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March 2010
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Levi Tafari’s visit to Catalonia: Britlit tour 2010
‘Do you know the meaning of your
name?’ was a question that Levi Tafari asked in the five high schools he
visited on his recent visit to Catalonia.
Most of the students said no.
Levi talked about the importance of knowing yourself, rather than
pointing the finger at others, and ‘calling them names. Because every time you point the finger,
there’s three pointing back at you!’. Students pulled hands out of pockets to
verify this statement, and were amused to find that it worked. ‘We have to think’ was another phrase that
Levi used frequently, and in his interaction with the students in all the
schools that he visited, he certainly made the students think: about themselves,
about diversity, about taking care of the environment and about the value of
creativity.
Levi encouraged the
students to write and perform their own poems and to believe in their own
creativity, and this was an inspiring message that he transmitted throughout
the week. ‘Is he coming back?’ was the other question students ask their
teachers as the event was coming to an end… And meanwhile just think about how
culture moves from place to place with people, and although we often see only
differences, in fact what we have in common is greater than what separates us.
This was Levi’s final message ‘I
came here today to show you that people like me exist’. And to make sure more
people know about his existence Catalonia Today and La Vanguardia interviewed
Levi and passed on his message through the written tradition. Like the griots of West Africa, passing on
their stories through the oral tradition, educating and enthusing people with
their stories, Levi’s vibe will be resonating on the streets of Barcelona,
Vilassar de Mar, Canovelles, Sabadell and you name it for a long time to come!
Levi Tafari at IES
Vilatzara
The first visit was to IES Vilatzara
in Vilassar de Mar. Laura Nogués had
been working with two classes of 1º ESO.
Students had read Levi’s poem ‘The First Woman in my Life’ (online at
the BC site detailed below) and had written poems about their own
families.
One student wrote about her
sister, who was ‘one of the first pair of eyes I saw when I was born’. Students also read ‘A Day in the Life of
Danny the Cat’ by Benjamin Zephaniah, and wrote poems modelled on it. This gave rise to poems such as ‘A Day in
the Life of a Star’, or ‘A Day in the Life of a Desert’ and these were lovely,
inventive poems with some very attractive imagery. (On several occasions during the week, Levi stressed the
importance of the 5 I’s in writing poetry:
‘I for Inspiration, which produces the second ‘I’, Ideas. Then you use your Imagination, as well as
any Information you find. Finally, you
combine these elements with Imagery to create a strong poem’.) Levi enjoyed hearing the students’ poems and
performed 8 of his own poems, including Celebr8, The First Woman in my Life and
Plastic Fantastic which became a student hit and can still be heard in the playground!
By Jo Dossetor
Levi Tafari at IES Menéndez y Pelayo
Giselle Dubois’s students of 3º and
4º ESO and Batxillerat had been working extensively on Levi’s poems, and had
been researching information about Levi on websites. Levi’s poems included ‘The Weather Rapport’, ‘Celebr8’ and ‘Toxteth
where I reside’, which describes the neighbourhood where Levi was born, and
where he still lives. Students of 3º
ESO had written acrostic poems about Barcelona, to describe their own place of
residence, and students of Batxillerat used their knowledge about Levi which
they had gathered online, to prepare questions for an interview. Later, on the
school stage, Levi introduced himself and showed the students the Ethiopian
flag.
He talked a little about the
significance of Ethiopia in the Rastafarian religion, and in the history of the
world, and pointed out that when Christians say ‘Amen’ at the end of a prayer,
they are referring to an ancient African king, Amenhotep. He performed twelve
poems at the school, and finished with the poem ‘Spirit Dancer’, which is a
poem in homage to Bob Marley, one of the most celebrated Rastafarians that the
world has known. By Jo Dossetor
Levi Tafari at IES Bellulla
At IES Bellulla in Canovelles, Levi performed the Spirit Dancer again,
as well as many others. Canovelles,
over the river from Granollers, is a very multicultural community and the
school has a number of African immigrants.
They were clearly surprised to see Levi’s dreadlocked presence in the
corridors!
Levi’s visit was to Paula
Quiroz’s Batxillerat classroom, and her students also read out their own poems,
which were all about their feelings about Canovelles as a place to live. In one
rap, the city was personified as ‘She’: She
loves the old and the young people/The reason is very simple /People give life to
the streets /And between them they always meet. Another rap referred to the
city’s cultural mix: Every Sunday the
market shows diversity/ One of the most important, yes, that’s my city./ One
euro, one kilo, or sometimes two / There is one offer, an offer for you. /
If you’re hungry, don’t worry / There’s a kebab too. Levi was presented
with a book of the poems, and some pencil drawings that two of the students had
made of him. By Jo Dossetor
Levi Tafari at IES Pau Vila
Levi went out to IES Pau Vila, in Sabadell.Here Josie Pont had worked with groups of 4º
ESO, as well as groups of Batxillerat students. Students’ performances embraced
a number of different creative forms: poetry, music and reflections on diversity..
A lot of the students had written thought provoking poems about different types
of discrimination. In one poem,
‘Diversity’ for example, the students wrote: ‘The most important things are in
our interior / We’re all the same / no matter what appears in the mirror. / We
can’t discriminate / we can’t make this error / we are all fruits of our
endeavour.’ A group of students sang an acapella version of ‘Nah Blame Rasta’, an early poem by Levi
about the anger & frustration aroused by the 1981 Liverpool Toxteth riots,
when police clashed with the local black community. Another group sang a rap version of another of Levi’s poems Weather Rapport. Miquel Vich, a Batxillerat student, had written a classical version of Bob
Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’, and Millet Davis’ ‘My Funny Valentine’ and four Batxillerat
students performed the pieces on classical instruments while two of Levi’s
poems ‘The First Woman in my Life’ and
‘Nursery Crimes’ were read out.
Another talented Batxillerat student, Mihail, read out his poem, while
performing a ‘beat-box’ rhythm using his lips & throat. One very moving
part of the performance involved students from the school’s Aula d’Acollida,
who had been working on the multicultural project ‘Clean Eyes, New Voices, Better Chances’, started by Carme
Lamarca and now co-coordinated by Josie Pont. The students had written about
their feelings of being immigrants in Catalonia, and they read out these
experiences in their own languages (Russian, Armenian, Chinese, Ghanaian),
while their texts, in their own alphabets, were projected behind them.After their readings, an English immigrant
to Sabadell, Pachi Parraga read out a text that he had written, which was a
poetic rendering of these experiences into English. By Jo Dossetor
Levi Tafari at Escola Betania Patmos
The last school that Levi visited
was Escola Betania Patmos, where Marie Farrell had been working with students
from 3º ESO. The students had read
poems by Levi, as well as Benjamin Zephaniah, and some of them had written highly
creative poems, paralleling Zephaniah’s poem ‘The English’, by writing about
‘The Catalans’ as a recipe: Take some
Iberians, and / Let them settle /Pour some Romans and / Let them simmer/ For
400 years /let them all blend. Levi performed a number of his poems,
including ‘Melanin’ and ‘Wonderous’ and the students gave him rapturous
applause.
They were delighted, too,
when Levi’s mobile phone went off, with its ‘Jamming’ ringtone – evidence that
here was an unquestionably authentic Rasta!
Questions at the end included a question asking Levi to define the most
important characteristics of Rastafarianism, and one which asked him to
describe the best moments in his life.
He described his feelings on three important occasions: his wedding day,
and the birth of his two children. By Jo Dossetor
Levi’s Poetry Reading
at the British Council
On January 27th Levi gave a poetry
reading in the British Council, c/ Amigó, to a small group of APAC members and
British Council teachers. He read
several of his earlier poems, taken from the collections ‘Duboetry’, and
‘Liverpool Experience’.
Levi’s Performance at Cosmo Caixa
On the 28th of January
came one of the highlights of Levi’s visit: a performance in Cosmo Caixa, with
over 150 secondary school students in attendance. Students came from IES
Bellulla, from Escola Cor de Maria in Valls, and from IES Consell de Cent, in
the inner city suburb of Parallel. Levi
performed a number of poems including several of his poems to do with the
environment, such as ‘The Liquid of Life’ and ‘Plastic, Fantastic’. Students
from Cor de Maria, led by their teacher Laia Aixalà, also got up onto the stage
and entertained the audience by acting out some poems that they had written,
and at the end of the performance, they gave Levi a model of the ‘Castellers’
from Valls. It was a wonderful success, Levi Tafari connected brilliantly with
the students, and his warmth, humour, and desire to communicate as well as
educate, came across as loudly and clearly as his poetry. The performance was
very uplifting for the teachers who were present and for the schools who were
involved.
BritLit workshops at
the APAC Convention 2010
On February 27th
Britlitters Jo Dossetor, Giselle Dubois, Marie Farrell, Laura Nogués and Josie
Pons gave two workshops on BritLit at the APAC Convention. After the workshops
more people were interested in joining the BritLit project!
BritLit meeting at the
British Council
On the 12th of March
Primary and Secondary teachers involved in the BritLit tours 2010 met at the
British Council to discuss the goals achieved and the ones to come. Each
Britlitter gave a short presentation on their experience and showed materials
produced by the students inspired on the poems of Levi Tafari and Tony Mitton.
Lots of enthusiasm, ideas and projects came out of that meeting: networking
between students and teachers participating in the project seems to be the next
step in the BritLit Project. We’ll keep you informed!
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September 09
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BritLit at the British Council Conference, 26th September 2009
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Twice upon a time in the ESO
class:
Laura Nogués and Marie Farrell
This session was presented by Laura Nogués, who taught last year at IES
Consell de Cent, and Marie Farrell who teaches at Betania Patmos. The first half of the session was led by
Laura, who presented the poems her students had written after reading and
performing poetry from the BritLit author Levi Tafari, and described the texts
that she had worked with before and after Louise Cooper’s visit. These were ‘Silly Billy’ and ‘the Fairies’,
both from Louise Cooper’s ‘Short and Scary’ book of short stories (OUP 2002). One ESO 1 class had performed their
‘onomatopoeic’ version of Silly Billy for the author, and another class at the
same level had read out their ‘alternative ending’. Other students had turned ‘the Fairies’ into a script, and made a
very effective short film for homework.
When Louise visited the school, students performed the poems and
interviewed Louise. They really seemed
enthusiastic and motivated by the experience.
Another interesting project that Laura developed with her students came after
Louise had visited. This was an online
collaborative story, written in conjunction with Louise. It was called ‘the
Golden Fish’. Students would add a
paragraph to the story, and Louise would comment and add more herself. Her comments only referred to content,
rather than form, in order to encourage the creative process. As a result of the dialogue and interchange
between the students and Louise, a lovely story was developed online.
In connection with students writing short stories or poems inspired by
the author Levi Tafari, Laura also highlighted her use of ‘service learning’,
whereby students themselves become assistant teachers, by reading their texts
to classes below them in subsequent years.
Laura reflected that the BritLit materials can be used to stretch
students’ ability, putting into practice the types of thinking skills
recommended in CLIL and exemplified in Bloom’s taxonomy: 1. remember 2.
understand 3. apply 4. analyse 5. evaluate 6. create. Laura pointed out that
often teachers stay at level 1 or 2 in the thinking skills when they were working
with reading texts, rather than stretching the students with higher order
skills.
In the second half of the session, Marie explained the way that she had
worked with one of Louise Cooper’s stories on the BritLit site (Genie-Us) prior
to the author’s visit. Starting with
the pre-reading task, her students had answered questions about the story before reading, which essentially
involved them predicting what the story would be about. Students then read the story, which is an
alternative version of the traditional ‘genie in the lamp’ story’. This ‘twist’ in the tale (and hence ‘twice
upon a time’...) is what makes the story a so-called ‘fractured fairy
tale’.
Marie wanted her students to
write their own fractured fairy stories so she gave them some sites to
research, including: www.readwritethink.org/materials/fairytales.
Once a first draft of the stories had been written, students became
editors of each others’ work. They were
motivated by the project and also by the degree of performance anxiety that a
live reading entails.
The final stories were bound in a book which was given to Louise when
she visited. The front cover was
illustrated by one of the students, and Marie identified this
‘cross-curricular’ element as something that could be exploited further in a
subsequent project. She could also see
a place for ‘service learning’: inviting the previous 2º of ESO back to read
their stories to the new 2º of ESO group.
Using BritLit in the
Secondary English Classroom: Giselle
Dubois and Josie Pont
Giselle led the first half of this second BritLit session. She described the way in which she had
worked with some of Louise’s stories and poems, which included Silly Billy, the
first chapter of The Mermaid’s Curse (on Louise Cooper’s website) and the story
Vanishing Lane. Some of the 1º of ESO
students dramatised both the Silly Billy poem and Vanishing Lane, and they also
came up with a ‘Scary Crime’ Quiz for Louise.
Students of 3º of ESO dramatised the story ‘Knock Knock’, and others
worked with the information on Louise’s website to write interview questions.
The performances at the school were highly successful and the experience
was very positive for all those involved.
You can see images of the event, and read more about the project at IES
Menendez i Pelayo at the following website: http://britlitiesmenendez.webs.com/studentsworks.htm
It was interesting to hear that the level of spoken and reading English that
the 1º ESO group achieved by the end of the year, was noticeably high. This is a very positive
learning outcome which supports the premise that this kind of project,
essentially a ‘meaning driven’ literature project with a strong and motivating
performance element, can lead to successful English learning results.
The second half of this session was led by Josie Pont, from IES Pau
Vila, in Sabadell. Josie described how
she worked with Emergency Landing with 3 groups of 4º ESO (on the BritLit
website) and stories from ‘Short and Scary’ with 2 Batxillerato groups.
Josie highlighted the wealth of materials for different levels the
Britlit website provides and gave a handout with the specific website pre-reading
and while-reading activities she had chosen for Emergency Landing .
This is a story about how a spaceship is unexpectedly forced to land on a small
and insignificant planet. How the
planet’s inhabitants might react to this event is anyone’s guess, and this
became the subject matter of plays written and performed by Josie’s classes.
The Batxillerato groups were asked to read the whole book, and choose a
story that they liked. Subsequently in
groups they made films (in their own time), which were very sophisticated and
often very creepy. One of these films, based
on the story ‘Scary Story’, was shown at the British Council Conference.
On the day the author came, she was presented with the performance of a
selection of the plays written by 4th. ESO students and of the films
made by the Baxillerato Students. Louise Cooper was also interviewed and given
2 posters with the students’ comments on their experiences and what they
thought of the author’s work.
Josie also emphasized the importance and motivational aspect of the
writer - student interlink, and the way that the project could also be extended
after the visit had taken place. She explained how the students’ videos with both
plays and films are being exploited in different classes and that they will
be uploaded on the school website.
Josie brought along some comments which her students had written as a
follow up to the project, in which they evaluated the use of literature, the
result of the project and the experience of meeting the author. One student, Albert, in 4º of ESO wrote
(with an occasional error):
‘Well, I admit that the plays where not so good but the most important
thing wasn’t the final result, was the process. To achieve our objective we had to collaborate, to work like a
team, a team where the people who have better English help the others with
difficulties and everybody learned of each others. Then is when, in my opinion, students learn. And why?
They learn because they’re looking for an important objective for them,
an objective different of the topic of passing the exams and studying without
any motivation.’
This seems to express very effectively the benefits for the students
from learning English in this way. Not
only do they learn to express themselves better orally, but the process itself
is a learning experience, and the experience of collaborating as a team is felt
to be an end in itself.
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