A novel approach

I was a little bit excited when the new GCSEs were being compiled by the different exam boards. There was a big sell. I recall being at one event where I had representatives from different exam boards telling me about how their course is the right one for me. There was the odd difference, but the main selling points were focused on support and resources. This exam board offered exam papers. This exam board offered online materials. This exam board offered KS3 assessments. I admit I was persuaded by the last one. Ooo. It suggested to me some thorough planning and thought. The sad reality is I got watered down GCSE papers. Should KS3 just be watered down GCSE work? Should we be getting Year 7s to start with the English GCSE papers? After all, five year’s practice will help.

I should imagine the summer will create a big thinking point for teachers, and leaders, to look at how the each year prepares students. The GCSEs are not the only measure for developing a curriculum, but they are unfortunately a measuring stick to judge whether your curriculum is robust, challenging and effective enough. That’s why I think just repeating the assessments in Years 7,8 and 9 will not make improvements. We need some big ideas behind the curriculum. Now, I could become obsessed with the assessment objectives, yawn, and bring them down to Year 7. Come on class. Repeat after me: Assessment Objective One is to… Or, I could get students to read ‘A Christmas Carol annually. Come on Year 7, this is the book you will be studying for your GCSEs; we are going to study it every year until you have fully understood it.

In my school, we have units of work each year covering Shakespeare and Victorian Literature.

Shakespeare goes roughly like this:

Year 7 – Look at the context of Shakespeare’s theatre and the opening scenes of various plays 

Year 8 – Look at Macbeth and the structure of a scene

Year 9 – Look at Much Ado About Nothing / Tempest / Julius Caesar and explore a theme across the whole play

Year 10 – Look at Romeo and Juliet and study every scene in detail 

Year 11 – Revise Romeo and Juliet

We are building up knowledge and experience and confidence with handling of texts. We match this with Victorian Literature over the years to include several different characters from various Dickens novels, Jane Eyre and Great Expectations. Therefore, by the time students start GCSE they have covered Victorian attitudes towards childhood, education, class and poverty.

But, how do we plan for the language GCSEs? That’s a thought that is echoing and echoing in my head. How do we teach and prepare students for this new GCSE? The simple answer: get them to read lots and lots of fiction and non-fiction. But, surely, repeating the same questions again and again isn’t really developing students. Plus, it will make our curriculums dull and repetitive. That’s why this year I tried a different approach with teaching a novel.

This year, with my Year 7s, I am teaching ‘Treasure Island’. I am blooming loving it too. The last sentence of every chapter is a treat. Anyway, I decided to look at the big things:

 

Occasionally, I get this slide on and get students to explore the relationship between the two. And, we discuss and measure what we think….I think the chapter is mostly about the character. Nah, I think it is about the setting.

And, then, I raise the simple question: Why should the writer focus on this here?

The combination of the two aspects has produced some excellent discussions about the structuring of the story. It has made a group of Year 7s explore some clever structuring of the novel and created some interesting interpretations. They have been able to distinguish between chapters focusing on character and chapters on plot - and some that do both.  

We’ve had discussions on how the opening few chapters are mainly focused on mood and setting. Then, Stevenson introduces a series of chapters focusing on character. One character after another. We discussed how Stevenson presents us with a line-up of rogues, so when Long John Silver is introduced we are glad for somebody pleasant, friendly and not dull to enter Jim’s life. We also made interesting points about how setting is a massive component of the opening, yet the actual ‘Treasure Island’ is thrust to the side in favour of plot. Stevenson focuses so much on atmosphere in the opening chapters, but we get brief and glib descriptions in the middle of the book.

From this approach, I am starting think that we may need to look explicitly at how these elements interact. All too often we separate these elements of texts as separate components. We might zoom in on character. Or, we might focus on ideas or themes. We usually try to link these components at the end. So, how does the writer present the theme of deception? Surely, we need to have these components interacting continually. They are so reliant on each other.

What a writer is doing with setting, character, plot, mood and ideas at any one moment is important? The fact that one is more dominant than another at a specific moment is telling. However, students can’t see that unless we are discuss all at the same time. All too often, we helicopter from one aspect to another. Look at how Steinbeck uses character and setting in ‘Of Mice and Men’. Look at how Steinbeck uses character and ideas. Look at how Steinbeck uses all the components. All at the same time.

So rather than giving Year 7s watered down GCSE exam papers, we should give them GCSE thinking and ideas.

Teach the different types of characters and ways writers present characters.

Teach the way writers use settings for effect.

Teach the way writers create mood in a chapter.

Teach the different ways writers can develop the plot of a story.

Teach the way writers present events.

Teach the different ways writers present an idea.

But, while we are teaching these aspects, we should link them together. The writer has just introduced this character to us, but how does the character link to the setting? Does the character fit in or stand out with this setting? Is the setting important to the character? Will the character change the setting? Is the character affected by the setting? Why should the writer pick that setting?

The following GCSE questions should not be used to death.

How has the writer used language…?

How is the text structured for interest?

How far do you agree…. ?

Lesson 1 in Year 7 shouldn’t be about preparing for GCSEs. We should be focusing on the big ideas and not the small questions. The question might have a massive impact on lots of things in school, but we are simply narrowing the breadth of study if from Year 7 onwards we repeat the exam questions with different extracts from texts.

We have followed a fairly logical curriculum with prose study.

Year 7 - character

Year 8 -  setting

Year 9 -  themes  

Now, I am looking at what aspects I should interweave and explicitly teach over the different years. Teach explicitly aspects of character each year, developing the complexity as we go along. I am possibly looking at something like this:

Year 7 – Types of character / stock characters

Year 8 – Role of characters in narrative / minor or major characters / foils / symbolism   

Year 9 –Realism / development / character arcs / character journey

This is just my first thoughts, but I am sure I will change and reflect as things develop. At the same time, I will look at setting, plot, events, etc.   

I love a good story and English is the best subject for that: we create story tellers and consumers. We should be growing those lovers of story. Those little GCSE questions have the power to warp a big and vast curriculum. Think about your planning for next year. Think about the big ideas behind those questions and ignore those small questions. Teach character or setting and teach all aspects of it. We limit ourselves if we are driven by the question and the exam. How many times have students started an A-level course underprepared because the GCSE focus was so narrow? 

Thanks for reading,

Xris

Comparing poetry

It is snow joke. As I have been stuck in a house for three day, I have been able to do another short blog. This time it is about comparing poetry.

One of the things that drives me mad is the exam board’s insistence of comparing poems in an exam. I hate it with a passion. I don’t think the experience of comparing poems is a bad. In fact, I love doing it. The problem is the assessed element. Get students to analyse texts well and leave the comparative analysis for A-level. I don’t think there is a student that will look back on my teaching of them and go, ‘ere by gum, that Mr C he changed the way I see the world with his making us compare poems.’ It is frustrating that in a lot of English Literature exams students have to compare X number of poems with poem Y and explore how Z is used. If we are honest, most of the time is spent teaching the poems, and then we work on the comparative element. The poems become bundles of knowledge to learn and the teacher slowly ticks off the poems one by one, worried that they will not get through the poems in time. That is me at the moment.

To be honest, I like the ‘unseen poetry’ element of the exam paper. It is a surprise and a challenge. I think it gets students thinking, whereas the ‘comparing poem’ gets them struggling to recall what the teacher told them about the poem. 

Therefore, I thought as I am in the mad poetry rush that is preparing for the exams, I would share with you one of the things I do with poems and comparing. It always seems to work and it helps to cover two poems in detail in one lesson. Oh, and I think Ofsted will like it as it is the students learning for themselves. Along the way, I have also shared a few other things I do.

Starter Stickers

As student arrive in the room, give them a sticker with one line from two different poems. Students sit down and start comparing the poems.

Harry Hill

For example:

I like 'Flags' and I like 'Falling Leaves', but which one is better? There is only one way to find out .... FIGHT!

 

Students start the lesson by arguing which poem is best. On the board, I list the differences.

Both / However

I teach that students should start there comparison with ‘Both’ and ‘However’

Both 'The Flag' and 'Falling Leaves' are poems that explore death caused by war. However, 'The Flag' shows us how war can be avoided and 'Falling Leaves' shows us how death in war cannot be avoided like the natural cycles of the seasons.

At the start or end of a lesson, students complete a small sheet with the words ‘both’ and ‘however’.

Mini- essays

Rather than write one big essay, give students lots of different paragraphs to write, but with each one having a different focus.

Compare how At the Border and Mametz Wood use imagery to get their messages across.

Write a paragraph explaining what the poem’s messages are.

• ‘At the Border’  is … Whereas…
• Two quotes
• An explanation of the messages
• Perhaps … Maybe… Might … May
• A link to a technique

 

A little bit revealing

This is by far one of my favourite things I do when comparing poems.  I have done it with ‘Poppies’ and ‘Hawk Roosting’ from the Conflict AQA anthology. Throughout the whole process they are comparing the poems.  

 

Step 1: Reveal the names of the two poets. It helps if one is a female. Students then hypothesise as to how the poet might view conflict.

Step 2: Reveal the title.  Students compare the title. What is similar? What is different?

They might say how both poems are about nature. Or, they might say how one thing moves while the other doesn’t.

Step 3: Reveal the opening stanza. Photocopy them so students can annotate them.

Step 4,5,6,7 and 8: Reveal each stanza and compare each one together.

The Last Step: Students then look over everything they have discussed and select the best points.

I find this very effective in getting students to explore poems. In fact, during the process I become a bit of a note taker – write down their ideas on the board and listen.   It is quite simple to set up, but it can be quite effective. This year I am going to mix up the poems I am comparing.  

Comparing texts is important for students to see the choices writers make and to identify the style of writing. After all, I know I am very short by comparing myself to other men.

Thanks for reading,

Xris32 

Adventures in story-telling : Creative Writing

At the moment, I am preparing my Year 11s for some creative writing. Surprisingly, I am pretty bad at making stories.  I am not that bad, I think, at telling them, but it is the creating and making them that I struggle with. I read, devour, absorb, digest (thankfully, I don’t defecate them – painful, but could be profitable) books and stories, yet I struggle to invent my own stories. This sadly affected my teaching of creative writing. “How do I begin?” says a student. I would often think to myself, “Yeah, how do you begin to write a story?” My colleagues, at the time, would often waltz into the staffroom and squeal with delight at how their class had written some wonderful, poignant, effective stories from his or her ‘crazy idea’.  I would stare back and start looking for my T.A. to help me as I was ‘well stuck’.

Now a few years later and my house is menagerie of storytelling. As I have a young family, stories are my life. I read a bedtime story each night. I watch as my daughters act out imagery stories to each other. I tell stories in the day to entertain them.  I put on puppet shows with finger puppets and they copy – I am a drama student at heart.  We even have stories that form parts of routine.  I even get my daughters to quote from stories. They sometimes quote Oscar Wilde or Charles Dickens during the day. A handbag! Please, sir, can I have some more? Start them young, I say.

Now, the girls are starting to read. I am enjoying things even more as they love listening to me read a book without pictures. At the moment the current favourite is ‘The Enchanted Wood’ – why that hasn’t been made into a film is a complete surprise to me. By having children, I was able to find my ‘storytelling’ gene. I saw how they created stories, how they found inspiration and how they had fun with it all.  Anyway, I had the opportunity to test out some creative writing things with some Year 9s last year, and boy did I experiment. I taught a different group every two weeks and during that time I experimented, trialled and practised a number of different things. This blog is just simply me telling you some of the things I did. Warning: some work with some classes and some don’t.

Post-its on a fridge

A student recommended this idea to me. They had read a book that was about a conversation taking place through notes on a fridge.

I gave groups of students six green post-its  and six yellow post-its. On them, they had to tell a story through notes on a fridge. Each post-it was a different note. Each colour represented a different person. They then stuck their notes to a ‘fridge’ or a sheet of A3 paper. It created some interesting stories about a kidnapped child and a divorce. Later we played around with the order of notes to make the narrative even more effective. Very easy and simple way of generating a story and exploring the way dual narratives work.

Plus, it is a great starter or inspiration for another lesson. The finished stories have been laminated and I have been used to springboard other stories.    

Connections
This is inspired by a book I read once. At the start of the book, the writer wrote a list of supposedly unrelated characters. The rest of the novel saw how these totally opposite characters linked together.

Martin Davies, retired teacher, 67, Spain

Gethin Williams, student, 18, Bangor

Mavis Grant, company director, 42, Australia

There’s a story there, but you have to dig deep and think about it. I find this helps to avoid the simplistic story telling that favours action over character development. How do these characters link together? Usually, it will be through some kind of relationship or acquaintance. Do they know each other? Or, is there a person that links them all together?

Random objects from a bag

This started out as one of those ‘quick I haven’t got a starter’ things, but it became quite successful. I emptied a cupboard of random items and placed them in the middle of a desk. The students around the desk took it in turns to tell a story about an object. The rule was they had to hold the object as they told the story. When they finished, another person told a different story about that same object. If the item was exhausted of storytelling potential, then they picked another item.

At first, students were quite hesitant to tell stories, but after a time they got it and then I struggled to get them to stop. The students were free to pick the genre of the story, but it made for an excellent way in to start a story.

Photo album

Google is great. I searched for some pictures and then copied them onto a sheet of A3 paper to make a photo album. I made sure that the pictures were a mixture of family portraits and holiday snaps. I even found some old black and white photographs to add a bit of a hidden past.

Finally, I gave the students the photo album sheet and I asked them the following questions:

*What’s this family’s story?

*Who is who in this family?

*What is the secret in the family?

Every group in the class had the same set of photographs, yet every group produced a different story behind the photos. At points it did sound like an episode of Emmerdale, but it did make for some great discussion and some even better storytelling. 

Check out photopin.com for some copyright free pictures

Using a poem – Identification by Roger McGough
I love poetry that shocks the reader. Roger McGough is a particular favourite of mine because he has written some very powerful poetry that is shocking and effective. An English teacher introduced me to the ‘Jogger’s Song’ when I was a student and it left me cold. His poem ‘Identification’ has intrigued some of my classes for quite a while now. I think it is brilliant poem that has this slowly unfolding realisation and denial of the death of a loved one. Furthermore, it creates a mystery, and, there lies a story. Now, I know that the story is based on a real event and how a teenage boy was killed by a car bomb.  Students, however, have so many different theories as to what happens, and they become incredibly motivated when describing the lead up to this sad and tragic conclusion. I tell them they are to write the story and the ending of their poem will be the poem.

At the end of all this, I reveal the true story behind the poem and it stuns the class into silence.

20 line story

Love. Pain. Fear. Jealousy. Disappointment. The average day of a teacher – only joking! These are titles I have given students to write about an emotion or a feeling. The students have to write the story in twenty lines. It makes for a very simple story, but it keeps things focused and clear. The writing becomes quite effective as the student has to be concise with their writing.  It is a staple that most teachers use, but it is quite effective.

Describing one moment in a story and not a story

I have read so many stories written by students over the years and they all tend to have the same problem. They are too focused on plot. I have had students try to condense the complete ‘The Lord of the Rings’ saga into two sides of A4 lined paper which is devoid of any description or atmosphere. Most students are driven by the storytelling of films, which is fine, occasionally. However, the length of the story telling in a film amounts to the length of a novel in writing terms. Therefore, it is no wonder that students try to cram stories full of battles, explosions and expensive car chases in the first paragraph. 

I started this by showing the Deathstar explosion. I wrote the sentence ‘The Deathstar exploded.’ on the board.  As a class, we discussed how that single sentence doesn’t convey the events on screen. Then we did the old thing of ‘showing’ and not ‘telling’. Then, we turned this single event into a whole story.  We had our structure to a story and the students were limited in a way as to what to describe, but it meant the writing was focused on the event rather than the whole plot. It made them more reflective on their writing choices, rather than the need to tell a massive story that is the ‘bestest bestest story in the world’ which had lots of ‘and then’ and ‘suddenly’ in it.

Moonlight / Perspectives 

This is borrowed from a friend. He did a creative writing course and he explained this idea to me, and it worked – so I ‘borrowed it’. On the whiteboard, you show a picture of the moon at night. Make sure it is a full moon.  Discuss with students the different kinds of narrator you could have to see the moon or be affected by it. Cue the usual werewolf. Then, we explored it further and ended up with a lover, a child, a scientist, a religious person, etc. Finally, they wrote a paragraph describing how a narrator felt in the presence of the moon. There were some fantastic efforts. Again, the beauty of this technique was that the storytelling is about feelings and how a character reacts and not on the plot.

Also, I got the students to write another paragraph, but this time they had to use a contrasting narrator. One example I had was two sides of a relationship. The girlfriend was excited that the boyfriend was going to propose, as he was quite nervous and kept checking something was in his pocket. However, the boyfriend wanted to kill the girlfriend. Both were looking at the moon and feeling different things. I even had one student describing the moon from an atheist scientist’s view and from a religious person’s perspective.  

Collective story – putting bits together

I really enjoyed reading ‘The Slap’ a few years ago and that book is inspired me with a way of writing a story. For this, I got groups to describe an event through a variety of perspectives.  Each person told the event from their perspective. The writing was kept short so students only wrote about three quarters of a sheet of lined A4 paper. The results were glued together to make a continuous story. Students loved reading the final story and, yeah, sometimes the results were clunky but there are some bits of great storytelling going on nonetheless. If the group are clear about the event and the key characters, then you have a fairly consistent story.  

Science Stories – The What If

I went to a fantastic event organised by our dwindling LEA, which was about promoting reading. During the event, there was an author who explained how she was inspired to write a story. Simply, it was from a science report in the news. She suggested that teachers could get a collection of news stories about scientific discoveries.  One example she gave was about a pill that prevented wrinkles. Then, the story was based around that one idea. What if wrinkles were cured? What if wrinkles denoted class? The rich had no wrinkles and the poor were wrinkly. What if the moment you stopped taking the pills the wrinkles immediately came back? Very simple way of generating some story inspiration.  

Behind every book I read there is a lesson somewhere. The more I read, the more ideas I have. Phillip Pullman decried once that English teachers need more time to read. I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment of this.  Sadly, the marking load and the increased emphasis on evidence gathering have meant that the time spent on thinking and creating good ideas is often lost. The time spent reading and just thinking and is also lost.  I really have to force myself to read sometimes. I love reading, but being a teacher sometimes takes me away from reading. I’d love to spend a whole Sunday afternoon reading a book. Instead, I am planning for the week ahead.  I am marking work. I am filling in things I should have had time to do during the week. What would make me an even better teacher of English is the time to read more. I’d love to read more teenage fiction, so that I can recommend more books to students. My love of reading stories is there, but the fire isn’t always burning the brightest it can, because there isn’t enough time to put more logs on the fire. If I am careful, the fire might just die.  How can I be the source of inspiration to students if my inspiration wanes? Gove famously said that students should be reading more than 50 books a year.  How many teachers and especially English teachers come close to that amount?

 And that does not include books like ‘Of Mice and Men’, because you read it to a class.

Thanks for reading,

Xris

Pictures

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tshantz/4630390248/">tshantz</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilcoleman/2081888118/">Neil Coleman</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wicho/5540421779/">wicho</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>

Teaching a novel part 2

Reading a novel part 2  

I hate word searches. There, I’ve said it. It is out there. I’m sorry if I have offended you with my venom for word searches, but I cannot stand them. For me, they are up there with whistling, novelty socks and olives. Writing the words ‘word’ and ‘search’ together makes me shudder. Anyway, I have two daughters, identical twins, and I often think about their future. Already I've planned, in my head, a future conversation I might have relating to vetting a future boyfriend. It goes something like this:

Dad: (sternly) So, you wish to date my daughter, do you? [Optional: holding a cat and sitting in a chair ]

Boyfriend: (nervously) Yes….yes.

Dad: (aggressively) Do you like wearing novelty socks?

Boyfriend: What? (pause) Ummm..I don’t know. Maybe?

Dad: Interesting. Do you like to whistle?

Boyfriend: Sorry? Yeah. I mean no. I mean - I have never really thought about it.

Dad: Do you prefer Pinter or Ibsen?

Boyfriend: Who? What? (pause) Are they a band or something? My dad likes them, I think. Haven’t they just reformed?

Dad: (without emotion) Do you like word searches?

Boyfriend: Pardon. Word searches? Like in a book? Circle them? Yes, I think.  I’m sorry – I only wanted to ask if I could have a glass of water.

My daughters are only four years old, but I am prepared for the future. Why have I got this irrational dislike of word searches? Simple: it is all down to the next question.

What do I want them to learn from this novel?

In my last blog I described some of the mistakes I've made when teaching a novel. I left the worst experience out – and it is terrible. It was so bad that I haven’t taught the book since. The book in question sits on my shelf like an unwanted toy. It looks at me all sad, lonely and abandoned. The book is Roald Dahl’s ‘Boy’. A fantastic book. But, I messed it up big time.

I taught the book by reading the book and doing a number of different tasks. Seems straightforward, so far.

Unfortunately , I had to no idea where I was going with the learning or teaching of the book. Mainly, I taught the novel by focusing on what I wanted to do rather than focusing on what I wanted them to learn. There was no real planning or effective thinking. It was the class going from one ‘nice’ activity to another 'nice' activity. Yeah, there may have been some learning somewhere, but I had lost sight of the big picture. They were reading the book and doing some superficial activities that didn’t push them or stretch them. Where was the embedding the learning or building on a skill and making it better? I taught ‘Boy’ like that – with no connection between lessons. No glue. No overview. No big picture. A series of random actvities with the story connecting each lesson together.

I was too busy looking outside the window admiring the view and laughing at the sights, when I should have been steering the car carefully on the road. Metaphorically, I had driven the car into a ditch. Nobody was harmed, but we didn’t get to our destination on time.     

That is one of the big problems with teaching a novel: there are so many different things you could do with it. That is what is so great about teaching English. However, I’ve seen people take their eyes of the road several times in my career. They focused too much on the nice things and forgot to think about the endgame. I trained to be a business manager before I became a teacher and one of the things they taught me was about 'helicopter thinking'. To be successful, a manager needs to think of the team, task and result all at the same time. A manager, for example, would imagine he/she was a helicopter in their role and land on a station, like the task, explore it and then fly up and see the bigger picture.  Now, this might seem obvious in teaching, but it isn’t and it wasn't for me; I made that mistake many years ago with ‘Boy’.

My main advice with all planning is start from the end and then work your way backwards.  I am working on ‘The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ and my first point is the essay question I want them to answer for Controlled Conditions.  Now, I am in the process of deciding what they need for the journey to get them to that end point – the essay.

Back to word searches. Word searches are simple. They tend to focus on the skills of finding and locating information. Not that intellectually taxing really. For me, word searches represent this 'frivolous approaching to teaching' that I got and get sucked into. They are easy to make. They keep students absorbed and engaged for ten minutes.  They are fun to do. Unfortunately, they don’t really stretch a student or develop a skill. They might help reinforce key words. They ‘might’ help with spellings, but do they really push them up to the next grade or level?  No.  Rest assured, I will not be saying in my lessons: “Right class, we are going to do a word search on prepositions”.

Chess is more my kind of thing, but I can’t see people using chess to teach the complexities of a subordinate clauses or pathetic fallacy. [Be my guest; give it a try.] Chess reminds me of planning; it is all about strategy and organising things well before the end of the game. Put your pieces in place and the game is won. Your opponent might out manoeuvre you, but you are ready to solve that problem quickly.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_piece

I could, and I did with ‘Boy’, skip through a novel and set frivolous tasks with no real foundations for learning or any direction for progress. Before, my lessons included a diary entry from a character, mock newspaper story and a word search. Several years later, I plan my schemes of work like a game of chess. I think of tasks in terms of pawns, rooks, bishops, knights, a queen and a king. I rank the activities. I decide what tasks are expendable, but fun – the pawns. I decide what task is important to do the main assessment well – the king. I think you get the picture.

Next academic year, I am going to teach  ‘Skellig’ to a very able Year 7 class. How might I plan it? This should give you a rough idea.

Final Assessment: create a piece of writing similar to Almond’s description of Skellig in the garage.

Pawns:

Create a telephone conversation between Michael and Mina exploring their feelings and thoughts

Read the poetry of William Blake

Write a letter to school complaining about an issue

Rook:

Explore how tension is created in different parts of the book

Knights:

Look at some examples of descriptions of setting written by different authors

Look at some examples of descriptions of creatures / monsters  

Queen:

Analyse extract from book commenting on how language is used for effect

King:

Transform the description in the garage into a positive one

Comment on how they transformed the description

Write a draft copy of the task

This isn’t the whole SOW, but it is just a starting point. I haven’t been specific about AFs or the techniques I want them to develop, which I will do later.  Mainly, I have prioritised the activities.  I have my endgame in sight, before I even start teaching or planning in greater detail. I know what I want to do. I know what is important. I know what isn’t so important. I know what to leave out, if I want to take a different path. What I have done is some ‘joined-up-thinking’. Horrible phrase, I know. Chess can be, if played well, a slow and methodical process, and the winning move can be planned well in advance of the ending. Chess is the game I would expect gods to play. Tactical. Thinking. Moving people and crafting the future to come.

One day, I will return to ‘Boy’ and teach it. However, it taught me so much about planning and how to plan. I always plan backwards and decide on the relevance of the task I am setting. And, I do enjoy doing stuff for the fun of it, just not word searches. However, crosswords are a different thing!

Thanks for reading.

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Teaching a novel (part 1)

Sometimes, I wish I had a time machine (H.G. Wells not a TARDIS – too unpredictable) as often I get to the end of a SOW / Unit and I hit my head with huge and painful slap. Doh! Why didn’t I do that? What would help me to improve my teaching? Money? Yep. Resources? Yep. Time? Double yep.  A time machine? Definitely.

I look back at my several years of teaching English and I think there are a few things I would teach differently. Mistakes and learning go hand in hand like cheese and onion, and salt and vinegar, and … I think you get the idea. However, when I read things about teaching, I tend to hear about the ‘whizzo’ new thing such and such did today with their delightful class. This is always great to hear – I am envious. It does, however, give me food for thought and lets me steal some of these ‘whizzo’ ideas for my own lessons. But – and it is a big but – there aren’t many places to go to which teach you about the pitfalls that you might face in teaching on a daily basis. During my PGCE training, nobody mentioned how the ‘wind’ affected students, yet it does in a strange and peculiar way. I now check the weather when planning my lessons. Furthermore, I feel the rhetoric the PGCE tutors used when lecturing about poetry should have been:

Whatever you do, don’t…

 Always do this when …

 Under no circumstances do this…

Instead, I was given lots of nice ideas of how to teach things, some theory underpinning them, and nothing about the day-to-day stuff. It seems I would do most of my learning in the classroom.

Therefore, this blog is about me sharing the pitfalls and problems I face / faced while/whilst teaching [note for employers: I am much better now, honest govn’or]. Some of them might be obvious; others might not be so obvious. I just hope somewhere somebody might read this and think differently about how they teach something, and that they might make some better mistakes as a result.

If not, I hope it gets back to me in the past and I learn something.

The Novel – Part 1

I have taught a lot of novels in my time and it is the part of English teaching I relish and enjoy.  It is wonderful to see students engaged, shocked, upset and thrilled with a story as they share my joy for reading and devouring (in a metaphorical sense) a book. However, there are so many times that I have got it wrong. A few times I got it right.  It is the when and where I went wrong that is important. What didn’t I do or think about when teaching the novel?

Message to my NQT self: "These are the questions that you should ask yourself before teaching a novel".  

[1]Will the novel appeal to all students?

[2]How are we going to read the novel in class?

[3]Will I have to help the students to create the ‘world’ of the novel?

[4]What will engage the students’ curiosity?

[5]What do I want them to learn from this novel?

Will the novel appeal to all students?

I remember teaching ‘Pinballs’ to a group of Year 7s and it went down like a lead balloon.  I gave up reading it because the students were more interested in reading the inside of their eyelids than they were reading the book. It wasn’t the teaching; it was the text. I picked the book out of the cupboard and thinking it was short and straight forward for a group of low ability students, but the relationship heavy book was too much and too subtle for this group of students. They wanted action and pace rather than lots of talking and a blossoming friendship.  

Always select a book with a class in mind. This isn’t always easy, but it helps that a lot of books selected these days in departments have a clear male or female protagonist.  Try to think of the novel as a whole. How much action is there? How much of the text is description? How much dialogue is there? ‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding is a dialogue heavy book and I find that more able students cope with it better than others. Golding likes to confuse things by omitting who said what at times during the book.

I think it helps to think of the percentage of dialogue, description and action in a novel. Using the exact science of my brain, ‘Lord of the Flies’ is 45% dialogue, 35% description and 20% action. Too much description and a student has to work really hard to visualise things. Isn’t that right, Mr Dickens? Too much action and there might not be enough themes or ideas to stretch the most able. Think hard about the style of the book and whether it will suit the students you teach.

Will they be able to relate to some of the content? ‘Pinballs’ failed because some of the students couldn’t relate to the experiences of the children in the book. Yes, I know that isn’t a bad thing, but sometimes things can be too alien for a student. I should have judged it better.  

Some teachers select books that are currently popular or have been recently made into a film. What is the point of teaching ‘The Hunger Games’, ‘Twilight’ or ‘Harry Potter and the…’ when most students want to read those books anyway? Isn’t it my job to unlock the world of books? I am not knocking these in vogue books, but I think I’d rather introduce them to something they wouldn’t read and surprise them with how good it is . ‘Animal Farm’ is a classic example.  Most students think the idea of reading a book about animals is childish, but after reading it they are convinced of how good a book it is. Surprise them. Show them how good reading can be when you discover something new. The real joy of teaching can be about challenging preconceived notions of something being pants. I get a sense of fulfilment when someone is converted. However, if you are struggling with a disaffected class, a well-known name or book will help to get them engaged.  

Sadly, sometimes a good book just doesn't work with a group. What do you do? Abandon ship. Man the lifeboats. Simply, read another book. It is not worth an uphill battle. You should be the one who makes the professional judgement, and not the students. Otherwise, by week 6 you will have attempted 10 books.  

How are we going to read the novel in class?

Well, we are just going to read it, of course. I think the logistics of reading a text need some thought before reading. I have gone through a whole term and realised that I was only halfway through the book. ‘Holes’ for me is one of those books. I am sure it could be a plot device in an episode of Doctor Who. The book that steals time. Love the book, but doesn’t it take ages to get through? Or, embarrassingly, I have rushed the reading of an ending because I wanted to get on with the assessment. After all, that was the main thing I had to mark.

Never feel guilty about spending time reading in lessons. Give a whole lesson to reading a text, if necessary. Too many times I have rushed the reading of a novel, so I could get some meaningless comprehension activity done because I felt, in my head, that ‘students must be doing something’.

At the start, you should always think about the delivery of the book. I think a book should be read from start to finish, and I will always try to do that. But, there is always the pressure of time. Are we going to read it as a whole class? Are the students going to read chapters? Read bits on their own? Are we going to skip bits? Could I fill in the gaps? Could I teach it using a mixture of the book and a film? Usually, I would do all of these at some stage. One of my best experiences was teaching ‘Oliver Twist’ to group of Year 10 students. We read the opening chapters of the book and then watched the film version. I reduced some of the chapters by editing bits out and they read some chapters on their own. They loved it. It was varied.

Reading a novel in class can be problematic. Should the teacher read the whole thing while the students listen passively? This was my first mistake when teaching my first novel. I studied Drama, as well as English at university, so I am comfortable with hearing my own voice for long periods of time. However, it is dull for the listener. Even during the fantastic Stephen Fry's reading of the Harry Potter books, I daydream and starting thinking about planning. At secondary school, we had a teacher who would make each student in the class read a page and that was even more painful. It highlighted those who were strong and those who were weak at reading and performing. I have even tried changing readers when there is a different piece of punctuation in the text. This was great for exploring the use of punctuation, but asking the students what happened left me with a very bad feeling. Cue tumbleweed moment. Nothing. “I was too busy looking to see when it was my turn,” mumbled Corbet. My deferred way of reading now is: I read the narrative and students read the dialogue and all have assigned parts. This means that no one person is reading all the time and I can ask questions to those without a part. All is involved in the reading and I get chance to breathe and spot any students reading the book upside down, or trying to pass notes under the table.  

Will I have to help the students to create the ‘world’ of the novel?

Like you dear reader, I have read loads of books. I can imagine a world from the mention of a few items or a sniff of atmosphere. I have an inbuilt computer that helps me to create a world image and this is down to my ability to recall and link to other things I have read. Books are great to learn about new things, but 'getting into the world' explored in a novel can be a problem for young people. TV is great, but students are used to establishing shots in TV shows that help the audience build the world of the story. Novels are trickier. They are like jigsaw puzzle. You create things by piecing different aspects together.  I think a novel works harder to build that world; it is far more rewarding, but more demanding for a young reader.

Source: http://historicalphotosdaily.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/ww1-propaganda-posters.html

Help students to create an image or idea of the world the book is constructing. You could do this through a picture from Google, a clip from a show or from another text. To enter the world of ‘Stonecold’, I think you need to do some work on homelessness and the realities of being homeless. Students will identify with the locations featured in the story, but it is the situation that is alien to them. That is where we have to help build the constructed world for them. A world of hunger. A world of danger. A world of hatred. Get them thinking! The same idea needs to be applied to any book set in the past. As a teacher, I assume too much. I forget that their knowledge of WW1 is sparse when teaching ‘Private Peaceful’. You can’t understand the motivations for cowardice, without exploring the situation and the world these characters inhabited. I tend to start with propaganda posters and explore what the thoughts of an average man might be in those days. Then, the class have these notions of patriotism in their heads, when reading about the horrible conditions.  It is far easier then for them to understand how a soldier might be a coward, given the alternatives.

Books paint pictures, but we have to help students with the palette.

What will engage the students’ curiosity?

Novels are magic. They can usually transform a noisy class into a quiet one - I say usually, as this isn't always the case. That is because the curiosity has to be there to propel the interest of the class. There has to be a hook, a puzzle or a mystery to it. I taught a book several years ago called ‘Wheels’ and, sadly, I went around the whole book in the wrong way. I should have placed more emphasis on the mystery at the heart of the story. I didn’t, and they lost interest.

Some books test a reader’s patience. How many times have we picked up a book and given up after a few turgid, lifeless chapters? ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ have dull openings, in my opinion.  I love these books, but they don’t grab a young reader’s interest easily. I know the purpose and the reason for these slow and detailed openings, but, boy, I want to see some action quickly- and I don’t mean a heron moving. Young people are used to complex storytelling with things like CSI and I often use these to help with these kinds of texts. Recently, I have started to present ‘Of Mice and Men’ as a murder mystery: a woman has been killed in a barn. Students are then given an option of several people – the father-in-law, the jealous husband, an old dog, a man with a mental disability, a black worker and a popular worker.  How did she die? Was she murdered? Who killed her? Why? We then read the novel from the start and the class love to see how things knit together. During different points of our reading we look back at our original ideas and see if they have changed. They pick up on the tension in the book easily and actually focus on the way the novel is written rather than just the plot. The great thing, in a way, is that I haven’t really spoilt the ending. And, I always make a point about how that isn’t really the books ending. I have done similar things with ‘Abomination’ and ‘Heroes’; a healthy bit of foreshadowing never harmed anyone. Oh, and someone always thinks the dog killed Curley's wife.  

What about the ending? I was told the ending of ‘Sixth Sense’ on my way to see it and sadly that has tainted my view on storytelling. In the classroom, the ending of a text is sacred. I always make a point about talking about ‘the ending’ before reading a novel. I hate spoilers, so I always talk to the class about how it is important that we don’t reveal the ending if we know it. This is very important with ‘Of Mice and Men’. Once, I had a student reveal the ending during part one of the book. A part of me died that day. How could I recover from that?   

Oh, and another bit of advice: think about when you are going to read the dramatic bits. The last five minutes of the lesson is not the best time to reveal a secret or experience a dramatic turning point. It creates a good cliff-hanger, but then you could easily lose some good discussions or tension building. I remember having one page left of a novel to read and the bell went. I started the next lesson with that one page and it fell flat.  

What do I want them to learn from this novel?

I am going to cheat here and say my next blog will focus on this question in greater detail. That is if this blog is successful. Who knows this blog might be one big mistake. If that is the case, I can guarantee that I will learn something from that mistake too. I am sitting here planning to teach ‘The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ (for the first time) and ‘Skellig’ (for the third time) and I am thinking about those five questions and I know I will not make those same mistakes – just some new ones that will teach me a thing or two.

Make mistakes. Make sure the mistakes you make today are better than the ones you made last year.

P.S.  No novels were harmed or damaged in any way during the research and writing of this blog.