When Harry Potter, the Son of Wizards, Was a Baby, the Evil Wizard Lord Voldemort Killed

University Koblenz – Landau Campus Koblenz English department Course: Area studies/ Children’s literature Summer term 2005 Friday, 12 o’clock Course leader: Dr. Isabel Martin Students: Katja Bach, Sandra Welter, Nicole Schramm Date of Presentation: Friday, 8th of July

1. Short summary of Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone

When Harry Potter was a baby, the evil wizard Lord Voldemort killed his parents James and Lily Potter. He tried to kill Harry, too, but he could not. Harry survived, but a lightning- shaped scar remained on his forehead. After the attack Lord Voldemort lost his powers and vanished, but he is still out there somewhere. Harry was sent to live with his aunt Petunia, his uncle Vernon and his overweight cousin Dudley Dursley. They treat Harry with contempt and let him live in a cupboard under the stairs. They also tell him that his parents died in a car crash, so that Harry does not know who he really is. On the week of his eleventh birthday Harry starts to get letters delivered by owls. The letters invite him to study at a Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As the Dursleys do not let Harry read the letters, Hagrid, the groundkeeper of Hogwarts, arrives to take Harry with him. He tells Harry what really happened to him and his parents and that he is therefore a well known person. Hagrid first take Harry to Diagon Alley in London, a secret place for muggles (people who are not wizards), to buy things Harry needs for school, like a wand, a robe, spell books and so on. At King’s Cross railway station he is supposed to catch the Hogwarts Express at Platform 9 three-quarters. At the station he meets Ron Weasley and his family, who show him how to find the right Platform. Harry and Ron become friends and in the train Hermione Granger joins them. In Hogwarts all newcomers are sorted into the four Hogwarts houses. The three friends are sorted into the house of Gryffindor. During their first year Harry, Hermione and Ron accidentally discover that someone seems to intend to steal something that is guarded by a three-headed dog in one of the school rooms which no one is allowed to enter. They suspect the potions master, Severus Snape. They find out, that the dog is protecting the philosopher’s stone of which an Elixir of eternal life can be made. Harry and his friends suppose that Snape wants to help Lord Voldemort to get that Elixir for his resurrection. Since nobody believes them, they take it on themselves to prevent Snape from stealing the stone. With the help of their individual strengths the three manage to get past various defences which guard the stone, until Harry has to go forward alone to face … not Snape, but Professor Quirrel, who has been acting as host for Lord Voldemort. He wants to use Harry to find the stone, but when he touches Harry he feels intense pain. The more body contact he has with Harry while fighting the bigger the pain gets. In the end Quirrel dies and Lord Voldemort vanishes again. The stone is destroyed. 2. Would you deal with Harry Potter in class?

Arguments……

for: against: It is good that the characters aren’t painted Harry Potter is not a modern fairy tail. In a just black or white, because in reality the fairy tail the wizards are clear-cut wicked people aren’t too. The children have to form figures. In these books is nobody, who wants there own opinion and learn that you the good. (Kuby) sometimes have to change your mind. Today a lot of children don’t read anymore in These books may be one reason, that children their spare time. lose themselves in a fantasy world. Because But Harry Potter has a high reading of the modern media it is more and more motivation and might be a good book to difficult to find the border between fiction make the children start reading. and reality.

3.) Dealing with Harry Potter in class

Ideas for general activities:

- Divide the class into four teams and give each of the team a name of the houses from Hogwarts (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin). The teams will work together on cooperative learning projects, on group work, in sport lessons or other class activities. They earn points for good work, good behaviour and responsibility (like the pupils in Hogwarts). Points will also be taken away for missing homework or not cooperating with other team members of the class. At the end of your “Harry-Potter- project” you can choose something special for the winning team. - You could choose an owl as a mascot for your class (in Hogwarts owls are popular pets). - The owl could also be a “postman” and delivers letters to the children (as they also do in Hogwarts). - You could decorate the classroom so that it gets some “Hogwarts-feeling” (e.g. with owls, some wizard requirements, pumpkins ...)

Ideas for specific subjects:

German lessons:  Read the book.  Write articles for the “Daily Prophet” (the “Daily Prophet” is the daily wizard newspaper in Hogwarts).  Write letters to Harry’s aunt and uncle and congratulate them on Harry’s invitation to Hogwarts.  Do creative writing or group discussions. You could give questions or introductions like: “If you had a choice to live forever, would you?”, “If I had an invisible suit...”, “What if Harry, Ron and Hermione were put in Slytherin?”, “Evaluate the book.” Maths lessons:  In the world of witchcraft and wizardry a special currency is used. Wizards pay with Galleons, Sickles and Knuts. For mathematics in primary-school you could create play-money which symbolizes the money of the wizards. They could look like this ones:

Children could practice to convert this currency; with 29 Knuts in 1 sickle and 17 sickle in 1 galleon. Let them calculate with the money, e.g. let them imagine they are in Diagon Alley (Winkelgasse) and buy different things for school.  In class you could reward children with the money for correct answers. For this you could create a “Gringotts” (a bank in the Diagon Alley) branch. Take a corkboard and put as many envelopes as pupils in your class on it. The envelopes are the accounts of the children. Decorate it in Harry Potter style. At the end of the Harry Potter project the one with the most money receives a prize.

Sport lessons:  If you want to play Quidditch (it is the most popular sport game in Hogwarts) in sport lesson, you have to prepare the gym. You need six rings hanging under the ceiling, one volley ball, one rugby ball and a little bouncy ball as Golden Snitch. Then you can start playing: First of all you have to select a leader and divide the class into two teams. Every team needs a seeker, standing in the corner of the gym. The leader throws the two big balls into the game and both teams (except for the seeker) try to throw them through the rings. They get 10 points for every goal. Sometimes (maybe once a minute) the game leader throws the Golden Snitch and the two seekers have to catch it. The first one, who caught it, gives it back to the leader and his team earns 100 points. After 5 to 10 minutes the game stops and the parts are changed, so that everybody has been the seeker.

Religious lessons:  You could talk about topics like friendship, feeling lonely or justice

Music lessons:  You could create a song to cheer on your team and perform it for the class.

Art lessons:  The children could draw a reflection they desire from the mirror “Erised” (if you stand in front of the mirror “Erised”, the mirror shows you your deepest wishes). The children could also write an explanation of their pictures and afterwards you could discuss in class the advantages and disadvantages of such a mirror if it existed.

English lessons:  Depending on your class level you could try to do things we have listed up under other subjects in English (integrated work!)  Do activities (e.g. games, songs ...) that deal with Harry Potter, magic or wizards. In our group work we have worked out some Harry-Potter-activities.

4.) Group work:

Group Gryffindor: Working with speaking skills  „ Zauberquartett Englisch“ Rules of the game: Shuffle the playing cards and give everybody the same number of cards. Then have a look at the cards and put them in order. The left corner of the card shows you to which sets of four it belongs. Under the picture there are the nouns of the other cards that belong to that set of four. You have to find as many sets of four as possible. If you have a set of four put it on the table and read out your set. e.g.: “I’ve got clothes: trousers, dress, jumper, T-shirt.” If you have not got four cards that belong together you have to ask someone of your playfellows about the missing ones. e.g.: You have got three cards of the category animals: cat, bat and unicorn. Then you ask somebody: “(name), can you give me the dog, please?” If he has got this card he has to give it to you and to say: “Yes, I can.” You can go on asking about missing cards until you ask somebody, who does not have the card you are asking for. He /She says: “No, I can´t.” Then it is his/her turn.

 “ Zauber – Memo Englisch” Rules of the game: Shuffle the cards and put them on the table (floor...). Pay attention that there are no cards lying on each other. You have to find pairs of cards. One player begins. He / She is allowed to turn around two cards. If they have the same picture on them the players gets that pair and has another try. If they have different pictures they have to be turned around and it is the next players turn. The winner is the player with the most pairs. While you are playing this game, use sentences like this: “Oh, the wizard! Where can I find / was the Zauberer?” “Oh, the Zauberer! Where can I find /was the wizard? “ And if you find a pair, read out the English and the German word.

Group Slytherin: Preparing a recipe  butter beer recipe: Ingredients (for one cup of butter beer): - ½ teaspoons of butter - ¾ cup of milk - 2 teaspoons of honey - 1 teaspoons of cocoa powder - ½ teaspoons of sugar  method: Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Pour milk into the saucepan and mix it with the butter. Add honey, cocoa powder and sugar while still stirring. Heat up the mixture but don’t forget to stir! Pour the butter beer into mugs and serve! Cheers!!!

Group Ravenclaw: Creating own material  game: Flying lesson First of all form two teams. On the floor you find a sheet with a grating on it. There are letters in each field. Take the broom and try to spell the words on the cards by flying from one letter to the next. Somebody of the first team begins. All the others have to guess which word is spelled. The team that first guesses right gets a point. Then it is the turn of somebody of the second team.  Creating your own materials …A lot of teachers support in principle the idea of crating their own materials, mainly because it allows them to meet their pupils’ needs better. However, you need to be realistic and consider what is possible as well as what is best for your learners. Most common barriers: - Lack of time to design materials/ activities  Suggestions for solution: Involve your pupils. It gives them real reason for using language and yet at the same time, it helps you to make more materials. - Cost involved in making/photocopying  Suggestions for solution: Getting together with other language teachers to make materials and then sharing them can help to overcome this problem. You can also prepare a set of workcards based on class exercises which could be laminated in order to make them last. - Lack of handbooks or reference books from which to get ideas  Suggestions for solution: If you have not had much experience, then it may be best to start by trying out activities from the textbooks and then later adapting them in small ways. You can learn from experience, particularly if you get your pupils to help you by giving their opinion. - Lack of skills/expertise to design their own activities  Suggestions for solution: Try to get together with other teachers in order to generate ideas. Take out a subscription to a magazine for teachers.

Group Hufflepuff: Listen and make  Listening and making involves children in a creative process - The children have to make decisions. - There is more time to think and comment. - There are opportunities for cooperating between learners. - The children have something to take home at the end of the class.  Listen and colour Colouring is a very simple activity for language work with very young learners and young learners. Before you begin, make sure that all children have colours, crayons, markers, coloured pencils or felt tipped pens. Then prepare your learners for the activity in order to: - revise the colours they will need - revise the names of what they are about to colour. Give out a picture to each child. They have to listen to your instructions. You are going to them what colours to use and what to colour.  Listen and draw Children can draw by themselves without instructions. But your aim is to get them listen to some instructions in English. You can describe a very simple picture of a familiar scene, with objects children know. The children listen and draw what they hear you describe.

5.) Literature:

- Joanne K Rowling, Harry Potter and the philosopher’ stone; London 1997; ISBN: 0-747-53269-9 - Hanns Petillon, 1000 tolle Spiele für Grundschulkinder; Landau 2001; ISBN: 3-401-00383-6 - Gabriele Kuby, Harry Potter – gut oder böse; Kisslegg 2003; ISBN: 3-928929-54-2 - Jayne Moon, Children learning English; Oxford 2000; ISBN: 3-19-002711-0 - Mary Slattery and Jane Willis; English for Primary Teachers; New York 2001; ISBN: 0-19-437563-3 - Maria Hagström, Mona Veit und Esther Schulenkorf; Early Bird – Magic and fairy tales; Oberursel 2003; Bestellnummer: 3539 - http://www.verzaubert.at/Schatztruhe 18.06.05 - http://www.harry-poter.de 21.06.05 - http://www.novelguide.com/HarryPotterandtheSorcerer’sStone/summarys 21.06.05 - http://www.beepworld.de/member52/engelchris/getraenke.htm 05.07.05 - http://www.harrypotter.warnerbros.com 20.06.05 - http://pirates.k12.ar.us/cre/labert/harrypotter.htm 20.06.05 - Zauberquartett Englisch, Ein Kartenspiel zum Englisch lernen; Langenscheidt; ISBN: 3-468-20405-1 - Zauber – Memo Englisch, Ein Bilderlegespiel zum Englisch lernen; Langenscheidt; ISBN: 3-468-20404-3