Since September, Villarrasa secondary school has banned mobile phones throughout the premises.
In September, Villarrasa secondary school banned mobile phones throughout the premises. They are handed in on arrival and collected on the way out, from grey lockers the pupils have nicknamed “the graveyard”. Two months later, according to a press release from the school, the library has tripled its loans. “They’ve rediscovered paper,” the head teacher, Ramón Olmedo, declared. Lucía Ferrer, a reporter for El Eco del Valle, went to check with a notebook and a healthy dose of scepticism.
Pilar Casado has run the library for thirty years and can’t remember an autumn like it. She showed Lucía the records without hiding her bewilderment. October’s most borrowed title wasn’t a novel or a comic, but a 1998 World Atlas, with the borders of a world that no longer exists: two hundred and twelve loans in a month. In second place, a thesaurus weighing almost two kilos. “Look at the length of the loans,” Pilar added. “Twenty-two minutes on average.”
Lucía stayed to watch break time from a table at the back. At a quarter past eleven, a Year 10 boy asked for the atlas, leafed through it by the window and handed it back before she had finished describing him in her notebook. A classmate took it at once. Then another. None of them spent more than three or four minutes with it, and none seemed to be looking for any particular country. “There’s no waiting list,” Pilar whispered. “They pass it from hand to hand. But it’s always back before the bell.”
In the corridor, Lucía approached a group of pupils. What was so special about that atlas? They exchanged a quick glance. “It’s very thorough,” said a girl with braces. “Greenland,” another blurted out, and the rest burst out laughing. She couldn’t get another word out of them.
When the bell rang, Lucía borrowed the atlas. Its spine was swollen from being opened so often and it smelled of eraser; tiny pink crumbs were caught between the pages. The margins were clean. Only when she tilted a page against the light from the window did she make out the grooves: minute letters, written in pencil and rubbed out, crossed by other letters written and rubbed out on top. The only thing still legible was page numbers.
Half of the page on Iceland was missing, torn out roughly. “That was last week,” Pilar said quietly. “The same day a girl in Year 9 spent the whole break crying in the toilets. Nobody would tell me anything.”
Before leaving, Lucía called in at the head teacher’s office again. Olmedo already had the headline in mind: “The School That Started Reading Again”. He asked for a photo of the kids with books. She promised to send him the article before it ran. That night, at her computer, she deleted the first line three times. The headline she kept wasn’t about reading.
Activities
1 Detective Inference
Why is the old atlas the most borrowed book in the school? Tick the correct hypothesis.
- a) Without phones, the pupils have rediscovered the pleasure of looking at maps.
- ✓b) They use it to write each other pencil messages that they then rub out.
- c) A geography teacher gives extra marks to anyone who consults it.
- d) They hide a phone inside it to get round the ban.
Which clue proves it? Copy or summarise the clue from the text that proves it.
Correct hypothesis: b). That’s it: the atlas works as a secret noticeboard passed from hand to hand.
Key clue: “Tilted against the light, the pages show grooves of letters written and rubbed out again and again, with page numbers.” That’s the proof: someone keeps writing and erasing in the margins, and the page numbers work as addresses.
2 The Loom Order of events
Put the events in order, starting with the earliest. Write the order number (1, 2, 3…) in each box.
- 3 Someone tears out half of the Iceland page.
- 2 The atlas clocks up two hundred and twelve loans in a month.
- 1 The school bans mobile phones throughout the premises.
- 4 Lucía watches break time from a table at the back.
- 5 Lucía tilts a page of the atlas against the light.
- 6 Lucía deletes the first line of her article three times.
Correct order:
- The school bans mobile phones throughout the premises.
- The atlas clocks up two hundred and twelve loans in a month.
- Someone tears out half of the Iceland page.
- Lucía watches break time from a table at the back.
- Lucía tilts a page of the atlas against the light.
- Lucía deletes the first line of her article three times.
The ban comes in September and the loan record is from October. The Iceland page is torn out the week before the visit. That day Lucía watches the break, examines the atlas and, at night, writes the article.
3 The Missing Page Coherence
What happens next, consistent with the story? Tick only one option.
- a) El Eco del Valle publishes “The School That Started Reading Again”, with the photo the head teacher asked for.
- ✓b) Lucía’s article reveals that the pupils use the atlas to write to each other in secret.
- c) Pilar withdraws the atlas because its borders are out of date, and loans fall to zero.
- d) The pupils admit the atlas is their favourite book because of its maps of Greenland.
Answer: b). It fits: what she discovered in the grooves wasn’t a love of geography.
- a) Lucía deleted the first line three times and kept a headline that wasn’t about reading.
- c) Nothing in the story suggests the librarian wants to withdraw it; besides, its value wasn’t in the maps.
- d) They refused to say another word, and nobody was looking for any country.
4 Spot the Contradiction Literal reading
Three statements don’t fit the story. Put an X next to the 3 statements that don’t fit the text.
- a) Phones are kept in grey lockers during the school day.The pupils call them “the graveyard”.
- ✗b) The most borrowed book was a newly published atlas.It was a 1998 World Atlas.
- c) The second most borrowed was a thesaurus.Weighing almost two kilos.
- ✗d) Loans of the atlas usually lasted several days.They lasted twenty-two minutes on average.
- e) Half of the Iceland page was missing.Torn out roughly the week before.
- ✗f) The margins were full of drawings in blue ink.They were clean: only pencil grooves showed against the light.
5 The Gallery Visualisation
In the game you choose the illustration that answers this question: “Which picture shows the atlas as Lucía examined it?”. Here, you draw it yourself, with every detail the text gives you.
What should appear: Margins that look clean, pencil grooves against the light and eraser crumbs between the pages.
Reward drawings that include the details from the text, not artistic skill.
Ending
To read aloud once the answers have been checked.
Villarrasa’s pupils had turned the atlas into a paper social network. They wrote in pencil in the margins, replied, rubbed out and wrote again. Page numbers worked as addresses: “I’ll answer you in Greenland” meant, without any adult understanding it, “look for my message on the Greenland page”. That was why loans lasted exactly one break and the atlas was always back before the bell: nobody wanted it out of circulation.
Like any social network, it had its dark side. On the Iceland page someone wrote a cruel rumour about a Year 9 girl, and a friend tore it out so it would stop spreading.
Lucía’s article was headlined “No Phones, But Plenty of Messages”. Since 2024, most Spanish regions have restricted mobile phone use in schools. Villarrasa discovered that banning a screen doesn’t remove the need to talk in secret, or cruelty: it only changes what they’re written on.
Suggested marking
Each activity is worth 2 points (10 in total). In 1, one point for the hypothesis and one for the clue. In 2, give one point if only a couple of events are swapped. In 4, half a point for each correct cross and minus half a point for each true statement crossed out.