Class Updates

Good work with the ultra-speedy update NB!

Just to be clear - crackers and cheese = a quotation sandwich! Use the POINT as first cracker, EVIDENCE and EXPLANATION as the delicious cheese, and the LINK back to show you are answering the question effective.

The carabiner (introduction) and string (ideas) are all about structure. Look at the 3 central points - a carabiner is a triangle. So think about 3 main things for an introduction - name the text, the author and the genre. Now see the screw-gate bit. To strengthen the lock, you give it 3 turns. To strengthen your intro, you do a 3 sentence summary of the text.

Now, you've got all your loose string, which represents your ideas. You use a looping sentence to join all your string to your carabiner, (or your introduction to your essay.) This is the bit where you outline what you are going to show, and how you are going to show it.

Finally, tie a knot in the string at the end. That's your conclusion. Tie off all the loose ends, and don't add in any new information.

Voila. Done.

Vegetable love

That petal of beauty still grows vastly
curved sides, along with those pin roots
Let those red rubies grasp the passion as it will come to an end
as in your last hour you will dwell over desires unforfilled
so sport us, thorough dreams
Let us devour in which dark streams froth
We shall transpire and unite as one
as you expose flesh to me it will be amoured by me lady, you deserve this state
as one day it will all decompose that cabbage will rot with desease and no more will lust be offered and suffer you will.

Carpe Diem Poems

I saw a deer the other day
It reminded me of you
I love deer
I love you

The Intermediate Two Rap

So let me tell you about Intermediate two

It's the bestest thing that anybody can do

There's spelling, analysis, punctuation and grammar

And if you don't pass this you could end up in the slammer

We learned new skills like textual analysis

And how every word counts, except for words like "as" and "this"

Brooklyn Cop - that's a poem that's sweet

About an ape with a nightstick who patrols all the streets

There's lots of exams, tests, NABs and trials

Where you have to work hard or Mr Sharpe'll get viol...

...ent because he wants you to pass and to get a good grade

Or the boys'll get neutered and the girls'll be spayed

Over summer you'll be reading for your personal study

That book'll soon become your bestest buddy

It can be about a story, a poem or a play

And then write it all out in a double one day

The course ends in May with two exams

So you'd better be doing all that revision we planned

Two critical essays and a close reading passage

The back home for chicken soup and a relaxing massage.

Yeah, boyee.

S5 - Your first Textual Analysis

Hi Everyone and welcome to MrSharpeTheTeacher. If you promise to keep coming back, I promise to keep running this as a useful resource for you to become excellent!

Look at the picture I've embedded here - what do you see? Do you see an old woman, or a beautiful young lady?

The truth is, both are there. This is an optical illusion, and if you look hard enough, suddenly you can clearly see one, then the other.

So here's my point: the answers are always there on the page - you just need to look. Sometimes you need to squint a bit, sometimes change your point of view slightly. And there's no wrong answer, just a range of right ones with varying levels of justification.

If you are still with me, well done. If not, we'll try something else!

Test Answers

You had a wee shot at a textual analysis piece on Thursday. Hopefully you were instructed to come to this blog for the answers, which are below.

Don't cheat. I don't mind if you get them all wrong, or all right. No one wins, no one gets eaten by a lion. What is important here is that we (you and I) work out what skills you already have, and what needs work.

1 a) his wife had an accident (1 mark)
b) the gatekeeper (1)
c) what has happened to her (1)

2 a) water (1)
b) "torrent", "bobbed" (1 for each)
c) reference to "a tap had been turned on inside her" and "a gush of words" (1 for each)

3 a) women - some kind of gloss on "heavy flesh trembling on cheeks and chin" + quote. Son - gloss on "gaunt, high cheekboned face" + quote (3)

4 It contradicts itself (oxymoron) (2)

5 a) vain, glamorous, conscious of her appearance (1), outgoing, sociable, independent (1) - any of the above ideas for one mark each, total of 2)
b) disapproves "any decent woman" or "i told her it wasn't right" or "a judgement" (1)
6 a) they live with her (1)
b) tries to follow her son when he goes to see Sylvia (2)

7 a) there is a large age-gap (15 years) (1)
b) "words had never come easily to him" or "inarticulateness" or "wordless misunderstanding" (1 for any one)

8 a) (the horror of) what has happened to Jock's wife (1)

9 a) reference to "this'll cure her vanity" (1)
b) variety (1)

10a) "like a woman's hair" (1)
b) story is about the accident involving Sylvia's hair (1)

11 anything along the lines of how much he loves her (1)

12 reference to the domination of the mother, Sylvia's striving for glamour and/or independence and Jack appearing to be caught in the middle. (2)

Well done for getting this far! Total marks are out of 30.

"A Candle for the Birthday Boy" - Christopher Hawkins

OK, so this week we spent some time on this text. It's not to everyone's taste but it does the important job of being a short prose piece, and it plugs an important gap in preparation for the exam: readiness to be able to write on the structure of a text.

The question you were asked was about the ending of the book, and why it was good. As previously, below are my thoughts about how I would answer it. The important thing to note is that, for a question about endings, you need to show how the action creates this ending, and how it is a suitable way to finish the text.

You are all experts on writing introductions now, so I'm just going into the main points. This is what I would do for this question:

• "The kid was turning six, and he was missing the whole thing" - I'd establish that this is the opening line to the story, and it sets up the plot. The story becomes about a missing boy - where is he?
• Next, I'd go on to establish the threatening presence (or actually absence) of Tabby: "One who scared him sometimes with the feral look that seemed to come over her like a storm" with analysis of key words - "feral" meaning wild, and the simile "like a storm" which effectively create an impression that she is dangerous and unpredictable
• Next, I'd use the line "And, of course, there was the pinata" which stands out as a paragraph on its own. It focuses the reader on the pinata. It catches our interest. It is "big and garish, an eyesore in the shape of a bloated sheep" which starts to suggest a menacing mood, with connotations of sickness, disease and even death. However, I'd also explain that the pinata is used as a red herring, to deliberately mislead the reader.
• Next I'd show how the suspense is built by the continued mystery of the pinata. It is held in place by a rope tied "like a noose" (which has futher connotations of death, and possibly even execution, because Tabby is getting her vengeance on Nate) and I'd use a quote to show how Nate is worrying about the contents as the plot builds towards it's climax: "But if it was just paper, why didn't it move with the wind? If there was only candy inside, why did it need such a thick piece of rope to hold it in the air?"
• I'd go on to show the dramatic climax of the story - when the pinata is broken to reveal "its contents in a slush upon the ground" but that it is just pig entrails and a pig's head, and Danny is revealed to be safe.
• Finally, I'd show the resolution of the story - the surprise twist in the tail. The punch is poisoned: "But it was too late. The cup was almost empty, and all around him, children were starting to fall." I can now refer back to the pinata as a red herring, when in fact all the clues, about "dead flies" and Tabby, who had "filled the punch bowl and covered it with plastic wrap to keep out the bugs"

So that is how I would have answered this question. The key fact is that the tension mounts all the way through the story, the mystery of what is hidden inside the "grinning" pinata is revealed in the climax to be a red herring, and the the ending is appropriate / effective / good / surprising because in the final resolution, Tabby manages to get her revenge in the most surprising way.

Ten days people. Tick tock. Tick tock. Close reading this week. See you Tuesday,

Intermediate 1 Easter Revision Session

Hi Everybody (Hi Dr Nick...)

Just reminding you all that the Int 1 revision session will be going ahead on Friday, 4th April - that's this Friday - from 9am until 12 noon. When you arrive, wait in the school reception and I'll collect you from there as I've not decided what room we will be in yet.

We'll be covering a range of work from basic revision of the texts, to practicing specific skills, and ending by preparing for Close Reading.

I'm assuming you have all done at least some revision over Easter so there will be no going over the basic stuff - you need to know text names, authors, characters and plot for each of the texts we are going over!

See you Friday, Hudson will be with me, but in the car. You are welcome to join us for a walk around the school before and after the session!

Mr Sharpe

Instructions for S5 - 17 March 2998

Mr Sharpe is ill today and posting instructions from his death bed.

On Friday we played Language Technique Bingo, and then you guys all designed your own revision game working in pairs.

Please continue to develop these games for playing either later this week or after Easter, depending on how much other work we get through this week.

The teams who made a start can find their cards, boards etc with the box of English stuff in the Maths room. Materials are available from the English base.

Alternatively, you can either revise one of the texts (Stone Cold/Candle for the Birthday Boy for prose, Playing Sandwiches for drama, and Hotel Room/Brooklyn Cop for poetry) in preparation for your final exam which is but weeks away now.

Don't waste time, you can mess around when the exams are over. You know who you are.

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

S5 - "No Holds Barred fighting is too violent and should be banned"

Hey folks,

Monday's lesson focussed on poaching ideas from the handouts provided, and also included work on organising, structuring and linking ideas with connectives, such as "another viewpoint is..." or "in addition, futher evidence is provided by...". This will help your arguments flow together.

You are now independently writing outside of school hours, and successfully negotiated (see - I told you persuasion is the most important skill from English!) an extention to the homework deadline.

I'll now be collecting and grading your pieces on Monday, 3rd March. It's a NAB, so it will be a pass/fail grade only.

Good luck!

S5 - Intermediate 1 & 2 - Exam Skills

Don't worry folks, I've not forgotten about you either!

Close reading help is at hand, with the first two presentations on Close Reading skills downloadable below.

Click me