23 DE ABRIL: DÍA DEL LIBRO

DÍA DEL LIBRO.


Como ya sabeís el día 23 de abril, es el día internacional del libro. Se celebra con motivo del aniversario de la muerte de dos escritores universalmente conocidos; Cervantes y Shakespeare.  Parece ser que los dos murieron el 23 abril del 1616.

Sin embargo no es exactamente cierto que Miguel y William murieran el mismo día. El primero murió el día 22 de abril de 1616, pero fue enterrado el 23, por lo que casi lo podemos dar por cierto. El segundo murió realmente el 3 de mayo, pero como en Inglaterra se utilizaba un tipo de calendario distinto (el juliano en vez del gregoriano que se usaba en España), la fecha oficial de su defunción es el 23 de abril. 

Para saber más información sobre la vida, coincidencias y diferencias de estos escritores os invito a que veais el siguiente artículo:

Fuente wikisaber.es

Estos autores presentan más coincidencias. Los dos amaban la poesía pero tenían que ganarse la vida y lo que les dio el verdadero éxito fue el género de la novela a Cervantes y el teatro a Shakespeare.

Hoy quiero incluir dos poemas de estos prolíficos autores como homenaje a la lectura de la poesía:

 Bailan las gitanas
[Poema: Texto completo.]

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Bailan las gitanas,
míralas el rey;
la reina, con celos,
mándalas prender.

Por Pascua de Reyes
hicieron al rey
un baile gitano
Belica e Inés.
Turbada Belica,
cayó junto al rey,
y el rey la levanta
de puro cortés;
mas como es Belilla
de tan linda tez,
la reyna, celosa,
mándalas prender.

 Sonnet 116
William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no, it is an ever-fixèd mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his heighth be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

EPIC POETRY: BEOWULF

 This post is devoted to providing teaching resources and lesson plans to teach the famous epic poem Beowulf. This poem is an Old English poem consisting of 3182 alliterative lines. It is the oldest  and it is considered to be the most important surviving long poem in Old English.
The following video can serve as an introduction to the poem, presenting a synopsis of the epic. Downdoable, it runs 3:47 and it is captioned:

Downloadable, it runs 3:47 and is captioned.

This music video can serve as an introduction to the unit, presenting a synopsis of the epic. Downloadable, it runs 3:47 and is captioned. - See more at: http://www.webenglishteacher.com/beowulf.html#sthash.b4da8t97.dpu

This music video can serve as an introduction to the unit, presenting a synopsis of the epic. Downloadable, it runs 3:47 and is captioned. - See more at: http://www.webenglishteacher.com/beowulf.html#sthash.b4da8t97.dpuf

This music video can serve as an introduction to the unit, presenting a synopsis of the epic. Downloadable, it runs 3:47 and is captioned. - See more at: http://www.webenglishteacher.com/beowulf.html#sthash.b4da8t97.dpuf

After that, students can watch the following slideshare presentation about the poem:

Beowulf Anglo Saxon and Beowulf Background from Tammy Gillmore
  
For further information you can visit the following link:  Beowulf lesson plans and teaching resources
 

DYLAN THOMAS

National Museum Wales

This day in history Dylan Thomas was born in 1914 at the start of World War I. His first home was in Swansea, in South Wales. Later he lived in England, and visited America, but Wales was his real home. He died in 1953.
 Dylan Thomas is the most famous Welsh poet, and his most famous work is "Under Milk Wood". It was first broadcast on radio by the BBC in 1954. It is about the people of a small town in Wales.
 In his poems, he used words in fresh and exciting ways. He loved the sounds of words, so his poems are great for reading aloud. He wrote about his life, his friends, and about Wales. Some poems are serious, some are funny.
For further information, I recommend visiting the following links:
bbc.co.uk Dylan Thomas
bbc one Dylan Thomas
Under Milk Wood
Do not go gentle into that good night

I will include a prezi presentation about Dylan Thomas, his life and the analysis of one of his poems: "being but men".

TEACHING ENGLISH / AMERICAN LITERATURE

Midnight Walker

I will devote this post to showing a way of teaching English / American Literature and Culture.
Those Powerpoint presentations which are informative, brief, concise, colourful with pictures, can help students to concentrate and assimilate the main information in a better way.
They can be used  either to introduce a new topic in the class  or as homework.
For those teachers who have to teach English / American Literature and Culture in their Official Curriculum, I strongly recommend the following  PowerPoint presentations pages:

1. http://www.powershow.com/search/presentations/English-literature 

 2. http://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?searchfrom=header&q=literatura+inglesa&ud=any&ft=all&lang=**&sort=

3. http://www.authorstream.com/tag/English+literature

 I also include an example:

William Shakespeare powerpoint from caromeo