This is a photomontage based on the idea of the Matryoshka doll. Five characters are interlocked into each other.

The photomontage intends to show the real character of Ben, to stop judging, and to show the differences between other people. We also have to look beyond appearances.

The first picture shows a baby who is an alien. We can see a baby who looks strange. Indeed, he has strange wide eyes. Moreover, he has on his right a strange thing and he has pointed ears. This refers to the image that the family or the reader may have of Ben. Furthermore, he is perceived as a monster and a different child who is abnormal. He is like an extraterrestrial who is not like everybody but like a child who comes from another planet.

The second picture shows a doll that is called Chucky. It’s from a movie and the character is really monstrous and evil. The picture refers to the moment when Ben has probably killed the dog (p.62). So, Ben could symbolize a monster who is supposed to kill and he is not perceived as a child, a human being.

The third picture represents Esther, a child from the movie of the same name. that’s a story of a weird child who is different and who kills people from her adoptive family. As opposed to Chucky here the character is a human being like Ben, a character who represents evil and provokes fear: “he didn’t look like a baby at all” (p.48).

The fourth picture represents Elephant Man whose real name is Joseph Merrick and whose life was reinterpreted in the movie by David Lynch. This is a story of a man who is distorted. He is very different and people consider him as an animal but in reality he is kind and not cruel like the others could say. It shows that he is seen as a monster because of his appearance whereas he is just a nice man who needs love (like Ben: “whom no one could love” p.56). Moreover, he provokes pity like Ben: “poor Ben” (p.56). To conclude, Ben is a kind child, not a monster even if he has monstrous appearance and behavior.

To finish, the fifth picture show a kind and normal child like the real Ben. This is the main character of the movie Arthur and the Minimoys. He is a normal child. Indeed, in reality, Ben is a child with no problems nor differences.

Thus, before believing in appearances, we have to accept differences and to be nice with everybody and to see people for who they really are.

Waouh.... It's just.... brilliant! I'm really impressed by the work made by the two pupils. Congratulations guys! You rock!

MTV Campaign: story within the book

The Fifth Child.

We decided to use the concept of MTV Campaign: story within the song for the Fifth Child. So, it represents the story of The Fifth Child with pictures in chronological order. We are going to explain it picture by picture.

                The one in the center represents Harriet and David and they are in the center because they are central in the book and they are at the origin of the whole story.

 1 > Represents love at first sight between Harriet & David.

2  > Illustrates searching and buying of the house. The “home”.

3 > Shows the important place of the bed and represents the first time they make love.

4 > Symbolizes the financial help of James Lovatt.

5 > It is Luke’s birth. A normal and calm baby.

6 >  The first family party with the important place of the table where all the family gather.

7 >  It is Helen’s birth. Once again a normal baby.

8 > Once again a family party.

9 > Jane’s birth. We put the picture smaller than the others to symbolize the fact that she is really invisible in the family during the entire story.

10 > Represents the happiness of Lovatt’s family.

11 > Two rings with one broken which symbolizes the important quarrels between Sarah & William.

12 > Birth of Paul. We chose the picture of baby crying to represent the fact he’s a sad child who demands so much attention. We put him bigger than the other because he stays at home a longer time than the other children and because with his problem with Ben, is has a more important place.

13 > Materializes the quarrel between the members of Lovatt’s family.

14 > Harriet is pregnant of Ben and she suffer, she becomes paranoid. We chose a picture of the movie  Rosemary’s baby because Rosemary is disturb as Harriet. And the knife symbolizes the fact that she wants to kill Ben.

15 > Harriet goes to Dr Brett and he says that everything is normal and he gives her sedatives.

16 > Represents Amy, the Down syndrome baby of Sara & William.

17 > Ben new born. Very ugly and strong baby. The picture of Ben is on the side of Harriet (picture central) because she is the only one who cares about him.

18 > The beginning of the quarrels between Harriet & David about Ben. We chose a picture with silhouettes to put on the light the difference with the beginning of the story (picture one) which symbolized also with picture with silhouette.

19 > It is when Ben kills dog.

20 > It is when Ben kills Mr Mac Grégor, the cat.

21 > Ben show his monster face when he eats raw chicken.

22 >  Harriet takes Ben to Dr Brett because of his behavior.

23 > The family put Ben on the Institution.

24 > Epitomizes confinement of Ben in the institution and his strength, the fact that he wants to survive.

25 > Two parts : When Harriet takes Ben of the institution and after, when she looks after him and tries make him able to live in the society.

26 > Represents the violence of Ben and his anger against Harriet.

27 > It’s a picture of John and Ben. Hapiness of the little boy.

28 > Luke, Helen and Jane go to boarding schools and they go to live at their grand parents’

29 >  Shows the loneliness of Ben at school.

30 > Ben breaks a little girl’s arm at school.

31 > Ben’s sadness and loneliness.

32 > Harriet takes Ben to Dr Gilly at London.

33 > Ben tries to hurt Paul.

34 > Ben is part and chief of a gang.

35 > Ben participate to riots.

36 > Harriet lonely in the house thinking of the fact that she didn’t succeed saving Ben.

Here is the explanation of my work :
 
I decided to use MTV's T shirt concept for the 5th Child characters. I took a picture of Guy, Rosemary's husband in the movie Rosemary's baby to represent David, because this movie has many resemblances with the book ( a woman pregnant of the devil's child because the husband sold his wife's body to the devil) , then I took a picture of a child looking like Ben ( I googled "violent child" ) and to represent Harriet I took a picture of a housewife of the fifties. Then I wrote their names on the top of the picture but I cut "David" and "Harriet" to do the same as MTV shirt.
I did this work because I wanted to show that Ben is the product of his parents, because we can find in him elements that make us think about David : his way of observing people... David can also be violent, I remember the love scene at the beginning, Harriet has the feeling he is someone different, he is quite bestial... Harriet is someone very disturbed, and she is rejecting Ben from the beginning, and that's probably because of this that Ben is so strange, and expresses his loneliness with violence.

Loïs V.

Well, I've just received Loïs work and it's just awesome!

She decided to tell The Fifth Child story with a different point of view. The scene describes a dialogue between Dr Brett and the nurses. They are talking about David & Harriet.

You'll find below the text first and then the explanation.

Thank you Loïs again for your excellent work! Thank you so much!

 Possible Xblogtation: We should make our pupils rewrite a text (here TFC) with a different point of view.

The text :

Dr Brett came in the room. He moved toward the coffee machine and pressed the button. He looked his cup filling slowly with the dark liquid, the one which was going to give him the energy to finish the night. A nurse came next to him, waiting for the machine to be free.

“Well, tough day isn’t it?” she said to him, expressing sympathy.

“Oh yeah, five deliveries… “He answered. He looked exhausted.

“And that one this morning wasn’t easy! God, I’ve never seen a mother so hostile to her child! “she claimed.

Another nurse who was present during this delivery came to them in order to join the discussion.

“Absolutely, refusing to nurse the baby, refusing to go out of bed… “she says, almost shivering with disgust.

Dr Brett was nodding.

“She’s got four other kids you know, she wasn’t like that during the other deliveries. I really don’t understand what’s going on in her head… During the pregnancy she was like “he’s not normal, that baby is a monster”   quite frightening.” Added the doctor, and then he drank his coffee.

“I heard her say to her husband the poor kid looked like a troll! “The younger nurse said in a highly disapproval way.

“Well, he’s not a pretty baby but come on, how a mother can say something like that!” exclaimed her colleague, misunderstanding.

“ I think she’s simply victim of tiredness, first, and now the baby is here, I suspect a postpartum depression. That’s very usual, you remember this woman who was crying louder than her baby?” he was almost laughing. “It’s hard to be a mother, she’ll accept her new baby soon, all of them –well, almost- do.  But personally I’m quite worried about her health. This woman is bone tired! She had five children in a very short time “Dr Brett told.

“Phew, lucky me, I’m on the pill!” said one of the nurses, laughing.

“ My pill is work, I work so much I don’t have the time to make babies ! “ added the other one, bursting out laughing.  “Well, actually, talking about work, it’s time for us to start again Peggy, break’s over !” she announced to her colleague.

The two women said goodbye to the Doctor and disappeared in the hospital corridor. Dr Brett stayed a moment, lost in his thoughts. He was thinking about this new baby in the Lovatt family. He was wondering if Harriet was able to overcome her postnatal depression. He had felt anger and bitterness in her behavior toward the child, negative emotions, and he was asking himself how it was going to evolve. He had already seen mothers rejecting their babies at first, but then they were becoming loving mothers, and were accepting their children. But sometimes, it was not so easy. When he was working in the mental hospital he met a woman who was there because she killed her new born.

Dr Brett had a shiver remembering this crazy woman, how she was singing lullabies all day long : she believed her baby was still alive, and usually took care of a rolled blanket, thinking it was her baby.

The old doctor pulled himself together: no, Harriet wasn’t like that, she’ll finally accept this baby, after all he was not a monster, he was not pretty, yes, but he looked smart, his eyes yet focusing on everything…  Dr Brett finished his coffee and went back to work.

Analysis and explanation:

This text deals with Dr Brett and the nurses’ point of view on Harriet and Ben. I did this because I think in this book; the reader is always manipulated by D.L, thanks to the point of view. I think most of the time we have Harriet’s point of view, so I wanted to show that maybe the other characters, and especially characters from the outside, and a doctor and nurses (who have many experiences of pregnancies, deliveries) can have a very different vision of the things. Here Dr Brett and two nurses present during Ben’s delivery are talking during their break. The nurses were shocked by Harriet behavior, and the doctor his convinced Harriet is suffering of the classical and quite common postnatal depression. I made researches about this syndrome, because when you see Harriet’s behavior, she’s clearly rejecting the baby. But I had heard that sometimes it was happening, because woman had a depression after birth, and that it was normal, and most of the time the mother succeeds overcoming this crisis. So I thought maybe Harriet is simply a victim of that, but because she is really tired, this crisis lasts a little longer. But when you think about it, after the institution episode, she is becoming a mother! But it’s too late; Ben has became violent and unsociable because she was rejecting him.

Then I imagined that Dr Brett could be worried about Harriet, because he knows she is really tired, and as a doctor he knows sometimes crazy mothers hurt their children.

I also made Dr Brett say that Ben is perfectly normal, he’s just, well, an ugly baby.

I put a touch of humor in the text to make it more realistic. But the jokes of the nurses on the pill are also there to show first that it’s the sixties, and that Harriet and David’s dream is old fashioned, because sixties girls just aspire to sexual freedom, and probably doesn’t want a lot of children, and then that shows that Harriet and David’s dream can be considered as a nightmare for lot of people, because having a lot of children demands attention, work, and is really exhausting.

Trailer created by Claire - Docteur Lacroix.

Here is Claire C’s equation on The Fifth Child. It was inspired by the article on “funny equations” about newmath.com.

Here is the explanation of my work : 

I use the concept of the article "Funny equations" on the blog for The Fifth Child. My work is about Ben, and I think it is "the" cliché of the book.  

First I took a picture of a little boy and with my software, I represent Ben on black and white because it is the result of the equation. Indeed, we can consider Ben like an angel or like a devil. We have two sides with this character. But, behind Ben there is Harriet and we can't forget her. There is a lot of supposition about her behavior : crazy, post natal depression, denial of pregnancy, hysteria, addiction... But her behavior influences Ben's life. Even if I thought Ben was a monster in my first reading, I was sceptical. Ben is just a child, with his innocence and that's why we can easily suppose that is not a monster.  

When I did my work, I wanted to show that Ben is just a child with his bad and good sides. It is probably Harriet's dominant point of view (during all the novel) which persuades us that Ben is a monster. She's rejecting Ben from the beginning, we have no chance - when we read - to know how he can be if Harriet love him like the others, if she wasn't tired, if she doesn't take pills etc... 

WOW!!!!! A war has begun!

I'm a big Star Wars fan and I must admit that the last Greenpeace campaign is really punchy!

Greenpeace has decided to spoof the little Vader advert by VW in order to show its dark side. Indeed, for Greenpeace, VW is opposing European legislation that would impose further limits on the amount of C02 that new vehicles are allowed to emit.

Really useful for STG lessons about Global warming!!!!! Luv it!

Here is the original advert:

Here are the spoof ads:

Here are some articles about the subject:

http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/20110628/most-succesful-internet-advert-ever-spoofed-star-wars-kids.htm

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/sectors/automotives/greenpeace-slams-volkswagen-with-darth-vader-spoof/3027882.article

Here is the Greenpeace website specialy created for the occasion:

http://vwdarkside.com/en

Here is the Greenpeace manifesto:

Rebel Manifesto

Our home—Earth—is in trouble. VW opposes key environmental laws we need if we’re going to stop our planet going the way of Alderaan (bye bye). But all is not lost. We feel the good in Volkswagen.

All of us in the Rebellion are calling on Volkswagen to turn away from the Dark Side and give our planet a chance.

Put your technology where your mouth is.

Volkswagen says it wants to be “the most eco-friendly automaker in the world”, but only 6% of the cars it sold in 2010 were its most efficient models.
It has the technology to do better. VW must set out its plan to make its entire fleet oil-free by 2040.

The following is taken from HERE

To add insult to injury, Greenpeace names VW(Group) as Europe’s least green car maker in a 24-page report published this morning. The report accuses Volkswagen of exaggerating its green record and resisting attempts to make popular models such as the market-leading Golf more fuel efficient.

Greenpeace said, “The truth is that the Volkswagen Group has lagged behind its competitors for years. It only stepped up progress on CO2 reductions once a legal framework was put in place that forced it do so. It has shown no ability or willingness to voluntarily deliver the innovation or technology changes required. Now Volkswagen is openly opposed to the agreed 2020 standard that would benefit motorists, the economy and the environment.”

The Campaign

Greenpeace have put together a clever campaign which is built around a custom website containing the two videos, plus an achievements game which rewards participants with badges as they climb the ‘Star Wars’ ladder (from Baby Ewok through to Yoda), culminating in the ultimate prize of… a Greenpeace T-shirt. Way to go GP! (cue sacrastic whooping and hollering).

The troops have also been out in force this morning, and by troops I really mean troops – passers-by in London this morning have observed the rather unorthodox sight of Stormtroopers wearing VW badges encouraging people to “turn away from the dark side” (i.e. VW). The #vwdarkside hastag is not (yet) trending, but it surely will at some point later today, so if you’d like to oppose the campaign you can show your support with a Twibbon or tweeting your support for VW using the hastag #empiredrivesavw.

If you do however feel inclined to sign up and help Greenpeace turn VW away from the Dark Side, then visit vwdarkside.com to begin your Jedi Training.

Moreover you can download the report written by Greenpeace on the site.

You can join the rebellion and become a Jedi Master against the Dark Side of VW.

Incredible.

A vid that can be used in a lesson about global warming.

Here are some covers of The Fifth Child designed by Albert Einstein High School! Waouh! Impressive and really interesting! Don't hesitate to comment on them!

You probably know the famous adverts for Old spice! It's incredible how it has influenced many other people. Here are some examples, the latest being the trailer of a motion picture.

Possible Xbloggtation: Just use it in class to analyse the process. Any other idea? Can you try to do your own parody?