Welcome to Flight 007! We are going to stir things up a bit. The flights will now be published monthly (around the second week of the month). This means that the cycle will be made available in one publication. Each Flight will be available for two months. Every issue has the following content:
2 Study Guides
2 “5-Minutes On” listening assignments
4 OWL Vocabulary assignments
4 Speaking assignments
Individual Long Turn
Cooperation
Pronunciation
Presentation Lesson
4 Use of English assignments
Word Formation
Phrasal Verb
Advanced Grammar
Idioms
Novel of the Month
Poem of the Month
Flight 007 will be a bit of the odd one out to turn to the new publication schedule, having only two Speaking and two Use of English assignments.
You can download the complete Flight 007 here (zip-file in Dropbox):
Flight 007
Study Guide 007: SQ4R (an extensive study method)
Study Guide 008: highlighting
4 OWL assignments
Phrasal Verb 002: FALL
Idioms 002: animals
2 “5-minutes On” listening assignments (“Liverpool’s £1 Houses – Did they work?” & “50 years of Dungeons and Dragons”)
Speaking - Pronunciation 002: /t/ and /d/
Speaking - Presentations 002: structure
Reading
The Knowledge Gap by Natalie Wexler is one of those books which has been lurking on my TBR for ages and time has caught up on it. That is, I am already fully convinced prior knowledge is vital for reading comprehension and Wexler does not need to convince me. However, it is good to read some sound arguments with proper research on why this is a no-brainer.
I also started Seed to Dust by Mark Hamer, a great book for the summer break. Hamer is a gardener and tells about his gardening, history, and thoughts. Books like these keep your feet on the ground and put life more in perspective.
In the video of this week, Ben Reads Good gives you the news from the literary world of July (yes, I just love the videos of Ben).
Novel of the Month
The Novel of the Month is a novel I recommend to my students who love fantasy yet have trouble with finding a literary novel: The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. You can’t really go wrong with Ishiguro and this novel set in the late-Arthurian age is no exception. A literary fantasy novel exploring the the concept of memory. Is it better to remember or better to forget past atrocities?
In a post-Arthurian Britain, The Buried Giant tells a story about a couple which embarks on a journey to find their lost memories. Along the way, they encounter various challenges, meet unique characters, and uncover truths about their past, all while grappling with the impact of a collective amnesia that shrouds the land.
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Year of publication: 2015
Pages: 317
CEFR: B2/C1
Plot Complexity: moderate
Language Complexity: moderate
Ideas Complexity: moderate
You can find more novel ideas at www.rookreading.com.
Poem of the Month
What make prose different from poetry? Can prose be like poetry, poetry like prose? There is a thing called prose poetry which looks like prose but reads more like poetry. However, aren't we trying to box things that can't really be boxed? Can we accept a grey area and have something that can be prose and verse at the same time?
The following poem reads like prose, yet draws more attention to itself because it is presented as a poem. Is it because verse has more of our respect or is it because of its line breaks and rhythms that it forces us not to rush but absorb every thought before moving on?
Keeping A Journal
by William Stafford
At night it was easy for me with my little candle
to sit late recording what happened that day. Sometimes
rain breathing in from the dark would begin softly
across the roof and then drum wildly for attention.
The candle flame would hunger after each wafting
of air. My pen inscribed thin shadows that leaned
forward and hurried their lines along the wall.
More important than what was recorded, these evenings
deepened my life: they framed every event
or thought and placed it with care by the others.
As time went on, that scribbled wall--even if
it stayed blank--became where everything
recognized itself and passed into meaning.