Boletín 80 - An illustrated Volver edition on secondary sources.
Boletín 80 - An illustrated Volver edition on secondary sources.
Boletín 80 is out now!
To achieve top marks in the year 12 essay for AO4 students must demonstrate:
Very good knowledge of different aspects of the culture and society of Spain and Spanish-speaking countries and communities appropriate to the question set.
and
Arguments developed and justified and conclusions drawn with appropriate evidence from the source material.
I am excited about this edition which has taken much time during half-term to create. Once again my wife did her fair share as well. I simply can’t afford to spend this much time on an edition during a normal week at school and so I must apologise for two consecutive Almodóvar issues.
Edition 74, which followed the same format with an honus on secondary sources, had such a big impact on my teaching of La casa de Bernarda Alba that I wanted to replicate it with Volver. Now, I know that the markscheme rewards evidence from the source material (as above) but I want my students to blow examiners away with extra film knowledge learnt from reading around the film and the director and so this edition is born of that.
In edition 80, within the context of Volver, students will learn about la solidaridad feminina, los raices rurales and los instintos maternales. I would like to say a big thank you to Dr Ana Maria Sánchez-Arce (who you can find her here and here) for kindly sharing her research on Volver in the form of a chapter entitled Motherlands taken from her book The cinema of Pedro Almodóvar. Having taught Volver for five years (probably not that long in the grand scheme of things) and thinking that I knew a lot about the film it was humbling to read her research and insight into the film. Her book, currently in hardback, can be found here but is due to be released in paperback soon!
The illustrated books from this edition are again all available in my classroom A Level library and I will detail some of them below which have been insightful. I must be honest though, some I found quite hard reads and put down.
Pedro Almodóvar Interviews - available here.
When I first watched Volver with no prior knowledge of the director I was quite confused. I enjoyed the film and I definitely thought Irene was actually a ghost. I picked this book to learn a bit about the director in his own words. Not many people know that my degree is in drama, my disseratation was about politics on stage in post-WW2 Germany. Thus reading about a director’s influences and interpreting their intentions I find fascinating. Especially when they get political and have their finger on the pulse such as the Historic Memory Law/exhumations of mass graves which feature in Almodóvar’s new film Madres paralelas.
Volver (the script) - available here.
If you teach Volver and haven’t read the script then I reccommend you do. Not only do you get to read the stage directions, see a story board and high quality photos from the set but you also get the pleasure of reading essays by Pedro Almodóvar on various themes which come up in the AS paper.
The cinema of Pedro Almodóvar - available here.
If the chapter Motherlands is anything to go by then this will be an excellent resource for teachers of Volver.
Volver zero prep teaching booklet - available for free here.
Obviously I had to find a way to include my own main Volver teaching resource in this post. The booklet I made contains scans of various articles from authentic Spanish magazines, texts on the main themes, sections of character analysis and relationships, director’s techniques (camera, sound and colour) and some quotes as well.
Thoughts on Volver by @VEverettmfl - part 1 and part 2
I am reminded of some great writing by @VEverettmfl whilst checking on fantasy football team (hoping Southampton keep a cleansheet, Broja scores and JWP blanks). Vincent created a mini-league for MFL teachers by the way, that’s what reminded me of his post. It’s hard to summarise his writings, of which there are two, you just need to make some time to process it all. Broja has just been taken off by the way on 70 minutes with no returns. Disapointment.
Madres paralelas (the script) - available here.
Pedro Almodóvar again pens his thoughts at the end of the script. The first of which is about madres e hijas.
Other books for further reading:
Almodóvar y la cultura by Mario de la Torre-Espinosa
Almodóvar on Almodóvar by Frederic Strauss.
A Spanish Labyrinth by Mark Allinson.
Grammar/structures and vocabulary in edition 80:
Adjectival agreement
Reflexive verbs
Present tense
Indirect object pronoun
Direct object pronoun
The personal a
Preterite tense
The present perfect
Convertirse - to become
Se acerca - looms
Asumir la responsibilidad - To step up to the mark
Sino - but rather
On Tuesday we return to school after half-term and my year 12s will start on essay number 2. This edition will be their homework on the first week back. If you’ve got this far then I hope you find it useful for your students!
Download here.
Buy me a coffee here.
Ollie :)