I thought I’d paste a little taste of Trump here for students to look over. we spend so many hours teaching students to write with clarity and to structure and organise… and then this: TRUMP: We stopped giving them because we were getting quite a bit of inaccurate news, but I do have to say […]
Many students seem to see use of setting essays as an excuse to write as much as they can about the plot of the novel, whilst opening each paragraph with a comment reflecting the location of the material which they discuss is.
The sad fact is that such “narrative driven” essays will score few marks, particularly at advanced level, and this document has been prompted by a batch of IBDP essays concerning the use of setting in The Awakening (Chopin) and Snow Falling on Cedars (Guterson).
APPROACH:
It is important to note that setting refers to the whole “world” of the novel – location, era, culture, use of time of day (“hour”) and that any response should show an awareness of each of these ideas if possible. Ideally the response will be able to consider contrasts within the novel to build a sense of debate in…
Reading Wuthering Heights by Emile Bronte, with Specific emphasis on the first 10 chapters
Unit 2.3-2.5, Term 1, 2011-12
Instructions:
You are being allocated a fortnight’s period to read the complete novel with specific focus on the critical reading of the first 10 chapters.
You are expected to use the information disseminated through classroom discussions and lectures to form your personal opinions regarding various
character traits,
themes ,
setting,
background of the characters,
structure of the novel, and
the role of narrative
Use highlighter while you read to codify the particular themes. You can devise your own keys to represent the themes
After the completion of this assignment you will be required to appear for the presentation session which carries 15 % of your Formative Grading profile .
Use the following general pointers to assist your reading of the entire novel
Structure:
Told by two narrators
Choice of Lockwood as a narrator
Advantages to the choice of Nelly Dean as the recounter of much of the tale’s background
Participation of her in the tale?
Reliability of Nelly Dean
Personality of the narrators
Themes:
The role of the social class
In one’s upbringing and shaping of personality
Clashes amongst the classes
Role that the servants ( Nelly, Joseph and Zillah) play
Use of setting
Influence of isolation and location of the novel’s northern Yorkshire setting on the tone and events of the story
Are there symbolic elements to the descriptions of the houses and their landscapes?
Relationships
Each character’s motivations for becoming involved in his or her relationship (beyond “s/he was in love!!”)
Motherhood and parenting
Characters suffering from childhood neglect
Effects of harsh child upbringing
Violence
Recurring scenes of violence
Motives of the violent characters
Little opposition that they face from their surroundings
The Wednesday 2nd February 9pm GMT #eltchat was fast and furious. Here is a summary of the main points:
Why teach pronunciation?
‘If you’re not teaching pronunciation, you’re not teaching English’
It can help with punctuation.
Learners are keen to work on pronunciation so that they can be understood.
It helps with listening skills, particularly features of connected speech.
Pronunciation, rather than grammar / vocab, is the main barrier to understanding. If learners have bad pronunciation, listeners think their English is incomprehensible even if it’s not. Can undermine SS confidence.
Raises awareness of sounds – learners better able to distinguish between them.
It’s fun!
What to teach
Individual sounds (perhaps using the IPA – see below)
Sound linking
Connected speech (perhaps through songs)
Weak forms (schwa)
Voice – get them to imitate English speakers mispronouncing their L1 – gives them a feel for sounds / rhythm
How does the author introduce characters, and how do we see their evolution in the story? What is their function and motivation?What kinds of characters are they? Full/round? Stock characters? Stereotypes? Caricatures?
9. Tone
What is the author’s attitude? What is the mood of the story?Does the author seem sarcastic? Aggressive? Wistful? Pessimistic? In love? Philosophically detached? Hopeful? Ironic? Bitter? (And so on…)
Whatever the tone, where is it visible in the narrative?
10. Word Color, Word Sound
How much does the language call attention to or depend on the quality of its sound, e.g. through alliteration, assonance, consonance, dissonance, rhythm, unusual word choice, and so on?
11. Paragraph / Chapter Structure
Are paragraphs very short, or are they enormous blocks running across many pages?Are the chapters short or long? How many are there, how are they organized, and why is this important?
12. Time Sequencing / Chronology
How has the author organized the chronology of events? To what effect? What is the work’s structural “rhythm”?
13. Allusions
How and how often does the author refer to other texts, myths, symbols, famous figures, historical events, quotations, and so on?
14. Experimentation in Language
Are there any unusual techniques, such as stream-of-consciousness, mixing styles and genres, unusual layout on the page, breaking rules of grammar and form, odd or unstable narrative perspectives, onomatopoeia, aporia, and so on?
15. Metafictional techniques
Does the author call attention to his or her own process of narration?Are the narrator’s position, role, and thoughts as a storyteller mentioned explicitly in the text? What function does this serve?
A literature map or chart is a structured way to have students address the language of literature by applying literary terms to a book they are reading. The structure of the map or chart may be adapted to focus primarily upon the elements of action, setting, atmosphere, tone, or mood. The literature map or chart can be structured to reflect the emphases that are most applicable to the work being studied. The literature map can be used in any type of instructional framework. Initially, it is probably advantageous for the teacher to take students through the process as a whole class learning activity. This is especially true if the students are unfamiliar with the literary terms or if they have simply had to memorize definitions previously. The value of this approach is that it give students practical application with the vocabulary to talk about their reading. advantageous for the teacher to take students through the process as a whole class learning activity. This is especially true if the students are unfamiliar with the literary terms or if they have simply had to memorize definitions previously. The value of this approach is that it give students practical application with the vocabulary to talk about their reading.
Character Mapping
Character mapping is a useful tool to help students learn to understand the process of characterization in literature. In this process, students identify the character in a circle in the middle of their papers. They then identify characteristics and qualities of that character and list each one individually in boxes or other circles around the original circle. They will attach these new circles with each characteristic with lines leading back to the original circle.
They then find support or evidence for the characteristic in their reading. The evidence or support is placed in boxes or additional circles around the appropriate characteristic, with lines going back to it. Students should be taught to recognize that the evidence will be found in a number of ways, through the character’s speech, actions, behaviors, through other’s descriptions or comments, through events, through commentary from the narrator, or the evidence may be inferred rather than directly stated. The evidence may also demonstrate more than one characteristic. The following example is a variation on the above example. This approach focuses on the character’s actions and the consequences of those actions. The actions and their consequences provide insights about the character.
Whatever variation on the character map that students complete, it provides them with useful insight into characterization. Once students have completed their maps, they should then write about what they have graphically represented. The most valuable aspect of character mapping is that it is the foundation for students to explore characterization in their own writing.
Conflict Mapping
Students today are a part of the media generation, a generation that is used to being passive while vivid, exciting, and even outrageous visual images hook them and rivet their attention. We frequently hear from teachers how frustrated they are feeling that they need to compete with television, videos, and movies to entertain their students who complain about anything that they perceive as not being exciting. We have found that one way to hook students is focus initially upon the action or conflict in a work. We have developed the conflict map as an approach to capitalize upon student interest in the action. In using this approach students begin by identifying an incident of conflict that plays a significant part in the book. Once they have chosen an incident of conflict, they need to analyze and identify the cause of the conflict or identify the issue behind the conflict. At this point, it is impotant to help students to realize that causes and issues may be more complex than surface appearance. The next step is to identify the participants, the protagonist and the antagonist. We also ask students to identify the sources of support that each of these characters has. It is important to help students to see that these sources might not be limited only to other characters; the support might come from the situation that has spawned the conflict, or the ethical views or beliefs they hold, the influence of the times, or any number of other internal and external factors. Once these elements have been mapped then the resolution of the conflict is added. This tool is an effective focusing technique that can be used with any type of instructional format, but we have found that it works particularly well when learning partners do it because they are able to assume the role of one of characters and then compare reactions. Interesting insights about the issue or cause and the sources of support for it frequently result when you have students focusing on one character in the conflict because of the involvement that they achieve with that character
Ideals/Values Mapping
Christopher Collier (1982, p. 33) admitted that he and his brother, James Lincoln Collier, write historical fiction “with a didactic purpose–to teach about the ideals and values that have been important in shaping the course of American history.” Based upon that admission, we began to look at historical fiction from the perspective of what are the ideals and values inherent in the work. As a result, we developed a strategy to explore the ideals or values in literature, especially in historical fiction. The process is for students to identify an ideal or value that is significantly explored in the work and place it in a circle at the center of the map. Supporting evidence is then placed in circles and attached to the center.
Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky, My pile of books is a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.
Arnold Lobel
How the young minds cherish the joys of holding a book and read was always a known phenomenon for me. However, when it was to make them research about the themes, social, political and religious issues, (which have been there all the while when they idly skimmed through),it was not taken too kindly by the class(es). But elated am I to present an array of the classics , old and new, which has been presented to me as their collective efforts of coming up with their researched responses for their chosen novels.
Whatever variation on the character map that students complete, it provides them with useful insight into characterization. Once students have completed their maps, they should then write about what they have graphically represented. The most valuable aspect of character mapping is that it is the foundation for students to explore characterization in their own writing.
Naj's Rhyme and Reason 