (1993) Ladybird Favourite tales, The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Lady Birds Books LTD

Utdanningsdirektoratet (u.å). National Curriculum for Knowledge Promotion in Primary and Secondary Education and Training. Sourced 12.11.15 from http://www.udir.no/kl06/eng1-03/Hele/Kompetansemaal/kompetansemal-etter-4.-arstrinn/?lplang=eng

Gamble, N. (2013). Exploring Children’s Literature: Reading with Pleasure and Purpose (3^rd ed.ed.). London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Munden, J. & Myhre, A. (2015). Twinkle Twinkle. 3^rd edition. Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk.

Asbjørnsen, P. C. og J. Moe (1841) Norske folkeeventyr