GCSE Resources...Oct 11th 2017

Thalidomide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2lhmSCunrI
Robert Oppenheimer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb13ynu3Iac

YEAR 13 Oct 10th 2017.

Today's session considered the significance of the chapter FATHER and DAUGHTER in the first section of Dickens' HARD TIMES. Students were asked to consider the question:
HOW DOES THIS CHAPTER ALLOW DICKENS TO REINFORCE HIS CONTEMPT FOR THE UTILITARIAN EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY?
Class discussion considered possible content for this question before the class produced a 25 minute written response.

HOMEWORK: Next session we will be discussing the key moments from the first section of the book. Students need to consider their own KEY MOMENTS and consider how these moments allow Dickens to shape meaning. I will also be offering feedback to the written work. READ.READ.READ.

YEAR 12 9th Oct 2017.

Today's session considered ACT TWO SCENE ONE and the significance of Shakespeare presenting Cassio and Iago as very different characters. Students were asked to consider why Shakespeare provides Cassio with such ROMANTIC and poetic dialogue and invests Iago's dialogue with such crude puns, sexual innuendo, and a very negative view of women. How would you describe Cassio's description of Desdemona? It seems that Shakespeare presents these two characters as being from very different social backgrounds. Students were encouraged to consider why Shakespeare is presenting this CLASS DIFFERENCE between the two characters and students were also asked to consider the significance of the location of CYPRUS. The unique and terrifying tempest that destroys the Turkish fleet is rich with metaphor and forewarning.

HOMEWORK: We will be considering the essay title...
HOW DOES SHAKESPEARE USE DRAMATIC FORMS
TO PRESENT THE CHARACTER OF IAGO?
I will expect students to be able to discuss the issues below and support their opinion with specific textual reference:

• The significance of the street scenes taking place at night and significance of Venice
• The significance of Iago's use of language
• The significance of Iago's soliloquy
• The significance of characters defying their initial representation
• The significance of tragedy....What is Shakespeare's aim in ACT ONE?

Students also need to familiarise themselves with the whole of ACT TWO so read/watch/listen to the play.

YEAR 13 26th /29thSept..3rd/6th Oct 2017

These sessions continued the introduction to the first section of Charles Dickens' HARD TIMES. The class considered the question:
What are the key concerns being
explored by Dickens in the FIRST TEN CHAPTERS of HARD TIMES?

Class discussion has explored how Dickens shapes his contempt for the dehumanising nature of industrialisation and his attack on the Utilitarian approach to education. Focus has been placed on the symbolic significance of the Circus and how Dickens uses the Circus to represent the humanising power of the imagination. Students were asked to consider the questions:

• How does the relationship between Louisa and her father compare with the relationship between Sissy and her father?
• To what extent is the experience of the 'hands' of Coketown similar to the experience of the Gradgrind children?
• What kind of world does Dickens want to exist? Why does he present the world of Coketown as being so hellish?
• What is the symbolic purpose of Stephen Blackpool?
• How does Dickens use symbolism to shape meaning and what is the significance of the third person narrative sometimes being hijacked by Dickens and his own personal voice?

 A couple of students have asked for help with the structure of the essay so here is a structure that may be of help for the opening paragraphs:

• The first paragraph could explore how Dickens shapes his contempt for the Utilitarian education system through his presentation of Bitzer, Louisa and Tom. These three characters have all been emotionally abused by Gradgrind's belief in the system of 'FACT' and seem unhappy and, in Bitzer's case, dehumanised. Note how Bitzer 'bleeds white', Louisa has a 'jaded sullenness..a light with nothing to rest upon, a fire with nothing to burn...'Did your father love her?' Louisa asked the questions with a strong, wild, wandering interest peculiar to her; an interest gone astray like a banished creature, and hiding in solitary places...I have been tired a long time.' Louisa is a teenage girl yet seems tired of the world and is blind to the possibilities of being alive..'What does it matter!' Tom is bitter, angry, and resentful. ALL THREE characters are used by Dickens to suggest that the Utilitarian system, or at least Dickens' interpretation of this system, is destructive and harmful.

• These characters and their education is juxtaposed with Sleary's circus. Why is 'people mutht be amuthed' such a key line? This could be linked to Dickens invading the third person narrative with his own voice at the beginning of Chapter 10. Why is it that the circus community display such empathy? How does Sissy's relationship with her father compare with the experience of the Gradgrind children? Sissy and the circus are hugely symbolic. AUTHOR'S AIM? Students might want to consider why Dickens presents Childers, Kidderminster [or Cupid as he is known..significance?], and Sleary as being almost like characters from a children's fairy tale? Why are they such imaginative constucts?

I expect at least FOUR paragraphs and a conclusion..I expect the conclusion to provide an evaluative overview of the first section of the book with at least one quote from a critic to 'glue' your argument together. What kind of world does Dickens value? What is the nature of his protest? Why is he so angry? What kind of social change is he advocating? All these questions need to be considered within the conclusion. Digest the notes that I have provided.

The paragraph structure should be:
OPINION
TEXTUAL REFERENCE
EXPLAIN WHY THE TEXTUAL REFERENCE IS SIGNIFICANT
QUESTION FOCUS/AUTHOR'S AIM

HOMEWORK: Complete the essay. Our next session will consider the significance of the final chapters of the first section.

YEAR 12 27th Sept/ 2nd/4th Oct 2017

The class continued to wrestle with the FIRST ACT of Shakespeare's OTHEELO. Class discussion considered how Shakespeare presents the key characters of Iago, Othello and Desdemona. The role of Brabantio was also explored as this relativcely minor character is significant when allowing Shakespeare to represent the ideology that is present in the wealthy port of Venice. Class discussion was excellent throughout.
Students might like to consider the following questions when considering the significance of the opening act:

• How does Iago represent Othello before the audience meet the 'Moor'?
• What is you impression of Othello?
• Why is Brabantio so angry?
• Why does the Duke ignore Brabantio and greet Othello with the word 'Valiant'?
• To what extent does Desdemona conform to her father's representation of his daughter?
• Why is the location of Venice so imp[ortant?
• Why is Iago's soliloquy so significant?
• What are the key quotes in this opening act?...'I am not what I am'....

HOMEWORK: READ.WATCH. LISTEN to a version of the play. We will be discussing ACT TWO next week. When we meet on Monday we will begin to prepare for an OTHELLO essay. Here are some resources you should digest:
Branagh's Iago soliloquy... Act One Scene Three:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fItEfJhf0oc
The role of Iago..Lucian Msamati:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcCzk8aT8H8
Ewan McGregor discusses his Iago..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dF921GLl7g&t=87s
I quite like this comparison between Iago and the Joker..What do you think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D0Bgu1YKPI
Bob Hoskins  Iago's soliloquy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9-VolqfNPk 
Digest the resources available on previous Othello blog entries...
http://becuriouslit.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/year-12-25th-sept-17.html