Reading together at Stratford

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald-
Chapter 1
The narrator of this book is Nick Carraway. Nick talked about how he
came to New York, he worked hard trying to make himself a successful
businessman. He moved to a small house on West Egg, very near to Tom and Daisy
Buchanan, who lived on East Egg. Daisy was Nick´s cousin and Tom was a man that he
known at Yale University. One evening after the moving he went to his
cousin´s house for dinner and there he met Jordan Baker a professional
athlete,who was Daisy´s friend. Tom got a phone call and Jordan told Nick that the
person on the phone was Tom´s lover, and Daisy knew that, everyone knew
about Tom´s affair. She also asked Nick if he had met his neightbour
Gatsby but he hadn’t.
When Nick arrived home after the party he saw Gatsby standing out on
the lawn. He almost called him, but he seemed happy to be alone, and when
he looked at Gatsby again he had gone.

Chapter 2
Tom invited Nick out for an afternoon. On their way to the city they
picked up Tom´s mistress, called Myrtle. She was Wilson´s wife, a man who had
a garage. In the city, Nick knew Catherine, Mirtle´s sisterand they went
to Catherine´s apartment for a small party and Nick became drunk. He
talked with Catherine about the state of Tom and Daisy marriage and she said
that Tom could divorce Daisy except for the fact that she was catholic, Nick
realized that Daisy wasn´t catholic. At the end of the evening Tom and
Myrtle quarreled about Daisy and he hit her and broke her nose. After
that, Nick come back to his home.

Chapter 3
One summer evening Nick went to Gatsby´s house for the first time. At
the party he sw Jordan and stayed with her most of the evening. Gatsby was
a very mysterious man and no one knew when he had come, from or how he
obtained his money. Some people said that he was a spy during the war
and others thought thet he had killed a man.
Finally, Nick met Gatsby but at first he didn´t know who he was and He
talked with him. The man asked Nick if he was in France during the war
and he said that he had been there.
But their talk was short because Gatsby had another bussiness. Nick
noticed that Gatsby was unhappy and distant from everyone. Later Gatsby talked
to Jordan and then she told Nick that Gatsby told her something amazing
and that she couldn´t talk about that right now, but she asked Nick to see
her another day. They started to spend time together.

Chapter 4
One morning Gatsby´s car stopped outside Nick´s door and invited Nick
to have lunch with him. Gatsby told that his parents had died and left him
a lot of money, and after the war, he lived in great cities and he was
educated at Oxford. Gatsby also told Nick that he had a “big request”
to make him but that Jordan would talk to him about that later.
When Nick was having lunch with Gatsby, he saw Tom came to the
restaurant and thought that he would introduce Tom but Gatsby had gone.

Chapter 5
Nick met Jordan and she told him that Gatsby knew Daisy. They had known
each other in the Middle West five years before and they were in love. She
told him how Daisy knew Gatsby (he was a soldier in those days) but he had
to go to war and they lost contact. After that She got married with Tom and
soon after their honeymoon she were expecting a baby.
Nick thought that it was a coincidence for them to be living near now,
but Jordan said that Gatsby bought the house to be close to Daisy.
It was clear now: Gatsby wanted Nick to help him to see Daisy again.

Chapter 6
Gatsby said to Nick that he wanted to invite Daisy for tea. The next
day Nick invited Daisy to teaand he told her not bring Tom, when she
arrived,Nick went out to meet her and then Gatsby appeared. That was a big
surprise for Daisy and he invited her to his house. Then Nick left them alone.

Chapter 7
The next party, Gatsby invited Tom and Daisy. He told Nick that he
would make things right for her, he would do anything to please her. Gatsby
couldn´t find a reason why he and Daisy shouldn´t be happy forever
because he wanted to recreate all the moments with her , that was his dream. He
believed that he could be happy with Daisy. Tom inmediately disliked
the party and began to question how Gatsby had became so rich.

Chapter 8
Tom found out that his wife was in love with Gatsby, because one day in
his house he saw them together. After that Tom talked with Jordan and he
said that he was beginning to find out the truth about Gatsby. Then Gatsby
invited all the group to go out and Tom took his car and drove with
Jordan and Nick. Disy went with Gatsby in Tom´s car.
Tom stopped at Wilson garage to get gas and speak with him. Wilson
thought his wife was having a affair and he wanted to get some money to move
out.
At the same time Nick saw Myrtle looking down at Jordan from an
upstairs window, she was jealous because she thought Jordan was Tom´s wife.
They decided to get a hotel room and make a few cold drinks because
they were very hot.Gatsby and Daisy began to act more obvious about their love in front
of everybodyand Tom gets angry. Gatsby said that Daisy was in love with
him and Tom said that he knew that Gatsby was a bootlegger, but Daisy
decided to leave with him.

Chapter 9
Wilson and Myrtle had a fight and she ran to the road just when two
cars were coming from the same direction. She was hit and killed but the car
didn´t stop, later Nick knew that the car was Gatsby and Daisy was
driving it.Wilson belived that Tom was who hit his wife but Tom said that he
wasn´t. Nick talked with Gatsby, at Tom´s house and he admited that Daisy was
driving the car and he wanted to wait outside the house to make sure
that nothing happened to Daisy.

Chapter 10
The next morning Nick went to Gatsby´s house. There they talked about
Gatsby´s past and how he knew Daisy. After that, Nick left Gatsby and
he decided to use his pool to relax.Wilson was looking for Gatsby because he thought
that he was the killer and when he found Gatsby he shot him and then he killed himself.
Nick called Daisy to speak to her but she and Tom had left. A few days
Later, Henry Gatz (Gatsby´s father) came to the house because he learnt about
his son´s death in the newspaper.The truth was that James Gatz had started a new life
as Jay Gatsby.He was the son of a poor farmer in the Middle West. He had left home when
he was 16 but James Gatz was ambitious. One day Gatz saw Dain Cody (a rich man)
and he asked him for a job, Gatsby stayed with him for five years, until the
old man died, but Gatsby didn´t get the old man´s money. He learnt how the
rich lived and he knew wath he wanted.

Chapter 11
That was the end of Gatsby´s story. After Gatsby´s death, Nick couldn´t
live on the East anymore he wanted to go back to the West because he wanted
to return to the place where he had felt happy.
One afternoon Nick saw Tom in the city, Nick was upset with him and
asked him what he had said to Wilson. Nick found out that Tom was the one who
told Wilson that Gatsby was having an affair with his wife and thet he was
who killed Myrtle. Tom had done what he had want to do. Nick said that Tom
and Daisy were rich, careless people and they took what they wanted and
destroyed what they didn´t need.
At the end of the book Nick said that Gatsby had followed his dream and
nearly mada it come true. He said that everybody had a dream and like
Gatsby we had to follow our dream. He finally said that Gatsby made his dream
come true.

by Julieta Pezzella. Adults 3

Friday, April 28, 2006

UNESCO declared April 23rd International Book Day in the memory of William Shakespeare's death. Following Scholastic's idea, we dropped everything for thirty minutes so as to enjoy the fun of reading together. However,the reading time did not finish that day since students really enjoyed the experience. We went on working with the books during the whole week and in this blog, we would like to share how we celebrated that day and the outcomes of this project.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Prep 1 B and The Very Busy Spider

Prep 1 B and The Very Busy Spider

The little ones are learning the names of some animals so as they don't know how to read or write in English, I told them a story: "The very Busy Spider". Then they had to tell me the names of the animals in the story when I showed them flashcareds with pictures of them. Afterwards, they chose some of the animals and drew them.

Kids 1 also read and drew:

Santiago, Nicolás, Mariana, Micaela, Julieta, Nicolás, Federico, Tomas, Alejo and Mariano were read the story Town Mouse and Country Mouse. Afterwards,they worked with vocabulary related to the story and also drew their favourite part in the open air.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Reading with the little ones: Prep 1 and 2 B

The kids in Prep 1 and 2 B were read a story and then they drew their favourite characters:

Kids 3 B:

These are the pictures we drew after reading books on Book Day


Alan read and drew Comotion in the Ocean
Sol read and drew Town Mouse and Country Mouse
Karina read and drew Chubby Puppies:It's Puppy Time
Ulises read and drew The Very Busy Spider
Aixa read and drew The Big Red Sled
Ezequiel read and drew Comotion in the Ocean

I read Madagascar

In Africa, four animals live there: Melman , the giraffe ; Alex, the lion ; Marty , the zebra and Gloria , the hippo . After some days , these animals escape from the zoo and go to the wild . The animals get lost in the wild and Alex is angry with Marty . After some time Marty built a statue to signal a rescue boat . Melman sets it on fire and it burns to the ground . Alex and Marty become friends again .

by Nadia Bandura

I read The Beauty and The Beast

The story is in a castle.
Beaty`s father leaves the castle and the Beast comes out. The Beaty and the Beast are friends, but they love each other in secret.
The Beast asks the Beauty to marry him. She kisses his ugly face and he becomes a prince, a handosome prince.
Finally, they live happily forever...

by Aylén Escamilla

Tuesday, April 25, 2006


My story:
Title: Arthur’s underwear

People: He is Binky Barnes. He is a student. He practises softball in the afternoon.
Time: He has classes in the morning. Mr. Ratburn is his teacher.
Problems: The student heard a loud RRRIPPPP!!!! He goes to the office to sew his jeans.
Solution: Ms. Tingley sews his trousers. Binky Barnes is happy

by Miriam Borgognoni



Another story...
TITLE: FOOTPRINTS IN THE FOREST

People: The people are Daniela, her brother Sam, her friend Mario and her parents.
Time: She likes looking at the valley from the top of the mountain in the morning and at midday too.
Place: She usually goes to the mountains.
Problems: This spring it rained hard for three days, and she couldn´t go out.
Her parents were always angry with her because she was always in trouble.
Solutions: When Daniela´s parents are angry, she goes to the mountain.
Why?: She goes here to look at the river and at the village from the top of the mountain.

By Gustavo Gentile

Monday, April 24, 2006

Are you ready to listen?:

Some of our students decided not only to write story summaries but also to record them for web surfers to listen to them. You can hear students describing well-known stories such as Oliver Twist, The Lamb to the Slaughter as well as other stories for kids at :


There you will also meet some of the speakers and you can leave a comment for them on their work.



Reading and Summarizing

The students in Teens 2 A read typical fairy tales and wrote summaries of them after completing some graphic organizers with the essential information in the stories. They also drew the parts they enjoyed most.



Teens 1: Their first encounter with extensive reading

Our Teens 1 students, Rocío, Mailén, Evelyn, Julián, Matías and Vanesa were invited to choose books to read so as to get the gist of them. With the inforamtion they got from the books they read, they wrote sentences related to characters, setting and plot. When their task was over, they drew the part of the story they liked best.




Kids 3 A ran a reading marathon

Students in Kids 3 had to read as many books for their level as they could in thirty minutes. They had to write the name of them in a sheet of paper and once that period of time had elapsed, they had to choose the book they had liked best so as to fill in a graphic organizer with information from the book they had read.

Agustín read:
The Picnic
I'm a Caterpillar
Where Are You?
Hedgehog Is Hungry
The Big Red Sled
Where's Woolly?
Looking for Dragons
A Colour of his Own
Fall Leaves Fall
The Cow That Went OINK
Aladdin and The Lamp
More Spaghetti,I Say
Goldilocks and The Three Hares


Nico read:
The Missing Beach Ball
Hedge Is Hungry
Where's Woolly?
Looking for Dragons
Fun in Teletubbyland
I'm a Caterpillar


Alan read:
The Big Red Sled
The Picnic
Hedgehod
One, Two,Three Count with Me
Looking for Dragons
Where's Woolly?
More Spaghetti I Say
I'm a Caterpillar
A Colour of his Own
Fall Leaves Fall
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Goldilocks and the Three Hares


Ludmila read:
Fall Leaves Fall
So Many Boots
Where Are You?
The Cow That Went OINK
Cookie Land
A Colour of His Own
One, Two, Three Count with Me
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
I'm a Caterpillar


Rocío read:It's Puppy Time
A Friend Little White Rabbit
Looking for Dragons
Where's Woolly?
Hedgehog is Hungry
I'm a Caterpillar
So many boots!
Fall Leaves Fall!!!
Cookie Land
The Very Busy Spider


German read:
A Colour of His Own
Where Are You?
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Fall Leaves Fall
The Missing Beach Ball
Hedgehog Is Hungry
So Many Boots
Looking for Dragons!
More Spaghetti I Say
Cookie Land
I'm a Caterpillar
The Cow That Went OINK
The Big Red Sled


Our competition ended in a draw between Agustín and Germán





Kids 2 read, learnt and drew

The students in kids 2 chose books to read at the institute garden. Once they read them, they had to select some words they found intersting in the books they had chosen, they had to write them down and draw them.