Welcome to English Language and Literature at APS!
Posted by: tware in Ms Ware, Ms du Plessis, tasks
Welcome to English Language and Literature at APS, and to the English Language and Literature blog. This is the first time we have used a central blog for Language and Literature classes and we hope it will be very successful. During your English course, we will be using this blog in a number of ways: to set homework tasks; to show you good websites and online resources that we’ve found; to communicate information with you and to enable you to communicate productively with each other and with us beyond the classroom.
During this lesson / homework, please start by following the links either at the top or in the sidebar, to read about the course and our expectations of you. It is particularly important that you understand our expectations of you at the start, and that is why we are also asking you to sign the contract and return it to us.
Then leave a comment on this post letting us know a bit about you as an English student. Answer the following questions:
- What was your favourite part of GCSE English / Literature and why?
- What are your favourite books and why?
- What film or theatre production have you enjoyed recently and why?
- What do you think will be most interesting about the Lang / Lit course?
- Lastly, what do you think of the blog so far – what ideas do you have for how it could be used / what we could add to it? Please be constructively critical, not rude!
If you finish all that, look at the links page to explore some excellent websites about English Language and Literature…
Entries (RSS)
September 8th, 2008 at 2:25 am
What was your favourite part of GCSE English / Literature and why?
It was probably Charles Dickens piece, simply because I felt more independent because I was trusted to read it.
What are your favourite books and why?
Probably The Legacy by John (something). Scared me to death and I was only 9!
What film or theatre production have you enjoyed recently and why?
I can’t remember the last film I saw…
What do you think will be most interesting about the Lang / Lit course?
Well I’m looking forward to reading Jane Eyre. I read it once before but stopped about the middle (I didn’t find the school part thrilling)
Lastly, what do you think of the blog so far – what ideas do you have for how it could be used / what we could add to it? Please be constructively critical, not rude!
I think the blog is good. I don’t have any ideas but when I do I’ll post a comment
September 8th, 2008 at 2:32 am
my favourite part of english at gcse level was…….the of mice ad men coursework.
My favorite books are angel by katie price and littl prisoner by jane something….. i like angel because the charecters lifestyl is very intresting and i like little prisoner because its very sad and i wanted to read what the author went through. it gave me self realisation on how easy my life was growing up =].
i enjoyed chicago i dont know why.
the corsework.
i havn been able to exlore the blog yet i will give you feed back in a good couple of minutes
September 8th, 2008 at 2:32 am
Of mice and men as probably my favourite part of gcse english langauge and literature.
My favourite books would probably have to be the alex rider series and the lewis hamilton biography.
I have recently seen The Lion King at the theartre which was amazingly good.
I think the most interesting thing about the lang. lit. course i am about to take will probably be the two books we will be studying.
Something to add to the course would be things like videos or interactive games always motivate the mind.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:34 am
The best part of the gcse english language and litreture course i took in 2006 was the way i find out about the english language. Basically a closer look into english and the way we say things and what they actually mean. For example i was able to see the difference inbetween using commas and connectives and how they changed the meaning of the sentence. In my opinion i really think english is interesting because i like the way things are the same, however they have different meanings. Overall i have understood the expectations and rules i the english classroom with both of the teachers i am determined to work hard and get really good grades by the end of the year.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:37 am
1. Listening to Mr Scott’s Lennie accent in Of Mice and Men.
2. Darren Shan because they were my favourite books when I was young.
3. The Frontline at Shakespeare’s Globe- drug dealing, human traficking, murder and gang fights
4. Reading Jane Eyre.
5. Make it sparkly with ponies and rainbows.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:41 am
My favourite part of GCSE English/Literature was creative writing and analysing the hidden meanings and texts of books we were studying. My favourite books are books like harry potter and Lemony Snicket- A Series of Unfortunate Events because they are fun, exciting and original. Other books that I like are thriller and horror books because they leave u guessing what is going to happen next and make you want to read on. A film I have enjoyed recently was “The Dark Knight” because the actors portrayal of the characters are amazing and all the special effects in the film are extremly well done. I think the most interesting part of the Lang/ Lit course is being able to hear everybody’s opinions about a certain matter and having discussions and analysing the texts of the books we will be studying. I think that the blog is very good because it gives you a lot of information about the course and what you are expected to do in the course and what you will learn. Perhaps the blog could have a few more pictures and a few more colours to make the blog more interesteing and so it could draw the reader in.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:41 am
What was your favourite part of GCSE English / Literature and why?
My favourite part was romeo and juliet because the play is good and we watched the films too. I found the media side of it interesting, seeing what effects they have used to portrey different meanings.
What are your favourite books and why?
I dont really have a favourite book, but I like reading a wide range of things.
What film or theatre production have you enjoyed recently and why?
I went to see ‘Blood Brothers’ at the theatre which was amazing and very dramatic.
What do you think will be most interesting about the Lang / Lit course?
I think the creative writing task will be very interesting.
Lastly, what do you think of the blog so far – what ideas do you have for how it could be used / what we could add to it? Please be constructively critical, not rude!
I think the blog is fine.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:42 am
My favourite part of english last year was studying the novels because out of
school i wouldnt have though to read them.
The best book I’ve read is naughts and crosses by Malorie Blackman, I realy enjoyed it because it gave a new edge to the way society looks at racism and segregation, but also because it was very different to other books i’ve ever read. To add I’ve also started reading the second in the trilogy, which is equally enjoyable.
The latest theatre production I’ve seen is warhorse, I enjoyed it because it made the history side to the play less boring as it used diferent techniques to keep it interesting.
I think the most interesting part of the langlit course will be reading the new novels as they seem exciting and not like anything we’ve read before.
I think the blog seems like an interesting way to do work as its not like just using worksheets and text books all the time, it seems like a new way to work and keep our attention.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:44 am
I think english lit and lang is a very intresting course to study.I enjoy english and get along well.I like reading books and this is one of the best part of english.The book that i enjoyed most was Of Mice and Men,and the play that i enjoyed most was Romeo and Juliet which i studied for literature.I like english and fink that it is an interesting course.
lastly i think that the blog is useful and could help people out.It is easy to use and s very helpful.The links are very useful,and advice people to have a look.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:45 am
Best part of GCSE English was probaby studying the new ‘Romeo And Juliet’ and the media side of it. It was the most interesting plus we got to watch the movie. I did well on the article which is also why i liked it.
ISpy is the best book ive read.
I recently watched Rambo, hes a coool guy but the films not that good.
Probably studying more novels.
This blogg will help us when were not as organised as we should be. It will also help us when we miss or homework or need to contact a teacher for help.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:46 am
i think the blog is good you know.
i find it easier to read on the blog than if i had a little booklet because i honestly wouldn’t read that
so yes i do like this blog indeed =]
September 8th, 2008 at 2:46 am
Just a quick question, will we get Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea or do we have to buy them?
September 12th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Hi,
Another quick question (this time about grammar!)
When I’m talking about a book, say for example The Legacy by John Coyne, would I have to put quotation marks around the title of the book? So is ‘The Legacy’ correct or would The Legacy suffice? This question also applies to plays, films and other titles.
Thanks!
Post-Script: This post also implies that I can access this blog at home. One last thing, it doesn’t matter if you add “www.”, at least not on this computer.
September 12th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Hi again!
I just got an idea for the blog, maybe you could do something like “A word a day” , “A punctuation mark a day” and “Inspirational quote a day”. I would suggest this website “http://www.thefreedictionary.com/lookup.htm” It lets you customize the colours, whether or not you want pictures, whether to open it in another page and so forth.
I like the idea of this blog (I guess that’s why I keep posting) because I guess we could suggest books to read (for each other, whether that be a modern book, a classic or non-fiction that will help with English), I also like the idea of questions about grammar especially because my grammar is terrible for an aspiring writer.
Sorry for writing an autobiography!
September 13th, 2008 at 4:10 am
Some great ideas for using the blog Zeynep – I like the idea of a ‘word of the day or equivalent but I haven’t yet figured out if there’s a way I can get that fed directly into the blog. I’d like to have access to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary)’s ‘Word of the Day’ on here, but it may be you just need to follow the link and subscribe yourself. Go here: http://www.oed.com/cgi/display/wotd – it will give you etymologies and usage through the ages as well. There’s also a link to the OED on the links page.
In answer to your punctuation question, for the title of a book, if you are using a computer, the standard thing is to use italics for the title, or underline it. Writing by hand you would underline or use single inverted commas as you do above. If discussing poems in collections, you underline the collection and use inverted commas for the poem.