Language Revision - read to the end.

Hello. 

Not had a post for a little while...

This term had focused on the language exam. This exam is (suddenly) worth 60% of your GCSE.

One of the key things here is learning the actual exam and knowing what is required in each question. 

I'll go through it here

Q2 is Presentation.

The question will be: Explain how the headline and picture are effective and how they link to the text.

• makes clear and appropriate links between the headline and picture and the content of the text with references/quotations

• offers a clear explanation of the effectiveness of the picture with links to text

• offers a detailed interpretation of the effect of the headline and links this to the text with references/quotation

• presents a detailed explanation and interpretation of what the picture shows and its effect

FO EXAMPLE: The picture is effective as it shows a large, awesome skeleton which dominates the article with the head posed to almost leap out at the reader. This image of a  ‘fearsome’ dinosaur is then undercut by the fact that it has been found by a Chicago study that such as large monster is found to have died because of a ‘common parasite’ that is found in everyday birds such as pigeons and gives them a ‘sore throat’. The two together then create a humour as it is both unusual and unexpected this seems ironic and ridiculous so the reader would be drawn to the text where the explanation is to be found. 

Q3 asks you to explain thoughts and feelings.

•shows a clear understanding of the events in the text

• clearly explains and begins to interpret thoughts and feelings

• employs relevant quotations or references to support understanding and interpretation

•engages in detail with the events in the text

• offers perceptive explanations and interpretations of the thoughts and feelings expressed

• employs appropriate quotations to support ideas

FOR EXAMPLE: From the text, we can tell that Pete Boardman is trying to manage intense feelings of stress and worry. We see this when he says, ‘That helped us – it shifted some responsibility to the watch’. The fact that he passes the responsibility of his angst to the watch shows how much he is trying to manage his concern for his missing companion Mick. By shifting this responsibility to such a functional item, it shows how much he needs to detach from his worries in order to survive and this ‘help(s)’ them. This ensures their decision is made and this is reaffirmed with the short and, again, functional ‘the time was up’.

Q4 asks you to compare language features

•offer clear explanations of the effect of words and phrases with relevant quotations

•have a clear link between the two and be able to explain it well

•analyse how the writer with perceptive comments has used language, with perceptive comments, to achieve their effects with appropriate quotations

•Have a sophisticated link that you can them explain in detail.

FOR EXAMPLE: The writer uses rule of three in S2 to emphasise the violent life ‘Sue’ had. For example, ‘three broken ribs, torn tendons and a damaged shoulder’. This gives a vivid description of a violent life of the Tyrannosaurs as it layers the painful injuries that the dinosaur had from her ‘combat-scarred’ life; the harsh alliteration of ‘torn tendons’ accentuates the violence further.  Similarly, a powerful description is used in S3 when the writer says ‘I smashed my axe into the ice and hung on.’ The use of ‘smashed’ gives a sense of intensity to the situation and shows the desperation of the struggle as it is violent verb then followed by the desperate ‘hung on’. Both texts use description to engage the reader, but S2 is using violent description to add drama to the informative article that could otherwise be boring whereas S3 is using it to show the desperation of a real-life fight for life that helps to emphasise the danger and fear of the writer.

Q5 and 6 are worth 60% of your GCSE Language :/

You are marked on:

i, language features
ii, paragraphs and structure
iii, sentences and spelling

Write A Forest, FF and (.,…!?:;-) and tick off when you use them.

FF= Firstly, Finally.

Top tips for this:

It doesn’t have to be real! Make something up...

Time yourself and PLAN.

Learn these sentence structures. They are good and you get to listen to my West Country accent for nearly ten minutes!The noise can be a bit annoying (as is my voice I am sure), but learn these sentences for some added sophistication.

Here is the link to past papers on AQA. You want Unit 1.

If you are stuck, leave a comment – otherwise, GOOD LUCK!

Ms J

Structure in LOTF

The themes are revealed in the first half of the novel and then reworked at a frightening, pained, deeper level  in the second half.

This is structure and you need to explore it in the exam.

Repetition enhances the reader’s understanding of the novel.

Go through the following five points and find quotations where they link in the novel; the, analyse the quotes.

1. Boys exploration of island in the beginning – second exploration in Chapter 7
2. Roger just missing the littlun with stones – to  rolling a rock at Piggy
3. Jack’s first attempt to kill the pig, to the sharpening of both ends of the stick at the end. (lots of stuff for this one, each more sickening than the other)
4. Chanting ‘Kill the pig!’ – ‘Kill the beast!’ with Simon and the sacrifice.
5. The fire in Chapter 2 reveals first glimpse of ‘hell’ – final chapter island is on fire

To an extent we could call this - Incremental repetition, a modern term for a device of repetition commonly found in ballads. It involves the repetition of lines or stanzas with small but crucial changes made to a few words from one to the next, and has an effect of narrative progression or suspense.

It creates what we can call narrative echoes and, of course, foreshadowing. But what’s the effect?

•          It creates tension and a sense of foreboding

•          It moves the novel forward with pace. The amount of things that are repeated mean that we get a sense of the degeneration of the civilisation and progression into violence.

•          It makes it readable too! Golding ensures that we know things are getting worse and we want to read on

The novel’s development is revelatory. It begins by revealing a little by little. Repetition is used with variation to allow the reader further insight into the novel. This repetition is not monotonous, but  heightens what has happened before with more power and, consequently, at a deeper and darker level. This also gives the text an accumulative progression that reaches much further than the superficial narrative, but tells of ‘man’s essential sickness’ as Ralph weeps for the ‘loss of innocence’. Golding’s use of incremental repetition gives the reader a profound insight into the human condition that is in stark contrast to the facile optimism of Swallows and Amazons and Coral Island. The cumulative triumph of bad over good is overturned with the sudden intrusion of the naval officer, the deus ex machina. Golding himself said that the novel is symbolic except for the end where ‘adult life appears, dignified and capable, but enmeshed in the same evil as the symbolic life on the island’. Golding uses this as an antidote; it is there to deliberately shock the reader and throw everything else into perspective. There is fragility within civilisation; it could all quickly disintegrate and we don’t know what we are capable of.

Symbols from the Carousel

Symbols from the Carousel

The beast is easy enough: it represents evil and darkness. But does it represent internal darkness, the evil in all of our hearts, even lovely, British Ralph? Or does it represent an external savagery that civilization can save us from?

o The beast is different for different boys
o It is represented as the dead parachutist, snakes, the pig’s head and noises heard in the night.
o The real beast is our deep, dark primeval urges.
o The boys invent the beast as a fear for them to focus on rather than the darkness in themselves.

When the twins list off the horrible attributes of the creature they saw, they reveal that it has both "teeth" and "eyes"; Ralph and Jack see it as a giant ape. So perhaps the "beast" is a man-who-isn't, the animal side in all of us?

The imaginary beast that frightens all the boys stands for the instinct of savagery that exists within all human beings. The boys are afraid of the beast, but only Simon reaches the realization that they fear the beast because it exists within each of them. As the boys grow more savage, their belief in the beast grows stronger. By the end of the novel, the boys are leaving it sacrifices and treating it as a totemic god. The boys’ behaviour is what brings the beast into existence, so the more savagely the boys act, the more real the beast seems to become.

The Lord of the Flies, which is an offering to the mythical "beast" on the island, is increasingly invested with significance as a symbol of the dominance of savagery on the island, and of Jack's authority over the other boys. Symbolically, then, it is associated with Jack. The Lord of the Flies represents the unification of the boys under Jack's rule as motivated by fear of "outsiders": the beast and those who refuse to accept Jack's authority.

Piggy’s Glasses

Piggy’s glasses represent intelligence and clear thinking.
o They are useful for the boys to get the fire started both to attract rescuers and for cooking the meat.
o When one lens is smashed it represents the lack of clear thinking of the others.
o The glasses are completely destroyed when Piggy dies and this is Golding’s way of representing the further fall of the boys into chaos and darkness.

Piggy is the most intelligent, rational boy in the group, and his glasses represent the power of science and intellectual endeavor in society. This symbolic significance is clear from the start of the novel, when the boys use the lenses from Piggy’s glasses to focus the sunlight and start a fire. When Jack’s hunters raid Ralph’s camp and steal the glasses, the savages effectively take the power to make fire, leaving Ralph’s group helpless. We could also see that they represent how sightless they are in recognizing the breaking down of their society.

The Fire

The fire has good and bad uses.
o It is useful for attracting rescue, gives warmth and can be used for cooking, but it can be very destructive as we see at the end of the novel.
o Fire is used in ritual and is the backdrop to Simon’s frantic death.

The signal fire burns on the mountain, and later on the beach, to attract the notice of passing ships that might be able to rescue the boys. As a result, the signal fire becomes a barometer of the boys’ connection to civilization. In the early parts of the novel, the fact that the boys maintain the fire is a sign that they want to be rescued and return to society. When the fire burns low or goes out, we realize that the boys have lost sight of their desire to be rescued and have accepted their savage lives on the island. The signal fire thus functions as a kind of measurement of the strength of the civilized instinct remaining on the island. Ironically, at the end of the novel, a fire finally summons a ship to the island, but not the signal fire. Instead, it is the fire of savagery—the forest fire Jack’s gang starts as part of his quest to hunt and kill Ralph.

The Conch

Represents order.
o Colour changes to show a loss of innocence in the boys.
o Loses its importance as the novel progresses as Jack and his ‘Tribe’ take over.
o Smashed into a thousand pieces at the end to show loss of order and civilisation.

The rift between civilization and savagery is communicated through the novel's major symbols: the conch shell, which is associated with Ralph. The conch shell is a powerful marker of democratic order on the island, confirming both Ralph's leadership-determined by election-and the power of assembly among the boys. Yet, as the conflict between Ralph and Jack deepens, the conch shell loses symbolic importance. Jack declares that the conch is meaningless as a symbol of authority and order, and its decline in importance signals the decline of civilization on the island. The destruction of the conch shell at the scene of Piggy's murder signifies the complete eradication of civilization on the island, while Ralph's demolition of The Lord of the Flies-he intends to use the stick as a spear-signals his own descent into savagery and violence. By the final scene, savagery has completely displaced civilization as the prevailing system on the island.

The Carousel of the Darkness of our Hearts

Hello
Lack of internet and then a weekend away surfing have meant this is somewhat delayed. Sorry. 

Civil v savage

Golding's emphasis on the negative consequences of savagery can be read as an clear endorsement of civilization. In the early chapters of the novel, he suggests that one of the important functions of civilized society is to provide an outlet for the savage impulses that reside inside each individual. Jack's initial desire to kill pigs to demonstrate his bravery, for example, is channeled into the hunt, which provides needed food for the entire group. As long as he lives within the rules of civilization, Jack is not a threat to the other boys; his impulses are being re-directed into a productive task. Rather, it is when Jack refuses to recognize the validity of society and rejects Ralph's authority that the dangerous aspects of his character truly emerge. Golding suggests that while savagery is perhaps an inescapable fact of human existence, civilization can mitigate its full expression.

The central concern of Lord of the Flies is the conflict between two competing impulses that exist within all human beings: the instinct to live by rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands, and value the good of the group against the instinct to gratify one’s immediate desires, act violently to obtain supremacy over others, and enforce one’s will. This conflict might be expressed in a number of ways: civilization vs. savagery, order vs. chaos, reason vs. impulse, law vs. anarchy, or the broader heading of good vs. evil. Throughout the novel, Golding associates the instinct of civilization with good and the instinct of savagery with evil.

The conflict between the two instincts is the driving force of the novel, explored through the dissolution of the young English boys’ civilized, moral, disciplined behavior as they accustom themselves to a wild, brutal, barbaric life in the jungle. Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel, which means that Golding conveys many of his main ideas and themes through symbolic characters and objects. He represents the conflict between civilization and savagery in the conflict between the novel’s two main characters: Ralph, the protagonist, who represents order and leadership; and Jack, the antagonist, who represents savagery and the desire for power.

Throughout the novel, the conflict is dramatized by the clash between Ralph and Jack, who respectively represent civilization and savagery. The differing ideologies are expressed by each boy's distinct attitudes towards authority. While Ralph uses his authority to establish rules, protect the good of the group, and enforce the moral and ethical codes of the English society the boys were raised in, Jack is interested in gaining power over the other boys to gratify his most primal impulses. When Jack assumes leadership of his own tribe, he demands the complete subservience of the other boys, who not only serve him but worship him as an idol. Jack's hunger for power suggests that savagery does not resemble anarchy so much as a totalitarian system of exploitation and illicit power.

Loss of innocence. 

As the boys on the island progress from well-behaved, orderly children longing for rescue to cruel, bloodthirsty hunters who have no desire to return to civilization, they naturally lose the sense of innocence that they possessed at the beginning of the novel. The painted savages in Chapter 12 who have hunted, tortured, and killed animals and human beings are a far cry from the guileless children swimming in the lagoon in Chapter 3. But Golding does not portray this loss of innocence as something that is done to the children; rather, it results naturally from their increasing openness to the innate evil and savagery that has always existed within them. Golding implies that civilization can mitigate but never wipe out the innate evil that exists within all human beings. The forest glade in which Simon sits in Chapter 3 symbolizes this loss of innocence. At first, it is a place of natural beauty and peace, but when Simon returns later in the novel, he discovers the bloody sow’s head impaled upon a stake in the middle of the clearing. The bloody offering to the beast has disrupted the paradise that existed before—a powerful symbol of innate human evil disrupting childhood innocence.

At the end of Lord of the Flies, Ralph weeps "for the end of innocence," a lament that retroactively makes explicit one of the novel's major concerns, namely, the loss of innocence. When the boys are first deserted on the island, they behave like children, alternating between enjoying their freedom and expressing profound homesickness and fear. By the end of the novel, however, they mirror the warlike behaviour of the adults of the Home Counties: they attack, torture, and even murder one another without hesitation or regret. The loss of the boys' innocence on the island runs parallel to, and informs their descent into savagery, and it recalls the Bible's narrative of the Fall of Man from paradise.

Accordingly, the island is coded in the early chapters as a kind of paradise, with idyllic scenery, fresh fruit, and glorious weather. Yet, as in the Biblical Eden, the temptation toward corruption is present: the younger boys fear a "snake-thing." The "snake-thing" is the earliest incarnation of the "beast" that, eventually, will provoke paranoia and division among the group. It also explicitly recalls the snake from the Garden of Eden, the embodiment of Satan who causes Adam and Eve's fall from grace. The boys' increasing belief in the beast indicates their gradual loss of innocence, a descent that culminates in tragedy. We may also note that the landscape of the island itself shifts from an Edenic space to a hellish one, as marked by Ralph's observation of the ocean tide as an impenetrable wall, and by the storm that follows Simon's murder.

The forest glade that Simon retreats to in Chapter Three is another example of how the boys' loss of innocence is registered on the natural landscape of the island. Simon first appreciates the clearing as peaceful and beautiful, but when he returns, he finds The Lord of the Flies impaled at its centre, a powerful symbol of how the innocence of childhood has been corrupted by fear and savagery.

Even the most sympathetic boys develop along a character arc that traces a fall from innocence (or, as we might euphemize, a journey into maturity). When Ralph is first introduced, he is acting like a child, splashing in the water, mocking Piggy, and laughing. He tells Piggy that he is certain that his father, a naval commander, will rescue him, a conviction that the reader understands as the wishful thinking of a little boy. Ralph repeats his belief in their rescue throughout the novel, shifting his hope that his own father will discover them to the far more realistic premise that a passing ship will be attracted by the signal fire on the island. By the end of the novel, he has lost hope in the boys' rescue altogether. The progression of Ralph's character from idealism to pessimistic realism expresses the extent to which life on the island has eradicated his childhood.

I think that this idea of the beast being within all of us and the beast being linked to Satan shows how there is evil within all of us: there is a fragility to society and our civilisation could diminish rapidly. In these circumstances, we do not know what we might be capable of.

Some of this is taken from websites such as shmoop and sparknotes. I highly recommend them as revision sites. Don't forget we've also got revision guides for sale in the library. 

Enjoy work-experience! 

Ms

Where we are at the beginning of Y11

Hello
The holidays have meant I'm out of the blogging habit. Now is a good time to look at where we and to concentrate on what is a significant year.
A reminder then of some of the course specifics.
GCSE Language
You have 3/4 Controlled Assessments completed for this and they are worth 40% of you overall grade. You have completed Of Mice and Men, Spoken Language (texting) and one of two creative writings. The other creative writing you are doing with Mrs Parish.
AQA have now removed the Speaking and Listening Elements, which means the exam is worth 60% of the overall grade.
There is one exam for this and it is 2h15mins long. This will also be your mock exam in Novemeber.
GCSE Literature
You have completed 25% with you Macbeth and Frankenstein essay. You will have two exams for this; one on LOTF and OMAM and one on Poetry.

So, in lessons we have been looking at the dark wonder that is Lord of the Flies. We have looked at the development of the characters, some themes and structure.
This is what you should have at the beginning of next week.
Checklist:

• Character profiles of Piggy, Ralph and Simon.
• A short essay on how Golding shows the power struggles in LOTF.
• A tension graph looking at how Golding uses structure to effect the reader. I am expecting you to use some of the stuff we used for incremental repetition in this. I am expecting this to take you a long time. If you find this is totally consuming, you can just include the incremental repetition. We'll then use this to make a glorious display on Tuesday (exciting!).

When we've looked at structure, we have a themes carousel.You'll do a Jack profile over your work experience. Then the last weeks of term will be a exam including a mock LOTF exam. 

As ever, let me know if you have any problems. 

Ms
(You only have a 3.5 day week this week. Lucky you.

Themes. These often overlap.

Betrayal 

Survival

Bullying

Justice and Injustice

Violence and Death

Leadership

The Problem of Evil in Man

The need for civilisation/The Basic needs of society 

Innocence and the loss of it

Fear of the unknown

Blindness and Sight

Use and Abuse of Power

The Loss of Identity

• 
  

Towards the end of Spoken Language

Hello Y10 (homework at the bottom)

After reading your paragraphs, I think that what we’re missing is thorough analysis of debate. We may want to think about structuring this in a different way. We could have a paragraph about how you use and adapt language, then some analysis of spoken language data and then analysis of debates around multi-modal communication. You don’t have to do it this way, but it would ensure you cover all the AOs. Remember, this is only an 800-1000 word essay.

Here are the articles from the lesson:

Article 1 - texting. 

Article 2 - attention span

The best analysis came from those that used the thinking squares really well. Use them to analyse debate and how you use and adapt language. These would be good for planning too.  Three thinking squares could be a really good plan!

Success Criteria for your essay

Skilled is 

• Confident explanation and analysis of how they and others use and adapt spoken language for specific purposes (this also comes out in your analysis)
• confident analysis and reflection on features found in some spoken language data
• confident analysis of some issues arising from public attitudes to spoken language varieties.

Excellent is...

• Sophisticated, perceptive analysis and evaluation of aspects of how they and others use and adapt spoken language for specific purposes
• Impressive’ sustained and sophisticated interpretations of key features found in spoken language data
• Sophisticated analysis and evaluation of key issues arising from public attitudes to spoken language varieties

 Homework: write out a draft essay for peer assessment on Monday. You’ll fill out the cover sheet in this lesson; CA starts in the subsequent lesson (Wed).

Research Accommodation Theory. This is good for how people use and adapt language. What are the main points?

Here is the thinking square we used in Friday's lesson:

Thinking square debate from Cherwelllearning

As ever, let me know if you need anything.
Ms 

The plan so far...

Dear all
As we've been interrupted even more (!), I thought it would be wise to share the plan as well as today's lesson.
Do what you are told on the final slide.
Make sure you see me for your feedback at the end of assembly; if you miss this, I can get it to you in Friday's lesson.
On Friday, I will set you you some cover for your lesson without me - ensure you use this time judiciously.
On Monday 8th of July, you'll plan and peer assess your work. I'll also be there to answer any questions etc.
Thursday 11th July you'll sit your CA and you will complete it on Monday 15th.
If you've not finished it here,  it'd be less complicated if you come after school so you can get it out the way. I have other plans for our final Monday lesson. I also think that you should easily complete this in two hours though and will not need to come after school: it's an 800-1000 word essay.
Please share any good articles in the comments box.
Best wishes,
Ms

8 your own response for blog from Cherwelllearning

This week so far...

Hi
Right - today and yesterday we looked at debates and have evaluated some sample essays. Here then, we found that there are a couple of things that students have missed: some analysis of data and links to debates around spoken language. The report on Controlled Assessment (AQA) also said that student missed the latter point here: debates. Reassuringly, they also said that students are more successful in this task if they use their own data. This knowledge should help you evaluate your own responses as you go. We also found that, actually, this is quite a simple task - I think the class were reassured looking at these essays. Leave a comment if you disagree!

Lessons 6 and 7 for blog from Cherwelllearning

Homework

Hi guys

Your homework this weekend is to write a transcript of a verbal conversation. It will take a while to write up just a couple of minutes.

Here is a guide. You could also add in some further non-verbal features if you can too. If you do this, do one layer of purely verbal exchange and add a second layer of non-verbal in a different colour.
You must have a transcript of verbal dialogue and you could go further by including the non-verbal.

Let me know if you have any problems.
Ms

The guide is in your booklet, but is also here:

Pauses

(3)

These are indicated by brackets. Long pauses can suggest different things e.g. anger, frustration, or stumped for something to say. The numbers in the brackets indicate how long the pause is. A short pause is indicated by (.)

Overlapping speech

Word [word

           [word

Two people talking at once can be difficult to transcribe. Here’s an example:

Person 1: I saw Attack the Block last night it was [totally a – mazing

Person 2:                                                                       [yeah. I love films like that.

Cut off speech

Wor-

A dash shows that a word has been cut off midway

Unclear Speech

(words) a guess at what might have been said if it is unclear

()            Unclear talk, where it is impossible to work out what is said.

Loud Voice

Word            to indicate that a word or phrase is loud, you can underline it.

Word            to indicate that something is even louder, like a shout, you can put in bold.

Speed of talk

>word word< Arrows pointing inward show faster speech

<word word> Arrows pointing outward show slower speech

Spoken Language this week

Hello all
This week's lessons are in the PPT below. Homework is on the final slide.
The documents are:
David Crystal
John Humphrys
Clearly, Humphrys' argument could be seen as outdated, but this is actually a perfect point for your argument. Technology changes multi-modal communication. The QWERTY keyboard on smartphones ensures that it is actually more difficult to write in 'text speak'. However, the fact that it did exist has changed the way we communicate. We still do use many of the features of that JH's argues against. Have you ever written tbh, lol or btw? Have you ever used an emoticon to show to someone that your point is friendly, you feel awkward etc? As much as many of you are resistant to the idea that you may use this, as you put it, 'chav' language (I have many objections about the word Chav, which I will happily to talk to you about), I should imagine that almost all of you use some sort of features to replicate poken language in your digital communication...
This is such a fun unit!
Ms :)

Some final points on our texts

Hi Y10

Right, a few things in this post then.  Some general advice, comparative points, a little bit on tragedy and an example.

The most common errors:

Be specific about the emotion (love and hate are both emotions).

Err. Hello? Mary Shelley... Shakespeare. If you write about the characters, you write as if they are real and this limits your analysis. MS and S names should be littered throughout your essay.

Upgrade your topic sentences.

Focus on the quotation. (Groan!) Pick and word out and analyse it.  (10% of your GCSE is this alone.)

Link your context to the quotation precisely.

Don’t say very. It’s the ‘nice’ of analysis.

Romantics. Romanticism. Capital letter please (otherwise, you’re talking more red roses and candlight!)

Sweeping statements. Much better to say: I could be seen. This suggests. This connotes.

If one more person writes constantly, I might just give it all up...

Comparative elements

•       Pathetic Fallacy

•       Settings

•       The Gothic

•       Voices – Soliloquy and Narrative voice

•       Imagery

•       Tragic structure

•       Recurring Motifs

•       Religious beliefs/Christianity/ Biblical language/Paradise Lost

•       Hallucinations

•       Character physical reactions and manifestations of fear

•       Supernatural

•       Consequences of actions

•       ‘Vaulting ambition’

•       Rhetoric ( Rhetorical questions, balanced phrases that becomes fragmented)

•       Natural world/ order

•       Babies, innocence , new born, corrupted by man

Tragedy

A tragedy is a drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavourable circumstances (from dictionary.com). You can see how we can apply this to our texts.

A classic tragedy (Aristotle’s Poetics) has a number of common features.

Firstly, you have a hero. Their status is established as high (been better to see higher status fall from Ancient Greece to Closer magazine...) Don’t get confused with hero – it doesn’t mean good. This character has hubris; essentially, they are arrogant. They also have a fatal flaw that leads to their downfall; this is called hamartia. They realise this flaw has caused great suffering, anagnorisis, but it’s too late as death is inevitable. Often this is the turning point, peripetia, that leads the play to its tragic denouement, but not always so. Through this, pity and fear are provoked in the audience until we come to the catharsis where we are purified by the play that we have seen. We leave better people!

There are some other points, like the three unities and a cart to wheel dead bodies off, but this is the basic structure. A (usually noble) hero is arrogant and has some flaw that makes them do something awful. This causes their downfall and they realise this too late and die probably with other people.

You should be able to see how you can relate this to the texts. Is Frankenstein a tragic novel? It’s a good point of comparison, but very much an extension and not something you need to worry about.

Example paragraph.

Shakespeare uses classical references to show the intensity of Macbeth’s remorse and this illustrates his desire to be King as damaging from the start. As soon as Macbeth has murdered Duncan, Shakespeare shows his language is regretful: ‘Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?’ The immediacy of Macbeth’s guilt and regret is made apparent with a direct link to the metaphor of having blood on your hands. This metaphor is repeated throughout the play as Lady Macbeth sees an immovable ‘spot’ on her hand and, when Macbeth’s downfall  is imminent later in the play, McDuff says that ‘[Macbeth’s] secret murders [are]sticking on his hands’. Here, Shakespeare shows the tragic outcome as inevitable because Macbeth will not be able to wash his hands clean and he seems to know that this will end in his own death. Furthermore, the classical reference to ‘Neptune’ conveys a sense of prayer to the language and the rhetorical question accentuates the intensity of his fear.  It also gives a hyperbolic exclamation of Macbeth’s remorse as the water will literally be able to wash his hands. As Neptune is the God of the sea, known to the Jacobean audience, not the Christian god the audience would have also viewed this with suspicion as it was an intensely religious time; Shakespeare uses this reference to show how Macbeth has also gone against the Christian god by going against the Divine Right of Kings and this places him alongside the evil witches. His appeal to ‘Neptune’ shows how far ‘Brave Macbeth’ has fallen; Shakespeare shows how this outrageous sin will ‘stick’ as such a blasphemous act can only result in a gruesome demise and the character dramatically shows confusion and horror at this prospect.

As ever, let me know if you need anything.

Ms

Comparison

Dear Y10

We are now at the stage where we are comparing our texts.

During this task we have had a focus on analysing language - that's because you get more marks for it! We've done this through mind-mapping, which is an incredibly useful revision tool. These should look something like this (please note, some of the sentences aren't quite right - it's hard to see in a small box in PowerPoint!):

These are what you need to turn to in your quest for connections homework. You only need to find two quotations (one from each text), but I am expecting you to know the connections well; basically, be able to explain them verbally.

There are a range of different connections here. You could connect by theme, perhaps the subversion of nature, or by the presentation of characters or emotion. You could also Find connections through the Gothic - the choice is yours and will therefore lead to a full range of connection (this is perceptive you see and the highest band work).

Do let me know if you have any problems.

Best wishes,
Ms

Holiday Homework

Happy Easter Y10!

This holiday your homework is to fully annotate your booklet.You're looking for emotion and make sure it is detailed showing layers of meaning.  If you do not have it, THE CONTROLLED ASSESSMENT BOOKLET IS AVAILABLE: CLICK HERE.

I'm not expecting you to be able to translate this on your own. Use the wealth of information on the web - you'll have to be able to do this for independent study; in short, this search itself is a useful learning experience for you. See previous post for links.

Should be simple enough! Let me know if you have any problems: you can leave a comment and it will email me.

Ms :)

Macbeth

Whoops! (this didn;t post when I thought it had...)
We have been looking at Macbeth in the last few weeks. This has been somewhat thwarted by the Science talk so we're a bit further behind than I had hoped....
Your homework was to annotate Macbeth's soliloquy.
Sparknotes is a useful site, but you should also be able to research it independently. That way we'll get a range of interpretation.

Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
    She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.

    Exit Servant
    Is this a dagger which I see before me,
    The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
    I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
    Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
    To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
    A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
    Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
    I see thee yet, in form as palpable
    As this which now I draw.
    Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
    And such an instrument I was to use.
    Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
    Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
    And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
    Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
    It is the bloody business which informs
    Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
    Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
    The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
    Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,
    Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
    Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
    With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
    Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
    Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
    Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
    And take the present horror from the time,
    Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
    Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.

    A bell rings
    I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
    Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
    That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

    Exit

Macbeth

Hi Y10

This week, we have moved on to Macbeth. Use this link if you want to read ahead.

We've watched Polanski's version of the play. Best English week so far according to KH - watching a film and no homework. A brief respite in the homework from me (after GH said that he had never had as much homework in one subject); this is temporary though so make the most of it!

Your formative work will not be marked until after next week - I have Y11 and Y13 and they must take priority as you will this time next year...

Let me know if you need anything,
Ms

Romantic views on Nature and Frankenstein

Hello all
This week we have looked at Romantic views on Nature and Frankenstein. You watched this film on this and, as much as you thought it was pretentious (it's Peter Ackroyd; he can't be pretentious: he is awesome! Maybe one of the words you need to look up is pretentious?), it's very informative and gives you a good understanding of Romantic ideas about nature. I would also recommend you watch the other two films in the series, Eternity and Liberty, as they will deepen your understanding of the movement. Try to hate a little less.
Some hilarity at the 'birth' of the monster in lessons, but a valuable critical interpretation... A range of interpretations were brought up by the class and some thought on whether or not this might be a feminist text.
Homework is three words - you should know what you're doing.
Let me know if you need any help.
Ms

Homework: Frankenstein mind maps

Hi Y10

Homework is on the penultimate slide - happy holiday! 

Chapter 5 Emotion

Hello Y10
Some excellent work this week. The wall is becoming an excellent resource!
You have two homeworks (if you're on the French Exchange, just do the one in the powerpoint and I'll give you the resource for the other one next week).

1. Fully annotate Chapter 5 for emotion. I expect this to take and hour + of really focussed reading and interpretation. 
2. The pink sheet is some research you can do on philosophical ideas that would have influenced Mary Shelley. 

Let me know if you have any problems.

Emotion in Frankenstein

Hi Y10

Some great presentations this week! Well done. Now that we know about context, it's good for us to start to do some close analysis. 

Some key points for this assessment then. 

Formative Assessment: Explore the ways emotional voices are presented in the texts you have studied. Controlled Assessment: Explore the ways disturbed characters are presented in the texts you have studied About 2000 word essay Clean copy of scenes/chapters/text used in the C.A. 4 hours given. 20 lessons + 4 for Controlled Assessment

What are you expected to produce throughout this unit of work?
Throughout, you are collating your own quotation banks, character profiles and contextual information. You'll then write an essay.

Don't forget the homework in the final slide. Example paragraphs are also here. 

Chapter 5 lesson

4 frankenstein initial emotion from MsCaldwell

Context Presentations

Hi Y10
I am very excited about your presentations next week; they certainly have the makings of excellent teaching and it'll be interesting to see what you've researched, how you've linked it to the text and, of course, how you have chosen to present it. 
You'll be giving your presentations on Monday and Wednesday next week.
This is what you need to include:
Skilled presentations - 
1.Comment on the effect and importance of the context in which the text was written 

2.Have clear links to the text

3.Present the information clearly so that the aspect is understood

Excellent presentations - 

1.Explain with increasing sophistication the significance of the historical context on the text

2.Have precise and detailed links to the text

3.Present the information in a dynamic and informative way

As a reminder, in this CA you are expected to:
-Respond to texts critically and imaginatively; selecting and evaluating  relevant quotations to illustrate and support your interpretations
·Explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes and settings
·Explain links between texts, evaluating writers’ different ways of expressing meaning and achieving effects
·Relate texts to their social, cultural and historical contexts; explain how texts have been influential and significant to you and other readers in different contexts and at different times

This final point is the focus for these presentations and it's the relate bit that's key! We've worked really well on the first two points with OMAM and you targets from the formative assessment here will of course apply to these texts too. 

Let me know if you have any questions.

Ms

Frankenstein

Hello all
Right, by Monday you MUST have read the text. It's a slow starter, but becomes a gripping read.
HOMEWORK: Finish the storyboard/comic strip to summarise key moments and points in the novel (however you have chosen to tell the story).
  Skilled Storyboards will have...

1.A title that reflects your understanding of the extract

2.A summary of the extract with some quotes

3.Pictures that accurately reflect the content of the extract

Excellent Story boards will have...

1. A title that shows a sophisticated understanding of the significance of the extract/ section

2. A summary of the key point with well selected and embedded quotations

3. Pictures that reflect a sohisticated appreciation of Shelly's use of imagery

 

You can also use this video, which I think is very good to guide you/ support your learning.

 

Next week we'll have a focus on context and you'll give presentation on an aspect of the context that I will give you.

 

Let me know if you have any problems/ questions.

Ms