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THE TITLE OF THE STORY:
1. Hegedűs Katalin: The seven-headed
dragon’s seventh head
- Age
range: teenagers
- English
level: pre-intermediate
- Language
focus
- Grammar:
Compound and complex sentences mainly in the Past Tense
- Functions:
ask a favour, polite requests.
- Lexical
fields: everyday life, comparisons: human beings and animals or things,
personification.
- Repeated
language: repeated activities, minor changes.
- Educational
ideas
- Social
focus: the importance of
education, vanity, belonging, the role of the family in one’s life,
reaching one’s aims, being different from others, being similar to
others, the moral of the story.
- Conceptual
focus: chances of life, the role
of the strength of will, symbolic, metaphoric meaning.
- Themes
Regular life, way of life, improving
one’s abilities.
- Suggested
teaching aids
Before telling:
Warm-up activity:
Simple questions: the teacher asks the student
replies
Ask questions relating to the topic of story:
Do
you like reading?
What
books do you like?
When
do you usually read?
Motivation:
The teacher highlights the main point of the story in English. The teacher can draw and write the unknown words on the blackboard – it can be motivating.
/insomnia, dragon, nod off, air-crash/
Brainstorming:
Speak about the main ideas, which will occur in
the story. Mention the main character, ask the children to guess the main
events.
During
telling
Ask the students to find some interesting turning points in the story:
The students can take notes
After
telling
Check the main turning points in the story.
Act out some mini-situations.
Two
of the heads are arguing: blame the other for a dangerous situation
Two
of the heads are talking: ask for the book for an hour
Ask the students to illustrate the story.
Ask the students to tell the following
event of the story. What is going to happen to the characters the following
day, the next week?
1.
Hegedűs Katalin: The seven-headed dragon’s seventh head
As
a rule the seven-headed dragon led a very regular life.
He
always got up in time and went to bed in time, because he would have liked to
recover his strength, but somehow he never managed to do it.
Well
it was in vain that he went to bed in time, because only six of his heads did
sleep well, but his seventh head suffered from insomnia and was bed-reading all
the time throughout the night. It was reading for seven hours on end every
night.
Reading,
itself can’t be considered a sin, because if we take reading into
consideration, every decent seven-headed dragon needs a seven-hour-reading a
day - if he wants to become educated. Without reading nobody on earth could
become clever.
But
night-reading did more harm than good to the seventh head of the dragon and
what is more it didn’t do any good to the whole dragon either, because people
who are awake all the night are sleepyheads in the daytime.
And
when the dragon went on his regular flights, six of his heads were watching the
sky routes with full attention, and they did their best to avoid air crashes,
but the seventh head was nodding off all the time. He couldn’t help dozing off,
because he was sleepy.
Poor
dragon, he lived in constant stress, though he tried to keep the air traffic
rules, he was in constant danger. He was unable to fly in a regular way because
of the seventh head, which was nodding off all the time.
So
the other six heads decided that they ought to do something very urgently for
the seventh head and for themselves.
Every
and each of the six agreed, that the seven hours of reading weren’t allowed to
be decreased, because it would make the whole dragon unintelligent and they
agreed that these seven hours had to be spent on reading every day but in
another way.
They
offered sharing the reading job, so that after reading seven times one hour
that is seven hours altogether they would be able to sleep peacefully together.
See what labour division means!
No
sooner said than done.
They
asked the seventh head to allow them to read his books.
There
followed seven days of training time, and on the seventh day all the seven
heads were reading an hour each, and from that time on they did the same every
day.
In
the end all of them went to sleep at the same time, they always slept well, and
always had nice dreams.
And
from that time on the dragon could safely travel in the sky keeping his peace
of mind because he was sure that all of his heads were watching the traffic.
And he has never caused an air-crash since that time.
You
can even check if it in the newspapers, reading all the articles; you won’t
find a single article about the dragon. None of the articles are about him;
none of them mention that he has ever caused an air-crash, which means he
hasn’t.
See it for
yourselves. If you don’t believe me, believe your eyes.
THE TITLE OF THE STORY:
2. Hegedűs Katalin: The story of the three
sad houses
- Age
range: teenagers
- English
level: pre-intermediate
- Language
focus
- Grammar:
Compound and complex sentences mainly in the Past Tense
- Functions: planning, asking information, polite
requests.
- Lexical
fields: everyday life, comparisons: human beings or things,
personification.
- Repeated
language: repeated activities, minor changes
- Educational
ideas
a. Social
focus: belonging, being different from others, being similar to others, the
moral of the story.
b. Conceptual
focus: understanding happenings, consequences, chances of life, the role of the
strength of will, symbolic, metaphoric meaning.
- Themes
The role of friendship, lonely
people.
- Suggested
teaching aids
Before telling:
Warm-up activity:
Simple questions: the teacher asks the student
replies
What
can make people happy?
What
makes you happy?
Ask questions relating to the topic of story –
but the questions can refer to the students as well. Personalization is important
Motivation:
The teacher highlights the main point of the story in English. The teacher can draw and write the unknown words on the blackboard or act them out– it can be motivating.
/ conspicuous, confused smile, goggle-eyed/
Brainstorming:
Speak about the main ideas, which
will occur in the story. Mention some of the characters, ask the children to
guess the main events.
During
telling
Ask the students to find some surprising turning points in the story:
The students can take notes
After
telling
Check the main turning points in the story.
Act out some mini-situations.
You
want to leave your place ask a passer-by about the neighbouring town
Complain
about the hot day – convince your friend that it is a nice day
Ask the students to illustrate the story.
Retell the story beginning: Three sad cars were driving on the road….
2. Hegedűs Katalin:
The story of the three sad houses
There
lived three sad houses in the street. They were old, bad-tempered, and they
were always in despair. They always felt sad. Nothing could cheer them up.
Sometimes
it was raining, other times the sun was shining, or the birds were singing
aloud, or butterflies were flying around, none of these miraculous events could
change their bad mood. They were about to run away from the street, when one
morning they woke up to find that three new houses had moved to the other side
of the street.
But
these three houses were conspicuously cheerful. No sooner had they opened their
eyes in the morning than their mouths started to smile. It was all the same for
them if it was raining, if the sun was shining. Their eyes shone when they
heard the birds singing, and they were glad just to see the butterflies and
with a sweet smile they greeted the flowers who were walking up and down along
the street.
Well
there they stood, three smiling houses opposite the three sad ones, who were
planning to leave, who were about to go out into the world without saying
good-bye to anyone.
Well,
I hope all of you know what great happiness is like. It’s catching.
The
three sad houses were staring and staring and staring with big eyes at the
three smiling neighbours, when one of them gave a tiny confused smile.
He
had not smiled for so many long years that he couldn’t even remember if he
could smile at all. But later he was more and more encouraged and his face
became more and more cheerful. The house standing next to him tossed up her
head with a fright. First she couldn’t believe her eyes. She looked
goggle-eyed; she even rubbed her eyes with her fists, in order to see her
neighbour better. Oh dear. Her ever-sad neighbour can even smile and imagine
she became so happy at this revelation that she started to smile in her joy.
There
stood three houses on each side of the street, six altogether, if I can count.
Five of them were radiantly smiling, and the sixth was still hopelessly sad.
He
was in low spirits because he noticed, that the sun was shining again. He was
about to start complaining to his neighbours, but when he looked at them, he
was shocked. He saw with a great astonishment that they both were smiling. He
asked them indignantly.
‘Hey,
you two, how can you be so happy?’
‘Oh,
don’t you see, how nicely the sun is shining again? Are you blind that you
can’t see it?’
‘Oh,
I haven’t noticed it yet’ – he told this white lie, because he was ashamed to
confess that he was sad just because of the sunshine. He looked up at the sky
with a different eye now and saw that the sunshine wasn’t that bad at all. His
eyes shone brightly at this discovery. There they stood smiling, all the six of
them this time, because the three old houses learned how to be glad. They learned
it from each other.
And
since that time none of them have ever mentioned, and have not even thought,
that they would like to go out into the world. They liked it there.
And
if you don’t believe me by any chance, go there and ask them, just to make sure.
THE TITLE OF THE STORY:
3.
Hegedűs Katalin: The heedless trouser-leg
- Age
range: teenagers
- English
level: pre-intermediate
- Language
focus
a. Grammar:
Compound and complex sentences mainly in the Past Tense
b. Functions:
ask a favour, polite requests.
c. Lexical
fields: everyday life, comparisons: human beings or things, personification.
d. Repeated
language: repeated activities, minor changes
- Educational
ideas
a. Social
focus: jealousy, greed, vanity, belonging, being different from others, being
similar to others, the moral of the story.
b. Conceptual
focus: understanding happenings, consequences, chances of life, the role of the
strength of will, symbolic, metaphoric meaning.
- Themes
Regular life, way of life,
friendship.
- Suggested
teaching aids
Before
telling:
Warm-up activity:
Acting
out: What happens if you take two bags and one of them is a lot heavier?
Motivation:
The teacher highlights the main point of the story in English. The teacher can draw and write the unknown words on the blackboard – it can be motivating.
/ tailor, trouser-leg, a pair of scissors /
Brainstorming:
Speak about the main ideas, which
will occur in the story. Mention some of the characters, ask the children to
guess the main events.
During
telling
Ask the students to find some interesting turning points in the story:
The students can draw pictures.
After
telling
Check the main turning points in the story.
Act out some mini-situations.
You are at the tailor’s, explain him what your
trouser-leg is doing.
Tell your mum that you need another pair of
trousers.
Ask the students to illustrate the story.
Ask the students to tell the following event of the story. What is going
to happen to the characters the following day, the next week?
3. Hegedűs
Katalin: The heedless trouser-leg
As
a rule trouser-legs grow together with their owners’ legs. Don’t say that you
haven’t noticed it yet. If you look around, you can’t see a man or a boy who
wears trousers shorter or longer than he needs.
Trouser-legs
are just as long as they need to be. And as you can see it for yourself, too, I
think we can draw the right conclusion that trousers grow together with their
owners.
Well,
this boy I am about to speak of, also had a pair of trousers, which was growing
together with his legs. But one of his trouser-legs wanted to make his owner
happy and decided to grow faster than the other led. And as good as his plans,
he did it. The next morning the little boy suspected that one of his
trouser-legs was longer than the other one, because he had to roll it up. But
he didn’t think it was significant at all.
Getting
up next day he again had to adjust the same trouser-leg, and it went on day
after day. It was already rolled up very thickly, when the boy grew very
impatient.
He
took off his trousers very quickly and unrolled its long leg. Gosh! It was one
and a half meters longer than the other one. No wonder that it made him uneasy.
The boy got so angry that he threw the trousers into his cupboard, looked for
another pair, and put it on. Later, thinking it over again, he changed his mind
and decided not to throw his old trousers away, it would be gross negligence,
so he decided to take it to the tailor, to have the leg shortened, so that he
could have a good pair of trousers again.
He
wrapped it up, went to the tailor, and asked him to help him.
The
tailor said that it was an easy job, the only thing he had to do was to cut the
superfluous material off and hem the trouser-leg along the cut, and it’d take
only a few minutes. Well you can imagine what happened. When the trouser-leg
heard this, he started to beg for his life. He asked the tailor to save his
life and not to expose him to such a torture.
The
tailor tried to calm him explaining that it was only a tiny operation, and he
promised that it wouldn’t hurt at all. He didn’t waste any more time on
bargaining, took his scissors, and with an accurate cut he cut the superfluous
material off.
The
trouser-leg was weeping for a long time, lamenting over his fate. The tailor
hemmed it along the cut and gave the trousers back to the boy, who was very
happy to have his trousers again.
The
trouser-leg confessed to himself that he had been very inconsiderate, he
shouldn’t have competed with the other leg in growing, because they two make a
whole together. He could have missed this operation if he had grown at the
regular pace.
Now
he promised to himself that he would grow together with the other leg.
You
can check it for yourselves whether he kept his promise or not. But I’m sure he
kept it, because you can’t see a trouser-leg, which is longer than the other
one, not in the whole world, including shops and shop-windows
The
two legs are always of equal length everywhere. I am glad if somebody is as
good as his word, and can be trusted like this trouser-leg.
THE TITLE OF THE STORY:
4. Hegedűs Katalin: Career prospects Age
range: teenagers
- English
level: pre-intermediate
- Language
focus
a. Grammar:
Compound and complex sentences mainly in the Past Tense
b. Functions:
ask a favour, planning, asking information, polite requests.
c. Lexical
fields: everyday life, comparisons: human beings and animals or things,
personification.
d. Repeated
language: repeated activities, minor changes
- Educational
ideas
a. Social
focus: jealousy, greed, the importance of education, vanity, belonging, the role
of the family in one’s life, reaching one’s aims.
b. Conceptual
focus: understanding happenings, consequences, chances of life, the role of the
strength of will, symbolic, metaphoric meaning.
- Themes
different abilities, improving one’s abilities, relationships,
friendship, parental love, careers and
abilities, studying, competition or rivalry.
- Suggested
teaching aids
Before
telling:
Warm-up activity:
Simple questions: the teacher asks the student
replies
Have you ever envied anybody? What did you envy?
Motivation:
The teacher highlights the main point of the story in English. The teacher can draw and write the unknown words on the blackboard – it can be motivating.
/ mole, mole-hill, police constable, career office, vehicles /
Brainstorming:
What jobs do you know? Mention some examples.
During
telling
Ask the students to find some interesting turning points in the story:
The students can take notes.
After
telling
Check the main turning points in the story.
Act out some mini-situations.
Make an eye chart for your partner. Name the
things, which are drawn on it. You can draw animals, pieces of furniture.
You are at the career office. Answer
the interviewer’s questions.
Ask the students to illustrate the story.
Describe a job, which you like.
4. Hegedűs
Katalin: Career prospects
Two
mole families lived next to each other. They lived in constant competition. If
one of them made a big molehill, you can take it for sure, that the other mole
wanted a bigger one.
Their
children went to the same school, and the parents urged them on in constant
competition. They were in the last year of the elementary school when they had
to decide which career to choose.
The
parents advised one child that he should be a musical instrument maker, and the
other child that he should be a police constable directing traffic.
The
parents took their child to the musical instrument maker, who examined his
hands, first, and saw at once, that his callous hands, which were turning out a
little at that, wouldn’t be good for the meticulous job of making a musical
instrument.
The
other child had to undergo health check if he wanted to be a police constable
who directs traffic.
First
his eyesight was checked, because a police constable who directs traffic must
have keen sight. He had to stand in front of the eye chart, and there were
different things on the eye chart, which had to be recognized a named
accordingly.
The
first thing was a fire-engine, but the mole-child saw only a blurred picture,
but he kept his presence of mind, and he decided to give an answer, which
couldn’t do any harm. So he said that the thing in the picture was a vehicle.
His answer was accepted as a right one. Next he was shown a truck, then a car
and a bicycle in the end, and the mole-child shouted:” A vehicle, a vehicle, a
vehicle”. The answers came fluently. But in the last line of the chart a
pedestrian was drawn and the mole-child cried without thinking: “A vehicle,
again.” It goes without saying that the examination board sent him out of the
room at that moment. The parents were told that their child wasn’t allowed to
be a policeman directing traffic, because in some cases it would be dangerous
if he mistook a fire-engine for a pedestrian or vice versa, it would cause
serious accidents on the roads.
The
parents went home feeling ashamed. They didn’t want their neighbours to know
about their failure, and the neighbours also kept silent about theirs.
In
the end they were so uncertain about the future of their children that they had
to go to the career office. It was on the corridor of the career office that
they learnt about each other’s failure.
In
the career office they were advised that they should take their children to the
Channel Digging Joint Venture, where there was a private school, with a high
fee, but it offered a good education for the two children.
The
two children were happy to hear this information, because they liked each
other, and so they were allowed to spend a few more years together at the same
school.
From
that time on the neighbours never wanted to gain on each other and they had
become very good friends by the time their children finished school. Now both
of the mole-children are good skilled workers at the Channel Digging Joint
Venture, and they can earn their living, I bet.
THE TITLE OF THE STORY:
5. Hegedűs Katalin: The school in the wood
- Age
range: teenagers
- English
level: pre-intermediate
- Language
focus
a. Grammar:
Compound and complex sentences mainly in the Past Tense
b. Functions:
ask a favour, asking information,
polite requests.
c. Lexical
fields: everyday life, comparisons: human beings and animals, personification.
d. Repeated
language: repeated activities, minor changes
- Educational
ideas
a. Social
focus: the importance of education, vanity, belonging, the role of the family
in one’s life, reaching one’s aims, being different from others, being similar
to others, the moral of the story.
b. Conceptual
focus: understanding happenings, consequences, chances of life, the role of the
strength of will, symbolic, metaphoric meaning.
- Themes
Regular life, way of life, different
abilities, improving one’s abilities, relationships, friendship, parental love,
careers and abilities, studying, teams, lonely people.
- Suggested
teaching aids
Before telling:
Warm-up activity:
Simple questions: the teacher asks the student
replies
What are your classmates like?
What similarities what differences are there in
them?
Motivation:
The first day at school – remember.
Brainstorming:
Why is school great in general?
During
telling
Ask the students to find some interesting turning points in the story:
The students can take notes.
After
telling
Check the main turning points in the story.
Act out some mini-situations.
Try to tell your
friend that you are a left handed person
Your mother is at the doctor’s, she wants you to use your right hand. The doctor explains that she shouldn’t do that.
Ask the students to illustrate the story.
Ask the students to tell the following event of the story. What is going
to happen to the characters the following years?
5. Hegedűs
Katalin: The
school in the wood
Unemployment
threatened the inhabitants of the wood, so they decided to save their children
from this danger, and sent them to school.
The
owl was known to be the most educated person in the wood, so she was asked to
teach the schoolchildren. She gladly accepted this job. She bought a lot of
books on pedagogy, read a lot of articles about teaching problems, because she
wanted to know the best possible teaching methods. The books were nicely
illustrated with pictures showing how
birds and four-legged animals should hold pens and pencils when writing. You
know there are many differences in school children; all of them are different
in a way or other. The pictures showed the correct posture during writing and
reading, and they explained the efficient ways of teaching the three R’s.
I
dare say that the children were as eager to go to school as their teacher. One day as they were busy writing, there was
a shy knock on the door.
Mrs
Centipede entered the room pushing her child in front of her. The child was so
embarrassed that he always stepped on his own feet when going ahead. He had so
many feet to step with and to step on.
Mrs
Centipede asked the teacher to let her child come to school. The owl agreed but
was at a loss for a moment. She didn’t know how to teach a child centipede. She
turned over the pages of her scientific book, but there wasn’t a picture
illustrating a centipede in the process of writing. She turned the problem over
and over again in her mind, adding, contracting, multiplying and dividing
certain numbers, till she decided, that the little centipede could hold
twenty-five pencils in his first twenty-five limbs on the right. She thought
that the first twenty-five right limbs would be good enough for holding pens.
But the little centipede was a left-handed child at that, so the teacher had to
rearrange her methods for a left-handed person. And the twenty-five limbs
needed twenty-five pencils and twenty-five exercise books. So Mrs Centipede was
sent to the stationary store to get them, which she did with the greatest
pleasure.
The
little centipede became the most diligent pupil of the school. He wrote without
making mistakes, and his handwriting was neat, but he wrote the same things,
with all the 25 limbs at the same time.
He couldn’t write 25 different words, which is a kind of handicap you
see. His parents were anxious about it. They were afraid that the child
couldn’t find a job after school, because there weren’t any offices in the wood
where they needed 25 identical copies of the same documents. But the child was
very diligent; he didn’t want to lag behind. A few years later when he left
school he had to find a job. His parents also liked reading and subscribed to a
lot of newspapers and in the newspapers they found an advertisement. It was
from a company, which was looking for clerks to make copies of different
important documents. They wrote that the office was in need of 25 copies of
each document, and they were expecting applicants who were able to work hard
for a long time and without making mistakes. Mrs Centipede could hardly believe
her eyes, and showed the ad to her child. The young centipede applied for the
job at once, and he got it at once, because there were a lot of documents
piling up, which needed copying. The young centipede took all his 25 nicely
sharpened pencils and finished the first 25 copies in no time. He was loved and
honoured by his colleagues and spent many long years in his office, which
greatly satisfied the clients.
THE TITLE OF THE STORY:
6. Hegedűs Katalin: The little owl and the maths lessons
- Age
range: teenagers
- English
level: pre-intermediate
- Language
focus
a. Grammar:
Compound and complex sentences mainly in the Past Tense
b. Functions:
ask a favour, planning, asking information, polite requests.
c. Lexical
fields: everyday life, comparisons: human beings and animals, personification.
d. Repeated
language: repeated activities, minor changes
- Educational
ideas
a. Social
focus: greed, the importance of
education, belonging, the role of the
family in one’s life, reaching one’s aims, being different from others, being
similar to others, the moral of the story.
b. Conceptual
focus: understanding happenings, consequences, the role of the strength of will, symbolic, metaphoric meaning.
- Themes
Regular life, way of life, different
abilities, improving one’s abilities, parental love, studying.
- Suggested
teaching aids
Before
telling:
Warm-up activity:
Simple questions: the teacher asks the student
replies
What good habits have you got?
What bad habits have you got?
Motivation:
The teacher highlights the main point of the story in English. The teacher can draw and write the keywords on the blackboard – it can be motivating.
/ owl, owlets, mice /
Brainstorming:
Speak about the main ideas, which will
occur in the story. Mention some of the characters, ask the children to guess
the main events.
During
telling
Ask the students to find some interesting turning points in the story:
The students can take notes.
After
telling
Check the main turning points in the story.
Act out some mini-situations.
Your friend has a stomachache. Ask the reasons.
Your mother is going away from home. Ask when
she will come home.
Ask the students to illustrate the story.
Ask the students to tell the following event of the story. What is going
to happen to the characters the following day, the next week?
6. Hegedűs Katalin: The little owl and the maths lessons
It
happened long ago when there was no school on the woods. In those days parents
themselves had to educate their children. The parents taught even the three
R’s.
Mother
Owl raised her three children all alone. Luckily, Mother Owl could perfectly
read and write. But she could not count so well, only from one to thirteen.
Anyway she had to be able to count from one to thirteen, because it is exactly
thirteen mice that make a substantial dinner for a grown-up owl. If she ate
more than thirteen she got a stomachache, but if she ate fewer than thirteen,
she remained hungry.
So
this was why Mother Owl taught her children to count from one to thirteen. No,
no, they weren’t allowed to eat thirteen mice at a time, but their mother
didn’t want them to get into trouble, when they grow up. The biggest child was
allowed to eat seven mice, the second child was allowed to eat five mice, and
the smallest one was allowed to eat three mice for dinner: Spot the difference.
The
three children studied diligently, but the smallest one didn’t like the maths
lessons. He always kept finding good excuses so that he could get away from her
mother’s maths lessons. Once he said he had a stomachache, the next time he
said he felt sick or just he had a headache. So he was absent from the maths
lessons very often.
One
day Mother Owl happened to go to town very urgently. She ordered her children
to have supper by themselves. And the children obeyed.
The
oldest owlet caught, counted and ate seven mice, the second owlet caught,
counted and ate five mice, but the smallest one mistook three for thirteen, and
he gobbled up thirteen mice instead of three. In no time he felt a terrible
stomachache. His brothers were about to call the ambulance when Mother Owl
arrived. She anxiously inquired about what had happened. In the end she knew
that her smallest child had eaten thirteen mice instead of three - due to some
miscalculation. Now she gave a sigh of relief and she knew that the child
wasn’t sick, he only had indigestion, which could be dealt with a therapeutic
flight. So they started to fly around the tree, on which they lived and the
three children were circling and circling together until the small owlet got
really better.
The little
owlet realized that maths was a basic subject in his life, neglecting it would
lead to a lot of inconvenience, so from that time on he was busy going to
Mother Owl’s maths lessons. I wish you did the same.
THE TITLE OF THE STORY:
7.
Hegedűs Katalin: Let’s play hide-and-seek
- Age
range: teenagers
- English
level: pre-intermediate
- Language
focus
a. Grammar:
Compound and complex sentences mainly in the Past Tense
b. Functions:
planning, asking information, polite requests.
c. Lexical
fields: everyday life, comparisons: human beings and things, personification.
d. Repeated
language: repeated activities, minor changes
- Educational
ideas
a. Social
focus: jealousy, belonging, being
similar to others, the moral of the story.
b. Conceptual
focus: understanding happenings, consequences, chances of life, the role of the
strength of will, symbolic, metaphoric meaning.
- Themes
Regular life, way of life, different
abilities, improving one’s abilities, relationships, friendship, teams, lonely
people.
- Suggested
teaching aids
Before
telling:
Warm-up activity:
Simple questions: the teacher asks the student
replies
What are your favourite games? What are the
rules?
Ask questions relating to the topic of story –
but the questions can refer to the students as well. Personalization is
important
Motivation:
How can we start certain games?
Rhymes in English, rhymes in the native language
The teacher highlights the main point of the story in English. The teacher can draw and write the keywords on the blackboard – it can be motivating.
Brainstorming:
Speak about the main ideas, which
will occur in the story. Mention some of the characters, ask the children to
guess the main events.
During
telling
Ask the students to find some interesting turning points in the story:
The students can take notes.
After
telling
Check the main turning points in the story.
Act out some mini-situations.
You can’t find your friend. You are anxious.
Ask questions where she/he is.
Describe her/him.
Ask the students to mime the story.
Ask the students to tell the following event of the story. What is going
to happen to the characters the following day, the next week?
7.
Hegedűs Katalin: Let’s play hide-and-seek
There
stood the houses watching the children playing hide-and-seek, and envied them.
They envied their light-hearted laughter, their bright eyes and their cheer.
You know just like me that playing
hide-and-seek is great fun.
So
the houses decided to play hide-and-seek, too. They flocked together around the
church-tower, put their heads together and started to recite rhymes to count
out the one who will seek the others. Somehow it turned out that it was the
church-tower who had to cover his eyes till the others hid, and he had to seek
them. He smiled to himself, because he knew that he was the tallest in
the town, and he knew quite as well that should the houses hide away anywhere
he was sure to find them, because he could see everything in the town. So the
houses were hiding carefully, pressing themselves behind a bush or a tree, hoping
that the church-tower wouldn’t be able to find them. But however hard they
tried to hide, the church-tower always found them, so he spoilt their pleasure.
They
repeated the game several times with the same result. The houses grew sad
because they had expected that the game would be more exciting than that.
They
were just about to finish the game for the day when it started to snow. Big
snowflakes were flying around in the air, coming playfully towards the earth.
They landed on the bushes, on the trees, on the roofs. After a few hours the
roofs were thickly covered with snow. The houses were curiously peeping around,
but later they couldn’t see anything, there were little snow hills squatting on
them.
They
had an agreement that the next morning they would make a last try at playing
with the church-tower. The morning came but the houses couldn’t even move from
beneath the snow. Their hearts were beating with joy; they thought that the
real game would follow. Now the church-tower could never find them however hard
he tried. They were anxious to know what the time was, but it was dark beneath
the snow, so they could only guess.
The
morning came as I have already mentioned, but nobody could notice it except the
church-tower. He woke up in the morning stretching his legs and arms, which
were numb with cold. He was about to find the hidden houses, though he knew it
was an easy job among the barren trees. But looking around he was astonished.
There wasn’t a single house in the town, as if they had moved into another
town. He knew that it was only a game, yet he was keen on finding all the
houses.
He
pulled his legs out of the snow and started to seek them. He saw a lot of snow
hills and was careful not to step on them, but he couldn’t see a single house.
The
houses heard his steps of course and were lying there with mischievous happy
smiles on their faces under the snow. They heard the voice of the church-tower,
as he grew more and more impatient. The church-tower went up and down between
the snow hills looking for his friends, all but in vain. He unhappily walked
back to his place, sat down and was sitting there in despair. He was sitting
there for long desperate weeks. The sun took pity on him eventually and its
rays started to warm up the earth.
The
little snow hills were thawing and there appeared the houses, gathering around
the sad church-tower making a big noise. The church-tower noticed them at last,
and gave a sigh of relief. He didn’t even mind that he was a loser at this
time. This last game was really exciting, all the houses will always remember
it with happiness, and when the children play around them, they won’t envy them
any more.
THE TITLE OF THE STORY:
8. Hegedűs Katalin: Standing in a circle is much better
- Age
range: teenagers
- English
level: pre-intermediate
- Language
focus
a. Grammar:
Compound and complex sentences mainly in the Past Tense
b. Functions:
ask a favour, planning, asking information, polite requests.
c. Lexical
fields: everyday life, comparisons: human beings and things, personification.
d. Repeated
language: repeated activities, minor changes
- Educational
ideas
a. Social
focus: belonging, reaching one’s aims, being different from others, being
similar to others, the moral of the story.
b. Conceptual
focus: understanding happenings, consequences, chances of life, the role of the
strength of will, symbolic, metaphoric meaning.
- Themes
Regular life, meeting
requirements,teams, lonely people.
- Suggested
teaching aids
Before
telling:
Warm-up activity:
Simple questions: the teacher asks the student
replies
What jobs do you like doing?
What are the ones, which you don’t like?
Ask questions relating to the topic of story –
but the questions can refer to the students as well. Personalization is
important
Motivation:
Choose a particular job, describe the advantages and disadvantages of it.
Brainstorming:
Speak about the main ideas, which
will occur in the story. Mention some of the characters, ask the children to
guess the main events.
During
telling
Ask the students to find some interesting turning points in the story:
The students can take notes.
After
telling
Check the main turning points in the story.
Act out some mini-situations.
Speak about your plans.
What would you like to do? Is there any chance
of ever doing it?
Ask the students to illustrate the story.
Ask the students to tell the following event of the story. What is going
to happen to the characters the following day, the next week?
8. Hegedűs Katalin: Standing in a circle is much better
It
is not good at all to be a lamppost. Just imagine, you have to stand still at
the side of a road, you can’t even raise your arms, because it is against the
rules, but even if it wasn’t and if you raised them by any chance, perhaps you
would hit a heedless pedestrian and that would cause you a lot of trouble.
Now
there stood the lampposts along the road and they got very bored. During the
daytime giving light was forbidden, they couldn’t even talk to each other,
though it was not against the rules, but there were so many people in the
street, that the lampposts were afraid that the people could overhear them.
The
lampposts were so bored that they decided to leave their places and go the
greenbelt outside of the town, and play there just like the nursery school kids
who were standing in a circle and singing. Standing in a circle seemed much
more interesting than standing along a straight line.
The
lampposts thought that there was nothing on earth nicer than standing in a
circle. They were dreaming about a big circle, and one night they gave signs to
each other, blinking mischievously and started to go out of the town in mutual
understanding.
The
streets became dark, the traffic stopped. People were amazed because they
hadn’t seen such a thing previously. Everybody thought that the lampposts had
to stand still all life long along the road and had to give light from evening
to morning. Rules must be kept, and now they could see the impossible with
their own eyes. The lampposts were walking one after the other further and
further out of the town. Even the smallest ones tried to keep pace with the
bigger ones and not to lag behind. After some minutes it was pitch-dark in the
town because even the last of the lampposts left it.
The
people got out of their cars and ran after them. There was a clearing in the
green belt and the people could find the lampposts there. There they stood in a
circle holding each other’s hands. They started jumping and singing and
laughing all at the same time. The people stood there open-mouthed. They could
understand the joy of the lampposts; it was natural considering that they had
never been allowed to leave their places. But the people had to go home because
it was late at night.
They
clapped their hands, applauding the performance, because they liked the nice
show and asked the lampposts to go back to their places. It was so dark that
everybody who stayed in the town was frightened.
The
lampposts were very good-hearted. They understood the anxiety of the people and
finished their game and cheerfully walked back to the town.
Those
who saw them that night said that the town had never been so brightly
illuminated before. Perhaps their joy was reflected in the bright light.
I
told a true story again, you could check it for yourselves, just go out to the
street and have a look at the lampposts. Or ask the people living in the town.
Ask them about the lampposts. And don’t tell me that townspeople haven’t
noticed them yet. They can see each and every of them standing on the right
place. They are patiently waiting in the daytime without moving or raising
their arms and giving light throughout the night. Don’t envy them; it’s not
good to be a lamppost at all.
THE TITLE OF THE STORY:
9. Hegedűs
Katalin: Streamlined brooms
1.
Age
range: teenagers
2.
English
level: pre-intermediate
3.
Language
focus
a. Grammar: Compound and complex sentences
mainly in the Past Tense
b. Functions: ask a favour, planning, asking
information, polite requests.
c. Lexical fields: everyday life, comparisons:
personification.
d. Repeated language: repeated activities, minor
changes
4.
Educational
ideas
e. Social focus: keeping the rules
f. Conceptual focus: understanding happenings,
consequences, chances of life, the role of the strength of will, symbolic,
metaphoric meaning.
5.
Themes
Regular life, studying
6.
Suggested
teaching aids
Before
telling:
Warm-up
activity:
Simple questions: the teacher asks the student
replies
What traffic rules must be kept while you are
coming to school?
What accidents did you hear about lyesterday?
Ask questions relating to the topic of story –
but the questions can refer to the students as well. Personalization is
important
Motivation:
The
teacher highlights the main point of the story in English. The teacher can draw
and write the characters on the blackboard – it can be motivating.
Brainstorming:
Speak about the main ideas, which will occur in
the story. Mention some of the characters, ask the children to guess the main
events.
During
telling
Ask
the students to find some interesting turning points in the story:
The
students can take notes.
After
telling
Check
the main turning points in the story.
Act
out some mini-situations.
Go
to the repair-man and ask him to mend your bike.
Speak
about the best known vehicles – on the road, in the air, on the sea.
Ask
the students to illustrate the story.
Ask
the students to tell the following event of the story. What is going to happen
to the characters the following day, the next week?
9. Hegedűs Katalin: Streamlined brooms
As far as I know from the beginning of the
world it’s been a habit of the witches to sleep during the daytime and to
travel by broomstick at night. I think you, too have heard about that. But you
know sky routes have been very busy in the past years, UFOs, jet-planes, flying
saucers, rockets are all travelling in the sky. It’s very dangerous to drive a
broomstick among them. Witches often got into very dangerous situations.
So the witch board of directors decided to call
a general meeting of the witches. The most important item on the agenda was how
to streamline their most commonly used vehicle, the broomstick. The meeting
lasted many long hours, but none of the suggestions were good enough.
Eventually the oldest of the old witches, who
celebrated her nine hundred and ninety ninth birthday the other day, suggested,
that they should ask an expert about the broomsticks. The participants of the
general meeting honoured her, because she was the oldest among them and she
knew the most about air-traffic. So her suggestion was accepted. They sent a
messenger to a mechanic, to ask him, if he could help them. The mechanic told
him that he couldn’t decide until he had examined the broomsticks.
So all the witches went to the mechanic’s garage
the next day, taking their broomsticks. The mechanic thoroughly examined all of
them, he meditated for some minutes scratching the top of his head, till he
found the fault in the vehicles.
He gave his verdict; he thought that the
greatest trouble was that none of the broomsticks had wing mirrors. You know
that wing mirrors are very important in everyday traffic. They help the people
see the vehicles coming from behind. It is not enough if they see the vehicles
coming towards them from the opposite direction.
So the mechanic suggested that wing-mirrors had
to be fastened to every broomstick, and that would make their flights
completely safe.
The witches put their heads together discussing
the offer, then they decided to agree. They kindly asked the mechanic to help
them and streamline their broomsticks. Since then traffic in the air has become
much safer, flying broomsticks have never caused traffic jams. And I think this
is why the UFOs have visited the earth more and more willingly in recent times,
the also have noticed that the broomsticks had been streamlined.
THE TITLE OF THE STORY:
10. Hegedűs Katalin: The little octopus
- Age
range: teenagers
- English
level: pre-intermediate
- Language
focus
a. Grammar:
Compound and complex sentences mainly in the Past Tense
b. Functions:
ask a favour, planning, asking information, polite requests.
c. Lexical
fields: everyday life, comparisons: human beings and animals or things,
personification.
d. Repeated
language: repeated activities, minor changes
- Educational
ideas
a. Social
focus:the importance of education, vanity, belonging, the role of the family in
one’s life, reaching one’s aims, being different from others, being similar to
others, the moral of the story.
b. Conceptual
focus: understanding happenings, consequences, chances of life, the role of the
strength of will, symbolic, metaphoric meaning.
- Themes
Regular life, way of life, parental
love, studying, teams, lonely people.
- Suggested
teaching aids
Before
telling:
Warm-up activity:
Simple questions: the teacher asks the student
replies
What are your favourite things on you? / a
ring, a wristwatch, a necklace/ How did you get them?
Would you like to have anything else? Why can’t
you get them?
Ask questions relating to the topic of story –
but the questions can refer to the students as well. Personalization is
important
Motivation:
The teacher highlights the main point of the story in English. The teacher can draw and write the unknown words on the blackboard – it can be motivating.
Brainstorming:
Speak about the main ideas, which
will occur in the story. Mention some of the characters, ask the children to
guess the main events.
During
telling
Ask the students to find some interesting turning points in the story:
The students can take notes.
After
telling
Check the main turning points in the story.
Act out some mini-situations.
What was your first day like at school? Can you
remember? Tell each other.
You are sad. Tell the reasons to your father.
School was quite good today. Speak about it to
your sister.
Ask the students to illustrate the story.
Ask the students to tell the following event of the story. What is going
to happen to the characters the following day, the next week?
10. Hegedűs Katalin: The little octopus
The
little octopus was a regular daytime student of the Underwater Elementary
School. She always went to school bouncing cheerfully all the way along.
Her
parents looked at her very proudly, and they were listening to her school
stories with pleasure when she arrived after the school day. Everything seemed
to be all right for some months.
But
later something awful must have happened at school because the little octopus
didn’t say a word at the lunch table, and she didn’t say a word later in the
day. She kept sitting in the corner the whole afternoon and in the morning she
reluctantly went to school. She was dragging herself along the street, so it
was impossible not to notice that she didn’t like going to school.
Her
parents hoped that it was only a passing bad mood that would cease by itself.
But it didn’t happen that way. The more days passed the sadder the child grew,
and she was not only sad in the end, but she did often cry. Her face was pale
and her cheeks were sunken, so there was nothing to do other than take her to
the psychologist.
The
psychologist was an old, fat octopus wearing glasses. He seemed to be a
precise, regular, honest expert.
He
started to ask the little octopus a lot of questions about school-life, and he got
to the topic of the different lessons. He asked what topics they studied at
school. The child enlivened and told that they studied about the hands of the
clock and about the hours and the minutes, which was a very interesting subject
matter.
‘You
know’ she explained, ‘that the long hand tells the minutes and the short hand
tells the hours’ and she couldn’t finish her story because she started to cry
helplessly. The psychologist didn’t know what to do, because it was impossible
to talk with the child any longer. He was exhausted, sat back in the armchair,
wiping the sweat off his forehead.
But
he was a good psychologist after all, so he found out how to go on. After
thinking for some minutes, he understood that the child’s bad mood has
something to do with the clocks. Again he started to ask the child about the
clocks. He spoke patiently in a soft voice. That worked. The child went on with
her story whimpering a little. She told that you could tell the time, if you
had a wristwatch. And any child at school who had a wristwatch could see the
hours and the minutes on the face of the watch. But she didn’t have a
wristwatch and she couldn’t ask her mother to buy wristwatches because she had
eight arms and they weren’t rich enough to buy a wristwatch for every other
arm.
The
psychologist sighed with relief. Now he knew at last what the problem was. He
called the parents and informed them about the results of his examinations.
Mother Octopus and Father Octopus agreed that they should buy wristwatches if
they wanted to be any help for schoolwork. The next day early in the morning
Mother Octopus went to the market. She found a wristwatch seller and bought
four good wristwatches for her daughter. All of them were waterproof of course,
because an octopus usually goes to an underwater school.
She
took them home happily.
The
little octopus’s eyes lit up with joy when she saw them, and put them on at
once. Ever since she goes to school bouncing cheerfully all the way along.
THE TITLE OF THE STORY:
11. Hegedűs Katalin: The lobster
- Age
range: teenagers
- English
level: pre-intermediate
- Language
focus
a. Grammar:
Compound and complex sentences mainly in the Past Tense
b. Functions:
ask a favour, planning, asking information, polite requests.
c. Lexical
fields: everyday life, comparisons: human beings and animals or things,
personification.
d. Repeated
language: repeated activities, minor changes
- Educational
ideas
a. Social
focus: jealousy, greed, the importance of education, vanity, belonging, the
role of the family in one’s life, reaching one’s aims, being different from
others, being similar to others, the moral of the story.
b. Conceptual
focus: understanding happenings, consequences, chances of life, the role of the
strength of will, symbolic, metaphoric meaning.
- Themes
Regular life, way of life, different
abilities, improving one’s abilities, relationships, friendship, love, parental
love, careers and abilities, studying, teams, lonely people.
- Suggested
teaching aids
Before
telling:
Warm-up activity:
Simple questions: the teacher asks the student
replies
Ask questions relating to the topic of story –
but the questions can refer to the students as well. Personalization is
important
Motivation:
The teacher highlights the main point of the story in English. The teacher can draw and write the unknown words on the blackboard – it can be motivating.
Brainstorming:
Speak about the main ideas, which
will occur in the story. Mention some of the characters, ask the children to
guess the main events.
During
telling
Ask the students to find some interesting turning points in the story:
The students can take notes.
After
telling
Check the main turning points in the story.
Act out some mini-situations.
Ask the students to illustrate the story.
Ask the students to tell the following event of the story. What is going
to happen to the characters the following day, the next week.
11. Hegedűs Katalin: The lobster
The
lobster was a bachelor. No – not as if he hadn’t been able to find a bride. He
was able, he found brides several times in his lifetime. But when he had to go
to church and the priest told the: “And now you may kiss each other” the
lobster-bride and the lobster bridegroom started towards each other, but you
know when a lobster starts moving, it never goes the way he looks but just in
the opposite direction. So this was the reason why he always lost his bride in
the commotion and he never could take a wife home.
Not
as if it mattered if you are a bachelor, because bachelors can be much richer
than married men. They don’t have wives to spend their money – you know. So the
lobster grew richer and richer, till he got so much money that he could hardly
tell what to do with it. So he decided to travel to the sunny South. He went to a tourist office to get the necessary
papers. He was even asked at the tourist office.
‘Do
you know where exactly the sunny South is?’
‘Of
course, I know’ he answered indignantly.
‘I’ve
read a lot of books on geography.”
He
got the necessary papers; the officials even gave him a map just to help him to
find his way.
The
lobster went home, he put his things in a suitcase. He even bought a pair of
swimming trunks and four pairs of beach sandals for his eight legs, cast a
glance at his map and started.
He
went on and on. But all of a sudden he felt cold. The further he went the
colder he felt. His feet were totally numb in his beach sandals; he could
hardly move them in the end. But suddenly there were a lot of people around
him. They started to ask him curiously:
‘Where
on earth are you coming from?’
The
lobster started explaining that he was about to go to the sunny South.
‘We
are the research group of the North Pole, the icy North you know, now you are
on the wrong place, somehow you lost your way, you came to the North Pole.’
They
took the lobster to the research station in order to warm him up. He took his
map and he showed it to them. He even showed the way he was taking his steps.
‘Here’s
the map. I started towards the southern part of the world, like this.’
‘Now
we can understand what you did’ – the members of the research group said. It
happened that you looked at the southern part of the world, but you started
towards the northern part. But never mind’ they said. ‘We can help you.’
So
they adjusted his head and legs.
His
head pointed to the north, but his legs went to the south this time.
He
started and went on and on, till he got there.
Perhaps
he is still there enjoying himself, lying in the sun, still a bachelor. But I
hope he’ll have better luck the next time, when he tries to get married again.
THE TITLE OF THE STORY:
12. Hegedűs
Katalin: The camel and the beauty contest
- Age
range: teenagers
- English
level: pre-intermediate
- Language
focus
a. Grammar:
Compound and complex sentences mainly in the Past Tense
b. Functions:
ask a favour, planning, asking information, polite requests.
c. Lexical
fields: everyday life, comparisons: human beings and animals, personification.
d. Repeated
language: repeated activities, minor changes
- Educational
ideas
a. Social
focus: greed, the importance of
education, vanity, being different from others, being similar to others, the
moral of the story.
b. Conceptual
focus: understanding happenings, consequences, chances of life, the role of the
strength of will, symbolic, metaphoric meaning.
- Themes
Different abilities
- Suggested
teaching aids
Before
telling:
Warm-up activity:
Simple questions: the teacher asks the student
replies
Why can we like our friends?
Do looks count a lot? Why, Why not.
Ask questions relating to the topic of story –
but the questions can refer to the students as well. Personalization is
important
Motivation:
The teacher highlights the main point of the story in English. The teacher can draw and write the keywords on the blackboard – it can be motivating.
Brainstorming:
Speak about the main ideas, which
will occur in the story. Mention some of the characters, ask the children to
guess the main events.
During
telling
Ask the students to find some interesting turning points in the story:
The students can take notes.
After
telling
Check the main turning points in the story.
Act out some mini-situations.
Go into the entrance hall and inquire about the
place of the contest.
Make an interviw with the organizer of the
contest. Ask about the participants and the prizes.
Make an interview with the prize winner.
You won a prize. You are happy. Tell it to your
friend.
Ask the students to illustrate the story.
Ask the students to tell the following event of the story. What is going
to happen to the characters the following day, the next week?
12. Hegedűs
Katalin: The camel and the beauty contest
The
camel took long lonely walks in the desert. She looked at the shadow on the
sand hills and she liked her figure. She thought she had a pretty
figure, her face was charming and her swinging movement was impeccable. Perhaps
she could even win a beauty contest, it occurred to her. She tried to forget
the thought at first, but later she was pondering over it again and again.
Later she heard someone saying that there would be an international beauty
contest in the district. The desert loudspeaker also announced that anybody
could enter who thought herself having a good chance of winning the title of
the beauty queen.
The
camel said to herself: ‘Who else could have a better chance than me? I’m the
most wonderful two-hunched camel in the district, and I mustn’t waste a moment
on hesitation.’
So
she sent her application form, and her photos, which she thought the most
charming, she even attached a handwritten autobiography to them, and was
anxiously looking forward to the invitation. She got the invitation letter in
time. She was allowed to take part in the beauty contest, together with other
beauties, in front of an international jury.
There
was the camel at the beauty contest, standing in front of the international
jury. The crow the lobster, and the ladybird were the members of the jury. The
crow said at once, that the camel wasn’t beautiful at all, because she had too
many legs. The lobster started to argue. He said that he thought that the camel
didn’t have enough legs.
The
ladybird also had some objections. She stated that the number of legs didn’t
count at all, if the applicant was able to walk on them, but she didn’t like
the camel, because she didn’t have any wings. So the poor camel couldn’t become
a beauty queen. Her dreams weren’t fulfilled.
She
went home and was very sad because of the failure. Lucky for her she had
subscribed to the Weekly Camel News, so she killed her time reading a little
during her depression. In the Weekly Camel News she found an advertisement
saying that there would be a beauty contest in the district. It also said that
only camel girls were allowed to enter. The camel was very happy to read this.
She sent her entry to the contest, and soon she was called to take part in it.
The
members of the jury seemed to be very strict as they were eyeing the
contestants from head to foot. There were twenty entries that is twenty camel
girls took part. The members of the jury were all camels and they were
hesitant. All the twenty camel girls looked wonderful, all of them had four
legs and their hunches were irresistible, all the twenty were so charming that
any of them could be a beauty queen. So the jury made a decision, all the camel
girls must get a crown, all of them must be beauty queens. But there was only
one crown. So they had to send for the goldsmith and tell him to make nineteen
other crowns, which he made at once. This was how the twenty camel girls were
all crowned beauty queens.
The
camel was so happy that she didn’t mind that there were nineteen other beauty
queens in the district.
She
took the crown home, tried it on in front of the mirror, and then she put it in
her glass case. And she still keeps it there, because she wants all her guests
to see it at once when they enter her room.
COMMON FEATURES
A brief outline of
suggested teaching ideas
THE TITLE OF THE STORY:
13. Hegedűs
Katalin: Who is the roundest?
- Age
range: teenagers
- English
level: pre-intermediate
- Language
focus
a. Grammar:
Compound and complex sentences mainly in the Past Tense
b. Functions:
ask a favour, polite requests.
c. Lexical
fields: everyday life, comparisons: human beings and things, personification.
d. Repeated
language: repeated activities, minor changes
- Educational
ideas
a. Social
focus: jealousy, being different from others, being similar to others, the
moral of the story.
b. Conceptual
focus: understanding happenings, consequences, chances of life, the role of the
strength of will, symbolic, metaphoric meaning.
- Themes
Relationships, friendship
- Suggested
teaching aids
Before
telling:
Warm-up activity:
Simple questions: the teacher asks the student
replies
Do looks matter a lot?
In what way are you similar to your friend?
In what way are you different?
Ask questions relating to the topic of story –
but the questions can refer to the students as well. Personalization is
important
Motivation:
The teacher highlights the main point of the story in English. The teacher can draw and write the keywords on the blackboard – it can be motivating.
Brainstorming:
Speak about the main ideas, which
will occur in the story. Mention some of the characters, ask the children to
guess the main events.
During
telling
Ask the students to find some interesting turning points in the story:
The students can take notes.
After
telling
Check the main turning points in the story.
Act out some mini-situations.
You want to wear a pullover. Your mother
doesn’t want it. Give you reasons.
You are walking in the streets with your
friend. Tell your friend which shop windows are the nicest and why.
Ask the students to illustrate the story.
Ask the students to tell the following event of the story. What is going
to happen to the characters the following day, the next week?
13. Hegedűs
Katalin: Who is the roundest?
The
marble, the table-tennis ball and the ball were great friends. They often took
long walks downtown in their spare time.
Not
as if the wanted to buy anything, since in most cases they didn’t take any
money with them. But you know what people are like just were walking along the
shopping street window-shopping.
But
you know what people are like. When they are looking at the shop windows they
can see themselves reflected in the windowpanes.
When
the three good friends were just looking at the shop-windows, the marble
shouted with joy:
‘Have
a look at me! How nicely round I am!’
the
two friends looked up indignantly as if they were deeply hurt.
‘Round?
You? Have a look at me’ the table tennis ball rattled, ‘I am the one who is
really round. You are a nuisance compared with me.’
The
ball couldn’t stand it any longer. She had to intervene.
‘Look
at me! I’m really round’ – she said and was bouncing with great anger.
They
spoke louder and louder, praising themselves and badmouthing the others till
all the pedestrians were listening to them. The passers-by slowed down their
steps in order to be able to hear the argument.
Just
then a computer walked along. In his spare time he also loved to take long
walks along the shopping street. He heard the friends quarrelling. Fortunately
he was a very good-hearted computer, who loved to help everybody in need. So he
addressed the quarrelling friends.
‘Please
stop arguing. Here I am, just having a lot of spare time, please dictate your
personal particulars into my database and I can judge in a minute, which of you
is the roundest.
He
didn’t have to tell it twice. The marble, the table-tennis ball and the ball
started to dictate their personal particulars. The computer clicked and clacked
and rattled aloud, taking the process of calculation very seriously, there were
deep wrinkles on his forehead, due to too much concentration. He didn’t want to
make any mistakes. So in the end he produced the results.
You
won’t believe me, I bet, but I’m telling the truth, the computer was able to
prove that the three friends were equally round.
You
can’t imagine how astonished they were and they felt ashamed because they
should have known it by themselves.
They
thanked the computer for his help and apologized for their bad behaviour and
walked along in peace. From that time on they have never had an argument, and
later when they were walking along the shopping street they would stop in front
of the shop windows and looked at themselves in the windowpanes. They were
satisfied with the sight I can say because they shouted in agreement and
satisfaction.
’Look!
How nicely round we three are!’
THE TITLE OF THE STORY:
14. Hegedűs
Katalin: The disobedient little engine
1.
Age
range: teenagers
2.
English
level: pre-intermediate
3.
Language
focus
a. Grammar: Compound and complex sentences
mainly in the Past Tense
b. Functions: making plans
c. Lexical fields: everyday life, comparisons:
human beings or things, personification.
d. Repeated language: repeated activities, minor
changes
4.
Educational
ideas
a. Social focus: obedience, disobedience, greed,
belonging, the role of the family in one’s life, reaching one’s aims, being
different from others, being similar to others, the moral of the story.
b. Conceptual focus: understanding happenings,
consequences, chances of life, the role of the strength of will, symbolic,
metaphoric meaning.
5.
Themes
Regular life, way of life, improving one’s
abilities, relationships, parental love
6.
Suggested
teaching aids
Before
telling:
Warm-up
activity:
Simple questions: the teacher asks the student
replies
What is your relationship like with your
parents?
Mention some activities, which are allowed and
some, which are forbidden. Do you agree with them? Why, why not?
Ask questions relating to the topic of story –
but the questions can refer to the students as well. Personalization is
important
Motivation:
The
teacher highlights the main point of the story in English. The teacher can draw
and write the keywords on the blackboard – it can be motivating.
Brainstorming:
Speak about the main ideas, which will occur in
the story. Mention some of the characters, ask the children to guess the main
events.
During
telling
Ask
the students to find some interesting turning points in the story:
The
students can take notes.
After
telling
Check
the main turning points in the story.
Act
out some mini-situations.
As
a mother you want to leave your child alone at home. Give some advice.
You
hurt your knee. Explain it to your father what happened to you.
Ask
the students to illustrate the story.
Ask
the students to tell the following event of the story. What is going to happen
to the characters the following day, the next week?
14. Hegedűs
Katalin: The disobedient little engine
The engines raised one little child engine.
They lived next to the railway station. The little engine was growing and
growing. His mother always taught him newer and newer things because she wanted
him to grow into a nice, big clever engine. I think mothers are all alike all
over the world.
He studied together with his mum the know-how
of travelling. It was his mother who showed him how to go ahead. The little
engine was a very attentive and obedient child, so his mother showed him how to
travel backwards.
Well he liked going backwards at once, in a
world where everybody thinks that going forward is the only acceptable way of
travelling going backwards can be quite an exciting experience. The little
engine liked doing it so much, that after a time he didn’t want to do anything
else just go backwards. He didn’t pay attention to his mother any more, he
didn’t even want to turn right or to turn left, and he didn’t want to go ahead.
He only wanted to go backwards. All of you know what children are like. If
something is forbidden they are sure to want it all the more. Well the little
engine did the same. When his parents went to work, or when they forgot to keep
an eye on him, he escaped, went to the railway station and started to go
backwards. His parents often told him not to do it, but all in vain. They
couldn’t even sleep at night, because they were so anxious about him.
One day the parents went to work, the child was
left at home all alone, because they couldn’t find a baby sitter for the day.
The child didn’t mind it, not in the least; he took his way to the railway
station to practise his going backwards.
Perhaps nothing serious would have happened at
this time if there hadn’t been another little engine in the neighbourhood. The
other little engine liked to go backwards, too. And he also escaped from home
to the railway station. They didn’t notice each other, just were glad to be
alone without their parents. And they started to go backwards they were going
faster and faster in a crazy way, till… You probably already know what
happened. They were crashing into each other. Their momentum was very big, but
luckily they were tiny engines, so they couldn’t hurt each other seriously. But
they hit each other so hard that both of them fell off the lines. They hit
themselves so seriously that they couldn’t even get up.
There they were, two tiny engines sitting
beside the tracks, hopelessly crying and crying till it became dark.
Their parents went home in the evening. Not
finding the child at home, the mother knew at once where to go. She was sure
that her child was practising going backwards somewhere on the lines. She ran
to the railway station to find him.
She found the two crying children, helped them
stand up, soothed them, dusted their knees and wiped their tears.
They went home, she cleaned the bruises on
their knees, put some band-aids on them.
The little engines were cheered up and they
promised their mothers not to escape from home again, and not to go backwards
any more without their parents’ permission.
