Studying Film (Standard Grade / NQ)

Here are a few useful links for looking at film in English:

Wikipedia is a very useful reference for cinematic techniques. Check out the External Links section at the bottom of the wiki page to see more detailed information.

The film education website has a compact glossary of film language.
The MediaKnowAll blog has useful guides about camera angles, sound and image analysis.

The Possessive Apostrophe

Here are some very useful links to help you improve your use of the possessive apostrophe (the apostrophe that shows ownership):

Possessive Apostrophe Rules

Worskheeet One - The Answers

Worksheet Two - The Answers

Worksheet Three - The Answers

These excellent sheets, and others, are available from the Georgia Southern University website.

S. Stothers

20% Discount on Revision Materials

Leckie and Leckie are offering a back to school promotion on their revision materials. If you order your books through the English department, you'll get 20% off the cover price. You should click this link to visit their website and find out about the products.

See your class teacher if you'd like to order some books.
Here's a list of the English titles they offer (prices shown include 20% discount):

Standard Grade
Revision Notes £6.39
Success Guide £7.19
Success Guide + CD ROM £8.97
Official SQA Past Papers to 2008(F/G or G/C) £6.39

Intermediate One
Success Guide £7.19
Official SQA Past Papers to 2008 £6.39

Intermediate Two
Success Guide £7.19
Official SQA Past Papers to 2008 £6.39

Higher
Course Notes £9.59
Revision Notes £8.79
Grade Booster £5.59
Official SQA Past Papers to 2008 £6.39

Advanced Higher
Official SQA Past Papers to 2008 £6.39

S. Stothers

Seniors: Exam Help

There are a few posts from last year that you might find useful when preparing for your exams. Here are some quick links to them:

1. What's in the Exam?
2. Standard Grade Links
3. General Higher links
4. Links for Mr. Stothers' Higher Class

Also, there are a few Podcasts which Higher / Int.1 / Int. 2 candidates might find useful.

S. Stothers

Podcast: Higher Critical Essay Workshop

I've prepared a podcast to help you with your revision for the Higher English Critical Essay. The Podcast is broken down into four chunks:

1. Using Your Time in the Exam
2. Picking a Task & Understanding its Demands
3. Producing a Paragraph Plan
4. Writing the Critical Essay

There's also an appendix file:

5. Detailed PEAR Walkthrough

You can download the specific files by clicking on the links above.
Alternatively, you can subscribe to the Podcast.

There are four sheets to accompany the Podcast:
Sheet1: Extract of Questions
Sheet2: Sequencing Sheet Exemplar
Sheet3: Example Plan / Exam Timing Guide
Sheet4: Revision Tasks from the Podcast

*** If there isn't an active link, it's because I haven't uploaded it yet. All links should be active by Monday 7th April ***

Good luck with your revision! S. Stothers

Higher: Othello

Well done in your Timed Critical Evaluations! I hope the feedback that you have received so far, particularly the focus on timed PEAR paragraphs, has helped. One wee thing (that was, like, dead frustrating) was your use of the phrase 'bring him down,' as in: 'Iago was determined to bring him down.' Here's the result of the pair-task to think of alternative (more literary) phrases:

diminish his reputation

bring about his demise

tarnish his good name

usurp his authority

ruined his reputation

end his euphoria (?)

usurp his power

continue his vendetta against him

cloud his nature in the eyes of others

downgrade him from his position of power

lessen him in Othello's eyes

destroy his career / reputation

emotionally cripple him

bring about his downfall

NQ: Animal Farm @ the Citz

A handful of you have been writing about George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' for your personal study. There will be a production of this at the Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow, in March 2008. Here are the details from their website:

Animal Farm by George Orwell
Adapted by Ian Woolridge
Directed by Stephen Cafferty
"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."
This timeless political allegorical tale is brought to life by students from the Glasgow College of Nautical Studies Drama Department. Their energetic and creative depiction of the play captures the optimism of a new social realism alongside the corruptive influence power brings to certain individuals.

Dates:
Tue 4 March - Sat 8 March
Ticket prices:
£8 full price, £5 concessions

Visit the Citizens' Theatre website at www.citz.co.uk

Higher: Lord of the Flies Game

Here's a link to a (relatively) useful game. It tests your knowledge of the characters, themes and symbols in the text. A good start for your revision...

Higher: Close Reading Notes

Here are the two Close Reading notes from our lesson today:

Word Choice
For word choice questions, at Higher, an insightful comment must be made. To avoid the classic mistake of providing a thin answer, don’t just say that a word achieves a particular effect, say how it does so.

‘The boy’s face went crimson as granny’s welcoming hug became a passionate embrace.’

Just saying: The word “crimson” is effective as it shows he’s embarrassed.

Saying how: The word “crimson” is effective because we get a clear picture of how the boy’s face changed: he involuntarily flushes with colour and reveals his mortification.

Analyse / Evaluate
For analyse / evaluate questions you’re having to work relatively hard for your marks. You must remember that you have to assess how well the writer has achieved a particular effect / conveyed an idea.

If you are asked to examine the writer’s presentation of her ideas, you must ensure you state what the ideas are before evaluating her literary achievements / failures.

Higher: Othello Podcast Quote Notes

Here are links to Word documents with the quotes used in the Othello Podcasts A1S1 & A1S2:

A1S1 Quotes
A1S2 Quotes

The wee graphic (above) and the ones in the Word files are from podbrix.com.

Higher: Handkerchief Homework

The Symbolism of the Handkerchief
Othello’s handkerchief means different things to different people.
Write analysis notes for its relevance to each of the following characters:

Bianca | Iago | Cassio | Othello | Desdemona | Emilia

These prompts might help focus your analysis:
What does it represent for the character?
What does this tell you about this character? (characteristic / personality)
What are the positives in viewing the handkerchief in this way?
What problems could this bring?

Higher: Othello Podcasts A1S1/A1S2

Here are some audio notes for the first two scenes of 'Othello'. Each file contains four paragraphs of analysis and a task for your revision.
You've got two options:

1. Download individual files:
Notes for A1S1
Notes for A1S2

2. Subscribe through I-tunes
Clicking this link will add this to your Podcast list on I-tunes. New episodes will be automatically downloaded as they are added.

*** Word documents with the appropriate quotes will be uploaded soon ***

Advanced Higher: Creative Writing

Writing a Short Story

Need inspiration? Want to revise/improve a first draft?

These links should prove helpful:

Fish -Various types/lengths contemporary stories

Short story sites - and booklists and blogs

Tobias Wolff Interview - about short story writing - click on 'next' at bottom of page

Time Magazine - unusual tips

Setonhill - lots of detailed, practical advice

Fiction on the Web - a collection of writing

Looking forward to reading the fruits of your labours!

Higher: An Inconvenient Truth

In class we've been watching two films:

An Inconvenient Truth, presented by Al Gore.
The Great Global Warming Swindle, a Channel 4 programme.

Both offer different persectives on the apparent "Climate Crisis".

An excellent PowerPoint presentation, which examines the arguments of the Channel 4 programme, can be found here. It was prepared by Christopher Merchant, a lecturer in Earth Observation at the University of Edinburgh.

Links to various responses to The Great Global Warming Swindle can be accessed here. These links have been gathered by the Climate Outreach and Information Network.

Higher: Climate Change

Here are two really useful links for Climate Change research:

UK Rivers Network - Categorised links

Guardian Unlimited - A site dedicated to Climate Change news

Now your bit:
Find a useful Climate Change story online - one that could be used for your argumentative essay. Add a comment to this post (instructions on the sidebar at the right-hand-side of this page) including:

(i) the web address (URL)
(ii) a quick description of the story, and what stance it takes.

** Remember to write your name **

See the seventh comment on this post for an example. (The A. Pupil one).

NQ: Personal Study Presentation

Unit 3 of the Higher course is known as the Personal Study.

To pass this unit, you must write about a text you have chosen, read and designed a task for by yourself. Your teacher can guide you through this process, but the work must be your own - we can't give you a task or write out a plan for your essay.

We can, however, give you general advice on how to pass this unit, and support you as you go along. This is what the Scottish Qualifications Authority says about the Personal Study:

"The Personal Study Unit allows the candidate to make an individual choice of text(s) for independent study. The assessment task is either a written essay or a spoken presentation about the chosen text(s).

Time-limits and controlled conditions apply, but access is allowed to text(s) and to the candidate’s own notes."


To help you with this, here's a PowerPoint presentation that takes you through the process.

Here's a PDF of the handouts that accompany it.


If you're having problems...

viewing the presentation:
If you don't have PowerPoint (or an alternative viewer) you can get an open-source program here: OpenOffice.
Alternatively, you can download a Microsoft PowerPoint viewer here: Microsoft.
If you're using a Mac, try here: Microsoft Mac version.

viewing the handouts:
You can download a free PDF viewer here: Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Seniors: Check Your Results Early

The SQA has set up a system that allows you to check your examination results a day before they are due to arrive through the post. You can view the results online or get them as a text on your phone.

You must register for the service at the SQA website by the 30th of June.

Here is a direct link to the Results Online page.

You can also navigate to the appropriate page by using the SQA button in the links section.

Higher: Brooklyn Cop - Classwork Notes

Here's a (last minute!) link to the notes we wrote-up together on Norman MacCaig's Brooklyn Cop.

Brooklyn Cop Notes

Hope they're useful!

Higher: Hotel Room 12th Floor

Here's some files we used whilst revising Norman MacCaig's "Hotel Room 12th Floor":

The poem with no annotations
The poem with stanza 1 annotated
The poem with stanzas 2 & 3 annotated
An amazing picture.

(The files are all in Microsoft Word format)

Higher: Changeling Forum

The forum for 'The Changeling' has been added to the links at the right-hand-side of the page.