Hi Y10

Well done for your work today. Those of you that have been focused will be rewarded in the Controlled Assessment next week!

This week we looked at collecting information about the director, Paul Greengrass, other films about 9/11 and some other reviews. You should all have created your own success criteria for review writing.

For your homework, ready for Friday, you need to ensure that you have finished this note-taking and have created a success criteria. This is essentially what YOU think makes good review writing.You also need to create a word bank of useful words that you could take in as notes. Remember, using very or really needs to be better; you're aiming for unusual/dramatic verbs and adjectives. Finally, you need to take a few notes on paragraph topics. What information might you include in your paragraphs? What do other review writers do to organise their paragraphs?

That might seem like a lot, but really it's just revision of what we've been doing since the beginning of the school year. You have produced some amazing work in your draft books.Look at the links in the last post if you feel that you need some help with vocabulary or semi-colons.

Any queries, leave a comment.





Ms Caldwell :)

Hello Y10



This week we have looked at sentence construction and variety. It is essential to consider this as we move towards our controlled assessment in the first week of October; you are marked on your ability to use a range of sentences to control the pace and flow of your writing, organise the text and be interesting/engaging.


We looked particularly at semi-colons, colons, parenthesis and the subordinate clause. We saw how layering clauses was good for adding extra information to show understanding. We also looked at how this made writing interesting and engaging as it made particular aspects of the writing stand out.


I have also found a semi-colon game that you can play online. I know, it's very exciting! Click here to have a quick play; it will help increase your confidence with this very special piece if punctuation.


Your homework is to re-write your paragraph reviewing United 93. This is due on Monday. Ensure that you look at the little success criteria cards to guide your writing; it is also imperative that you look at the target I have given you and your peer set target. Remember that your writing should be engaging and you need to think about vocabulary choices (click me!). If in doubt, look at the reviews you have stuck in your books. Your paragraphs should contain a similar amount of information and range of sentences. It should be the most amazing paragraph you've ever written! Practicing writing in this way will help you in the controlled assessment.


Finally, it's very important that you keep your book tidy and organised; please stick in any loose sheets.


Well done for the hard work you've put in this week; you've worked very well indeed.


See you next week,
Ms Caldwell
P.S. Remember, some people think that colons don't matter: colons matter.

Hello Y10

Last week we looked at how reviews are organised, their content and sentence variation. This will continue to be our focus this week as we move towards controlled assessement next week.

With Mrs Dolan on Friday you looked at sentence variety, specifically complex sentences and their effects. Your homework was to write at least one paragraph, taking into account your targets from peer assessment, about United 93. You will need these paragraphs for our next lesson.

I hope you've had a lovely weekend,
Ms Caldwe

Hello Y10

Here's your homework for next lesson (it's an easy one!):

TOP LIGHT: light that comes directly form above. This casts strong shadows, but this can be used in interesting ways, for instance, the dappled light through a tree's branches on a face.

HARD LIGHT: Light form the sun, or from a small source. This creates hard shadows and can bring out details, such as wrinkles.

SOFT LIGHT: Light from a large angle, or large source relative to thte subject. This can be bounced off other objects, such as a light from a wall.

DIEGETIC SOUND: Sound that is in the world of the film. Dialogue, background noise etc are diegetic.

NON-DIEGETIC SOUND: Sound outside the world of the film.

DUTCH ANGLE: Camera angle in which the camera is tipped sideways so that the world of the film seems to have been tipped over.

These are self-explanatory, but consider the affect...

CLOSE-UP
REACTION SHOT
POINT-OF-VIEW SHOT
OVER-THE-SHOULDER-SHOT
TRACKING SHOT.

You need to know these for next lesson as we'll be doing an activity based around them.

Any problems, leave a comment.

Ms Caldwell

Hello Y10,

We've had an excellent start to Y10 and your GCSE English course. Well done.

Last week we looked at Simon Armitage's poem Out of the Blue, read by Rufus Sewell. This is a very moving reading and production of the poem; you discussed the performance and issues well in your groups.

This week, we'll look at media techniques and terminology. You've already started to look at film reviews and we'll aim to start to consider the features of good review writing. This will lead us to write our own reviews later this term.

In addition, you may be interested in this link to Channel 4's recent programme 102 Minutes that Changed America, click here to view.

Hope you've had a good weekend.

Ms Caldwell

P.S. I'm having a few problems with the formatting of this post; I apologise for its distinct lack of perfection!

Welcome to your Y10 Blog!

Hello Y10/Parents and Guardians,

Welcome to the blog for 10RS English. This website is a place where we can post information about how the class is getting on, what we are learning and what work needs to be completed at home. It will be helpful for all of us and will make sure we are all clear about the learning that's going on in Y10. Y10 is a busy year!

We are launching straight into your GCSE coursework. This year, coursework is done in class as controlled assessments; your self-management skills will need to be spot on so this blog will be an accessible tool for your independant learning.

We look forward to working with you,
Ms Caldwell and Mrs Dolan