Friday 14 March Lesson

In Fridays lesson The groups we did our poster in went out to the front and each explained there poster from Shylocks famous speech. We did some media studies. We answered a question sheet called media and moods on the Merchant of Venice. We learnt how Shylocks demeanour changed when he heard about Antoio's bad luck. The director built the tension in the scene where Bassanio chooses which box to pick by making everything slow.

After we watched an episode of the simpsons.

MD ;)

Tuesday 6th & 7th

Today we read for 10 mins at the start of the lesson then we began our talks Mr Sharpe put all the names into a bag and picked one out one by one and whoevers name was picked out did there talk . Thanks MD

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.

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