Holiday Reading

My Goodness! I nearly forgot to give you some guidance for your Christmas reading list - sorry.

The reading list is really a work in progress as I'm hoping to get your feedback on what you like to put something more comprehensive together.

As you know, next term we'll be studying Macbeth and Frankenstein. Any reading you can do around this over the holiday will help greatly. It will be quite intensive once we get back and I advise that you do so. Use these links for Macbeth and Frankenstein for some study around the contexts and literary features. There are also some interesting things on YouTube. Both texts are much studied for GCSE so there are a multitude of resource online.

Any reading helps improve your writing as you learn vocabulary and about sentence structures and have good fun at the same time! Any reading is good; you could read magazines. I recommend about 30mins/day.

Books that I think you will enjoy are (new and old...):

• Lord of The Flies
• Vernon God Little
• The Curious Incident
• Black Rabbit Summer
• Catcher in The Rye
• Jane Eyre
• Waves
• Of Mice and Men
• Witch Child
• Soldier Boy

I've even put a link on each so that you can find out a little more about them (my Christmas present to you!). I've tried to meet the needs of all the class there. Please don't immediately rule out the older books; they become classics for a reason.

There are also reading list available online. This link gives suggestions and reviews of over 300 books for teenagers. Try this interactive book chooser and let me know how it works out.

Hope this keeps you going.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Ms Caldwell

If you missed the Controlled Assessment...

You will have to do it on Wednesday afternoon. The same rules will apply as did in the Citizenship mock.
Go to the gym after lunch on Wednesday. Be there on time.
Ms
P.S You should have finished in time to do your presentations P5!

Hitcher PEE+

This week we've looked at analysing layers of meaning. It's essential we can do this as it is what gets you higher grades and also helps you think critically, which will help you in a range of subjects and skills. Find a line in the poem and develop and extend your response. It may seem, at first glance, that you can't get much out of the line, but we can consider how it presents the speaker and the influence that it has on the reader. As we have found in class, you can extend and develop the smallest quote finding layers of meaning.

Structure is also important. You need to be able structure your paragraphs to show off your understanding. The PEE+ structure is an efficient way to keep writing on task and focused.

Here is the poem with questions and key terms. This is to enable you to extend your learning outside of the classroom. Here is the PowerPoint that we learnt from in class. A reminder then that it is your responsibility for you to keep up with work that you've missed; this blog is a resource to extend your learning as well as keep up with class learning.

Home work is to write a second PEE+ paragraph that incorporates the peer set targets. This is due Friday.

Ms Caldwell

Hello Y10

Hopefully, lots of you will be looking at this after being prompted to after Y10PCE. A reminder then of some of the links that are available to you on this blog. There's a link for: information on semi-colons; there is more semi-colon information here; the poetic devices sheet that you were given is here; if you would like to look at the analysis on YouTube of Island Man that we looked at in lesson click here and for further analysis and advice on a broad range of writing skills click here. (I highly recommend this last link as you can work on skills that are specific to your personalised targets.)

This is a great resource for you that will refine your skills for independent study; skills as an independent learner will serve you well throughout your education and for life!

If you still haven't finished your Controlled Assessment, you will do this in the hall on Wednesday 15th in the afternoon with the Y11 mocks. You will have had some experience of this at this point; you have your Citizenship mock this Wednesday. The same rules will apply.

See you next week,

Ms Caldwell

I forgot to say in the last post... If you missed time for your Controlled Assessment, you must come to Psychology II (the room through the doors to the Y10 office), P3 tomorrow, 30th November.

Hello Y10

Firstly, we did some team building where we appreciated the strengths of the members of the the class team! I think that this was a valuable exercise and I hope that it goes some way to making us work more collaboratively

Today we looked at the poetic devices song writers use in songs. We considered how the language and devices create layers of meaning. The purpose of the activity is to extend our analysis poems; we're not just commenting on the device we are commenting on the effect upon the reader and considering how this adds to the theme/tone/purpose of the poem.

We analysed the opening of Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise today. It's loaded with poetic devices that add to the layers of meaning conveyed to the audience. Next lesson, you'll choose songs as poetry and present these to other groups or the whole class.

As I've said, it's essential that you are confident in analysing poetry as you'll have an unseen poem in the exam (this means that you will not have seen it before). If you're not very confident in your poetry analysis now, you don't need to worry about it too much. This work is preparation for your exam in the Summer of 2012! We'll look at poetry at intervals over the course to build on and refine your skills.

Wrap up warm!

Ms

I'm still waiting for a special prize winner - the special word is weblog.

Hello Y10

Today we reflected on our skills as members of the class team. You've set yourself targets and you need to consider these next week; we need to work together more cohesively. We'll do a bit of team building next week, but, basically, we're going to work together for about another 19 months so we need to make it work.

We've been studying poetry this week. Today we looked at Isaland man. It's essential that you know and can use the devices confidently as you'll have an unseen piece of poetry in the exam. Poems are easier to discuss when we know the techniques poets use. If you would like to look at the poetic devices sheet it is here.

If you would like to look at the analysis of Island Man that we looked at in lesson click here.

If you missed a lesson, it is essential that you study independently in order to ensure you are at the same point as the rest of the class. This is your responsibility and this resource is availiable to you. Use this blog. You've already started your GCSEs in English.

I'm looking forward to next week and a whole new team ethos!

Ms