RESOURCES TO DIGEST BEFORE Sept 2017...

DICKENS RELATED. Remember, I expect ALL students to have read Dickens' HARD TIMES.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9dB9BZWDBU&t=159s
BBC Documentary...Armando Iannucci looks at Dickens' life and work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lZB6E0-yCk&t=182s

The poetry of TONY HARRISON.
Simon Armitage interviews Harrison about his work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXV4v1oAeOA&t=139s
The Film of V..Channel Four broadcast..this caused a storm of controversy. This is Part One on You Tube...navigate through the other segments to access the whole film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPutBM7zfv8
Radio 4 documentary that explores the legacy of V:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW49WJ0F2HM&t=685s

We will be constructing coursework in the first term when we return to work so PLEASE think about which poet will be the focus of your work:
http://becuriouslit.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/year-1213poetry-resources.html

YEAR 12/13..POETRY RESOURCES...

These resources are designed to help you decide WHICH poet you will be studying for COURSEWORK.

BEN OKRI:
https://www.ft.com/content/39022f72-5742-11e7-80b6-9bfa4c1f83d2?mhq5j=e2
Performance of Okri's poem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC9Ni-IPnAc
Interview Channel Four News:
https://www.channel4.com/news/ben-okri-on-grenfell-tower-you-catch-the-fever-of-that-anger

KATIE TEMPEST at GLASTONBURY...watch the first ten minutes:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p056cf3l/glastonbury-2017-kate-tempest
Katie Tempest..Brand New Ancients...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLWlB3ib7ZM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NRYLzWovtk&t=43s

HOLLIE McNISH:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2z-Cd3luqA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSoP3jaMmeU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJX5XHnONTI&t=34s

READ 'FEED YOUR BRAIN'.

YEAR 13 MAY 15th 2017

Last week's lesson involved a response to the question:

IN HIS POETRY, HARRISON IS ALWAYS CRITICAL OF THE WAYS IN WHICH SOCIAL DIVISIONS ARE BOTH CONSTRUCTED AND MAINTAINED.
To what extent do you agree with this view?

Some people still owe me an essay. I want it asap.

Today's session considered SECTION C of the exam. The class discussion considered the 'REBELLION' question and we made some notes that may allow students to construct an introduction and a comparative paragraph. Here are some notes to accompany the OTHER question:

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL PROTEST WRITING SHOWS THAT, IF PEOPLE ARE TO EFFECT CHANGE, THEY NEED TO GROUP TOGETHER. Explore the significance of people joining together as it is presented in two political and social protest texts that you have studied.

• This question needs to begin with a brief introduction which serves to provide the examiner with an understanding of how you will approach this question. Obviously, with Harrison and Dickens political and social change is linked to the reader developing their own individual a sense of empathy and compassion in the hope that this level of individual awareness will be the catalyst for political and social change. Both authors are motivated by a didactic purpose to educate and inform. This could be linked to Orwell's comments that we discussed in today's session.
• The first argument could begin with an exploration of how Dickens illustrates the potential for the individual to change how they view the world. Gradgrind serves as a symbol for how it is possible for a powerful individual to realise that their life philosophy may be incorrect. Reference could be made to how Gradgrind initially views the purpose of education..REFERENCE TO BITZER AND HOW GRADGRIND IS UNABLE TO VIEW THE DEHUMANISING NATURE OF THE UTILITARIAN SYSTEM...BEFORE MOVING ONTO LOUISA/SISSY/BLACKPOOL illustrating the flaws in his ideology. Gradgrind moves from inflexible pedant to a compassionate politician who represents the 'people' and no longer views them as an 'abstraction'. Gradgrind's philosophical evolution is evidence that people DO NOT have to group together to effect change. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT STUDENTS REFER TO HOW THE SYMBOLIC NATURE OF GRADGRIND ALLOWS DICKENS TO SHAPE HIS FABLE. F.R.Leavis has described HARD TIMES as a 'perfect fable' and perhaps Gradgrind's ability to use his imagination to develop a greater sense empathy and compassion is one of Dickens most potent symbols.
• This could be linked to Harrison and the purpose of V. This is a poem that yearns for an end to the divisive nature of society and aims to represent working-class experience to a literary audience that may not be aware of the suffering and desensitising nature of unemployment. Reference could be made to the symbol of COAL that dominates the landscape of this poem and the idea that the potential of working-class youth to be useful members of a unified society is being squandered....like coal without a spark to release the energy beneath its surface. Harrison's V is a plea for the division to end. He wants society to be UNITED...he wants society to be entwined and unified like the notes of the beautiful classical music that provide him with such comfort when he returns home from Leeds. Similarly he wishes that the unity and connection that he feels with his wife can be experienced by the working-class culture he feels is being forgotten...'I KNOW WHAT UNITED THAT THE SKIN SPRAYED HAS TO MEAN..' Just as the Skin peppers the graveyard with words 'to shock the living'...SO DOES HARRISON! Perhaps Harrison represents the horrific nature of UNEMPLOYMENT in order to SHOCK an audience that is unfamiliar with this experience in the hope that they will sympathise and empathise with an experience that is rarely presented to a literary audience. Like Dickens, Harrison's am is to change the perception of the individual. These people are not 'SHIT', they are HUMAN...and they are suffering. The value of working-class experience could be linked to Harrison's use of iambic quatrain..a form used as a framework for some of the most canonical texts in English Literature. Working-class experience appears to be absent in literary culture and Harrison is using the form associated with the work of canonical poets to emphasise the relevance and value of working-class culture.
• The essay could then go on to discuss how Harrison attacks an EDUCATION system that perpetuates the idea of a cultural hierarchy with the aim, once more, of challenging the perception of an individual and link the UTILITARIAN PHILOSOPHY in HARD TIMES. Both are destructive in their different approaches to learning. Your task is to navigate through the argument and illustrate the difference between why Harrison attacks education and why Dickens attacks this inflexible approach to FACT based learning. Reference could also be made to Dickens' representation of the UNIONS. He is clearly criticising this form of people 'grouping together'..WHY is Slackbridge as grotesque as Bounderby? Both authors are offering an insight to the individual reader that may lead to the reader developing a philosophical sensibility that will encourage unity, equality and love...rather than division and hate. Both authors seem to encourage an individual revolution of the mind rather than a violent physical revolution similar to France in 1879!! They are not advocating violent uprising as a means of creating political and social change. Both authors suggest that a change in individual sensibility may inspire wider social and political change!

HOMEWORK: I expect students to provide an introduction and one comparative paragraph to ONE of the questions above. I expect the work to refer to at leat two critical comments. Orwell? G.B Shaw? Leavis? Macaulay? Check your notes. I expect this to be handed to me at the start of the next session. KEEP CHECKING EMAILS as I am going to send you some notes to help with this task.

YEAR 13 15th May 2017

Panorama BBC documentary: What Facebook knows about you. Link below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08qgbc3/panorama-what-facebook-knows-about-you
Link to article concerned with Dutch Musician Joep Beving:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/13/joep-beving-dutch-pianist-spotify-star-solipsism
Link to article concerned with poet Rupi Kaurs:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/13/poet-rupi-kaurs-milk-and-honey-sells-more-than-half-a-million-copies
NHS malware nightmare:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/14/cyber-attack-escalate-working-week-begins-experts-nhs-europol-warn
Channel Four News:
https://www.channel4.com/news/cyber-attack-could-intensify-on-monday-morning
Is this the most dangerous man in Britain?...Paul Dacre..editor of The Daily Mail..Observer article:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/14/is-paul-dacre-most-dangerous-man-in-britain-daily-mail

Here are some resources to help you synthesise some issues linked to the regulation of social media.
ALL students need to be able to construct an argument linked to the difficulty of regulating content on social media.

SOCIAL MEDIA REGULATION:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/collegeofjournalism/entries/81cc6ff0-6df2-35e9-a88c-dfe2dc8b31b9
DADDYo5:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39783670
Zuckerberg's apology:
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/17/why-facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerbergs-vulnerable-apology-makes-him-a-strong-leader.html
Pewdiepie Controversy:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/02/14/pewdiepie-disney-drops-youtube-star-anti-semitic-video-controversy/


What do we learn about the digital world through these resources?

YEAR 13..8th May..

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/painter-zehra-dogan-sentenced-to-jail-for-artwork-902015

http://www.insidealeppo.com

YEAR 13 Mon 24th April 17

Today's session explored the issues within TONY HARRISON'S..

• DIVISIONS
• WORKING
• MARKED WITH D

Class discussion considered the nature of the crude male working-class stereotype being offered to the reader in Divisions and WHY Working is such an important poem. Below are two versions of the famous folk song that represents the experience of PATIENCE KERSHAW.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YRqLwtZ20Q

This is a resource that offers a link to the testimony of PK:

http://www.nourishingobscurity.com/2010/11/the-testimony-of-patience-kershaw/

WORKING is such an important poem because it includes evidence of Harrison's doubt when considering the value of his poetry and concludes with a couplet that illustrates WHY he bothers to construct his work: 'the job's breaking the silence of the worked-out-gob.' This links to the belief that 'the tongueless man gets his land took' and illustrates the idea that Harrison is creating poetry that reflects working-class experience. He is presenting his culture to an audience that may not be familiar with the working-class experience. He is capturing the history, language, dignity, and struggle of working-class culture. He is providing a poetic voice for people denied a poetic or literary representation; very similar to Wordsworth in The Lyrical Ballads. This is the idea being expressed in the epitaph in V. He is providing a poetic voice for the voiceless.

This lesson also considered MARKED WITH D and the influence and inspiration that Harrison finds in the memory of his Father and the fact that he wishes to give a voice to 'the tongue that weighed like lead'. The idea of providing a poetic voice for a culture often denied a presence within literature is an idea that is central to Harrison's work. His work challenges the view of the teacher in THEM and [uz] when the teacher suggests that there is a cultural hierarchy and Harrison's cultural origins are inferior when compared with 'the Receivers'.

HOMEWORK: Some students need to send me an essay ASAP. READ Harrison's poetry and consider content within the context of the question that I gave you at the end of the session. This essay title will be our next written task. Thanks to Patrick and Harry who were superb in our session at the end of the school day. Great work. Keep it up.
I expect ALL students to be reading HARD TIMES and HARRISON in order to develop an informed and coherent understanding of content that will allow us to compare and contrast the ideas of Dickens and Harrison in the coming weeks. WHAT IS THE MOTIVATION OF EACH AUTHOR? WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THEIR PROTEST? WHAT IS THEIR AIM? WHO IS THEIR AUDIENCE?

YEAR 12 4th/7th April 2017

These two sessions considered Shakespeare's Othello. The Tuesday session included a 30 minute written response to a past paper and the Friday session considered the question:

WHY IS THIS MOMENT FROM THE TEXT [OTHELLO'S FINAL SPEECH IN ACT 5 ACENE 2] SO SIGNIFICANT AND HOW DOES THIS MOMENT ENHANCE THE TRAGIC NATURE OF THE PLAY?

• Consider the presentation of Othello.
• Consider the significance of the dramatic setting
• Consider other relevant aspects of dramatic tragedy.

Class discussion of the issues that could be considered when approaching this question was excellent. Obviously, student perception of Othello as a character and the tragic nature of the play will be informed by how this moment is perceived. THIS IS A KEY MOMENT. This question expects students to focus upon this textual moment but also broaden the response to consider aspects of the whole play.

HOMEWORK: We now have the TWO WEEK Pagan Festival so students need to complete this essay AND READ the texts. I expect ALL students to READ THE GREAT GATSBY and continue to WATCH/LISTEN to OTHELLO. This is a massively important period as the reading will provide the foundation for our final push toward the exam. Students will only be able to offer an informed and sophisticated response if they are familiar with the nuance of the text. Remember...OTHELLO is a closed book exam..GATSBY is open book.

You have been magnificent this term, and throughout the course, I appreciate your hard work, fierce intellect, and good humour.....NOW IT'S TIME TO READ LIKE BEASTS. Any issues, drop me an email. I am in school the WED/THU of the second week.

Tally ho.....and toodle pip....