Padova-Poznan: Task 2

Purpose: The aim of this week’s task is to start reflecting on the political elections in the United States and in Italy.

Task: Each of the main candidates in both elections now have a site on YouTube. There are also articles daily in the newspapers about all the candidates and what they say, want to do, etc. In other words, as you know, there are numerous sources online for following the elections.

1 – In your groups, divide yourself into two sub-groups. One will follow the candidates on the left (Obama/Clinton and PD), the other the candidates on the right (McCain and PDL). Make your decision and post it on the wiki page.

2 – Depending on the group your in, access the resources I have saved in del.icio.us. You can find them by searching ‘bloggingenglish’ or by joining my network (I’m lamericaana). I’ve also used the tag ‘elections’ and it’s interesting to see what else comes up in del.icio.us under this tag. (If you find new resources, please tag them as I have to share them with the rest of us!) Try to identify key words and key expressions that the candidates use. Also try and note, in the videos, how they interact with their audience.

3 – Write a post about your observations on your personal blogs. If you notice differences, try and formulate a hypothesis or two about why the differences exist.

4 – Subscribe to each others’ blogs in Bloglines. You are not obliged to read or comment on each other, but of course you are welcome to. Since you’ve all written which group your in on your wiki pages, you can also check out the blogs of peers in other groups who are in your left or right sub-group.

Deadline: Monday, March 10, 2008

N.B. The many speeches Clinton, Obama and McCain have given can often be found on the New York Times website (http://nytimes.com/) with transcripts so if you're having trouble understanding them you can find the texts there.