In fact, I am one of those sad people that likes looking at
schemes of work. I enjoy reading old – very old – text books. It is not for the
joy of finding a worksheet full of flared trousered teachers or teenagers with
hair that resembles candy floss. It is more about the joy of finding a
different approach or a novel way or idea of doing the same thing Plato did
teaching all those centuries ago, than finding a worksheet that will keep a
class quiet for five minutes. It is the oh-never-thought-of-doing-it-that-way
thing I like. Therefore, I am sharing this lesson. I could, if I wanted to, put
all my resources on TES, but I find it frustrating that the website, great as it
is, tends to collect resources rather than ideas. I don’t want an instant lesson;
I actually love planning. A ready-made resource doesn’t really appeal to me. I
want ideas. That’s why I blog. That’s why I read blogs. They help me plan. They
feed my inspiration.
Right, the lesson! Well, I am preparing students for the last
big push on the AQA Unit 1 exam. Psychologists would have a field day with me, because
I am starting to enjoy the exam and the teaching of it. Now, I haven’t gone all
‘Blue-Peter’ and overdosed on positivity; it is just that with all the model
answers I have written and all the time I have spent on it, I have gone all ‘Stockholm
Syndrome’. I have fallen in love with my captor. If you can’t beat them, join
them.
Anyway, this lesson was about question 2. The headline and
picture question.
Explain how effective the headline and picture are in the
article and how they link to the text.
Step 1:
I explained to students the problems in the last mock.
What were the problems in the last
mock exam?
* Not enough language analysis
* People didn't show they understood
the tone of the piece of writing* The picture's symbolise wasn't fully explored
*The links made were pretty poor
Step 2:
I then gave students a
sheet of headlines from a range of different sources. Rather than dive in for
the techniques employed, I asked students to identify the tone of the article
from the headline. Was the tone shocked, comical, disgusted or something else?
I caught TB from my
pet cat: Teenager tells how she was rushed to hospital with severe lung damage
The horrible word in the exam question is ‘effective’. As soon
as students see it they hone in on it. Everything becomes about things being
effective. But, it is something more subtle that is needed in the exam. Focusing
on the tone shows understanding of the text and an awareness of how the
headline is used. The headline doesn’t just make you want to read it, but also
hints at the emotional impact of the story. I am feeling sad. Oh, look there is
a story that sounds a bit funny, so I will read that. Oh, that other one looks
depressing. Better not read that.
As we did this, we noticed that the tone of the headline
might be more than one thing. Sometimes headlines started with a serious tone
and then changed to a comical tone.
Next, I got students to highlight the language devices
employed. While doing this, I reminded them to see if they could link the
technique to the tone.
Analyse the headline - look at the language
Think of...
*punctuation - any form of
punctuation
* sounds (harsh / soft /rhyme /
alliteration)
*Which word is the most dramatic
/ effective?
* Techniques (exaggeration/
emotive / puns)
* Facts / numbers / statistics
* First and last words
*Reason for the choice of words
Doctors snapped my
unborn baby’s arm in two … to save her life: Maternity ward drama as medics battled
to deliver baby so big she got trapped during birth
There’s so much to be said from the headlines in the exam,
but student opt for the most obvious ones, which means that they miss the subtle
or plainly obvious ones. Like some of these here:
·
Start and end feature something shocking
·
Writer tricks reader into thinking the doctors
are evil – they withhold the reason for the snapping for later
·
Ellipsis used for dramatic emphasis
·
Starts with an emphasis on action – snapped
(onomatopoeic word)
·
Alliteration of baby, big and birth
·
Doctor becomes medic
·
Battled has severe connotations
·
Two halves of the sentence have didn’t tones
Step 4:
Then we discussed how things could be linked to the text.
Mostly, things in the text prove, support or challenge ideas in the headline.
Link those together - writer - technique - reader
The writer uses a serious tone by using a fact( ********) in the headline so that reader is shocked by the amount of people that has died.
Link again....
The text reflects the shocking
nature of this by referring to the names of these people: '************'.
Step 5:
After making links, we then focused on the pictures. Now, I
have done quite a bit of work with the students, but at this stage I felt that
I need to go back to basics. I discussed
with students these set questions:
What does it show?
What does it hint at?
What does it symbolise?
Describe / Suggest / Symbolise
I found that teaching students to analyse pictures like this
helped them to step up their interpretations. They were able to build up ideas
in detail. Too often students neglect to say what is in the picture and its
relevance to the text. Again, when thinking of these things students had to think
about the tone of the text.
Link ideas to - writer - picture
-reader
The picture shows the boyfriend
smiling and the celebrity wearing animal fur which highlights the writer's
anger and the will provoke the reader to feel shocked that he might get away
with it, while the badgers are dead.
Link to the text:
This is supported when the text
says....
Step 6:
Finally, this is where things get scary. I printed off
headlines and pictures from the Daily Mail. (Sorry, to say this but the Daily
Mail website is brilliant for resources for this particular question.) I didn’t
print anything else off the article, just the headline and picture. Students then
proceeded to annotate the sheets and the analysis was great. Each student had a
different headline. They had to do all the above in 5 minutes and they did it effectively.
As a plenary, students read out two things about the
headline and two things about the picture. I modelled an approach to the question
and made students experience the thought processes needed for the exam.
Feed me, Seymour! Feed me now. I am off to read some more
textbooks from the 1970s.
Thanks for reading,
Xris32
I like how indepth you describe your process.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with your point about having a forum to share ideas, not resources or activities. Like you, I love planning and want to be inspired by an idea rather than find something simply to save me time.
ReplyDelete