The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Dear students,

Welcome to the webQuest: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The coming weeks you will be dealing with this WebQuest. You will be listening to, discussing, reading, and doing all kinds of assignments about the novel: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. However, you are not going to read the paper version, but you are going to listen to the audiobook. This will improve your listening skills, which is one of the goals of this WebQuest. Listening to an audiobook may be a new experience for you but I think you are going to like it. When you have finished the WebQuest you will be asked to fill in an evaluation form because I am interested in your opinion, any tips and tops, and other feedback about the WebQuest in general, the novel, the audiobook, the assignments and the test!

Listening to an audiobook can be a challenge if you are not used to listening to English, but you will get better at it, you just have to do it. You should listen to the audiobook when you can focus on the story, and when it is safe to do so! (i.e. not while riding a bike, for instance). Listening to an audiobook can be a great experience as it is almost like watching a movie in your head. It can be more exciting than reading, although it depends greatly on who does the reading. You have to listen to the audiobook and you will be tested on this weekly, in different forms. If you have the time, it is a very good idea to listen to the excerpts twice, but that is not mandatory. Please, do not listen ahead of schedule and do not read the book or watch the movie in advance. You can find a treasure trove of information on the Internet about the novel, but you will have a much nicer experience if you follow the WebQuest's sequence, take my word for it.

The WebQuest will be changed weekly so you will be forced to follow the sequence. You can regard the new additions to the task page as homework, so I will not be talking about homework in class.You can copy the audiobook from the CD you received from the teacher and listen to it via a computer or, even better, via a portable device (e.g. mobile phone) wherever and whenever you can. Please return the CD to the teacher, thank you. You will find the listening schedule on the process page.

Good luck!