One of my Yr 8 students is reading a modern version of a very old poem called Beowulf. It was written around 1600 years ago and is about this heroic guy called Beowulf who fights monsters and saves people. He's kind of like Batman, but with fewer gadgets. And he's Swedish. Anyway...
There's an archeological site called Sutton Hoo in the UK which is the burial site of an Anglo-Saxon lord. It's of particular relevance to Beowulf because... well, I won't spoil the ending. But suffice it to say that someone gets buried, and in a very similar way to the burial at Sutton Hoo.
The artwork uncovered at Sutton Hoo is amazing, and the whole place tells us a lot about how the Anglo-Saxons regarded death. Their society was based around ideas of honour and the importance of kingship and religion, and all of that comes to life at Sutton Hoo. Worth exploring if you're ever in the area...
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Meg Rosoff's 'How I Live Now'
Just read this book - really enjoyable. I found it hard to get into to start with, for two reasons:
1. The narrator speaks in enormous, unwieldy sentences that seem to go on forever - I found this tough to get used to.
2. The narrative voice is that of a teenager, with all the informality, slang and non-standard English that goes with it - so this reminded me too much of my marking.
I also thought for a second that the book was going to turn out to be a typical teenage love story or something, which is BORING. How wrong I was...
If you haven't read it already, I would definitely recommend it.
1. The narrator speaks in enormous, unwieldy sentences that seem to go on forever - I found this tough to get used to.
2. The narrative voice is that of a teenager, with all the informality, slang and non-standard English that goes with it - so this reminded me too much of my marking.
I also thought for a second that the book was going to turn out to be a typical teenage love story or something, which is BORING. How wrong I was...
If you haven't read it already, I would definitely recommend it.
Gender in Literature
My Yr 12s are studying three texts, all of which are obvious candidates for an essay on gender.
Firstly, what is gender? The OED defines it as:
"In mod. (esp. feminist) use, a euphemism for the sex of a human being, often intended to emphasize the social and cultural, as opposed to the biological, distinctions between the sexes."
In other words, sex is about whether you are biologically male or female, whereas gender is about all the social implications that arise from that distinction - and from the blurring of it where this occurs.
Two great books connected with this subject are Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson and The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer.
Firstly, what is gender? The OED defines it as:
"In mod. (esp. feminist) use, a euphemism for the sex of a human being, often intended to emphasize the social and cultural, as opposed to the biological, distinctions between the sexes."
In other words, sex is about whether you are biologically male or female, whereas gender is about all the social implications that arise from that distinction - and from the blurring of it where this occurs.
Two great books connected with this subject are Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson and The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer.
Poetry = Hard?
I have the following conversation on at least a fortnightly basis:
Mr S: So next lesson we're going to be studying a really great poem called-
Student: Oh no! Not poetry!
Mr S: You don't like poetry?
Student: No, I hate it.
Mr S: Why???
Student: Because it's so hard!
Why is it hard? I can think of a few good reasons:
1. Poets seem to like using long, obscure words that very few people outside of an Oxford college know without needing to use a dictionary, like 'perfidious'. And especially in short poems, there aren't many words to read so if you miss the meaning of one or two key ones, you're completely lost.
2. They also seem to like talking about ancient Greece - why not talk about somewhere else, like Poland, or Grimsby? I read this as a teenager and my instant reaction was, "What the heck is this about?". Actually, that's still my reaction.
3. They often put words in strange orders - I do appreciate the irony in the fact that if you guys put your verb at the end of the sentence you usually get red pen on your work, whereas if Shakespeare does it then that somehow makes it okay.
4. It's written by people who usually know lots of stuff about lots of things, but the rest of us mere mortals might well not know what they're going on about.
HOWEVER...
Not all poetry is hard.
---
This Is Just To Say
by William Carlos Williams*
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
---
I always imagine this poem as a note on a fridge door held up by a magnet (as a side point, check out what you can do with fridge magnets).
The reason it is so simple is because that's what the poet was trying to do - he was part of a movement called Imagism, where the whole point was to use some ultra simple image or thing as a starting point to explore poetry and the world of ideas.
What does it mean? Well, the question is, what does it mean to you?
It goes to show, though, that when they put their minds to it, poets can write poems that are simple yet effective!
*How cool is this guy's name?
Mr S: So next lesson we're going to be studying a really great poem called-
Student: Oh no! Not poetry!
Mr S: You don't like poetry?
Student: No, I hate it.
Mr S: Why???
Student: Because it's so hard!
Why is it hard? I can think of a few good reasons:
1. Poets seem to like using long, obscure words that very few people outside of an Oxford college know without needing to use a dictionary, like 'perfidious'. And especially in short poems, there aren't many words to read so if you miss the meaning of one or two key ones, you're completely lost.
2. They also seem to like talking about ancient Greece - why not talk about somewhere else, like Poland, or Grimsby? I read this as a teenager and my instant reaction was, "What the heck is this about?". Actually, that's still my reaction.
3. They often put words in strange orders - I do appreciate the irony in the fact that if you guys put your verb at the end of the sentence you usually get red pen on your work, whereas if Shakespeare does it then that somehow makes it okay.
4. It's written by people who usually know lots of stuff about lots of things, but the rest of us mere mortals might well not know what they're going on about.
HOWEVER...
Not all poetry is hard.
---
This Is Just To Say
by William Carlos Williams*
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
---
I always imagine this poem as a note on a fridge door held up by a magnet (as a side point, check out what you can do with fridge magnets).
The reason it is so simple is because that's what the poet was trying to do - he was part of a movement called Imagism, where the whole point was to use some ultra simple image or thing as a starting point to explore poetry and the world of ideas.
What does it mean? Well, the question is, what does it mean to you?
It goes to show, though, that when they put their minds to it, poets can write poems that are simple yet effective!
*How cool is this guy's name?
Welcome to my Blog!
"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
Right, thought I'd start with a quote seeing as that strikes me as a very English Teacher-type thing to do when writing a blog. In fact, this is a very famous quote from a very famous poem by T. S. Eliot who was an American poet and one of my favourites. It also perfectly describes my aptitude for computers - in fact, I usually end up where I started, often because I press the 'back' key too many times.
Anyway - why am I writing a blog? Well, there are two main reasons. Firstly, our school is about to become a laptop school and it strikes me that a blog would be a great way to share things with my students that I don't otherwise get to share through lessons and other online resources - stuff like cool poems and reading recommendations, or just random thoughts on life, the universe and everything. Secondly, it's a chance for me to actually learn how to keep a blog and to use things like hyperlinks. Bear with me while I do so.
So if you're reading this you are presumable either one of my students or a random person who has stumbled on my blog - if so, you can find out more about my school here. The exact contents of this blog will probably evolve as I go along, but essentially:
- it is a professional tool rather than a personal blog
- it will be about teaching and learning in my subject area - English Literature and Language
- it will probably be very random...
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
Right, thought I'd start with a quote seeing as that strikes me as a very English Teacher-type thing to do when writing a blog. In fact, this is a very famous quote from a very famous poem by T. S. Eliot who was an American poet and one of my favourites. It also perfectly describes my aptitude for computers - in fact, I usually end up where I started, often because I press the 'back' key too many times.
Anyway - why am I writing a blog? Well, there are two main reasons. Firstly, our school is about to become a laptop school and it strikes me that a blog would be a great way to share things with my students that I don't otherwise get to share through lessons and other online resources - stuff like cool poems and reading recommendations, or just random thoughts on life, the universe and everything. Secondly, it's a chance for me to actually learn how to keep a blog and to use things like hyperlinks. Bear with me while I do so.
So if you're reading this you are presumable either one of my students or a random person who has stumbled on my blog - if so, you can find out more about my school here. The exact contents of this blog will probably evolve as I go along, but essentially:
- it is a professional tool rather than a personal blog
- it will be about teaching and learning in my subject area - English Literature and Language
- it will probably be very random...
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