Teacher's Guide

In 2002 I prepared an optional credit for Batxillerat 1 students (students in their first year of high school, 16 to 17 year-olds ) .The credit was totally ICT based and was based on the Commonwealth.

I have always been interested in colonial and postcolonial history and was aware of the fact that it's not included in the curriculum in Catalonia or Spain. It is not included in the History or Geography or English curriculum. In the English classes the culture we are supposed to transmit is British or American. However, there is a wealth of history, geography, literature and language in the Commonwealth countries that Catalan and Spanish students never catch a glimpse of.

With this goal in mind, I prepared an optional credit I taught two hours a week and I must say the students loved it.

Now I have decided to turn this material into a web page which can be used as it comes, with separate worksheets that can be saved and printed.

It is designed for students whose mother tongue is not English, so the language has been carefully adapted to the level of linguistic proficiency of these students which is pre- intermediate to intermediate.

The materials can be adapted to the needs or likes of a particular teacher or class. I am including some suggested further reading for the teacher who may want to find out more about the topic or who might want to include fragments of these books in their classes for their students to read and discuss.

INDIA

Books:

Shauna Singh Baldwin, What the body Remembers. Random House NY 2001

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Sister of my Heart. Black Swan Books

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Unknown Errors of our Lives . Abacus USA 1999

Meera Syal, Anita and Me Flamingo. London 1997

Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain. Faber & Faber GB 1995

Films:

Gandhi

Monsoon Wedding

SAMOA

Sia Figiel, Where we Once Belonged. Pasifika Press NZ 1996

NEW ZEALAND

Alan Duff, Once Were Warriors. Vintage NZ 1995

Alan Duff, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted ?. Vintage NZ 1997

Films: The Piano

CANADA

Gail Anderson-Dargatz, The Cure for Death by Lightning. Vintage Canada 1997

Gail Anderson-Dargatz, A Recipe for Bees. Virago Press 1999

SOUTH AFRICA

J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace. Secker & Warburg 1999

J.M. Coetzee, Age of Iron. Penguin Books 1990

J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians. Vintage SAR 2000

J.M. Coetzee, Stranger Shores. Vintage SAR 2002

Marc Behr, The Smell of Apples . Abacus, SAR 1997

André Brink, A Dry White Season. Minerva, Mandarin paperbacks, SAR 1991

André Brink, The Other Side of Silence Secker & Warburg 2002

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