All along the first term of this 2018/2019 school year, my C1 ESL students have concentrated on reading a single book: 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society', and so have contributed to the digital collaborative educational project on media literacy that the Spanish 'Cero en Conducta' professional network foster.
They have been working on the film trailer and searching for potential and alike film locations; gathering for a book club meetup and have finally gone into cooking sustainable dishes, inspired by the famous potato peel pie.
Here you are their outstanding outcomes, which have also been savoured by their school peers at the traditional 25-year-old Christmas cookery contest that EOI de Luarca organise every December:
And, last but not least, my sincere congratulations to one of those C1 ESL students for winning the school contest, but without forgetting and acknowledging the great effort this bunch of ESL students have made in order to accomplish a learning mission which mingles both digital and language skills.
Reading is much more than opening a book and thumbing page after page. Reading means imagining the time and location where a novel is set, understanding the characters and their reactions as well as putting yourself in their shoes; analysing the authors' styles and backgrounds, reviewing, commenting and feeling the whole story, so as to later celebrate your learning with your class peers in a social event. For example, a school meetup.
This is obviously time consuming and involves prior work before joining such a book discussion club meetup, and the B2.1 and C1 ESL students who attended last Thursday's meetup were up to the challenge, and even thought of empowering everybody's brains with some Christmas sweets!
Thanks for that, too!
In order to better understand the timeline of 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society', some had even listed the letters the characters in the novel exchanged!
Others had sketched the main ideas or drafted a full review of the novel, but they were all quite adamant about their feelings towards and against both the book and the film.
A soft book in which the change of authors is quite noticeable as regards the writing style, with a bit of a disappointing development of the female main characters; a predictable love story sort of ending, and only one hard passage for the readers to reflect on: the evacuation of children from Guernsey to an unknown future due to the German occupation of The Channel Islands in the Second World War.
As regards recommending the book to others, 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' has been liked by a few of the meetup attendants, who have also found it easy to read, but a lot more attendants have claimed they do not regard it as their cup of tea and were not ready to say they would suggest other readers to dive into it along 2019.
Several meetup comers have already watched the book-based film, released back on 26 October 2018, and highlight the wide gap between the movie and the novel it is based on. Actually some are even struck by the fact that both works have nothing in common, so that if it had not been for their having had to read the book, they could have perfectly watched the film without even learning it was based on a novel.
To cut a long story short, in general, readers would rather read for the pleasure of reading and choose their own books instead of having to compulsorily read what the EOI Luarca tells them to read!
Undoubtedly, a tip to note down for the upcoming future!
Since the beginning of this first term of 2018/2019 school year, at EOI Luarca, we have been reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and started to accomplish challenges in order to improve ESL and foster a culture of reading in the language one is learning.
We have already begun working with the film trailer too, learning more about Guernsey and finding similarities between that film location and other potential film locations close to our school, in Luarca, northern Spain (Asturias).
Some of my students at EOI Luarca have engaged in recording great speeches with their mobiles, about those film locations and we are now part of this nationwide educational collaborative project in which students and teachers all over the country are networking with the film so as to improve digital literacy in schools.
But now it is time to move ahead in the book and the film, and plan a new lesson, BYOD based, for my ESL students to enjoy reading, while they improve their digital competence and keep on learning.
This time the lesson is called 'Tasty books' and the aim is that students become aware of food sustainability and of the need to be responsible consumers.
Exactly in the same way as at the historical period when The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society used to gather, ESL students have to make do, and cook a tasty recipe with leftovers. Then, they will have to tell the story of their recipe.
In order to evidence their learning, ESL students have to use their mobile devices, download the Flipgrid app (available both at Google Play and iTunes), enter the topics that have already been set for them in their class grid, according to their level, and start narrating the story:
They obviously need help for that, and so the first piece of help is to provide them with a tutorial on how to use the Flipgrid app:
Besides, they are also invited to watch the video series "Books in the kitchen" and to read the Do's and Don'ts the authors of the series have created, for inspiration.
Finally, they are also given the famous Potato Peel Pie recipe, ready for them to try and replicate, if they feel like having a taste.
Their work will be assessed via Flipgrid, thanks to the customised feedback offered by this digital video platfom, and also taking into account the peer interaction they establish.
Esta reflexión es la que recoge el sentir del Club de Lectura Alábega de Cartagena.
Un grupo de mujeres que leen el libro y que acuden, juntas, a ver la película en preestreno gracias a la generosidad de A Contracorriente que les invita con 25 butacas, las mismas que las lectoras que se reúnen ...sin pastel de piel de patata.
LA SOCIEDAD
LITERARIA Y EL PASTEL DE PIE DE PATATA DE GUERNSEY
APUNTE
Hace unos días,
acudí al preestreno de la película, con unas expectativas muy altas, porque el
libro, es para mi, una joyita, que no he dejado de recomendar desde que en
2014, una buena amiga lectora lo propuso, como lectura de corte epistolar, para
el club de lectura al que pertenecemos. ¡Y como suele ser frecuente, las expectativas
superaron la realidad!, sin entrar a valorar la película en sus aspectos
técnicos y estéticos, me decepcionó algo el tratamiento del guión, para mi la
novela es una obra coral, con personajes bien definidos que se acoplan a una
historia común como en un caleidoscopio, cada uno, con sus rasgos y matices, con
unahistoria sólida detrás, y que de
forma colectiva construyen una historia que tiene como hilo conductor la
lectura y por ende los libros y la literatura, que aportatodo un universo por descubrir y aplicar, contribuyendo a dar sentido o al menos reflexionar
sobre su existencia en tiempos tan difíciles; ofreciendo casi un marco de
esperanza , ytodo esto,
se ve reducido a una muy predecible historia de amor romántico donde la chica
encuentra en el hombre bondadoso y sencillo, el verdadero amor, apostando por
una visión tradicional de la familia, cuando otro de los aspectos destacables
del libro es la pluralidad en las relaciones afectivas.
Creo que el
libro apenas se refleja en la película, que sitúa en primer plano la historia
de amor y reduce al segundo plano la gran historia que narra: la dureza de la
guerra, la ocupación nazi, el colaboracionismo y sobre todo el poder rotundo y
mágico de la literatura y el apoyo que te ofrecen los libros y los buenos
amigos.
Have a look at this trailer and think about the following questions:
What kind of film is it?
Where was the film set in your opinion?
Is it based on a book?
Which historical period is it dated from?
Can you imagine the plot?
After watching the trailer, answer these questions:
Would you like to go and see the film?
Would you like to read the book if you haven't done so yet?
Finding out more about Guernsey Island
Let's start knowing the place where this film was set, a little bit better. Follow these steps:
1. Watch the video below:
2. Write four new things you have learned about Gernsey. 3. Think about these questions: Do you know any other places that remind you of Gernsey? Why do you think they are similar? Can you think of locations near you where films have been set? Why were the locations chosen by the film crew? 4. Now, plan a paragraph about a location nearby where a film has been set. Explain the features of the location, what film was set there, when it was made, who played in it, the reasons for the choice of location, and so forth. Talk about the location too and if you'd recommend it to visitors and to other film directors. Back up your answers. 5. Finally, when your draft is ready, record a video clip with your outcome. Share it using #LaSociedadLiterariaYElPastelDePielDePatata on Twitter or Facebook; you can let us know and we'll publish it on 'Cero en Conducta' Facebook page.
Connecting History and Movies
1. Read this article about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and its link with a well-known historical period.
2. Pay special attention to the layout of paragraphs, the use of passive tenses, the ideas that the text conveys and look up any words and phrases that you might not understand.
3. Use the sample article you have just read in order to write your own film review. Include, at least:
The name of the film and the crew: director, producer, staff, awards, if any, and so forth.
Location, historical period dated (if any), when it was set, local customs and traditions depicted, etc.
The plot.
Your personal opinion about it. Would you recommend the film? Why?/Why not?
