Hey people,

today we first did a quick recap of what you had to know about the cartoon and more precisely important data about the Civil War and about Jim Crow Laws. Here is what we said:

Civil War: It was a war between the Northern States and the Southern States to put an end to slavery. It ended in 1865 with A. Lincoln. Black people were not enslaved anymore. They were freed / liberated from their chains / shackles / cuffs. However, they were still segragated.

Jim Crow Laws were implemented. Blacks and whites were separated at school, at the restaurant, at the hospital, on the bus, … They were not allowed / forbidden / prohibited to be together.

Then we continued the lesson with the viewing and listening of Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit:

Here is what we said about the song and the singer:

The tone of the melody is melancholy / sad. The rhythm of the piano is very slow. It conveys a feeling of sadness. Moreover, the singer is particularly expressive. Her face conveys a lot of emotions. She looks as if she tries to remember the past when she looks into the void. She may be recalling a lynching party / necktie party. She looks revolted and angry because she feels rejected. She wants to convey an important message in her song; it’s something that means a lot to her / affects her a lot. She looks as if she is wailing.

Structure : be + V au p.passé = Voix passive.

Additional vocabulary: 

(to) wail = cry + shout at the same time

The different parts of a tree:
- trunk
- roots
- branch / limb (= big branch)
- 1 leaf - 2 leaves
- flower
- bud
- bark

HW: get prepared to talk about the cartoon and the song for about 1m30 each.

Hey,

today you first took a vocabulary test about the lesson. You need to create some word banks about "mobile phones", "accidents", "how to express opinion", "feelings (positive and negative)", etc... if you haven't done so, so far.

Then we continued the lesson with the listening of the last part of the document. We particularly focused our attention on the feelings of the characters and on the catch-phrase. Here is what we said:

Feelings of the woman:
The woman sounds panicked / shocked / scared / distressed after the crash.
She is crying / sobbing and she is breathing quickly. She understands that her husband may be dead. The woman's voice is shaky.

The catch phrase: "you don't need to be in a car to cause a crash. Think ! When people are driving, kill the conversation = stop the conversation / hang up the phone.

voc:

(to) sob: (to) cry and breathe quickly at the same time .

HW: you need to fill in this poll and get prepared to talk about your mobile phone usage.

Here are the questions:

Questionnaire / poll about the mobile phone:
- Type of package: 1h , 2h ...
- activities: email, TV, text, photo, camera, music, games ... and your favorite one?
- switch off in class ? : Yes or No. If not -> ring tone, silent mode, ...?
- age group : 14-16 years old
- age you got it: ... years old
- Who pays? : You or your parents, or both?
- price per month : ...
- operator : SFR , bouygues telecom , orange ...
- phone brand : HTC , apple , sony ericsson ..
- text or phone ?
- How many texts per month? : ...

Hey,

today we first did a quick recap of what we could say about yesterday's picture. Here is the additional information:

- a lot of
- a party of people
- a crowd of
- a mob of


-> sentiment provoqué (...-ant)

- It's shocking
- It's frightening
- It's disgusting
- the scene is pleasing
- It's horrendous
- It's atrocious
- It's monstruous
- It's savage

-> Sentiment pour soi, ressenti (é)

- I'm shocked
- I'm frightened
- I'm afraid
- I'm disgusted
- they're pleased

Then we continued the class with the study of another picture, a cartoon this time:

Here is what we said about it:

The document is a cartoon in black and white. It depicts a black slave at the top who is liberated / freed from his chains / shackles / cuffs after the Civil War in 1865: it's the end of slavery. At the bottom, the cartoon represents a lynching party / necktie party where a member of the KKK is hanging a black man.
The message / tone is cynical. Black people were freed but their fate was horrendous. The law evolved but not the mentalities. Blacks went from one ordeal to another ordeal.
The contrast symbolizes the hardships. At the top, the white light stands for " the official version". At the bottom, the black light evokes the other side of the coin: a fateful situation.

Additional vocabulary:
- robe
- mask (hood)
- secretly -> a secret society

HW: for next time, you need to find information about the KKK and get prepared to talk about it for about 1 minute and a half. Learn your lesson of course and the comments about the cartoon.

More information about the Ku Klux Klan here.

You can watch and listen to Billie Holliday's song "Strange Fruit" here again:

Hey,

today we first did a quick recap of what we had said last time about the lynching party picture and we moved on expressing your personal feelings about it. Here is what we said:

There’s a stark contrast between the situation nowadays and the situation in the past when segregation was a law in the US.

Then we continued the lesson with the study of a new picture (a cartoon this time).

Here is what we said about it:

The document is a cartoon in black and white. It’s divided into two parts:

- At the top, it depicts a black man who is liberated from his chains. It symbolizes the end of slavery (1863).
- At the bottom, it shows an execution, more precisely a lynching party / necktie party.
A black man is being hanged by a member of the “KKK” (Ku Klux Klan). 

The cartoonist is cynical. The catch phrase reads:
“In 1863, the chains were taken from the negroes, and they were given ropes instead.”
The blacks were freed from their chains / shackles / cuffs but they were executed.
They still had to suffer from ordeals / hardships.

Grammar - Translation: la structure passive

The chains were taken from Negroes...
Be + p. passé
-> On a enlevé les chaînes aux nègres...


... They were given ropes instead
Be + p. passé
-> ... On leur a donné des cordes à la place

Struct. passive: procédé de traduction = penser à la traduction par le "on..."

HW: find more information about the historical period of segregation in the US.

- Civil War

- Jim Crow Laws

Files: download a copy of your text here.

More information about lynching parties in the US here

More information about yesterday's picture:

Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith were two African-American men who were lynched on August 7, 1930 in Marion, Indiana. They had been arrested the night before, charged with robbing and murdering a white factory worker and raping his girlfriend. A large crowd broke into the jail with sledgehammers, beat the two men, and hanged them. When Abram Smith tried to free himself from the noose as his body hauled up by the rope, he was lowered and then his arms broken to prevent him from trying to free himself again. Police officers in the crowd cooperated in the lynching. A third person, 16 year old James Cameron, narrowly escaped lynching thanks to an unidentified participant who announced that he had nothing to do with the rape or murder. A studio photographer, Lawrence Beitler, took a photograph of the dead bodies hanging from a tree surrounded by a large crowd; thousands of copies of the photograph were sold.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching

Hey,

today you had to analyse the content of a newspaper article about Zacarias Moussaoui who was on of the people accused of the 9/11 attacks in the US.

You can read the article again here:

More information about Zacarias Moussaoui here (wikipedia) and here (new york times). 

NB: Don't forget your letters and envelopes with your stamp and address.

Hey,

today we first did a quick recap of what we had said last time about the road safety ad campaign. Here is the correction you needed to write down this morning:

Additional vocabulary:
dangerous / hazardous / perilous
(to) watch out (for...)
(to) pay attention (to..)

efficient / not efficient

Opinion:
in my opinion
I think
To my mind
To me

 Exprimer le devoir:
Have to...

Analysis:
Mean / represent / symbolize / evoke / stand for / ...

Topic:
The ad campaign is about / deals with ..

Then we continued the lesson with a new audio document. You can listen to it again below:

Here is what we said about it:

Type of document: an awareness campaign.

Topic: The scene takes place in a car; a wife is calling her husband to talk about trifles (not important things). He is coming back from work and he must be tired. It's in the evening. He is both driving and phoning at the same time. It's dangerous because he can't concentrate. And that's why there is an accident / a crash.

List of sounds: ring tone / tyres / shattered glass / folded metal

HW: être capable de présenter ce document à l'oral (prise de parole de 1m30 environ) + contrôle de vocabulaire sur les mots nouveaux de la séquence.

Additional file: Here is the video version of the ad:

Hey,

today some of you presented a visual to the class and they will have to post their presentation here:

"to be written by Vasanth"

"to be written by Amina"

Then we continued the lesson with the viewing of a 10-minute extract from the movie "Cry Freedom", an adaptation from the book and particularly from the scene we studied. I hope you liked it and that you will go and rent for it (in original version... of course! :))

HW: you will take a two-hour test (NO break) on Wednesday from 9 to 11 am. Get prepared. The text will have "South Africa" as the main topic (both comprehension and expression).