What we'll explore
This 3 week course "American True Crime" discusses recent legal cases that have dominated the news headlines in the United States for months and shaped the culture. This course is suitable for upper-i
This 3 week course "American True Crime" discusses recent legal cases that have dominated the news headlines in the United States for months and shaped the culture. This course is suitable for upper-intermediate and advanced level students.
We will focus on a single case each week.
Week 1: Michelle Carter and Connor Roy
Michelle Carter and Connor Roy were teenagers who lived 1 hour from each other, dated for 2+ years and only met in person 5 times. They communicated via text message nonstop and their families had no idea they were dating until Connor Roy committed suicide and a random girl appeared at their house telling them that she was his girlfriend. The family was in shock and welcomed Michelle into the family at first then they found his phone and realized that their son committed suicide because this girl sent thousands of messages telling him to kill himself. She eventually served time in prison for writing in a text message, ‘’ Get back in the car and kill yourself you coward.”
Week 2 : Nicholas Barclay & Frederic Bourdin
In 1993 Nicholas Barclay, a 13 year old American teenager in Texas disappeared. 3 years later, police in Spain contacted his family telling them they found him. He was returned to the family and they were so happy he was alive. But he had a French accent, different color eyes and hair color, and was actually Frederic Bourdin, a 22 year old con-artist from France. He lived with the family for 5 months before he was caught. He told the police that the family killed the real Nicholas Barclay.
Week 3 : Steven Avery
Steven Avery was an innocent man who spent 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. In 2003, he was declared innocent and released from prison. He filed a 36 million dollar lawsuit against the police department. He was about to win the lawsuit until the police department arrested him again for a different murder. He claimed he was innocent and this was revenge. 20 years later he is still in prison. The NETFLIX documentary about this case is called Making a Murderer and it made true crime documentaries popular.
I will send out the article and discussion questions 1 week in advance for you to read and prepare. In addition to the written article, there will be an audio MP3 version of the article for you to listen to.
In each class we will read the article together and I will correct any pronunciation issues.
After reading the article, students will have time to clarify any misunderstandings with sections of the article or specific vocabulary.
We will then go over the questions with a focus on speaking and improving our vocabulary.
...Read More
Show Less
