The final throes of Spoken Language

Hello Y10

We will now sit the CA next week due to absence and people not feeling quite prepared.

After reading your paragraphs, I think that what we’re missing is thorough analysis of debate. We may want to think about structuring this in a different way. We could have a paragraph about how you use and adapt language, then some analysis of spoken language data and then analysis of debates around multi-modal communication. You don’t have to do it this way, but it would ensure you cover all the AOs. Remember, this is only an 800-1000 word essay.

It'll be like this:

Brief intro – a little over view of the debates around digital communication

1 – How you use and adapt language to different contexts. You speak differently to me than you do your mum, and your mum differently than your friends. Add in a little data to show evidence of this.

2 – Analyse some of the data you have. How does it replicate face to face communication? Why does it do this? This is a full analysis of your data (transcripts). You have had a thinking square to help you do this.

3 – Analyse the debates around digital communication. Have two opposing debates. What do you think about them? You have had a thinking square to help you do this.

Conc – round it up with your opinion. Is it that language changes all the time and digital technology has increased the speed of the change? Do you think that such quick changes will damage language? 

Here are the articles from the lesson:

Article 1 - texting. 

Article 2 - attention span

The best analysis came from those that used the thinking squares really well. Use them to analyse debate and how you use and adapt language. These would be good for planning too.  Three thinking squares could be a really good plan!

Success Criteria for your essay

Skilled is 

• Confident explanation and analysis of how they and others use and adapt spoken language for specific purposes (this also comes out in your analysis)
• confident analysis and reflection on features found in some spoken language data
• confident analysis of some issues arising from public attitudes to spoken language varieties.

Excellent is...

• Sophisticated, perceptive analysis and evaluation of aspects of how they and others use and adapt spoken language for specific purposes
• Impressive’ sustained and sophisticated interpretations of key features found in spoken language data
• Sophisticated analysis and evaluation of key issues arising from public attitudes to spoken language varieties

 Homework: 

Research Accommodation Theory. This is good for how people use and adapt language. What are the main points?

Here is the thinking square we used in Friday's lesson:

Thinking square debate from Cherwelllearning

As ever, let me know if you need anything.
Ms 

Spoken Language the plan so far

Dear all
I thought it would be wise to share the plan as well as today's lesson.
Do what you are told on the final slide.
On Monday 8th of July, you'll plan and peer assess your work. I'll also be there to answer any questions etc.
Thursday 11th July you'll sit your CA and you will complete it on Monday 15th.
If you've not finished it here,  it'd be less complicated if you come after school so you can get it out the way. I have other plans for our final Monday lesson. I also think that you should easily complete this in two hours though and will not need to come after school: it's an 800-1000 word essay.
Please share any good articles in the comments box. Or, if any of this does not make sense to you, leave a comment and I will get back to you.
MS

8 your own response for blog from Cherwelllearning

Lessons 6 and 7 for blog from Cherwelllearning

Some final points on our texts

Hi Y10

Right, a few things in this post then.  Some general advice, comparative points, a little bit on tragedy and an example.

The most common errors:

Be specific about the emotion (love and hate are both emotions).

Err. Hello? Mary Shelley... Shakespeare. If you write about the characters, you write as if they are real and this limits your analysis. Author's names should be littered throughout your essay.

Upgrade your topic sentences.

Focus on the quotation. (Groan!) Pick and word out and analyse it.  (10% of your GCSE is this alone.)

Link your context to the quotation precisely.

Don’t say very. It’s the ‘nice’ of analysis.

Romantics. Romanticism. Capital letter please (otherwise, you’re talking more red roses and candlight!)

Sweeping statements. Much better to say: I could be seen. This suggests. This connotes.

If one more person writes constantly, I might just give it all up...

Comparative elements

•       Pathetic Fallacy

•       Settings

•       The Gothic

•       Voices – Soliloquy and Narrative voice

•       Imagery

•       Tragic structure

•       Recurring Motifs

•       Religious beliefs/Christianity/ Biblical language/Paradise Lost

•       Hallucinations

•       Character physical reactions and manifestations of fear

•       Supernatural

•       Consequences of actions

•       ‘Vaulting ambition’

•       Rhetoric ( Rhetorical questions, balanced phrases that becomes fragmented)

•       Natural world/ order

•       Babies, innocence , new born, corrupted by man

Tragedy

A tragedy is a drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavourable circumstances (from dictionary.com). You can see how we can apply this to our texts.

A classic tragedy (Aristotle’s Poetics) has a number of common features.

Firstly, you have a hero. Their status is established as high (been better to see higher status fall from Ancient Greece to Closer magazine...) Don’t get confused with hero – it doesn’t mean good. This character has hubris; essentially, they are arrogant. They also have a fatal flaw that leads to their downfall; this is called hamartia. They realise this flaw has caused great suffering, anagnorisis, but it’s too late as death is inevitable. Often this is the turning point, peripetia, that leads the play to its tragic denouement, but not always so. Through this, pity and fear are provoked in the audience until we come to the catharsis where we are purified by the play that we have seen. We leave better people!

There are some other points, like the three unities and a cart to wheel dead bodies off, but this is the basic structure. A (usually noble) hero is arrogant and has some flaw that makes them do something awful. This causes their downfall and they realise this too late and die probably with other people.

You should be able to see how you can relate this to the texts. Is Frankenstein a tragic novel? It’s a good point of comparison, but very much an extension and not something you need to worry about.

Example paragraph.

Shakespeare uses classical references to show the intensity of Macbeth’s remorse and this illustrates his desire to be King as damaging from the start. As soon as Macbeth has murdered Duncan, Shakespeare shows his language is regretful: ‘Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?’ The immediacy of Macbeth’s guilt and regret is made apparent with a direct link to the metaphor of having blood on your hands. This metaphor is repeated throughout the play as Lady Macbeth sees an immovable ‘spot’ on her hand and, when Macbeth’s downfall  is imminent later in the play, McDuff says that ‘[Macbeth’s] secret murders [are]sticking on his hands’. Here, Shakespeare shows the tragic outcome as inevitable because Macbeth will not be able to wash his hands clean and he seems to know that this will end in his own death. Furthermore, the classical reference to ‘Neptune’ conveys a sense of prayer to the language and the rhetorical question accentuates the intensity of his fear.  It also gives a hyperbolic exclamation of Macbeth’s remorse as the water will literally be able to wash his hands. As Neptune is the God of the sea, known to the Jacobean audience, not the Christian god the audience would have also viewed this with suspicion as it was an intensely religious time; Shakespeare uses this reference to show how Macbeth has also gone against the Christian god by going against the Divine Right of Kings and this places him alongside the evil witches. His appeal to ‘Neptune’ shows how far ‘Brave Macbeth’ has fallen; Shakespeare shows how this outrageous sin will ‘stick’ as such a blasphemous act can only result in a gruesome demise and the character dramatically shows confusion and horror at this prospect.

As ever, let me know if you need anything.

Ms

Homework

Sorry Y10 - I know a few of you have looked at this this morning.


We are now at the stage where we are comparing our texts.

During this task we have had a focus on analysing language - that's because you get more marks for it! We've done this through mind-mapping, which is an incredibly useful revision tool. These should look something like this (please note, some of the sentences aren't quite right - it's hard to see in a small box in PowerPoint!)


These mind-maps are now essential for your thoughts on comparison.

So, your homework is to write a paragraph of comparison. This is your first one so it will be hard. You have to get things wrong to get them right!

Let me know if you have any problems/ questions.
Ms 

Links for Learning

I'll add to this later...
Is this a Dagger Analysis
Biblical references in Macbeth

Holiday Homework

Happy Easter Y10!

This holiday your homework is to fully annotate your booklet.You're looking for emotion and make sure it is detailed showing layers of meaning.  If you do not have it, THE CONTROLLED ASSESSMENT BOOKLET IS AVAILABLE: CLICK HERE.

I'm not expecting you to be able to translate this on your own. Use the wealth of information on the web - you'll have to be able to do this for independent study; in short, this search itself is a useful learning experience for you. See previous post for links.

Should be simple enough! Let me know if you have any problems: you can leave a comment and it will email me.

Ms :)

Macbeth

Hi Y10

This week, we have moved on to Macbeth. Use this link if you want to read ahead.

Your formative work will not be marked until after next week - I have Y11 and Y13 and they must take priority as you will this time next year...

Let me know if you need anything,
Ms