Year group
UK school year / form groups
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My blogs, YouTube, Soundcloud and Twitter channels…
Together with a number of other eminent journalists and educationalists, I co-founded and help run the popular educational blog, Local Schools Network. I also blog for Mumsnet on Tales Behind The Classroom Door. My YouTube channel is Wonderfrancis. My Soundcloud Channel is Electric Schubert. I am @wonderfrancis on Twitter. Other blogs: A Streetcar Named Desire for […]
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Good links for Wilfred Owen’s poetry
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/wilfred_owen_gallery.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/content/articles/2005/03/16/wilfred_owen.shtml
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My YouTube videos which explain Wilfred Owen’s Exposure and Spring Offensive
YouTube videos which explain Exposure: An explanation of Exposure: Pathetic Fallacy in Exposure: Structure and Para-rhyme in Exposure: Alliteration in Exposure and Spring Offensive: The background to Exposure: An explanation of Spring Offensive:
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Louisa Young on her novel about the First World War.
Louisa Young is the author of the powerful novel, My Dear, I Wanted To Tell You, which is about a soldier who is horribly disfigured during the First World War. This is the video that the publishers made about the book: This is her explanation of how she came to write the book:
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The Machine Gunners — Teaching Activities, links and videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaul5qhenY0 BBC Schools Radio has produced an excellent scheme of work on The Machine Gunners, which can be accessed here.
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Dream of a lost friend by Carol Ann Duffy
Dream of a lost friend
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How did Edinburgh influence the writing of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
I think I’m getting a bit better at making these videos now. I produced this video for my GCSE pupils who have not been to Edinburgh but really need to know how the city influenced the writing of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for their English Literature exam. Robert Louis Stevenson had a love-hate relationship with […]
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The unfair representation of a collective group in two media platforms
Ryan Linham has written interesting answer to an A Level OCR Media Studies question here. What are the strengths and weaknesses of his answer?
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Collective Identity — Media Studies, Youth Demonisation
There’s a useful blog on Collective Identity connected with Youth Demonisation here, devised by a chief examiner at OCR.
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Survey on autobiography
Please take this survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q73L95Q the value of autobiography.
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A grade essay on A Passionate Shepherd and The Nymph’s Reply
Plan: Passionate shepherd… Nymph’s reply… Sims: -Direct language -Rhythm Diffs: -Imagery (remember caesura!) – Answer: In ‘The Passionate Shepherd’ a shepherd is pleading to a nymph (a beautiful woman) to go and live with him in the countryside. To persuade the nymph to go with him, Marlowe uses beautiful imagery of nature being harmonious […]
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How does Hemingway develop a sense of anticipation and drama at the beginning of the Old Man and the Sea?
Hemingway’s opening is dramatic for a number of reasons. Read through the first two pages and/or listening to my podcast, and then list FOUR ways Hemingway develops a real sense of anticipation in the opening of the novel. Do you agree with these points? 1. Hemingway immediately tells us that there is a great deal […]
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Composed on Westminster Bridge — an explanation for GCSE English Literature Podcast
Composed on Westminster Bridge; an audio explanation by Francis Gilbert “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” is a sonnet by William Wordsworth describing London, viewed from one of the bridges over the Thames, in the early morning. It was first published in 1807. Earth has not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of […]
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Town and Country quiz – revising the poems
Please add in annotations to the poems if/when you see fit as you are answering these questions London What does Blake notice in every face he meets? (weakness, woe or sorrow) TRUE OR FALSE: ‘Mind-forged manacles’ are chains created by minds which have been oppressed or brainwashed They are a special type of clothing people […]
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Comparing Poems from Town and Country — mock exam questions
Comparing poem from Town and Country by FGI Comparing The Passionate Shepherd to His Love and The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd. Marlowe’s poem is very passionate. What imagery does the poet use to make the shepherd’s love seem so passionate? What are the delights that the shepherd is offering? In Ralegh’s poem, the […]
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Comparing Lake Isle of Innisfree and A Dead Harvest In Kensington
How to write a fandaglistic hyperpolished poetry essay in timed conditions. Use this frame to help you! Explore the different ways in which the poets portray nature in ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’’ and ‘A Dead Harvest in Kensington’ Introduction: where you introduce the poems by explaining BRIEFLY what they are about. Remember you get […]
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Standardisation: presentation ideas and presentation on processes of semantic change, taboo words
Presentation format: On PowerPoint: give some history and a task for pupils to do. All presentations must include some definitions on standardisation. Ask FGI for help if necessary. Devise a presentation on how spelling was standardised, the development of printing, dictionaries, mass education. Devise a presentation on STANDARD ENGLISH and […]
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The changing discourses connected with health
Starter activity: brainstorm the times when you were ill when you were a child. What did your carers say to you in connection with your illness? What are your memories of your first trip to the doctors, to hospitals? What language did people use to describe your illnesses etc? What did they say to comfort you? Learning […]
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War Poetry – analysing and thinking about the poem, improving essays
Learning objective: to learn how to use quotation to develop your criticisms of the poems Key quotes: “German guns” Eyes were wild blindfolded English bullet in his heart Abject fear of death Deserter’s grave Panicked down the trench Mother’s grief The Deserter “To add more sympathy at the end, the poet goes on to say […]
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Compare in which the poets movingly portray sympathy for the loss of life in wartime in these two poems: The Deserter and The Hero.
Format: Explain poem 1 Explain poem 2 Similarities In imagery and language Structure and themes Differences In imagery and language Structure and themes Conclusion to the question.
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Re-writing autobiographical extracts, editing and improving them
Read these passages and answer the questions that follow: he looked like a turtle his little bald head with his oversized blazer, it looked like a home on his back! What is effective about this image? we seized every opportunity to get him back we didn’t care, we was going home after this and […]
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How successfully does Hardy open Far From The Madding Crowd?
Learning Objectives To learn about the techniques Hardy uses to create a suspenseful opening to Far From The Madding Crowd To learn about the contexts of Hardy’s novel An important point Starter activity: put these elements of the opening in the correct order Gabriel Oak loses his sheep Oak is rescued from suffocation in his […]
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Steps towards writing an excellent essay on the play
Lesson objective To learn how to use your notes to write an essay To collect your thoughts together quickly and write them down Starter activity – put these events in the right order Willy commits suicide Biff and Willy agree to set up the Loman brothers Willy remembers when there were trees in the yard […]
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Coursework — writing a sequel to the play or writing an essay which analyses the use of suspense
English Death of a Salesman coursework To be completed in CONTROLLED CONDITIONS in class Either: Sequel plus commentary (COUNTS as ONE piece of coursework) Write a sequel to the play, set ONE year later, where Biff returns home to visit Happy and Linda. Set the scene in the house. DO NOT […]