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Showing posts from April, 2013

Locked in the Library? 16 Revision and Study Tips

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Are you locked in the Library? It's the exam season again! Here are 16 practical tips and strategies to support study and revision work for exams: Short blocks of time for work A balanced workload between all subjects means variety  Days off work for leisure Writing down a list of reasons to be motivated Rewarding yourself for doing the hours planned Not starting to revise too late Summarising your notes Creating Mindmaps or other visualizations  Devising your own mnemonics or memory games Reading past exam papers Ensuring that you know what the examiners are looking for Doing timed answers and exercies Trying out model opening and closing paragraphs for essays Learning about 50 impressive words to use in discussions, arguments, or concepts Working with your teachers to explain what's not clear  Working with friends collaboratively in teams Dr Ian McCormick is the author of The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences (Quibble Academic

Designing a Critical Scorecard: the Poetry League Table

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Why not create your own league table of writers with your class? This is a great opportunity for critical thinking and collaborative decision-making. Start by constructing a long or short list of writers/poets/novels/poems. Then discuss your key criteria for evaluation. Perhaps your scores will change over time? Poet and playwright Oliver Goldsmith’s “poetical scale” was originally published in The Literary Magazine in January, 1758. Genius        Judgement        Learning           Versification Chaucer                       16                    12                    10                    14 Spenser                        1 8                   12                    14                    18 Shakespeare                19                    14                    14                    19 Jonson                         1 6                   1 8                   17                    8 Cowley                        17                    17                

Exam Board Guidance on English language work

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Summary of the AQA Exam Board Guidance on language work for A level (16-18 years).  For AS and A level, learners can analyse texts by exploring four functions of language: the expressive function – how a text represents its writer or producer and conveys their attitudes and values the experiential function – how a text represents people, institutions and events the relational function – how a text creates an ideal audience position, creating a power relation between producer and audience, and shaping the audience’s response the textual function – how texts create coherence and cohesion Linguistic Frameworks Phonological: alliteration, assonance, rhythm, rhyme the forms and functions of non-verbal aspects of speech Lexical-semantic: denotational and connotational meaning, figurative language, structural semantics (semantic fields, synonyms, antonyms, hypernyms, hyponyms), jargon, levels of formality Gram