Year 11 IGCSE Revision Platform

Dear Sycamore class

I have prepared some extra non-fiction passages for your to do additional reading revision.

The Explorer's Daughter

A Passage to Africa

Chinese Cinderella

The Danger of a Single Story 

Beyond the Earth and Sky 

Explorers or Boys Messing About? 

If you would rather have printed off copies, then ask me/Ayesha at school :)

Countdown - 2 days to go!

Revision Advice for Last 2 days:

• KNOW YOUR PAGE NUMBERS!
• Practice doing plans for AIC and OMAM by seeing if you can cope with random essay questions (see Countdown...20 days for links to past papers) and make a plan in 15 minutes.   Especially for part (b) of OMAM. 

The powerpoint from Saturday's Revision class.  






The majority of the resources used in class, are in the links below.



Of Mice and Men:

Here is the 30/30 A* example for OMAM that we read today in class.  

A revision 20 minute documentary about the context of OMAM.

Click here to go to a folder with 17 OMAM past papers in it, including the one we looked at today (Past Paper 17) which is about the ending of OMAM.  

An Inspector Calls:

A revision video on the first 2 pages of AIC.

A revision video on POWER in AIC. 

A revision video on Mr Birling's speech in AIC. 

A 20 minute documentary about context of AIC. 


Poetry: 

Click here for 5 unseen poems that we've studied recently. 

Countdown - 1 week to go!

Dear all,

A few updates with 1 week to go!!


Page Numbers to MEMORISE: 



AIC:

Example essay on Gerald*

Example essay on Selfishness*

*Neither of the example essays above follow our exact PEA process but they're useful for analytical ideas!

OMAM

Past paper practice on (a) Curley and (b) Power/hierarchy  and an exemplar answer.  

Poetry

Click here to go to SEVEN examples of unseen poems that we've done in intervention in the last few weeks. 

Click here to go to the last mock paper (Conflict Poetry + Unseen Poetry) we did - if you didn't do it in class, set a timer for 75 minutes and do it! Bring it in for me to mark.

I'LL BE HAPPY TO LOOK AT ANYTHING YOU DO AT HOME!! 

Go to the blog post below - Countdown... 20 days!  for links to more past papers, blog posts.  

COUNTDOWN...20 DAYS!

Hi all,

Remember that you can find lots of posts & resources by using the SEARCH bar above.

However, this is a useful index post: key facts, past papers, useful blog posts. 

KEY FACTS
23rd May - AIC - 2 essay Qs, pick 1.  45 minutes. 6 PEA 

23rd May - OMAM - 1 essay Q with 2 parts, do it.  45 minutes.  6 PEA (3/3 2/4 4/2) 

27th May - Conflict Poetry - 2 essay Qs, pick 1.  45 minutes.  3 PEA-conn-PEA. 

27th May - Unseen Poetry - 1 essay Q, do it.  30 minutes.  3/4 PEA.  

PAST PAPERS

1. An Inspector Calls Click here for ALL AIC past paper questions,

I recommend picking exam questions in this order: CHARACTER --> THEME --> AUTHOR'S TECHNIQUES.

Pick a question, set a timer for 15 minutes and do a plan by picking out 6 quotes you'd use to answer it.

Use your big character sheets to help:


 


2. Of Mice and Men
Click here for a folder with LOTS of OMAM past papers.  

Remember for Part (b) you need to find 3 quotes from the WHOLE NOVEL.  

Possible themes that come up in Part (b):

Friendships/Relationships/Companionship/Loneliness
Power/Status/Hierarchy/Importance
Dreams/Goals/Ambitions/Hopes
Discrimination/Prejudice/Inequality/Unfairness
Life on the ranch/Lives of migrant workers

Use your 6 Key Episodes sheet that you can see here, to help you find 3 quotes for these themes.

3. Conflict Poetry

Click here for all the Conflict Poetry Past questions. 

Remember that we learnt them in a specific order which will help you decide which poems go well together:

USEFUL BLOG POSTS

Click here for AIC.

Click here for OMAM. 

Click here, here, here or here for poetry posts (or type the poem's name into search bar). 


  

Last night of poetry revision

How WE can revise tonight: 

1.  Go onto google and search for poems by one of the 15 unseen poets.

2.  Draw up practice planning grids in 15 minutes, use these essay questions.  


                            NAMED POEM                               CHOSEN POEM
SIM 1 

SIM 2 

DIFF 

• Compare the methods poets use to portray different points of view in Hawk Roosting and one other poem. 
• Compare the techniques the poet uses to show emotions in Futility and one other poem. 
• Compare the different effects of war that are portrayed in Come on Come Back and one other poem. 
• Compare the ways that poets show people to be vulnerable in Come on Come Back and one other poem. 
• Compare the ways that conflict can affect your memory in Poppies and one other poem. 
• Compare the ways that war can affect communities in The Yellow Palm and one other poem.  
• Compare the ways the poets portray patriotism in next to of course god america i and one other poem. 
• Compare the devices the poets uses in The Right Word to display terrorism and one other poem. 
• Compare the methods used to show emotions in At the Border, 1979 and one other poem. 
• Compare how poets show love for your country in Charge of the Light Brigade and one other poem. 
• Compare the ways poets use nature in Hawk Roosting and one other poem. 

3.  Set a timer for 10 minutes and write up a PEA-conn-PEA. 

This is an example paragraph:

Tennyson shows that patriotism can lead to a violent death when he writes that the soldiers were “storm’d at with shot and shell”  This  alliteration suggests that the Russian forces were overwhelming.  The words “shell” imply that they have superior weapons as the light brigade only have swords.  Also, the word “storm’d” has connotations of a thunder storm which may represent the loud explosions.   Similarly Cummings shows that patriotism leads to death with the quote “rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter”  this simile makes the reader think that the soldiers were eager to die in order to prove that they are brave like “lions.”  Another similarity is the word “roaring” which like Charge of the Light Brigade indicates the noise and chaos of the battle field.  

4.  Get someone to quiz you by asking you these questions:

• What is the poem _________ about?
• Does the  poem____________  relate back to the poet?
• What other poems does ___________ link to?

5. Go to youtube and watch videos! J Brierley is great.  

6. Practice highlighting key words in questions and deciding which other poem would go with it.  

BEST OF LUCK! 

Year 11 Blog Revision Tasks for Mon 23rd March

IF you have finished your Shakespeare work then.

Complete your choice of the following tasks.  All are important revision for your language AND literature exams. 

1. Look through your poetry anthology. If you have ANY blank (or almost blank) poems in the Conflict cluster then use the SEARCH  panel above or look in the post archives (Feb and March 2014) -->  to complete.  There are the Whitworth revision guides in our shared area (Shared/Year 10 English/Poetry) that will also help.  We have finished all poems in class.  

2. If you have notes on ALL poems then I would recommend using Dr McCarthy's blog for a different perspective to add notes.  

3. Go to IGCSE past paper folder and access these past papers and do Q3 (a) ONLY:  

• Passage B: The Pamplona Bull Run (13 points to find) 
• Passage B: Rats (14 points to find) 
• Passage B: Deforestation and the Orangutan (11 points to find) 

4. Use the time to complete any An Inspector Calls/Of Mice and Men brainstorms that you didn't do in February half-term.  These are ALWAYS going to be essential revision. 

5. Follow other useful revision tips and ideas from various posts on this site!  

Year 11 Lit Mock Feb 25th 2015

Dear Year 11

Remember you need to revise:

*Sheila/Gerald/Eric - click to go to the AIC blog post.
*Candy/Crooks/Curley's Wife - click to go to the OMAM blog post.  

90 minutes = 2 x 45 minute essays. 

15 minutes planning and finding quotes. 
30 minutes writing up 6 PEA. 

Don't forget for OMAM that the examiner wants you include CONTEXT - how do the quotes show what life and attitudes were like in 1930s America?

It is ESSENTIAL that you know your targets.  Make sure you know which targets you were set from your December mock. 

Year 11 Revision Tasks for Feb 2015 Half-Term

Hi Year 11,

On Wednesday 26th of February you will do your second complete Exploring Modern Texts mock.  

The first one you did in December (Inspector Goole and an extract about Curley/Lennie).  

You did well - now it is time to revisit and deepen. 

LOADS of extra help, videos, brainstorms, key quotes are on the individual blog posts for Of Mice and Men and An Inspector Calls. 


REVISION LIST TO BE READY:

1. For ERIC, SHEILA and GERALD complete the brainstorming sheet given today in class. Another copy to print is here.   You can use this electronic copy of AIC to find quotations. 

2.  For CANDY, CROOKS AND CURLEY'S WIFE complete the brainstorming sheet given today in class.  Another copy to print is here.  You can use this electronic copy of OMAM to find quotations. 

3. I have given you a past paper. 

Quick revision - Planning for AIC
(a) Decide which essay Q you want to answer - highlight key words.  
(b) Set a timer for 15 minutes
(b) Write your 6 quotations down. 

Stretch revision - Writing up AIC
(a) Set a timer for 30 minutes
(b) Write up your 6 PEA paragraphs

Quick revision - Planning for OMAM
(a) Read the essay Q and highlight key words
(b) Set a timer for 15 minutes 
(c) Read the extract and decide which 3-4 quotes you're going to analyse for Part A
(d) Decide which 2-3 other quotes from the whole novel you're going to use for Part B

Stretch Revision - Writing up OMAM
(a) Set a timer for 30 minutes
(b) Write up your 6 PEA paragraphs. 

I'll be checking emails frequently, so do get in touch if you need some help! helen.ralston@oasisshirleypark.org (or your English teacher obviously, if you're not in my class! ) 

Year 11 ICT Lesson - Tuesday 6th Jan - Period 5/6

Dear Year 11,

I'm sorry that I'm not here today. Use the time to be PRODUCTIVE and make progress on:

1. Your Shakespeare coursework. Email it to me.  

2. Use this blog to help you add notes to any of the poems we've done so far that you've got FULL ANNOTATED poems:

Flag

next to of course god america i

Charge of the Light Brigade

Out of the Blue

Belfast Confetti

Poppies

If you go to shared/Year 10 English/Miss Ralston you will find REVISION guides which are AWESOME for all the above poems and videos for Poppies. 

There are also copies of videos to watch on Poppies, if you can't access them via the blog/youtube.  

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!