Welcome to Flight 012 (December 2024)! A learning package full of English material is ready to download. Don’t forget Flight 011 is still available for a month.
You can download the complete Flight 012 here (zip-file in Dropbox):
Flight 012
Study Guide 017: cognitive bias
Study Guide 018: focus
4 OWL assignments
Advanced Grammar 007: gerund & infinitive
Idioms 007: food
Phrasal Verb 007: RUN
Word Formation 007: RECOGNISE
Listening 017 - 5-minutes On “Gambling Addiction”
Listening 018 - 5-minutes On “Assisted Dying: Should it be legalised?”
Speaking - Cooperation 007: annoyances
Speaking - Individual Long Turn 007: travelling
Speaking - Pronunciation 007: /p/ & /b/
Speaking - Presentations 07: practising a presentation
Essay Writing 04: the structure of a paragraph
Reading
This I had to be light on reading due to my educational obligation (I hope to rectify this in December). I definitely enjoyed I’d Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel, a lovely booklet about reading books which happened to be included in my Everand subscription. It reads as if you are sitting in a café and Bogel shares her experience and ideas about reading and books, taking a sip every now and then. It was a wonderful in-between book.
My educational book for this month was The End of Education by Neil Postman. This book starts with interesting ideas in the first part, for example questioning how we approach tech at school. The second part tends to get bogged down in ideas that don't have solid ground to land. Postman agrees at times he doesn't know how to implement his ideas, but he thinks they should. It is more daydreaming than sharing a clear vision.
I liked the way he approached technology and education. All the rest was, for me, just offering some goals for education. We have enough of these and those who are not supported by suggestions on how to implement them, go to the lower half of the list.
My Grade 10/Year 11 students need to keep up a reading journal and I read this novel to give them an example. I will share the results of this project here some time next year.
Perfume River by Robert Olen Butler is a story about a family torn apart because of the Vietnam War. A World War II veteran has two sons. One wants to please his father by going to the Vietnam War, the other breaking all contact and fleeing to Canada. It is a story about communication and the lack thereof, about telling and keeping secrets and how it can eat away people from the inside. The novel has a lot of flashbacks and although the plot is not thick, the ending still felt a bit contrived.
Novel of the Month
The Novel of the Month is All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. This novel proves that longer novels can really grip a reader and draw them into the story. Doerr is a great storyteller from whom you can never have enough pages.
All the Light We Cannot See is a historical novel set during World War II, following the intertwining stories of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl, and Werner, a young German orphan with a knack for radios. As their paths converge, they navigate the horrors of war and discover the power of human connection.
Author: Anthony Doerr
Label: Recent Prize Winner
Year of publication: 2014
Pages: 531
CEFR: C1
Plot Complexity: moderate
Language Complexity: high
Ideas Complexity: high
You can find more novel ideas at www.rookreading.com.
Poem of the Month
I like the repetition in this poem, like the beat of the world, of time. There is also the play on what tells what, of knowing and unknowing, of silence, and answers between the lines.
If I Could Tell You
W.H. Auden
Time will say nothing but I told you so,
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.
If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time will say nothing but I told you so.
There are no fortunes to be told, although,
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you I would let you know.
The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time will say nothing but I told you so.
Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.
Suppose all the lions get up and go,
And all the brooks and soldiers run away;
Will Time say nothing but I told you so?
If I could tell you I would let you know.