Symbolism, structure and chat

It is that annual time of year where I teach Question 3, the structure question, to students. The more I teach this question, the more I think we need to work more on symbolism in English. And, to an extent teach them the background knowledge to identify those symbols. Symbolism is what we think we do a lot in lessons. We look at poems and explore the symbols through similes, metaphors and personification in them. Yet, when we take out metaphorical language, students find it really hard to spot and discuss them. 

Every play studied has lots of symbolism embedded in it yet symbolism tends to be isolated to the language. A character giving a soliloquy on stage on their own is a symbol of isolation. A scene set inside can be a symbol of secrecy and a lack of transparency. A scene set at night symbolises something bad, sinister or that something is ending. An Inspector Calls being set at night is symbolic. It is all leading to a new ‘dawn’. There’s a reason it is set at night. The end of the old ideology.   

The problem we have is that students can’t get their head around the idea that symbolism is often not linguistic or figurative. It is structural. I think over the years we have become too focused on identifying techniques to the point that we have missed something powerful within our subject. The meaning around all choices a writer makes.  Over time, we have subconsciously created a hierarchy around choices that sensible choices around structure, positioning or content are neglected for something with a name. Something easily nameable. Something easily tested. Something easily taught. In fairness, something that is easily explained, but not something that is easily explored. 

Symbolism is fuzzy. In one context, an object can symbolise and then in another it can symbolise something completely different. Take the colour red. It can symbolise paradoxically positive and negative things. It can represent love and passion, but also it can symbolise death and danger. Our job is to help students see that duality and how it fits in the context of things at the moment. 

The reason Question 3 is such a difficult question is that you cannot explain it fully, because it is a question about exploring. It is why we see so many people tripping up on it. Let’s teach them about cyclic structures because we can explain that. That generates lots of students explaining a cyclic but not of them explore it.  

Let’s have a look at things in one of the past papers. The following images are from the ‘Labyrinth’ paper. 

The bottle of water is often skipped when students read this paper. However, structurally the bottle symbolises so much about the character. Water is a symbol of life. Here we see that character’s full potential and her hope at the beginning. At the end of the extract, we see how that hope and potential is running and at risk. One last drop represents her one last hope that she has in the situation. Yes, there is a cyclic structure, but in terms of storytelling there is so much going on here. The bottle is a symbol of her hope. The story is structured around her lack of hope or the slow dwindling hope she had. 

We can take that further in looking at other things described. 

Each one connects to the character’s personal journey. Usually students focus on the reader and how the reader feels, when actually they’ve missed the character and forgotten about the reader’s interaction with the character. The images above are all about lots of big things. They symbolise how things are against Alice. She is looking for something small and the odds are stacked against her. The plane is a symbol of her imminent journey home. The mountain is a symbol of the challenge before her. The flowers are a symbol of her but also her hope: small, delicate and time-sensitive. The boulders are a symbol of another obstacle, like the mountain, that is in her way. 

Then, we can see how the whole thing is put together. She starts with optimism, but that is slowly dwindling as the story progresses. 

That exploration is really important, but we aren’t allowing students to do it enough. Here is another example I used with students. This goes alongside the ‘Silk Factory’ paper. Here what is interesting is the use of domestic imagery and symbolism. It is used in the story to convey a sense of safety. We have repeated references to domesticity which provides us with comfort and a level of expectation. That is contrasted with the dangerous elements in the garden. 

I think we need to get exploration back into the classroom. We’ve become too obsessed with explaining that we’ve got ourselves in knots over it. Look at how our analysis has become knotted with paragraph structures. PEEL. PEE. PEETAL. What/How/ Why. Our discussion in the lessons has placed emphasis on the concrete. What technique does the writer use? Why has the writer used it? We’ve moved away from abstract thinking and that’s where symbolism comes in. You can teach explanations, but the student independently explores in English - with a little direction from the teacher. 

Building confidence in exploration starts with talking. Getting students to talk about images amongst themselves and exploring what they could mean is paramount. That talk gives them experience and confidence. The melting pot of ideas. Here’s a little discussion sheet I have created for Year 10 as we explore this question.

It isn’t a writing frame, but a discussion tool for them to articulate what they notice about images, symbolism and storytelling. It isn’t  perfect. It isn’t definitive. But, it is something to latch ideas onto. Let’s take a break from explaining and let’s open our lessons to exploring. 

Thanks for reading, 

Xris 

I am ready for my closeup now, Mrs Writer.

There is a danger in English that we become the subject of extracts. Let’s look at an extract for Paper 1. Let’s look at an extract for Paper 2. Let’s look at an extract for unseen poetry. If there’s one thing we have in aplomb is extracts in English. I get that texts are the beating heart of English, but the constant trotting out of extracts doesn’t set pulses rising, or interest focused. Added to that we have some bizarre questions on the exam papers. I am looking at you, Question 2 and Question 3 on Paper 1. Questions that split something that is never really split on English exam papers. For decades, exam papers have always included language devices and structure devices under the umbrella term ‘methods’. Paper 1 bizarrely labotamises one from the other. Language and structure have always worked together, yet, like some messy royal divorce, the two are separate and cannot even speak to each other - let alone mention the other’s name. No, that is a structure term. No, that is a language term. 

Across the land, we are battling with this crazy question. We are having to separate structure from language. And, in no other part of the curriculum have we got this distinction. We don’t criticise students when they refer to a structure point when exploring a novel. Nor, do we criticise a student when they spot a language device in a poem. We reward the exploring of texts and not insist on a narrowing of focus. Texts are messy and assessments need to reflect that messiness. Otherwise, we are narrowing the focus, the teaching, the thinking and the ideas. Just look at the fact that they provide us with a bullet point to the questions. Is there anything more indicative that the question is the problem? This question is so messy that we need some bullet points added to it. If you cannot simply write ‘How does the writer make the setting scary?’ then there’s a problem with the question and not the students. 

I hate Question 2 and Question 3 with a passion, because they represent a massive problem with English. We have placed a ‘Frankenstein’s creation’ of analysis at the heart of the assessment system. The beating heart of the subject isn’t engagement and connections with literature, but a bizarre form of analysis which looks like some form of critical analysis, but it is far from it.This analysis monster is everywhere and dominating the collective consciousness. Instead of exploring texts meaningfully, we default to a perceived notion of what analysis is. We are shaping students to this analysis rather than thinking and connecting with texts. Instead of students noticing, exploring, digging in a text, we have defaulted to a subject that identifies, labels and categorises parts of a text. I hold Question 2 and 3 responsible for this. Instead of talking about what they notice in the extract, they have to separate things into language and structure points. The exam becomes a test of not their understanding of the text but their knowledge of if this is the structure or the language question. 

English is a unique subject because it allows all students and all levels of ability to engage, respond, explore and investigate a text. Having taught for years, you can see this. The weakest student in the class can often floor you when they make a point that is so profound that you haven’t even considered it. Yet, the exam system doesn’t support that and I blame the questioning. By being so detailed and prescriptive, the exam is holding a large number of students back on something they can excel in: responding to a text. 

With all that in mind, I have changed my approach to Question 3 over the last few years. Along with reading short stories, I explore film clips when exploring Paper 1. Instead of introducing Question 3 with a trumpet, I start the work covertly. Throughout the whole time I teach the reading section, I watch film clips and explore the ideas in them, so when I get to the dreaded Question 3 students have built up their confidence already. We watch the clip. Then, I show them a storyboard of the clip. Next, I pick one or two camera shots and get students to explore the meaning behind the shot. Usually, I pick a shot that focuses on an object or people. For the objects, we tend to explore the symbolism of the object and how it relates to action or subtext. For the characters, we tend to explore the inferred thoughts, feelings and motivations. 

There’s no need to look at every shot and we certainly don’t obsess about beginning, middle and end. We simply talk about how that shot adds meaning to what is going on. 

Jaws: 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW23RsUTb2Y

Camera shot 4. A masterclass in creating an ominous mood. You’ve got a child playing in the sand while a boy is searching for his missing dog. We have Brody, in the full clip worried that something is going to happen and this shot foreshadows what is going to happen and indicates that something has happened already, which he doesn’t know about. I also like this shot because it mirrors what is going on in the scene. You have two types of people: the worried/searching and the relaxed/playing. But, thinking of the writer’s masterplan, this is the clue that Brody has been looking for. A sign that something isn’t right. 

Jurassic Park: 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc_i5TKdmhs     

Camera shot 4. This shot is so famous that it is often parodied, but I like it because it shows you how objects can be used by writers. The ripples of the water don’t just indicate the imminent danger of the tyrannosaurus rex but the sense of power it has. The creature is nowhere near the car yet it is having an impact on something small, tiny and insignificant. If this creature can create ripples on water from a distance, what can it do to the character when it is next to them? This is all about the build up and preparing us for meeting the creature.   

The Birds: 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydLJtKlVVZw

Camera shot 6. Or, as I’d like to call it ‘I am smoking a fag!’. You cannot look at films without looking at some Hitchcock. This one focuses on a character totally unaware of the danger behind her. She is relaxed, calm and unaware of the birds amassing behind her. For this shot, we talked about dramatic irony and how that is used for effect here. Something Hitchcock does often. I like this clip because it matches a lot of what we see in the exam paper - a slow discovery. Here the character discovers she is in danger. 

 

All Quiet on the Western Front: 

Link: (sadly, they have removed the link for this one. I used Netflix to show this scene. Skip the school bits) 

Camera shot 9. This has been my favourite film recently and I really like the opening. Very powerful. The shot here echoes the number of soldiers killed but also how devalued they are. I like how the name labels on the floor echo the opening with the coffins. There’s a cycle to the process almost. 

Billy Elliot: 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixgJMTmNOow  (contains swearing) 

Camera shot 7. For me, this shot is interesting because of the inferences you can make. The shot of Billy clutching the cushion reveals so much. Billy has had good news, but his reaction isn’t that of someone celebrating. The focus on the character reveals to us that he is scared about how his life will change. It suggests that he didn’t think he’d get in so he hadn’t prepared for it to happen. I think it is a great moment, because it reveals so much about the character without saying anything.

Schindler’s List: 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-OpC6tnJ9c

Camera shot 5. This film had such a powerful impact on me. The scene here is interesting for what it doesn’t show. The director shows us a point of view shot of the children waving to their mothers. The act of waving reflects the innocence of the children and how they misinterpret the events. A wave is used to say goodbye. The children are waving goodbye to their mothers one last time. We see the mother’s faces yet we don’t see the children’s faces. 

The Sandman 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hz3QB31K_c (opening few minutes) 

Camera shot 9. If you have been teaching long enough, you’ll have seen ‘The Sandman’. An interesting and dark piece of animation. This shot I find interesting because it highlights how distant the boy is from safety. As the child moves through the house, he is moving further away from his mother and safety. The house is laid out in an interesting way which suggests that what we see here is the child’s perception and not the reality. 

Touch of Evil 

Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhmYY5ZMXOY

Camera shot 8. This clip is interesting because it weaves two elements together. We have our protagonists having a chat whilst walking and then weaved in this chat is a car that keeps appearing and stopping. Again, we have dramatic irony at play here, but also this camera shot puts these two couples together. This moment highlights how close to the danger our protagonists are, but also how easily it could be our protagonists in the car.  Often we have an element of danger in the extracts and the danger weaves in and out of the plot. This clip is interesting for that. 

North by Northwest 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ8tNdxxHUU

Camera shot 4. This one is a simple case of misdirection. What we think of as being the danger isn’t dangerous. The shot here looks like the protagonist and antagonist in a face off, when it isn’t. The clip highlights how we search for danger in a situation. We go through numerous things - a car, a man, a bus. Then, the danger comes. 

The ‘burbs

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpga1vtS3tA

Camera shot 5. This shot is a combination of object and character. We have two characters in conflict, as reflected by their opposing standing positions. They face each other. Notice how they align and stand together when they are of a similar way of thinking. Of course, the bone has lots of symbolism here and key to defusing the conflict. They have replaced one conflict with an even greater conflict. A murder. 

I could have easily written more about each film clip, but that would be overkill. Exploring one camera shot is enough to form ideas and meaning. There’s no need to interrogate every shot. What we want is students to explore how the focus affects the meaning. Sometimes, what isn’t focused is equally as important to what is focused on. Engaging with stories and ideas should be key to what we do. A student’s response to a text needs to be paramount. 

Thanks for reading, 

Xris 

P.S. Please share any film clips that you find work. I am very grateful to a colleague who has helped me source some of these clips. 

Alice, Mr Fisher, Rosabel and Hartop walk into a pyramid (I mean pub)…

I have been listening and watching quite a bit of Philip Pullman – I think he has a book out or something. Anyway, he got me thinking about storytelling and how we teach it. The more I teach the current GCSE for English Language the more I realise the mechanistic approach we have been using is ineffective and reductive.


Take ‘Freytag’s Pyramid’. I device used to teach the structure of a story. Personally, it is the dullest thing I have encountered when looking at story structure. It is basic. It is rudimentary. It is simplistic. Let’s plot ‘War and Peace’ on it, shall we? Look how a complex narrative can be simply pegged to a pretty pyramid. The pyramids are still around because they are heavy and robust and not something delicate and ephemeral. If ‘Freytag’s Pyramid’ is so special, then why don’t writers, and famous writers at that, go on about it all the time. J.K. Rowling boasting how the pyramid helped her achieve success with Harry Potter.


The problem with ‘Freytag’s Pyramid, and similar devices we use to teach storytelling, is that they are simplistic. Storytelling is subtle, nuanced and complex. That’s why students who read lots are able to pick up the subtleties, the nuances and the complexities of text. A lot of this comes with experience.


I have reassessed how I teach fiction across the whole of KS3 and KS4. That doesn’t mean that I talk about GCSE questions in Year 7. It means that I am places a stronger emphasis on narrative and, in particular, the construction of a story. Rather than just plonk a story in a class and hope for natural osmosis, I am directing my comments and teaching around storytelling. It isn’t pretty. It isn’t ‘terminology’ driven. It isn’t neat and tidy. But, it is about the art of storytelling. If we read like storytellers, then our writing will reflect this level of understanding.



The following are some of the things that I have brought to the forefront of my teaching in light of the new GCSEs.



Subtext

The subtext or, as I like to call it, ‘what is really really really going on’, is a key milestone for students to grasp. Getting students to see that the story isn’t just a teacher marking exam papers or just a woman in a hat shop is key for understanding. Yes, on the surface it is about a sad woman, but underneath it is about a class struggle or a loss of hope. What is this really teaching us about?


When a student understands the subtext of an extract, all the words, techniques or structural devices have a layer of understanding and an anchor to latch ideas on.

If struggling, I ask the students: What wouldn’t a seven year old get from this that I do?



Reader’s connection

Throughout my current reading of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ I was a bit silly whenever Capulet was in a scene. I’d say: good dad? Or, bad dad? The students would appropriately respond with good or bad dad depending on where it happens in the play. Recently, we went through the Hartop paper and ‘good dad/ bad dad’ reared its head. The connectivity to a character is key in storytelling. Yet, do we spend much time on looking at how a writer builds a connection subtly?


The whole opening of the Mr Fisher extract is designed to make us feel empathy towards the character. We need to keep going back to the connection with the text. Am I supposed to like or dislike this character at the moment? Look at the Hartop extract and you can see how at the start we are fooled into liking, but then that suddenly shifts to disliking the character.

Of course, we can build up the level of explanation when we get beyond like and like, but that way we avoid the ‘reader wants to read on’ or ‘hooks the reader’. We empathise with the character and so we want to see their situation change. We need to get students connecting with characters. Like or dislike?



World Building

I find this phrase much better than exposition. ‘Exposition’ is a dull, bland word. ‘World building’ is so much better. This is what writers do in the opening of any story and it is what we forget when exploring stories. How does the writer create a world? How does the writer build up the world around our protagonist?


Take the Hartop extract and you see the world build up through the van. From that van, we see poverty, family dynamics and power struggles from the description of the van and the people sat in it. He builds the world through the weather and the symbolism of the van and how people are sat in it. Compare this to the bus in the Rosabel extract. We see the world build through a bus, hat shop and a meal.


Recently, my Year 8s have been studying ‘Great Expectations’ and it is interesting that Dickens builds the world through a graveyard in the opening. A visceral image but one that says death, loss, family and faith.


How does the writer build the world? A simple question, but far more effective than ‘what’s interesting about the structure?’



Setting / People / Objects  

Most openings and stories start with these. In fact, it is often setting or people. Occasionally, you’d get an object. Understanding why writers start with these is key. Setting is about context and atmosphere. People is about understanding and connecting to a character’s experience. Both are key when talking about stories. The relationship between the two is interesting and helping students to see the choice to be made.


When looking at ‘Great Expectations’ the opening starts with people and then moves to setting. This is because Dickens wants us to connect with Pip first so that when the setting is introduced we are concerned about for him and worry.



Juxtaposition of characters  

Adding characters is key to understanding a story. Fred is introduced in ‘A Christmas Carol’ after a length introduction of Scrooge to prove that Marley isn’t the only person in Scrooge’s life. We are expected to believe this from Dickens’ opening of the book. Fred proves to us that there are people in Scrooge’s life who care from him and that he isn’t alone. Then, Dickens adds the men from the charities to the story and Dickens heightens how mercenary Scrooge is. Each character added to a story adds meaning to the protagonist.


Rosabel is an interesting extract as it deals with a clear foil. A character that makes our protagonist seem dull and boring. Less glamorous. We don’t see that until the woman with red hair appears. Then, we understand why. The egg and the flowers. We see the plain and the interesting. The two characters show an extreme contrast, which heightens how far apart they are and how Rosabel will never achieve success, in her eyes. Like the colour of her hair, success is determined from birth.


Students need to see that writers add character to help us understand the protagonist. They are a bit more subtle than goodies and badies.  



Relationships

If you understand the relationships, then you understand the subtext. The recent Hartop extract demonstrated this. It was all about the relationships between the characters. The squeezing out of the wife and daughter was key to understanding the relationship. This is made worse by the fact that Hartop makes his daughter go out in the rain and walk a considerable distance to get back in the van. We see how the women try to make everything fine. Clearly, they worry about ‘rocking the cart’. Alice’s ‘ironed’ stance reflects her fear and determination to not disrupt the status quo. She dare not put a foot wrong. The blood on Hartop’s hands indicates that he could commit violence.


If you look at how the Hartop extract works, we can see how the relationship is key to the extract. We empathise with Alice’s plight and as the text goes on we want her to escape and that’s what is engaging.



Inside / Outside Conflict

All characters have an inner turmoil. Understanding the inner conflict of a character is key. Alice’s conflict between family and freedom. Maybe she is ‘ironed’ and ‘clay’ because she fears how Hartop is going to react if she left. What would he do to the mother? Hartop’s conflict is between the money and family. Maybe he is a man that is losing in life and the business is struggling. He views success in terms of money and he clearly hasn’t got the money. Hartop has dependents and maybe they are the problem for him. They are a drain. Therefore, he is metaphorically pushing them out of his life. 


The characters on the exam papers so far have all had an inner conflict. They are quite subtle in the case of the Labyrinth extract and in some cases they are quite explicit, Mr Fisher.  Looking at what point we are in the inner conflict is interesting. Both Hartop and Rosabel are stories introducing the inner conflict. They are never resolved and that’s why they end quite bleak. There’s a bit missing from the story. The next bit is the ‘action stage’. They do something to break the cycle. They do something life transforming or they are rescued. Mr Fisher is different because we see the conflict resolved. His unhappiness and conflict is partly solved by one student’s work.

We need to teach students about character’s having inner conflicts and how those inner conflicts affect relationships and how they can be externalised or internalised in the story. The structure of the story is always wrapped around the character’s inner conflict.



Symbols

Everything is an opportunity for a symbol. I joked in the summer that I am going to town with flower symbolism as almost all the exams have featured flowers in some way. They are a relatively easy symbol. They represent beauty, nature or weakness. A lot of the time they link to the character. In Rosabel, the flowers are a symbol of how she wants to make her life better. She buys boring food, yet she purchases flowers. Something that doesn’t add much to her life but looks beautiful, highlighting the emphasis in the story on appearance and making a person better through their appearance (hats, hair, jewellery).



Grand Design  

Students forget about the end point. Where does the story end? That is the point that the previous paragraphs have been building up to. When we look at structure, we need students to think of the end feeling. What does the writer want us to feel at the end of the extract? Happy. Sad. Then, everything before it was leading up to that point. Everything. Every time detail. Everything is a crumb leading us down this path. 

That’s why the writer in the Hartop extract describes the isolated landscape and the bad

weather.There’s no prince in shining armour ready to save Alice. She is on her own. It is up

to her to change the situation.We need to see this isolation from the start. The weather

attacking the van is just a metaphor for Alice. Match that with Rosabel.The egg and the 

violets are discussed in the opening because at the end we see the contrast between Rosabel 

and the lady with red hair. Rosabel is the egg and the other woman is the violets.

That’s why I think the ending is key. Look at the end point and look to rest of the story to see

how it links together. When making a jigsaw, you look at a picture of the finished image to 

help you construct it. Look at the end point and work back.   

Note none of these things are about how to answer the question on the exam paper. This, for me, is the knowledge we should be working on in KS3 to help students understand texts better in KS4. This is what we should be looking at more and more. Instead, we have been looking at the questions but not focusing on the learning. What sort of things do students need to learn about stories? What would help them to understand stories better? I think the above would be a start. There are so many things I could mention and I haven’t. Maybe, I will do at one stage, but we’ll leave that for another story.  





How does one get better at teaching storytelling and fiction? Simple: just read more. Read things you’d normally read. Read things you wouldn’t normally read. Read anything and everything.

  

Alice, Mr Fisher, Rosabel and Hartop walk into a pub and started to read a book. They all agreed that the book helped them. Hartop learnt that there’s more to life than money. Rosabel learnt that the beautiful people lack personality and integrity. Mr Fisher learnt that he wasn’t alone. Alice learnt that archaeology isn’t the job for her.  



Thanks for reading,

Xris  

The dust has settled on AQA Paper 1

Now that the dust has settled on the new format for English Language GCSE, I felt it was time to share some things that have worked and helped me in teaching Paper 1. We always run the danger of exam fatigue with repeated exam practice. It is so easy to find papers and walk students through the papers, yet we possibly need to vary things. Yes, the texts might be different, but the questions are the same and that could lead to some predictable, monotonous teaching. We need familiarity with the papers, but we don’t need it to be endless repetition of the same thing. That’s why the following approaches refer to various texts and examples, because we can’t do them for every text, but they give a sense of variety when looking at the exam paper.

[1] The front of the booklet

‘The Tiredness of Rosabel’ by Katherine                Mansfield – 1908

We exploring the title of poems, yet I can guarantee that a large majority of students skipped by the word ‘tiredness’ when hunting for the exam questions. In fact, that ‘tiredness’ is a huge theme of the extract. Miss that and you could easily miss a valuable part of the story.

We spend a good ten minutes exploring the front of the booklet. What could Rosabel be tired of? What could cause ‘tiredness’ in 1908? Who is Rosabel? What do we think the issues facing a woman in 1908?

If you are lucky, the story might be part of an anthology and that gives us an extra title to source meaning from. An example even gives the genre of the text. An important aspect to know, if you are exploring the text and its meaning.

[2] Genre

I’ll be honest: genre is something we need to work on with students. There seems to be a lack of variety of genres in films and television today. We tend to get patterns of similar genres and very little variety. This is, in part, a result of consumer influence. A popular film influences the making of another. Students aren’t getting the variety they might once get.

Recently, we looked at ‘Glass, Bricks and Dust’ by Claire Dean. Before we looked at the story, we explored the fantasy and fairy tale genre. A great opportunity to show a trailer for ‘Labyrinth’ and explore the ideas and answer some of these questions:

What is the reader’s connection to the story?

Which one is more important to the genre character or setting?

What is the most important thing that the writer must describe?

What are the story rules for a fairy tale story?

It helps to have a good understanding of the genre before looking at a story. They see how important it is when a parent disappears. They see the significance of a man appearing.

A trailer for films helps students to get the understanding of genre. Therefore, I try to match a trailer to a story extract, so students can identify the features, but, more importantly, identify how a reader is supposed to react to the text.  

[3] SQEELS

I can see people’s hackles rise already. Hear me out on this one. I am not a big fan of acronyms and in fact I hate them, yet I have used this one for the skills when looking at Question 2 and 3. I don’t use it to write paragraphs. That’s tosh. I use it to help students remember the skills they must use.

Spot it  - a choice made by the writer

Quote it  - a quotation

Effect it – I know, dodgy! How the reader feels  - a sense of …. Mood …. Atmosphere … a feeling of

Explain it  - explanation for the mood and commenting on the subtext – they feel this because…  

Link it – a connection to the rest of story or extract

Symbolise it – what’s the bigger picture here?

We use it to get students to remember that they have to demonstrate other skills when exploring the text. We stress that the SPOT / QUOTE / EFFECT are the basics. The non-negotiables. However, they get few marks for them unless they EXPLAIN / LINK / SYMBOLISE things. Plus, I teach students how they can start with any of them, but there’s no need to follow them in the particular order. In fact, I actively encourage them to start with ‘effect it’ or ‘symbolise it’ as it enables high-level thinking sooner in the writing.

Q2 Example

Spot it  - The writer uses the verb

Quote it   -  ‘oozing’

Effect it   - to create a sense of anger and frustration.

Explain it  - She is fed-up with her life and she wants something different and to escape from the world she is in.

Link it  - The attractive woman in the shop highlights how bad her life is.

Symbolise it – This symbolises the difference between the different classes.

Q3 Example

Spot it  - The writer changes the focus from the bus to the girl with red hair

Quote it   -  ‘eyes the colour of that green ribbon shot with gold they had got from Paris last week ‘

Effect it   - to create a sense of contrast and envy, suggesting to us the sadness Rosabel feels with her life. 

Explain it  - The girl represented what Rosabel wishes she had.

Link it  - The writer focuses on the woman to make us empathise with her situation. We see how she lives and then see how others more fortunate live.

Symbolise it – The drab, unpleasant bus represents her life and girl is the one attractive and pleasant part of her day. 

  

For us, it has become a planning structure. So when we give students a paragraph, we get students to write S Q E E L S in the margin and get them to think of something to say about the paragraph.

[4] The Subtext

A lot of students really struggle with the subtext of a story. They are obsessed with the obvious features of the story and don’t really address the heart of the story. You could spot a million similes, but unless you know the subtext of the story, you’ll not understand why one of those similes have been used. Therefore, we have been working on jumpstarting the thinking about the subtext.

We give students a list of statements exploring the subtext. Some true and some false. All on one PowerPoint.  Students then have to support these ideas with reference to the text.

Alex fears he is losing control of his life.

Alex is inventing things to worry about.

Alex is trying to avoid the reality of how bad things are.

Alex is struggling to control his life.

Alex has lost all hope.

Alex is fed-up of pretending everything is going to be ok.

Alex just wants to live a normal life.

Alex is fed-up of acting like the adult.

Alex feels he is shouldering the responsibility of a lot of the problems.

Alex has accepted she is going to die.

Alex is insecure and his mother’s illness has brought this to the surface.

Then, we think about anything missing from the list. Is it about something else?

I have really enjoyed this bit, because it moves the analysis to meaning and not choices. We, of course, talk about the choices, but only after exploring the subtext. What has the writer used to show us that Alex is struggling to control his life? A simile of a boat in a storm.

[5] Objects, places and people

Unless we get a really strange extract, the story will always contain objects, places and people. I have seen people offer so many different ways to address the structure question and a lot of them focus on drawing eyes, glasses or random symbols.

I feel it is better to ask students to spot the people, settings and objects in the text. They are the tent poles for the story. Then, they can explore the reason for that object, setting and person at that point in story. This also helps to develop the symbolism of aspects in the text.

This is an example I used with Rosabel this week and it generated the following ideas.

·         Start and end features a purchase of an object with different attitudes  

·         Juxtaposition of violets and egg highlights desires and needs

·         Egg symbolises the frugal and plain nature of her life  

·         Bus and carriage highlight the difference in class and how effortless things are for the rich

·         The red-haired woman contrasts with Rosabel’s brown hair and lifestyle – an impossible aspect to change

·         Jewellers represent a better life and a better job for her – the selling of hats isn’t glamourous – a functional job

·         The woman in the grey mackintosh coat represents the normal customer and making the red-haired woman unique

·         Colour is important in the story. Violets add colour to her life. The red-haired woman doesn’t need colour, as it is colourful enough, so she needs a black hat.  

Plus, when you look at the story you’ll see that the story follows the structure of objects, setting and people, which goes to show that the emphasis from the start is on materialism. The order will change depending on the extract. The more I think about the extract, the more I think the violets are the single, most important structural device in the story. They suggest her attitude towards life. She’d rather look at something pretty than eat a nice meal.

[6] Style

Looking at the style of writing is incredibly important when looking at the story and students needs to pick up in the change of style and explore it. Yes, the objects, people and settings change, but sometimes the writer changes the style to match that.

I get students to see if they can spot where the writing changes. If they can’t, then I offer them this. Then, usually they get the gist of the point. They then explore why the bus is described in such detail and why the conversation with the woman with red hair is featured in the story.

[7] Explain the answers

All too often we are starting with a blank slate with students. It takes time to get to an idea and we are constantly getting them to start from zero. I like giving students the possible answers to questions and get them to explain them verbally to the class. Explain to my why the writer used the word ‘lashing’ to create a violent atmosphere.

Question 2- How does the writer use language to…?

Words / Phrases

•       Lashing – violence / dominant force attacking / pain

•       Adrift -  helplessness / unconnected / distant / disorientated

•       Adrift in a boat – caught in the centre / affected by things greatly

•       Pushed –  hesitancy / fear of danger / nervousness

•       Bulk – solid / security / strength / consistent / power 

•       Spilling in furious waves – anger / hatred / destruction / power / lack of skill / unpredictable 

•       Roaring – danger / uncontrollable / monstrous / animalistic

•       Pounding – fear / danger / uncontrollable /

•       Tangled – confusion / inescapable

In doing this, we help students to develop the language for talking about effect.

[8] The summary sentence

A boy has been struggling to fit in at his new school. His parents have moved from the city to a small country village on the Welsh coast.

The summary sentence of the extract holds lot of choices by the writer and some scope for inferences and empathy.

How would a boy find starting in a new school different to a girl?

What would a person moving from the city to the countryside find difficult?

These things need to be modelled to the students. A reliance on jumping in means that students fail to understand key aspects of the writing.

[9] A paragraph is enough

The boy resumed paddling.  He kicked only every third or fourth stroke; kicking was more exertion than steady paddling.  But the occasional kicks sent new signals to the fish.  The time it needed to lock on them, only an instant, for it was almost directly below the boy.  The fish rose.  Nearly vertical, it saw the commotion on the surface.  There was no conviction that what thrashed above was food, but food was not a concept of significance.  The fish was impelled to attack: if what it swallowed was digestible that was food; if not, it would later be regurgitated.  The mouth opened, and with a final sweep of the sickle tail, the fish struck.

Jaws by Peter Benchley

One paragraph is enough. There isn’t a real need to work through pages of prose. This paragraph has something to say on language, structure, subtext, effect, and even Question 4. Our Year 11s are preparing for their mocks and we’ve been giving them, as a starter, a paragraph and getting them to comment on language, structure and evaluate it.

[10] Finding stuff

Finding inferences can help students build up their understanding and resilience with texts.  We need to work on helping students make those inferences independently and some form of scaffolding is needed.

Rosabel would rather spend her money on pretty things than essential items she needs:

Rosabel cares about her appearance:

Rosabel finds the customers funny sometimes:

There isn’t a need to go through repeated paper after paper. We can be a little bit more creative with how we teach the papers and help students work through it.

Thanks for reading,

Xris