Reading organizer Un Sac de Billes
Title Un Sac de Billes / Author Joseph Joffo / Edition of book Livre de PocheBasic details of where the work fits into the author’s oeuvre and its reputation (give weblinks etc), setting and historical period where relevant
Biographie courte sur VSD
Interview avec Joseph Joffo about fear
Mémorial de la Shoah
Treatment of other French prisoners in Nice
The Milice (Wikipedia)
Exercices on the book from Hachette publishers
Schedule for reading book (overview) and expectations of student
It is important that you stick to the dates for reading the book in French as listed in the schedule below. By reading I mean, physically endeavouring to understand the whole text using the vocabulary list provided to help. This list is drawing on very detailed dictionaries and native speaker knowledge so will save you a lot of time.
Tips
- Some paragraphs you will be able to “sail through”, others will require intense scrutiny and you will not get to the bottom of what the author is intending. Lightly underline these sentences and we will look at this when we go through.
- Build up your powers of deducing the meanings of words and expressions from the context. Sometimes meanings (or an approximation of the meaning) will only come to you towards the end of a paragraph.
- Learn to work out which words and phrases you don’t understand do not really affect your overall appreciation of the paragraph, page. Sometimes it is more important to “go with the flow” and not lose the overall message by becoming bogged down in detail.
- Highlight words and phrases which really seem to you to contain the essence of what the character or story is about. You will be able to compile these into themes to organize your thoughts.
- Always read with a pencil and a notebook to write down thoughts, questions for your teacher.
Tools available for initial reading and understanding phase (note for teacher)
Full vocabulary list with chapter and page numbers (
We have endeavoured to include every word and expression however unusual in the vocabulary list to enable teachers to avoid the embarrassment of having to fudge when the student asks a difficult question. We have included past participle, subjunctive forms etc with which many students will still be a little shaky.
Full summary to be issued as your reading progresses ( )
The summary has several purposes. It is written in relatively basic vocabulary so that it helps students build up their “word power”; the vocabulary next to the summary ensures that these words are reinforced.
The gapped verbs are designed to provide the intensive practice young people need to really bottom the present tense which is crucial to success as it is used in 60% of all usage. Students will need to use the verb lists in their text book, grammar book or say Tex’s French Grammar on line to revise irregulars forms.
The interaction of perfect and imperfect tense can also be practised in this context.
Whilst the teacher may concentrate on certain key passages (identified in the schedule below) the summary will give the bare bones of the plot and the characters’ basic motivations to help the student pull everything together. Trial usage has shown that this improves student knowledge of the text giving the confidence to talk and write fluently.
Tip for teacher: As they read along, you could ask your students to write a summary of each chapter or do an oral presentation in front of the class to show what they have understood reading before producing the summary.
You can also choose to write some questions about each chapter to emphasize the key passages (homework)
Character guide list of adjectives ( )
The list of adjectives supplied reflects my views on the nature of the characters and can be amended by teachers to supplement and change what is there. Masculine and feminine forms are given and clearly once again this is an exercise to build quality of expression as well as to promote accuracy.
The translation exercises are designed familiarise the student with ways of talking about the protagonists’ character in certain set ways which can obviously be extended.
Tip for students and teacher: as you start reading the novel, draw each protagonist and start describing him with simple adjectives (appearance, character), adding more as you read. (kind of mind map)
Introductory PowerPoint to the past historic (
The past historic does not usually cause too many problems for students and the PowerPoint is simply a quick introduction to help with recognition. There is particular emphasis on forms which are more difficult to recognize such as the more common irregulars.
Chapter, section, page numbers
Number of pages / Week-lesson
Grammar to revise / Key passages with beginning and end phrases and page numbers / Themes, character, own observations, questions
Ch 1
pp 11-15
4 pages
Ch 2
Pp15-23
8 pages / Week
Past historic and how this interacts with other past tenses / We meet the playful child with his marbles and the environment which is rich in play opportunities for kids. The only thing impinging on his and brother Maurice’s life is the arrival of the German occupiers. The boys decide it would be a laugh to conceal the sign announcing the hairdresser father’s shop as a Jewish business.
Regular task (summary, blog)
Ecrivez/enregistrez un sommaire du chapitre au présent.
Scene in the hairdresser’s demonstrating the ability of people to get on with each other. An embarrassing announcement that the two soldiers have had their hair cut in a Jewish business passes off without incident although it terrifies the boys who have made it happen. / Les jeux d’enfants-le monde vu par les yeux d’un enfant
L’innocence, la naiveté
L’immigration juive en France
Chapter, section, page numbers
Number of pages / Week-lesson
Grammar to revise / Key passages with beginning and end phrases and page numbers / Themes, character, own observations, questions
Ch 3
pp 24-41
17 pages / Week / We see the anti-Jewish laws beginning to bite as the star of David is sewn onto the children’s clothes. Bullying ensues at school and the father decides that the younger members of the family are going to have to move down to the zone libre to the relative safety of the Vichy ruled part of the country. The elder brothers go first followed by the Jo and Maurice armed with their father’s insistence that they don’t admit they’re Jewish. End of childhood ensues.
Regular task (summary, blog)
Ecrivez/enregistrez un sommaire du chapitre au présent. / Les lois anti-israélites de 1941 et l’attitude de la population française
Cf nouveau film (2010) La Rafle
L’instinct de survie des juifs
Le caractère du père
Chapter, section, page numbers
Number of pages / Week-lesson
Grammar to revise / Key passages with beginning and end phrases and page numbers / Themes, character, own observations, questions
Ch 4
pp 41-54
13 pages / Week / Setting off by train the boys are helped by an old lady who gives them drink and a priest who says they are with him when there is a German ID inspection near Dax. The first stage of their growing up takes place-they learn to lie as they see what befalls people who get caught. They continue their journey by coach.
Regular task (summary, blog)
Ecrivez/enregistrez un sommaire du chapitre au présent. / L’attitude de la population française envers les gens en difficultés
La perte de l’enfance des enfants
Les dangers abordés par les juifs
Chapter, section, page numbers
Number of pages / Week-lesson
Grammar to revise / Key passages with beginning and end phrases and page numbers / Themes, character, own observations, questions
Ch 5
pp 54-83
29 pages / Week / The small town near the ligne de demarcation is full of other Jewish people waiting to cross at night. Jo and Maurice track down a young man, the butcher’s boy who agrees to take them across at a cheaper price than the main passeur. After doing the butcher boys round they are escorted across to a farm where they sleep. During the night Maurice raises funds by bringing across many more people. They continue their way on foot but hitch a lift with a seigneurial figure who drives a carriage with horses
Regular task (summary, blog)
Ecrivez/enregistrez un sommaire du chapitre au présent. / Le comportement des Français vivant à côté de la ligne de demarcation
Le caractère de Maurice
L’attitude des Français des classes aisées
Chapter, section, page numbers
Number of pages / Week-lesson
Grammar to revise / Key passages with beginning and end phrases and page numbers / Themes, character, own observations, questions
Ch 6
pp 83-129
45 pages / Week
83-98
15 pages
98 -117
19 pages
117-129
12 pages / The boys pass a fascinating day in Marseille looking at boats, watching a German film and being harassed by local women. They narrowly escape capture by the police by deviously pretending a stranger is their parent.
Childhood life restarts temporarily in Menton as they rejoin their brothers. Jo spends a week in the mountains on a farm but school beckons when he comes back down. The boys learn that their parents have been interned.
Henri relates how he has managed to charm the transit camp commandant into releasing the parents who move to a flat in Nice. However shortly after the police arrive to tell Albert and Henri that they must sign up for the Service du Travail Obligatoire. Time to move again. / L’influence des Allemands en zone libre
Les dangers abordés par les juifs en zone libre
Le zone italien
Le caractère de Jo
Les mesures prises contre les juifs captures
Les résultats de la collaboration avec les Allemands (le STO)
La nature débrouillarde des Joffo
Chapter, section, page numbers
Number of pages / Week-lesson
Grammar to revise / Key passages with beginning and end phrases and page numbers / Themes, character, own observations, questions
Ch 7
pp 129-149
20 pages / Week / We see the boys settled in Nice during the summer holidays enjoying the weather and brisk trade negotiating sales of food and oil with the occupying Italian forces. This does not last long however as when the Americans land the Italians abandon the fight and withdraw. The nightmare recommences the Germans arrive on the scene.
Regular task (summary, blog)
Ecrivez/enregistrez un sommaire du chapitre au présent. / Le caractère de Maurice et de Jo
Chapter, section, page numbers
Number of pages / Week-lesson
Grammar to revise / Key passages with beginning and end phrases and page numbers / Themes, character, own observations, questions
Ch 8
pp 150-175
25 pages / Week
150-163
13 pages
163-175 / The father organizes for the boys to go Moisson Nouvelle a Pétainiste camp for producing worth young French men. They are initiated to work in a pottery but end up in the kitchens where they continue their blackmarketeering.
Regular task (summary, blog)
Ecrivez/enregistrez un sommaire du chapitre au présent.
The boys decide on a made up story of where they have come from in case of capture. The timing is good as when they go into Nice with Ferdinand they are caught along with him in a carefully planned German trap. They are taken to the infamous Gestapo headquarters in Hôtel Excelsior. / Le role des camps pétainistes
Le comportement des enfants devant la possibilité de capture
Les methods d’opération de la Gestapo (utilisation des juifs eux-mêmes pour trier leurs pairs
Les trains de la mort (Film “Nuit et brouillard-Alain Resnais)
Chapter, section, page numbers
Number of pages / Week-lesson
Grammar to revise / Key passages with beginning and end phrases and page numbers / Themes, character, own observations, questions
Ch 9
pp 175-209
34 pages / Week
pp 175-187
12 pages
Pp 187-209
18 pages / The boys are interrogated. They see others infront of them sent off to the regular convoy to the death camps. They are examined and refuse to admit they are Jewish to the Jewish doctor who tells the Germans that their circumcisions are due to surgical operations and not done for religious reasons. They claim to be from Alger in Algeria and to have become stuck in France, unable to return.
Regular task (summary, blog)
Ecrivez/enregistrez un sommaire du chapitre au présent.
The boys meet their former camp mates who also turn out to have been Jewish. Jo falls ill and is cared for a young Jewish woman. Maurice is sent off to get proof of their Catholic credentials and even the bishop of Nice gets involved in helping the boys get released. It has become a political issue and the Germans don’t want to upset the church. The boys are very lucky. Their parents are delighted that they’ve escaped and they have to return to Moisson Nouvelle. / Les tests pour identifier les juifs (definition d’un juif)
Film Monsieur Klein
Le caractère des jeunes
Le role des Français/ dans la protection des juifs
Film Au Revoir les Enfants
Le role de l’eglise catholique
Chapter, section, page numbers
Number of pages / Week-lesson
Grammar to revise / Key passages with beginning and end phrases and page numbers / Themes, character, own observations, questions
Ch 10
209-224
15 pages / Week / Subinagui the manager of Moisson Nouvelle wakes the boys to send them on their way again as their father has been arrested. They go across country to Cannes and catch the train for Montluçon dressed in their summer gear. Helped on their way by a shopkeeper who puts them up for the night the two arrive at their sister’s. Unfortunately she can’t help as there is an informer in the village and she is terrified of being denounced. The boys continue to Aix les Bains near to where the brothers are staying.
Regular task (summary, blog)
Ecrivez/enregistrez un sommaire du chapitre au présent. / L’attitude de la population française envers les gens en difficultés
La dénociation, les soupçons
Chapter, section, page numbers
Number of pages / Week-lesson
Grammar to revise / Key passages with beginning and end phrases and page numbers / Themes, character, own observations, questions
Ch 11
pp 224-258
33 pages / Week
224-235
11 pages
235-245
10 pages
245-258
13 pages / We see Jo working for a pro-Pétain old-soldier Monsieur Mancelier who owns a stationer’s and bookshop at the same time as defrauding the rationing system. The old man uses Jo as a sounding board for his racist views not realizing that he is harbouring a Jew under his roof. Jo is initiated to the rites of the Catholic church where he makes a fool of himself infront of the daughter with whom he has fallen in love.
Regular task (summary, blog)
Ecrivez/enregistrez un sommaire du chapitre au présent.
Christmas arrives and the boys manage to get some good food together to eat in the snow. There are more and more attacks by the resistance and Jo ends up in a café which is raided by the Pétainiste militians. The resistance leader standing next to Jo slips a message into his newspaper bag before being led off to be shot.
Maurice announces to Jo that the Germans have left and the règlement de comptes begin. Jo manages to save Mancelier from being shot for collaboration by announcing that his boss has been harbouring a Jew under his roof. Desperate to get back he has to convince the resistance who are now taking over that he should be allowed to leave. He returns to Paris by train whilst Maurice returns with piles of cheese in lieu of pay. The boys discover on return that everyone has returned safe and sound except their father. Jo realizes that since his departure he has left his childhood behind him. / La nature du Pétainisme/Pétainistes typiques
Le rationnement et le marché noir
Le caractère de Jo
La milice et son role
La résistance et les FFI
La répression
Les règlements de compte
La perte de l’enfance; comment Jo a changé