Year 10 Mon 24.11 - ICT Lesson - Preparation for EXAMS

Dear Year 10, 

I'm sorry I'm not here today.

Please be your normal EXCELLENT selves and use this 100 minutes to make progress in your learning. Especially as this lesson is preparation for your exam (!!SIMS grade!!) that is happening on Thursday 4th December. 

Learning Objectives

• To know and understand the format of the IGCSE exam. 
• To know a range of different text types and their features. 
• To practice my ability to do Question 2. 

1. Go to this blogpost on the IGCSE exam 
2. Complete Part A of your preparation worksheet (by 1.50pm at latest) 
3. Complete Part B of your preparation worksheet (by 2.20pm at latest)  Bitesize information - Newspaper reports
4. Complete Part C of your preparation worksheet (by 2.55pm at latest) 
5. Tidy today's sheets into your IGCSE plastic pocket and return your folder to our box.  

I look forward to being impressed on Thursday by what you have achieved.  The lesson we'll do on Thursday will build on this work from today. 

Miss Ralston

Year 10 - Period 3/4 Thursday 6th Nov

Dear Year 10,

How you ALL conduct yourself in this ICT lesson will determine whether or not you are in an ICT room tomorrow.  Make sure you do as well today as you did the last time we were in ICT and you were independent, focused learners. 

1.  Type up your descriptive essay so far.  You need to follow this format.   If you want to see what it looks like in word (not google docs) then you can see it in Shared/Year 10 English/Miss Ralston.  There you will also get copies of the photographs to paste on the top of your work. 

2.  Email your work to a learning partner.  They must participate in meaningful peer-assessment and email it back to you.  

3. Use this link to write one or two fridge magnet poems:

• The NATURE or LOVE kit is probably best for the monsoon wedding. 
• The ORIGINAL kit is probably best for the war scene.
• The ORIGINAL kit is probably best for the earthquake scene.

Experiment!  The whole point of poetry is you can be precise, focused on the words, not worried about whole sentences.  

4.  Save your work as IGCSE Descriptive Coursework - YOUR NAME.  Email it to me: helen.ralston@oasisshirleypark.org   

Revision 11m3 - Thurs 23.10

1.  Use this model and scaffold to complete a PEA-conn-PEA for the following past paper.

Explore the methods used to present love for your country in Flag and one other poem from the Conflict cluster. 

Model: 

Both Agard and Cummings use alliteration to present the idea of love for your country.  In Flag it says "outlive the blood you bleed." This suggests that a Flag's power is permanent and will survive any sacrifice that you make.  The word "blood" implies that it is worth getting injured or even killed for the honour of country.  Also, alliteration is used in next to course god america i: "heroic happy dead."  This emphasises that men were willing to sacrifice themselves in order to become war heroes.  The word "dead" is very blunt and highlights that Cummings is being sarcastic and he thinks it is ridiculous that love for your country can lead you to an early, and perhaps pointless death.  


Your turn. 

Use these quotes and the sentence starter below to write up a PEA-conn-PEA.  It is exactly the same as all the other PEAs you've done (OMAM, Aunt Pegg, Shakespeare) it's just two smushed together!

Quotes: 
"Then blind your conscience to the end." 
"They did not stop to think, they died instead."

Both Agard and Cummings show a similar message that a love for your country can lead you to being influenced.    At the end of Flag Agard writes: "..............


2.  Turn to your Aunt Pegg and OMAM exam practices.  Look at your EBIs.  They are either numbers (eg 2.1, 2.6 etc) or letters ( [a], [e] etc).  Click here to see what your EBIs stand for and write them out on your exam practices in green pen.  

3. Use the remaining time to actively revise (that means you have to be DOING something, not just reading/watching) any of the work we've done this half term:

• OMAM
• Flag 
• next to course god america i
• IGCSE

Revising Hawk Roosting

1. Here is the powerpoint we used in class:


2.  Here are some great annotations from a discussion that Lauren, Bella



 3. A great and really detailed revision guide from Whitworth school on this poem. 


4. Great revision questions. Click to go to a version you can zoom in on:

Revising The Right Word

1.  This is the powerpoint we used in class. 

To get this poem, it's important to understand Dharker's intention/message/lesson about:

• prejudices we have
• how words can have the power to manipulate how we think/feel/react - words can make our prejudices worse!

Remember, the first 6 stanzas describe exactly the same image (someone outside a door) but how differently you react to that person when they're called a TERRORIST (stanza 1)  to when they're called a CHILD (stanza 6).





2. You can also see some annotations from a discussion that Lauren, Bella and I had below:



3.  A great revision resource, lots of questions to get you thinking about The Right Word, click on it to go to a version you can really zoom-in on:

Blog Updates

REVISE REVISE REVISE!  It'll make you feel good, I promise!  Don't put it off, JUST DO IT.  

Here is a quick overview of some things I've added to our various posts and links to quickly find your way to main posts. 

1.  Another great blog found with notes on Of Mice and Men and An Inspector calls. 

2. Go to the Of Mice and Men post to see:

• some useful character mind-maps found 
• a link to a folder with all our past papers in it it
• a great video from Mr Bruff which goes over a 30/30 response to support the work we did about that in class.  

3. Go to the IGCSE Q1,2,3 postto access a folder with loads of past papers in it.  You MUST be practicing, the exam is in 4 days time! Anything you do, I'll mark! 

4. Coming soon, your AIC revision posters (although you all have your own copy as well).  In the mean time, use the AIC post to keep revising!  

5.  Don't forget to visit the poetry posts too:  

• General advice and past papers. 
• Comparative plans + advice 
• Revising Unseen Poetry
• Plus all the individual posts on separate poems if you've got any glaring gaps. 

New Revision Guide - for Literature

Thanks to Miss George (for finding) and Kings Down School (for creating) this revision guide.

It has:

1. SUPER USEFUL key quotes to know for each character and overall for Of Mice and Men.

2. The same for An Inspector Calls.  Plus an interesting way to think about AIC as demonstrating the 7 Deadly Sins. 

3. A page of notes on each conflict poem - great for if you've missed any. 

4. Tips on how to revise generally!

You can find it here.  

Comparing Poems

Each time that we do a comparative plan, I'll try to add it to here so that we're gathering a collection of plans for a variety of combos.  

Scroll down for some general advice about comparing poems.  See this post here also plus all the individual posts for the various poems.  

Practice Question:  Compare how poets explore the importance of memory in Come on Come Back and one other poem from Conflict. 



Practice Question: Compare how poets present people in danger in Out of the Blue and one other poem from Conflict. 



Compare how poets discuss the idea of being manipulated in next to of course god America i and one other poem from Conflict. 


TOP TIPS for comparing poems:

• Think which poems did we do at the same sort of time?  They were taught in a deliberate order!
•  Flag 
•  next to of course god America i
•  Charge of the Light Brigade
•  Bayonet Charge 
•  Out of the Blue 
•  Belfast Confetti 
•  Futility
•  Falling Leaves
•  Mametz Wood
•  Poppies 
•  Come on Come Back
•  The Yellow Palm 
•  The Right Word
•  Hawk Roosting 

KEY 

Blue = patriotism 

Orange = Experience of battle/conflict 

Purple =  Death/Nature 

Green = Consequences of conflict 

Pink = power

• Remember you can compare based on similarities/differences in:
• Technique used
• Topic (what is being described - a child, a solider fighting etc) 
• Impact on the reader 
• Author's message

• Use comparing/contrasting connectives to show whether you're discussing a similarity or a difference: 

Comparing Connectives	Contrasting Connectives
And Also Furthermore In the same way Similarly Additionally In addition	But However On the other hand In a different way Contrastingly Alternatively In contrast

IGCSE Q1,2,3

UPDATE:  Click here to go to a folder with 22 past papers in it! I've also included the text-type required by Q1 as part of each files name.  This means you can target the past papers you most need to practice.  



This exam is on the 8th of May! 

1. Use this revision placemat to give you all the basic information on each question and exemplars:





2. Use this link to visit a folder with all the powerpoints we've used in class to go over Q1, 2, 3 to jog your memory or revisit various activities. 

3. Use this table to search for past papers.   

Simply, go to google and type:

"Vesuvius CIE English language"  and you'll get routed to copies of past papers.  Often it's the second link down (the first is the mark scheme). 

Still can't find them directly?  Then find them through a website called extremepapers.com  

Books are boring...aren't they?

If you don't think you can ever think of a good book to read, then try this flow-chart.  It covers MODERN books, lots of which have teenagers as their main characters and across all different genres from mystery to romance to crime.   Click here to go to the flow chart in detail:  

Revision Guides

Don't forget that we're selling revision guides for £2 (they're £5+ in the shops) so you can be independent, proactive students!

Remember, the ideas in these books do not REPLACE your ideas.  They are not superior to your ideas either. They are simply another interpretation. 

Limited stocks - so ask me ASAP for them!

     

Another AMAZING Blog discovery

Just discovered this blog:

Mr Gray's Blog

and it is AWESOME for conflict poetry (including podcast responses to FAQ) and videos that teach you on ALL poems (so especially good if you've missed any poetry lessons) and also has some stuff on OMAM. 

Please use these resources!!

IGCSE Practice Exam - delayed until Monday 17.03

Hi 11m1,

As you will know from your schedule there was supposed to be an IGCSE exam tomorrow after school (Fri 14th March) but because of Mr Morrow's leaving do it's being rearranged for next week.

So that you:

(a) don't have to do it after school

and 

(b) because Monday period 5 and 6 is a cover lesson (and therefore you wouldn't have the "benefit" of me being there anyway, 

I propose (and Chianna, Rashea, Johan, Brandon, Carl, Lauren, Bella, Cole agreed - they were those I could find in MFL to discuss this plan!) you do the mock on Monday in class.

It will be:

Q1
Q2
Q3 (b) 

in 100 minutes. 

You need to be LEADERS and make sure that regardless of who is doing the cover lesson, you sit and you do the exam paper to the best of your ability!!

I will make sure that those people who sat the previous Q1 practice last week have their papers and targets so they can ensure that they improve on them now. 

Just found: great literature website!

Hi all,

I just found another great blog put together by a school (Wildern).  
It's got pages on:

• AIC
• OMAM
• DNA (if you are in 11saturn or 11mercury 2)
• Conflict Poetry.

It's full of really interesting articles and videos, particularly for tackling the CONTEXT of the texts.  Although I haven't explored it fully - so there will be other gems on there too. 

Wildern English Blog  (view it from explorer - not chrome and you'll be able to see all the embedded powerpoints etc).  

The 5 minute PEA!

You want to be strategic about what to revise?

You don't think you have much time to dedicate to English revision?

Want to focus on ONE skill that will help you across both Language and Literature exams?

Then it's the 5-minute PEA. 

Why and how will this be helpful?

AIC: 45 mins

15 mins to plan

30 mins to write (6 PEA = 5 min PEA)

OMAM: 45 mins

15 mins to plan

30 mins to write (6 PEA = 5 min PEA)

Poetry: 45 mins

15 mins to plan

30 mins to write (3 PEA-conn-PEA = 5 min PEA)

Unseen Poetry: 30 mins

15 mins to read and annotate

15mins to write (3 PEA = 5 min PEA)

Q2 (Lang): 25 mins

5 mins to re-read paras + pick quotes (if not done already)

20 mins to write (4 PEA = 5 min PEA) 

So, during the advert break in The Voice - do a 5 minute PEA. 

During half-time, try to do 3 PEAs.  

You need to train your brain and hand to cope with this speed - remember, everyone gets sore hands in English exams!!

Practicing Unseen Poetry

As you know, the best way to build your confidence at doing unseen poetry is to respond to unseen poetry!

Remember that you should always read the question first because it gives you a clue/a hook into what the poem is about in the first place!

Try these ones:

What kind of personality has McGough given the moon?  What techniques are being used to create this personality?

Mrs Moon  - Roger McGough

Mrs Moon
sitting up in the sky
little old lady
rock-a-bye
with a ball of fading light
and silvery needles
knitting the night. 

How does the poet convey  the feeling of sadness and grief?  What techniques are used to present this? 

Stop all the Clocks – W.H Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Use this link to go to a booklet with TWENTY-EIGHT unseen poems + practice questions.  

Don't forget I'll happily mark anything you want looked at!

AIC Revision - Exam delayed a week - MARCH 7th 3.15pm

Hi 11m1,

Your AIC practice exam has been delayed by 1 week to next Friday 7th March.  

Use this time to ensure you have REVISED.

The past paper questions (4 based on Priestley's techniques) are on the powerpoint below on slide 6.  

Make sure for EACH question you have:

(a) thought about it
(b) picked your 6 quotes (folded over pages is fine) 

EXT:  Write up some practice PEAs and bring them in for me to mark!

This is a great video which helps you revise for the first past paper question on slide 6 (About the Stage Directions at the start of Act 1): 

This is a good video to help with the 4th past paper question (on slide 6) about the key theme of RESPONSIBILITY.

Revising The Yellow Palm (Consequences/Experience of Conflict)

UPDATE:  Here is the lovely colour-coded copy of The Yellow Palm that Ms Kinnard annotated and a comparative plan of The Yellow Palm and At the Border.  

1. If you click here, you'll go to an annotated version of The Yellow Palm.  Sorry it's rotated the wrong way, I'll try to fix in next few days.    


2. Here is the powerpoint we used in class today for The Yellow Palm, use it if you did not get all the annotation tasks complete.




3.  Go here to read Robert Minhinnick talking about his poem and some useful points about its structure (the fact it is a ballad).  

4.  Useful revision questions: 

Revising Come On Come Back (Consequences/Memory)

JAN 2015 UPDATE. This is your copy 11m3 of all your analysis. 



1.  This is the powerpoint we used in class, including slides 15 and 16 which have the ideas from my class from last year on those 8 key quotes we did paper plate analysis with. 




2. This is Whitworth school's brilliant revision guide.  

3. Useful revision questions. Click on the image to go to a bigger version that you can zoom in on.  

Revising Poppies (Consequences/Feelings/Female Perspective)

1. Jane Weir reading her poem:

2.  You guys often ask, "Did the poet actually mean this stuff?"  "What did they actually intend?" Here is a quick interview with Jane Weir about the experience of writing Poppies. 

3. Another dedicated teacher's blog that I've just discovered.  

4. The powerpoint we used in class:

5.  Useful revision questions.  Click on the image to go to a bigger version that you can zoom in on.  

Unseen Poetry Practice

With unseen poetry, the most important thing is to practice, practice, practice! 

You need to practice:

(a) finding techniques 
(b) working around/avoiding words/lines you're not sure of
(c) working out the poet's ideas (remember: NOTHING IS RANDOM!) and messages.

Unseen Poetry Revision Opportunities. 

1. Remember, you have 45 unseen poems in your anthology that you can use. The poems from Character and Voice, Place and Relationships. 
2. I will also post the poems I pick for us here.  Any that you particularly like, write up your mini-essay and I'll mark them.  

• Hour - Carol Ann Duffy
• Alone - Maya Angelou
• In Flanders Fields - John McCrae
• Love after Love - Derek Walcott
• Visiting Hour - Norman MacCaig
• Great examples of unseen plans and essays (based on Visiting Hour)

Independent Study Task: At the Border, 1979 - FOR USE IN CLASS ON TUES 03.02

11Mercury1,  

These are instructions for class on Friday 14.02.14.

Use these resources to independently achieve these learning objectives:

• To understand the feelings in the poem (in particular the difference between the children and adults). 
• To identify and analyse the language and structural features of At the Border, 1979.

CRITICALLY ENGAGE with these resources, don't add notes to your anthology that you (a) don't understand or (b) don't agree with.  

1.  Start by reading the poem for yourself and then watching the bitesize video:

BBC Bitesize Video of the Poem 

2. Use some READING resources to add notes as they are easier to first add to your anthology: 

BBC Bitesize

Whitworth School Revision Booklet

Cherwell English blog

Mr W's Help Me With English website

3. Now watch some videos to add additional notes.  If the videos don't load up, then they are in the Shared area.  Year 10 English\MissRalston:  

At the Border, 1979 - Structural Comments

At the Border, 1979 - Language Comments

Analysis of At the Border, 1979 - Using SMILE

Analysis of At the Border, 1979 - J Brierley

Three Teachers Talking About At the Border, 1979

4.  Demonstrate you have achieved your learning objectives by: 

(a) being ready for a quiz on the ideas, feelings and techniques present in the poem.  

(b) writing a PEA-conn-PEA to any of these essays question:

• Compare how poets portray the consequences of conflict in 'At the Border, 1979' and one other poem from Conflict. 
• Compare how poets present feelings in 'At the Border, 1979" and one other poem from Conflict. 
• Compare the methods poets use to present memory in 'At the Border, 1979" and one other poem from Conflict.  

Key Mock/Practice Paper Dates

These dates should already be in your planner! 

Remember, mock papers are like TRAINING.  They will get make you stronger each time, so you're 100% ready to get a PERSONAL BEST on the real exam day. 

11 Saturn 1 

February

13/02/14 - P1/P2- IGCSE Language Paper (Extended - Q1/2/3) 

March

Week beginning 17.03.14  Speaking and Listening Week. 

21.03.14  3.15pm - IGCSE Language Paper (Extended - Q1/2/3) 

28/03/14 3.15pm  - IGCSE Language Paper (Extended - Q1/2/3)

11 Mercury 1

February

12/02/14  P1/P2 - Poetry Across Time (Section A - Conflict, Section B - Unseen Poetry) 

28/02/14  3.15pm - Exploring Modern Texts (Section A - An Inspector Calls) 

March 

07/03/14   3.15pm - IGCSE Language Paper (Extended - Q1/2/3) 

21/03/14   3.15pm - Literature (paper to be decided based on diagnosis from Feb papers) 

28/03/14   3.15pm - IGCSE Language Paper (Extended - Q1/2/3)

Revising Mametz Wood (Consequences/Death)

1.  This is the powerpoint we used in class:



2. This is the visual representation of the poem we watched, don't forget there is another one at bitesize too:

3.  Useful revision questions: 

Revising Futility and Falling Leaves (Nature/Feelings/Death)

1.  This is the powerpoint we used in class:



2. Brilliant revision booklets from Whitworth school:

• Falling Leaves
• Futility

3.  A good (it's meant to be silent) revision video on Futility with lots of notes:



4. Those great teachers from Royton & Crompton School discussing and analysing The Falling Leaves. 

5.  Useful revision questions.  Click on the images to go to bigger versions that can be zoomed in on.  

 

Revising Belfast Confetti (Strong Feelings/Experience of being in a Conflict)

1. If you click here you'll go to an image of the collected annotations we made 11m1. 

2.  This is the powerpoint we used in class:

3. This is a teacher talking about Belfast Confetti, look on his channel for videos on other poems and OMAM:

  

4.  Useful revision questions.  Click on the image to go to a larger version that can be zoomed in on. 

Revising Out of the Blue (Strong Feelings/Experience of being in a conflict)

1.  This is the Falling Man Documentary that we watched parts of in class.

2.  This is the powerpoint we used in class:



3. This is a reading of the poem which is very moving, although a few of the words are different than our copy in the anthology:

4. A really thorough analysis of the poem and lots of useful links:

Mr W's Help Me With English Page 

5. Useful analysis questions for revision:

Revising next to of course god america i (Patriotism/Strong Feelings)

1.  EE Cummings reading his poem:

2. Here is a link to a brilliant revision booklet (thank you Whitworth school) for this tricky poem.  Included are copies of "The Star Spangled Banner" and "My Country Tis' Of Thee" which the poem makes allusions to. 

3. Here is the powerpoint we used in class:



4. This is a video of 3 English teachers talking through this poem which is great!  For others just like this go to this youtube channel:

Teachers Talk About next to of course god america i


5.  Useful revision questions - click on the image to go to a larger version that can be zoomed in on.