Конспект урока British Women Writers

British Women Writers (9-й класс)

Цель урока:  повышение культурного и образовательного уровня и раскрытие социокультурного потенциала личности учащихся.

Образовательный компонент цели: совершенствование навыков активного овладения чтением, пониманием и восприятием текстов и кинофрагментов; углубление знаний учащихся в области английской литературы.

Развивающий компонент цели: развитие индивидуальных умений работы в паре, группе, к переключению внимания в упражнениях комплексного характера, в разных видах речевой деятельности.

Воспитательный компонент цели: развитие эстетического вкуса, воспитание уважения к носителям иноязычной культуры, углубление познавательного интереса к предмету, привитие вкуса к чтению.

Оборудование и оформление: стенд с произведениями британских писателей (книги на русском и английском языках), DVD-проигрыватель и телевизор, магнитофон, компьютер, проектор/

Ход урока

Teacher: Good morning, children. Let us continue our talk about British literature. You know that Britain is a country that has produced a great number of literary people. You have already learned about some noted British writers and poets, essayists and playwrights, critics and diarists who made their country famous and contributed much in British literature.

Look at the titles of the books and try to guess what they have in common.

Pride and Prejudices	Frankenstein	Love in the Ritz Hotel
Jane Eyre	Ten Little Niggers	The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole

(Pupils look at the titles of the books and say that all of them were written by women writers.)

Teacher: Today we shall speak about women writers who also made a great contribution to British literature. Among the first women writers that are recorded are Ephelia (1641-1700), Ann Killigrew (c. 1660-1685), Aphra Behn (1640-1689). Aphra Behn, for example, is a Restoration playwright, novelist and poet, known as the first western woman to earn her living by literary works.

There have always been good women writers, but until the XXth century it was not easy for a woman writer to get her works published and sell many of the copies under her own name. Many XVIIIth and XIXth century women writers used male pen-names or pseudonyms: George Eliot, for example, an important XIXth century writer (1819-1880), never used her real name which was Mary Ann Evans.

During the lesson we shall speak about only six of them but there are, of course, much more women writers who deserve being spoken about.

Teacher: Look at the titles of the books again and try to guess which one was written by Jane Austen.

(One of the pupils tells the name of the book.)

Now listen to some facts from Jane Austen’s life.

Jane Austen was born in 1775, the seventh of eight children, in the family of a clergyman and spent her short life in Hampshire, near the south coast of England. Her novels describe the everyday life of people in the upper-middle class circle she knew best. Money and social position were very important and the only role of a woman of that class was to find a rich husband.

Her characters spend most of the time in the countryside, doing little or no work. Occasionally they go to London; sometimes they go to Bath, a fashionable town. Her novels may sound boring, but they are a record of what life was like for the upper- middle class in the early nineteenth century and are among the finest and the most entertaining novels written at that time.

When she died, in 1817, only four of her six novels had been published, all anonymously. Now, nearly 200 years later, sales of her novels rival modern bestsellers. Since the age of the cinema and television her novels have become more and more popular. There have been film and television productions of not only Pride and Prejudice, but also Emma, Persuasion, and the Oscar-winning Sense and Sensibility. There are Jane Austen fans in all corners of the globe, and even special Jane Austen discussion groups on the Internet. Her house in Chawton in Hampshire is visited by about 200 people a day.

(Pupils watch and listen to an extract from the supplement to the film Pride and Prejudices and try to understand why this novel is so unlike the novels written by other writers of her time.)

Paul Webster (producer): She speaks to women in a way that, perhaps, men never understand fully…That thing is rather wonderful.

Louise West (Jane Austen’s House): Her characterization is much deeper …the psychology of the characters is something you don’t really get in the literature beforehand. There are very real people, real situations that we can identify very, very easily today.

Joe Wright (director): I think she is very, very honest. And I think she is witty, clever and structurally brilliant. … She wrote completely from her heart.

Teacher: I am sure nobody will fail to name the author of Frankenstein.

Listen to the information about Mary Shelley and say how her famous book appeared.

(One of the pupils tells some facts from Mary Shelley’s life.)

Pupil:  Born August 30, 1797, in London, England, Mary Shelley came from a rich literary family. She was the daughter of William Godwin, a political theorist, novelist, and publisher and of Mary Wollstonecraft, a writer and early feminist thinker. Her mother died 10 days after her daughter's birth.

In her childhood, Mary Shelley educated herself amongst her father's intellectual circle and he encouraged her youthful literary efforts. There she met Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1812, when she was fifteen. Shelley was married at the time, but the two spent the summer of 1814 traveling together. In the summer of 1816, Percy Shelley and 19-year-old Mary visited the poet Lord Byron at his villa beside Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Stormy weather frequently forced them indoors, where they and Byron's other guests sometimes read from a volume of ghost stories. One evening, Byron challenged his guests to write one themselves. Mary's story became Frankenstein.

Mary and Percy Shelley were married December 30, 1816. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published in 1818, when Mary was 21, and became a huge success. The first edition of the book had a preface by Percy Shelley. Many, disbelieving that a 19-year-old woman could have written such a horror story, thought that it was his novel.

Teacher: Read the following review of the novel Frankenstein.

Put the four sentences in the correct place.

FRANKENSTEIN Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley, the wife of the poet P.B. Shelley, in 1818. (1)__________________ The story is told through the letters of a man called Walton, an English explorer. We are told of Victor Frankenstein, a student from Geneva, who discovers the secret of life. (2)___________________ People are terrified of it because it is so huge and ugly. The poor monster has no friends and feels lonely and depressed, so it asks Frankenstein to make it a wife. (3)___________________Then the monster attacks and kills not only Frankenstein’s friend, but also his brother and his brother’s bride Elizabeth. Frankenstein is heartbroken and is determined to kill the monster. (4)___________________ Frankenstein is a fascinating story because of the character of the monster, which is both sad and frightening at the same time.

a. So he collects bones and bodies from graveyards, and constructs a creature which is more monster than man.

b. However he is killed first by the monster, which then kills itself.

c. This he refuses to do.

d. It is a horror story which is thought to be the original science fiction novel.

(One of the pupils reads the final variant of the text. See the Appendix.)

Teacher:  Listen to the story about the Brontё sisters and say what pen-name they used and why.

The Brontё sisters were exceptional writers of poetry as well as fiction. Between 1847 and 1848, all three sisters published novels. They all wrote under different names because “good” women were not allowed to write: Emily Brontё became Ellis Bell; Charlotte Brontё, Currer Bell; Anne Brontё, Acton Bell.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontё is one of the most famous of their novels. The story tells about the destructive and passionate love between two children, Catherine and Heathcliff, who grow up on the farm when Catherine, for reasons of class, refuses to marry him.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontё is a most romantic, exciting story about a little orphan Jane, who went to  the Lowood school for poor girls and later became a governess in the house of Mr. Rochester (a man with a strange history), and eventually married him. This novel was accepted at once and published quickly, and it has a tremendous success which lasted to this very day.

Anne’s novel Agnes Grey tells about the adventures and bitter experience of the governess in two Yorkshire families.

All three sisters died very young. The house where they lived is now a museum and you can walk from it over to the Yorkshire moors to the farm where Wuthering Heights is set.

(Pupil: The Brontё sisters wrote under the name Bell because it was impossible for a woman to write under her real name.)

Teacher: Work in pairs. Each of you has a text with some missing information in it. Don’t show your card to your partner. Ask each other questions to fill in the gaps with the missing information.

Pupil A card

Charlotte Brontё was one of __ children. After the death of her mother and her two sisters Charlotte and the three remaining children were placed in the care of ___ . At the age of sixteen, Charlotte accepted the post of a _____ for two separate families. She traveled to France to study music and further perfect her ___          . Secretly she was writing poems. Her sisters were also writing poetry and soon the three jointly published a book of their verses under the pen name___. After this each sister began independent work on a novel. Emily’s book Wuthering Heights And Anne’s book ___ were accepted for publication. Charlotte’s first novel was not a success. Her next effort, an autobiography of an orphan girl, was immediately accepted by a publisher in 1846 and became a sensation among readers. This was her masterpiece ___. All in all Charlotte Brontё wrote four books. In1847, the year after she completed her fourth and final novel, Charlotte ______. A year later she died.

Pupil B card

Charlotte Brontё was one of six children. _________ Charlotte and the three remaining children were placed in the care of an aunt. At the age of ____, Charlotte accepted the post of a governess for two separate families. She traveled to ____ to study music and further perfect her drawing skills. Secretly she was writing poems. Her sisters were also writing ______ and soon the three jointly published a book of their verses under the pen name Bell. After this each sister began independent work on a novel. Emily’s book ___________ and Anne’s book  Agness Grey were accepted for publication. Charlotte’s first novel was not a success. Her next effort, an autobiography of an orphan girl, was immediately accepted by a publisher in ____ and became a sensation among readers. This was her masterpiece Jane Eyre. All in all Charlotte Brontё wrote ____ books. In1847, the year after she completed her fourth and final novel, Charlotte got married. ____ later she died.

(One of the pupils reads the final variant of the text. See the Appendix.)

Teacher: The name of the next person we are going to speak about is surely familiar to you. Read the information about Agatha Christie and name the most famous characters of her detective stories and novels.

Agatha Christie is known all over the world as the Queen of Crime. She was born in 1890 in Torquay, Devonshire. During her long writing career she wrote over 83 books. Her detective novels are translated into every major language and he is one of the best-selling authors in the world. Many of the novels and short stories have been filmed. The Mousetrap, her famous play, is now the longest-running play in history. Besides being a detective story writer, Agatha Christie wrote several plays as well as six romantic novels and a book of poems (under the name of Mary Westmacott).

She has been writing since the end of the First World War, when she created Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective with his love of order- the most popular detective in fiction since Sherlock Holmes. Christie became generally recognized in1926, after publishing of her novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It is still considered her masterpiece. When Chrisie got tired of Hercule Poirot she invented Miss Marple, a deceptively mild old lady with her own method of investigation.

Agatha Chrisie died in 1976 at the age of eighty-five. Her last Poirot book, Curtain, appeared shortly before her death, and her last Miss Marple story, Sleeping Murder, and her autobiography were published after her death. But it is obvious from the number of her books still sold that her famous characters continue to live many years to come.

(Pupil: The most famous characters of her detective stories and novels are Miss Marple, a deceptively mild old lady and Hercule Poirot one of the most popular detectives since Sherlock Holmes.)

Teacher: Thousands of people enjoy reading Christie’s stories and novels. Read a short review of the reader’s best beloved book and choose the appropriate text organizer.

Seven months ago I read a detective novel called “Ten Little Niggers” which is written by a well known woman writer Agatha Christie. And I recommend to everyone, - it doesn’t matter whether you are a child, adolescent or adult - to read this magnificent masterpiece of all ages.

Furthermore / Firstly the writer is one of the greatest authors of her century and deserves to be called “The Queen of Detective Stories”. Secondly / Moreover “Ten Little Niggers” is unique in its own way, distinguishing this masterpiece from other great works of Agatha Christie. First of all / On the one hand, the composition of the novel is very unusual. The story takes place on a little picturesque island called Nigger Island. We are fascinated with the thoughts and mental state of the main characters, we find out that they are a little bit puzzled and confused with the strange offer to visit this island. On the other hand / Secondly, the plot of “Ten Little Niggers” is rather simple, and at the same time / on the other hand extraordinary. It turns out that these people stay there as mice in a trap without any chance to escape. More than that / To begin with each of them has “his own skeleton in the wardrobe”. Furthermore / Finally, there no detective, researcher or anyone else who investigates the murders that happen on Nigger Island. We know that there are ten people on the island and one of them is a murderer, and so the research and at the same time work of our imagination begins. In conclusion / To begin with I would like to say that “Ten Little Niggers” is a fast-moving, amusing and fascinating masterpiece that will always attract readers of all ages. The events here happen so quickly and abruptly that during the whole story you are totally absorbed in reading and continue to wonder: “What will happen next? Who will be the next victim? Who is the murderer?” Till the end you don’t have any clue, only vague guesses and that makes you thrilled.

to have a skeleton in the cupboard – to have a secret; to have something to hide.
clue – ключ, разгадка

(One of the pupils reads the final variant of the text. See the Appendix.)

Teacher: Not many people enjoy reading romance and love stories. But Barbara Cartland is truly an outstanding love story writer. Read the text about one of the most prolific woman writers of the XXth century and put the verbs in the right form.

Barbara Cartland is a famous love-story writer and _1_ (known) as “The Queen of Romance”. She _2_ (describe) by her publisher as “the world’s most famous romantic novelist” but she  _3_ (succeed) in other things as well. According to the Guinness Book of Records she _4_ (be considered) the world’s most prolific writer and _5_ ( hold) the record as the world’s top-selling author of the end of the XXth century having sold more than 370 million copies of her books.

Barbara Cartland _6_ (be born) at the beginning of the XXth century.  Her first book _7_ (write) when she was twenty-one and it _8_ (sell out) as soon as it reached the shops.

Since then she _9_ (write) over 500 books, and all of them were about love.

She _10_ ( marry) in 1927, and after she divorced her first husband, she remarried in 1936. In 1976, she wrote twenty-one books and _11_ (break) the world record, and shortly after this she sang an album of love songs with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

That is what Barbara Cartland said about herself: “I am very organized. I have five secretaries. I _12_(lie) on my sofa, shut my eyes and just tell the story. Actually very few corrections _13_(make), I only cut the paragraphs if they are too long. When I _ 14_ (need) a plot, I usually say a prayer”.

(Pupils give the right variant of the exercise. See the Appendix.)

Teacher: Her books are considered to be reference books of people’s lifestyles. From them you can get a clear idea of how people lived during the forty years at the end of the XXth century.

Sue Townsend was born in Leicester in 1946. She attended Glen Hills School in the early 50s and then went to South Wigston Secondary Modern for Girls. But she left school when she was 15 and changed jobs several times (so she worked as a shop assistant, garage attendant and in a factory).She got married when she was 18 and had three children. But her husband left her and she brought them alone.

Her writing career started when she was 35- she won the Thames Playwrights Award. Her most famous and best known book is “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole” (1985) - a diary kept by a thirteen year old boy- sort of intellectual. The book was so successful that it was followed by a number of sequels such as “the Growing Pains of Adrian Mole” or “The True Confessions of Adrian Mole”. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole was reputedly based on her children’s experience at Mary Linwood Comprehensive School in Leicester. Several of the teachers who appear in the book are based on actual staff who worked at the school in the early 1980s.

Sue Townsend later got married again. In 1999 doctors found out she had diabetes and she slowly began loosing her sight. Today she is almost blind.

Read the text and try to guess what are the boy’s emotions and feelings about what is happening in his family.

From “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾”

Saturday MARCH 14^th

It is official. They are getting a divorce! Neither of them wants to leave the house so the spare room is being turned into a bedsitter for my father. This could have a very bad effect on me. It could prevent me from being a vet.

My mother gave me five pounds this morning and told me not to tell my father. I bought some bio-spot cream for my skin and the new ABBA LP.

I rang Mr. Cherry and said I had personal problems and would be unable to work for several weeks. Mr.Cherry said that he knew that my parents were divorcing because my father had cancelled my mother’s Cosmopolitan.

My father gave me five pounds and told me not to tell my mother. I spent some of it on buying some purple paper and envelopes so that the BBC will be impressed and read my poems. The rest of it will have to goon Barry Kent and his menaces money. I don’t think anybody in the world can be as unhappy as me. If I didn’t have my poetry I would be a raving loonie by now.

(Pupils say that Adrian was very unhappy and felt lonely.)

Teacher: You know that there are different ways to choose a book. Some people choose a book reading blurbs. Let us try to do it.

Blurb /blә:b/ The blurb about a new book, film, or exhibition is information that is written about in order to attract people’s interest. [informal] Collins Cobuild English Dictionary

Here are three blurbs to books written by A.Christie, J.Austen and J.K.Rowling. Match the name of the book with the blurb.

Persuasion by J. Austen

The Clocks by A. Christie

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

1.  Like a lot of other people, the girl was drawn like a magnet to the house in Wilbraham Crecent. She found herself in a crowd looking at a murder house.

To think that it was a house where it happened! It looked ever so nice, neat curtains and all. Yet a man has been killed there – with a kitchen knife. An ordinary kitchen knife. Mesmerized by people swirling round her, she stared and stared and ceased to think…

She started when a voice spoke in her ear. Then turned her head in surprised recognition. Approximately two minutes later she was dead.

2.  It is the summer holidays and soon he will be starting his fourth year at the School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. He is counting the days. There are more spells to be learned, more Quiddich to be played, and the castle to continue exploring. But he needs to be careful – there are unexpected dangers lurking… The author continues to delight with the power of her rich, demanding and action-packed storytelling.

3.  Anne Elliot, 19, falls in love with Frederick Wentworth, a young man with no connections and only himself to recommend him. Persuaded by her great friend to break off their engagement, Anne regrets her decision afterwards.

Some years later, her father Sir Walter Elliot finds himself financially embarrassed and is forced to let the family house. The new tenants are the relatives of Wentworth, who has prospered and now is a captain. Although he and Anne are thrown into each other’s company he still feels bitterness at her rejection. Once again it seems as though happiness is about to allude them…

(Pupils give their answers. See the Appendix.)

Teacher: Look at the handouts and say how British people honour their women writers

(Pupils give their ideas. See the Appendix.)

Teacher: There are, of course, a number other women writers to learn about. Things are changing now and since 1950s, the number of well- known women writers has increased. Women writers are now winning prizes for literature, they are given the highest awards, they are included in the Guinness Book of Records and are now among the most prolific writers and wealthy people in the world.

British people are very proud of them and honour them in different ways. I am sure that today you have learned a lot of new information and will have a clearer idea about these writers and their works.

HOMETASK

1. J.K. Rowling’s road to fame and fortune was a bit rocky sometimes, but her success is sure.  In 2000, the35-year-old author became the highest-earning woman in Britain. She received an OBE (Order of the British Empire), a medal of achievement awarded by the Queen, in March 2001. Harry Potter books have been translated into more than 60 languages.  In February2004, Forbes magazine estimated that Rowling had £576 million, or more than a million dollars. This would make her the first person ever to become a billionaire from writing books.

 Read what J. K. Rowling tells about her life and about how her famous book appeared. Say if the following statements are true or false.

I was born Chipping Sodbury General Hospital, which I think appropriate for someone who collects funny names. My sister, Di, was born just under two years later, and she was the person who suffered my first efforts of story-telling. Rabbits loomed several times in our story-telling sessions; we wanted a rabbit very much.

Certainly the first story I ever wrote down (when I was five or six) was about a rabbit called Rabbit. And since that time, I have wanted to be a writer, though I rarely told anyone so. I was afraid they’d tell me I didn’t have a hope.

We changed houses twice when I was growing up. The first move was from Yate to Winterbourne. A gang of children including myself and my sister used to play together up and down the street in Winterbourne.  Two of the gang members were a brother and a sister whose name was Potter. I always liked the name, but then I was always keener on my friends’ surnames than my own.

When I was nine we moved to Tutshill near Chepstow in the Forest of Dean. We were finally out in the countryside, which has always my parents’ dream, and we spend most of the time wandering across fields and along the river Wye. The only fly in the ointment was the fact that I hated my new school.

From Tushill Primary I went to Wyedean Comprehensive. My favourite subjects were English and languages. I used to tell my friends long serial stories at lunchtime. They involved us all doing heroic and daring deeds we certainly wouldn’t have done in real life.

I went to Exeter University just after school, where I studied French. This was a big mistake. I listened too much to my parents, who thought languages would lead to a great career of a bilingual secretary. Unfortunately I am one of the most disorganized people in the world and, as I later proved, the worst secretary ever.

 When I was twenty-six I gave up on offices completely and went abroad to teach English as Foreign Language. As I worked afternoons and evenings, I had mornings free for writing and started a new book about a boy who found out that he was a wizard and was sent off to wizard school. When I came back from Portugal half a suitcase was full of papers covered with stories about Harry Potter. I came live in Edinburgh with my very small daughter, and set myself a deadline; I would finish the Harry Potter novel before starting work as a French teacher, and try to get published.

It was a year after finishing the book before a publisher bought it. The moment when I found out that Harry would be published was one of the best in my life.

1. The person who first suffered her writing efforts was

a. her mother
b. her best friend
c. her sister

2. Potter was the surname of

a. her primary school teacher
b. two of her young days’ friends
c. a relation of her

3. Her favourite subjects at school were

a. English and Literature
b. Languages and Literature
c. English and Languages

4. After graduating from Exeter University she became

a. a  secretary
b. a school teacher
c.  a writer

5. J.K. Rowling started writing about Harry Potter when she was

a. working as a secretary in England
b. working as a teacher in Portugal
c. being a lonely parent with no work

2. There are six main characters’ names which are scrambled. Guess the names:

TORVIC KENNETFAIRSN ANJE REAY NARIDA LOME RARHY TORTEP SMIS RAMPLE RISTEM  SHORECRET

3. Match the name of the author with the name of the book:

1. Frankenstein	a. Joanne Rowling
2. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	b. Jane Austen
3. Pride and Prejudices	c. Sue Townsend
4. Jane Eyre	d. Agatha Christie
5. Ten Little Niggers	e. Charlotte Brontё
6. Love in the Ritz Hotel	f. Barbara Cartland
7. The Growing Pain of Adrian Mole	g. Marry Shelley

APPENDIX

Keys:

M.Shelley   1.d  2.a  3.c  4.b

Brontё sisters

Charlotte Brontё was one of six children. After the death of her mother and her two sisters Charlotte and the three remaining children were placed in the care of an aunt. At the age of sixteen, Charlotte accepted the post of a governess for two separate families. She traveled to France to study music and further perfect her drawing skills. Secretly she was writing poems. Her sisters were also writing poetry and soon the three jointly published a book of their verses under the pen name Bell. After this each sister began independent work on a novel. Emily’s book Wuthering Heights and Anne’s book Agness Grey were accepted for publication. Charlotte’s first novel was not a success. Her next effort, an autobiography of an orphan girl, was immediately accepted by a publisher in 1846 and became a sensation among readers. This was her masterpiece Jane Eyre. All in all Charlotte Brontё wrote four books. In1854, the year after she completed her fourth and final novel, Charlotte got married. A year later she died.