13th March

Today we filed and wrote down the grades that we got for our talks. Then we showed the class the posters of Shylocks speech that we did on tuesday and re-read his speech in the book. We then had to do questions on Shylock. At the end of the lesson Mr Sharpe showed us two different versions of the speech and the newer version of it was better.

SD =)

lesson on tuesday the 11th og march

today we watched shylocks speech about the how jews and christians are the same then we had to mget into groups and make a poster about the talk but without using words

Supermarkets - homework task

Hey "Other" second year class!


Welcome to Mr Sharpe's blog. This is where a lot of my teaching gets done, and homework gets set! I'd like to use this site to let you write for the world to see, so we'll be looking at different ways the internet can help me teach, and you learn.

For example, we've been reading "Johnny and the Dead" and we are setting up for our own town meeting, to discuss whether we should allow a supermarket to buy up a big park, playground and wooded area near our school.

Today, we looked at two different stories from the BBC about supermarkets, and we learnt about:

• "bias" (where people let their own opinions and feelings influence them)
• "impartial" (like a referee or a teacher, where things are treated equally)
• "balanced" (where both sides of the argument are given equal thought)
• "perspective" (a view taken by a person, such as a writer or someone at a town meeting) and finally...
• "discursive" (where topics are DISCUSSED in a balanced way)

Homework - due 19th March 2008

Look at this website - http://worldhaveyoursay.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/do-supermarkets-make-our-lives-better/ - and look at how important this issue is to people around the world!

1. Pick out two things from their comments that are in favour of supermarkets, and...
2. ...two things that suggest they are a bad thing.

MoV - The Pivotal Scene. Is Shylock a villain or a victim?

Hello all,





Lots of you missed the fun of today's lesson, where we looked at one of Shakespeare's most famous speeches, because of the music recital. The contents from the lesson will be posted by SD overnight as he is today's blogger.

Thursday's lesson will involve looking at this scene (III, i) more closely. This is because some people think it is the key to understanding Shylock's actions (which you are going to examine in an essay soon enough!)

First, look again at I iii ll 40 - 130, and remind yourself of the injustices Shylock has already suffered. If you didn't write these down during an earlier lesson, do so now.

Next, find and copy out the line in II, iv which shows that Shylock loves his daughter and would make great sacrifices for her. Hint - it's after line 30! Remember towards the end of II viii we learn Jessica has left Shylock, leaving him crying "My Daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter ... My ducats and my daughter!"

Now answer the following questions from III i:

1. How do you feel about Shylock's double loss - daughter and ducats? Copy out some of the lines which you think show his hurt, his rage, and his complete loneliness.
2. Which of his losses does he mention first? Which do you think causes him more pain?
3. Quote two further examples of his being insulted by Christians in this scene (hint- he says quite a few in his speech)
4. Quote the line where Shylock first mentions "revenge".
5. The main speech (ll 49 - 70) teaches us that we are all the same beneath our religions, that we are made from the same "flesh and blood". Do you agree with Shylock? Or is it more complex than that?
6. Shylock has been bullied, abused and now his daughter and his money is gone. To what extent do you feel sorry for him? Justify your answer with your own opinions

Reading, Writing, Reflecting

I'm sure that S3 will be won over by the sheer wonderfulness of the blog here. But until they do, there is just the three of us keeping this going for those who miss the class.

Today we looked at personal, reflective writing skills. These are vital because they make up a sizeable chunk of exam questions, they can be used in your folios this year and next, and when you are famous rock stars, footballers and beauty therapists you'll want to be able to write your autobiography.

The keen beens amongst you have signed up for the emailed weekly synopsis of the lessons. If not, just remember this:

• Emotions, emotions, emotions!


• Make it vivid, improve, improve, improve it


• A nice way to catch the readers attention is to include all 5 senses in the first paragraph, to describe feelings, but also to keep a sense of tension to encourage the reader to read on!

Next week you're going to be putting this into practice under exam conditions on Thursday. The question is Choose a time in your life when you have experienced conflict. Write about this, and remember to include your thoughts and feelings. You'll have an hour and ten minutes, but feel free to prepare as much or as little as you want to.

But as you sow, so shall you reap.

Also next week, we'll find out whether Millington is guilty or innocent in Conduct Unbecoming, we'll watch as much of the video as we can get through, and on Monday, we'll be doing a group talk graded task. More on that next week.

Finally, homework. Creative writing pieces are due on Thursday, 13th March - write a story in which one of the central characters experiences a conflict. However, none of the main characters can be a human.

BBC Wildlife Beast Research

Hey folks

This week you've learnt all about functional writing. This means writing that is to tell people about things - like newspaper reports, letters, or reports into beasts.

We've been reading "The Nature of the Beast", where we are starting to see some signs of a mysterious monster creeping around the mysterious town.

So you all pottered down to the library where research was done into gorillas, sloths, a variety of big cats, mermaids, the Loch Ness monster and even unicorns. I've even learnt the unicorn song and that they have a spot just above the heart where you can kill them!

More importantly, our learning outcomes have been:

• How to use books and websites to collect notes, not just copy and paste!


• Using numbered lists and bullet points in reports


• Using headings to sort similar facts together into paragraphs


• How to show where we get our information from - our sources

Finally we raced through the basics of doing a good talk, using the 50:50 rule

1. Good content - interesting start, loads of facts in a formal presentation, and a conclusion


2. Good presentation - look at the audience, nice and confident, loud and clear voice, and no fidgeting.

Good luck for the talks!

Intermediate 1

OK, so this week you guys started to realise how close those exams are - just 27 lessons left!! Although I'm sure some of you can't wait for it all to be over...

We've been reading "A Candle for the Birthday Boy" by Christopher Hawkins (http://www.christopher-hawkins.com/) and focussing on the structure, character, themes and setting.

The important thing about this is how the story follows the traditional short story structure by following the exposition/rising action/climax/resolution formula. Just like fun maths!

But there's all sorts of other things going on - the pinata is a great example of personification, and is also used as a red herring to deliberately mislead the reader into thinking poor old Danny has been chopped up and put inside, when, in reality, the twist in the tail is far more spectacular!

There's also good use of foreshadowing, with clues about the eventual outcome all the way through the story. The ominous outcome of the story is really signposted all the way through for readers who've been paying attention.

Finally, we spoke about how this is really a cautionary tale about fidelity and not cheating on the wife. That's why Nate is such an empty, plain character - it's because he is supposed to represent *man* in general. The setting is deliberately vague - it could be anyone's backyard!

We covered loads more, but for those of you who have missed classes this week (grrr) those are the basics that you'll need to know.

If you want to read more gruesome short horror stories, let me know and you can borrow the collection that this little gem came from