Set­ting the Scene

Q&A or Slum­dog Mil­lio­nai­re
A sto­ry­line pro­ject for an ad­van­ced level

Set­ting the scene/Task-cycle

You and your class­ma­tes have won the big prize! As the win­ners in a com­pe­ti­ti­on about India, you win a 3-week trip to the “pro­mi­sed land” to find out more about the peop­le, their pro­blems and hopes and about In­dian so­cie­ty in ge­ne­ral. To­ge­ther with the ac­com­pany­ing teachers you pre­pa­re well in ad­van­ce - you want to im­press the peop­le you are li­kely to meet and you want to make the best of your trip of a life­time. If only so­meo­ne had told you in ad­van­ce to what use you would have to put your know­ledge and skills.... First of all ever­y­thing goes well - the school that is your home for three weeks is nice, the peop­le are fri­end­ly and hos­pi­ta­ble and you all learn so much in ever- chan­ging si­tua­ti­ons.  But then di­sas­ter strikes: one of the teachers of the school you are stay­ing at is a keen out­doors spe­cia­list and in­vi­tes you on a tour through the fa­sci­na­ting but dan­ge­rous Thar De­sert in Ra­jast­han. All of a sud­den there are ban­dits, de­scen­dants of the Mo­guls, who kid­nap you and your group at gun­point. They take you to a se­cret pa­lace in the midd­le of the Thar De­sert.

When you enter the pa­lace you feel like you are in the world of “One Thousand And One Nights”. Ever­y­thing is so dif­fe­rent, sce­nes of un­se­en wealth and be­au­ty un­fold in front of your wide-open eyes and mouths, but you can feel the dan­ger be­hind this be­au­ty with every step you take through this ori­en­tal sce­ne­ry.  The ban­dits are a very proud lot and have got some ma­li­cious tricks up their slee­ves. They are not in­te­rested in your money or other world­ly goods - they want to play with you - but the sta­kes are high: win, and you walk; lose, and you will be at their mercy for the rest of your life. Their fa­vou­rite book is “Slum­dog Mil­lio­nai­re” by Vikas Swa­rup - a no­ve­list they hold in high es­te­em. They ex­pect any in­tru­der not only to read the novel but to know ever­y­thing about it and its orig­ins and mes­sa­ges as well. 

Don’t be foo­led by this. Oh yes, you have lear­ned to deal with no­vels in class- in­ter­pre­ting them, being crea­ti­ve and pre­sen­ting the main points! The ban­dits have other ideas. They will make the tasks even more dif­fi­cult by slip­ping in di­lem­mas and dif­fi­cult in­ci­dents and, being very keen on the cor­rect­ness of the Eng­lish lan­gua­ge, they set you tasks to prove that you can deal both with the Eng­lish gram­mar and vo­ca­bu­la­ry!!

Tasks

The vil­lains who ab­duc­ted your group like being en­ter­tai­ned in the tra­di­ti­on of their an­ces­tors - when being able to tell  a good story used to be a high­ly es­te­e­med skill. You will be given one or two chap­ters from the book to pre­sent to the vil­lains. You will have to work with a part­ner or in a team and the way you pre­sent it is to­tal­ly up to you and your team mate. What mat­ters is the qua­li­ty of your “sto­ry­tel­ling” in order to con­vin­ce the ab­duc­tors to set you free. Here are the points that should be in­clu­ded:

• India – the pla­ces where the novel is set/ In­dian so­cie­ty
• India’s his­to­ry – now and then – main fea­tures; re­fe­ren­ces in the novel
• Re­li­gi­ons in India – main fea­tures; re­fe­ren­ces in the novel  
• The plot/The cha­rac­ters

Tasks

• En­ter­tain­ment and Sport
• Lan­gua­ge and Gram­mar

The only free­dom they allow you is the mode of pre­sen­ta­ti­on and the way you would like to go about your va­rious jobs... So your fu­ture is ent­i­re­ly in your own hands

Pre­sen­ta­ti­on

Each team or tan­dem will have to pre­sent their work and re­se­arch in a con­vin­cing and en­ter­tai­ning way. The as­pects to be dealt with will come from your own dis­cus­sions wi­t­hin your group and some ad­di­tio­nal de­man­ds from the ban­dits. At the end of each pre­sen­ta­ti­on a well-in­for­med group and happy ban­dits will gua­ran­tee your safe­ty. You all may use your pre­fer­red mode of pre­sen­ta­ti­on:

• Power­point pre­sen­ta­ti­on
• Ac­ting out the scene
• Plain sto­ry­tel­ling, in­clu­ding va­rious forms of pre­sen­ta­ti­ons
• In­ter­view or dia­lo­gue
• In­te­ri­or mo­no­lo­gue, etc

Now you can see how im­portant it was to tra­vel well pre­pa­red. If you still have pro­blems, con­sult your skill pages or your teachers!

The sto­ries

We all wish you good luck be­cau­se only a li­vely and cap­ti­vat­ing per­for­mance, cou­ra­ge and in­ven­tiven­ess will gua­ran­tee your free­dom!!!

Set­ting the Scene:  Her­un­ter­la­den [pptx] [4,5 MB]