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Summary for Lesson 1
In today’s class we started our work on A Wrinkle in Time learning about science fiction, the author’s life and Einstein! We began by discussing how we felt about the story before working through the scientific ideas in the story such as time travel. We watched a video on whether it was possible and then discussed how this connected to the plot overall. Finally we learned about the author and her approach to writing and the students came up with some amazing ideas for science fiction plots. Excellent and energetic work everyone, you were all fantastic today. Keep up the brilliant work and see you next week 🙂
Homework
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Beth, this is my homework:
Erika: Welcome to the interview Madeleine L’engle. I’m going to ask you a few questions. So, what gave you the inspiration to write this book?
ML: Sergei Krikalev inspired me to write this book. Lots of children wonder about time traveling and I thought that if I used time travelling as my solution then the book would be very intriguing to read and it would teach them to always be curious and they can discover fascinating things that they thought were impossible.
Erika: Ok. When you tell people not to think when they write, is it because of the scientist? Why do you follow his story?
ML: No, I follow his story because I can feel that God wants me to. The scientist’s story has shown that without your stressful thinking, life will be easy as ideas or thoughts. I want to help the people around me by sharing that message.
Erika: Final question. Where did you get the idea of the characters and their names?
ML: Firstly, a key ingredient in writing a story is adding characters, as it makes the storyline more tense and exciting. I selected the names from literary, religious and symbolic sources.
Erika: Well, that’s the end of the interview. Thank you for your wonderful responses.
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Summary for Lesson 2
In today’s class we continued our reading lessons on A Wrinkle in Time, thinking about the philosophies in the book and what we can learn from comparing the world of IT to the ideas of Mrs Who, Which and Whatsit. We began by discussing the idea of difference vs. normality and how the idea of what is normal can be quite controlling- trying to get people to conform to a particular way of being. We then looked at different themes such as freedom, difference, love, and thought about what IT would say vs. what the others would say about these ideas. We analysed how IT’s world is different from our own ideal worlds and thought about how the people of Camazotz could resist IT’s vision. Finally we looked at the concept of faults being useful to us in some way and finished with a discussion of the homework. Well done class, lovely ideas today about the philosophy and deeper ideas behind this story. Keep up the good work! 🙂
Homework
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Hello Beth,
I really like the group work activity, hope we can do more of it!
Here is my homework.
Thanks,
Jasmine -
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Hi Beth this is my homework:
“Remind me, what are we doing here again?” asked Oliver. “For the one millionth time, we are here to destroy the most powerful jewel in the entire universe!” cried out Lily exasperated. She rolled her eyes. “Look, there’s a group of ladies there with children! Let’s go and ask where their leader is!” suggested Sam. The three kids dashed down the emerald green hill to the group. “Excuse me, could you kindly guide me to the main office please,” questioned Lily. “Do you have a kid and why are these boys doing here?” interrogated a plump lady. “Pftt, and why do YOU need to know?” interrupted Sam. The trio suddenly noticed that the offended lady’s eyes were turning into a blazing red colour. Oliver pretended that he forgot something and the petrified trio ran away. “Why on earth did you say that for, Sam! Didn’t you read the book I told you to read? Aarggh! This planet’s rule is that men aren’t allowed and all women have to give birth to a girl! I was about to improvise when you interrupted!” uttered Lily. A deafening silence suffocated the three children. “What are ….. the.. the.. consequences?” stammered Sam slowly. “I don’t want to talk about it! It’s gruesome!” whispered Lily. “ Few things guys. Number one, we need to accomplish our mission, number two, that lady is still staring at us and number 3, RUN!” uttered Oliver.
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Hi Beth this is my homework:
“Remind me, what are we doing here again?” asked Oliver. “For the one millionth time, we are here to destroy the most powerful jewel in the entire universe!” cried out Lily exasperated. She rolled her eyes. “Look, there’s a group of ladies there with children! Let’s go and ask where their leader is!” suggested Sam. The three kids dashed down the emerald green hill to the group. “Excuse me, could you kindly guide me to the main office please,” questioned Lily. “Do you have a kid and why are these boys doing here?” interrogated a plump lady. “Pftt, and why do YOU need to know?” interrupted Sam. The trio suddenly noticed that the offended lady’s eyes were turning into a blazing red colour. Oliver pretended that he forgot something and the petrified trio ran away. “Why on earth did you say that for, Sam! Didn’t you read the book I told you to read? Aarggh! This planet’s rule is that men aren’t allowed and all women have to give birth to a girl! I was about to improvise when you interrupted!” uttered Lily. A deafening silence suffocated the three children. “What are ….. the.. the.. consequences?” stammered Sam slowly. “I don’t want to talk about it! It’s gruesome!” whispered Lily. “ Few things guys. Number one, we need to accomplish our mission, number two, that lady is still staring at us and number 3, RUN!” uttered Oliver.
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My dystopian world:
Children were lined up in a queue to get a bit of bread, no emotion on their faces. Anyone who dared to smile or show any emotion was lined up and shot straight away. Newborns were always hidden away until they could control their emotions, not many survive this part of the cycle. The remaining survivors were not always a lot. Any who dared to show any evidence of emotion in private, were publicly executed in gruesome ways and whoever winced or cried were executed with them. They were controlled by THE MIND, which is a brain on a pole. It’s guarded by controlled guards in the deep depths of the control centre. Not one soul has been down there, only the ones who broke all the rules and were ripped apart.
Some people who were born in unsanitary conditions were sometimes sold to others as slaves for hard labour since some jobs would make some wince. The weather’s crazy, with rough temperatures, usual natural disasters and others. Most are used to it, but some with disabilities were more likely to get shot. Everyone have at least one deceased loved ones who were shot or executed.
Everyday in a life of a citizen was all the same, the children woke up at 7am and went to school and came back at 4pm, arriving at their house and doing homework until 9pm then going back to sleep. Adults go to work at 7am until 7pm. If anyone breaks this schedule they’ll be first set off with a warning, and if the6 break it again they will be taken away to, ‘The Fixing Room’. It is where all the people who didn’t break the emotion rule but broke the schedule. They are went there to be forced to do twice the amount of work while they are being burnt by the flames that are on the ground. This world is known as, ‘Viralia’. -
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Summary for Lesson 3
In today’s class we finished work on A Wrinkle in Time, thinking about the moral to take from the novel. We began by discussing the theme of prejudice and how it is explored in the book, linking this to the symbolism of IT being represented by a brain. We spoke about how the class would design sets based on the sci-fi worlds in the book, imagining them for the stage. Then the class debated questions on the book, thinking about essay structure and the big questions the novel raises. Wonderful creative work today class- well done! I thought your ideas on set design were really beautifully expressed. Well done and see you next week 🙂
Homework
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Hi Beth this is my homework for the week!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-ELiWFo5SmfnXXh1eyYuJRzKCYRXPI-SnLiCHK3hWrg/edit?tab=t.0
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Summary for Lesson 4
In today’s lesson we began studying Animal Farm by George Orwell. The lesson contained loads of information on the context of Animal Farm, focusing particularly on how the novel is an allegory for the 1917 Russian Revolution and the events that followed it. We learnt about the core ideas of Communism, and the main actors of the Russian Revolution (Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin), comparing each historical leader to their fictional counterpart in the novel. We also had a great discussion about our favourite and least favourite things about the book, in which students picked out some really important and enlightening features of the novel and its premises. I really enjoyed hearing the class’s idea on what different concepts and characters symbolise in Animal Farm (i.e. Sugar Candy Mountain, Mr Jones, the sheep) and thought that you all dealt with the complicated historical context fantastically. Really well done for your hard work everyone, today was a super information-packed lesson and you were all excellent in class. Well done 🙂
The homework slide show: https://slideplayer.com/slide/9157325/#google_vignette
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 5
In today’s class we continued our work on Animal Farm, considering elements within the story such as theme, foreshadowing and narrative. We began by thinking about the themes and semantic field of the story, brainstorming as a class, before we moved on to discussing symbolism and its importance in the novella. We analysed some quotations from the book that demonstrated foreshadowing and spoke about the irony behind Orwell’s use of this technique given the fact that readers who know about the Russian Revolution would already be aware of how the story was bound to end. Finally we looked at ‘village voice’, digging into the narrative perspective of the book and what it tells us about the nature of power and the truth. Incredible work everyone, you all came up with some amazingly in depth analyses of the way this story is constructed, very impressive! See you soon 🙂
Homework
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Hi Beth, this is my homework:
Question: What is the importance of this quote in the book?
Answer: The importance of this quote is that it conveys the animals’ thinking and how it will affect the plot of the story. The quote, “Four legs good, two legs bad,” tempts the reader to read on as they would want to know how the leader treats the different animals and the author might be putting a twist in the story to make the plot unexpected. This will surprise the readers and it will make the plot line intriguing to read.
Question: Think about the idea of collective perspective and try to apply it to other groups of animals, i.e the pigs and horses. What can we learn from analysing Orwell’s characters collectively?
Answer: We can learn about Orwell’s characters that they make a good team. In the text, it says, “All the animals nodded in complete agreement,” which conveys the immense amount of trust for the leader and every member. Some animals like Boxer or Squealer trust their leader thoroughly even if things get suspicious, for example when Napoleon starts killing other animals by using dogs. Others like Molly or Snowball betray the team and form into a member for their enemies. Trust in the leader was not always great as Napoleon committed terrible deeds, therefore members started to feel scared and insecure. Also, the animals look out for each other as when Boxer was driven away, the animals realized that he was about to get slaughtered so they put in lots of effort to get his attention by shrieking and running to catch the van up. They could have just dumped Boxer but as they are a team, they tried to save him. Every animal that was loyal to the team showed up and but their strength and effort into producing the incredible windmill, and even though it was destroyed, they didn’t give up. They were determined to build another one no matter the consequences.
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Summary for Lesson 3
In today’s lesson we concluded our study of Animal Farm by George Orwell. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help plan and write the paragraphs and speeches assigned for homework. The powerpoint contains our work on the close textual analysis of Animal Farm, focusing in particular on elements such as the power and effect of propaganda in the novel, our analysis of the literary and persuasive techniques in both Old Major’s speech and its historical counterpart, Lenin’s 1917 speech, and our final reflections on the key messages and most powerful ideas within the novel. The class worked brilliantly in today’s lesson; their contributions were incredibly sophisticated and impressive- they should all be super proud of themselves for their work! Amazing ideas on everything you had learned guys, you all spoke so eloquently on the subject and I really enjoyed hearing everything you had to say. Well done and see you next week 🙂
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 7
In today’s class we studied the Wolves of Willougby Chase, learning about the historical context of the novel. We discussed how we felt about the story before learning about how it is set in an alternate version of 1800s England. We spoke about the 1800s and what it was like to live in them, thinking about how children were treated and how bad the poverty was. We thought about the role of orphans in these stories and learned about the workhouse, with the class writing some excellent passages about what it would be like in a Victorian orphanage. Finally we discussed class differences and summarised the story. Excellent and involved work today everyone, really well done for all your super ideas. Keep it up and see you soon 🙂
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 8
In today’s lesson we continued our study of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help plan and write the homework. The powerpoint contains our work on characterisation, symbolism and the use of literary archetypes in the novel. The class began by thinking about the symbolic meaning of the wolves in the novel, and they all thought very deeply about the ways in which the wolves can be read as symbolic of the adults in the novel. I was really impressed by their grasp on this concept, which they were able to articulate beautifully! We then considered the characters in the novel, looking at the idea of protagonists, antagonists and other archetypes such as the sage, the innocent and the rebel. Finally, the class were introduced to the literary technique of juxtaposition which they were able to understand and contextualise fantastically- really impressive work on this, everyone! They also completed some inference work using dialogue from the text to infer particular things about each character. Amazing ideas today class, particularly in your pairs. Really well done and keep up the great job 🙂
Homework
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Hi Beth,
Here is my HW, I liked looking at the what the wolves symbolised in the story.
Thanks,
Jasmine
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Hi Beth this is my homework for this week!
I think that rebelious nature can be both a good and bad quality. In the book, Sylvia and Bonnie are forced to repel against Mrs Slighcarp’s orders in order to save themselves from a lifetime or crulety and unjustice. Without them exposing her, she would have gotton away will all of her crimes and wrongdoings (e.g. forging documents to claim Mr Willoughby’s house and money or taking clothes from Bonnie’s mother while she was away and dressing herself up). Mrs. Slighcarp’s harsh actions also echo the word ‘wolves’ in the title, suggesting that the wolves symbolize the cruel side of her character. However, rebelious nature can also be a bad thing as Bonnie’s reckless decisions. For example, when the girls escape Willoughby Chase her actions lead to her and Sylvia ending up ‘homless’ and trying to find a place to stay out in the bleak winter. Not to mention, the wolves which surround the manor also act as a threat.
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Summary for Lesson 9
In today’s class we finished the Wolves of Willoughby Chase, doing some work on the literary techniques the story uses and reimagining it as a play. We discussed the mix of comedy and horror in the story and came up with ideas of alternate endings to the story. The students learned about assonance and alliteration and how it’s used in the book and then wrote some amazing scripts bringing their alternate endings to life. Finally we thought about how to write. modern version of the story. Wonderful ideas today everyone, amazing contributions from everyone; well done and see you next week 🙂
Homework
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Hi Beth, this is my homework:
The moral of this story is to have the power of friendship and loyalty. In life, you’ll need friends to help you when you struggle. For example, when Bonnie was fighting for her mother, she got herself locked up in a closet. When Miss Slighcarp left the room, instead of staying seated, Sylvia comforted Bonnie and risked herself to argue against Miss Slighcarp. In the text, it says, “Don’t cry, Bonnie, please don’t cry. I’ll run after her and beg her to let you out.” This shows that Sylvia’s loyalty is really strong and she’s admired at Bonnie’s protest. Also, when Sylvia was sick, Bonnie treated her with an egg. In the book, it says, “It’s not much, but at least it’s nourishing and warm!” As Sylvia was flushed, coughing and dreadfully weak, many girls wouldn’t want to be near her but, as Slyvia and Bonnie have such a powerful bond, Bonnie cared for her and risked her life and took an egg. It’s great to have at least one great bonding with a friend in life, because if a loved one is not there for you, you can rely on your best friend.
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This is my homework for last week.
I think rebellious behavior can be good and bad since Bonnie has a bit of that and it didn’t hinder her much. They resist the oppressive forces around them. Their rebellion against Miss Slighcarp, is a key part of their survival and the story’s progression. In real life it also has its positive and negative effects, since it might save you from something like when you’re being forced to do something that’s actually very bad. It also could be quite troublesome like what happened to Bonnie and Sylvia when they were against Slighcarp, sometimes it could even get you harmed. Like if you’re too rebellious you might get caught up in some sort of dangerous situation. So being rebellious isn’t such of a bad thing but it isn’t all that great either. -
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Hi Beth,
Thanks for the amazing lesson. I alway enjoy looking at themes and morals!There is my homework,
Thanks,
Jasmine
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Summary for Lesson 9
In today’s class we began our final book The Indian in the Cupboard. We discussed our feelings towards the book, thought about the historical context of the novel and learned about the Iroqois tribe. The class completed some amazing research on Native American culture, connecting this to the story. We thought about how the book relies on some stereotypes and discussed how these could be corrected, digging into the ways in which these stereotypes can be reductive. We looked at the history behind the story and thought about what we would put in the cupboard if we could. Excellent work everyone, very well done for your perceptive comments on this story. Keep up the wonderful work 🙂
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 10
In today’s lesson we continued our study of The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks. We completed our work on genre and plot in the novel, thinking about the purpose of genre and how to discuss the genre of The Indian in the Cupboard, which the class all correctly identified as ‘low fantasy’ or ‘magical realism’. The students then all beautifully rewrote a key scene from the novel in a different genre of their choice, thinking about what would change and what would remain the same if the genre shifted. We discussed the story mountain of the book, focusing in particular on the climax of the novel, which the class all gave their opinions on. We spoke about how tension and suspense are created by the author, focusing on a particular scene where the theme of conflict is apparent, and discussed how this could fit into the story arc. Wonderful ideas and work today class, well done! I loved your reflections on how the novel uses fantasy- keep up the amazing work 🙂
Here is the video we watched on genre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9MkU7kCA1I
Here is the video of the fight scene from the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2olbiW9_aA
Homework
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