Lesson today

Hello all

Sorry not to be with you today.

Lesson aim: understand and explain how context contributes to interpretations

Where are your question titles? Thanks MJ for yours... Santa will be kind to you. Please post them on the blog this lesson.

They should use a statement from your anthology, which you can re-work a little. Look back at the questions based around Marx for some clues...

This lesson: research the context of the poem and write a paragraph explaining it. Post this on the blog this lesson so I can see how much you've achieved. If you do not do this, you will get a C3. May seem a bit brutal, but I have no evidence that you did the task I told you to do last lesson...

Tips: look at ‘O my America’, Mohamed’s paradise, religion, Atlanta’s balls and imputed grace.

How does the understanding the context contribute to meaning in the poem?

This should then (by 2pm):

• ·         Be precise and clear in your point.
• ·         Include a quotation to analyse
• ·         Have a developed link to context
• ·         Link to feminist interpretation

My absence then has put us behind schedule a little, but please don't worry about it. We'll re-group on Thursday so that a clear vision is planned for next couple of weeks.

      If you find yourself at a loose-end, start to read Jane Eyre.

Best wishes,
Ms 

Question Title

Hi Y13

Again, sorry about earlier.

To add to my calamitous day, my battery charger isn't working and my laptop is about to fail...

Question titles.

The stems should be 

To explore the validity of ....

Examine the statement....

How valid is the statement ....

Use your essays (the titles for these are too simplistic) and the anthologies. 

Re-work statements from the anthology if you need to or select ones. It takes some concentration....

Ms :/

Objectification

Hi Y13
In the last few lessons we have looked at feminism in detail. You have created posters that demonstrate your knowledge of:

• the waves in Feminism
• different types of feminism
• key concepts in feminism and 
• post-feminism

All of these aspects should have been covered on your posters.

We also looked in detail at Objectification - a key concept in Feminism. For this we looked at this guy on YouTube. This useful to consider the hyper-sexual objectification in recent years.

We also watched the second episode of John Berger's Ways of Seeing. Although this is about Art, it is an excellent episode that can be directly applied to Literature. It's really useful for looking at context too and representation of women as a sexual object through history. The Adam and Eve aspect of this is crucial as women are to blame for their nakedness (literally, since the beginning of time!); this could be seen to account for their objectification.

Your homework was to read the handout I gave you. I expect you to be able to talk about this on Monday.

Ms

Feminism and the Critical Anthology

Hi all
This week have started our consideration of Feminism and we will move to look at texts from a Feminist perspective.
We have evaluated spoken language and how this perpetuates stereotypes in society and, as I am sure you have gathered, looking at a text from a feminist perspective is doing a similar thing.
Here's today's lesson; ensure you answer the questions on the final slide. You must read and re-read the article in the Critical Anthology. Let me know if you have any problems.
THE FINAL QUESTION IS HARD TO SEE. It says:Why are female characters in literature considered to be constructions?

Best wishes,
Ms 

A term down...

Dear Y13

Right, it's a term down and I feel that we have found our feet. Your second draft essays are infinitely more sophisticated than your first ones  - well done.

You should make sure I have a copy of your final essay ASAP. This should be double line spaced, have italicised poem names, correct references throughout (use this link for the best ever guide to referencing) including a bibliography. You should also have a word count. you should also not refer to the bourgeoisie as upper class: use bourgeoisie. It's the correct, Marxist terminology.

Over the holiday you should also research the life of John Donne and be ready to teach the class something about him.  He was an intensely interesting man and I think you're going to love studying his poetry!

Do let me know if you have any problems or need any help.

Best wishes,
Ms 

Homework

Your homework was to put a paragraph in the comments section that integrates the context with your analysis.
Remember to have a topic sentence on your paragraph....

Coursework Questions NT

Essay Feedback

Dear Y13
After looking at most of your essays now I have a few general points to make.

1. Have a clear topic sentence. What is your paragraph about? Each paragraph should have an introductory sentence that says what your paragraph is about; this could also link to the question.
2. You need to have extended analysis of quotations. I can't underestimate the importance of this. It's necessary now and it's necessary in the exam. Say as much as you can. 
3. Explore how your quote links to Marxism and any potential links to Them and Uz
4. In your analysis, can you link to any context. Don't do this as a mini-biography of Harrison, but as an integrated response to your quotation.

I didn't start out with the intention of these being AO1, 2, 3 and 4, but that's how it happened...

Leave a comment if you have any questions.

Ms

National Trust Structure

This week we have looked at the structure of National Trust.
Here's the PPT that we used in class.

National trust structure from MsCaldwell

Where are so far...

Right, I feel now is the time to make use of the blog!

So, we have been looking at Tony Harrison's National Trust. We first considered the meanings of National Trust. It first evokes images and thoughts of conservation, parks and listed buildings. We then dug a little deeper and considered the security in trust; that we trust that this institution will look after the country, the nation's best interests, and preserve what should be preserved. Here then, we considered the polysemic meaning of 'national trust'. After thinking about the title, the poem seemed to undermine our expectations of a thoroughly British, patriotic vision. 

The poem is here. 

Tony Harrison's poems are written to be listened to. What's the significance of them being listened to in a Northern accent?

We did some analysis of the poem. We'll do more of this. 

We then looked at one of the extracts from the critical anthology that you have for Unit 4: Marxism.

We reduced the reading down to a sentence per paragraph, word per paragraph, sentence for the complete reading and then a word.
As an overview, the sentences that we discussed in class were:

• Marxism continues to be relevant after the fall of communism as it allows an intellectual perspective that requires us to consider socio-economic circumstances.
• Karl Marx outlined that a person's socio-economic circumstances has a significant impact upon their thought and consciousness.
• Some people, including politicians, say that we are free and the right choices will allow social mobility.
• Money is everything, we are never free from it.
• Capitalism exploits workers by paying them less than they are worth and this creates alienation in a  society driven by profit. 

These aren't great sentences, but they reflect an understanding of the text. The object of the exercise was learning not sentence writing! If you haven't completed this exercise, you need to do it to understand it. 

We then returned to the poem and applied a Marxist critical perspective to it. 

You should now have written a paragraph looking at the poem from a Marxist perspective. You need to improve this paragraph about the poem from a Marxist perspective and leave it as a comment. To do this you'll need to take a tiny aspect of the poem and comment on how it relates to the socio-economic circumstances. I want you to write this paragraph in the comment box below. (Probably best if you do this in Word, or similar, and the paste so it is not lost.)

You should have also have watched this episode of Andrew Marr's History of Britain.

Finally, if you would like to extend your learning further, have a look at historical materialism.

Let me know if you have any questions.


Ms 

Welcome Y13!

Hoorah! A blog just for you - surely it's Christmas. No. But a total gift!

You can always find out what we are working on and contact me.

It's possibly the best thing ever...

Ms