When You have Finished Your Controlled Assessment

Using the interent to help you find the information you need, create a poster (either on paper or in MSPublisher) which informs the reader about the life and work of John Steinbeck:

• Who was he?
• When did he live?
• What did he right about?
• What did he believe in?

Make sure you lay your psoter out clearly with a bold headline, clear sections containing your information, well chosen pictures and bullet points where appropriate. Do NOT copy and paste information from the internet- everything should be written in your own words.

Your Task for Today

In today's lesson, you need to finish your plan for your controlled assessment. The following video should give you ideas of things to write about:



Use the other videos here to help you develop your notes so that we can begin your essays on Thursday.

Obama's Informal Speech

Watch the following interviews with Barack Obama and identify when he talks about similar issues to those he is discussing in the quotations you chose from his speech this morning. Copy quotations from his interviews into the space provided on your planning sheet and annotate these to identify the features of informal/spontaneous speech which he is demonstrating.

Interviews with Ellen DeGeneres:




Interview with Will Smith:


Interview with David Letterman:

Homework Due Thursday: Obama's Election Speech

Using the notes you made on the questions, answer the following question in as much detail as you can:

How does Obama use language to persuade his audience to have faith in him in his speech of November 2008?

A New Hope?

Objectives:

• To understand why Obama felt the need to unite the American people on the night of 4th November 2008
• To learn how he used his speech to create hope and unity

 Diary Task:
Imagine that you are an American housewife who is heading out to vote in the American presidential elections in November 2008. Write your diary entry explaining how your recent life has been difficult. Focus on the following:

• The threat of terrorism
• The wars on foreign soil (Afghansitan and Iraq)
• The recession with tis soaring unemployment and homes being repossessed
• A government which only represents the wealthy
• Lack of adequate social welfare

You should post your diary entry as a comment on this post

Obama's Election Night Speech

Watch the following speech which Obama gave to celebrate his victory in the 2008 presidential election and answer the questions on the sheet which you have been given:

Your task:

Write a comment on this post, comparing the way Bush speaks at the G8 summit with the way he spoke in his 9/11 speech.

The Differences Between Formal and Informal Speech

Task 1:
In the device below, brainstorm the ways in which unplanned (informal) speech will be different from planned (formal) speech:


How is unplanned (informal)speech different from planned speech?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Task 2:
Watch the following video and listen to the informal (unplanned) conversation between George Bush and Tony Blair. Using the techniques from the sheet we used last week (download here) annotate the features of their conversation onto your copy of the transcript.



Task 3:
Complete this comparison chart to explain the key differences between the conversation above and this speech from last week:

Investigating Blogs/Diary entries

Spend a few minutes on each of the following blogs. Read a couple of posts and try to get a feel for the language:

http://recoveringanorexic.wordpress.com/
http://www.challengecracknell.com/blog/day10/index.html
http://kendallandandrewswedding.blogspot.com/
http://www.gastrochick.com/

When you have familiarised yourself with these blogs, write a comment on this post explaining what they have in common. Try to comment on:

• Use of language
• Content- emotional and personal or distant and professional?
• Structure of entries
• Anything else of interest

Some helpful videos to improve your story writing skills:

"Your Shoes"

Read "Your Shoes" by Michelle Roberts (you can listen to the story here)

Write a comment on this post in which you explain how the writer has created a distinctive voice and how they have kept the story interesting for their reader. Think about:
-Langauge choices
-Punctuation
-Length and structure of sentences
-Structure and paragraphing
-Imagery (similes, metaphors etc.)

Homophones and Homework

For homework, try to read something written by the sort of person who you are writing as. A good starting point would be to use google to find out if there are any forums, blogs or message boards where people discuss the kind of issues which your character will be facing. If you're stuck finding something, ask me on here.

Watch this video in which Miss Humphris helps you to improve your spelling of common homophones:

Revision Video on Romeo and Mercutio's Relationship

Hi folks,

Mr Baxter has very kindly recorded a revision video detailing aspects of Romeo and Mercutio's relationship in the scenes which we are studying:

Analysing Act III, Scene i

Your task this lesson is to write high quality analysis of Act 3, Scene i in answer to the following question:

What does the audience learn about Romeo and Mercutio's relationship through the way in which they respond when Tybalt fatally wounds Mercutio?

You should aim to meet all of the assessment objectives on the sheet. The following film clip may be helpful to you:

Homework for Monday 15th

Write Mercutio's diary entry following the scene in which Romeo goes to talk with the nurse rather than accompanying him. Think about:

• What Mercutio knows about Romeo's relationships with Juliet and Rosaline
• How he feels about this
• How he feels about Romeo's behaviour

At least half a side of A4 or a comment on the blog please

Learn to compare with Miss Humphris!

Video detailing some key points of comparison between the two poems... enjoy!