Homework for 2 Dec. 2010

This is the link for the mediation exercise "Berlin Wall":

Mediation exercise

It is a document in PDF format. This exercise has been put together by the ISB - Staatsinstitut für Schulqualität und Bildungsforschung, München.

Homework for Tue, 30 Nov

Please read this article:

"Attack on Michelle Obama shows Palin's ignorance of history"

and do the following tasks (using the article and other internet sources):

• Find out four interesting facts about the life of Michelle Obama.


• Find out
  - what Sarah Palin did during the last campaign for the US presidency,
  - what her position was at that time,
  - what she does now,
  - and how she is connected to the "Tea Party" movement.


• What important link is there between this article and our last English lesson?

1. Write down what you find and take your notes along to our Tuesday lesson so we can discuss them.


2. Write a coherent text on one of the above tasks for me to look at.

Free at last

This is the song mentioned at the end of ML King's speech when he says:

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

My Country, 'Tis of Thee

This is the first song that Martin Luther King mentions in his speech.
He says:

... I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring! ...

_________________________________________________________

If you'd like to read the whole speech, look here: "I have a dream"

The Star-Spangled Banner

The very useful site "Der Englisch-Blog" has an article (and video) about the US national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner", sung by The Dixie Chicks.

Look here: "The Star-Spangled Banner"

And here's a performance of the anthem by the combined choirs of the American Forces - again at the beginning of a football final, with (then) President Bill Clinton and former President George Bush present.

America the Beautiful

Maybe you want to practise before we sing it next time?

Here's the sheet music for the song:
"America the Beautiful"

And here's one of the many recordings on YouTube; this one is especially nice because, as soon as the choir starts, the audience joins in: