Holdet 2b En (2025/26) - Undervisningsbeskrivelse

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Undervisningsbeskrivelse

Stamoplysninger til brug ved prøver til gymnasiale uddannelser
Termin(er) 2024/25 - 2025/26
Institution Vejen Gymnasium og Erhvervsskole
Fag og niveau Engelsk B
Lærer(e) Mette Vestergaard Krogstrup
Hold 2024 En/b (1b En, 2b En)

Oversigt over gennemførte undervisningsforløb
Titel 1 The Divided States of America
Titel 2 Surprise!!
Titel 3 opinions on the British Empire
Titel 4 Consequences of the British Empire
Titel 5 Soundtrack to Injustice

Beskrivelse af de enkelte undervisningsforløb (1 skema for hvert forløb)
Titel 1 The Divided States of America

Effort has been devoted to getting to know one another, practising collaboration, and developing oral skills on both academic and non-academic topics, as well as building good study habits.

The unit takes its starting point in the re-election of Donald Trump, and focuses on what divides Americans


Students should be able to:

- Account for various issues that divide Americans, including the themes below.
- Analyse non-fiction material with a focus on rhetorical devices.
- Analyse films with a focus on how they portray divisions in American society.
- Discuss why Americans have such different perceptions of the world.
Temaer og materialer:

WHAT IS AMERICA LIKE? Introduction

Focus on how the USA is portrayed, and on different stereotypes in American popular culture, for example: the lonely rider, the damsel in distress, the mad scientist, the patriot, the secret agent, the self-made man, etc.
Individual selection of a song or a superhero that illustrates a perception of the USA or a stereotypical American..
My examples: 'Empire State of Mind' (Alicia Keys og JAY-Z) og 'Black Widow'.

POLITICS: Trump reelected
- Excerpts of Trump's 'Victory Speech': https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-victory-speech-full-transcript-1981234

RACE: how we talk about it
- Comedy special by Hasan Minaj: Off with his head', Netflix 2024

VIOLENCE/TERRORISM:
- Online research into the mass shooting in New Orleans and the car bombing in Las Vegas on 1 January 2025.

RELIGION: abortion
- Short introduction to the American judicial system, 'checks and balances', and Roe v. Wade.
- ‘Enforced childbirth is slavery’, Margaret Atwood, 2022 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/07/enforced-childbirth-is-slavery-margaret-atwood-on-the-right-to-abortion?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR0nQ7pUHC6LNjk5jnC3vuj_4tTH0-btlCjMaGc2pQM1vJz4ogzbV6Cme0w#Echobox=1651930350

INEQUALITIES: Racial, Gender/sexual orientation, income, health/disability, Geographic, Religious, Linguistic, social
- Various facts about inequality in the US
- The average Trump voter (various facts)
- Podcast: 'DaBaby gets real about hip hop culture', i: What Now? with Trevor Noah, (spotify)

FILMS ABOUT A DIVIDED USA:
Each group had chosen a film.
They analysed it with a focus on characterisation, how the film reflects a divide in American society/American culture, the American stereotypes included in the film, and film techniques in a selected clip—primarily close-ups, cutting pace, and sound.

Chosen films:
- American Beauty
- The Trial of the Chicago 7
- Coach Carter
- Shawshank Redemption
- The Fallout
- Joker
Indhold
Kernestof:
Omfang Estimeret: Ikke angivet
Dækker over: 35 moduler
Særlige fokuspunkter
Væsentligste arbejdsformer

Titel 2 Surprise!!

A course focusing on fiction that is surprising in some way.
Most of the course has been devoted to reading 'Fight Club'  with emphasis on fostering a love of reading and relating to the novel.

Students should be able to:
- Read a longer text.
- Account for a text and how it is surprising.
- Analyse and interpret texts with a surprising narrative style/form and/or content, with a focus on what the element of surprise means for the reader’s experience.
- Discuss different forms of surprise and how the reader experiences them.


MATERIALS:

Surprising plot twist/content (dramatic!)
- Novel: "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk (1996). Extensive reading with a focus on analysing and interpreting narrative technique and characterisation, as well as the twist and its significance for the reading experience.
- Short story: “Graveyard Shift”, a crime story by James M. Reasoner in Open Wide (L&R 2015)

Surprising narrative style (and content)
- Poem: “Cinderella” by Roald Dahl (1982), https://allpoetry.com/poem/8503199-Cinderella-by-Roald-Dahl

Surprising opening (and content):
- Poem: “This Be the Verse” by Philip Larkin (2001), http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178055
Indhold
Kernestof:
Omfang Estimeret: Ikke angivet
Dækker over: 23 moduler
Særlige fokuspunkter
Væsentligste arbejdsformer

Titel 3 opinions on the British Empire

The unit focuses on the many different opinions on the Empire, from the Victorian Age to today.

Students should be able to:
- Account for basic facts about the British Empire and Commonwealth, and how the colonies were usually viewed by the British in the past.
- Analyse and interpret historical and contemporary fiction and non-fiction with focus on the opinions on the Empire expressed in the text.
- Put those opinions into context with the unit.


MATERIALS:

HISTORICAL VIEWS ON THE EMPIRE/COMMONWEALTH:
- Clips from 'The Crown' s2, e8 + s4, e8 (focus on Elizabeth II and Thatcher)
- The Gentlemen of the Jungle, by Jomo Kenyatta, 1938
- Other materials (supplerende):
- - ABC for Baby Patriots
- - Ads for Pears' Soap
- - White Man's Burden, Kipling
- - Rule Britannia lyrics + videos from Last Night at the Proms
- - Imperialist and anti-imperialist drawings/caricatures
- - The Canterville Ghost, Wilde, 1891

CONTEMPORARY VIEWS ON THE EMPIRE/COMMONWEALTH
- Short docu from Imperial War Museum: 'Why Britain DIDN'T stand alone against Nazi Germany', https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w49y3NCXEKU (2021)
- Short video from PragerU, by H.W. Crocker III: 'If You Live in Freedom, Thank the British Empire' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSnJSUU_7q0&t=2s (2017)
- Speech by the Prince of Wales at the Accra International Convention Centre, Accra, Ghana, https://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/speech/speech-hrh-prince-wales-accra-international-convention-centre-accra-ghana (2018)
Indhold
Kernestof:
Omfang Estimeret: Ikke angivet
Dækker over: 29,85 moduler
Særlige fokuspunkter
Væsentligste arbejdsformer

Titel 4 Consequences of the British Empire

Working as extension of the previous unit:, this unit created the basis for SRO for students with SA-EN.
The unit focuses on life in the colonies, and British multiculturalism

Students should be able to:
- Account for key aspects of how colonialism has shaped former colonies and modern Britain.
- Analyse and interpret fiction, non-fiction and film, with a focus on how they represent life in the former colonies/British multiculturalism
- Discuss the short- and long-term consequences of the British Empire.


THEMES and MATERIALS

TREATMENT OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN A FORMER COLONY (group presentations on self-selected events)
Events selected by the groups:
- - The opium wars in Hong Kong
- - Invasion and creating Parahaki in New Zealand
- - Suppression of indigenous languages and culture in Sudan
- - The importation of Indian workers in Fiji
- - The potato famine in Ireland
- - The bombing of Malta during WWII
- - The massacre in Denshawai in Egypt
- - The  myall creek massacre in Australia


LIFE TODAY IN A FORMER COLONY:
- FILM: The White Tiger (Bahrani, 2021)



BRITISH MULTICULTURALISM:
- Documentary: "The Last Whites of East End" (2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na_wxwhgDMA
- Articles with statistics:
- - - "How do Scots feel about the major political issues" https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/53721-how-do-scots-feel-about-the-major-political-issues-december-2025
- - - "Attitudes to Immigration in Northern Ireland", https://www.qub.ac.uk/Research/Our-impact/ethnic-minorities-ni/research/ARKDevineHayward202504.html
- Robinson, Tommy: "Speech at Unite the Kingdom Protest (sep. 2025), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BXo-ukIzD0
- Farage, Nigel: "Announces Tough New Immigration Rules..." (sep. 2025), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qs4j_XUs0Q

Other things (supplerende)
Black lives matter: Examples of the debate about statues of imperialists (innovate a remake of a statue to make it politically correct) Cecil Rhodes etc. + Danish: Hans Egede in Greenland
- Salaam, Kinan "Is it because I'm Muslim", spoken word. 2025 https://www.instagram.com/p/DOf-LEXCvnH/
Indhold
Kernestof:
Omfang Estimeret: Ikke angivet
Dækker over: 15,92 moduler
Særlige fokuspunkter
Væsentligste arbejdsformer

Titel 5 Soundtrack to Injustice

The unit forms SRO for MU-EN/MU-MA students.

The unit focuses on how life as a Black American has always been precarious, and how they have expressed this through music, from Jim Crow to today.

Students should be able to:
- Account for key aspects of life as a Black American, including Jim Crow, The Civil Rights Movement, present day systemic racism and police killings.
- Analyse and interpret songs (with or without music videoes) and speeches about the precariousness of being a Black American.
- Discuss how this Black American experience is expressed in music, including putting texts into perspective with the knowledge and material from the unit.

SONGS in the unit:
- Robert Johnson: "Crossroad Blues", 1936
- Cooke, Sam: "A Change Is Gonna Come", 1964
- N.W.A: "Fuck Tha Police" (1988) + music video
- Hill, Lauryn: "Mystery of Iniquity" (2002)
- Lamar, Kendrick: "The Blacker the Berry" (2015)
- Lucas, Joyner: "I'm not Racist" (2016) + music video
- Nas ft. Kanye West: "Cops Shot the Kid" (2018)

Film: Mississippi Burning, Parker 1988

Other materials (supplerende)
- Willis, W. & M. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1860s)
- Hughes, Langston "I, too", 1926
- Meeropol, Abel "Strange Fruit (1937)

Materials for background knowledge:
- Maps of the US during slavery, Civil War and Jim Crow
- Pictures and other illustrations of the "separate but equal" principle applied in Jim Crow states
- Info about Jim Crow laws from: www.nps.gov/malu/learn/education/jim_crow_laws.htm and www.abhmuseum.org/voting-rights-for-blacks-and-poor-whites-in-the-jim-crow-south/
- Information about lynchings during Jim Crow from: www.lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/ and www.withoutsanctuary.org
- Overview of the Civil Rights Movement - teacher presentation
- Clip from 'The Hate U Give" Tillmann, 2018
- Info about systemic racism from: https://www.abhmuseum.org/voting-rights-for-blacks-and-poor-whites-in-the-jim-crow-south/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrHIQIO_bdQ
Indhold
Kernestof:
Omfang Estimeret: Ikke angivet
Dækker over: 38 moduler
Særlige fokuspunkter
Væsentligste arbejdsformer