Poor, glued words!

Dear English Classes

There are a few problems that I am noticing across all of the grades that I teach.
One of these problems in your writing is that you stick words together that should be written as separate words.


We need to stick these words into our brains forever and remember that they are two words!

in love
in fact
in front
in between
of course
a lot
a bit
as well
each other
one another
every day
at least

Grade 10 Homework for Tuesday the 5th of March

Dear Grade 10s

Your homework for next Tuesday is a little challenging. You are required to read the articles that I gave you and then compare them in terms of content, purpose, audience, style etc.

Here is the photo that printed poorly with the Louboutin article:



This is a photo of the red soles synonymous with Louboutin:



Most unfortunately though this is what might happen to you if you wear these shoes all day:

Autumn by Roy Campbell

Dear Grade 12s

Here is a Power point with images and some definitions to help you with the poem "Autumn."
None of these photos were taken by me, I am grateful to the people who placed them online!

Book Trailers (Grade 8s)

Dear English Classes and especially Grade 8s

We have been talking a lot about books recently. We have discussed their covers and blurbs and even made our own book covers (Grade 8s).

Have a look at these book trailers. They are like movie trailers but for books.









These are essentially blurbs in action. Do they interest you at all? Do they encourage you to read the books?

Grade 10 Homework for Tuesday the 26th

Dear Grade 10s

Well done for completing your homework this week.
Please remember that if you have a problem viewing videos or accessing online content you must come and see me about it - we can make a plan for you to view the videos etc at breaks or after school.

Your homework for next Tuesday is to:
Read the summary text about the needles that were found in airline sandwiches.
Then summarise it into 6 bullet points and
a paragraph of 80-90 words.

Read the poem "Let the Children Decide" by Don Mattera.
Treat this as an unseen poem, make notes on it and then answer the questions at the back of your Poetry booklet.

Othello Act 2

Dear Matrics

As we move from Act 1 into Act 2 it is important to keep up with what is happening on a literal and a figurative or thematic level in the play.

Here is another Lit Chart about Act 2, scene 1. It is a good, visual way to review the themes in each scene.

I will put the quotes that you found in class online as well, as a helpful reference when you are studying or writing the essay.

Romeo and Juliet Prologue

Dear Grade 10s

As we move through our Forum Discussions and into Romeo and Juliet, here is an excellent analysis and revision of the Prologue.

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge--break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.



Remember that the Prologue is a compact version of the whole play. It is important that you understand why Shakespeare chose to divulge the plot to us at the beginning. How does our knowledge of the plot force us to focus on other aspects of the text? How does knowing the plot increase the Dramatic Irony of the play and the emotional impact of watching Romeo and Juliet fall in love? Think about these questions as we read the text.

Othello Act 1

Dear Matrics

Here are some very interesting videos of Act 1 being performed:

This one is Othello's speech in Act 1, scene 3 as spoken by Sir John Gielgud, one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of the 20th century.





Here is the same speech as read by F. Scoot Fitzgerald, who wrote your set novel for the year; The Great Gatsby. It is interesting to compare his accent and speech pattern with the more formal Gielgud above.





Here is Iago's soliloquy "I hate the Moor" as spoken by Kenneth Brannagh, a great contemporary Shakespearean actor. PLEASE note that they have cut some of the lines from the speech. Follow it in your book as you watch the video.

The Global Food Waste Scandal

Dear Classes

This is the video that we watched on Friday with some other articles along the same lines that you might like to read.






Is it time we cut down on meat?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/sep/10/giving-up-meat-felicity-lawrence

The Meat Revolution:
http://www.culinate.com/books/book_reviews/meat_books

Grade 10 Homework

Dear Grade 10s

Here is your homework for next Tuesday:

You need to watch the two Nickelback videos and write a paragraph of 15 lines comparing and contrasting the videos in terms of their lyrical and visual content.
When we Stand Together:



If Everyone Cared:



The other exercise of your homework is to do the exercises on commas and apostrophes on page 1 of your Language Exercise booklets.

Happy Homeworking!

Summarising

Dear Grade 10s

We have been learning how to summarise a text in class.
Here are some guidelines to follow when summarising any article.

1) Read the article to gather what it is about. Remember to read the headline, the name of the author and the date that it was printed.
2) Re-read the article with a pencil in your hand: underline any important ideas or words.
3) Condense these ideas into bullet points.
4) Bullet points must be written in your OWN WORDS and in FULL SENTENCES. These should be no more than 20 words at most.
5) Turn rhetorical questions into statements.
6) Leave out unnecessary details like people's names (unless this is vital), dates, quotes, descriptions, emotive language and imagery.
7) Write in the third person - not as "I."
8) Use a formal register.
9) Do not add your opinion on the matter or any extra information that you might have about the topic.
10) Write a paragraph in full sentences and your own words.
11) Proof read your paragraph to ensure that there are no errors.
12) You MUST put a WORD COUNT at the bottom of your paragraph