A shout out: we’re hosting a whole day oracy conference at Halesowen College on July 11th 2019. Speakers include Andy Street (Mayor of West Midlands), Alan Howe, Professor Carl Chinn, Voice 21 and the author Cathy Cassidy. Lots of excellent workshops as well! To book a place go to https://www.svat.org.uk/news/2019/3/1/talking-up-teaching-oracy-for-social-mobility-in-the-black-country Advertisements
I’ve been reading ‘The Writing Revolution’ by Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler (2017) and early on in that book, the authors refer to the simple technique of using the ‘because-but-so’ sequence to help structure pupils’ thinking and responses. Given a sentence stem (i.e. ‘Cars are convenient’), students are then asked to complete the stem… Continue reading Because – but – so: thinking about Jekyll, Hyde and the human condition.
This is the second in my blog posts about the importance of ‘things’ in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (see here for the first one on ‘lamp posts’!) Inspired by ‘thing’ theory, these posts attempt to delve deeper into the meaning and symbolism of various objects in the novella. This time, it is the turn… Continue reading The Importance of Envelopes in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
I’ve been working with a group of pupils in Year 11 whose aspirational targets, at the moment to them, seem a little distant. I’ve got six lessons with them to make some difference, and I can’t help thinking that understanding structure is one of the keys to unlocking reading. And unlocking structure is about slow-reading,… Continue reading Structure, talk and slow-reading
This series of blog posts is inspired by some of the work I have been doing on my PhD and in particular Andrea Arnold’s film version of Wuthering Heights. I have just finished reading a chapter from a book by Deborah Lutz called ‘The Bronte Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects”, a chapter which describes the Bronte’s fascination with… Continue reading Jekyll and Hyde in 4 Things …
Images: http://www.gramunion.com/monamay.tumblr.com/149125847167; https://mattbredmond.com/2012/01/20/the-house-of-truth-and-the-hearth-of-kindness/ Studying 19th century fiction is also an exciting exploration of changing styles, contexts, characters and narrative trajectories. Take the following two extracts. The first from Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte’s bildungsroman charting the development of the eponymous protagonist as she negotiates her way through various residences, relationships and revelations. The second is… Continue reading Comparing Nineteenth century fiction with Contemporary Young Adult fiction
Men in 19th century literature like walking. For some, like Wordsworth, it was not only a spur to prick the sides of his imaginative intent, but also a tactile reaction to the creeping industrialisation that took humans further each day away from nature; for others, like some of Charles Dickens’ characters, they walked because they… Continue reading Of Windows and (Imaginary) Walking in Jane Eyre
