I. Describing the picture (see your commentary)
captured on security cameras - CCTV footage - blurry tape - fuzzy pictures - released - what is captured was - scenes of - the murder scene - one of the snaphots shows what looks like a ... - in the foreground -wearing - standing - firing - assault-position - holding the shotgun - carrying a gun - commiatted - on a sling over his shoulder - it was fun - carefully planned - laid-cback and composed - sef-confident - in the background - rushing out - frightened - scared - This CCTV footage is weird to watch because ... - What strikes me is ... - shooting randomly - targets - shocking - disturbing - as the images roll by ... -
II. Explaining the context (see your commentary)
III. Summary of the newspaper article
This newspaper article was extracted from Los Angeles Times dated Tuesday August,17th 1999
It deals with ... Here's what happened ...
The article raises the issue of ...
The article can be divided into 3 parts : the first part focuses on ...
The second part deals withan inside report on ...
The first paragraph sets the mood of the passage. The journalist ...
Finally in the last part, the journalist looks back on ...
When you look back in hindsight ...
This article is not a sensational article : the journalist does not ...
The journalist's aim is to ...
He tries to convey the light-hearted mood of the day by ...
There is a sharp contrast between ... and ...
He conveys 3 messages : first ... secondly ... thirdly ...
III. Analysing the situation : now I'm going to focus on the causes which might explain what happened.
In April 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered their classmates and teachers at Columbine High School. Most Americans have reached one of two wrong conclusions about why they did it. The first conclusion is that the pair of supposed "Trench Coat Mafia outcasts" were taking revenge against the bullies who had made school miserable for them. The second conclusion is that the massacre was inexplicable : We can never understand what drove them to such horrific violence.
Peer Pressure (Marina García-Granero, Inés Martínez) The two teenagers may have been the victims of peer pressure. Young people spend large amounts of time in groups. They may have not the maturity to deal with pressure from "friends". Research shows that being in the popular crowd makes them more vulnerable to peer pressures. So it may also be a risk factor for unruly behavior. Sometimes, teenagers follow their schoolmates’ hobbies just because they are afraid of being considered "different" and fall off the socially-acceptable. Teenagers are scared about loneliness. Those feelings may have driven Eric and Dylan to hate their schoolmates, because of their rage against society. They didn’t want to be labeled as nerds or wimps.
Pedro + Louis In our opinion , the shooting was the result of what we call PEER PRESSURE, according to sociologist one of the major causes of stabbings in high schools. Those two teenagers may have been considered as "nerds" (or the oddball of the group). At high school nerds are often excluded, bullied, humiliated... it’s a nightmare for those people. They may have suffered a strong feeling of stigmatisation and little by little they have fallen down off the socially-acceptable. The sense of insecurity and frustatio made them contemplate retaliation and revenge.
(Cerda Alex ; Martinez Cristobal) American children who are addicted to tv and movies are overexposed to violence. As a matter of fact, according to the guinnes book of world records, the average American child sees nearly 15000 acts of violence by his 18th birthday. When children watch so much tv they are influenced by this violence, and this influence can lead to murders or potential murders. Here’s the scariest part : these two teenagers must have been used to seeing dead people and some shooting sprees on tv or videogames. The two teenagers whose only intention was to have some fun may have been the victim of tv addiction. .TV viewing leads to behavior problems, sleep problems, poor grades, psychological problems Eduardo / Victoire Before starting the explanation we should give the definition of peer pressure. Peer pressure is the influence you get from your peers, in that case we can say from the other students or teenagers.Peer pressure can be of different types, but actually the one which interest us is the fear of outcast or of being left out. Social acceptation has become an important topic inside the school world, and you might ask yourself : why being ostracized leads to violence ? it’s quite easy to explain : carrying stigmatising labels during all the school life can have serious consequences on teenagers behavior : feelings of rage appears, and it becomes a strong wish of vengeance against society. For example Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killers of columbine, have also planned to crash a plane in the middle of NYC.That actually shows they want to make all society suffer instead of just the students of their high school. Patricia Myriam CULTURE OF VIOLENCE One explanation to teenagers’ violence is the culture. In fact, in our society is very usually to see young people watching violent movies. We can find this type of films 24 hours,seven days in a week. This a problem because childreen and teenagers can see that before go to school and after too, some parents are very busy on the afternoon because they are working and childreen aren’t monitored. Moreover, adolescents are building on their personality and they are more vulnerable so it is easier to make us believe that things they are watching are normal. At the same time if we like a violent hero from movies or series we may want to emulate him doing the things he does.There’s also a music culture like "metal dark" music groups wich are consider so violent and that influence to children and teenagers. In America’s culture is very normal to have a gun, a firearm in every houses. This a danger because children can take them and they aren’t conscient of this acts.
(Laura ORTIGOSA and Claudia ZAPATER) This violence may be the cause of social exclusion. Harris and Klebold may have been afraid of being considered as outcasts by the rest of the group . The students live with pressure to be socially accepted . This stigmatation made them feel insecure. What’s more the absentee parents may have made . The children spend more time alone at home with their video games or websites. They are exposed to violence every day. Parents didn’t want see the problem. They are too busy for take care of their children’s marginality . Children are ignored by adults and are exposed to violence. They pass more time alone, so, they have less parental control. They have also in most cases unlocked guns at home. They spend their time with videogames.
(Javierz Hernandez) ; (Juan C.) This tragedy raises the issue of the gun culture in the US. Let’s try to understand what drove those teenagers to such horrific violence. Peer pressure seems to be one of the reasons to blame in this story. The two teengers might have been bullied for years, being excluded and rejected by most of the people at school. This experience may have created a sense of insecurity, and feelings of rage and revenge, wich probably got stronger as things stated the same way for a long time. At this point, anything, a simple joke, could trigger the worst.
(Anthony) Violent content is everywhere. Films, video-games, even in sports events shown in millions of homes on free television. A lot of this content isn’t even censored. Adults can tell the difference between reality and fiction ; children often can’t. So when a young boy watches his hero beating up his nemesis, he may try to emulate his actions, not only endangering himself, but also those around him. Also, viewing violent acts in real life and in real events portrays them as common, normal, and therefore they are taken for granted, which leads to sad events like the Columbine High School massacre.
(Javier Rico) (Alejandro Gracia) Parents’s laid back attitude might be one of the reasons why two teenagers went of the shooting spreed. Those teenagers may have been raised by uncaring parents, perhaps they did not see the warning signs of their children’s marginality. And Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold may have got lost even more into their own fantasy world. While they are being excluded by adults and the society too. Parents should spend more time with their children to anticipate this tragic scene.
(Carmen García)(Beatriz Roman) Video-games made have been a sad influence on the two teenagers that’s why they were so aggressive and they may have thought that violence was something acceptable in our society. Nowadays, video-games become more violent because they are more realistic. The development of new technologies resulted in increasing levels of realism in video-games. In video-games such as "Call of duty" of " Medal of honor", the only object is to kill everything that moves. In those games we can see bits of body spread out here an there. The problem is that teenagers aren’t afraid of these games. On the contrary,their behaviour change and they become more aggressive. They are likely to be driven to violence
captured on security cameras - CCTV footage - blurry tape - fuzzy pictures - released - what is captured was - scenes of - the murder scene - one of the snaphots shows what looks like a ... - in the foreground -wearing - standing - firing - assault-position - holding the shotgun - carrying a gun - commiatted - on a sling over his shoulder - it was fun - carefully planned - laid-cback and composed - sef-confident - in the background - rushing out - frightened - scared - This CCTV footage is weird to watch because ... - What strikes me is ... - shooting randomly - targets - shocking - disturbing - as the images roll by ... -
II. Explaining the context (see your commentary)
This newspaper article was extracted from Los Angeles Times dated Tuesday August,17th 1999
It deals with ... Here's what happened ...
The article raises the issue of ...
The article can be divided into 3 parts : the first part focuses on ...
The second part deals withan inside report on ...
The first paragraph sets the mood of the passage. The journalist ...
Finally in the last part, the journalist looks back on ...
When you look back in hindsight ...
This article is not a sensational article : the journalist does not ...
The journalist's aim is to ...
He tries to convey the light-hearted mood of the day by ...
There is a sharp contrast between ... and ...
He conveys 3 messages : first ... secondly ... thirdly ...
III. Analysing the situation : now I'm going to focus on the causes which might explain what happened.
In April 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered their classmates and teachers at Columbine High School. Most Americans have reached one of two wrong conclusions about why they did it. The first conclusion is that the pair of supposed "Trench Coat Mafia outcasts" were taking revenge against the bullies who had made school miserable for them. The second conclusion is that the massacre was inexplicable : We can never understand what drove them to such horrific violence.
Peer Pressure (Marina García-Granero, Inés Martínez) The two teenagers may have been the victims of peer pressure. Young people spend large amounts of time in groups. They may have not the maturity to deal with pressure from "friends". Research shows that being in the popular crowd makes them more vulnerable to peer pressures. So it may also be a risk factor for unruly behavior. Sometimes, teenagers follow their schoolmates’ hobbies just because they are afraid of being considered "different" and fall off the socially-acceptable. Teenagers are scared about loneliness. Those feelings may have driven Eric and Dylan to hate their schoolmates, because of their rage against society. They didn’t want to be labeled as nerds or wimps.
Pedro + Louis In our opinion , the shooting was the result of what we call PEER PRESSURE, according to sociologist one of the major causes of stabbings in high schools. Those two teenagers may have been considered as "nerds" (or the oddball of the group). At high school nerds are often excluded, bullied, humiliated... it’s a nightmare for those people. They may have suffered a strong feeling of stigmatisation and little by little they have fallen down off the socially-acceptable. The sense of insecurity and frustatio made them contemplate retaliation and revenge.
(Cerda Alex ; Martinez Cristobal) American children who are addicted to tv and movies are overexposed to violence. As a matter of fact, according to the guinnes book of world records, the average American child sees nearly 15000 acts of violence by his 18th birthday. When children watch so much tv they are influenced by this violence, and this influence can lead to murders or potential murders. Here’s the scariest part : these two teenagers must have been used to seeing dead people and some shooting sprees on tv or videogames. The two teenagers whose only intention was to have some fun may have been the victim of tv addiction. .TV viewing leads to behavior problems, sleep problems, poor grades, psychological problems Eduardo / Victoire Before starting the explanation we should give the definition of peer pressure. Peer pressure is the influence you get from your peers, in that case we can say from the other students or teenagers.Peer pressure can be of different types, but actually the one which interest us is the fear of outcast or of being left out. Social acceptation has become an important topic inside the school world, and you might ask yourself : why being ostracized leads to violence ? it’s quite easy to explain : carrying stigmatising labels during all the school life can have serious consequences on teenagers behavior : feelings of rage appears, and it becomes a strong wish of vengeance against society. For example Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killers of columbine, have also planned to crash a plane in the middle of NYC.That actually shows they want to make all society suffer instead of just the students of their high school. Patricia Myriam CULTURE OF VIOLENCE One explanation to teenagers’ violence is the culture. In fact, in our society is very usually to see young people watching violent movies. We can find this type of films 24 hours,seven days in a week. This a problem because childreen and teenagers can see that before go to school and after too, some parents are very busy on the afternoon because they are working and childreen aren’t monitored. Moreover, adolescents are building on their personality and they are more vulnerable so it is easier to make us believe that things they are watching are normal. At the same time if we like a violent hero from movies or series we may want to emulate him doing the things he does.There’s also a music culture like "metal dark" music groups wich are consider so violent and that influence to children and teenagers. In America’s culture is very normal to have a gun, a firearm in every houses. This a danger because children can take them and they aren’t conscient of this acts.
(Laura ORTIGOSA and Claudia ZAPATER) This violence may be the cause of social exclusion. Harris and Klebold may have been afraid of being considered as outcasts by the rest of the group . The students live with pressure to be socially accepted . This stigmatation made them feel insecure. What’s more the absentee parents may have made . The children spend more time alone at home with their video games or websites. They are exposed to violence every day. Parents didn’t want see the problem. They are too busy for take care of their children’s marginality . Children are ignored by adults and are exposed to violence. They pass more time alone, so, they have less parental control. They have also in most cases unlocked guns at home. They spend their time with videogames.
(Javierz Hernandez) ; (Juan C.) This tragedy raises the issue of the gun culture in the US. Let’s try to understand what drove those teenagers to such horrific violence. Peer pressure seems to be one of the reasons to blame in this story. The two teengers might have been bullied for years, being excluded and rejected by most of the people at school. This experience may have created a sense of insecurity, and feelings of rage and revenge, wich probably got stronger as things stated the same way for a long time. At this point, anything, a simple joke, could trigger the worst.
(Anthony) Violent content is everywhere. Films, video-games, even in sports events shown in millions of homes on free television. A lot of this content isn’t even censored. Adults can tell the difference between reality and fiction ; children often can’t. So when a young boy watches his hero beating up his nemesis, he may try to emulate his actions, not only endangering himself, but also those around him. Also, viewing violent acts in real life and in real events portrays them as common, normal, and therefore they are taken for granted, which leads to sad events like the Columbine High School massacre.
(Javier Rico) (Alejandro Gracia) Parents’s laid back attitude might be one of the reasons why two teenagers went of the shooting spreed. Those teenagers may have been raised by uncaring parents, perhaps they did not see the warning signs of their children’s marginality. And Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold may have got lost even more into their own fantasy world. While they are being excluded by adults and the society too. Parents should spend more time with their children to anticipate this tragic scene.
(Carmen García)(Beatriz Roman) Video-games made have been a sad influence on the two teenagers that’s why they were so aggressive and they may have thought that violence was something acceptable in our society. Nowadays, video-games become more violent because they are more realistic. The development of new technologies resulted in increasing levels of realism in video-games. In video-games such as "Call of duty" of " Medal of honor", the only object is to kill everything that moves. In those games we can see bits of body spread out here an there. The problem is that teenagers aren’t afraid of these games. On the contrary,their behaviour change and they become more aggressive. They are likely to be driven to violence
Juan Domínguez Calafat
ResponderEliminarDescription:
This picture is a snapshot from the Columbine high school cameras during the tragedy. In the lower part we can see the exactly hour and the date. On the up-left-hand side there is the cafeteria and one of the students. On the right hand-side we can see some stairs, it’s the cafeteria’s entrance. In the background a big number of Columbine’s are hidden behind some tables. Both students carry a machine gun, one of them a semi-automatic weapon. The self confident students are fully dressed in camouflage, wearing a military gear.
JUANCA.
ResponderEliminarThis newspaper article was extracted from Los Angeles Times dated Tuesday August,17th 1999
It deals with the reopens of the Columbine High School, four months after two gunmen sent them fleeing in horror.
The article can be divided into 3 parts :
The first part focuses on the happiness of the young people, on the reopening ceremony "start of the school year with high fives and cheers of We are Columbine". The students was happy and they wearing " We are Columbine " T-shirts. The students was very happy after four months " I have wait for months to say this, and I say it with great pride: Columbine, we are back!"
The second part deals with an inside report on
the looking back of the events that succed on April 20. The author return to the event of the Columbine High School. He speak about the two gunmen, he speak about that they did, and he speak about the feelings of the students this day. "the students were mostly upbeat Monday as they returned to class, striving for a normal day under abnormal circunstances." After that, the author speak about what it pass outside school " They walked from a secured parking area... Police officers patrolled....for explosives".
Finally in the last part, the journalist looks back on