GIADA’S QUARANTINE BOOK

MT PROPOSAL FOR AN ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN AGAINST STEREOTYPES:

1. TOPIC: Stereotypes -“al Valle non si fa niente”; “only drug addicts go there”; “it is not a serious school”; “they never fail anyone”.
2. MY PINION: All there stereotypes are street voices due to a bad reputation. The “Valle” is situated in the Arcella’s area that it has a bad reputation too and it doesn’t help this institute. Hoewer it’s a school like others, there are a lots of projects like: “Progetto carcere”, “Libera”, “Move”, etc… The teachers are wonderful, very aviable and competent like teachers from any school. Then each institute is obligated to follow a programme and the “Valle” too so at the end of the year we know the same things of other high school. Finally, we have a lot of hour of laboratory but that doesn’t justify these stereotypes. In conclusion if you’ve never been in this school, you can’t talk.
3. TARGET: I want to speak to students from other schools.
4. OBJECT: A big poster and a video;
5. WHAT I’M GOING TO DO FOR REALISE MY IDEA: I don’t want to make fliers because they would be thrown away and also for respect the environment. I’d like to make a big poster to put in a popular place at the Arcella, it’s hanging on a fairly obious build. With the aim of be seen by many people as possibile. In the poster I would like to write an ironic phrase on the “Valle” stereotypes, directed at all students from other school that are arising from artistic high school. In addition I want to a video to be published on the school site where we show all our works and our best side for example: show the laboratory, filming during projects ect.. For realise a short documentary about the “life of an artistic high school student”.

Personal comment and reflections: 

My favorite topic is the campaign against stereotypes because we made a video about this and it was really fun and because I really enjoyed to create a personal campaign against stereotypes. it’s a topic that look at everyone because society is full of stereotypes of all kinds so it is very current. 

In the end the teacher showed us a video called “I stand with refugees”. It is always a campaign to sensitize people to be on the side of refugees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtv4LCXEGEU&feature=youtu.be

READING AND LISTENING:

During this quarantine we did some reading and listening to stay in training. We did a lot of exercise about B1 and B2 level to improve our English.

Personal comment and reflections:

I personally find difficulties with the listening because I can’t always understand what they say due to the speed with which words are spoken. Instead I’m better off with the reading because I can read the sentence how many times do I need.

CHAUCER AND CANTERBUR TALES:

1)We have done a description of Chaucer in the first person:

Hi, I’m Geoffrey Chaucer. I was born in 1343 and I was a son of a wine merchant. I recived an excellent education and I found employment in the house of John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III of england. My skill and inventiveness as a writer, a clever mind and practical skills helped me to raise my social status. My first job was a controller of the customs for the port of London and I took part in important dipolatic mission. Also people say that I’m the father of English literature because I’m the first poet  whose name they know, the language which I wrote my works laid the foudations of Modern English, finally because I wrote The Canterbury Tales. In the end I died in 1400 and I was the first poet to be buried in Westminster Abbey, in Poets’ Corner.

2)After that we have done a description of Canterbury Cathedral to a friend:

This Cathedral is in the mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Cathedral history goes back to 597 ad, when August sent by Pope Gregory the great as a missionary established a seat or Cathedral in Canterbury. The best-know event in the Cathedral history was the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170. When Becket was made Archbishop of Canterbury by King Henry II in 1162, he changed his total allegiance from the King to the Pope and the church. This led to many conflicts between them for Knights overhead the King and took his shout of: ”Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?”. Pilgrims and visitors from all over the world began to flock to Thomas shrine in the Cathedral. The Tomas Becket shrine was destroyed in 1538 on the orders of King Henry VIII.

Today the cathedral is still very much a working living, where services take place every day. Canterbury cathedral is considered the one of the great holy places of christen burg.

In the grounds of Canterbury Cathedral there’s Canterbury Cathedral Lunch that offers 35 hotel bedrooms and superb conference and banqueting facilities. Guests will enjoy relaxing in an oasis of calm in the center of the city.

Finally, Canterbury is famous for The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, that hi was able to give a portrait of Enligh societyof his time. Chaucer tells about the shrine of Thomas Becket and the many pilgrimages.

3)Finally we have done the “Adam delving” art lab:

the Adam delving is a window done with the stained glass technique; this art si made by assembling different colored pieces of glass in lead framing to form a pictorial image. The stained glass was used in Romanesque and Gothic churches.

The teacher also shared us a link to explain the Adam delving: https://www.classtools.net/hotspot/202004-iM2XBW

For studied the author of Adam delving we have done a reading card: 

AUTHOR

Name: William of Sens/ Guillaume de Sans;

Date of Birth: doesn’t say;

Date of death: Canterbury, 11 august 1180;

Artistic movement/ contextualization: English gotic imported by France;

WORK

Title of the work: Adam Delving;

Date:1176 d.C.;

Location:Cathedral of Canterbury, it is located in the choir in the middle of the bottom row;

Technique employed: glass mosaic;

Dimensions: doesn’t say;

Description of the work /Iconography: He is shown ‘delving’ with a medieval spade, yellow wood with a pale blue metal cutting edge.  His skirt appears to have the hooves of the lamb still attached.  The single tree symbolises a garden (two trees would have indicated a forest!) and the golden clouds above his head (symbolising paradise).

Message/Interpretation: Adam is an ideal portrayal of a medieval peasant. He works the land, bare-chested. His spade digs deep. A tree grows, grey against the blue sky. Work is the curse of Adam, the fate of humanity exiled from Eden. Yet it has dignity in this picture. When the sun catches its colours, the digger shines heroically.

PERSONAL OPINION

I like this work because the structure is  regular and clean. I don’t like this work because the colours are gloomy and dark.

Watching this painting I feel : cheerful, sad, calm.

List of adjectives commonly used to describe a work of art: decorative, expressive, geometrical, well-balanced, hard edged, multicolored, humorous, peaceful. 

For do all of exercise we have uses this link that talk about the history of Canterbury Cathedral: https://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/whats-on/videos/

Personal comment and reflections:

I found it very interesting to study these topics because I like to know about English literature. I had no particular difficulty to do these exercises and to understand them so it was nice to do them.

THE WIFE OF BATH:

THE TRUE STORY: 

There was a knight in King Arthur’s time who raped a fair young maiden. King Arthur issues a decree that the knight must be brought to justice. When the knight is captured, he is condemned to death, but Queen Guinevere intercedes on his behalf and asks the King to allow her to pass judgment upon him. The Queen tells the knight that he will be spared his life if he can discover for her what it is that women most desire, and allots him a year and a day in which to roam wherever he pleases and return with an answer.

Everywhere the knight goes he explains his predicament to the women he meets and asks their opinion, but “No two of those he questioned answered the same.” The answers range from fame and riches to play, or clothes, or sexual pleasure, or flattery, or freedom. When at last the time comes for him to return to the Court, he still lacks the answer he so desperately needs.

Outside a castle in the woods, he sees twenty-four maidens dancing and singing, but when he approaches they disappear as if by magic, and all that is left is an old woman. The Knight explains the problem to the old woman, who is wise and may know the answer, and she forces him to promise to grant any favour she might ask of him in return. With no other options left, the Knight agrees. Arriving at the court, he gives the answer that women most desire sovereignty over their husbands, which is unanimously agreed to be true by the women of the court who, accordingly, free the Knight.

The old woman then explains to the court the deal she has struck with the Knight, and publicly requests his hand in marriage. Although aghast, he realizes he has no other choice and eventually agrees. On their wedding night the old woman is upset that he is repulsed by her in bed. She reminds him that her looks can be an asset—she will be a virtuous wife to him because no other men would desire her. She asks him which one he would prefer—a wife who is true and loyal or a beautiful young woman, who may not be faithful. The Knight responds by saying that the choice is hers. Knowing that she has the ultimate power now, him giving her full control, she promises beauty and fidelity. The Knight turns to look at the old woman again, but now finds a young and lovely woman. The old woman makes “what women want most” and the answer that she gave true to him, sovereignty.

PERSONAL VERSION OF WIFE OF BATH TALE:

Once upon a time a small kingdom governed by a very curious young queen. This queen, one day, asked a  special question of her knight of trust. The question was: “What do women really want in their lives?”. The knight doesn’t answer the question so the queen task him to find an answer of this question with the aim of satisfying her curiosity. Then the knight left for this long travel. However he didn’t know exactly where and what to look for. The brave knight was on his way for days now when during a break to get his horse to drink he saw a hut in the woods that attach his attention. He got off his horse and walked to the little house. He realized that from the fireplace was coming up, so there was someone inside. The knight stuckts the door a couple of times, after little the door opened and there was a little old woman. This woman was ugly but she was happy to see visitors. The old lady said: “Come in, you’re a handsome knight, you’re look like tired and hungry!”. Actually the knight really wants to spleep on a warm bed, so he comes in. The day after the knight woke up and after breakfast he made to the old woman the same question that his queen had done to him. The woman thought about it for a while and after said: “A woman in her life would want a man to love her more than anything”. The knight not satisfied with the answer, asked why she aswers so and the womand said that she met a man who really loved her and when she had him everything else wasn’t important. The knight was very curous about this story and he asked to her to tell all about this, so the ugly woman starts to tell the story: “I met a man, when I was young, and a while after we gung out he asked me to be toghether. I said yes but our happiness lasts little because we were loved by many people in the city but there were people who were jealous of our love. So one day they went to a hag and asked her to prepare a magic potion that would make me an ugly hag.  After they made me drink the potion without me knowing, the quid I turned and when my man saw me, he had no courage to be with me. I left the town and I built this little house and from that day I never saw my man again. The knight hearing this story he touched but at the same time he came up an idea. The knight decideded to take the hag to the castle so that she could answer the question of the queen and all the other questions that the queen would to. The ugly hag was happy and excited. Once they quickly arrived to the castle thought the hag’s powers they tell all the story to the queen that she so exited to have a hag in her castle. Thanks to the hag the knight didin’t do long travel for answer the queen’s questions, the queen was really satifying every time she do a question and the hag starts a new life.

Finally we have done a storyboard that represented a personal version of the ending of the tale.

Personal comment and reflections:

I liked this story by Chaucer a lot because besides being ironic and funny it shows a version of the woman different from the one they were used to at that time. Chaucer tells of a woman who thought about money and being with men younger than her and that is why I think he is a modern writer. also it was very nice to make a digital storyboard and I hope to do others.

THE Black Death:

we watched a video explaining black death to then make a comparison between the black plague and the coronavirus pandemic. 

The link of the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTxPbc4iW-o&feature=youtu.be

We talked about it in class and had a little debate about it.

Personal comment and reflections: 

Certainly the plague had made more deaths and it was a really bad way to leave but the coronavirus has also managed to bring entire nations to their knees. I never imagined that in such an advanced age there could be diseases capable of doing this to us. But I had to change my mind. the period spent in quarantine was almost unreal, I really struggled to take note of what was happening and often felt like I was in a post apocalyptic film.

“ERASER” ED SHEERAN:

the link about the videoclip of the song “Eraser”: https://theenglishchannel.britishcouncil.org/ed-sheeran-eraser

We listened and translated the song “Eraser” by Ed Sheeran and after that we have done a worksheet about that.

WORKSHEET:

1.This song can be considered:

• Ed Sheeran’s biography
• Ed Sheeran’s reflection on his life experiences
• Ed Sheeran’s reflections on how success has changed his life

2. Ed Sheeran’s life before getting success was:

• Easy
• Full of positive and negative experiences
• Meaningless

3. Which personal experiences does Ed Sheeran NOT mention in the song?

• Alcohol, smoke and drugs
• Sing in the church choir
• Prison
• Playing on the street
• Playing at Wembley Stadium

4. What did Ed’s father use to say to him?

• Follow your dreams
• Find a good job
• Don’t care what the others say

5.What thing made him suffer in his life?

• The envy of his friends and family
• The indifference of the people

6. What was Ed Sheeran’s dream before reaching success?

• Having lots of money
• Touring the world with his songs
• Having a family

7. What do you think the sting Ed mentions is?

• Loneliness
• Pain
• Boredom

8. At the minute 2.57 the second part of the song starts. Ed repeats many times “I wish”…….Is he talking about :

• His desires
• His regrets
• Both

Open questions

1. ” I chased the pictured perfect life, I think they painted it wrong “What does Ed mean with this sentence? Ed, by that sentence, means that perfect life doesn’t exist “because they painted it wrong” so there is no point to chasing it.

2. What does Ed think about money and fame? He thinks that money is the root of evil and fame is hell.

3. What would he like to erase from the world? He would like to erase the hate in the world.

4. What do you think a pain eraser is? A pain eraser is when you suffer so much, you can’t stand it anymore, so you try to erase it in any way.

5. What is Ed’s pain eraser? Ed’s pain eraser is that life isn’t perfect he drank and drugs to erase his pain.

6. Have you got a pain eraser? What is it? Yes, I have a pain eraser but it’s too private to write it.

VOCABULARY

Find the meaning of these sentences:

1. they kept me on the grind: mi hanno tenuto sotto controllo
2. I try to take it in my stride: cerco di prenderlo nel mio cammino
3. down in the dumps: giù nelle discariche
4. a nine-to-five job: un lavoro da nove a cinque.

WISHES AND REGRETS: WISH/IF ONLY:

Since in the lyrics of the song Ed Sheeran talks about dreams and desires we have made the rules of “wish and if only” in grammar. The teacher shared us a link with a video that it was explained the wish and if only rules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vefS0B1DIY

Then we have done some exercise in another link:

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/intermediate-to-upper-intermediate/wish-and-if-only.

Finally we did a debate about this song:

I have things I’ve done in the past that cause me pain and also have regrets. But if I had a big eraser that could erase them I wouldn’t do it because all the pain I’ve felt in the past has made me who I am today. Made me grow up and made a better person. So i’m not going to delete them even if they make me ashamed or I’m not proud of them. 

My personal pain eraser is call my friends. 

Personal comment and reflections:

Ed Sheeran i always liked as an artist, even his songs. “eraeser” in particular struck me for his lyrics because the singer had the courage to make all his problems public. I found the text simple and very direct personally.

As for the exercises on “wish” I struggled a bit to understand the rules.

BOB MARLEY:

during the quarantine we made different arguments about freedom and to do that we used different examples like Bob Marley and his songs. In particular we listened to the song “Get up, stand up”: https://youtu.be/Tg97JiBn1kE

Personal comment and reflections:

since I was a child I have always listened to Bob Marley because in addition to liking him as a musical style I fully share his thoughts.

CHARLIE CHAPLIN SPEECH:

always tied to the topic of freedom, we did some work on the speech made by Charlie Chaplin in the film “the great dictator”. then we compared this speech with the advertising made by Lavazza which carried the same message content.

The link about the Lavazza advertising: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pubblicità+della+lavazza+charlie+chaplin&&view=detail&mid=65FF8554CA2F4537354E65FF8554CA2F4537354E&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dpubblicit%25c3%25a0%2Bdella%2Blavazza%2Bcharlie%2Bchaplin%26%26FORM%3DVDVVXX

The link about the original speech of Charlie Chaplin: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=charlie+chaplin%27s+speech+the+great+dictator&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3dcharlie%2bchaplin%2527s%2bspeech%2bthe%2bgreat%2bdictator%26pc%3dMOZD%26form%3dMOZTSB&view=detail&mid=7305CFBB1C99703DBDC07305CFBB1C99703DBDC0&&mmscn=vwrc&FORM=VDRVRV

Then we have done a worksheet about the differences between the original speech of Charlie Chaplin and the Lavazza advertising:

1.Answer the following questions:

1. Do you know who Charlie Chaplin was? Yes, Charlie Chaplin was a famous actor of silent cinema.
2. Have you heard about this film before? Do you know what it is about? Yes, I have heard about the film “Il grande dittatore” but I.ve never seen it. I know that talk about Hitler and the second world war but I don’t know anything else.
3. Lavazza advertising is an exemple of Social Advertising. Do you know what is it and how is it used for? Social Advertising is when media or tv want to send a message to people. In this case lavazza want to spread hope and encouragment. In general Social Advertising want to show us somenthing positive or something that they should like us to buy.

2. Watch carefully the 2 videos and complete the table:

4.Chose one sentence you like most and explain why.

I chose “make this lihe a wonderful adventure” becouse we often forget to live our lives day by day. We forget to be happy, to smile and to love but we only think about duties without thinking about what makes us fell good.

 On the technichal viewpoint, which changes have been made to adapt the original speech to the new medium? Why?

They have been made some cuts to speech to make it shorter and to adapt the message to the situatuin we are in this time.

The media wanted to send a message of hope and union so they took only the necessary parts.

Personal comment and reflections:

I think this speech should also be made in this era because is very current. Today with our busy lives we have forgotten what it really means to live. We became machines full of hate, greed, prejudices even if in reality we are much better than that. So in my opinion we should all follow what Charlie Chaplin says.

The Magna Carta:

Reflecting on the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, Shami Chakrabarti warns us that today’s human rights legislation is under threat. On the one hand, for many, Magna Carta is alive and well. It remains a bedrock of Britishness; the foundation of all that’s good about laws and liberties from Land’s End to John O’Groats. The alternative view is that Magna Carta has been reduced to nothing but a symbol; a crumbling relic, redundant at law and in practice.

Today Magna Carta has become a world-class brand, representing human rights, democracy and free speech – despite the fact that the original document makes no mention of these principles. Joshua Rozenberg explains Magna Carta’s place in modern legal and popular culture, and reveals the importance of its 800-year-old symbolism. Magna Carta is a world-class brand. It stands for human rights and democracy. It stands for trial by jury. It stands for free speech, the rule of law and personal liberty.

Except it doesn’t mention any of these things – even in translation. Instead, Magna Carta has quite a bit to say about fish weirs and river banks, about taxes and debts.

Personal comment and reflections:

as last work of the year we did a group work where we had to do a Powerpoint on the “Magna Carta”. It was very nice and inspiring in my opinion, surely we protected to do other jobs in this way.