Интегрированный урок "Страноведения" и "Американской литературы" по рассказу Марка Твена "Как я баллотировался в губернаторы" для 11 класса

Интегрированный урок «Страноведения» и «Американской литературы» в 11 классе.

Mark Twain “Running for  Governor”

1. Listen to the quote and finish it:

“If you want to know what human race really is, at bottom, you need only observe it during …”

(Possible answers : war, disaster, crisis, love,….) Elections.

What do all these notions have in common? (people’s moral values, qualities, their integrity are tested)

Judging by the tone of this saying, what kind of qualities are usually revealed in the situations like that? (poor qualities, people’s vices, their follies)

Look through some more quotes of famous people expressing their attitude towards elections:

ü The only thing we learn from new elections is that we learned nothing from the old.

ü Get the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything.

ü You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

ü People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.

ü Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least. 

ü Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote. 

ü We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public offices.

ü Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. 

ü Politicians during elections are the same all over.  They promise to build a bridge even where they is no river.

Which of them means:

ü People rarely learn from their mistakes

ü A  lot of people are easily fooled and can be manipulated during elections

ü They way you run your campaign differs greatly from they way you perform your duties afterwards

ü The number of lies going around doubles after hunting, fighting or before the election day

ü If you have the right to choose among equally bad candidates, you live in a democratic country

ü The efficiency of the government depends on the people who never come to the polls.

ü The greater the crimes, the higher (more senior) the post

ü Nothing is impossible during elections (from the point of view of candidates)

ü If you mastered the art of getting money from one group of people. pleasing the other, the success is sure.

Can you rephrase the saying “If you want to know what human race really is, at bottom, you need only observe it during elections.”

What is the general idea of all these quotes? Do their authors approve of the way elections are being conducted?

Which of them do you agree most?

Which of them do you think is the funniest?

Why do you think the authors chose to speak on such a serious matter in such an amusing way?

What is the literary form called when you criticize human follies, weaknesses and shortcomings in a humorous way?

Give examples of literary satire from the English Literature? (J. Swift – Gulliver’s Travels”, G. Orwell “Animal Farm”)

4. Mark Twain, the greatest American humorist and satirist once said that Humor is mankind's greatest blessing. When nothing else could be done he mobilized the English language, mixed it up with humour and sent them into battle.

No matter how serious the problem  is, it’s easier to deal with it with a good amount of humour.

One of the best examples of his political satire was the short story “Running for Governor”.

The story is told in the first person and accounts Mark Twain’s experience during his  electoral campaign.

What post was Mark Twain nominated for?

How many other candidates ran against him?

What kind of advantage did he have over the other two candidates from his point of view?

What happened to him during his electoral campaign?

Different newspapers accused  him of certain crimes and ‘awarded’ him a number of titles.

Arrange the titles in the order they are mentioned in the text, explain them and say what kind of crimes Mark Twain was  accused of.

____ D. T. ____ M. T. ____ L. E. ____B. S. ____ I. P.   ____ F. C.

is …… means…… stands for……

and Mark Twain is

accused of … blamed for … charged with …

As we know from the story, Mark Twain – the character ‘has never done one single thing in all his life to be ashamed of’.

Is it evident (clear) from the story who is behind all those false accusations towards him?

Mr. Smith? Mr. Blank? Or both candidates? Or neither? Who or what then?

Whoever or whatever it was, it had a profound influence on the way Mark Twain felt and on the public opinion that made him give up and withdraw from the candidacy.

Judging by what you know, by what you’ve heard in the news do you think the elections nowadays are different?

US midterms elections and scandals.  – Nothing has changed.

During the recent election campaign in America all sorts of people had to deal with similar situations. They became publicly accused of what they had done  or said many years ago, or had never said or done at all.

Video clip

Mark Twain unlike this recent candidate chose not to speak trying to explain the things he  had never done. Perhaps he was not ambitious enough to go through it. Or he understood uselessness of such actions.

But sometime it’s important to be brave enough and be ready to stand up for yourself.

Now I want you to divide in to three groups and do the following tasks:

Mass Media is the powerful weapon in defining the public’s  opinion.

1. Create a TV advert acting on behalf of Mark Twain trying to reject  all the false accusations he was charged with.  

2. Mark Twain is giving a lecture to the students who wish to devote their life to politics . What pieces of advice can he give them about the electoral process?

3. Mark Twain is writing a letter to his  grandmother who encouraged him in taking part in the elections. How can he explain to her his decision to withdraw from the candidacy?

 4. You are the 21^st century political  image maker working with the best known politics of the time. Give Mark Twain some pieces of advice what he should have done to make his electoral campaign successful.

"If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it."

~Mark Twain