Year 9 Story Writing

Need some help thinking through your story? Need help in finding some things to say about someone else's draft?

Go to http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/mainguides/entertain.htm for a pretty thorough guide. While pitched at a GCSE level, a lot of the hints and tips they give should prove useful!

Don't forget-- there's a story contest at writersworkshop@hotmail.co.uk for you to enter!

House Play Review Contest

A few guidelines:

You will need to choose one house play to review—it doesn’t have to be the play performed by your house. Choose a performance that interests you in some way.

We’re not interested in reading a plot summary—merely retelling the plot of play will not ‘cut it’!

Your opinions and perceptions should be front-and-centre. What did you enjoy/ not enjoy about the performance?

Criticism should be constructive—not vicious.

On the other hand, hagiographical writing (“Oooooo! Everything was simply spiffy!”) doesn’t make for a good review. Don’t be afraid to point out things that, from your point of view, didn’t work.

Make comments on a variety of aspects—acting, lighting, costumes/props, directing, etc.

Your review should be an enjoyable piece of writing—don’t drone on and on! (Appropriate) humour is always welcome.

Aim for about one side of A4 in length. Ensure your name, year/form, and house are clearly marked on all pieces you submit.

Hand it in by Friday, December 14th. Entries will not be accepted after that date.

If you need some additional inspiration, check out these websites. WARNING: some are for University-level writing, so they can be a little bit high-falutin’—but they can give you a range of things to think about!

http://www.ehow.com/how_172543_review-play.html

http://classes.midlandstech.edu/the101/THE101/how_to_write_a_play_review.htm

http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/PlayReview.html

Travel Writing Online -- Year 9

Hey kids!

The following is a list of links to the 'travel' sections of the major broadsheet newspapers:

The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel?CMP=KNC-GUtravel&HBX_PK&HBX_OU=50

The Times
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/

The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/index.jhtml;jsessionid=DKYVA0OH340KTQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0

The Independent
http://travel.independent.co.uk/

...and an online magazine!
http://www.travelmag.co.uk/

Look around these sites: take time to read several articles, especially (hint, hint!) ones that describe visits to major cities!

Mr H

Grammar Site Revisited

Since so many of you have indicated your unease with the analysis of grammar, can I recommend the following website to you:

http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/grammar/index.htm

This site is geared directly at English A-level students, with a focus on how to analyse grammar.

Warning: it’s very extensive (18+ sections), so printing off pages is pretty daunting!

There is, in addition, some online analysis activities for you to do at various points.

For L6 students, there’s an attached Adobe document—a “style guide”—that relates directly to EnB1 and EnB2 papers.Hope this helps!

Year 10 Media Coursework Resources

The following sites should help you to craft a review that scores highly!

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/

This is the website of Sight + Sound magazine-- your style model. Look through the archive at several film reviews to get a 'feel' of the house style.

http://www.imdb.com/Glossary/

This is a huge glossary of film terms-- the sort of references a film buff reading S+S might appreciate. Search it for half-remembered words and phrases, or to find la mot juste for describing a feature of your chosen film.

http://academic.sun.ac.za/forlang/bergman/tech/glossary/ebert_glos.htm

This is more tongue-in-cheek-- Roger Ebert is a long-standing film reviewer in the United States, and this site outlines some of his (rather cyncial) terms for film conventions.

http://ks.essortment.com/writingfilmrev_ralk.htm

A general guide for writing film reviews-- some advice for what aspects of the film to note when viewing, etc.

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/gramtv.html

A good visual guide to the technical language of shots, angles, camera movement, sound, etc. A must for Dennis the Menace fans!

Year 8F: punctuation websites

To help you with your 'Target' work:

http://www.correctpunctuation.co.uk/

http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node00.html

http://www.uefap.com/writing/punc/puncfram.htm

While some of these sites are American (the last one features some on-line exercises, if you follow the instructions!), they should be comprehensive enough to help you focus on the specific target I set you. There are also other websites available. Good luck!

A-Level English-- useful website

Hey y'all--

If you haven't yet picked up the "emagazine" on the racks in the library, you can access its contents online:

http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/engine/emag/base/emag_home_base.html

This is good for both Language and Literature, and has articles often 'keyed in' to the examinations themselves.

You'll need a username and password to access all the contents-- speak to me, and I'll make sure you have it!

Year Seven and Eight-- Writing book reviews

Here's a site that will take you through the process. It's a little simplistic, but that doesn't mean it isn't helpful:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/wrItewIt/bookrev/index.htm

This is all done online!

U6 Language Acquisition Web Resources Master List

Sorry for the delay in getting all this up... hopefully this will prove to be useful, giving you at least a couple of hours worth of good revision time.

I've 'uploaded' your websites directly on to this e-mail, so:

• There may be some repeats
• I can't formally take responsibility for the contents of all the websites
• some links have been copied from paper sources-- the odd character may be wrong, and the links not entirely successful!

Here we go!

http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Papers/Py104/pinker.langacq.html

A biiiiiiiiiiiig paper by Steven Pinker, with lots on the biological/evolutionary aspects of language development. This will take some time to read...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wug_Test

This is the wikipedia entry for Jean Berko's 'wugs' research from the 50's.

http://maxpages.com/thena/ladiscussion

Big site on various language acquisition theories. Just don't click on the daily prize pop-up.

http://www.feralchildren.com/en/critical.php

Site discussing so-called 'feral children' with reference to the 'critical period' theory.

http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/ling001.html

A little article on caregiver speech.

http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/language-acquisition-device-lad

A good article from an innatist perspective.

http://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock/hbook/kidslang.htm

An abstract with some relevance to how children learn to read.

Steven Pinker:

www.percepp.demon.co.uk/pinker.htm

www.en.wkikpedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pinker

http://library.thinkquest.org/C004367/la3.shtml

Brown:

http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Papers/PY104/pinker.langacq.html

Dore:

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/jeilms/vol14/pham.htm

Lenneberg:

http://en.wkwipedia.org/wiki/Second_Language

http://en.citisendium.org/wiki/Critical_Period_Hypothesis

Piaget:

www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm

http://chd.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/theorists/constructivism/Piaget.htm

Halliday:

http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/3.1/reviews/eiler/nostal.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Halliday

Piaget,Chomsky, and Vygotsky:

www.literacytrust.org.uk/talktoyourbaby/theories.html

Language Acqusition Overview (brief):

www.northallertoncoll.org.uk/english/elangacquisition.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition

Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILR_scale = Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale is a set of descriptions of abilities to communicate in a language

http://www.answers.com/topic/language-acquisition Scroll down to find a bit on . Language Acquisition.

http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/acquisition.htm

http://www.teachit.co.uk/attachments/6033.pdf - a great little test…even has the answers.

http://home.cogeco.ca/~monicafitz/stages.htm also does some other pages which are good…

How babies learn to talk: www.weetalk.net/learn.htm

Speaking parentese: www.talaris.org/spotlight_parentese.htm

How children learn to read: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/parents/work/primary/literacy/reading_learn.shtml

How children learn to read: www.readingrockets.org/articles/386

How children learn to write: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/parents/work/primary/literacy/writing_learn.shtml

Learning to write in schools:
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/parents/work/primary/literacy/writing_taught.shtml

Theorists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition

Best of luck on your exams!

Mr H

Phatic and Transactional speech

One semi-helpful definition would be:

What is the difference between transactional and interactional language? Brown and
Yule (1983: 1) suggest that, whereas transactional language expresses “content”, the
task in hand, interactional language has the function of “expressing social relations
and personal attitudes”. I take it that this very broad definition of interactional talk,
includes ritualised politeness, and other forms of attention to the face needs of others,
as well as more directly relational language such as small talk or gossip.

- taken from http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~pgc/archive/2002/proc02/hewlett02.pdf


You can also find definitions at http://www.teachit.co.uk/attachments/spoklng2.pdf-- as part of a handy-dandy definitions checklist!

Hope this helps!

U6 English Language-- Acquisition

An excellent Language Acquisition website--

http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/0415281032/links/language.asp

-- this links to a lot of obtuse university-level papers; but you can also use it to navigate through QCA and school-based sites, which will provide you with a lot of data, especially on children's writing. A good start for a couple of hour's Internet research!

I amaze my teaching friends!

This post was posted to verify the fact that all my fellow teachers are throughly impressed with me. Honest!

GCSE Mock Examinations-- Revision Sites

Hey y'all!

A few online resources to help you on your way:

http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/

Once you get past the cheesy lingo-- "this is the biz!"-- this is a pretty comprehensive website.

http://www.gcse.com/english/

I get the feeling that a lot of this site is advice for the "just-squeakin'-over-the-C-grade-borderline" brigade, but there might be something of use for you here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english/

You just can't beat a bit of BBC Bitesize-- though again, some of the advice is pretty basic. That said, there's lots of interactive features here, which can make for a refreshing change in your revision schedule.

Ther's plenty of other sites-- try typing the names of your texts into Google (UK sites only!) and you'll find plenty of school-based sites that offer extra help on all aspects of your GCSE English Language/ Literature.

Good luck on your mocks!

Punctuation Websites

If you need a general introduction, and some basic rules about punctuation, you can go to:
http://s170032534.websitehome.co.uk/punctuation.html-- it's a bit wordy, but covers all the basic stuff. The BBC also has a guide-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A597143, which does the same thing.

Another good 'all-round' guide is http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/.

Commas

For specific resources on comma use, try to the following:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/punctuation/commas/

This is the BBC 'skills' website-- it's quite interactive, and relatively straightforward to use.

http://www.ssdd.uce.ac.uk/learner/grammar/commas.htm

A bit 'wordy', but covers everything.

Punctuating Speech

http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7/Fanzines/punctuate.html

This one's got a few basic rules.

I'll post more sites if needed, but these should be enough to get you started!

U6 and L6 English Language—Grammar Site

Since so many of you have indicated your unease with the analysis of grammar, can I recommend the following website to you:

http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/grammar/index.htm

This site is geared directly at English A-level students, with a focus on how to analyse grammar. Warning: it’s very extensive (18+ sections), so printing off pages is pretty daunting! There is, in addition, some online analysis activities for you to do at various points.

For L6 students, there’s an attached Adobe document—a “style guide”—that relates directly to EnB1 and EnB2 papers.

Hope this helps!

L6 English Language

The Maxims of Werry

Christopher Werry (1996) did one of the first studies of chatrooms/IWD. A few of his findings:

-Chatrooms attempt to imitate speech: “…and almost manic tendency to produce auditory and visual effects in writing, a straining to make written words imitate speech.”

-Paralinguistic clues “create the effects of spoken delivery”

-Participants mix and match language to create a “bricolage of discursive fragments drawn from songs, TV characters and a variety of different social speech types”

Werry noted a tendency towards brevity and a minimal number of keyboard strokes. These produced the following effects:

-Short turns (avg. 6 words)
-Heavily abbreviated forms (leaving out letters, etc.)
-Words deleted (i.e., no “I” pronoun)
-Letter homophones (RU= Are you)
-‘key bindings’ of letter homophones, representing phrases (cyal8r)

‘Paralinguistic clues’ included:

-Reduplicated letters for emphasis (soooooooo slow)
-Suspension points and hyphens to break up conversation (And…)
-Capitalisation for emphasis (I AM VERY ANGRY)
-Colloquial and phonetic spelling (fx= effects)
-Actions/gestures can also be represented through ‘emoticons’

This is all taken from the text "The Language of ICT"—available from the library (I think).

Year 12 English Language-- Language and Technology

How To Analyse E-Texts

If you're presented with task involving e-mails, instant messaging/msn, texting, etc. here's a short list of things you can look for and comment upon:

Structure/Discourse

Does the text mimic or utilise any generic conventions of discourse—the letter, the telephone call, etc.—in whole or in part? Do the participants ‘mix and match’? In synchronous CMC especially, how do the conventions of spoken discourse affect the exchange? How do spoken and written features interact? Is the exchange phatic or transactional?

Language—Semantics/ Pragmatics

A general hypothesis is that Netspeak informalises language—is this true in your case? How does the lack of face-to-face discourse affect the user’s choice of vocabulary (i.e., avoiding multiple meanings)? Do the users attempt to clarify meaning? Are there comments or items that require deictic or exophoric reference to clarify their meanings?
Is there use of taboo language—or an attempt to create covert prestige?

Phonology—Prosodics and Paralinguistics

Do the users attempt to replicate prosodic and paralinguistic features—how?

Graphology

Do users manipulate graphics or text? Is there multi-modal communication? How has the user attempted to visually represent him/herself or their emotions?

Grammar/Orthography

Does the need for speed of communication affect (i.e., limit) the range of sentence types and/or functions? Does the text utilise standard English grammar-- or do variations reflect either haste or non-standard (i.e., slang) constructions? Does speed create 'typos', or do the participants utlise non-standard spellings for group cohesion or ironic effects?

Obviously, our old friends "How" and "Why" are absolutely necessary. Having asked a question, and spotted a feature, you must offer some sort of analysis to fully develop your ideas.

You can copy/print this post and bring it to your test on Friday!

Rhetoric Websites

Involved in debating? A great way to learn to speak more effectively is to learn about rhetoric-- the art of persuasive and engaging speech. The following websites are very handy:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com-- this one is brilliant, if you can deal with the exclusively American focus. Lots of speech clips for you to download, while you peruse the texts of the speeches. Plus lots of fancy-schmancy rhetorical terms you can use to impress your peers. Honest!

http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm-- lots of definitions, most derived from the original Greek sources.

These ones may also prove useful:

http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/rhetoricprintall.php

http://stevefournier01.tripod.com/

http://uk.dir.yahoo.com/Social_Science/Communications/Rhetoric/?sort=lf

Welcome to the Warehouse

Good Day, eh?

This is the first of many posts on this blog-- posts designed to make everyone's lives easier. Look for the relevant section of the website for links, additional resources, and stuff to help you in your studies.

On the other hand, I may lose interest, and this'll be all you find!