Infonews n°345 from 09/11/2008

Infonews this week is only about Obama's victory. His speech in Chicago was splendid : here is where you can find the video, the mp3 file and the transcript, plus some other information about who wrote the speech and who Anne Cooper is. Then read some reactions, listen to songs, see some front pages and the official poster. Then read about the new family coming to the White House and about their new pet, find several activities around the speech of the biography of Obama, including a crossword and a quiz, and finally see what addresses our colleagues on the lists recommend you to use if you plan to invite your students to write to the President.

Christine Reymond

Sommaire

A la Une : Victory Speech in Chicago (04/11/2008)

The speech
Some extracts to study
Who writes Obama's speeches?
Other places to get the documents

Reactions

Songs

"yes we can"
"We are the Ones"
"Vote for Hope"

Pictures

Newspapers Front Pages from Nov 5th
The posters

A new family at the White house

Children
the dog will be a mutt
White House Pets

Learning Activities

Activities around the Chicago speech level B1
Activities around the biography (level A2)
Crossword
Quiz

How to write to B.Obama

A la Une : Victory Speech in Chicago (04/11/2008)

The speech

Here is the best site to find everything you need about this speech, recommended by Catherine Tertre on e-teach : American Rhetoric, where you can find the full video and mp3 version of the speech, plus the transcript online and in pdf.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2008/barackobamavictoryspeech.htm

Some extracts to study

05:46 : Sasha and Malia, you have earned the new puppy that is coming with us to the White House
14:32 : Anne Nixon Cooper. You can use this extract from there to the end to invite your students to detect the historical references, and it is also the part with the "yes we can" leitmotiv which makes this speech very MLK like.
http://www.annnixoncooper.com/
Some more about Anne Nixon Cooper, including her interview to the BBC. (thanks to Anne-Marie Pissavin on e-teach)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7712227.stm

Who writes Obama's speeches?

Marielle Bianchi found an article about Obama's Speech writers
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/fashion/20speechwriter.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Reactions

from BBC learning English, a short article with a lot of vocabulary, level B1+ (audio + transcript)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2008/11/081105_us_election.shtml
from the New York Times : "Vaulting the racial divide", level B2
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/us/politics/05race.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
On eTeachNet, Annie Gwynn recommends this video "from MLK to Obama"
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=WRq2wmF6Ig0

Songs

"yes we can"

This was the official song for the campaign, you can find the lyrics on its own site:
http://yeswecan.dipdive.com/biography/
by Will-I-Am with the lyrics in "more info" and with extracts of the "yes we can" speech in New hampshire.
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=lSuMdkff0_o
by a group of artists : a bit confused because of overlapping sounds, but with the names of the artists and the lyrics in "more info" and with extracts of the "yes we can" speech in New hampshire.
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY
a capella version by a group of students. Without famous artists but easier to understand.
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=l07COcgwmXU
rock version (Rock you Beat)
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=Xph3lqEuPJQ
International version in 23 languages, with the lyrics in English written on the screen
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=-PJa3jaEVyM

"We are the Ones"

On eTeachNet, Sylvie Theuillon recommends this song by Will.I.Am written for the campaign, with parts in Spanish and the lyrics in "more info".
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=ghSJsEVf0pU

"Vote for Hope"

Marie jacques Paulet recommends us this rap song by MC Yogi. On the site you can download the song and see the lyrics.
http://mcyogi.com/lyrics/vote-for-hope

Pictures

Newspapers Front Pages from Nov 5th

Newseum offers you 724 front pages from all over the world. Laurence Carta recommended this site on e-teach.
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/default_archive.asp?fpArchive=110508

The posters

On e-teach, Catherine Tertre selected these 2 videos from CBS presenting the poster and the street art pop artist who created it. (note that there is an advertisement before the video)
"Political Culture meets Pop Culture" :
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4576919n
" Barack Obama is a Work of Art" video with the transcript, but still with ads.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/05/eveningnews/main4576731.shtml
and here are some of the posters
http://manifesthope.com/
http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?startat=/getposter.asp&APNum=4028525&CID=87EE1F5316C545B2B838232FFCFDFEE7&PPID=1&search=obama%2008%20hope&f=t&FindID=0&P=3&PP=7&sortby=PD&cname=&SearchID

A new family at the White house

Children

On e-teach, Catherine Tertre recommends this video and transcript from CBS :"All eyes on the new family". This is a short article, level B1.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/06/eveningnews/main4580827.shtml

The dog will be a mutt

Since the victory speech in Chicago, the dog has become a major issue for many. here is an article about Obama's reaction. Note the use of the word "mutt" used as "crossed breed" (for a dog) and "mixed race" (for a man) : "a lot of shelter dogs are mutts, like me" Obama said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=32449
Here is a definition for mutt (the Webster didn't help there!), presenting it as a word that can be either derogatory of affectionate.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-mutt.htm

White House Pets

Here are the present president's pets, including Ofelia, a longhorn
http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/pets/
Barney is the most famous, with a whole page and several videos, and often mentionned in the White House for Kids section
http://www.whitehouse.gov/barney/
http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/
And on the "Presidential Pet Museum" page, you can find a complete list of all the presidents and their pets. As you go back in history, you find more unusual pets like a goat, a pig.
http://www.presidentialpetmuseum.com/whitehousepets-1.htm

Learning Activities

Activities around the Chicago speech level B1

Activities prepared by Annie Gwynn around the beginning of the speech.
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/annie.gwynn/cours/presidents/tasks_obama_speech.pdf
and you can find the interactive version on Laurence Bernard's site for Martinique
http://absolutenglish.free.fr/spip.php?article16
you can download the corresponding videos in two formats, flv and wmv from her site
http://absolutenglish.free.fr/IMG/USelections2008/hellochicago.flv
http://absolutenglish.free.fr/IMG/USelections2008/hellochicago.wmv

Activities around the biography (level A2)

Laure Peskine recommends this lesson about "Famous People" created by Sean Banville in BreakingNewsEnglish : a short biography of Obama, with mp3 file, transcript, and several well designed exercises level A2.
http://www.famouspeoplelessons.com/b/barack_obama.html

Crossword

BBC Learning English suggest this crossword, that I personally found not very convincing...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/quizzes/crosswords/

Quiz

How stuff works offers a quiz about Obama, and also several pages presenting the man, which students can use autonomously or that you can use for a webquest
http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/barack-obama.htm
http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/barack-obama-quiz.htm

How to write to B.Obama

On e-teach, several teachers were looking for an address to send a letter from their students to B.Obama either as a personal reaction from the students or as a final task for the class.
Coralie Gilson found this page:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

and on eTeachNet, Sarah Rapnouil-Dunn suggests contacting him on his site as a senator
http://obama.senate.gov/contact/

or sending letters to one of those addresses:
Mr President-elect Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

or better still,

The Honorable Barack Obama
United States Senate
713 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1305

and Francis Mayet on e-teach suggests contacting him through the site devoted to the transition : change.gov
http://change.gov/page/s/contact
On this site you can also learn about the inauguration
http://change.gov/learn/inauguration/

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