THE SAFFRON ROBED REBELLION

We often complain about our teens' lack of ideas when writing summaries or essays or when talking about topics which have nothing to do with their teens' world. Breaking news provide real and up-to-date information that is closely related to cross-curricula topics and socio-cultural aspects. Burma, Pakistan, Hong Kong are now news, they are part of Britain history and they may become relevant topics in our students' learning process.

Students may pay little attention to such pieces of news because they may not understand why things are going on or what events happened before. Far from what we may think our students have the right level of English to deal with such news if we set clear tasks to make them familiar with it. In other words, “scaffolding” activities we can draw their attention and get productive results.

An example of it is the Burma Project, a project made up by a group of students at 4 th of ESO with a pre-intermediate level of English throughout the first term. The net was the main source of information as it is the technology they are used to.

First, they carried out reading comprehension activities using the internet, enciclopaedias or other sources such as newspapers or magazines. After that, they played the role of journalists as they wrote their reports (a summary) with the information they got.

These are some of the web pages they consulted :

http://www.uniya.or g /research/view_burma.html

http://www.burma w atch.org/aboutburma.html

http://www . web.amnesty.org/web/ar2001.nsf/webasacountries/MYANMAR?OpenDocument

http://www.bbc.co.uk/b u rmese/forum/story/2004/09/040917_1988_militaryrule_vs_democracy.shtml

http://news.bbc.c o .uk/2/h i / asia-paci f ic/7012158.stm

http://www.dassk.com/

Here you can read some reports:

Burma is in the East of the Andaman Sea. There are three seasons: a dry and cold winter, a hot summer and a humid and rainy seas on of monsoons. The agriculture consists mainly of rice. They speak Burmese, Kachin, Karen, Chin and Shan and English.

Burma was a British colony for 62 years, from 1824 to 1886.

The pro democracy “Yellow revolution” took place in Burma in 1988. It was started by the buddish monks. Buddishm is very important in Burma because it marks the moral law. 8-8-88 is a date, 8 th of August, 1988 when hundreds of people were killed. After a coup de état the SLORC changed the name of the country, Burma, into Myanmar, its capital is Rangoon. Britain and USA didn't accept the new name because they thought that the SLORC hasn't the right to do it. Zhan Shwe is a Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar. This dictator is very superstitious. He wanted only 45 and 90 kyat notes in circulation. This was because they were divisible by nine, which he considered a lucky number. By cancelling the other notes which people held, much of their savings were wiped out overnight.

On the other hand, Aung San Suu Kyi was a Parliament member before the coup de-état took place. Nowadays she's under house arrest after being in prison for fourteen years . Burmese people call her “the lady” and she represents freedom in this country. That's the reason why she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

Human rights aren't respected because Burmese government don't accept different opinions.

I think that they should be more tolerant with the other people and respect the different ways of thinking. I don't agree with the punishments in the prisons. I think they're too hard.

Patricia Martínez Ovejero

The situation in Burma or Myanmar is really sad. With the military government the people aren't free to express their opinions. Burma is very near India and China, two very important countries, so it's influenced by them. Now, the president and general of Myanmar is Zhan Shwe. The dictatorship started in 1988 with a coup the état. Along the story some dissidents have tried to change the things in Burma, but a lot of them finished in prison or the military government killed them. One of the most important dissidents is Aung San Suu Kyi. She is called “The Lady of Burma” and she received the Nobel prize for peace.

Burma is now called Myanmar, and it capital is Rangoon. The climate is tropical and its agriculture is very rich. This country is highly influenced by the Buddishm.

Alejandro Murciano/ Álvaro Martínez

In Burma there was a coup de ètat in 1988. The leader of this coup de état was Saw Maung. The new government killed the people that have different thoughts and they took many people to prison too. Nowadays this country is called Myanmar because the military government change the original name, Burma.

That year the monks took part in many demonstrations because they are the only free people in the country and they don't agree with the new laws.

The people live with fear because the government arrested and killed many people in the demonstrations.

In the news this is a very important topic because the dead are civilian people including women and children.

In my opinion the incidents what in Burma are intolerable and the countries must do anything to try to change it, because the government don´t do anything and the people continue dying.

Antonio Gallego

Burma has been ruled by a military regime since 1962 and parliamentary elections haven't been held since 1990 Nowadys Burma is called Myanmar .I n 1886 was a British colony but in the 2nd World War it was dominated by Japan. In 1988 there was a coup de état. Zhan Shwe is the general and president of the State's of Peace of the Union of Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi isis the freedom symbol in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and became an icon of democracy, world peace and freedom. In Burma Buddhism is 72% of its population religion. In Burma there is one the most brutal regimes in the world China has a lot of influence on this country but they do not want to have any problem before the Olympic Games.

Lorenzo Susarte Trujillano

Myanmar / Burma

Burma's flag

Buddishm