stupid english assignment

[Temujin]

For the Oral exam we got an assignment we have to prepare at home. I have absolutely no Idea what topic to pick this is the asignment:

You select a current text on 1 of the themes we discussed in class:

themes:

Personality and feelings
Illness and treatment, autism
National stereotypes
Crime and punishment
Weather and global warming
Survival stories
The boddy and the senses
Music

source: a book, newspaper, magazine, reliable website, blog,... Don't forget to mention your source! Your text/fragment has to be originally written in English.

Length: About 1 page of text

What do you do with this text?

- You underline the words/expressions you don't understand. You set up an alphabetical wordlist with this new vocabulary. With this list you should be able to explain these words/expressions in English.

- You summarise the most important ideas from the text in 10 lines. You are prepared to present your summary orally to your teacher. (Try to retell it, don't just read it!)

- You give your personal opinion on what is discussed in the text

- The teacher might ask some extra critical questions.

Bring along your preparation and a copy of your text: you may use it during the exam. Hint: a good preparation makes the difference!



GOOD LUCK!

I don't like any of those subjects, why couldn't she give us the freedom to pick any subject we like, I would have found something on the Gallic wars, or an interesting battle.



What would you guys pick?

 

[Shatari]

Go for "Survival stories". It's vague enough that you can write about a survivor of an interesting battle or war, and there's tons of interesting sources you can pull from.

 

[G36E]

Pick a random related book, bring it to school, wing it, then when the teacher asks how you prepared, tap your head and smirk.

Wait, you're not in Malaysia.

 

[Archonsod]

I don't like any of those subjects, why couldn't she give us the freedom to pick any subject we like, I would have found something on the Gallic wars, or an interesting battle.

She has. I'd do survival stories myself. Battle of Rorke's Drift probably

 

[Swadius 2.0]

Go for body and the sense theme and pick something out of a saucy magazine.

 

[The Mercenary]

Just make sure whatever topic you pick is extremely limited. I'd have LOTS of trouble limiting a summary and assessment of a written work to one page.

 

[Shatari]

Just make sure whatever topic you pick is extremely limited. I'd have LOTS of trouble limiting a summary and assessment of a written work to one page.

What I always did was limit the summary to one page, and then turn in a small forest worth of pages for the assignment as a whole. Both of my college history teachers hated me...

 

[Temujin]

I don't like any of those subjects, why couldn't she give us the freedom to pick any subject we like, I would have found something on the Gallic wars, or an interesting battle.

She has. I'd do survival stories myself. Battle of Rorke's Drift probably

That's it! you are brilliant

 

[Tibertus]

Honestly, one page, you can write about anything, whether you're interested or not. It's not that hard.

 

[Elenmmare]

Hah. I hate when they tell you to write down words you don't know. Always ends up with

"You didn't do that part of the assignment!"

"Um, yes I did, I just knew every word."

"Really. Well then what does "inefficient" mean?"

 

[Archonsod]

Hah. I hate when they tell you to write down words you don't know.

How precisely would one write down a word you didn't know, since presumably you don't know it in the first place?

I'd point out the paradox and insist they provide some means by which you can distinguish between random collections of letters, and actual words which you are simply unfamiliar with.

 

[Elenmmare]

What if you're simply dictating?

 

[Archonsod]

Refuse to support dictators.

 

[Elenmmare]

Really? If anything, a benevolent dictator is what we could use most right now.

 

[Niv]

If it were me, my major problem would be finding words I don't understand.

Do music!

 

[Ilex]

Weren't you in a car crash or something? You could use that as survival story.

 

[uncreative]

In my experience, stuff like this usually is about luck. The average teacher isn't competent enough to properly rate your content, and as such you often get your grade mostly from how good your grammar is. Unless your teacher is completely incompetent or just very petty, or both. The current topdog author in Norway, hailed as the new Ibsen, got lousy grades in school. Ugh, I remember my old teacher giving me a condescending lecture when I used the word "swarthy." Apparentently it's a "heavy" word, and we were encouraged to use as simple English as possible. **** older English, it's more important to learn what ridiculous words Africans use for their cellphones than slightly less basic words.

 

[Temujin]

Weren't you in a car crash or something? You could use that as survival story.

I need to find an article or text and comment on that, and the only article ever written about my car accident was in a local Spanish newspaper where it happened, and they they kept refering to us as: The Belgians, even tough all 3 of us where Dutch

In my experience, stuff like this usually is about luck. The average teacher isn't competent enough to properly rate your content, and as such you often get your grade mostly from how good your grammar is. Unless your teacher is completely incompetent or just very petty, or both. The current topdog author in Norway, hailed as the new Ibsen, got lousy grades in school. Ugh, I remember my old teacher giving me a condescending lecture when I used the word "swarthy." Apparentently it's a "heavy" word, and we were encouraged to use as simple English as possible. **** older English, it's more important to learn what ridiculous words Africans use for their cellphones than slightly less basic words.

Our teacher isn't bad, she's a bit enthousiastic tough, and we have our differences sometimes, but I keep forgiving her for being female, not old or young, and ocasionally comming to teach in a short skirt (yes I'm a terrible person)

but she's vverry enthousiast and allways verry eager to see how creative we can get.

She doesn't know verry much tough, she didn't know who Wellesley was, or what I ment by a redcoat the other day

EDIT:
I intent to use the following text:

http://britishhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/rorkesdrift

Just sent a message to the writer asking permission to use it

 

[Mage246]

You actually don't have to ask if it's for educational purposes, as long as you properly attribute it. It comes under Fair Use, IIRC.

 

[Temujin]

Really? so i can use it and don't have to wait for his reply?

Good news

EDIT: well, I took that text of Rorke's drift and talked about it, it's short really, I gave it 5 minutes of my atention (It's hard to focus when your pc is in a small room with 4 caged birds who won't shut up and killing them is not an option)

what do you think:

Actual Assignment

Words I did not understand: none

Summary:
After the disaster that was Isandhlwana, a small Force of British soldiers held out at Rorke’s drift which was a munitions storage and field hospital, learning of the disaster they quickly fortified and against all odds managed to ward of several attacks and survived what would be known as the battle of Rorke’s drift.

Personal opinion:
It’s a nice tale of survival and beating the odds, although I have strong sentiments about Britain in South Africa (especially what they did to the Dutch speaking Boere) I can respect the epicness of this fight, and acknowledge that it took some bravery to stand and fight, the story has been turned into a movie called Zulu, and it features a beautiful scene with the welsh in the regiment singing the song “Men of Harlech” (of which the lyrics where changed for the movie  the scene can be viewed on YouTube (search for zulu – final attack).

Here are the lyrics for the song:
Men of Harlech stop your dreaming
Can't you see their spear points gleaming
See their warrior pennants streaming
To this battlefield
Men of Harlech stand ye steady
It cannot be ever said ye
For the battle were not ready
Welshmen never yield
From the hills rebounding
Let this war cry sounding
Summon all at Cambria's call
The mighty foe surrounding
Men of Harlech on to glory
This will ever be your story
Keep these burning words before ye
Welshmen will not yield


Knowing her, my teacher will probably give this a 8/10