IB ENG SL YR 1 - OTHELLO COMMENTARY AND PRESENTATION

IB ENGLISH STANDARD
DETAILED STUDY
OTHELLO COMMENTARY AND PRESENTATION - HOMEWORK


TASK
There are two parts to this task. In part one you will write a detailed commentary on a speech from the play Othello. This will be handed in on Thursday 13 December. I will mark it and hand it back to you on the last week of term.

In part two of this assignment you will produce a short presentation on the speech based on the commentary you have written. You should use speaking notes or an annotated copy of the speech for your presentation.

The presentation should last between 3 minutes minimum and 5 minutes maximum. The presentations will be on Thursday 10 January and Friday 11 January.

Select one speech or an extract from a speech - from the play we have studied so far - and write a commentary on it. The speech should be approximately 10  – 25 lines in length.
Your commentary must include the following areas

·               Context of the speech in relation to the play as a whole

·               Consider the immediate action of the play.

o   What has led up to this speech? What are the attitudes, motives of the speaker? What has prompted this speech?

·               The subject matter of the speech

·               The key theme or topic of the speech

·               How does the speech contribute to the play as a whole

·               Consider such things as the development of relationships, characters and themes

·               Comment on the language choices Shakespeare has used to communicate the ideas in the speech

o   Pay attention to conflict in the speech

o   Consider dramatic irony

o   Focus on lexical choices, poetic, rhetorical techniques and dramatic devices

o   What are the underpinning attitudes and assumptions being communicated

A2 LL - RECASTING UPDATE

Here is a link to the articles we'll start next week. Click here for the two articles on Femininity. We'll start by reading  Hilary’s Husband Re-elected: the Clinton Marriage of Politics and Power. You should read this by Monday and identify the key points in each paragraph. You should do a little research on the events that surround this election and the issues around Bill and Hilary Clinton.

This is the second major recasting task and commentary I've set with a small amount handed in. here is a link to the original question I posted on the blog. Click here. I'll expect the work in on Monday by 4.10. You can send it to me by email, put it in my tray in 1D11a or hand it to me in class. I will send out letters of concern on Tuesday if I have not received the work in.

AS ENGLISH LIT - 1000 WORD ESSAY GENERAL FEEDBACK

1                     Use a simple straightforward argument to structure your essay around. State this clearly as part of your introduction.

2                     Introductions should include – a summary of the plot/subject matter of the poem. You should include in this a comment about the structure – a summary of different language features, poetic techniques and narrative voice – a brief contextual statement that puts the poem you are writing about in relation to the other poems we’ve  studied and Hughes’s motivation or aim for writing these poems.

3                     If you are writing about Wind then tell the reader that it is a significantly different poem than the other animal poems you’ve studied.

4                     Each paragraph should contribute to the argument in your introduction. For example if you are writing about the poem Wind. Break down the argument that Hughes presents nature as violent and dangerous by writing about a) the landscape – powerful,  b) wildlife - destructive, c) people – threatening. You will create structure, coherence and flow by doing this.

5                     Try and create development and structure in your essay by linking paragraphs together by bridge or connecting words such as, ‘However,’ or phrases such as, ‘Another way Hughes…..’

6                     Make your first sentence of a paragraph a topic sentence. A topic sentence picks up on a feature of the overall argument presented in your introduction.

7                     Making references to literary terms and there effects. These should be embedded within a paragraph rather than forming a topic sentence. You should aim to use two or three literary terms and there effects in each paragraph. I’ll include a list of some of the terms we’ve discussed in class. You should also check the key words and phrases page on this blog.

8                     You are reminded that you must write on up to 40 lines of a Hughes poem. You do not need to write about the whole poem. Write a lot about a little.

9                     Select quotations really carefully and write everything relevant to the essay that is in the quotation. For example write about key words – meanings, symbols and connotations, word classes phrases – phonology or imagery, rhythm, rhyme. I beginning to think that you should select all the really good quotations in the poem you’ve chosen and analyse these in detail making sure that you link your analysis to the essay topic.

10                 Make sure you make references to at least two other poems we have studied in this anthology. You should show how they are similar and or different.

11                 Use the appropriate academic lexis and formal register. Avoid slang, colloquial phrases, metaphorical language, abbreviations. Don’t refer to yourself as ‘I’. refer to a generalised reader.

12                  Make sure you write no more than 1000 word excluding quotations.

13                 Finally! Close detailed analysis of your chosen poem must dominate your essay. However remember you are writing an essay. Therefore make sure your paragraphs are linked to each other and make it clear in each paragraph that you are addressing the essay title.

14                 Finally! Don’t wait. Complete the final draft now over the next week. Have the essay ready now to hand in on 14 January. There are so many other aspects of the course you need to be working on. Don’t let this hang on and drag on and on!

IB ENG SL YR 1 - Tales from Ovid

IB YR 1 ENGLISH

OPTIONS - TALES FROM OVID

THE STORIES IN ORDER

Below is a list of the poems I hope to study in order.

If we run out of time we will cut out Pygmalion, Echo and Narcissus and Midas.

Pyramus and Thisbe

The Rape of Prosipina

Pygmalion

Actaeon

Echo and Narcissus

Midas

Tereus

Questions

Comment on the narrative voices in each story

What do the settings of these poems contribute to your appreciation of them?

Character

How is humanity presented?

How are the God’s presented?

Explore the theme of change/transformation

How does Hughes use language to create effects in the reader?

How are the poems structured?

Explore the way Hughes presents extreme physical and emotional states

What is Roman about these stories – [culture]?

What is English about these stories – [language]?

AS LL- DIALOGUE AND COMMENTARY

A LEVEL ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

ELLA 1 Integrated Analysis and Text Production

EXTRACT OF A STREETCAR PRODUCTION TASK

Imagine a brief dialogue between Eunice and Blanche at the end of Scene Three where Blanche returns to Eunice’s after her conversation with Mitch. Stella has returned to the apartment with Stanley.

Text and Commentary

 [In Eunice’s apartment]

Blanche:                               I can’t go in there right now. He’s all over her. [1]It’s disgusting. That animal!

Eunice:                                 That’s alright honey! Can I get you anything, [2]water? A glass of milk? Or something?

Blanche:                               Thank you. [3]I’m so rattled, my nerves are all shot right now. I don’t suppose you have any liquor around the place do you? [4]I hardly touch the stuff.

Eunice:                                 Yes of course I’ve got some of Steve’s whisky. That should calm you.

[Blanche reaches out for the bottle [5]with both hands – slightly shaking]

Blanche:                               Thank you for your [6] kindness. [7] I’ll just take one little nip for medicinal purposes, nothing else. I had a drink [8] earlier in the evening but that’s worn off now.  And besides this has been such a shock. [9]I’ve never seen such behaviour in a man before…drunk and violent and so passionate. [10]I don’t know how she can bare to spend a moment with him. There must be something I can do to her, especially in her condition. Did you know Stella was pregnant?

Commentary

[1]Blanche articulates her feelings about Stanley. She will use this attitude and this lexis to Stella in the next scene.

[2]Eunice considers Blanche of a higher refined class. She suggests drinks that she imagines a woman of that class might drink. In Elia Kazan's 1951 film Stella asks Blanche if she'd like a soda when they first meet in scene 1. 

[3]Blanche’s nerves are a recurrent motif through the play. She uses alcohol and bathing as a way of soothing her nerves. Refer to Sc 1, 2, 3, 5, 7.

[4]Echoes Stanley’s comment in Sc 1. But also supports what Blanche says to Stella in Sc 1 about alcohol. It also shows Blanche to be a liar.

[5]The stage direction shows Blanche’s eagerness or desperation for the bottle. It also highlights her nervousness. It may link to Blanche’s clumsiness – almost dropping a bottle in Sc 5 where Stella has to help Blanche.

[6]Kindness is a key word in the play. She uses it to describe Mitch’s behaviour to her in Sc 3 and Blanche uses it again in the final words at the end of the play.

[7]See the note on [4]

[8] Refers to the opening of Sc 3 the conversation between Stella and Blanche.

[9]She has seen men like this before at the hotel Flamingo referred to in Sc 5 and Sc 10

[10]Blanche is beginning to rehearse with Eunice the speech she is going to make to Stella in Sc 4

AS LL DRAMATIC DIALOGUE QUESTION

AS ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

ELLA 1 INTEGRATED ANALYSIS AND TEXT PRODUCTION

STREETCAR QUESTION

TASK

Imagine that Mitch returns home and talks with his mother before or after the events of Scene 6, (where he and Blanche reveal their feelings to one another). Write the dialogue between Mitch and his mother, in which Mitch tells his mother about Blanche.

Give careful consideration to your language choices, form and style, in order to convey a sense of Mitch’s voice. You should use dramatic dialogue form.

You will be advised to spend 50 minutes answering this question in the exam in the summer –this includes planning and writing the answer. Try and limit yourself to spending no more than an hour on this task - 50 minutes to write and 10 minutes to plan.

 

SOME NOTES FOR THIS TASK

Note the layout of the script on the page.  You should follow this format in your own script.

·         Print the name the character speaking

·         Place a colon after the name

·         Leave two spaces before you write

·         Indent text if it is longer than a line

·         Stage directions should be in brackets and indented and leave a space before and after the stage direction

·         You can imbed a stage direction the middle of speech

Content of the dialogue

·         The majority of the dialogue will include

o   Mitch’s attitude to Blanche – I expect you will write about Blanche from Mitch’s very biased and subjective view of Blanche. I expect that Mitch will dominate this dialogue. He will say a lot. Mitch will speak using an informal register that will include ellipsis and colloquial language.

o   Mitch’s mother - her concerns and or suspicions about Blanche. His mother’s questions will be short and open. They will enable her to communicate her suspicions about Blanche. They will enable Mitch to say a lot about Blanche. You should choose questions that enable Mitch to speak. She may reflect on what he says but I expect this won’t be more than a line or two of dialogue.

o   Use one stage direction to introduce the scene – Mitch’s home, mother’s illness and their relative poverty. Also use one or two stage directions to reinforce Mitch’s attitude to Blanche and his mother’s suspicions about Blanche.

Mitch’s Voice

·         Try and adopt Mitch’s voice in your dialogue.  You could refer to the words and phrases he uses in the play. And you could refer to the Americanism hand out I gave out in class. But be aware that some of the terms in that hand out will be too contemporary.

More general but important points

·         Don’t add content that appears later in the text

·         Only use material from the play itself

·         Only add material to help make the dialogue realistic – this will be minimal

·         Be clear in your answer about audience, purpose and format

·         Remember the main focus will be the attitudes, feelings, motives of characters rather than what actually happens

·         Avoid just re telling and summarising the actions of the text being studied

·         I expect you will refer to scene 3 when they first met, Blanche’s teaching job, her privileged childhood in Belle Reve, her dead husband – Alan. You could have another look at scene 9. Is there anything that Mitch says in this scene that might have been prompted by his mother. After all he says at the end of scene“ You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother.”

A2 LL - MOUNTAINSIDES OF HELL QUESTION

A2 ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

ELLA 3 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND TEXT ADAPTATION

MOUNTAINSIDES OF HELL – A QUESTION

DUE 30 November 2012

Read the source material which follows and answer both questions:

Text A is from an article entitled Mountainsides of Hell by Julie Flint

It was first published in the Observer on 14 April 1991

Imagine that you work for the Red Cross and are seeking to raise awareness of the Kurds’ plight. Drawing from the whole text, produce the text of a talk to be given to a woman’s group who are looking for a good cause to adopt for their fundraising. You should adapt the source material without using direct quotations and write 300 – 400 words.

In your adaptation you should:

• use language appropriately to address purpose and audience

• write accurately and coherently, applying relevant ideas and concepts.

(25 marks)

AND

Question 3

Write a commentary which explains the choices you made when writing your talk

commenting on the following:

• how language and form have been used to suit audience and purpose

• how vocabulary and other stylistic features have been used to shape meaning and

achieve particular effects.

You should aim to write about 150 – 250 words in this commentary.

(15 marks)

IB ENG SL YR 1 - Eveline - A Song

Here is a link to a song from The Bohemian Girl, a show referred to in Eveline. This song is called Marble Halls and it reflects something of Eveline's hidden desires and hopes for the future.

A2 LL John Pilger Interviews Martha Gellhorn

 

Here is the interview we began watching on Tuesday morning. I think it is an extraordinary documentary.

I have followed John Pilger's career on and off since 1978. Below are two or three links to some of his work.

  John Pilger Hidden Agendas




Distant Voices by John Pilger

AS ENGLISH LITERATURE - 1000 WORD FEEDBACK MEETINGS

 

AS ENGLISH LITERATURE

LITERATURE POST 1900

FIRST DRAFT ESSAY 1:1 MEETINGS

Below is a time table of the feedback sessions for the first draft of your 1000 word essay.

If you need to change an appointment time then you can swap with another student but you must arrange this yourself with the other student and inform me of the changes you have made.

You should check the blog on the day before your appointment time to see if there are any changes.

During the interviews THREE lessons will be suspended. These lessons are Thursday 29 November at 10.15, Friday 30 November at 3.05 and Thursday 6 December at 10.15. Those not being interviewed during these lessons do not need to attend class. However if you miss your interview slot you will be marked absent and we will have to reschedule our interview.

If you are not attending a lesson because you do not have an interview there are a number of activities you should do during the class time missed.

Read, annotate and make notes on Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Read, annotate and make notes on Spies by Michael Frayn

Updated 26 November 2012

Thursday 29 November at 10.15

NAME	TIME
Nana	10.15
Tom	10.30
Philomena	10.45
Rron	11.00

Thursday 29 November at 4.10

NAME	TIME
Hugo	4.10
Ajmeer	4.25
Harkaran	4.40
Taran	4.35

Friday 30 November at 3.05

NAME	TIME
Freya	3.05
Bethany	3.20
Mary	3.35
Alys	3.50

Friday 30 November at 4.10

NAME	TIME
Charlotte	4.10
Noah	4.25
Kim	4.40
	4.55

Friday 7 December at 4.10

NAME	TIME
Olly	4.10
Nayna	4.25
Charley	4.40
Mary	4.40