“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”
A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens (the opening)
In the XIX century, Charles Dickens astonished the world with the publication of his novel that detailed the contradictions of its own time. Since then, we believe that each era of Humankind is full of Beauty, Truth and Goodness but at the same time also contains brutality, evil and decay.
Students from 2nd and 3rd years of ESO are also going through a moment of their lives full of contradictions. They are like raw diamonds that need to be polished in order to become the most beautiful stones in the mountain. Adolescents have to decide what kind of person they would like to be and for that they have a very powerful ally: words. We are made of the same material of the words we say every day.
There are thousands of words: spoken, written but also in our inner dialogue, those words that we never share with anyone. They are all important.
The group of 2nd and 3rd has been navigating a sea of words with Charles Dickens, George Orwell and Virgina Woolf, searching for the words they love and they identify with the most.
For final project of this lesson block, each student has created a Blackout Poem showing the hidden message that they have found, an opportunity to let their inner voice speak out.
