Year 10 Exam Technique - The first practice question

Let me say first of all how proud I am in the mature way that you tackled a new assessment format. It bodes well for the year and though I know some of you were disheartened with your result, don't be! The ideas you expressed were of an excellent standard and with a few tweaks to the structures you use to express yourself, you will see your marks rocket.



Here is a quick summary of the key points of the lesson:

The Opening:

A lot of your success depends on the strength of your opening argument. You need to have a strong argument that you can 'hang' (use) a RANGE of quotations to support. This argument needs to answer the question and then allow you to use your RANGE of quotations to develop your analysis from.

E.G.

How does the writer present adult decisions in the short story 'When the Wasps Drowned'?

The writer presents adult decisions as being difficult for teenagers to make in 'When the Wasps Drowned'.

Here there is a concise sentence with a clear argument (growing up is difficult) that I can then use a range of quotations to support:

'I wanted Mum's gentle shush in my own ear'
'When I closed my eyes, I could see Therese's dream, the arm growing through the soil'
'My fingers, fiddling unconsciously, played with the ring for a moment'
'In that heat, everything seemed an effort'
'I hungry for conversation'
'For the first few moments, I stood mouth agape... not wanting to go anywhere near Therese or all those wasps'
'Mum was out at work all day. She left us to our own devices'


So my opening allows me to develop my analysis further.

Key Rule
 
Your opening sentence should:

1) Answer the How part of a question.
2) Be succinct and clear.
3) Contain an view that you have a range of quotations to support.


Analysis

A D grade or below answer will be able to do the following:

Set out an argument, support it with a quotation and paraphrase:

The writer presents adult decisions as being difficult for teenagers to make in 'When the Wasps Drowned'. 'I wanted Mum's gentle shush in my ear' comes after the protagonist has made a decision to hide the body without telling anyone and seeks comfort from her mother. 

To target the A*-C grades, you need to Zoom in and focus on the key words of a quotation. In doing so you need to look at implied, symbolic  or hidden meaning (connotations). How perceptive your analysis is will separate you from a C or a B.

E.G.

The writer presents adult decisions as being difficult for teenagers to make in 'When the Wasps Drowned'. 'I wanted Mum's gentle shush in my ear' comes after the protagonist has made a decision to hide the body without telling anyone and seeks comfort from her mother. The use of 'Mum' suggest the protection she seeks from the adult world as she realises she wasn't mature enough to cope with the decision she made. 

Here, they have chosen Mum as a word to focus on and look at the connotations of Mum linking it to the question. This develops more marks.

 
Key Rule
 
Your analysis should:

1) Focus on a key word or phrase in your quotation (if you can't see which word / phrase to use you probably haven't chosen an appropriate quotation).
2) Focus on implied or symbolic meaning and connotations.
3) Link to the question.



A Grade

An A grade student will be able to see that there is more than one potential interpretation, so they will zoom in again. They will pick out either a deeper second interpretation of the key word they have picked out or zoom in to a different part of the quotation.

E.G. 

The writer presents adult decisions as being difficult for teenagers to make in 'When the Wasps Drowned'. 'I wanted Mum's gentle shush in my ear' comes after the protagonist has made a decision to hide the body without telling anyone and seeks comfort from her mother. The use of 'Mum' suggest the protection she seeks from the adult world as she realises she wasn't mature enough to cope with the decision she made. She has also taken on the mother figure with her younger siblings for most of the story and so her focus on 'Mum' could also suggest she is still learning how to make adult decisions and is looking for guidance from her mother. 

Here, they have chosen to stick with the word 'Mum' and deepen their interpretation of the word. Note how this still links to the question and the opening sentence.


Key Rule
 
Your second analysis should:

1) Add depth to your original analysis by offering a further interpretation or analyse a second key word in your quotation.
2) Focus on implied or symbolic meaning and connotations.
3) Link to the question.


A* Grade

An A* grade student will be able to see that how the writer has constructed their text to reflect their views on the world and appreciate the effectiveness in how this is conveyed. This is the evaluative stage of the answer where they ZOOM OUT and link their analysis to what they think the writer is trying to convey (their key ideas or message). This should tie up your ideas and link to your argument as well.

The writer presents adult decisions as being difficult for teenagers to make in 'When the Wasps Drowned'. 'I wanted Mum's gentle shush in my ear' comes after the protagonist has made a decision to hide the body without telling anyone and seeks comfort from her mother. The use of 'Mum' suggest the protection she seeks from the adult world as she realises she wasn't mature enough to cope with the decision she made. She has also taken on the mother figure with her younger siblings for most of the story and so her focus on 'Mum' could also suggest she is still learning how to make adult decisions and is looking for guidance from her mother. This is particularly effective in conveying that children often grow up too fast and aren't always equipped to deal with the difficulties of making adult decisions. This carries Wigfall's ideas that children will make mistakes as they experience greater responsibility in the adult world and often need guidance. 

Look at how the paragraph expands the focus of the answer to include what they feel the writer's ideas are but also link these ideas back to their overall argument. Dr Warren calls this tying a bow in the thread of your argument.

Key Rule
 
Your evaluation should:

1) Zoom out to focus on the writer's overall message.
2) Judge the effectiveness in the way it is conveyed (subtly, effectively, clearly etc.).
3) Link back to your opening argument and the question.

As I've said in lessons, we are all going to understand things at different times and at different paces, but you should now have a framework to follow and some errors to learn from.

As long as you learn from the errors, you will continue to improve.

Feel free to post any improved work for me to comment on below.






 

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Year 11 Homework - Writing Assessments

Here are the key points to the on-going Year 11 Homework.

You are going to be asked to write two contrasting pieces: one fiction and one non-fiction as part of your on-going GCSE controlled assessments.

Your fiction piece is going to be a recreation from a poem of your choice (two poems also suggested below), which means you need to use the poem as inspiration.

This could be:

1) Use some lines of the poem to build a new story around.
2) Explore the theme of the poem in a story of your choice.
3) Evoke the atmosphere of the poem in your own writing.
4) Modernise the poem creating your own story.

Just let me say now - YOU ARE NOT WRITING YOUR OWN POEM.

The homework for this unit of work involves you writing 100 words per week based on a poem of your choice. This does not have to relate to your final piece, this does not have to be a complete story and this does not have to be perfect.

You may choose to write the opening or describe the setting, or write some sections of dialogue or describe a key event or write the ending. The key is that you write.

The homework is necessary because like everything, writing takes practice. Writers re-draft and re-draft down to the most minute word or sentence until they are happy.

You need to practice so you can develop your own style, the rhythm of writing and so you can make mistakes.

All through last year when we were studying literature, you were reading as a writer (you read looking specifically at the writer's craft). Now it is key that you write as a reader (everything you write should be deliberate in order to influence the reader).

Here is a key diagram to help you:

Every Wednesday, you are expected to bring in your writing to present to the class for suggestions and praise.

The poems covered in class are below but you can choose any poem you wish:

Spellbound

  by Emily Brontë

The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,
Wastes beyond wastes below;
But nothing drear can move me;
I will not, cannot go.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16632#sthash.TEtsRmRK.dpuf

The poem Spellbound by Emily Bronte
 

The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,
Wastes beyond wastes below;
But nothing drear can move me;
I will not, cannot go.

Spellbound

  by Emily Brontë

The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,
Wastes beyond wastes below;
But nothing drear can move me;
I will not, cannot go.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16632#sthash.TEtsRmRK.dpuf

Spellbound

  by Emily Brontë

The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,
Wastes beyond wastes below;
But nothing drear can move me;
I will not, cannot go.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16632#sthash.TEtsRmRK.dpuf

Spellbound

  by Emily Brontë

The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,
Wastes beyond wastes below;
But nothing drear can move me;
I will not, cannot go.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16632#sthash.TEtsRmRK.dpuf

Eyes Look Into The Well

Eyes look into the well,
Tears run down from the eye;
The tower cracked and fell
From the quiet winter sky.
Under a midnight stone
Love was buried by thieves;
The robbed heart begs for a bone,
The damned rustle like leaves.
Face down in the flooded brook
With nothing more to say.
Lies One the soldiers took,
And spoiled and threw away.

 

W.H Auden 

You must bring the homework in typed or written neatly on a piece of paper. I will not accept scrappy bits of paper done on the bus. 

 

The purpose of this homework is to practice writing. If it is done on the bus or at the last minute in school then you have not given the task enough thought and wasted the opportunity to truly improve your skills.

 

Happy Writing!

 

Mr Milne

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10Q1 Thematic Study Homework

The Task

A key skill that is needed to produce high level work in GCSE is the ability to connect thematic concepts between seemingly disparate texts.

As part of developing these skills, you will choose a theme you wish to investigate through 5 types of text.

Literature - 1 text with a critical reputation.

Music - A selection of 3 songs.

Poetry - A selection of 3 poems.

Film - 1 film

Art - 2 Piece of art work.

You will complete a weekly journal which notes what you have studied and your findings.

The between the 14th and the 21st October you will be presenting your findings as part of your GCSE / IGCSE Speaking and Listening assessment.

Theme - Click the link for the official definition

But for our purposes a theme is: A topic or issue discussed within a text.

You have choice over your theme but there are a list of themes below. Remember some themes (such as love) can be quite broad so try to narrow your focus down to a specific element such as 'Influence of Love' or 'Absence of Love' etc.

Here are a list of themes you may wish to look at:

The Paradox of Life

Anti-Heroes

Inner Conflict

Religion

Corrupting Influence of Power

Love and its influence.

Dystopian Futures

The Role of Women

Revenge

Heroes

The Journal

The Journal must be kept and handed in on a weekly basis and can be submitted in the following forms:

1) As a printed document - not scrappy pieces of paper (this will not be accepted).

2) As a link to a blog (Please seek prior approval) tweeted to @MilEnglish or emailed from your school account (not personal account) to chris.milne@mca.attrust.org.uk - wordpress and blogger.com are very simple formats to use.

3) A comment on under this posting


The journal should consider the following questions (which can be used as headings):

1) How was your chosen theme presented?

(positively, negatively, in-depth, ironically, some aspects covered but not others)

2) What was similar or different to the presentation in your other texts?

3) How do the characters / artists react to the theme or events?


The presentation will be filmed as part of your on going English assessment and must be longer 4 to 5 minutes long or you may lose marks.

The presentation does not have to cover all your texts only the most interesting parts you found.

The presentation addresses the questions above making clear links to the similarities and differences of your texts.

You may use a cue card the size of a postcard and any props you wish to bring (artwork, music, books etc).


TEXTS







The choice of texts are entirely up to you.

Your choice of Literature must be approved by me and must have a critical reputation.

Critical Reputation - The text or author is award winning or nominated.
                                  The author makes up part of the Literary Canon.
                                  The text has been reviewed by another established writer.

Here is a suggested reading list but this is not exhaustive:

Life of Pi
Catch 22
Slaughterhouse 5
1984
Animal Farm
Skepticism Inc
Catcher in the Rye
Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet
Richard III
A Brave New World
The Taming of the Shrew
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Woman of No Importance
Enduring Love
The Big Sleep
The Great Gatsby
Brighton Rock
Romeo and Juliet

You can see the work that some other students have completed in a school in London here

You have a lot of freedom in your study - use this to look at things you are interested in and you will find it a lot more fun.

Good Luck

Mr Milne 

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Back to School - Year 12 / 13 - Dreading it or Loving it?

When reading this post (mainly aimed at teachers but worth reading if you in a particularly reflective mood) written by a Head of English from another school, it quickly turned my thoughts to the experience of moving from Year 11 to 12 (or 12 to 13).

Sadly by about December / January, I begin to hear the rumbles of 'I hate 6th Form', 'What's the point?', 'I should have gone to college', which I really find quite sad. The general complaints I hear are:

1) There's too much work and your expected to do it on your own in your own time.
2) There are rules.
3) I'm failing so why bother trying?
4) It's not like Skins.
5) The subjects aren't what we expected them to be / needed them to be / glamorous enough.

These are from students who enjoyed the experience at GCSE enough to them want to explore more into the subject. So what went wrong and what advice would I give you to ensure you enjoy 6th Form.


 Point 1, 3 and 5 are all quite similar complaints and there is a reason that these complaints happen around December / January and that is because of exams.

You have to retain a huge amount of information to successfully tackle your AS or A2 examinations and you have to have deft skills to use that information. In English Literature alone you have two novels and two large collections of poems that you have to cover and then add on the rigours of your other subjects.

That is a lot of work.

It will impinge on your Twitter time, Facebook time, Breaking Bad time, your part-time job time and worst of all your party time. If you leave everything until the last minute, you'll miss all of this at once.

The key is to be organised. You will be getting an English Literature handbook and I am sure other departments will do the same. Do Not Bin These. These are vital to your survival; the English one has all your deadlines, your essay titles, the assessment objectives, the set texts, the requirements for laying out your essay. If you come to me with a question that is in the handbook, you'll be referred to it and I'll get quite grumpy if you do it over and over again.

When  you are given your handbook, sit down with it for half an hour, write your deadlines in your diary (you are given these as well) and start to map out when you are going to block in time to hit the deadlines.

The key to success is to get into the correct habits:

1) Do the work when you get it or as soon as you can - putting it off will cause you more stress.
2) Use your free periods to seek out your teacher if you are struggling - you are expected to work independently but that doesn't mean you are expected to suddenly become brilliant at everything straight away.
3) If something you do is difficult, it is more worthwhile than doing something very easy. Difficulty isn't bad - you get a better feeling from succeeding at things that are difficult and you develop into a stronger, more resilient and intelligent person by conquering something difficult. Fun isn't easy: boredom is easy.

For the last two years of your education you have been consistently pushed to C and above. The most shocking part about the moving from Year 11 to 6th form can be moving from seeing As on your assessments to seeing Es.

This is not failure.

There are big jumps between grades and skills / knowledge often take time to show through in grades. Improvement is what you are looking for in each assessed piece you do - that may be numerical in marks rather than alphabetical in grades.

Point 5 of the complaints is more of a life lesson than a school lesson. There is always something in every subject / job that you will not like - the key is to focus on the positives and not the negatives.

When I did my degree, I didn't particularly like photography or the Music programme MAX/MSP. As a teacher, I'm not overly fond of paperwork (see my desk). As an English teacher, I'm not a big fan of Romantic Poets (thanks Mr Gove for making them compulsory from 2015, I'll recross the border by then).

However, there was / is something that sparks my interest in my subject / job / degree each week. It made getting through the bits I didn't enjoy all the more satisfying by knowing as soon as I got them done, I could focus on the bits I love.

1) There will be something somebody says in at least one of your lessons each week that will interest you (it might not even be related to the subject) but find out more about it because finding you sparks of interest is the best thing about your education.

Finally points 2 and 4.

Skins is a T.V. drama. The characters don't have to get grades, go to university or get jobs. They have a job and it is pretending to be a teenager who doesn't care.

To be honest some episodes of Skins have been brilliantly written and every teenager in the world wants to be the one that doesn't care, doesn't do anything yet still seems to have impeccable clothing, hair, make-up and enough money to blow it all in a haze of booze and trashed houses.

6th Form is not Skins in the same way that Chemistry teachers don't make amphetamine in their spare time (who isn't enjoying Breaking Bad though?).

You are coming back to College, there are younger students all around you.

You can't wear exactly what you want all the time; you can't say what you want all the time and you have to turn up when your timetable says you have lessons or tutor time.

Sorry.

I'd love to tell you differently.

All the things you can't do above pretty much apply for the rest of your life. These aren't just exclusive College rules, they are more or less life rules.

Sorry.

Again.

So this was meant to be an up-lifting post about the enjoyment of coming back to school but I may even have managed to depress myself.

6th Form  should be about finding something you are passionate about be that subject, sport or career. It should be about loving learning. It should be about using the extra freedoms you have to find out more about yourself. To test yourself. To see how strong you are. To see what you are really capable of.

So in the spirit of positivity here are my top tips to avoid being THAT student:

Top Tips for Enjoying 6th Form

1. Focus on the things that blow your mind not the ones that numb them
2. Use the next two weeks to organise yourself. Don't get behind as it will all pile up.
3. Don't through away your subject guides.
4. Find something interesting that has come up in one of your classes each week and go away and find out more about it.
5. Try to improve each week whether that is measured in grades, marks or self confidence.
6. If you are struggling, speak to your teacher.
7. Use your free lessons - it's better than missing a party.
8. Get involved in as many things as you can - peer mentor, paired reader, Children in Need, Jordan Team.
9. Read - whether it is something subject related or seminal late teen texts (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, High Fidelity, Catcher in the Rye).
10. Relax - if your life gets too full of school you will resent it. Take some time off too.

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