Séance 1 : Anticipation /Contextualisation par étude de photos de Lange

https://www.speakeasy-news.com/dorothea-lange-politics-of-seeing/

  • Step1: slideshow [ppc]activity 1

 [pair work] select one photo; get ready to present it orally (notes)(cf doc) [15’]

present your photo / ask the other students to react

= The Great Depression, the drought...

  • Step 2: reading / scanning [CE] activity 2 A.B.C.

Activity 3 : mise en commun spidergram

h/w: activity 4 creative writing

 

Introduction to the book

  • Study of the different book covers travail sur l’inférence

(hypotheses reactivation)

  • Travail sur le trailer : inférence sur l’histoire / la relation entre les différents personnages : who / where / when / what

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7pyXEfRArE

Séance 3

online text: http://giove.isti.cnr.it/demo/eread/Libri/sad/OfMiceAndMen.pdf

 

Opening paragraph of Of Mice & Men: setting up the scene (cf document attached)

Text corrected:

A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green.  The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands before reaching the narrow pool.  On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees – willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter’s flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool.  On the sandy bank under the trees the leaves lie deep and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them.  Rabbits come out of the brush to sit on the sand in the evening and the damp flats are covered with the night tracks of ‘coons, and with the spread pads of dogs from the ranches, and with the split-wedge tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark.

  1. What does this opening scene focus on?      The landscape
  2. What are the words referring to light and colours? What can you conclude? “twinkling”, “yellow”, “green”, “golden”: it is a sun-lit nature.
  3. How would you describe the atmosphere?   peaceful  and welcoming
  4. What could it remind you of? It is reminiscent of the garden of Eden before the fall (= prelapsarian)
  5. Who are the sole inhabitants?  Is this nature free of any danger? The only inhabitants are the animals (rabbits, racoons) and the only dangers are the dogs which come at night from the ranches, i.e, the “civilized world”, which is certainly ominous.

 

Séance 4 : reading & understanding

extract 2 : Meeting the two characters of the novella

Do the exercises (cf documents attached)

1. Vocabulary: read the text carefully and find the translation for the following words in context.

(en donner aussi la nature ex: noun, adj, vb….)

 

1. path (l. 1)

Sentier (n.)

 

2. opening (l. 2)

Clairière (n)

3. pool (l. 2)

Mare, étang (n.)

 

4. brass (l.4)

Cuivre, laiton (adj)

5. shapeless (l.5)

sans forme (adj)

 

6. blankets (l. 5)

Couvertures (n)

7. restless (l. 6)

Agité, tourmenté (adj)

 

8. wide (l. 9)

Large (adj)

9. sloping (l. 9)

Tombantes (adj)

 

10. dragging (l.9)

Trainant (vb)

11. swing (l. 10)

Se balancer (vb)

 

12. wipe (l. 13)

essuyer

13. gulps (l. 16)

Gorgées (n)

 

14. to snort (l. 18)

S’ébrouer (vb)

15. dipped (l. 20)

Trempa (vb)

 

16. bank (l. 20)

Rive (n)

17. bindle (l. 25)

Baluchon (n)

 

18. scummy (l. 26)

Écumeuse (adj)

19. dabbled (l. 27)

Trempa (vb), barboter

 

20. wiggled (l. 27)

Agita (vb)

21. running (l. 32)

Opposé de stagnante

 

22. gutter (l. 33)

Égout (n)

23. a scoop (l. 34)

Contenu dans une main

 

24. chin (l. 34)

menton

 

2. Now, read the text again: you should be able to picture it and act it in class!

3. Pick up information on both characters, and write it in the bubbles, colour the picture.

 

Geaorge

Black, shapeless hat

Denim trousers, denim coats with brass buttons

Small and quick, dark of face, restless eyes, sharp strong features

Small, strong hands, slender arms, thin and bony nose

 

Lennie

Black, shapeless hat

Denim trousers, denim coats with brass buttons

A huge man, shapeless of face, large pale eyes, wide, sloping shoulders, walked heavily, dragging his feet the way a bear drags his paws, his arms hung loosely, snorting in the water like a horse

 

’ Use the information you found to infer the personality of each character and their background (use expressions of opinion, hypotheses and justification, at least 5 sentences)

’ What shows that Lennie is very dependent on George?

’ Translate from line 5 “Both wore…” to line 11 “…hung loosely.”

Tous  deux étaient  coiffés  de  chapeaux  noirs  informes,  et  tous  deux portaient  sur  l’épaule  un  rouleau  serré  de  couvertures. L’homme  qui  marchait  en  tête  était  petit  et  vif,  brun  de visage, avec des yeux inquiets et perçants, des traits marqués. Tout en lui était défini : des mains petites et fortes, des bras minces, un nez fin et osseux. Il était suivi par son contraire,  un  homme  énorme,  à  visage  informe,  avec  de grands yeux pâles et de larges épaules tombantes. Il marchait lourdement, en traînant un peu les pieds comme un ours traîne les pattes. Ses bras, sans osciller, pendaient ballants à ses côtés.

Traduction de Maurice-Edgar Coindreau, éditions Gallimard

Séance 5 : reading & understanding

extract 3 : George and Lennie's dream

Correction:

1. Understanging the text

Read the text carefully and pick up important information about what life is like for migrant workers in general and for George and Lennie in particular.

Migrant workers

George and Lennie

 

… the loneliest guys in the world

don’t belong no place

work in a ranch and spend all of their money when they go into town

have got nothing to look ahead to

 

… we got somebody to talk to

- we got a future

- they look at each other’s back unlike the other migrant workers who are alone

 

 

What conclusions can you draw? [comparisons ]

George and Lennie have a future unlike the other migrant workers since they dream about their future life together and they try to do everything that will help them to get there.

 

 Sum up, in a few words, what George and Lennie dream of.

George and Lennie want to save enough money to buy their own place, raise chickens, milk cows, and tend to rabbits. It is the dream of a simple life.

What shows this is something they have been dreaming about for a very long time?

Pick up expressions in the text to sustain your argument.

"No, you. I forget some a' the things. Tell about how it's gonna be."

Lennie interrupts George, when he is talking about their dream, as if he knew what he would say.

"Why'n't you do it yourself? You know all of it."

"No... you tell it. It ain't the same if I tell it. Go on... George. How I get to tend the rabbits."

Lennie reacts like an infant asking for his parent to read them, over and over, the same story, it is like a fairy tale, which children believe in yet turns out not to be real.

 

How does the narrator show that they are uneducated?

« kick outa that », « Awright », « blow their stake », « They ain't got », « jus' because », « gives a damn », « An' why » : it is spoken English, full of grammar mistakes.

 

- Homework due on April 2

Do the exercises (cf documents attached) and learn the words by doing the exercise on quizlet

https://quizlet.com/join/5SZyacv7X

Listening to English during the spring break:

 Go to Edpuzzle, join the class 1LLCE (class code: vedkifl); watch the video and answer the questions.

Beware: I can see who did what!

Homework: writing in English (due on April 21st)

Imagine you are the director of a theatre company about to stage an adaptation of  Of Mice & Men.

You have to:

     - Explain the plot to the cast (Who? Where? When ? What ?) in a few sentences;

     - Explain the first scene relying on the study of the 3 first extracts;

     - Explain how you would direct this scene by analysing the setting and the relationship between the characters

(+/- 250 words)

For those who will go on studying English as a major next year: start working on your personal file (information on the blog as well, same category)

Homework: April 28th

Go to Edpuzzle and watch the video again (training), then watch and listen carefully to the video below.

 

 - Prepare 10 questions about the story (plot) and its analysis.