Sources
You can easily find many special reports about the school shooting in Virginia Tech on April 16th, for example those from CNN, Newsweek, CBS, the Guardian or France 24.
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/virginiatech.shootings/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18248298/site/newsweek/
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/virginiatech/
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/virginiatechshooting/main501803.shtml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/0,,182056,00.html
http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/special-reports/20070417-Virginia-Tech-shooting.html
or you can find resources in the pages created by Mich�le Henry (excellent!) or myself about Violence in School and Columbine, with facts, but also statistics, analysis and advices.
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/civiviolence.htm#youth
http://lycees.ac-rouen.fr/pascal/infonews/themes/violenceinschools.htm
http://lycees.ac-rouen.fr/pascal/infonews/themes/violencepupils.htm
Class Activities
On eteach, a colleague asked for suggestions to deal with the event in class.
Stéphane Roger from Nice suggested:
– inviting the students to individually use the interactive report from the New York times to create their own report, using connecting words and the passive form
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/v/virginia_polytechnic_institute_and_state_university/index.html?8qa
– creating your own text or using an article from the special reports above
– working from the site of Virginia tech. [ now the spring term has started and there is not longer emphasis on the massacre.] and, as a final task for the unit, inviting the class to write a letter to the students there and really sending it.
http://www.vt.edu/
Sandrine Babayan from Le Raincy suggested using an article from the International Herald Tribune, stressing the new features from this magazine : « listen to the text » and « printer-friendly ». [ Hearing the text read is really interesting for us! Although using a written document for an aural comprehension isn’t recommended, listening to the text as they read it a second time can help the students memorize the pronunciation of the key words. As an exemple, here is an article presenting the feelings of the students after the massacre, with a memorial in mind as for 9-11.]
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/04/america/NA-GEN-US-University-Shooting-Hall.php
And Catherine Serreau from Versailles recommended the cartoons on Gaggle
http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/VirginiaTechShootings/main.asp
I chose this last idea and selected several cartoons which I saved on my key to be able to show them to the whole class with a video projector and I printed one of them for each student. Then I put all the pictures on the desk and invited the students to come and chose one. Then they had to work on a presentation to the class, stressing the cultural element in the drawing or the reference in the text, linking it to the event, describing how the picture manages to get a reaction from the viewers and provoke thought. They started individually, then went around the class to find if other students worked on the same theme and then did their presentation together. They also asked around about references and in each class there was a student who knew about uncle Sam, the Purple Heart, Columbine. I was surprised to discover that Columbine was remembered only by those who studied it in class (which means it is no longer a current event but an academic topic!) and that the pledge didn’t ring a bell….
My aim was to provide those students of terminale with a list of common symbols and references in the present US. Some of those cartoons are simple enough for lower intermediate , I listed the most difficult at the end.
here is what my intermediate students found:
Uncle Sam
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images/fitzsimmons.jpg
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images/heller.gif
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images2/nease.jpg
http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images3/olle.jpg
school, purple heart, students and parents
http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images3/wright.jpg
http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images3/kelley.gif
the religious or popular reference to « as we sow we reap », and the Reaper
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images2/sack.jpg
the death in Irak as compared to this massacre
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images/christo.gif
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images2/bilicki.jpg
their future was destroyed (with a reference to dickens and a list of jobs)
http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images3/plante.gif
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images2/sherffius21.jpg
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images/rice.jpg
the reference to what should have been done between the two shooting, in the dorm and in the classrooms, as compared what should have been done since the first school shooting
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images3/siers.jpg
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images2/cohen.jpg
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images2/davies.gif
the NRA and the second amendment
http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images2/benson.gif
The NRA and the students
http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images3/bado.jpg
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images2/schopf.jpg
Bumper stickers and « guns don’t kill, people do »
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images2/sheneman00.gif
http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images3/koterba.gif
the links between the NRA, the congress, the president (lobbying, corruption)
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images/lane.gif
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images2/lowe.gif
the hokkie and what it refers to on the site of Virginia Tech (importance of sports in a university, cheerleading and mascots, etc.)
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images/mccloskey.jpg
http://www.hokiesports.com/whatsahokie.html
For advanced students
Here is what my students worked a lot on and found difficult:
this one, but theydiscovered what the pledge is:
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images2/ohman.gif
this other referring to the safety of the state, border patrols, port and airport security
http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images2/summers.jpg
these about looking for excuses
http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images3/allie.jpg
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images3/trever.gif
*** and this excellent blame game (I hadn’t seen the skull!!!!)
http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images3/fitzsimmons.jpg
they didn’t want to choose this cartoon presenting Liviu Librescu, but I find it efficient : we will study it together as a whole group.
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images2/crowson16.jpg
I also selected this one, comparing the shooter to a religious fanatic, but some Muslim students might be shocked by want is said
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images/drybones.gif
*** and I have just discovered the reference in this cartoon : it shows the same picture as the photo that was taken 37 years ago, on May 4th 1970, when the Ohio national Guard fired at students demonstrating against the Vietnam war on the campus of Kent State university and killed 4 students. Here is the site with the photo, the cartoon and an article from IHT explaining the link
http://www.may4.org/
http://cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=/news/VirginiaTechShootings/images2/rogers.gif
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/04/america/NA-GEN-US-Kent-State-Shootings.php
School shootings from NewsBusters
Les Amphi de France 5 and Canal U offer free online courses, complete with the videos, the transcript and worksheets. Those documents are available for free because they are outdated, but some elements can either offer interesting hints on how to proceed, or even short extracts that you can use in class.
http://www.canal-u.education.fr/canalu/sommaire_chaine.php?chaine_id=2
Newsbusters was produced by the university of Nancy in 1992 and aims at providing the students with tools to understand a TV news report. It is a complete teaching unit, with several topics, a progression and an evaluation.
http://www.canal-u.education.fr/canalu/affiche_chaine_30445.php?theme_id=483384&vHtml=0&page=prg&cycle_id=600586&chaine_id=2
see the self-evaluation document : a video and questions as you watch
http://www.canal-u.education.fr/canalu/affiche_programme.php?vHtml=0&programme_id=163706
School shootings is an old report with a complete analysis in French, which I found sometimes unbearable, but which says interesting things.
http://www.canal-u.education.fr/canalu/affiche_programme.php?vHtml=0&programme_id=580218
The report is about Tilden High School in 1992 and the commentary is « arr�t sur image » style : it is a bit outdated but efficient if you don’t mind the style of the commentaries in French. It really helps the students find elements to understand the report and build a strategy to watch a report. and there is a full transcript and a long worksheet for students :
http://www.canal-u.education.fr/canalu/affiche_programme.php?programme_id=580218&vHtml=1
I find the whole thing difficult to use in class, both because of the French and the tone of the commentary, but the way it uses the pictures and the sounds to make students understand the report in depth is interesting.
