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Weeping cherry しだれ桜　-　氷室神社、奈良

Welcome to the class blog for Sheffner’s 2011 classes at DWC: Research in English and Writing Strategies.

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I’m looking forward to teaching you this year. I like to teach:

• I have been interested in language since I was a child, particularly in the history of English words.
• I am interested in British culture, especially in those parts of British culture which have had a large impact on the world, including Japan.
• I enjoy helping people to understand things more deeply and to develop their intelligence by making finer and finer distinctions.

(You can find out more about me by visiting here and here.)

We will not read “The Magician’s Nephew”, but we will study something about C.S. Lewis.

Book of Destiny Astrology Reports

Originally uploaded by rnoel1

Children’s Story Reports.

What should you write in your report? Here is my outline. Read it carefully. This will tell you how to write your report.

Your report can be in either English or Japanese (English reports may get more points but they must be comprehensible).

1. What is the title of your story in English and in Japanese?
2. Who are the main characters? Don’t just tell us their names. E.g. “The main characters are a family of four London children who go to live with a Professor who lives in a big house in the country. The other characters are a wicked witch, and various talking animals, including a lion called Aslan.”
3. Where and when does the story take place? E.g., “The story takes place in England during the Second World War. The four children are sent away from London to avoid the war. In the Professor’s house they discover a wardrobe which is a gate to a magical world called Narnia, where a wicked witch rules and it is always winter and never Christmas.”
4. Give a short summary of the story (main points only). E.g., “A wicked witch rules Narnia where it is always winter. The real ruler of the country, however, is Aslan the lion. There is a prophecy that he will return. Another prophecy says that the witch’s rule will end when four human children sit on the four thrones of the castle in Narnia called Caer Paravel. When the witch hears that a human child has entered Narnia and that that child has 3 brothers and sisters, she decides to catch them and kill them. Some animals help the children. One of the children, Edmund, is tempted to betray his brother and sisters to the witch. But Aslan arrives and stops this. According to the old law, the traitor must be given to the Witch. Aslan and the Witch agree that Aslan shall die instead of Edmund.  Aslan is killed. The next day, however, he returns to life. There is an older magic, he says, which says that death shall be reversed if someone offers their life for another. The four children and their animal friends and Aslan defeat the Witch in battle and she is killed. Winter is over and spring returns to Narnia. The four children become kings and queens of Narnia. Many years later as adults, they go through the door of the wardrobe, and find themselves in England once again as young children.
5. Compare the story you read with “The Magician’s Nephew”.
   1. Is magic used in your story? How? What kind of magic? Is it good magic or bad magic, or both?
   2. Is there another world in your story, like Narnia? If so, what kind of world is it? How is it different from Narnia? How is it the same?
   3. What other similar points 共通点 are there between your story and “The Magician’s Nephew”?
6. Did you like the story you chose? Why (or why not)? Which parts did you enjoy? Do you recommend this story to your classmates? Why (or why not)?
7. (Optional) Add your own illustrations.

Mountain Japanese maple (momiji), by Sheffner

Today, we began working on the Study Guide questions for chapters 10-12. Students worked in pairs or small groups.

1. Continue reading your children’s story. Presentations and papers are due Friday December 24th. That will the last chance. I will not accept late papers.
2. Finish the Study Guide questions for the section Chapters 10-12.

Autumnal mountain stones

Update:

Today, we continued reading chapters 8 and 9.  Each student translated 1 or 2 paragraphs from the text.

Homework:

Please prepare the chapters 10, 11, 12. “Prepare” = read in English (and in Japanese if necessary to understand the meaning), look up words/expressions you do not know.

Here is a list of suggested readings. This list is not yet complete. It will grow over the next few weeks as I add more titles. Please feel free to add titles in the comments. Click on the titles to read more about the book on Amazon Japan, and click on the author’s name to read more on Wikipedia.

1. A Little Princess (Puffin Classics) by Frances Hodgson Burnett
2. The Secret Garden 100th Anniversary by Frances Hodgson Burnett
3. Five Children and It (Puffin Classics) by E. Nesbit
4. Phoenix and the Carpet (Wordsworth Children’s Classics) by E. Nesbit
5. The Wind in the Willows (Penguin Classics) by Kenneth Grahame
6. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll
7. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glassby Lewis Caroll
8. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
9. Treasure Island (Puffin Classics) by Robert Louis Stevenson
10. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
11. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
12. Elidor (Collins Modern Classics) by Alan Garner
13. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen: A Tale of Alderley by Alan Garner
14. The Princess and the Goblin (Puffin Classics) by George MacDonald
15. Phantastes by George MacDonald
16. Gulliver’s Travels by  Jonathan Swift
17. Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
18. Around the World in Eighty Days (Puffin Classics) by Jules Verne
19. The War of the Worlds (Penguin Classics) by H.G. Wells
20. The Invisible Man (Signet Classics) by H.G. Wells
21. The Jungle Books (Penguin Classics) by Rudyard Kipling
22. Plain Tales from the Hills (Penguin Classics) by Rudyard Kipling
23. King Solomon’s Mines (Penguin Classics) by Rider Haggard
24. She (Oxford World’s Classics) by Rider Haggard

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There was no class yesterday.

1 homework was to tell me the topic of your next week’s presentation by email. There are 22 students in this class. 13 students sent in their homework on time. 13 students can keep their promise. Well done.

Those who did not keep their promise, please email me the topic of your presentation as soon as possible.

Today in class:

1. There is no class next week, November 5th. There will be a makeup class in December, either 4th or 18th (Saturdays). Please tell me when you are and are not available on those two days. Next class will be November 12th.
   Update: Saturday Dec. 18th, 2nd period (11-12:30) was the most popular time.
2. Write the details of our textbook, using the MLA format.
3. Study Guide, p. 15, question 9: what does it mean to be narrow-minded? Uncle Andrew believes there are no absolutes, that there is no absolute right and wrong. This goes against the Christian view. Christians believe that there are absolutes; in particular, there is an absolute right and wrong. Christians are not the only ones who believe this. When we say “case by case”, we are saying there are no absolutes. When we say, “it depends” 場合によって　we are saying there are no absolutes. What do you think?
4. Textbook page 20: “The moment I picked up that box I could tell by the pricking in my fingers that I held some great secret in my hands.” See also these famous lines from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth“: “By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.” [Macbeth Act 4, scene 1, 44–49].
5. Study Guide pages 20-21. We answered questions 5-11, and translated the Bible passages in questions 12, 14.
6. Study Guide pages 24-5: we checked the meaning of the sentences that use Cockney dialect.
7. Some points that came up in today’s class:
   1. the Deplorable Word is similar to a word of destruction used by the children in Miyazaki Hayao‘s movie “Castle in the Sky”.

Homework:

1. Read chapters 6-7.
2. Study Guide page 45-7, Summary Questions.  Choose a topic for a presentation November 12th. Tell me your choice by email as soon as possible (deadline 締め切り Friday Nov. 5th, 23:59).
   1. Story Structure (questions 1-4, p. 45)
   2. Characterization (questions 5-7, p. 46)
   3. Theme – how we treat other people (question 8, p. 47)
   4. Theme – curiosity (question 9, p. 47)
   5. Theme – the Deplorable Word (question 10, p. 48)
3. Study Guide page 25-6, questions 1-9.

Cultural background.

Here are some photos of things that appear in “The Magician’s Nephew“. Click on the photos to see a bigger image. (All photos courtesy of Flickr.)

1. dungeons
   
2. torture chambers
   
3. banqueting hall
   

Update: I encourage you to read the Japanese translation of The Magician’s Nephew:

魔術師のおい―ナルニア国ものがたり〈6〉 (岩波少年文庫)

Dear Writing Strategies students,

1. October 1st was our first class. As most students had  bought the textbook, we began reading the story. We read pages 1-4
2. We watched the first part of a movie about the love story of C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham. The movie is called “Shadowlands” in English and 「永遠（とわ）の愛に生きて Shadowlands」 in Japanese. You can read more about it in Japanese here.
   1. We watched up to where Joy Gresham and her son Douglas come to C.S. Lewis’ home in Oxford for Christmas.
3. Use the Internet to help you find images that will help you understand the story that we are reading. For example, what is an Eton collar?
4. Homework:
   1. Visit this blog and leave a comment (sign up for the feed if you want)
   2. Read chapter 1 (at least to page 10)
   3. Who and when was
      1. Sherlock Holmes? (日本語で読みたい方は日本語のＷｉｋipediaへどうぞ）
      2. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? (日本語で読みたい方は日本語のＷｉｋipediaへどうぞ）. Conan Doyle lived in my hometown from 1907 until his death in July 1930, in a house called Windlesham.
      3. the Bastables?

I will give you study guides for this semester’s text. I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

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