Friday, January 03, 2014

Tales of Horror by Bram Stoker Retold by John Davey



            It was the week of Halloween, and my students were asking me to do a scary story for the extensive reading.  “Well, I’ll try and do something,” I said, although it was a little bit difficult because with this particular class we had already worked our way through most of the horror classics: Dracula, Frankenstein, and Phantom of the Opera.  (I perhaps should have paced these out better.)
           
            But I did manage to find this book in the school’s library.
            There’s no actual book called Tales of Horror by Bram Stoker, but this book contains three of his short stories:  The Judge’s House, The Iron Maiden and The Return of Abel Behena.

            My students really enjoyed the first two stories in this book, but were very disappointed with The Return of Abel Behena, which they claimed was not a scary story at all. 
            I actually enjoyed all 3 stories, and it has made me curious to someday check out the original short story collections of Bram Stoker.  (Although I did find the original Dracula by Bram Stoker to be a bit slowand tedious when I read it 13 years ago.)

Teaching Materials
[These are vocab words from the first few pages of The Judge's TaleI cut these into cards, and after the reading had the students close their books, and played the karuta game described here while I read the book again.]

student

finished
family
quiet
agreed
train

hotel
garden
street
lawyer
story

worried
gave
keys
frightened
Judge

cruel
hanged
white
unlocked
dining room
fire
supper
eleven o'clock
shadows

Link of the Day 
Chomsky Weighs in on Kennedy Assassination Anniversary: "It Would Impress Kim Il-Sung" 

Also from the Cambodian Daily: Paratroopers Deployed at Protest: 15 Detained, Injured
and Three Killed as Police Open Fire on Protesters
From the Voice of America: The clash took place outside the Yak Jin factory, which is thought to produce for international brands GAP, Walmart and Old Navy.
...Something to think about before shopping at GAP, Walmart, or Old Navy 

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