For those of you doing the exam on the 4th of June, please remember:
A. Will we have an intensive lesson on the Monday that we come back from half term, so make sure you come in for it.
B. Until then, Mr Blog is the perfect way for you to revise. Simply go back to January 2013 and May 2012. There is TONS of useful stuff on there (even if I do say so myself). If you re-read all this, study and do any practice tasks you find, you should be pretty well prepared.
Remember, the exam is on 'Of Mice and Men' in section A, and a writing task in section B.
Additional stuff such as practice papers etc are not hard to find if you google around.
Good luck, and see you a week on Monday.
NW
Saturday 25 May 2013
A message for you all.
Hi people,
I know that a few of you still have an exam to do but, effectively, you have now all finished your English GCSEs.
I just wanted to say a massive thanks to you all for being truly one of the best, if not THE best class I've ever had the pleasure of teaching. It has been nothing but fun teaching you guys, and it is people like you who make the job of teaching worth doing.
The presents and cards I have been given by some of you so far are amazing, and I just want to thank you for your kind words, they really do mean a lot.
If I am lucky enough to teach ANY of you in year 12, then I will be a very happy dude.
If you are coming in on the 5th for a bit of a party and a class photo then it'll be great to see you. If not, have a brilliant summer.
NW
I know that a few of you still have an exam to do but, effectively, you have now all finished your English GCSEs.
I just wanted to say a massive thanks to you all for being truly one of the best, if not THE best class I've ever had the pleasure of teaching. It has been nothing but fun teaching you guys, and it is people like you who make the job of teaching worth doing.
The presents and cards I have been given by some of you so far are amazing, and I just want to thank you for your kind words, they really do mean a lot.
If I am lucky enough to teach ANY of you in year 12, then I will be a very happy dude.
If you are coming in on the 5th for a bit of a party and a class photo then it'll be great to see you. If not, have a brilliant summer.
NW
Thursday 23 May 2013
Wednesday 22 May 2013
Nighty night...
Right,
I'm signing off now people. If there's anything specific you want me to go over in tomorrow's revision lesson, post it on here and it'll link to my Nokia 1100.
Night
NW :)
z
z
z
I'm signing off now people. If there's anything specific you want me to go over in tomorrow's revision lesson, post it on here and it'll link to my Nokia 1100.
Night
NW :)
z
z
z
I'll check back at 10!
Right everyone.
You should have more than enough to revise now.
REVISE THE POEMS, POST ANY QUESTIONS YOU HAVE ON HERE.
I will check back at 10pm.
If there's nothing there, I will see you PERIOD 3 TOMORROW.
BE THERE!!!!
NW
You should have more than enough to revise now.
REVISE THE POEMS, POST ANY QUESTIONS YOU HAVE ON HERE.
I will check back at 10pm.
If there's nothing there, I will see you PERIOD 3 TOMORROW.
BE THERE!!!!
NW
AN EXAMPLE ANSWER!
Explore the ways in which the poets present their feelings.
'Catrin', a poem by Gillian Clarke, is an interesting and ambiguous poem which describes a rather confusing relationship between a mother and her daughter told through the eyes of the mother during child-birth. Conversely, in 'Hitcher', we are introduced to a rather different situation of a man seemingly tired of his job, and arguably his life, who apparently takes out his stress on an unsuspecting hitch-hiker: killing him.
The first thing that occurred to me is that both poets use particular lexical fields in order to present their feelings to the reader. For example, Gillian Clarke uses lexis which makes the poem seem uncomfortably tense. She uses words such as 'hot', 'fighting' and 'confrontation' which add a certain level of stress to the poem, which the reader feels. The poet may be trying to suggest that her relationship with her daughter have not always been easy and that she has seen it as a struggle at times. Similarly, Simon Armitage uses a particular lexical field in order to give his poem an uneasy tone. He uses words and phrases such as 'screaming', 'let him have it' and 'bouncing off the kerb' which are all very violent images. This suggests that Simon Armitage feels that modern life has the potential to create a violent or unpredictable streak in people.
Secondly, the poems both use different type of imagery in order to show their feelings. Simon Armitage makes his poem seem quite threatening, and shows modern life to be a bit menacing, when he personifies the 'ansafone' and has it saying 'one more sick note Mister and you're finished!'. Not only is this a little bit frightening in itself, as it makes him sound like he is on the verge of being killed, let alone fired, but also, it makes the reader feel like the world (even inanimate objects) are ganging up on this everyday man. Gillian clark uses lots of metaphors to create a similar uneasy effect. She refers to the umbilical cord as 'the red rope of love' which is a very strange image. The umbilical cord should be something which a mother loves and cherishes as her link to her child, yet here, Clarke seems to see is as an annoyance or a hindrance. She also uses a metaphor of 'painting the walls with her words' to emphasise to the reader how stressed and in pain she was as she is evidently swearing a lot.
Hope you're getting the hang of this people! Your answer will need to be longer than this obviously, but you should, by now, be seeing a pattern of how to compare. It's not rocket science!
NW
'Catrin', a poem by Gillian Clarke, is an interesting and ambiguous poem which describes a rather confusing relationship between a mother and her daughter told through the eyes of the mother during child-birth. Conversely, in 'Hitcher', we are introduced to a rather different situation of a man seemingly tired of his job, and arguably his life, who apparently takes out his stress on an unsuspecting hitch-hiker: killing him.
The first thing that occurred to me is that both poets use particular lexical fields in order to present their feelings to the reader. For example, Gillian Clarke uses lexis which makes the poem seem uncomfortably tense. She uses words such as 'hot', 'fighting' and 'confrontation' which add a certain level of stress to the poem, which the reader feels. The poet may be trying to suggest that her relationship with her daughter have not always been easy and that she has seen it as a struggle at times. Similarly, Simon Armitage uses a particular lexical field in order to give his poem an uneasy tone. He uses words and phrases such as 'screaming', 'let him have it' and 'bouncing off the kerb' which are all very violent images. This suggests that Simon Armitage feels that modern life has the potential to create a violent or unpredictable streak in people.
Secondly, the poems both use different type of imagery in order to show their feelings. Simon Armitage makes his poem seem quite threatening, and shows modern life to be a bit menacing, when he personifies the 'ansafone' and has it saying 'one more sick note Mister and you're finished!'. Not only is this a little bit frightening in itself, as it makes him sound like he is on the verge of being killed, let alone fired, but also, it makes the reader feel like the world (even inanimate objects) are ganging up on this everyday man. Gillian clark uses lots of metaphors to create a similar uneasy effect. She refers to the umbilical cord as 'the red rope of love' which is a very strange image. The umbilical cord should be something which a mother loves and cherishes as her link to her child, yet here, Clarke seems to see is as an annoyance or a hindrance. She also uses a metaphor of 'painting the walls with her words' to emphasise to the reader how stressed and in pain she was as she is evidently swearing a lot.
Hope you're getting the hang of this people! Your answer will need to be longer than this obviously, but you should, by now, be seeing a pattern of how to compare. It's not rocket science!
NW
Planning for the COMPARE question.
For those of you who were in the lesson earlier on, you probably don't need this. But there were a few of you missing.
In the COMPARE section, you will simply need to analyse two poems (using OVERLAPPERS if you want). You should be looking to write between 6-8 paragraphs, which isn't very much really. The main thing you are trying to do is to find what the poems do that is SIMILAR or DIFFERENT.
What we said earlier on was this:
1. Do an introductory paragraphs where you demonstrate that you know the background and context of each of the two poems, and briefly state what they are about or what their purpose is.
2. Write about 4/5 paragraphs where you try to find LANGUAGE/IMAGERY features that they share in common or do differently. This is where OVERLAPPERS will come in handy. Remember, you're only trying to find about 4-5 points to make.
3. Your first of these paragraphs should be (to get you started) about the LEXICAL FIELDS that each poem uses. Look at what TYPE of words they use to create a certain atmosphere or tone. Give a few examples from each and explain what the effect on the reader is. EVERY poem does this, so it is a perfect way to begin.
4. Then use OVERLAPPERS - Maybe both use onomatopoeia, or alliteration, or juxtapositions, or graphic imagery, or dehumanisations etc....If you find something they BOTH do, then that is the basis of your paragraph!!
5. If you run out of things they BOTH do, then point out their differences instead. ie, one of them uses dehumanisations to show how badly people are being treated - the other does the same sort of thing, but it uses graphic imagery instead to achieve the effect.
6. Finish off with a paragraph about the STRUCTURE (stanzas, rhythm, rhyme, length, enjambment, caesura) of each poem, and a paragraph about the SIMILAR/DIFFERENT themes of each poem.
And relax :)
NW
In the COMPARE section, you will simply need to analyse two poems (using OVERLAPPERS if you want). You should be looking to write between 6-8 paragraphs, which isn't very much really. The main thing you are trying to do is to find what the poems do that is SIMILAR or DIFFERENT.
What we said earlier on was this:
1. Do an introductory paragraphs where you demonstrate that you know the background and context of each of the two poems, and briefly state what they are about or what their purpose is.
2. Write about 4/5 paragraphs where you try to find LANGUAGE/IMAGERY features that they share in common or do differently. This is where OVERLAPPERS will come in handy. Remember, you're only trying to find about 4-5 points to make.
3. Your first of these paragraphs should be (to get you started) about the LEXICAL FIELDS that each poem uses. Look at what TYPE of words they use to create a certain atmosphere or tone. Give a few examples from each and explain what the effect on the reader is. EVERY poem does this, so it is a perfect way to begin.
4. Then use OVERLAPPERS - Maybe both use onomatopoeia, or alliteration, or juxtapositions, or graphic imagery, or dehumanisations etc....If you find something they BOTH do, then that is the basis of your paragraph!!
5. If you run out of things they BOTH do, then point out their differences instead. ie, one of them uses dehumanisations to show how badly people are being treated - the other does the same sort of thing, but it uses graphic imagery instead to achieve the effect.
6. Finish off with a paragraph about the STRUCTURE (stanzas, rhythm, rhyme, length, enjambment, caesura) of each poem, and a paragraph about the SIMILAR/DIFFERENT themes of each poem.
And relax :)
NW
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