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Summary for Lesson 1
In our first lesson together, we focused on the genre of dystopia, thinking about how to analyse various authors’ writing and envisaging of dystopian societies. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help write the homework that will be set in our next lesson. It also contains our work on analysing key passages from four famous dystopian novels, our work that we completed on defining dystopia and our thoughts on how dystopian fiction extends upon current social anxieties. The class all worked wonderfully today, I was really impressed with their focus and their understanding of some complicated social and political themes. I was also really pleased with the way in which they analysed the societies of the dystopias we studied, thinking carefully about author intent and how they could use this as inspiration for their writing. Well done guys, keep up the fab work! 🙂
Homework
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Here is the video on dystopia too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a6kbU88wu0
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Summary for Lesson 2
In our second lesson together, we completed our work on the genre of dystopia, thinking about how to use everything we had learnt so far to help us dive into writing dystopian fiction. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help write the homework. It also contains our work on the conventions of dystopia, the class’s ideas for features of a dystopian society, our work on dystopia vs. utopia and our thoughts on finding dystopian historical societies to help envisage fictional worlds. Slide 10 contains some prompts that the students can use for inspiration in their own writing. Everyone worked beautifully today, I was particularly impressed with their free-writing abilities and their creativity in imagining fictional yet realistic dystopian futures. Amazing work everyone, keep it up! 🙂
Here is that video I recommended on using dystopian language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZph5bXQAzg
Homework
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The Cube
Ch.1
The construction of the Cube went smoothly, it only took a mere eight month. Even though the Cube was ineffable, I couldn’t help but wonder why our leader wanted to build something like this. Now that I think of it, the leader himself is surrounded by the obscure aura, no one has ever seen him before. These thoughts sent a shiver down my spine. I vividly remembered all the death traps that were designed to be put inside the Cube: Arrows that can cut you into thousands of pieces; floors that heat up until you are burnt alive; water that floods rooms to drown you, and many more.
That day walking home, I felt my heart thumping against my chest violently. I didn’t know why but I felt scared and helpless, as if something bad is going to happen. The last ever message my father sent me was, “help”, before he disappeared and lost contact. That night was my seventeenth birthday and I remember my dad talking on the phone with someone called Charlie about being invited to participate in “game of the Cube”. If I had inherited something from my dad, it was the stubborness. Ever since I was three, he told me to be kind and speak up for other people when I see unfairness. Well, it has been something that I kept on doing. Even though every speech I made, turned out languishing. Just as these thoughts occoured in my mind, a throbbing pain exploded in my head sending me to my knees. A cold mechanical voice echoed in my brain. The same voice I have been hearing since the night of my seventeenth birthday. “ Why fight back when you can just wait for fait to decide your destiny? Why fight back when you know you are going to end up dead? It isn’t the old world any more. Surely you must know that. That was your last chance, Benjamin, await fait to decide whether you are still worthy to exist in this world.”
Then a flash blinded my eyes, and before I knew it, I was in a little room with concrete walls. I wanted to scream, but my voice went haorse. The voice was right, my life is now comepletely in the hands of fait.
I was in the Cube.
(cliff-hanger! And i can’t add a file so i just copied it on here!)
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Chapter one
It was the 3021 elections for Presidents, Henry Chapman was selected as president, but it turned out to be the worst mistake ever made. Henry, being the cruel and miserable man he was, decided that he must select what people do in their lives, and not themselves, and the hospital must put a disk where their heart is and manipulate their DNA in a specific way. The only way of restoring them to normal is by a big red button in the most guarded place on Earth, Henry’s office. The people that were born like this looked like they had no soul, like an empty shell built for labor. Their eyes were dull and misty, faintly glowing with an eerie yellow light.
The number of these genetically engineered people increased drastically throughout the years, everyone on this planet was now controlled by Henry, or so he thought… There was one boy who managed to escape from the greedy, grasping hands of Henry. He was the only normal human left on this melancholy planet left apart from Henry.
The boy is a worker in a factory that manufactures iron tools, the work was gruesome and unimaginably boring. Day on, day off, he was doing the same thing. Every second of every minute of every hour of every day of his life, he could not take this for any longer. He despised the place he worked in, the continues smashing noise of the hammers, the heat that could melt one’s skin if you stood to close. The desperate whispers of the workers who had no will. No soul. No nothing.
On one awfully terrible day, the boy stumbled out from his dormitory on to the grey tarmac road to the cafeteria, he looked up miserably at the equally grey and miserable buildings that towered above him. It was 7 in the morning, yet the sky was as dark as the night. Suddenly, there seemed to be a burst of energy in him, the small, faint, flickering flame inside him suddenly turned into a roaring wildfire. He remembered when he was a very small child, his mother used to tell him about the beautiful environment. The warm sun, the green grass, the clear blue flowing water and the songs of happy birds. His eyes shone with frustration as he bellowed at the top of his voice into the smoky sky.
“It’s all because of you and your stupid factories! We can’t even see the sun now; because of all the pollution! You trapped yourselves in a ball of harmful smoke just for us to slowly die!?”Silence followed… absolute silence.
He stood there, very still, then suddenly sprinted towards the iron factory, stomped up all the stairs to where all the workers were working as usual. He took a deep breath through his mouth and shouted across the din of the room“My dear friends, we have been fooled and used by the Ministry. We are being treated like slaves, no, worse than slaves, locked up in here doing all the work.” He saw the hundreds of heads turn to him with no expression on their faces as usual, he shuddered at the thought of what might happen to him if one of them reported him to the ‘big boss’.
He plucked up all his courage,
“This is not what he promised us when he elected him in the election! He said, if we chose him, we would have a lifetime of enjoyment and happiness. Not working like dogs and having no freedom!” he panted, waiting for the reaction of the crowd…
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Hi Beth,
Sorry I couldn’t attend the lesson. I was on vacation.
Thanks for sending the video! This is my homework.
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Summary for Lesson 3
In our third lesson together, we focused on the genre of the gothic, thinking about how to analyse various authors’ gothic writing and looking at the different way in which the gothic is presented. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help write the homework that will be set in our next lesson. It also contains our work on analysing key passages from four famous gothic novels, our work that we completed on defining gothic fiction and our thoughts on how gothic fiction relates to dystopian fiction. Everyone was brilliant today, especially considering that we had some technical difficulties. I was really impressed at the class’s contributions and at their analysis of the gothic novels they were assigned. Fantastic work everyone, see you soon! 🙂
Here is the video defining the gothic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4cIFitYYNo
Homework
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Here are today’s extracts:
To Kill a Mockingbird: https://www.educationquizzes.com/gcse/english-literature/to-kill-a-mockingbird-extract-1/
Wuthering Heights: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/286389/wuthering-heights-by-emily-bronte/9780141040356/excerpt
Jekyll and Hyde: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/173178/dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde-by-robert-louis-stevenson/9780679405382/excerpt
Dracula: https://www.falingepark.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/5.-Dracula.pdf
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Summary for Lesson 4
In our fourth lesson together, we continued our work on the genre of the gothic, thinking about how to use all we had learnt about gothic writing in our own work. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help write the homework. It also contains the vocab test the students completed (fantastically!), several slides outlining the absolute key features of gothic writing, our thoughts on pathetic fallacy and an example of this being used in Frankenstein, and finally the excellent gothic prompts the class created at the end of the lesson. Everyone worked beautifully today, really well done guys- super impressive work & I look forward to reading your gothic stories…! 🙂
Here’s that video on the southern gothic I said was good to help you reimagine how gothic can be done in the modern era: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG_3mTB731c
Here’s the music from the freewriting exercise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNqX_jWhUzY
Homework
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P.S. Remember to revise the main conventions of gothic and dystopian writing and to look at some of the gothic and dystopian literature we studied in preparation for our mock exam next week!
Dystopian: 1984, Brave New World, Noughts and Crosses, The Hunger Games
Gothic: Wuthering Heights, To Kill a Mockingbird, Dracula, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
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Sorry- I sent my homework into the wrong group! It also seems that I haven’t sent my complete work in-sorry for the disturbance! Please just ignore my post in this group!
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Dear Beth,
Here is my homework.
Emma
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11AmKntBCDeuHrLE2k8w-GAoNvBfsBsBjcdCxn-umjqY/edit
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Dear Beth,
Here is my homework. Thank you for the lovely lesson
Emma
😁😁
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11AmKntBCDeuHrLE2k8w-GAoNvBfsBsBjcdCxn-umjqY/edit
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Dear Beth,
The title is-The Mystery of The Prison Gates.
PS:Thank you for the lovely lesson,hope to see you on monday,
Jiawei
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The Child
(So this is a summary of the previous chapters so that it will be easier to understand.)
At the start, Lily, the main character got a babysitting job and when she arrived, the parents were already gone and she met the kid she was supposed to babysit. Her name was ana, and they would always play ‘hide and seek’ with Mr. Teddy—Ana’s doll—who would do after Lily trying to catch her. She would always get caught and her vision would become blank. However, she would always wake up at her house, unharmed. Slowly, Ana took a liking to her and they would draw instead of ‘playing’. Ana was enjoying it so much that she was completely outraged when her parents said Lily needs to go. She then telported Lily into her mind so they can play forever.
Ch.15 (mid-story)
“ A-ana, what is this place?” I asked shakily reaching out at what seems like infinity darkness. “ You’re in my mind,” answered Ana’s voice. Suddenly, her blood red eyes appeared in the dark. Our surroundings lit up as I saw the silver haired girl sitting infront of me, an abnormally large smile streched across her pale face. That smile sent a shiver down my spine. How can someone who is merely five smile like this? Ana’s eyes narrowed as she saw my reaction. “ You are just like them. You are scared of me. Everyone calls me a monster and that includes my parents. I heard them say that last night. I thought you are different. But as it turns out, you are just a cowardly fool who can’t look properly at people without judging them.” “ N-no Ana I’m not scared of you!” I quickly said, not wishing to provoke her further. “Oh,” she said, her pupils narrowed into slits,” then let’s play with Mr. Teddy, shall we?” Ana said holding out the haunted teddy bear. “ I thought you wanted to d-draw Ana,” I replied, unable to wipe out the horrible memories I had with Mr. Teddy. “ No I want to play with him,” said Ana shortly. “B-but A-ana, there is nowhere to hide here,” I said, eyeing the surroundings. “ then I guesse we will play tag!” anounced Ana happily.
Before I knew it, I was being chased around by a huge bear with button eyes.” Ana!” I shouted helplessly,” Please stop!” “ Not until Mr.Teddy gets you.” She said in a taunting voice. “ Ana be a good girl and I will make sure you get all the love you deserve! You are not a devil nor monster, you are just………a bit different!” I screamed as I felt my body run out of strength. “ Really?” she asked as the two of us suddenly plunged back into utter darkness. “ Yes Ana I promised didn’t I?” “ If I become good then no one is going to hate me?” “ If you stopped scaring people, they would start liking you,” I answered softly. Despite the darkness, I felt her face light up with exitement. But then, suddenly, Ana screamed as the room light up again and I saw deep cut appear on her body and face. Blood oozed out from the wounds as she screamed in pain.” You promised! Make it stop!” There was nothing I can do.
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Summary for Lesson 5
In today’s lesson we completed our first mock writing exam, spending the first few minutes of the lesson to quickly revise the core components of gothic and dystopian writing. We also looked at some top tips for creative writing from Margaret Atwood, the professional writer, and discussed tips for the exam. The class then spent twenty-five minutes completing their writing, using an additional five minutes to plan. They all worked in a really focused, mature and enthused way today and all seemed to have prepared beautifully for the exam which I was really happy with! Gorgeous work today class, I am really looking forward to reading and marking your exams, and your feedback will be posted here within the next week. See you in our first writing on comedy on Wednesday, and congrats for today!
Video we watched with Margaret Atwood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_d0tIugpSA
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 6
In our sixth lesson together, we began our work on the genre of comedic writing, thinking about how to write comedically when there is no such thing as objective humour, and looking at examples of comedy writing from the 1500s up until the modern day. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help write the homework that will be set in our next lesson. It also contains our work on analysing key scenes from three comedies throughout the ages, considering what has changed and what has stayed the same, our work that we completed on defining comedy and our thoughts on the different types of comedy from within the comedic genre. Everyone worked beautifully today- comedy is sometimes a difficult thing to talk about because analysing it can ruin the magic and you all did fantastically well in being able to seperate the two out. I especially loved hearing your thoughts on the types of comedy you are most drawn to. Well done everyone, remember to watch some funny videos and read articles & short stories you find funny over the weekend for homework- to be a great comedy writer you need to understand your own sense of humour first and foremost. Have a look for some funny videos on Youtube, or find a classic comedy TV series, novel or movie to dive into. See you all soon! 🙂
Scene from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (slapstick comedy): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDPT2e26SgY
Scene from Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster (comedy of errors): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqU6lz8bGhA
Scene from Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events (dark comedy): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3se60e4PeFc
Video on comedy writing we watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNTxSBgDNp4
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 7
In today’s lesson, we continued our work on the genre of the comedic, thinking about how to use all we had learnt about comedic and humorous writing in our own work. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help write the homework. It also contains the work we did on the comedic techniques in our toolkit, the advice the class were given about writing comedy sketches and some ideas of humorous prompts that they can draw inspiration from for their own comedy sketch writing. Everyone was super passionate and engaged in today’s lesson, I was super impressed by how adventurous and willing to take risks everyone was with this style of writing and loved hearing all of their ideas. Well done guys, I look forward to reading your sketches and will see you soon! 😊
Horrible Histories sketches link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dohpfFPi6U
More Horrible Histories: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=horrible+histories
The David Walliams link on how to write a good comedy sketch: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03nshgl
More BBC Comedy Writing tips: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04y9j0g
Homework
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Hi Beth!
So here is my homework. I tried my best even though it’s not that funny TwT
Thanks
Akito worked as a spy. Her main job is to find out about the british armys and so give Japan an advantage in war. She is currently working as the Cabinet, which meant she could easily go near the minister. Right now, Akito is going to an important meeting to disscuss the war with Japan. ‘How strange!’ She thought ‘I am going to be sharing ideas on how to defeat my own country! No thank you!’ Acually, she was planning to steal the last document japan needed. Staring at the little bottle of sleeping drug in her hand, she thought,’ this thing is very strong…one drop would be enough, I guesse.’
“ Miss, we arrived.”
“ Oh, ariga—sorry—thank you!”
“ No problem.”
Walking into the waiting room, Akito saw that she was the first to arrive. Swiftly, she added one drop of the drug into everyones cup. And then she sat down and awaited the other people’s arrivel.
After the meeting, everyone left, exept Akito and the minister. The minister drank all his coffee in one swig and stated, “ The coffee tastes so strange today.” Then he turned to Akito. “what do you think Miss Tokito?” “Oh my coffee isn’t strange minister,” she said casually,” your coffee tastes strange because I drugged you! How I wonder you are still awake!” Then, as if to prove her words, the minister dropped to the ground, uncountious. Quickly, she snuck out the door with her anesthesia gun. As usual she picked the lock of the room where they keep top secret documents. Then is the cupbourd’s lock. The password was ‘coconut’. But when she opened the cupbourd, the documents were gone and instead there sat a rubber duck as if mocking her. Then, Akito felt the tip of a gun being shoved into her back. “ Akito Tokito, you are here by arrested!” -
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Hi Beth,
Thank you for the fabulous comedy lesson, I really enjoyed it.
please find my homework as attached:)
yichen
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Summary for Lesson 8
In our eighth lesson together, we began our work on the genre of journalistic writing, thinking about the role of journalism in the world today and what the word truly means. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help write the homework that will be set in our next lesson. It also contains our work on the importance of truth in news stories, our thoughts on different forms and styles of journalism, our work on the different topics and stories journalists cover and finally the questions the class came up with to interview a journalist friend of mine- the answers to which they will be able to hear next lesson! Excellent work today everyone, you have all been super engaged and have thought of some amazing ideas regarding how to check if stories are true and thinking about what journalism adds to the world. Remember to think of a news story of your own to report on before our next lesson and I’ll see you all next week! 🙂
Here is the finding news video that will help with homework (or watch the lesson recording back): https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/young-reporter/lesson-2-finding-news/zgm3hcw
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 9
In our penultimate lesson together, we completed our work on the genre of journalism, where the class used everything we had learnt about so far to begin planning their own pieces of journalistic writing. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help write the homework. It also contains our work on the features of newspaper writing, the answers from the interview questions the class wrote last week to ask a journalist, the mini vocab test we completed and our thoughts on objectivity, subjectivity and writer’s voice. Fantastic and enthusiastic work today everyone- I was super impressed by your commitment and all of your wonderful ideas. The variety of news stories you had all collected were really outstanding! Keep up the gorgeous work and I am really looking forward to reading all of your news stories. Good luck with your revision for our mock exam next lesson and I will see you then! 🙂
The BBC video on gathering news: https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/young-reporter/lesson-3-gathering-news/zqcm8hv
Homework
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Summary for Lesson 10
In today’s lesson we completed our second mock writing exam, spending the first few minutes of the lesson to quickly revise the core components of comedy and journalistic writing. We also looked at some top tips for comedy writing from Armando Iannucci, the professional comedy writer, and discussed tips for the exam. The class then spent thirty minutes completing their writing, using an additional five minutes to plan. Everyone worked beautifully today, the class were very focused, prepared and thoughtful in their approach to their exams. Really impressive work everyone, today and for the past five weeks. It has been a joy teaching you all, you are all full of so many creative, sparky and fascinating ideas. Keep writing and I hope to see you all in lessons in the future. Well done! 🙂
Here is the Armando Iannucci video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8Y1YcZF6WI
Homework
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