My senior class (a mixture of Int 2 and Higher pupils) will be sitting their exams in a couple of weeks time.  We are spending the few weeks between Easter and D-day revising the class texts, practising close reading techniques and improving essay writing skills.  The latter of these is the trickiest, I feel.  Though the pupils understand the importance of sticking to the task, of structure and of using quotations, their analysis can be a little thin sometimes. 

With this in mind I have set about using AiFL techniques in order to heighten the pupils awareness of what is required of them and where their own work needs to be improved.  I’ve found the following mixture of modelling and self assessment to be very successful. 

After reviewing the meaning, types and importance of analysis the pupils are set an essay question to complete at home.  On the due date I hand out a strong Model Essay.  Pupils colour code where the essay’s author has used quotations and where they have focused on analysis.  The class then do the same with their own essay and compare the results.  The majority of pupils found that they ought to increase the amount of analysis in their essays.  Some also realised they should be including more quotations.  Using this information pupils set themselves targets for the next essay.

I have tended to do the second essay in timed conditions and set a very similar task to the initial question.  The results have been very pleasing indeed.  🙂

Early this year I decided to take a group of children down to Stratford to see Shakespeare’s birthplace and catch a RSC performance (preferably MacBeth).  Today I had to admit defeat and abandon the idea.  The dates tickets were available for the theatre, we couldn’t get accommodation; the dates we could book accomodation, we couldn’t hire a coach; the dates we could hire a coach, we couldn’t get tickets and so on.  A very frustrating exercise and I hadn’t even thought about Risk Assessment forms (it’s amazing the amount of ways children could harm themselves on a coach).  It’s a real pity the plans have fallen through as the pupils were very excited about it all. 

The idea stemmed from their enthusiasm for Shakespeare.  Teenagers raving about the Bard.  Doesn’t sound quite right, does it?  But we’re two plays down and they want more!  We began by studying Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet as a media text, exploring how  Luhrmann overcame the barriers to modern audiences and created a successful modernisation of the play. By the end of the unit the class had explored Luhrmann’s use of genre, mise-en-scene (still not sure how to use that in a sentence though!), cultural codes and more.  The Gas Station Scene, in particular, provided lots of material.  It was all very exciting!

And now we are studying MacBeth – my personal favourite.  When we finished reading the play I asked the kids to form groups of any size and do anything they wanted with any scene, act or speech from the play.  The only stipulation was that the finished product had to be presented to the class.  The results include a five minute updated version of the entire play (MacBeth as champion boxer), some photographic stills of key scenes, a set design and a translation of a major speech into teen talk (a la Vicky Pollard).  Superb.

Stratford’s not going to happen this year.  As a consolation I have organised a trip closer to home for next month: Cawdor Castle.  The MacBeth links are tenuous but they are there! 

A wee thank you to the Highland Year of Culture for the help with funding.  🙂

I marked the S3 writing exam yesterday night.  71 papers.  It was a bit of a long night but I really quite enjoyed it.  Some of the essays were so intensely personal I felt honoured to be reading them.  Quite a few pupils wrote excitedly about the floods and gales that we experience up here last October.  One of these stories had me crying with laughter. 

The author, J, is a sporty yet bookish boy who is known for having more brains than common sense.  The afternoon of the storms J was, as he is often to be found, curled up in the local library with a book.  The winds were increasing dramatically outside and it was raining heavily.  When the lights in the library were switched off J didn’t question why, he simply moved closer to the window to read by the dimming sunlight and then, later, the street light.  Only upon finishing his novel did J get up to leave.

At this point he discovered that a) the librarians had gone home, and b) he was locked in the library.  Pressing his face against the window J spent the next hour shouting to the few people passing by.  It was dark, the winds were high and the rain was pelting off the ground: no-one heard.  The hillarious part is that at one point the phone rang in the library.  J decided against answering the telephone or using it to call for help as he didn’t have permission from the librarian.

 Bless.

 The story ends happily.  J managed to attract someone’s attention and was freed from his literary prison psycologically unscarred by the event. 

Love it.  🙂

The session today wasn’t on SMART marking as I thought.  It was on feedback.  Related, at least.  The pre-reading (handout from The Learning Set – Stepping Forward with Feedback – Learning Unlimited 2004) stated that much feedback is “too little, too late, too vague and too impersonal.” I am very, very aware of what my weakness is in this area.  I give plenty of feedback and pride myself on making it personal and specifically related to set targets and prior work.  Within class I do my best to give a individual pupils feedback on how they are handling current work.  The problem area is my written feedback on pupils’ work as it is sometimes handed back too late.   

Actual, it will have to start next week as three classes are handing in essays this week!  Oh well…