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LIST OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION.
2. CONTEXT.
3. JUSTIFICATION.
4. SKILLS TO DEVELOP.
6. ATTENTION TO DIVERSITY
7. EVALUATION.
8. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES.
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1. INTRODUCTION.
The author of this book, Lewis Carroll states that everything is a dream, and it is not to be
revealed till the end. He plays between vagueness and vividness, and illustrates that nothing
remains the same for long. He writes like describing a dream and even words start to blur into
each other. His story pulls apart the world around himself and reassembled it in a crazily
jumbled form.
Alice in Wonderland is a childrens non-sense tale with twelve chapters on a girl named Alice
and her journey to an imaginary and fantastic world with people, animals and anthropomorphic
objects. It has had a considerable social, psychological and mathematic influence from the
Victorian period.
The first part of the book is focused on Alices disorientation in life. The following meetings are
described always as difficult relationships, like the one I have chosen where the Cheshire cat
appears and disappears when he wants to. The book mixes oneiric contents, localisms, social
caricatures and logic and linguistic games.
Alices attitudes reflect the mockery to society and the customs of the period. Her logic is the
most traditional or classic, and bumps into Carrolls world to show this last one as absurd. But
Carrolls logic always answers to correct inference patterns: craziness in Wonderland is rational;
surrealism comes from sceneries in which it is produced: a dream. Nevertheless, Alice is open-
minded to understand what she goes through the tale, what does not usually happen with
adults.
The inverse language in the book is language that is literal and nominalist. This curious
mixture produces an only level of interpretation, and at the same time, extreme freedom to
create each meaning.
2. CONTEXT.
The school is bilingual. The activities are designed for sixth grade, because of the
abstractness of the meaning I want to work with. We are taking into account some
reinforcements and extensions for a slight difference in pupils competences. This mini-project
will be carried on in the middle of the third term, since children would be already prepared to
progress in the abilities specified. The timing of the activities is a week, encompassing five
lessons of forty-five minutes each. The resources are video scenes, worksheets, and audio and
video recorders and recordings.
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3. JUSTIFICATION.
I have chosen the Cheshire cats scene because of his vitality represented by his permanent
smile. He says: You will always arrive to some place if you walk enough. I like his paradoxical
conversations with philosophic hints and his nihilist snide humour when he is logic when the rest
are not. He smiles and howls to get other characters angry. I like that he is a joker to be
considered seriously. When he laughs at everything shows his own superiority but not over
other, bout over oneselfs nature. Moreover, there is a reference at the end of the book that
deals with the dilemma to cut his head, under the orders of the Queen (and the King), that
poses critical thinking to authority without foundations.
4. SKILLS TO DEVELOP.
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5. LESSON PLAN (With alternatives).
FIRST LESSON
To start with the story we watch this link: https://youtu.be/_EIGBq6klEI.
To introduce the book to the pupils I will start with some hints on the author and the
story with a prezi presentation about what I have described in the introduction.
I will briefly explain the students the scene. Then we will watch the scene of the
cartoon movie of Disney (with English subtitles) once I have explained them there is a
poem (Jabberwocky) the Cheshire Cat sings that is completely non-sense and
scrambles words.
Thus, we will work on the lexis: key words and some unusual lexical groups
(memory games).
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Key words: to wonder, to mean, to notice, in that direction, curious.
IN THAT CURIOUS
DIRECTION
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Unusual lexical groups: get the knack of, ought to, depends on, as long as,; to go among,
cant help.
TO GET
TO OUGHT TO TO DEPEND ON
THE KNACK OF
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Structure: if I were looking for..., Id ask...
PING-PONG POEM.
We perform sentences of the scene, but the pupils have to invent a poem with them.
We eventually re-create an exciting ping pong match.
The class is divided into two groups. Group A read one side words and group B the
other. The teacher is the narrator or referee. After reading through several times, the
pupils move their heads as if following the ping pong ball in the game. They mime the
action as the teams speak.
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SECOND LESSON
Alice: Goodness I wonder if Ill ever get the knack of it. There, thats much better. Hmmm
I better save these. Now lets see, where was I? Hmmm, I wonder which way I ought to go
Cheshire Cat: Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy
were the borogoves, and the momeraths outgrabe.
Alice: Now where in the world do you suppose that
Alice: Oh! Hehe, Oh uhhh hehe I- I was no, no, I- I- I- I mean, I uhh I was just
wondering
Cheshire Cat: Oh uhh, thats quite all right! Oh, hrmm, one moment please Oh! Second
chorus Twas brilllig, and the slithy toves, did gyre and gimble in the wabe
Alice: Why, why youre a cat!
Alice: Oh no no no thank you, but- but I just wanted to ask you which way I ought to go.
Cheshire Cat: Well, that depends on where you want to get to.
Cheshire Cat: Then it really doesnt matter which way you go! Ah-hmm and the momeraths
outgrabe Oh, by the way, if youd really like to know, he went that way.
Alice: Who did?
Alice: He did?
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Alice: But didnt you just say I mean oh dear!
Alice: Oh!
Cheshire Cat: However, if I were looking for a white rabbit, Id ask the Mad Hatter.
Cheshire Cat: Oh, you cant help that. Almost everyone is mad here. Ha ha ha ha ha ha! You
may have noticed that Im not all there myself. hahaha and the momeraths outgrabe
Alice: Goodness. If the people here are like that, I- I must try not to upset them. How very
curious!
Then, the pupils will read the script in pairs. They change roles.
I hand out the work-sheet for the students to fill in the frames with brief narrative
or dialogued summaries of the scene for each picture. They also have to match
Alices picture, and describe her mood, attitude, beliefs,... for each frame. There
are some extra ones.
Afterwards, they reorganize the sequence of the story by matching those scenes
with the paragraphs related. They will do it with their owns and with their
partners one.
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1 2
3 4
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5 6
7 8
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9 10
11 12
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BEGINNING, MIDDLE, END STORY CLOCK
Beginning
Middle
End
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THIRD LESSON
TASK ON OXYMORONS.
Oxymoron 1:
Cheshire Cat: Well, that depends on where you want to get to.
Cheshire Cat: Then it really doesnt matter which way you go!
Oxymoron 2:
Alice: He did?
ROLING SEAT. A pupil sits on a chair in front of the class to perform Alices or
Cheshire Cats role. His or her classmates ask questions to be answered in the
characters shoes.
ROLE-PLAY. On the selected short script excerpts for students to perform.
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FOURTH LESSON. (ICT Room)
7. EVALUATION. A small contribution to a LITERATURE JOURNAL for the class. The pupils
reflect on the task, they compare their predictions with the outcome in the story, and also
describe the way Alice has changed and what she has learned. They also can think about
personal experiences similar to Alices.
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8. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES.
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