As some of you may know, I have been a part-time teacher since September. I have Wednesday’s off to look after my daughter. I did promise myself I wouldn’t do anything school-related on Wednesdays, but it’s virtually impossible to avoid it. There has been more activity on the Lord of the Flies discussion below, so I have responded to that, but most of you have yet to make any contribution, so come on – get to it.
I’ve also felt obliged to try and crack-on with the interminable Y11 mock exam marking. I had hoped to have Paper 2 marked by now, but I’m still a fair way short of that. However, I’m fairly pleased by most of what I’ve marked so far. Even the relatively weaker responses show a reasonable platform to build on in the coming months, and many of you would achieve your target grades even if you took the real exams now. Do make sure you continually put in the work and revision needed to maximise your potential though, won’t you? As I keep emphasising, practice is the most important thing you can do, and the more you do outside the limited lesson time we have, the better.
The mark scheme criteria for the ‘Writing’ assessment objective for grade A included this descriptor: ” well-informed, drawing on a range of sources,” and for A* it says “demonstrates intellectual rigour and the ability to integrate a range of complex details from varied sources.” How do you get to be well-informed, and able to draw on a range of sources? By reading and listening to a range of sources, of course!
On this blog I hope to point you in the direction of a range of reading and listening matter that you might not come across otherwise, but that will help to equip you with the ‘intellectual rigour’ and exposure to different styles of writing that will help you to see more clearly how to write in appropriate styles for as many different genres, audiences and purposes as possible.
I’ll start you off by asking you to look at this article. I’m genuinely interested in what you think of it.
Heald English 