i.e. inside english
Issue 13
Editor’s comment Dear Colleague, Grades only tell part of the story of a learner's education. I'll always be grateful to my English teachers who helped me to pass the exams but my gratitude is far greater for the way they encouraged my love of reading and writing. If there's a theme encompassing this issue of i.e. it's that: engaging learners so that reading and writing are not just a means to an end. I was never very good at science which was more my fault than my teachers'. There are always others, often boys, who enjoy science but would not dream of picking up a book. Dr Joy Alexander's work and research in marrying science and English is well worth reading and should benefit both subjects. It might also be a good way of bringing together two subjects often seen as entirely separate. As the summer brings a little more breathing space in the classroom, it's a great opportunity to work collaboratively on the exciting project she describes. It's one thing to study Shakespeare, an entirely different thing to enjoy it. The British Library's new Shakespeare resource will be of interest to both teachers and learners. We've also got some more contemporary writing to consider through an article on post-2000 fiction and an interview with writer Cynan Jones. And as the race for the White House begins in earnest, we consider Donald Trump's use of language in one of his speeches. There's also a lot more to discover with articles on poetry and the relationship between the landscape and fiction. With this edition's mix of resources, interviews and teaching ideas, I hope there'll be something that might help to engage learners in English. Thank you to all those who have written articles for this edition of i.e. I hope you'll find it useful as you seek not only to help learners to get their grades but also to inspire them to become readers and writers. I also hope that you have a good end to the term and a well-deserved break over the summer holidays. Best wishes, Rhodri Jones rhodri.jones@wjec.co.uk
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Contents English Teachers, Labs and Libraries....................................4 Shakespeare................................................................................9 Texts and Territory.................................................................10 Post-2000 Literature...............................................................12 Analysing Language: 'Testing the Trump' .........................14 Meet the Writer ......................................................................17 Poetry: Serious but Fun!.......................................................19 BBC Bitesize.............................................................................21 What’s On.................................................................................22 Important Dates......................................................................25 Contacts....................................................................................28
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i.e Magazine Needs You Calling all teachers of English… i.e. Magazine needs you! WJEC would like to hear from you! ine created for teachers az ag m e lin on ific ec sp t i.e. is WJEC’s first subjec England and Wales. ss ro ac rs he ac te m fro ions future of English using contribut just like you to include in rs he ac te m fro ns io ut rib WJEC need cont issues of i.e. classroom experience? • Have you had a unique cation or situation? lo l ua us un an in ht ug ta • Have you or your students? u yo d ire sp in lly cia pe es ion ? • Has a WJEC qualificat story from the classroom ng iri sp in or s ou or m hu e • Do you have a ssroom tips you would lik cla t ea gr w fe a ve ha st • Or do you even ju to share? ving e and are interested in ha ov ab e th of y an to s ye rld If you answered teachers all over the wo ish gl En of s nd sa ou th your article read by of i.e. addition to a future issue ct rfe pe e th be d ul co u then yo You don’t have to ha ve any previous writ ing experience (although if you do that’s perfe ctly fine as well) just send any id eas or even finished articles to english@wjec.co.uk However if you don’ t want to write an artic le, or share some tips don’t desp air! WJEC is always looking for feedback on the web site and you could be a part of making i.e. the best magazine it can be. Email any thoughts on previous issues or ideas for fu ture issues to english@wjec.co.u k.
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If you haven’t already had a chance to peruse i.e. then you can view previous issues for ideas and inspiration on9 Page 12 i.e Issue WJEC’s website.
English Teachers, Labs and Libraries by Joy Alexander, Ruth Jarman and Billy McClune
English and Science, anyone? Cross-curricular collaborations are encouraged these days but English and Science probably constitute one of the less likely pairings. For the past decade we have been working together on a number of research projects which have involved curriculum development through integrated English and Science classroom activities. The current projects, funded by the Primary Science Teaching Trust, encompass two broad areas – critical reading of science-based media reports and reading science information books for pleasure. I will outline our work in each of these areas in turn.
Science-based news reports Science-related news regularly hits the headlines: Banger out of order: Sausages and bacon top cancer list Can music jog your brain into top gear? Scientists discover how blue and green clays kill bacteria
It is obviously important to be able to evaluate the reliability of such news stories. Critical reading is an essential building block in science literacy. Science in the public domain is generally cuttingedge and sometimes controversial; readers who fail to read critically may be misled or be unable to engage meaningfully. We have accumulated research evidence which suggests that Science teachers and English teachers read such news articles differently. While English teachers sort fact from opinion and recognise how language is being used to persuade, Science teachers notice whether experimental evidence justifies the claims being made and whether the results have found acceptance in the scientific community. Acquiring comprehensive skills in critical reading of science reports in the media may best be afforded by English and Science teachers working collaboratively. We have devised ‘always ask’ questions which cover the main elements in science-based news reports and which characterise a critical reader (see Table 1).
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English teachers, labs and libraries
News report elements
Exemplar queries
1. Source of report (publisher & author) 2. Sources of information (informants)
• Who wrote the article? • Where is it published? • Are the sources credible?
Aware of influences of media production
3. Headlines & language 4. Text elements
• Is the language emotive or persuasive? • Whose facts are reported? • Whose opinion is reported?
Demonstrates literacy skills
5. Technical vocabulary 6. Evidence & conclusion 7. Consensus or disagreement
• Questioning scientific or technical words or ideas. • Is there evidence about what others in the scientific community think? • What conclusions are made? • Does the evidence support the conclusion?
Uses science knowledge
8. Significance
• Is this important? • How will this affect me? • What impact will this have on others?
Displays critical habits of mind Is perceptive & shows sensitivity
Characteristics of a critical reader
Table 1 We are currently trialling activities that will develop critical reading skills and that are appropriate for English and Science classrooms. • A core activity is the ‘Newsbug’ task. Pupils have a rough card outline of a six-legged insect which they cut out and fold over so that it stands on the desk. They are then given six key questions (derived from those in Table 1) on a science media article which they discuss and decide if they can agree on a satisfactory answer. If an answer fails to satisfy their scrutiny, they rip a leg off the newsbug. When they have completed the task they should have visually demonstrated whether or not the the news report has credibility i.e. ‘legs to stand on.’
• Another activity is the ‘certainty meter.’ Pupils are given statements relating to a news article. They have to decide where they would place each statement on a scale running from high to low certainty, in so doing reaching decisions about whether scientific claims are speculative or secure. • The ‘reader response’ task lists the sorts of responses that readers make to online news stories. Here are examples of responses to an article about scientific testing of the ‘five-second rule’ (i.e. it’s OK to eat food that has dropped on the floor if you pick it up within five seconds).
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English teachers, labs and libraries
These findings confirm what I already knew – the 5 second rule tells us that it is safe to eat food dropped on the floor if you know who dropped it. This article is irresponsible. Food safety is too important a topic to allow people to go on believing that food dropped on the floor is safe to eat. One study under laboratory conditions with selected bacteria is not sufficient to suggest that we drop our guard when it comes to food hygiene.
winning books can be seen at the Award’s web-site: https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/bookprizes/young-peoples-book-prize/ To encourage the reading of such wonderful books for pleasure, we have been running Project 500 in schools for several years. It is so-called because science books are shelved at 500/600 in the Dewey Decimal system. Many science departments make use of the school library for pupil project work; Project 500 seeks to
I never get tummy upsets and I haven’t missed a day at work in 20 years. I live by the credo known as “when in doubt throw it out”. I think any sensible person would put this science where it belongs – in the bin! Pupils have to give a star rating to each response, depending on how good the argument is in relation to the information in the news article. They can then review their ratings to see what were the characteristics of a good and a weak argument and write their own response to the original science news report. Our ultimate goal through this project is to enable pupils to become discerning readers of science presented in the media.
Reading science books for pleasure The best of contemporary science information books for young people have an undoubted wow! factor. Design features often include amazing photography, paper engineering, on-line features, etc. Young people themselves are the judges in the Royal Society’s Young People’s Book Award, choosing the winning science book from a short-list of six, and schools or other groups across the UK are invited each year to enter a panel of judges. The quality of the short-listed and
extend this by actively encouraging young people to read science books for interest and enjoyment as well as for research and report writing. The Project is launched by an event designed to catch the attention of pupils and motivate them to read science books, e.g. a science show, book/film event, dress-up day, themed assembly. A reading challenge is issued for young people to read a specific number of science information books; we supply reading passports and stickers, which are awarded for each book that is read. While the Project can simply involve reading these books, Science and English teachers are encouraged to stimulate interest through planning for and engaging their pupils in activities that promote creative interaction with the books – preparing posters, tweets or bookmarks; devising paper engineering (e.g. ‘lift-the-flap’) to present science facts; creating ‘shelf-talkers’ for the school library; designing a board game based on a science book. Certificates are awarded to those who complete the challenge. Information books nowadays, like web-pages, call for new, non-linear forms of reading. Look at the doublepage spread (Figure 1) from Utterly Amazing Science, the 2015 winner of the Royal Society’s Young People’s Book Award.
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English teachers, labs and libraries
Readers can begin at whatever point on the page attracts their interest; they are likely to be drawn in to read more; the text is in small ‘chunks’ which are generally closely tied to illustrations. These design features enable weaker readers to access the book; while
Project’s benefits. Science and English teachers tell us that they enjoy the novelty of working with each other, but also that, when through our Projects they integrate their individual strengths from their subject specialisms, a synergy results which has value for pupil learning. Joy Alexander, Ruth Jarman and Billy McClune work in the School of Education, Queen’s University, Belfast. They are at present engaged in two research projects which are funded by the Primary Science Teaching Trust: ’Newswise: let’s talk about science’ for further information contact: w.mcclune@qub.ac.uk
Figure 1: Utterly Amazing Science by Robert Winston (Dorling Kindersley)
it may not build reading stamina it will nurture reading interest and confidence. It also facilitates social reading and talk about books, since two people can easily look together at a double-page spread.
‘Growing Young Science Readers: Project 500 (Schools)’ for further information contact r.jarman@qub.ac.uk
We have many examples of pupils participating enthusiastically in Project 500, with Science and English teachers and librarians speaking positively of the
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QUALIFICATION REFORM MAY CAUSE A STIR… …but direct access to our subject specialists is reassuringly calming. Eduqas is WJEC’s new brand for reformed qualifications in England. Eduqas has been introduced to enable teachers to clearly differentiate between reformed specifications regulated by Ofqual and those regulated by the Welsh Government.
eduqas.co.uk
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT QUALIFICATION REFORM, MAKE YOURSELF A CUPPA AND GIVE ONE OF OUR SUBJECT SPECIALISTS A CALL: GCSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
GCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE
A level ENGLISH
Nancy Hutt 029 2026 5023 Nancy.Hutt@eduqas.co.uk
Julia Harrison 029 2026 5374 Julia.Harrison@eduqas.co.uk
Rhodri Jones 029 2026 5188 Rhodri.Jones@eduqas.co.uk
Matthew Oatley 029 2026 5054 gcseenglish@eduqas.co.uk
Lewis Beecham 029 2026 5051 gcseenglish@eduqas.co.uk
Mike Williams 029 2026 5129 Mike.Williams@eduqas.co.uk
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Discovering Shakespeare Discovering Literature: Shakespeare, launched on the 15th March 2016, the Ides of March. Unlucky for Caesar, but not for the British Library which hopes to attract over 600,000 visitors to the new site in its first year. The site builds on the success of the first phase of the project, Discovering Literature: Romantics and Victorians, which launched in 2014, and precedes additional phases on 20th-Century Literature, launching later this year and Old and Middle English Literature, the Renaissance, the Restoration and 18th-Century Literature, all launching in 2017. Once complete, the British Library will have realised its ambition to put its greatest literary treasures from Beowulf to the present day online. Discovering Literature, however, is far more than a collection of digitised literary manuscripts. Extensive research with the teaching community directed the course of the project, which aims to bring to life the social, political and cultural contexts in which some of our greatest literary treasures were written and set. Alongside Shakespeare’s First Folio, and the manuscript of The Book of Sir Thomas More – believed to be the only surviving literary manuscript in Shakespeare’s hand - are a wealth of other collection items that explore issues such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality, madness and exploration to the ‘New World’, topics as relevant today, as they were in early modern England. The site is designed in such a way to enable users to jump straight into exploring images of the 300 digitised collection items, or, browse by play, topic or theme. Each of these sections is populated with numerous articles, all written by named academics, curators, performers, teachers and other experts, in a style that we hope will be easily accessible to our target audiences. For this phase, contributors include the scholars Kiernan Ryan, Emma Smith, Head of Research at the Globe, Farah Karim-Cooper, and the actors Hugh Quarshie and Simon Callow. Woven through each article, are the primary sources from the site, which are not limited to the British Library’s own collections, but draw upon some of the other significant Shakespeare collections in, for example the Folger Shakespeare Library and the British Museum. In addition, some articles are delivered as lectures via a small number of films. Created by the British Library’s Learning Team, the site’s primary target audiences are A level students and teachers, and as such, all of the 15 plays currently studied across the exam boards are represented on the site. In addition, Teachers Notes, available as downloadable pdfs, help teachers find routes through the content, with ideas for activities they can incorporate into their own lesson plans. Alex Whitfield, Project Manager of the site says, ‘We hope Discovering Literature: Shakespeare helps young people gain a greater understanding of Shakespeare, his world and his work, and that through the site they can find resonance between their own lives and the issues presented in his plays, and so understand why Shakespeare is still so relevant today.’
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Texts and Territory: Introducing the Digital Literary Atlas of Wales
As all teachers of literature will know, novels ignite enthusiasm and interest for the world around us. This interest is heightened further when novels are set in places that we are familiar with - perhaps our own country or even our own neighbourhood – and on these occasions, stories and characters spring to life, merging texts to the territories we live in. These connections between geography and literature are explored in a new project ‘The Digital Literary Atlas of Wales’, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and based in Cardiff University. Starting in May 2016 and running for two years, this project will connect twelve Welsh novels written in English to the localities in which they are set. The project will produce a free-to-access website which will enable the user to explore a cartographic version of these novels. Users will be able to locate specific novels on an interactive map of Wales, with key locations identified in the narrative. These locations will be
supplemented with local histories, as well as a range of information which explains the context of the place when the novel was set, when it was written, and how it has changed in the present day. These new literary maps will be also contain interviews with authors and literary experts (in written, audio, and podcast form) which explain the themes contained within the novel, new perspectives on its characters, and the role that geographical and cultural context plays in creating the narrative. Coupled to these resources, users will also be able to ‘scroll’ through the places identified in the novels, in a similar vein to online ‘street view’ applications, with excerpts from the novel superimposed on the locations, as well as accessible in more conventional ‘page’ form. It is hoped that this resource will support teachers in their delivery of Welsh writing in English in the classroom. As both an online resource within schools, it will also be possible to use The Digital Literary
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Texts and Territory : Introducing the Digital Literary atlas of Wales
Atlas of Wales as the basis for learning outside the classroom. For each novel a walking tour will be generated on the Atlas to encourage readers to witness in person the locations which inspired the narratives. As a consequence, it is hoped that the Atlas will form the basis for day or half-day excursions for a range of users, including pupils, which will further inspire their interest in novels, and their local community. Finally, the Digital Literary Atlas of Wales will encourage language and literacy. Users will be able post their own short stories (or micro-fictions) to the site. It is hoped these stories will themselves be tied into specific locations on the map, so users can contribute their own ideas and identities to this ongoing archive of literary Wales. At this stage, the leader of the project, Dr Jon Anderson (based in the School of Geography and Planning,
Cardiff University), would like to invite all teachers in schools across Wales to suggest novels for inclusion on the Digital Literary Atlas of Wales. These could be novels that are currently adopted as set or free texts on their curriculum, or other novels that they may like to use in future. The only criteria are that they are written in English, and set in Wales. If any school has any suggestions for novels in particular, the project in general, or would simply like to be kept updated about the progress of the Digital Literary Atlas of Wales, please contact Dr Jon Anderson on the following email: AndersonJ@cf.ac.uk Introductory information on the project can also be found here: http://www.spatialmanifesto.com/research-projects/ literary-geographies
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The Real Challenge of Teaching and Studying Post - 2000 Literature Robert Eaglestone - Royal Holloway, University of London Teaching and studying post-2000 literature can seem daunting, but I think it can be the most exciting part of the curriculum. Studying fiction written now (more or less!) emphasises how traditions of literature are alive and not simply specimens pickled in formaldehyde. Thinking about “the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received” in post-2000 texts encourages students to think about themselves and their world, to bring in ideas and experiences from their daily life: engaging with these has always been strength of our discipline, and ‘post-2000’ further encourages this. More, “exploring connections” and thinking about how texts are “informed by different interpretations” can also occur ‘right here’ in the classroom, ‘live’. And while it may be true that there aren’t York Notes, BBC bitesize revision aids or loving recreated TV miniseries in period costumes for more recent texts, there are different and new kinds of resources: author interviews on YouTube and TV, newspaper and blog reviews and so on. There are even some excellent open-access (that is: free to use) journals about contemporary literature: I especially recommend the great-looking Alluvium https:// www.alluvium-journal.org/ and C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-century Writings http://gylphi.co.uk/journals/ C21Literature/. There’s also the rapidly expanding Open Library of the Humanities https://www.openlibhums.org/. Some university departments – including mine - are also working on ways to provide hard-pressed teachers with ‘digests’ of recent academic work on key figures. But think there’s something even more interesting and perhaps challenging about teaching and studying recent literature which goes to the heart of the discipline of English. Maths teaches students to be mathematicians, history teaches them to be historians: English teaches students not to be ‘Englishers’ (as some year 12s put it when I asked them) but to be literary critics. Anybody encountering any literature (any art, in fact) has a response: literary criticism teaches ways to articulate, explain, analyse and discuss that response. This involves engaging with an often submerged tradition of thought about literature. Of course, no one expects students to know the whole history of criticism – that would be mad! But the traditions of thought about literature surface in the sort of questions that we, as critics, shaped by those traditions, ask about literary texts. And when the ‘stabiliser wheels’ of established
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The Free-for All Approach to a Non-exam Assessment at A Level
commentary are removed – as they often are when we look at more recent work - the questions we ask become more important. Here’s an example of what I mean. When a historian reads a novel (with their historian’s hat on…), they are interested in mining it for historical information. We critics look for this too, of course, but also a whole range of other things: importantly, for example, we think about literary form. Form is central to we do but – irritatingly – it’s extremely hard to describe what exactly it is. I sometimes show my students many different still life pictures and ask them to explain the differences by comparing them (“I never thought there were so many different ways to paint apples”). Form is how a work tells: it’s what makes art artistic and literature literary. Sometimes it can sound a bit like we are interested in form simply to find what ‘pigeonhole’ a work belongs in (“is this play a history or a tragedy?”). But really, it’s because we are aware that decisions about form structure how a literary work, well, works. All art has form. This means that, in relation to contemporary fiction, at least, students will be familiar with issues of form once it is drawn to their attention as critics. Harry Potter may have magical content but it is realist in form (and while I know that ‘Potter fever’ has declined considerably, nearly all YA fiction is realist). This is why Harry Potter was so easy to film: realism tries to pretend that we are ‘looking through’ the text to the ‘real world’ constructed beyond, just as we ‘look through’ the cinema screen. Indeed, realism in the novel is such a powerful and familiar convention that it’s almost ‘invisible’ and students are sometimes troubled by non-realist forms: say, the modernist work of Virginia Woolf, deep inside the flowing movements of the protagonist’s mind, or the postmodern fairy tales work of Angela Carter, mixing magic, the text and the world together. However, because questions about form, about realism, are the sorts of questions literary critics ask and because these questions draw on all their experience of reading, students can bring these into their thinking about contemporary literature. This means that the students are most able to bring themselves and most able to learn to be literary critics in relation to these post-2000 texts. A challenge, certainly, but surely a worthwhile one. Robert Eaglestone is Professor of Contemporary Literature and Thought at Royal Holloway, University of London. He works on contemporary literature and literary theory, contemporary philosophy and on Holocaust and Genocide studies.
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Testing the Trump How the language of the USA election campaign can be a useful tool for analysis at KS5 English Language
If you want an exciting, pure example of propaganda or persuasive language in action than you need look no further than election time. And whilst us Brits are certainly not without our solid soundbites, (such as Blair’s ‘Education, Education, Education’ or Cameron’s ‘English Votes for English Laws’), it is our American cousins who provide by and large the more entertainingly sensational slices of rhetoric and none so much as a certain Mr. Donald Trump. Approaching any political discourse analysis with A Level students is like throwing a power ball into a box: it can go anywhere, everywhere and nowhere all at once. Some students will know more than you and others will need a basic level of contextual overview. I still recall the revision lesson I did with Year 12 students in June 2010 where one student asked if Tony Blair was still the Prime Minister only to be reprimanded by a peer: ‘No, you idiot! It’s Gordon Brown.’ Cue a head in hand moment and my only half-playful threat of resignation.
It is easier, therefore, to assume little or no knowledge and work from there. With Trump, as with other political figures, we see a lot (Trump would say a ‘hell of a lot’) of personality and we can use this as a starting point. Any politician is desperate to create, maintain and project their public ‘face’ and, of course, language is a powerful tool that allows them to do this. We could examine his now infamous South Carolina speech of 7th December 2015 where he reiterated a statement calling for a complete ban on Muslims entering the USA and this would certainly be one that students would enjoy. But this is one of his more controversial moments and it is far more interesting and perhaps more important to examine how he appeals to everyday voters during his less confrontational moments. Let’s take his victory speech at the New Hampshire Republican Primary (see appendix).
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Testing the Trumps
Before we begin analysing, we always make notes on context, audience and purposes. We add to these as we go along as it helps to keep our analysis focussed. With this particular speech, we would bear in mind the primary and secondary audiences (that is the audience in the immediate vicinity and those listening and reading via multimedia either immediately or afterward) and a range of purposes. The purposes underpin the analysis and could be enveloped within one general purpose: to keep voters on his side.
values: ‘we’re going to do it [make America great again] the old-fashioned way. We’re going to beat China, Japan, beat Mexico at trade.’ Why has Trump chosen to use the colloquial infinitive ‘to beat’? Why does he begin an asyndetic list of countries, ‘China, Japan’, but feel the
Purpose One: to uphold family values Of course this is crucial if Trump is to appeal to everyday voters. There’s a sense of high morality generated by using discourse of the family. Note the noun phrases in apposition ‘my parents, Mary and Fred’ and how these are used almost immediately after his simple sentence in the declarative mood ‘I want to make America great again’. How does the post-modification of the proper noun ‘America’ with the attributive evaluative adjective ‘great’ uphold those family values? Look at how his use of family discourse is closely linked with those appositional phrases. Consider also the adverb ‘again’ and how this suggests a return to older values and an almost mythological past. Other examples to consider include ‘my fantastic brother, Robert’ and ‘my late brother, Fred’. Purpose Two: to uphold capitalist values Trump is a businessman and with that comes a love of material wealth and competition. We see an epistrophe which includes the infinitive verb phrase ‘to make’ in the predicate ‘going to make America great again’. Here
the semantics attributed to ‘great’ move on from ‘family’ towards ‘competition’ yet sustain the ideology of older
need to repeat the colloquial verb ‘beat’ before ‘Mexico’? What is the significance of the use of the definite article in the noun phrase ‘the old-fashioned way’? Purpose Three: to be a maverick Trump clearly wants to stand out from the crowd. He wants to appear rebellious towards the establishment. Examine his use of the mild taboo ‘hell’ used both as an adverbial, ‘We’re going to work like hell’, and as a noun phrase, ‘By the way, we’re going to knock the hell out of ISIS’. He wants to appear to be a tough outsider, after all it is very unstatesmanlike to swear, but understands the parameters of what is socially acceptable; he could have easily made a different lexical choice. Purpose Four: to show his popularity Trump is well aware of his critics and needs to show the world that he has support from everyday voters of America. So the majority of Trump’s pronoun usage is plural, especially when referring to his party such as ‘we have some real talent, real talent in the Republican Party’. Examine also the reasons for the repetition of the noun phrase ‘real talent’ and the need to include the prepositional phrase ‘in the Republican Party’. Trump also shows his appreciation for ‘the people of New Hampshire’ by declaring ‘we love you’. How does this involve the voters whilst showing the world that he has significant support?
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Testing the Trump
Purpose Five: to show confidence The use of religious discourse, ‘I am going to be the greatest jobs president God has ever created’, suggests that Trump believes he has been put into his position by God. Quite a bold statement but certainly one that shows confidence. Look also at the use of the superlative ‘greatest’ and the adverb ‘ever’. Examine how these help to create an air of confidence – why is this so important at this particular juncture? We find a similar level of confidence in the repetition of the pronoun
refers to the Democrat candidate, Bernie Saunders, and suggests that he is on the side of ‘them’: the pronoun ‘he’ in subject position works directly in opposition to the determiner ‘our’. Creating such a division ensures that Trump’s supporters believe they are on the ‘right side’ of the division. There is plenty more in Trump’s speech and we have only begun to scratch the surface here. In the weeks to come, it is worth collecting a corpus of speeches and interviews to delve into. Sometimes these can be even more interesting to examine once the election is over, especially as we can look at the language of the victors (and the losers!) Trump’s speech in full: Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss7Pg7Zx_ Rs
‘nobody’ in ‘Nobody – nobody is going to mess with us. Believe me, nobody’. Here, we should examine the use of the imperative mood, ‘believe me’, and the colloquialism ‘mess with’. Again, we find use of the plural pronoun in object position this time, ‘us’, and this helps to create a sense of an army (or, at the very least, a gang) ready to defend their country. It is also worth noting the use of the declarative as an aside, ‘by the way, we’re going to knock the hell out of ISIS’, where the fronted adverbial suggests that this is almost a minor, easy task for Trump to take. Purpose Six: to create division Finally, Trump wants to create division both physically, ‘We’re going to have borders’, and in the abstract sense, ‘I heard parts of Bernie’s speech. He wants to give away our country, folks.’ Here, Trump tries to create an ‘us and them’ approach, something that has been tried and tested by many politicians over the years. In the first example, we see the weight of the lexical choice ‘borders’, which appeals to the anti-immigration viewpoints of his supporters. In the second example he i.e Issue 13 Page 16
Meet the Writer
Once again this year, WJEC Eduqas is sponsoring the NATE Conference. The title of this year's conference is 'All the World's a Stage' and is being held in Stratford-upon-Avon on 24-25 June. It includes keynote speakers, workshops, seminars, research presentations, networking sessions, demonstrations and discussions, literary readings and performances – and the biggest exhibition in the UK of books and resources specifically for the teaching of English. It's an excellent opportunity to be re-energised and re-enthused! If you're there, come and say hello to our English team on the WJEC Eduqas stand. Find out more about the conference at https://www.nate. org.uk/ WJEC Eduqas is pleased to welcome three speakers to the event: Sara Thorne who will be presenting a session on the language of poetry, prize-winning novelist and Booker nominee Tessa Hadley, who will be reading from and talking about her work, and the writer Cynan Jones. Cynan has written three novels, most recently 'The Dig', and has been named by one national newspaper as 'one of the most talented writers in Britain'. He is also the first to be interviewed in our new 'Meet the Writer' series for i.e.
Meet the Writer – Cynan Jones What were some of the reasons you became a writer? I write because I love to read and because I love to be left to my own devices. I never thought "I am going to be a writer" in the way I thought, at various ages, "I am going to be an ornithologist, hunt for dinosaur bones, be a teacher." But as I grew up everything else just got mown down by the increasing drive to write. What part did your education have in helping you to become a writer? I was lucky enough to have two teachers for parents, and perhaps didn't appreciate how much education was going on from the get go. Particularly, the habit of picking up a book to find an answer. In that respect, I've always enjoyed finding things out at my own pace. I was a kid who enjoyed working alone, and that's an increasingly difficult thing to accommodate in a classroom. But that habit - of knuckling down at the lonely place of the desk - is one of the most crucial to becoming a writer. Where do good stories start? With the story or with the characters? The Greek philosopher Empedocles had a theory of evolution: that in the beginning there was a soup of disembodied organs that stuck to each other in various combinations. A cow's head on a fish's tail; a bird's wing on a frog's back. The combinations that worked survived.Those that didn't died out. I think it's the same with stories. A set of ideas come together somewhere in the soup of your head and step forth suddenly as an entity in their own right. That's why it's vital to continually keep adding to the soup. (And recognise when an idea is an awkward mutant that won't make it!)
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NATE Conference You visit schools to run workshops and to talk about writing. What do you think are some of the things students should do to become better writers? Read. And the better you read, the better you'll write. Students should read the strongest pieces of writing they can and then practice and practice. They should also learn that you don't write right first time. Writing is, and should be, difficult. First you learn to write. Then you learn to rewrite, edit, and rewrite again. Locations seem to be important in your novels and also seem to be linked to the rural world with which you're familiar. How important is a sense of place to good writing? A magician spends time before a trick getting his audience into a mind set. Place, in good writing, is part of the spell cast of the story. It's the frame you draw your reader into, preferably without them noticing. I would actually switch the question round and ask 'how important is good writing to a sense of place?' A reader should sense the place, should feel they are seeing it rather than having it described to them as a bolted on gimmick. Is there a writer or a book that's had a particular influence on you? In what way? There's no one writer, or one book. Everything you read influences you. Even the safety card on a train. Every time you read something you're sensing a way words should (or shouldn't) be used. What are you reading at the moment? Trilobytes & Other Stories, by Breece D'J Pancake. The twelve short stories are so exceptional you can only read them one or two at a time. Before that I read William Golding's Pincher Martin after a number of people mentioned it - my upcoming novel Cove being about a man adrift on the ocean. Cynan Jones was born in 1975 near Aberaeron, Wales where he now lives and works. He is the author of four short novels and has been longlisted and shortlisted for numerous prizes and won a Society of Authors Betty Trask Award 2007, a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2014 and the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize 2015. His work has been published in the U.S. and widely translated, and short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies and publications and on BBC Radio 4. He also wrote the screenplay for an episode of the BAFTA-winning crime series Hinterland. Cynan was the 2008 Scritture Giovani Hay Festival Fellow and has worked extensively with schools through writing projects. Granta will publish his next book, Cove, in Autumn 2016
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Poetry: Serious but Fun!
Nicola Wheldrake from The Poetry Archive describes the organisations works and how it can help in the classroom.
When Sir Andrew Motion (UK Poet Laureate 1999 –2009) and the recording producer Richard Carrington met in a recording studio in 1999, they talked about how fascinating it is to hear great poets reading their work and how tragic it is that, even in the 20th century, key poets –Hardy, Housman, Lawrence –were never recorded: no-one ever thought of doing so. Launched in 2005, the Poetry Archive is a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to put that right. Serious and fun, the Archive makes and acquires recordings of poets from around the English-speaking world. www.poetryarchive.org has grown into a much-loved resource of truly international significance welcoming over 1.7 million visitors yearly. The Archive contains substantial recordings by over 490 significant English-language poets. Many poems are freely available with more available to buy from the Archive’s unique poetry download store. And new recordings being added every month. As well as new recordings, the Archive also includes historic recordings from the past (Tennyson and Browning are here, for example) and new recordings of work by classic
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Poetry: Serious but Fun!
poets from before the age of recording (Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley and more) read by contemporary poets, with more specially recorded for us by today’s greatest actors. Writers have a particular right to their own work and we are taken to a deeper level of understanding by hearing how they speak it. To students of poetry and to all lovers of literature, such a reading is a powerful source of insight, understanding and enjoyment. Using state-of the-art technology, the Poetry Archive restores poetry to its roots. It preserves for future generations uniquely valuable voices which might otherwise be lost. And it will re-energise, enliven and enhance the teaching of poetry at all levels. With such a wealth of material, The Poetry Archive can be a great resource to help teachers in the classroom engage students with poetry. Here is our three top tips of how to use the website in your teaching: Top Tips for using The Poetry Archive in the classroom The MyArchive feature of the website is a function that allows you to create your own account and bookmark collections so that you can return to them later. Using this feature you could create a bespoke lesson and log onto the website to stream the collection when you are ready. There is no limit to your number of collections or how long they are stored for, once you have created them they are there, saved and waiting for you next time you login. Alternatively, if you don’t want to make your own collections using MyArchive, you can use one of our tailor made Classroom Collections. These are collections of poems that have been curated with teaching in mind. In the Teach section of our website you will find collections such as Gothic Poetry, WW1 Poetry and Caribbean Poetry. In this section you can also find Lesson Plans and Glossary terms. Another way to bring The Poetry Archive into the classroom is by using our download store to purchase poems so that they can be loaded onto devices and played anytime. We have made specific GCSE teaching focused albums, including ‘Poems from WJEC EDUQAS Anthology’, or you can purchase single poems for just 89p.
With almost 2000 poems available freely, to both listen and read on the website, and 490 poet pages that feature biographies, pictures and related links, these are just some of the ways that The Poetry Archive can work to fit into your teaching.
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BBC Bitesize - GCSE English in Wales You and your students might find these text specific resources useful, but remember that a wide range of such support is available to complement the reading of these novels and plays if this is felt appropriate. We’re happy to share our brand new revision app with you. It marks a change in the way users experience the service as the app allows pupils to tailor their revision to their own needs. By signing in, pupils can select the subjects they’re studying, their nation, their language of choice and the relevant exam board, making the app unique to themselves. After that, pupils will have access to great summarised revision flashcards, videos and quizzes, wherever, whenever! It’s available to download to iOS and Android phones, for free: BBC Bitesize for iOS BBC Bitesize for Android The Bitesize team would like to draw your attention to the latest resources published. In the past month we’ve published four brand new programs of study: GCSE English Literature New guides to support the study of Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, Blood Brothers, A Taste of Honey, About a Boy, Never Let me Go, Heroes and A View from the Bridge. Each novel has a guide on plot, themes, characters, form, language and structure and sample exam questions. Some have guides on social and historical context (only when it’s assessed) and the dramas have a dramatisation guide. All texts mentioned (except Blood Brothers) have an accompanying animation detailing the main plot, key themes and characters. GCSE English Language Two new guides, ‘Individual presentation’ and ‘Responding and Interacting’ especially written for the WJEC’s Unit 1: Non-examination assessment Oracy. Each guide includes examples of how to deliver a good presentation and how to participate in a group discussion as well as a specially produced video each, to help pupils prepare for the exam.
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What’s On Theatre
Royal Shakespeare Company For more information visit the website A Mid-Summer Night's Dream - ongoing from April 2016 Cymbeline from 29 April Hamlet from 12 April - 13 August
London Plays Listings For more information visit the website
Useful Links www.thestage.co.uk www.clwyd-theatre-cymru.co.uk www.shermancymru.co.uk www.chapter.org www.wmc.org.uk www.newtheatrecardiff.co.uk www.bristolhippodrome.org.uk www.bristololdvic.org.uk
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What’s On
Cinema Events
Shakespeare on Film #ShakespeareLives For more information visit the website Screenings and Events across the UK: http://www.bfi.org.uk/shakespeare-film/shakespeare-film-screeningsevents-around-uk#cardiff Teaching Shakespeare https://www.tes.com/teaching-shakespeare/
Books for spring/summer 2016 http://buzz.publishersmarketplace.com/booklist
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National Theatre have just announced a production of 'Amadeus' in London in October 2016. It's on the LangLit specification in Wales. http://national-theatre.tumblr.com/post/138601022681/coming-up-at-the-nt2016-and-beyond
Nick Hern Books
Diane Samuel's Kindertransport http://www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/Book/1584/Diane-Samuels-Kindertransport. html
Loot Dr Emma Parker (University of Leicester) will be hosting a free event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the London premiere of Joe Orton's Loot in September 2016. The event, to be held in Leicester, will feature an acting/ directing workshop at Curve theatre, talks by actors and academics about the play, and an exhibition of material from the Joe Orton archive. Places are limited so early booking is advised. To discuss arrangements or register interest, please email Emma: ep27@le.ac.uk
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Important Dates GCSE English, English Language and English Literature 2015 - 2016 (centres in England) 5 May
Summer 2016 series: PRU/Special Schools/FE centres only: Written Controlled Assessment samples to moderator
5 May
Summer 2016 series: Speaking and Listening marks to WJEC; Speaking and Listening Outline of Activities form and sample of records to Speaking and Listening moderator
23 May AM
Summer 2016 series: English Literature Unit 4201 examination
27 May AM
Summer 2016 series: English Literature Unit 4202 examination
7 June AM
Summer 2016 series: English/English Language Unit 4171 & 4172 examinations
25 August
Summer 2016 series: Results published
GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature 2015-2016 (centres in Wales) 5 May
Summer 2016 series: PRU/Special Schools/FE centres only: Written Controlled Assessment samples to moderator*
5 May
Summer 2016 series: Speaking and Listening marks to WJEC; Speaking and Listening Outline of Activities form and sample of records to Speaking and Listening moderator
23 May AM
Summer 2016 series: English Literature Unit 4201 examination
27 May AM
Summer 2016 series: English Literature Unit 4202 examination
7 June AM
Summer 2016 series: English Language Unit 4941 examination
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Important Dates
13 June AM
Summer 2016 series: English Language Unit 4942 examination
25 August
Summer 2016 series: Results published
Additional English 2015 - 2016 4 May
Sample submission deadline
Entry Level Certificate 4 May
Coursework sample submission deadline
Functional Skills (for centres in England only) 2015 - 2016 25 April - 20 May
Controlled Task window for completion
3 May AM
Level 1&2 Examination
25 May
Sample submission deadline – Entry Level Sample of Records and Outline of Activities to moderator – Level 1&2
Level 1 / Level 2 Certificate 2015 - 2016 5 May
Speaking and Listening mark input deadline
15 May
Estimated grades to WJEC
GCE English (for centres in England and Wales) 2015 - 2016 20 May
LL1 (LEGACY)
20 May
LT1 (LEGACY)
23 May
LG1 LEGACY)
15 June
LG4 (LEGACY)
17 June
LT4 (LEGACY)
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Important Dates
17 June
LL4 (LEGACY)
GCE English (for centres in England) 2015 - 2016 20 May
English Language & Literature AS component 1 English Literature AS component 1
23 May
English Language AS component 1
26 May
English Language & Literature AS component 2 English Literature AS 2 component 2
8 June
English Language AS component 2
GCE English (for centres in Wales) 2015 - 2016 20 May
English Language & Literature AS Unit 1 English Literature AS Unit 1
23 May
English Language AS Unit 1
26 May
English Language & Literature AS Unit 2 English Literature AS Unit 2
8 June
English Language AS Unit 2
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Contacts
For all comments, questions, suggestions and contributions contact us at: english@wjec.co.uk Nancy Hutt Subject Officer GCSE English Language Out of Wales Telephone: 029 2026 5023 Email: gcseenglish@wjec.co.uk
Julia Harrison Subject Officer: GCSE English Literature Level 1 and 2 Certificate in English Literature Functional Skills English Telephone: 029 2026 5374 Email: julia.harrison@wjec.co.uk
Guy Melhuish Subject Officer GCSE English Language in Wales Telephone 029 2026 5179 Email: guy.melhuish@wjec.co.uk
Rhodri Jones Subject Officer GCE English Literature; GCE Language and Literature Functional Skills English Telephone: 029 2026 5188 Email: rhodri.jones@wjec.co.uk
Michael Williams Subject Support Officer GCE English Telephone: 029 2026 5129 Email: mike.williams@wjec.co.uk
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Contacts
Matt Oatley Subject Support Officer GCSE English Telephone: 029 2026 5054 Email: gcseenglish@wjec.co.uk
Lewis Beecham Subject Support Officer GCSE English; Level 1 & 2 Certificate in English Language and Literature; Speaking and Listening Telephone: 029 2026 5051 Email: gcseenglish@wjec.co.uk
Fleur Andrews Subject Support Officer Additional English; Entry Level English; Functional Skills English; Telephone: 029 2026 5070 Email: fleur.andrews@wjec.co.uk
Yvonne Prescott Subject Support Officer GCE English; ELC English; Additional English Telephone: 02920265303 Email: Yvonne.prescott@wjec.co.uk
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WJEC, 245 Western Avenue, Cardiff, CF5 2YX 029 2026 5000 info@wjec.co.uk www.wjec.co.uk CBAC, 245 Rhodfa'r Gorllewin, Caerdydd, CF5 2YX 029 2026 5000 gwybodaeth@wjec.co.uk www.cbac.co.uk
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