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Let’s support the summer reading challenge and get every child reading!
The Summer Reading Challenge is a really cool project which aims to get schools, libraries and parents working together so our children might actually do some reading they like this summer! For an English teacher like me, this is the Holy Grail: if one of my pupils actually enjoys reading, then everything else follows; happiness […]
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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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An introduction to A2 Media Studies OCR, Collective Identity
Task: Devise your own Prezi which explores all the groups you feel a part of and which ones you feel define you, and which definitely do NOT. My collective identities on Prezi
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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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Media Studies: John Dunford, Head of Media Studies, and student blog links.
The Head of Media Studies at my school has his blog here. It is full of useful links and information. A2 students: http://linhamr3m4.wordpress.com/ http://danielbmedia.wordpress.com/ http://alexoconnor2.wordpress.com/ http://missemilystevens.wordpress.com/ http://joannebones.wordpress.com/ http://www.lukedarlingslifeblog.blogspot.com/ http://mollycliftona2.wordpress.com/ http://rachelhelsby2.wordpress.com/
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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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How to analyse a poem: a Gilbert vodcast on “The Sick Rose”
Motivated by the £10K offered to my school for winning The Dream Teacher competition, I’ve decided to start videoing little sections of my “teacherly” explanations and uploading them to YouTube. My videos are not of great quality, but I think my enthusiasm comes through! Like thousands of teachers up and down the country, I do this […]
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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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How to cope with secondary school trauma
It may be a year away, but parents need to act now to get their child into a chosen school There was an atmosphere of panic among the parents in the sticky assembly hall with all of us secretly worrying: would we find the right school for our children? Being the parents of Year 5 […]
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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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What the hell is going on with computers in schools?
Sonia Livingstone, an academic at the London School of Economics, gave an interesting talk at a Becta conference pointing out that there are several problems with using computers in schools. Firstly, she observed how many pupils feel that the internet can be a very unreliable source of information, not feeling certain that they were getting the […]
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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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Is it harder than ever to be a teacher?
There’s a crisis of identity at the heart of the teaching profession. We don’t know exactly who we are or what our roles should entail. Are we the founts of all knowledge who pour it like milk into the empty vessels of our pupils? Or are we merely facilitators of learning, guiding our pupils through […]
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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 […]
School choice – an overrated concept
As a teacher for 20 years, I can tell parents that with their support children can flourish anywhere The agony of waiting is over. Yesterday was national offer day, when parents learnt if their children had got into their favoured secondary schools. Unfortunately, as many as 100,000 children and their families have been bitterly disappointed. […]