Friday 10 December 2010

Y11: Poems


Use some of the poems from this link

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/top_poems.html

to practice your poetry skills.

A reminder of the question:

30 minutes
Write about the poem and its effect on you
You may wish to include some or all of these points:
*the poem's content - what it is about;
*the ideas the poet may have wanted us to think about;
*the mood or atmosphere of the poem;
*how it is written - words or phrases you find interesting, the way the poem is structures or organised, and so on;
*your response to the poem


I'd recommend you do at least two or three poems before the mock.

Good luck!

Friday 12 November 2010

Y12: Is Amir good in Chapter 19?

How does Hosseini show a change in Amir? Has he achieved any redemption at this point?

Monday 8 November 2010

Y13: Bad Dreams

Read the summary of Freud's Interpretation of Dreams below. Write an interpretation of chapter 3 as though you were interpretating the encounter as a dream.


Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams, 1899

At the beginning of Chapter One, Freud describes his work thus:
In the following pages, I shall demonstrate that there is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams, and that on the application of this technique, every dream will reveal itself as a psychological structure, full of significance, and one which may be assigned to a specific place in the psychic activities of the waking state. Further, I shall endeavour to elucidate the processes which underlie the strangeness and obscurity of dreams, and to deduce from these processes the nature of the psychic forces whose conflict or co-operation is responsible for our dreams.
The book introduces Freud's theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation. Dreams, in Freud's view, were all forms of "wish-fulfillment" — attempts by the unconscious to resolve a conflict of some sort, whether something recent or something from the recesses of the past. However, because the information in the unconscious is in an unruly and often disturbing form, a "censor" in the preconscious will not allow it to pass unaltered into the conscious. During dreams, the preconscious is more lax in this duty than in waking hours, but is still attentive: as such, the unconscious must distort and warp the meaning of its information to make it through the censorship. As such, images in dreams are often not what they appear to be, according to Freud, and need deeper interpretation if they are to inform on the structures of the unconscious.

Thursday 7 October 2010

y13: Essays

Just a reminder that all essays from now on are expected to be 1hr timed and handwritten in preparation for our exam.

Also, don't forget to comment on two other blogs this week. If you get your blog up nice and early, you'll end up with loads of other people commenting on it, which could really help your AO3 skills.

Faustus: what a guy...

Monday 4 October 2010

Thursday 30 September 2010

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Y11: TKAM Research

Ok folks, now is the time we get into some serious background research for TKAM.

The Scottsboro Trial Link 1
Link 2
Alabama Link 1
Link 2
The Great Depression Link 1

Racial Discrimination Link 1
Link 2
Jim Crow Laws Link 1
Link 2

Harper Lee

Use the information on these links to create a fact-page to show others in the class what you have found.

Friday 17 September 2010

Y12: Ceci n'est pas une pipe

Y11: The Mockingbird

Y11s


For Research on the Mockingbird, start with:

The Northern Mockingbird

Texas Wildlife Facts

Nature Works Facts

All about birds!

You need to find out what the bird looks like, feeding habits, habitat, and any other interesting information. At the end of the lesson you will be asked to create a song or poem about the bird ready to present to the rest of the group.

Saturday 11 September 2010

Y13: Mr. Francis Returns...

Don't forget that I'm coming back to school next week. When I return, I'll be expecting to see blog posts on your summer reading. I want to see posts on your thoughts 1) before reading, 2) while reading and 3) upon completion of each of the set texts.

In case you have not yet realised, the set texts are; Doctor Faustus, Dracula and The Bloody Chamber.

Monday 19 July 2010

Y13: Top Ten Gothic Films

1. Nosferatu - 1922
2. Rebecca--1940--directed by Alfred Hitchcock
3. The Uninvited--1940something--Brother and sister buy a haunted house. Fun, scary Gothic
4. Dragonwyck--1940something--starring Gene Tierney who move to her cousin's mysterious mansion
5. The Innocents--1960something--GREAT adaptation of "The Turn of the Screw" starring Deborah Kerr as the governess for two charismatic/demonic children.
6. The Haunting--1960something--starring Julie Harris. Adapted from Shirley Jackson's novel about a woman in a haunted house investigation.
7. The Legend of Hell House--1970something--More of a horror film than others listed, but still a classic Gothic haunted house tale
8. The Changeling--1980something--Elegant, old fashioned Gothic haunted house tale
9. Haunted--1990something--set in the 1920's, Aidan Quin stars as a ghost hunter in this elegant film
10. Jane Eyre--most recent version

Thursday 8 July 2010

Y13: Nosferatu


If you want to watch the old Nos again, you can find it here.

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Y13: The Raven



Take a look at this beautiful poem before next lesson.

Oh, by the way, you need to memorise it for next week.

Enjoy!

http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html

Monday 3 May 2010

Y10: Poetry from different cultures: Hinduism research

For researching the background to Beggarly Heart, you will need to find out a little about Tagore's background.

Use the following links to find out about Hinduism:

http://www.revisionworld.co.uk/gcse/re/hinduism
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/rs/god/hinduismrev1.shtml
http://www.religionfacts.com/hinduism/beliefs.htm

Use the links below to find out about Tagore and answer the following questions:

1) How were Tagore's poems discovered?
2) What was it about Indian culture that Tagore's poems supposedly opened up to a Western audience?
3) What were Tagore's connections with England?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore
http://www.schoolofwisdom.com/tagore-bio.html

Wednesday 28 April 2010

FORM: Vote

Have a look at this website to find out who you would vote for...

http://www.activehistory.co.uk/Miscellaneous/free_stuff/vote_2010/frameset.htm

You can e-mail me your results, if you wish.

Monday 26 April 2010

Y10: Denial: understandings of Christianity

For our Different Cultures coursework, you will need to discuss two poems whose writers have different backgrounds.

George Herbert was a Christian in the 17th Century.

Use the following links to find out about Christianity.

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/carolrb/christianity/christian_beliefs.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/rs/god/christianityrev1.shtml

http://100prophecies.org/christianity.htm

You will also need to answer the following questions on George Herbert:

1) What was his involvement with the King?
2) What did he do after the King's death?
3) What did he do in his later job that made people think he was good at it?
4) What reasons (more than one) can you come up with that might show that he had strong religious beliefs?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Herbert

http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/herbert/herbbio.htm

Thursday 25 March 2010

Y13: Death


Another touch on the links between Ravens and death.

A brilliant read on mourning and loss.

Enjoy!

The Raven




.

Tuesday 16 March 2010

Y13: Researching

http://www.delpiano.com/carnival/html/commedia.html
Take a look at this and write up a list of the different characters and their roles.

Yey!

Thursday 11 March 2010

Y13: Contacts

Howdy,

Drop your blog link into the comments section of this post.

This weekend, I want you all to blog and post on everyone else's most recent post.

This will help expose you to lots of new interpretations and understandings of the text and will help your AO3 marks.

Happy reading!

Tuesday 2 March 2010

Thursday 11 February 2010

Y13: Carmilla

Take a sneaky peak at this for an early example of lesbian themed vampirism. Note the intertextual links with the Carmilla of The Bloody Chamber and the action of The Lady of the House of Love.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10007/10007-h/10007-h.htm

Wednesday 20 January 2010

Y11: Weather in the news


Have a look at these two articles

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/150858/Freeze-may-kill-60-000

What is the piece's political view?

Find 4-5 examples of deliberate language choice to promote the paper political views and explain the effect of each one.

http://careers.guardian.co.uk/careers-blog/when-bad-weather-is-not-a-crisis-harry-freedman

What is the view of this article? Does it have a similarly strong political viewpoint? With what is the article most concerned (try to read between the lines). Pick out 4-5 words or sentences that are used to promote this point of view.

Find similar examples of news stories about the weather. Find and explain ones with strong political views.

Look at what people have written in the comments section of each article. Is there a link with the views expressed and the style of writing used? If so, does this show a kind of prejudice in the writer or in the reader? How should awareness of these kind of issues affect the way we might read articles in the future?

Write up your findings and your opinions on it in 300-400 words (one side) using evidence from the articles

Monday 11 January 2010

Y13: Dracula and female madness



Have a look at this site for an excellent insight into Victorian ideas of female madness. How do these relate to female character in Dracula, such as Lucy?

http://www.herstoria.com/discover/madness.html

Write a blog post if you think of anything interesting...