龍騰 Book 3 Lesson 8 The Woman Behind Harry Potter 曾琦芬 Introduction

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1 龍騰 Book 3 Lesson 8 The Woman Behind Harry Potter 曾琦芬 Introduction This lesson is a typical example of chronological description which gives an account of an event. In this particular lesson, the background story of J. K. Rowling is the main focus. The reading begins with an introduction of the famous Harry Potter series, and then shifts focus of discussion to the author of the series, J. K. Rowling. It includes descriptions of Rowling s early life as a lonely girl, early adulthood working in foreign countries, and her later life as a single mother moving back to her hometown to settle and how she feels about the success of her books. In the account of each important period of Rowling s life, more details and important events are also provided to help form a better picture for readers so that they may come to understand the woman behind Harry Potter better. For students in Taiwan, a lot of whom are acquainted with either the novels or the movies, a lesson like this is believed to be accessible and to some extent, personally related. Given the accessibility and relatedness of the lesson, it is not uncommon for students to get lost when reading a written chronological account of a person. To help students keep track of the whole story and retain important information from the story, graphic organizers provide the key. Graphic organizers help students build up mental maps, which, in turn, help organize information in a more systematic way. Once information is processed and stored systematically, it can be retained for a longer time. Another merit of graphic organizers is that they work well to mediate between written and spoken forms of language. With the aid of graphic organizers, students thus have something to resort to when giving a description of an event. Therefore, given the advantages of graphic organizers mentioned above, the main purposes of this lesson plan are twofold to abstract the important information from the reading selection and to summarize it by means of a graphic organizer, and then based on the graphic organizer, to render an oral description of the story in question. Level of difficulty: Elementary Intermediate Upper-Intermediate Advance Focus of the lesson: biography, transformation between written and spoken modes Text structure: chronological description Grammar focus: time adverbials

2 Reading All the world now knows about Harry Potter and the magical world of Hogwarts, where he learns how to become a wizard. The books about his adventures have become bestsellers all around the globe. There are now over 200 million of those books in print. They have been translated into 55 languages and are sold in more than 200 countries. His story has also been made into a series of very popular movies. What kind of imagination could have created such a widely popular young hero as Harry Potter? That imagination belongs to a woman named J. K. Rowling, and a brief look at her life reveals some interesting parallels with that of Harry Potter. Harry s parents were killed when he was young and he was raised by relatives who mistreated him. So his early life was filled with loneliness and a sense of being unloved. Rowling said in an interview that her early life was full of worry and insecurity. It might be because her family moved so often during her childhood. She also commented in the same interview that she had been a shy girl, quite, freckly, short-sighted, with no natural ability at sports. It seems that she, like Harry, had to overcome an unhappy childhood. One way she did so was by losing herself in books. Rowling has a great love of literature, and she actually began writing when she was five or six years old. Her first writing effort was called Rabbit. In the story, she revealed a lively imagination that would reach full flower with the Harry Potter books. Among other things, Rabbit was full of interesting characters, including a large bee called Miss Bee. When she was 26, Rowling left England for Portugal to teach English. Her experience as a foreigner there may have contributed to her feeling of being different from others. She was similarly a foreigner when she went to West Africa to work. There, she researched human rights abuses for Amnesty International. Such experiences would certainly have caused her to feel sympathetic toward Harry s difference from ordinary people. Being an English teacher kept her busy in the afternoons and evenings but left her mornings free to write. This schedule was ideal for her because she had already begun her first book about Harry Potter before she left England. I was taking a long train journey from Manchester to London, she said, and the idea for Harry just fell into my head. At that point, it was essentially the idea for a boy who didn t know he was a wizard, and the wizard school he ended up going to. She added that she knew from the beginning that she wanted to tell the story in seven volumes. That is because it takes seven years for Harry to learn to become a wizard. I decided that it would take seven years, from the ages of 11 to 17, inclusive, to train as a wizard, and each of the books would deal with a year of Harry s life at Hogwarts. Rowling continued writing about Harry Potter even as she experienced personal

3 difficulty in her own life. She divorced her husband in Portugal after giving birth to her daughter, Jessica. She then moved with Jessica to Edinburgh, Scotland. She took with her half a suitcase full of papers covered with stories about Harry Potter. It took her almost a year to find work as an English teacher in Scotland. During this time, she and her baby daughter were quite poor. But nevertheless Rowling continued working on her first story about Harry Potter. Every day, she would leave her damp, unheated apartment and take her baby daughter to the nearest café. There she would sip a cup of coffee while she continued writing. Success did not come overnight. The first volume, Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone, was rejected by several publishers before it was finally accepted for publication in It was then followed in subsequent years by more stories about Harry Potter. However, Rowling says that nothing since has matched the moment when I actually realized that Harry was going to be published. That was the realization of my life s ambition to be a published author and the culmination of so much effort on my part. Like her young hero, Harry Potter, Rowling has had to overcome many obstacles in her life. But in the process, she has written some of the most popular books of our time.

4 Lesson Plan I. Create a Background Directions: To help students build up a mental map or schema about Rowling and her story, the teacher may conduct activity A, which is a pre-reading activity. To help retain information from the reading, activity B is suggested, which is done after the reading selection is covered. A. Find out the background information of this lesson by using scanning and skimming. 1. Give some of the facts about the Harry Potter series. 2. Who is J. K. Rowling? 3. What was the name of Rowling s first writing effort? How old was she then? 4. What did Rowling do when she was in Portugal? 5. Why did she go to West Africa one time? 6. What happened to Rowling s first marriage? 7. What does the year 1997 mean to Rowling? B. Based on the information provided in the reading selection, finish the following charts, and transform the charts into short paragraphs. 1. Facts about the Harry Potter series How many copies? Translated into how many languages? The author The Harry Potter series Sold in how many countries? How many volumes? First printed in what year?

5 The Harry Potter series of books are written by. There are volumes in the series. The fist book was published in. The books are very popular. There are over million copies in print, and have been translated into languages, sold in more than countries. 2. All about J. K. Rowling Profession? How is her life now? What did she look like when little? First novel printed? J. K. Rowling Interest in childhood First marriage Life in West Africa Life in Portugal J. K. Rowling

6 II. Establish New Information Directions: The purposes of the activities here are to help students remember more details about Rowling s life in different periods and to induce students to describe each period of Rowling s life orally. Activity A is aimed at summarizing Rowling s life into a flow chart of four boxes. Activity B is meant for oral practice based on the flow chart finished in activity A. When doing Activity B, the use of time adverbials as a transitional device should be given more emphasis. A. Finish the following flow chart about J. K. Rowling. More information can be found in your textbook. Childhood 1. The family moved very often. leading a life full of w and i. 2. She was shy, quiet, freckly, near-sighted, not good at sports. feeling a sense of l and being u 3. She overcame her unhappy childhood by losing herself in, which helped develop a great love of in her. Early Adulthood 1. At age 26, she went to to teach English there. 2. Later on, she went to West and did some research on abuses for. 3. Her experiences abroad made her understand how it felt to be from others. Later on 1. She got divorced, and left Portugal. 2. She came back to with no job. Before she found a job, she spent her day writing novels at a with her daughter Jessica. 3. Before her first novel was accepted for, it was by several publishers.

7 Now 1. There are over 200 of her books in print. 2. They are translated into languages and are sold in more than countries. 3. J.K. Rowling has become one of the richest women in the world. A Glance at Rowling s life Childhood Early Adulthood Now Later on How Rowling s experiences influence her and her life Childhood Life abroad Moving back Past experiences shy, freckly, quiet, not very popular among peers move a lot Influences on her & writing

8 Parallels between Rowling and Harry Potter J. K. Rowling an unhappy childhood, not popular among peers feel unloved & insecure knowing how it feels to be an outsider Harry Potter B. Once you finish the boxes about Rowling, read out loud the content of the boxes. When doing so, be sure to make what is in a box sound like a cohesive passage. You may need to rely on transitional words, such as then, after that, later on, etc. III. Practice and Personalization Directions: The purpose of the activities here is to provide students with an opportunity to do oral practice, which is often omitted in class due to time limits. In doing oral practice designed in this section, students also come to review the information learned in the reading. In doing activity A, students ask themselves the questions and answer them one by one. They may be given more time to think about the answers. Activity B involves role play, where one student plays the role of an interviewer, and the other Rowling. Activity C is meant for students who cannot have an interview conducted and need more guidance. A. Based on the above flow chart and what you can remember about the reading, answer the following questions orally. 1. How many copies of Rowling s books are in print now? 2. How many languages are her books translated into? 3. What kind of childhood did Rowling have? What happened when she was little? 4. What kind of girl was she then? 5. How did she overcome the difficulties she had in childhood? 6. When did she start writing? What was her first book called? What was it about?

9 7. What makes Rowling know about being an outsider so well? Did she have any experience of being an outsider? 8. What happened to Rowling s marriage? Does she have any children? 9. When she came back to Scotland from Portugal, what did she do for a living? Did she ever experience any financial difficulty? 10. When and where did she do most of her writing of the stories of Harry Potter? 11. Were her stories well accepted right from the beginning? B. Find a partner. One of you plays the role of the host (i.e., the interviewer), the other J. K. Rowling. Based on the questions above, try to conduct an interview of Rowling. All the questions must be asked in the interview, and Rowling s answers must be based on facts. Do it orally the first time. Then, have your interview written down. C. If you find it hard to conduct the interview, you may use the following as your reference. The Interview Host: Hi, Ms. Rowling, it s a privilege to have you here on our program. You have millions of around the world. The audience would like to know more about you as a person. Before we start the, let me thank you again for spending this time with us. Rowling: No problem. The honor is mine. Host: Do you know how many copies of your books are in now? Rowling: To be honest, I am not so sure. I guess it s around. Host: Wow, that s. And how many languages are your books into? Rowling:. That s what they say. Host: Amazing! As a world-famous writer, did you have an amazing childhood too? Would you talk about your childhood a little? Rowling: Believe it or not, my childhood was. Host: Really? What happened then? Rowling: Well, my family a lot when I was little. As a result, my life was full of and. Host: What kind of girl were you then? Rowling: I was, and freckly,. Worse still, I was not good at. I guess I was not very popular. I had a strong sense of and. Host: Then how did you overcome the difficulties you had at that time? Rowling: I loved reading. I always lost myself in, lots of,

10 which in turn helped me develop a great love for. Host: Is that what made you write the stories about Harry Potter? Rowling: Yes and no. In fact, I started writing at the age of. Host: That early? What was your first book called? And what was it about? Rowling: It was called. There are a lot of interesting characters in it. The one I like best is that of Miss Bee. Host: I see. Let s talk about the Potter stories. What makes you know so well about being an outsider so well? Do you have any experience of being an outsider? Rowling: Oh, a lot. When I was 26, I left England for P to teach English there. I was a total in that country. I also once worked in West, doing on human rights for Amnesty International. I knew exactly what it felt to be an. I guess that made some c to Harry s personality, who always feels like an outsider himself. Host: Do you mind telling us something about your marriage? Rowling: I was once married, but got later on when I was in Portugal. Host: Do you have any children from that marriage? Rowling: Yes, I have a daughter, who is an angel to me. After my divorce with my ex-husband, I took my daughter, Jessica home with me. Host: How was your life then? What did you do for a living? Rowling: Oh, it was the most time I ever had in my life. I was d, jobless, and b until I found a teaching job in Scotland. Host: Was that the period of time you produced Harry? Rowling: Exactly. Since I was out of work, I had plenty of to kill. I would leave my d, unheated apartment and take my Jessica with me to a café nearby and do my writing. Host: Did it go smoothly? I mean, was your novel rejected by any publisher then? Rowling: The writing was smooth, but it had been rejected several times before it was finally accepted for. Host: So, how did you feel when you saw your novel finally hit the market? Rowling: Well, it was a of my ambition in life. I had always wanted to be a published author. And no doubt it was the culmination of so much effort on my part. An unspeakable sense of pride and achievement. Host: I think it takes not only talent for writing but a strong personality to accomplish what you have accomplished. Rowling: And good luck too. Host: Thank you so much for your time. I bet the audience enjoyed this time as much as they enjoy your books. Rowling: Thank you. I myself enjoyed this interview a lot.

11 Host: So, let s hope it won t be too long before we finally read the seventh volume of Harry Potter and have another chat with Ms. Rowling. Good bye, everyone. D. More practice (1) Interview a classmate and fill in important information about him/ her and report on it. Childhood Junior High Future Plan Senior High (2) All about me: fill in my own information and report on it. (3) Exchange charts with classmates and make report on it. Childhood Junior High My Future Plan Senior High

12 IV. Application Directions: The purposes of the following activities are to review the lesson by writing a composition about Rowling and to reinforce the strategy of abstracting important information from a written account of an event or a personal story. Activity A is meant to review the lesson. Activity B is meant to reinforce the strategy of summarizing by means of reviewing the lesson about the cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, which is in Book 1, Lesson 11. A. Write a brief account of J. K. Rowling based on what you have learned from the book. Arrange your writing to fit the organization of the following chart. Introduction. Who is J. K. Rowling? What accomplishment has she made? Has she always been a success? The Woman behind Harry Potter Development. What was she like when she was a little girl? What was her greatest interest? What did she do then? When she grew older, what special experiences did she have? What difficulties did she experience in her early adulthood? When did she start to write the stories about Harry Potter? When did she start to experience success? Conclusion. How does Rowling regard the success of the Harry Potter series? What is the similarity between Harry and Rowling? What can readers learn from Rowling? B. You must have read the story about Yo-Yo Ma, the great cellist, in your freshman year (Book 1, Lesson 11). Read the reading again, and then finish the following tasks.

13 1. All about Yo-Yo Ma Family background Where did he grow up? Ma s definition of music Yo-Yo Ma When did he start playing music? Kinds of music Ma plays Honors won by Ma 2. Interview with Yo-Yo Ma Based on the text, finish the following blanks. Find a partner to form a group of two. Take turns answering the following questions, or you may give an interview based on the questions. Questions: (1) What is Yo-Yo Ma famous as? (2) What kind of person is Ma? (3) What is Yo-Yo Ma s background? (4) Where did Ma grow up? (5) What did Ma s father ask his children to do before they could begin dinner? (6) When did Ma start to play the cello? (7) Who found his talent in playing the cello? (8) According to the text, how many honors has Ma won? (9) How does Ma define music?

14 3. A snapshot of Yo-Yo Ma Childhood Early Adulthood Now Later on 4. A brief account of Yo-Yo Ma Based on the answers to the above questions, write a brief account of Yo-Yo Ma. Introduction. What is Yo-Yo Ma famous as? What kind of person is he? Yo-Yo Ma: The Man behind the Cello Development. What is Ma s family background? Where did he group up? What was emphasized by Ma s father? What was he required to do when little? When did Ma start to play the cello? Did he have to practice a lot? How many honors has he won? Conclusion. How does Ma define music? What are the crucial questions that Ma thinks we all need to ask? What does Ma want to do through music?