STATION 1: COMPARISON

April, 10 - STATION 1

 

The activities in this stations deal with the comparison of the female protagonists of both short stories, Mrs. Maloney and Mrs. Bixby. However, they pay more attention to Roald Dahl's shortstory "Lamb to the Slaughter".

 

The first activity implies a group discussion of the personality of Mary Maloney. After reading a description of her mood, students have to find similarities and differences between both female characters. This is the ones we, as a group, have found:

Mary Maloney is a scheming housewife, completely devoted to her husband and housework. She feels frustrated because he doesn't pay attention to her and she only wants to please him.

Mrs. Bixby is an ill-mannered woman who has everything in life: a hard-working husband, money, she's full of life but she lacks passion in her life.

 

Similarities: Both women suffer from unrequited love from their partners; they have everything in life except for happiness.

Differences: Each of them behaves in a different way; Mary Maloney actually kills her husband in an outburst and Mrs. Bixby has to resign and continue with her dull life.

I strongly believe that group discussions are an interestnig way of teaching because, as students are working in little groups, they feel free to give their opinion and they all interact with each other, even the shy ones. The personality of the student influences the performance of the students very much and it is a pity that some goog students do not participate in class because of their fear of speaking in public. So, working in groups can help this kind of students improve their speaking skills.

Using EDMODO or not?

I didn't know this platform and I found it really interesting. So, I'm sure I will use EDMODO in my classes because it's a platform where both teacher and students can share different points of view about the same activities, students can interact with each other, they can see the other's work, etc. As a consequence, they are learning from each other.

I also believe that it is a good idea to use EDMODO as a source of feedback for students: both, the teacher and the student, can see the progress with the language. First of all, the teacher is able to give immediate feedback to the students, but the most important thing of all is that students can see their own progress: they can compare their activities at the beginning of the course with their activities at the end of it. This is also a way of making them aware of their learning process and reflect about it.

Lots of activities can be adapted into pre/actual/post-teaching and they can be shared in EDMODO so that students create a sort of debate and share their knowledge with the rest of the class. However, in the case if this station, this activity could be used as a post-teaching  activity. As students have to discuss the similarities and the differences between the female characters of both shortstories and this means that they must have already been working each shortstory individually.

 

 

The idea of looking for ironic symbols is interesting too. Students have to read the story between the lines, they have to go a step beyond, they have to read the story with a critical eye. This is our analysis of the ironic symbols from both shortstories:

• Lamb to the Slaughter:


• It is an ironic symbol in the story because it is the weapon that Mary uses to murder her husband and no one realises. It can also have a religious interpretation being the lamb a sort of redeaming symbol.

• Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat:


• The neckpiece is the ironic symbol because it represents unfaithfulness, disdain and greed. 

 

What about using a voice recorder in class?

In my opinion, it is a good idea to use a voice recorder in class because they can listen to themselves speaking. Thus, students get to know their mistakes in pronunciation and they can improve by themselves. However, improving pronunciation and the speaking skill are not the only important aspects of it. Letting students create a dialogue and record it by themselves also fosters their creativity.

 

This is the audio we proposed for the activity:

mrs_maloney_interview.mp3

The good point of using a recorder is that teachers can suggest that students use their own mobile phones to record their voices. It is a good opportunity to make the students realise that technology can also be applied in a language class. Teachers can also record their voice and use the recording in differente ways. For instance:

• A recording can be used to give the instructions of an activity. Im my opinion, it is a different way of catching the attention of the students and, thus, they get involved in the activity without realising.


• It can also be used to give feedback to students in a different way. For example, recorded feedback can be much more significant for students than the traditional correction of texts and exercises. I'm sure they would pay much more attention to a recording in which the teacher is explaining their err

Depending on the content of the voice message we can adapt the activity to pre/actual/post-teaching. However, taking into account that it is an interview to Mrs. Malony, it can be considered as part of the actual teaching of the shortstory because, while students are writing the reasons which justify her acts, they are reflecting on the plot of the story and they are also putting into practice their speaking skills.

 

 

This station was a really interesting one. We, as a group, were working in different activities at the same time and, eventually, we ended up completing the whole task. It is a good idea to work like that because, after that, we put all our activities in common, we explained each other what we had done and why we had done it, etc. The idea of working cooperatively is a great one because, in real life, people needs to work cooperatively at home, at work, etc. We live in a society, that is, in small groups and we, as members of the group, have a role on it and a goal to achieve.