This document summarizes a webinar on using information technology to enhance the study of literature. It discusses using flipped classrooms, creative writing exercises, and discussion forums to analyze works like A Streetcar Named Desire. Students are guided through close readings and analyses of scenes from the play, completing characterization activities and debates. The webinar models interactive teaching methods using technology to supplement traditional literary study with multimedia materials, collaborative projects, and opportunities for feedback. Contact information is provided for the presenter and organizers to continue the discussion.

1. Let’s study literature with IT!
LPM Webinar
Presenter: M.-Hélène Fasquel
– American OIB Language and
Literature instructor. Lycée Nelson
Mandela, Nantes.
Host: Amélie Silvert
Organizer: Jurgen Wagner.
1

2. OIB Language and Literature
 International option
 L/L syllabus:13 works
 6 hours and a half per week
 Includes:
◦ Traditional study of literature (close reading,
essay writing, commentary practice, debates,
discussions, group/pair work, project-based
pedagogy, oral practice, presentations,…)
◦ Guest speakers, webinars, online creative
competitions, projects involving American and
French-speaking authors,…)
◦ But also flipped classes (when most
appropriate),
◦ And IT-enhanced classes. 2

3. What’s the flipped classroom?
Studying drama and prose
 Drama Padlet
 A Streetcar Named
Desire
3
The Great Gatsby
Shakespeare
Hamlet
Death of a
Salesman

4. A Streetcar Named
Desire
By Tennessee Williams

5. Context of composition
 Create presentation slides about one of the following
topics:
◦ Tennessee Williams,
◦ The 1940s and 1950s,
◦ Literary context (Southern gothic, romanticism),
◦ Twentieth-century American tragedy, tragicomedy,
social realist drama,
◦ Critical context (feminist, political, psychoanalytic
criticism),
◦ Themes (with quotations),
◦ In-depth analysis of the characters
(relationships…),
◦ Dramatic climaxes and essential quotes,
◦ Images, motifs and symbols.
 Graded assignment: rubric. Choose your topic! 5

6. Homework – flipped learning
 Flipped learning: characterization.
Study this video, jot down notes.
◦ Share them here!
6

7. Creative Writing task
7
Method by which a collection of words or images is collectively
assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in
sequence, either by following a rule or by being allowed to see
only the end of what the previous person contributed.
History:
The technique was invented by surrealists and is similar to an
old parlour game called Consequences in which players write in
turn on a sheet of paper, fold it to conceal part of the writing, and
then pass it to the next player for a further contribution.
Surrealism principal founder André Breton reported that it
started in fun, but became playful and eventually enriching.
Source.
Exquisite corpse (from the
original French term cadavre
exquis)

8. Creative Writing task
8
Write 1 sentence about scene 3 and fold
the piece of paper.
Then write on it the last word you used.
The next person will start a second
sentence taking into account your last
word.
We’ll read the result at the end of the
game!
Your Exquisite
Corpse

9. Scene 3 – Pair or group work
 In your groups you will be asked to study
the following statement: scene 3 is a
pivotal scene in A Streetcar Named
Desire. Do you agree with this
statement? Provide evidence to support
your thesis. Your doc.
9

10. Scene 5 – Literary circles
Today, you are going to analyze scene 5:
 Literature circle roles
◦ Discussion director
◦ Vocabulary enricher
◦ Literary luminary
◦ Checker
 Literature circle process (which will be
slightly adapted: we will not discuss the
whole play but only several scenes! But
let’s first give it a try!).
10

11. Scene 6 – Lost husband
Choose one of the following
tasks:
 In pairs, make a mind-
map of everything you
learn about
◦ Blanche, her dead husband
and their relationship,
◦ Mitch and Blanche and their
relationship,
◦ Or about the literary devices
which help the audience
understand what this play is
11

12. Scene 7
 Let’s stage the scene
(from the beginning to
STANLEY: ‘This happened
a couple of weeks before
she showed her.’
 Think about alternative
ways of performing this
scene which might
suggest different
motivations and thus other
ways of interpreting
Stanley’s character. Share
your work here. 12

13. Scene 8 – Creative writing
 Imagine that you are interviewing
Stanley about his relationship with
Blanche at this point in the play.
 Make a list of 4 or 5 questions you might
ask him to understand what he thinks of
her and how his attitude towards her has
developed.
 Write answers to those questions as if
you were Stanley.
 Your questions and answers.
13

14. Hot seating
 A widely used and very effective Drama
strategy. Questions are asked to someone
sitting in the 'hot-seat' who answers in
character.
 Set this up by telling the class they will
have an opportunity to ask questions to a
character from the piece they are studying
or story.
 Source. (More strategies)
 Share your questions about different
characters here. 14

15. Characterization -- Let’s
recap!
 Make a mind map/visual/poster or
revision card of Stanley's and
Blanche’s worlds.
 Use quotes and images from the play
that reflect them.
 Share it here!
 Heroes?
 Anti-heroes?
 Any foils?
 Round/flat characters?
 Explain & provide evidence.
15

16. Quotations - Matching game!
 Let’s check your knowledge of the
most important quotations!
 Link to the game.
16

17. Adaptation
 A Streetcar Named
Desire by Elia Kazan
(1951)
Jot down notes about
◦ Some striking staging
techniques,
◦ Characterization,
◦ Differences between the
play and the film.
 Copy them on this
document.
 Does this version
capture the atmosphere
17

18. Let’s conclude!
 Choose one word epitomizing
the play.
 Write it down on a small piece of paper
and give it to your neighbor.
 Your neighbor must speak about it for
one minute.
 Jot down notes and report to the class!
18

19. The Great Gatsby
By Fitzgerald

20. Let’s recap!
 Write a haiku summing up one point
discussed in chapter 1. Your haikus.
 What is a Haiku Poem?
A Haiku consists of 3 lines and 17 syllables.
Each line has a set number of syllables see below:
Line 1 – 5 syllables
Line 2 – 7 syllables
Line 3 – 5 syllables
 Competition: the best Haikus will win a prize!
20

21. Let’s recap!
 Homework time: Study this Ted Ed
lesson and answer the questions.
Jot down notes.
 Debate time: Let’s discuss your
findings and answers!
◦ Do you think characters should be
likeable?
◦ Does Gatsby really love Daisy?
◦ To what extent do you think his quest
is heroic? 21

22. Let’s recap! Homework.
 Let’s play a game!
https://quizlet.com/20155811/scatter
 You can revise the main facts on this
webpage:
https://quizlet.com/20155811/great-
gatsby-chapter-4-flash-cards/
In class:
 Let’s list the main facts together!
22

23. Creative writing task
 Write one of the contemporary
newspaper accounts of Gatsby’s
death. Try to echo specific aspects of
Fitzgerald’s form, structure and
language as far as possible. Submit it
here please?
 Rubric
23

24. Let’s sum up what happens in
chapter 9!
 Choose 3 keywords!
 Be ready to explain why you chose
them. class debate --> class list.
 Class list:
◦ 1.
◦ 2.
◦ 3.
24

25. Your TED-style talks
 Choose among the following topics!
 Pair work or group work (maximum of 4
students)
◦ The American dream in The Great Gatsby
◦ Symbolism and imagery
◦ Quotes (in-depth analysis)
◦ Main themes and topics
◦ Literary context (review) – 4 presentations
 Romanticism
 Realism
 Naturalism
 Modernism
◦ Compare and contrast The Great Gatsby with
Death of a Salesman.
25

26. Your TED-style talks
 Deliver a TED-style talk!!!
 One example to study (about poetry)
 One more example to study (about the
danger of a single story)
 Your rubric
26

27. Hamlet
By Shakespeare

28. Let’s recap! 1-minute talks
 You have read the first 2 scenes of Hamlet:
let’s share what you remember!
 You have one minute to talk about the
following topics:
◦ Main Characters
◦ Relationships
◦ Themes
◦ Topics
◦ Plot
◦ Imagery
Rubric
28

29. Let’s recap! 1-minute talks
29

30. Homework -- Active reading
 Read Act 1I and write a free response journal
entry on the reading. Rubric. (Some entries will be
collected and graded).
 Two columns per page:
◦ in the "Passage" column, record the lines from
the text that you wish to write about,
◦ and in the "Response" column, write your
observations,
thoughts,
reactions,
questions,
about those
lines.
30

31. By Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman

32. Creative revision cards!
You can
 Make a mind-map about one scene (plot, style,
characterization, imagery…).
 Write an appealing revision card about themes,
imagery…
 Make a mind-map to enhance everybody’s revisions
(reminder of everything that happens in the play).
 Choose quotes and record them. You will also need to
add a visual document to explain why these quotes are
important and which themes they are related to as well as
a revision game for your friends (Quizlet)…
Choose a topic and write your first names in the 2nd
column. Link.
Share your work (include your first names) on this Padlet.
This is a competition and the best document will be
awarded a prize! 32

33. Creative writing competition
 Paper Planes Creative Writing Competition
(Animal Circus by Alix et Mathieu)
Learning more about the media
 Vocable competition
Video challenge
 EF Challenge for High Schools
American author
 And Last but not least: Partnership
with Eric Price, American award-
winning fantasy author.
Projects

34. ◦ Reading the first 2 chapters of Unveiling
the Wizard’s Shroud;
◦ Analyzing Eric’s style, the characters’
psychology, personalities, in order to be
able to write the next chapter,
◦ 2 Skype interviews;
◦ Reading the various documents shared
on Padlet,
◦ Reading their friends’ chapters;
◦ Publishing the new chapters on Eric’s
author’s website in order to start a
competition ;
◦ Webinar with Eric, Katie Carroll, and Kai
Strand (discussion of the creative
process);
◦ Webinar with 3 French-speaking authors:
Eric Price project

35. ◦ Reading Cyane’s novel,
Les Enfants de Calliope,
about the environment,
◦ Writing a summary of
one chapter (group
work),
◦ Sharing it with a
researcher, James
McKay, in order to help
him work with Cyane
(English version).
◦ In short, being part of a
research project at
Cyane – upcoming project

36. mhfasquel@gmail.com
On Twitter: @mariehel2
Slideshare
My files on Slideshare.
Blog
On Facebook, LinkedIn &
Google+, eTwinning: Marie-Hélène Fasquel
Feel free to contact me! 36
Contact info:

37. 37
Thank you very much for your
attention and participation!