"The World in a Book" diary

 

May 31, 2005: The World in a Book's new website is online! On the new homepage you can find the links to the two final websites: "Nineteen Eighty-four" and "Heart of Darkness". Something is still missing but everything will be done in a few days.

April - May, 2005: The students have all written their papers and exchanged them via email; now they are completing the "merging phase". Some Italian students have designed the homepage and some templates for the Websites that will contain all the works produced. The Websites' graphics and content organization are managed by Daniela and Ernesta ( Italian teachers).

March, 2005:  the "Nineteen Eighty-four" tandem (Italy and China) has started the collaborative work on the book (chapters and relevant topics). There are 16 groups working (mostly small groups of three). Now the students are using their personal email addresses to plan and carry out their common written work. The deadline of this phase is the second decade of May as both classes will have a lot of ...holidays in this period. Here are the groups:

1)The world of “Nineteen eighty-four”
Simone A.

2) The society of the future described by George Orwell: utopia vs distopia
Matteo, Zhang Yilun, and Hu Jian

3) The author and his time
Damiano, Qian Shuo, and Yu Lan

4) The characters of “Nineteen eighty-four”
Luigi, Song Danwen, and Bai Chao

5) Part 1 – Chapters 1 and 2
Iacopo, Liu Chang, and Zhu Que

6) Part 1 – Chapters 3 and 4
Edoardo, Dong Xiaonan, and Zhang Ran

7) Part 1 – Chapters 5 and 6
Marco, Tang Che, and Xia Fan

8) Part 1 – Chapters 7 and 8
Lorenzo

9) Part 2 – Chapters 1 and 2
Pierpaolo, Qian Shuo, Yu Lan

10) Part 2 – Chapters 3 and 4
Alessandro, Rita, Pang Ruosha, and Zhou Yuanhang

11) Part 2 – Chapters 5 and 6
Giuseppe, Li Yang, and Qi Xin

12) Part 2 – Chapters 7 and 8
Simone M., Guan Meiqing and Li Ruiqi

13) Part 2 – Chapter 9 (a long one)
Luca M.

14) Part 3 – Chapters 1 and 2
Mirko and Michela

15) Part 3 – Chapters 3 and 4
Valerio

16) Part 3 – Chapters 5 and 6
Pietro

February, 2005: the "Heart of Darkness" group (Italy, Austria, Finland) have started the pair work on some themes from the book. Each student has communicated his/her favourite theme and the pairs have been formed. Now they are using their personal email addresses to plan and carry out their common written work. The deadline of this phase is the second week of April.

These are the themes and the students who will develop them:

1) The importance of ivory:
Ines, Alessio, Luca

2) Religious aspects in the story:
Anna, Jari

3) Comparing the book and the film "Apocalypse Now":
Pair 1
Benjamin, Juho
Pair 2
Christoph, Giacomo
Pair 3
Corina, Francesco

4) Conrad’s life and the consequences for the book:
Mario, Francesco

5) The meanings of darkness:
Stephanie, Giovanni

6) The development of Marlow’s awareness of Kurtz:
Franz, Leonardo, Alice Corsi

7) Blacks in the book and the blacks today:
Pair 1
Nora, Marco, Ramona
Pair 2
Lisa, Andrea, Lorenzo
Pair 3
Bianca, Umberto

8) Slavery and imperialism/ colonization in Heart of Darkness:
Reinhard, Anna , Fabrizio

9) Nietzsche`s philosophy and Heart of Darkness:
Melanie, Riccardo

10) The descripton of the trip (A comparison of Conrad’s and Marlow’s trip):
Florian, Simone

11) Depiction of Africa in Heart of Darkness:
Benjamin, Francesco

12) Section 1 / Section 2 / Section 3 :
(characters, settings, summary, personal comments and relevant quotations)
Esmee, Marco, Martina
 

December 20, 2004: "1984" tandem (Italy-China) have had their first chat session: a free chat about .....everything. See some photos of the Italian students while chatting this morning.
 

December 10, 2004: "1984" tandem (Italy-China) have organized a chat session for next Monday; they will complete the first part of the book (8 chapters) within the end of January.Here are some exchanges from the chat.
 

November 14, 2004: all the students have sent a lot of presentation messages and also their comments and impressions about the first pages of the books they are reading. The class who is reading "The Canterville Ghost" is still looking for a partner. A Spanish class seems interested in joining the project but the Italian students are still waiting for a confirmation message.

 

October 27, 2004: the second tandem is something more now. Another class from Rein, Austria, has joined the group. The three classes will read "Heart of Darkness" together. On the "Heart of Darkness" forum you can read the presentation messages from the Italian and the Austrian students.

 

October 22, 2004: here is the second tandem: another class of ITIS "S. Cannizzaro" of Colleferro (Rome), Italy and the students of Cygnaeus High School, Jyväskylä, Finland. The teachers are Daniela Ianni and Satu Syyrakki.

 

October 15, 2004: the first tandem has been created: a class of ITIS "S: Cannizzaro" of Colleferro (Rome), Italy and and a class of the Jingshan School of Beijing, China, will read "Nineteen Eighty-four" by George Orwell. The teachers are: Daniela Ianni and Wang Hong.

 

October 2, 2004: The Conference 2004 is over. We have met fantastic people and seen wonderful landscapes (see the slideshow). Our project can officially start!!!! (Power Point presentation)

For the moment, the partners are the following ones:

1) Mrs. Panidda Thepsitrakorn, St. Gabriel’s College,Thailand panidda@hotmail.com , www.sg.ac.th/eng

2) Mr. Antti Romppanen, Cygnaeus High School, Finland, antti.romppanen@cygnnet.jkl.fi , www.cygnnet.jkl.fi/koulut/cygnaeusl Mr. Ari Pokka Principal, ari.pokka@jkl.fi

3) Mrs. Petra Bartel-Schabram, Gymnasium Marne, Germany PN.Schabram@t-online.de

4) Mr.Edoardo Menegazzo, Liceo Scientifico-Classico “Tito Lucrezio Caro“, Cittadella (PD). Italy, edo-m@libero.it, School website:

5) Mrs. Daniela Ianni, ITIS “Stanislao Cannizzaro”, Colleferro (Roma) Italy, danielaianni@aliceposta.it, www.itiscannizzaro.net

6) Mrs. Serena Archilletti, ITIS “Stanislao Cannizzaro” Colleferro (Roma) .Italy, Serena_Archilletti@hotmail.com
 

September 2004: The site of the project is online. The next important step will be the Conference in Germany at the end of this month.

 

August 2004: "The world in a book" is one of the new proposals sent to the AEC (Asia-Europe Classroom) Conference that will be held in Gromitz (Germany) from the 27th September to 1st October. (Project factsheet).