Y8 - Horror shorts

8x2 Self-assessment and Writing Assessment Title

Look at your targets from last lesson. Pick one or more revision videos for what you most need to improve in your writing.

Paragraphing and Structure (AF4; AF5)

Varying your sentences (AF4; AF5)

Using a semi-colon (AF6)

Vocabulary Choice (picking the right words) (AF1, AF2, AF7)

Spelling! (AF8)

Start to write up your horror story

You must include:

- A description of a scary person
- A description of a scary place
- The answer to the question: What's he building in there?

At the end of the lesson you must have evidence in your writing for each AF (read through your work, or swap and read a partner's) and set yourself a new target on what to improve.

8x2 English Homework

Collect images of scary places (from magazines, newspapers, Google, drawings) and stick into your exercise books. At least a double page spread. The images will help you develop your descriptions of places for your creative writing assignment.

What's he building in there? by Tom Waits

8x2 - The Red Room by H. G. Wells

"I can assure you," said I, "that it will take a very tangible ghost to
frighten me." And I stood up before the fire with my glass in my hand.

"It is your own choosing," said the man with the withered arm, and glanced
at me askance.

"Eight-and-twenty years," said I, "I have lived, and never a ghost have I
seen as yet."

The old woman sat staring hard into the fire, her pale eyes wide open.
"Ay," she broke in; "and eight-and-twenty years you have lived and never
seen the likes of this house, I reckon. There's a many things to see, when
one's still but eight-and-twenty." She swayed her head slowly from side to
side. "A many things to see and sorrow for."

Read the rest here: http://www.online-literature.com/wellshg/2875/

Year 7 - Media

Movie-maker walk-through guide:

Year 10 - Prose - Period 4

To consider Steinbeck’s choices of character names.

To learn to analyse the presentation of Lennie.

Working with your partner, post a joint PEE answering the question:

Is Lennie’s surname accurate?

You will need a two paragraph comparative chain (you can always write one each), so remember those connectives [However, Also, Whereas, Although...etc].

Year 10 - Prose - Period 2

To learn to consolidate your understanding of the text

To learn to analyse the power relations between characters on the ranch

Who does Steinbeck present as the most disadvantaged character in 'Of Mice and Men'?

Enter the character name into the answergarden and post a PEE paragraph to the 'comments' section justifying your choice.

Extension: If you want to push yourself further, write a comparative PEE presenting two possible answers to the question. Remember to use connectives:

[However/Whereas/Although/Also/Alternatively] Steinbeck presents _______ as the most disadvantaged character...

Who does Steinbeck present as the most disadvantaged character?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Year 7 - Media

To learn what makes an effective TV advertisement

To learn to plan your own advert

Starter: Watch each of the popular advertisements, below. In your groups, decide which is the best. When you have decided which is best answer the following questions (type them in a word document):

1. Why it is the best - what makes it better than the others?
2. What is the advertisement selling? What product?
3. Does it do this well? Why /why not?
4. Would you watch it again? Why?
5. How could the advertisement be improved? (at least two points)

Advertisement 1:

Advertisement 2:

Advertisement 3:

Remember to type your answers into a word document and be ready to share them with the class.

8x2 - Lesson 4: Exam Skills - The Beast of Boster

Exercise 1: Fill in the extract from Chapter 4 to make sound either:

as scary and threatening as possible [or] as fun and exciting as possible

Post your version in the comments box at the bottom of the post.

Harry felt his heart begin to __________as his eyes grew accustomed to the________ . A thick layer of__________coated everything. The light came from the back of what seemed to be a__________room. He took one__________step forward into the__________and, in some distant, unseen corner of the room, a__________ . He crouched down slowly and reached out a__________hand. It touched something __________ . A curved dome of what felt like __________ . He continued to run his__________ fingers over the object until he felt two round holes and beneath them, several sharp flat objects poking out around another gap, almost like __________ .

Exercise 2:

Enter your key words into the answer garden.

Words describing the atmosphere of chapter 4... at AnswerGarden.ch.

8x2 - Lesson 2: Exam Skills - The Beast of Boster

Homework instructions:

Due in Friday 4th March P1 (hand-write or type and stick in your book).

Write a newspaper report on a paranormal activity in your area.

Include similes and metaphors to describe it.

Include statistics (facts and figures) and quotations from experts (scientists, doctors, etc.) to prove that it took place.

Vivos awarded for interesting vocabulary and the best similes and metaphors.

Comparative writing and cross-referencing

A very useful video for anyone working on comparative writing:

The examples used are about themes of 'love', but the structure and methods can be used for anything.

Give it a go!

7y2: Poetry Module - Lessons Five & Six - Form and Haiku

click to play

Play the game 'Haiku Hero' (click the picture or the link).

Write the best haiku you make in the 'comments' section at the bottom of this post with your name. To do this you need to select 'name and url' from the options; type your name and click 'post'; then enter the key word. If you can't do this, write them in word and send to my work postbox.

Also:

For this haiku explain:

1) Some facts you've learnt about haiku;
2) Why you chose the words you did - "I chose the word ___ because______" - as much detail as possible;

3) If you had to change any words to fit the pattern.

Finally, as an extra challenge (for vivos!):

Write a haiku or any other type of poem about yourself - this will go in your file.

Post all homework in the comments section or submit on paper by Tuesday 25th January.

Also, here is a copy of The Wendigo by Ogden Nash if anyone want to read it again!

Click to make big.

8x2 - Lesson 4 - Agrarian vs. Industrial

Read and watch the full version of Slough by Betjeman: Homework posted below.



Slough

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!

Come, bombs and blow to smithereens
Those air -conditioned, bright canteens,
Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans,
Tinned minds, tinned breath.

Mess up the mess they call a town-
A house for ninety-seven down
And once a week a half a crown
For twenty years.

And get that man with double chin
Who'll always cheat and always win,
Who washes his repulsive skin
In women's tears:

And smash his desk of polished oak
And smash his hands so used to stroke
And stop his boring dirty joke
And make him yell.

But spare the bald young clerks who add
The profits of the stinking cad;
It's not their fault that they are mad,
They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know
The birdsong from the radio,
It's not their fault they often go To Maidenhead

And talk of sport and makes of cars
In various bogus-Tudor bars
And daren't look up and see the stars
But belch instead.

In labour-saving homes, with care
Their wives frizz out peroxide hair
And dry it in synthetic air
And paint their nails.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough
To get it ready for the plough.
The cabbages are coming now;
The earth exhales.

For your homework you are to practice writing a P.E.E. paragraph to answer the question:

Is Daffodils by Wordsworth an agrarian idyll or a poem about industrialism?

or

How does Betjeman feel about modern Britain?

Look under the poem (below) for further help.




Daffodils by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.


Remember:

Step 1 - Point: Write a full sentence that answers the question:

Write: 'The poem Daffodils by William Wordsworth is ... '

Step 2 - Evidence: How do you know the answer? Find a part of the poem which back up your 'point'. Remember to use "quotation marks".

Step 3 - Explain (1): What does the quotation show? Write: 'This shows...' and use interesting vocabulary (you can look in a Thesaurus, or press Shift+F7 in Word)

Step 4 - Explain (2): Pick two key words and explain them further - what do they show? What do they make you think of? Write: 'The word "..." shows...'


POST YOUR P.E.E. AS A COMMENT ON THE BLOG BY FRIDAY 21st JAN.


p.s. - a treat:

9y5 - Spoken Language module - Lesson Five - The History of English

'History of English' game:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/english_roots/index_embed.shtml

Word detectives! Go to:

http://www.oed.com

http://www.etymonline.com

8x2: Poetry Module - Lesson Two - 'Island Man' by Grace Nichols

To understand that multiculturalism can exist in a single person.
To learn to analyse Island Man by Grace Nichols.

Video reading of poem:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/1368.flv



The Poem

Island Man

(for a Caribbean island man in London
who still wakes up to the sound of the sea)

Morning
and island man wakes up
to the sound of blue surf
in his head
the steady breaking and wombing

wild seabirds
and fishermen pushing out to sea
the sun surfacing defiantly
from the east
of his small emerald island
he always comes back groggily groggily

Comes back to sands
of a grey metallic soar
to surge of wheels
to dull north circular roar

muffling muffling
his crumpled pillow waves
island man heaves himself

Another London day

Grace Nichols


----------------------------


Homework - due Friday 14th


1. Watch the video-clip (click the link below the video if it fails to load)
2. Read the poem/lyrics to the song (below)
3. Research meaning of certain words (more info below)
4. Answer the question at the bottom of the poem.


- post answers WITH YOUR NAME in the 'comments' section.



Billy Bragg - England, Half English




Read the lyrics to the song, 'England, Half English' by Billy Bragg (below)

What is Bragg referring to by 'red, white and blue', 'Hindustan', 'Bubble and Squeek', 'three lions', 'Morris dancing' and 'Morrisey'? Look them up!

ENGLAND, HALF-ENGLISH

My mother was half-English
And I’m half-English too
I’m a great big bundle of culture
Tied up in the red, white and blue

I’m a fine example of your Essex Man
And I'm well familiar with the Hindustan
‘Cos my neighbours are half-English
And I’m half-English too

My breakfast was half-English
And so am I you know
I had a plate of Marmite soldiers
Washed down with a cappuccino

And I have a veggie curry about once a week
The next day I fry it up as ‘Bubble ‘N’ Squeak’
‘Cos my appetite’s half-English
And I’m half-English too

Dance with me
To this very English melody
From Morris dancing to Morrissey
All that stuff came from across the sea

Britannia , she’s half-English
She speaks Latin at home
St. George was born in the Lebanon
How he got here I don’t know

And those three lions on your shirt
They never sprang from England’s dirt
Them lion’s are half-English
And I’m half-English too

Le-li Umma le-li-ya, le-li Umma le-li-ya
Le-li Umma le-li-ya, bledi g’desh akh! le-li-ya
Oh my country
Oh my country
Oh my country
What a beautiful country you are.

Question:The phrase: "Le-li Umma le-li-ya, bledi g’desh akh! le-li-ya" is Algerian for "Oh my country / What a beautiful country you are" (the music to the song in the video is also Algerian in origin). How does England, Half English compare with The British (serves 60 million) by Zephaniah and Island Man by Nichols? What's the same? What's different? Answer in full sentences.

ALL ANSWERS (WITH YOU NAME!) POSTED IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OF THIS POST BY MONDAY 17th.

7y2: Poetry Module - Lesson One and Two - 'The Jabberwocky' and 'Through the Looking Glass' by Lewis Carroll

Homework instructions:

Type up the draft version of the character conversation you did in class into a complete, neat version. Does it use the terms: [adjective], [adverb], [noun], [verb] and [portmanteau/portmanteaux]? Make sure it does! Add extra details to make it into a more detailed story. About a page of type, so long as all the terms are used.

Small example from class:

------------
“The word ‘blaly’ is a portmanteau of two adjectives. It’s a cross between ‘black’ and ‘scaly’, you see”, said the old man after looking it up in his dictionary.
“I see”, said the hero, “but what about ‘scathick’? Is it a noun?”
“Why, it means ‘scaly’ and ‘thick’!” said the old man. “It’s another adjective; everyone knows that!”.

---------------

Remember:

One portmanteau

Two portmanteaux

Remember:

"quotation marks(/speech marks)” for when people are talking and ‘word markers’ inside speech

POST YOUR COMPLETE VERSION (WITH YOUR NAME!) AS A COMMENT ON THIS POST (OR TO MY WORK-POSTBOX) DUE FRIDAY 14th.

8x2: Poetry module - Lesson One - 'The British (serves 60 million)' by Benjamin Zephaniah

To learn to recognise England’s multicultural heritage.

To learn to analyse The British (serves 60 million) by Benjamin Zephaniah.

Video reading of The British (serves 60 million) by Benjamin Zephaniah:

The British (serves 60 million) from Square Zero Ltd. on Vimeo.

Text version of The British (serves 60 million) by Benjamin Zephaniah:

http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/content/245.php

Useful link on a brief history of English:

http://www.englishclub.com/english-language-history.htm

Lesson information on poem contents:

8x2 Lesson 1 - Countries and Tribes List (Brief)