YEAR 12 LESSON FIVE/SIX [12th/19th Oct 15]: Homework

In these two sessions, students were asked to consider why Fitzgerald has Carraway describe the following locations in such a figurative manner. Students were asked to consider how meaning is being shaped through the representation of these three key locations:

1. THE BUCHANAN HOUSE
2. THE VALLEY OF ASHES
3. GATSBY'S PARTY AT THE BEGINNING OF CHAPTER THREE

Students were asked to consider the version of America that is being presented by Fitzgerald and why this version of America is being presented. Students were asked to consider the America presented through the poetry of Walt Whitman and Emma Lazarus with the vision of America that is presented at the beginning of this famous novel. Class discussion considered how the horror of the Valley of Ashes is constructed.

The final section of the second session involved a 15 minute written response to the question:

How does Fitzgerald represent the Valley of Ashes?

The aim of this task was for students to use the following paragraph structure:

• Opinion
• Textual Reference
• Explanation of how textual reference supports opinion
• Consider author's aim/question focus. 

Students need to be aware that the final half of the paragraph is the section that will allow students to access the higher grades. The argument linked to textual reference needs to be linked to author's aim and the central focus of the question. The consideration of author's aim was the weak area of the first set of essays and this task was a direct response to the content of the first written task. Hopefully this task reinforced the fact that a consideration of how and why an author shapes meaning is at the heart of this course.

YOU LOT HAVE BEEN MAGNIFICENT THIS TERM. KEEP IT UP.

HOMEWORK: READ THE TEXT. I expect all students to have read the novel and be particularly familiar with the first FIVE CHAPTERS as these chapters will be the immediate focus of our discussion when we return to the Festival of Wisdom. I will post specific reading focus in a couple of days. Keep checking the blog.

READ THE GREAT GATSBY....READ THE GREAT GATSBY.....READ...READ...READ.....   

YEAR 13 LESSON SEVEN [14th Oct 15]: Homework

This session explored the nature of Victor's language and why Shelley invests Victor's dialogue with such aggressive and violent intensity. One student described this as THE LANGUAGE OF RUIN....how great is that!? Nice one Carla.
Key quotes from CHAPTER FIVE were used to stimulate class discussion:

• I felt my flesh tingle with excess of sensitiveness, and my pulse beat rapidly
• I raved incessantly
• He saw a wildness in my eyes
• I was disturbed by the wildest dreams
• Breathless horror and disgust filled my heart
• my teeth chattered and every limb became convulsed
• Sometimes my pulse beat so quickly...I felt the palpitation of every artery
• dreams that had been my food...were now become a hell to me.

Students must be able to articulate why Shelley uses such aggressive and emotive language to represent Victor's experience.
The lesson then moved into a superb consideration of the gothic genre and the nature of gothic content.

HOMEWORK: READ ALL OF VICTOR'S NARRATIVE. WE will be discussing issues from the first 10 chapters in Friday's session.

YEAR 13 LESSON SIX [9th Oct 15]: Homework

The aim of this session was to explore the issues raised by Mary Shelley in Chapter Five of Frankenstein. THIS IS A HUGE CHAPTER as this is the moment when the creature sparks into life. The class identified key quotes and discussed Shelley's aim. The discussion moved into a 15 minute timed response.

HOMEWORK: Complete the Chapter Four essay and read the text.

YEAR 13 LESSON FOUR/FIVE [2nd/6th October 15] : Homework

Lesson Four considered the nature of CHAPTER FOUR of Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN. The class were asked to examine a key passage within this chapter and discuss the significance of key moments. Significant discussion was generated when discussing the following quotes from Victor's narrative:

• supernatural enthusiasm...
• Remember, I am not recording the vision of a madman
• After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue....I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter
•  I see by your eagerness...that you expect to be informed of the secret with which I am acquainted; that cannot be....I will not lead you on, unguarded and ardent....to your destruction and infallible misery
• feelings...bore me onwards like a hurricane
• life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator...No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs...
• My cheek had grown pale with study..my person had become emaciated with confinement
• I pursued nature to her hiding places
• My limbs now tremble and my eyes swim with the remembrance; but then a resistless and frantic impulse urged me forward; I seemed to have lost all soul and sensation but for this one pursuit...a passing trance
• I collected bones from charnel houses; and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame
• In a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of the house, and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and staircase, I kept my workshop of filthy creation: my eye-balls were starting from their sockets in attending to the details of my employment. The dissecting room and the slaughterhouse furnished many of my materials; and often did my human nature turn with loathing from my occupation.
• A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind, and never allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility.
• Winter , spring, and summer passed away during my labours; but I did not watch the blossom or the expanding leaves- sights which before always yielded me supreme delight- so deeply was I engrossed in my occupation
• I appeared rather like one doomed by slavery to toil in the mines, or any other unwholesome trade....Every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime

The class discussion generated within this session was excellent. Note Victor's sense of violent regret and self-loathing.

Lesson Five continued the discussion and considered Shelley's aim when presenting this key chapter. Students were encouraged to consider the key quotes in the context of the alternative title: THE MODERN PROMETHEUS.

HOMEWORK: Consider potential content for the essay:
WHAT IS SHELLEY'S AIM IN CHAPTER FOUR?

YEAR 12 LESSON FOUR [5th Oct 15]: Homework

The aim of this session was to introduce students to the opening section of F.Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY. Students were asked to consider the notion offered by President Obama that America is 'ONE NATION. ONE PEOPLE' and also to consider the sentiments offered by the poetry of Walt Whitman, Emma Lazarus and the lyrics of The Star Spangled Banner. WHAT IS THE REPRESENTATION OF AMERICA BEING SHAPED BY THESE TEXTS/IDEAS? Students were also urged to consider the ethos reflected in THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

Textual focus was placed upon Nick Carraway. He is the filter through which we view the text therefore it is important that we understand his character. Students were asked to consider the significance of Nick's observation that 'the warm centre of the world' was now '..the ragged edge of the Universe'. Students were also asked to consider the first impression of Gatsby as presented by Nick.

HOMEWORK: READ THE TEXT. Next week we will be exploring the significance of the opening chapter. Students also need to be familiar with the VALLEY OF ASHES at the beginning of chapter two. WHAT KIND OF AMERICA IS BEING PRESENTED IN THE OPENING TWO CHAPTERS?

YEAR 13 LESSON THREE [30th Sept 15]: Homework

Today's session considered the significance of the opening chapters of Victor's narrative in Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN. The quiz was....HORRIFIC. The poor results illustrated the fact that students need to read the text in a more critical manner and need to be aware of the significant historical and cultural context that drives the narrative. Students need to read the material presented. Who is John Locke? When was the last person imprisoned in the UK for blasphemy? How significant is the Napoleonic War and the French Revolution? Who was Galvini and why should we consider his influence? Why is the reference to Paradise Lost so important at the beginning of the novel?....STUDENTS NEED TO DELVE INTO THE  RESOURCES THAT I AM POSTING TO THE BLOG.

The main focus of the session was the significance of Catherine's death, the influence of Waldman, and a consideration of why Victor  occasionally removes himself from his retrospective narrative and refers directly to Walton. Focus was placed upon one page in the fourth chapter that is incredibly important. We will continue to discuss this page on Friday.

HOMEWORK: Be familiar with the first FIVE chapters of Victor's narrative. On Friday we will discuss the themes being explored by Shelley, examine the nature of Victor's language, and generally feast on this fantastic novel.

Visit my previous blog entries and digest some contextual resources.
http://becuriouslit.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/year-thirteen-lesson-one-23rd-sept-15.html

See you Friday Lit Freaks.