What are you all doing...

...visiting this page? 706 views! And I spent four hours updating Fronter the other night!!

Get yourselves to Fronter, stat, please. :)

Fronter has:

Powerpoints for each of the cluster 2 poems, with notes

Example essays for cluster 2 poetry

A great revision guide for cluster 2 poetry

links to videos for cluster 2

Powerpoints for each of the Duffy/Armitage/Pre-1914 poems

A detailed revision guide for Duffy/Armitage/Pre-1914

Notes on how write about poetry

Powerpoints on non-fiction and presentational devices for Paper 1

links to TKAM videos

The TKAM revision guide

All the SparkNotes on TKAM condensed into one document

Powerpoints on different themes in the book

It also has:

Revision activities for poetry that you can complete at home

Past paper questions for all papers, condensed into separate documents and divided into Higher/Foundation

Don't say I'm not good to you!

Of course a lot of the materials are still stored on this site too, but you'll have to scroll through the archives (on the right of the page) to find them. The links in the sidebar are still pretty handy though.

Happy studying x

The Laboratory/Hitcher/Revision Apps

It's come to my attention that some useful apps for TKAM are available for the iPhone/iPad. There is a revision guide which costs about £1.19; the Cliff Notes are also available. Use up 'dead time' on the bus/train and cut down on your revision by buying these AND USING THEM. Some members of the class have also indicated that they'd like to listen to an audio version of TKAM - for example, on their way to school - and I think this is an excellent idea. I'm researching it as we speak and suspect there might be an audio version available on iTunes. I'll keep you posted, but please let me know if you find one before me!

I have removed the powerpoint for 'The Laboratory' because it was too image heavy and was causing the page to freeze up for some people.

Instead, I've taken it and placed it on the Y11 English Fronter page.

I've linked to the Fronter page in the Links bar on the right, but you can also find it here .

I've uploaded revision material for all topics (or almost all - it's a work in progress!) onto Fronter. The material was previously available on this blog but was becoming difficult to find. On Fronter it's all easily accessible.

If you're having trouble with your Fronter password, speak to myself or Miss Flanagan to sort it out.

Today we worked on 'The Hitcher' by Simon Armitage (which of course means it's a Literature poem).

Here's a helpful powerpoint that I will also make available on Fronter.

Hitcher

Half-term Exam Preparation

As you all know, the English exam is coming up VERY soon, and we all have a lot of work to do.

Over the half-term you should be doing several hours of good quality studying every day. It's not a holiday!

Try drawing up a revision timetable (don't take too long over this) detailing how long you will spend on each subject and each topic. Focus on the topics you find difficult. This should help ensure that you waste as little time as possible.

For English, you are also being given several tasks to complete over the next week.

These are the required tasks:

• In your poetry notebook, complete the questions on 'Havisham', 'Mother Any Distance' and 'On My First Sonne'. Include extension activities.


• In your purple booklet, complete the third Language Analysis and Presentation & Layout questions.


• Complete the literature past paper question provided below.


• Reread 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. Get your diary signed to show that you have done this, or at least that you've attempted to do so to the best of your ability.

These tasks are also suggested, but not compulsory.

• Create your own revision pack for literature and/or cluster 2 poetry. The act of making the pack itself will require you to learn about the poems in lots of depth.


• Make notes in your poetry notebook using the links on the right. BBC Bitesize is an excellent resource.


• Visit Fronter and make use of the revision materials available there.


• Highlight and make notes in your copy of TKAM. Again, use the links on the right to help you do this.

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Literature Questions


Higher

Answer both parts (a) and (b)
(a) Compare how female speakers are presented in ‘Havisham’ by Carol Ann Duffy and one poem from the Pre-1914 Poetry Bank.

and then

(b) Compare how male speakers are presented in ‘Sonnet 130’ by William Shakespeare and one poem by Simon Armitage.


Foundation

Compare how the poets present attitudes to people in ‘'Hitcher’' by Simon Armitage with one poem by Carol Ann Duffy and two poems from the Pre-1914 Poetry Bank.

Compare:

• what the attitudes to people are


• how the poets present these attitudes by the ways they write.

Mock Advice 2

Another quick comment about the exam. You will be sitting English Paper 2.

Section A: Poetry (Cluster 2/Cluster 1 if you know any)
Section B: Writing to describe

TAKE TIME TO PLAN.

I've attached this link to the example essay we looked at in class, but it might be difficult to find in the document. It's Script S5, the second last one. However, there are other sample scripts in there too which are worth looking at - the marks they were given are all listed in the table at the start.

Videos, 'Search for my Tongue'/'Hurricane Hits England' and Mocks

Information on Mocks: Paper 2


Section A

This is the poetry section. You should answer one question out of two.

One question will refer to a poem from Cluster 1.

The other question will refer to a question from Cluster 2 (which we have been focussing on).

You will have to compare the named poem in the question with another poem of your choice. The poem of your choice can be from either cluster.

DO NOT write about poems by Duffy/Armitage, or Pre-1914 poetry. These are LITERATURE poems, not English poems.


Section B

You will be given several questions and should choose the one on WRITING TO DESCRIBE; this is the form we have practised.

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Videos

These videos were made by teachers from another school. Each video shows the teachers discussing a particular poem from the anthology. I've provided links to each of them below.

Search for My Tongue

Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan

Hurricane Hits England

This Room

They have videos for almost all of the Poetry from Different Cultures on their Youtube channel.

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Hurricane Hits England

Hurricane Hits England


Search for My Tongue

PMcSearch for My Tongue

'Presents from my Aunts'/'This Room'

ThisRoomDharker

PMcPresents From My Aunts in Pakistan

presauntpak

Descriptive Writing, Mocks and Homework for w/b 31/01

Okay everyone, just a quick note on your mock exam which is scheduled to take place on the 14th and 15th of February (looks like it'll be split over two periods, even though it's only one paper).

The paper you will be sitting is English Paper 2. It has two parts.

• writing to inform/explain/describe
• cluster 2 poetry

We've already started preparing for it in class and will continue to do so. At the moment I think we'll sit our roleplay assessments just before the half term, after the exam - that way we don't have to use up valuable preparation time.

Homework

You have a few pieces of homework to complete this week.

• Presentation & Layout 2 (purple booklet)
• Language Analysis 2 (purple booklet)
• A descriptive writing question (see below)
• Practise for your roleplay assessment

The descriptive writing questions you can choose for your homework are:

• Describe a city, real or imagined.
• Describe a journey by plane, train, bus or car.
• Describe the view from your bedroom window.

Remember to use varied sentences, descriptive words, similes and metaphors, connectives, sensory language, a clear structure and the 'zoom in' method.