Transcript IGCE AOS UNDERSTOOD

Overview +
detailed focus +
link/pattern ideas
= PLENTY SHORT
QUOTATIONS
Who, what,
when, where,
how, why?
Tone/register
lexis/connotation/
links/patterns/
symbolic thought?
Sequence/shape/
building blocks
/map of text?
IGCSE
Responding to Literature
Use your
feelings and
imagination.
DETAILED
KNOWLEDGE
OF CONTENT
WRITER’S CRAFT
= USE OF
- LANGUAGE
- STRUCTURE
- FORM
FORM
= a shaped
The nature
of drama
experience?
What is
/poetry/novel?
the
function of
Conventions?
shaping
and
Newnessour
of ideas
this one?
experience like this?
INFORMED
Base
thoughts
at
A-level =
on relevant
building
on
concepts +
existing
accurate
critical
info.
opinion
SENSITIVE
INFORMED
PERSONAL
RESPONSE
UNDERSTANDING OF
“MEANING” =
- TEXT
- CONTEXT
- SUBTEXT (deeper ideas
+ attitudes)
SUB
What
= “below”.
does this
What
writerideas
careare
running
about AND
below
this
think
writers’
/ feel
words?
about that?
What do
YOU think
about the
topic?
ATQ
! ! !
TEXT
What =kind
a of
presentation
picture of life
of
words
does this
and text
experience
seem to – not
100%
present?
“real”.
CON
How =does
“with”.
that
What
reflect
social
or
ideas
critique
came
social
along
with
issues/values
this writers’
words?
of the time?
An essay is…
• where you take a stance on a topic given,
• outline your stance clearly
• and explore subtly,
conversing all the while intelligently with your
reader, exercising your reasoning on theirs.
See: The Independent “Viewspaper” daily.
Francis Bacon
Montaigne Zadie Smith
And please note that none of them, nor any of the
literary critics in the Library write using P.E.E.
In an exam, you have to be able to THINK…
• swiftly understand the topic focus,
• recall and/or rediscover ideas and details,
• use divergent thinking to make new ideas
about the topic, based on these details,
• then use convergent thinking to select,
group and order your thoughts,
…BEFORE writing down your thoughts,
opinions and judgements, convincingly and
clearly.
To P.E.E. or not to P.E.E.?
Human beings don’t THINK in P.E.E. When last did a fully
formed P fly into your mind when asked a question?
Instead, we THINK by:
• NOTICING things first,
• EXPLORING their significance, delving into complexities,
• GENERATING IDEAS which are potentially coherent,
• TESTING AND EXPLAINING by referring back to what
we noticed, which becomes our EVIDENCE.
So a really useful WRITTEN paragraph WILL have:
• a clear topic or point at the beginning (the famous P)
• evidence within it, to base our ideas on (the first E),
• it WILL explore and explain our ideas (the second E).
We must EEP BEFORE WE PEE and not be LIMITED!
Why bother with homework essays?
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
Get a grade?
Persecute students?
Generate insight by thinking through ideas?
See patterns in the text and make ace notes?
Train self to make mindless essay-like objects?
Practice thoughtfulness and self-expression?
Outside exams we can use essays to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Learn to think around a complex topic, using technical
and conceptual tools to understand a text – EEPing!
Get to know the writer’s ideas in the text better.
Generate our own ideas, as well as building on others’.
Make detailed notes that are great for revising from.
Practice conveying our genuinely clever thoughts,
concisely but with depth, in ordered, complex writing.
But Miss… how shall
I actually “do” my
homework essay?
1.Unpack the question – what ideas about the text
or life are in there? KEY WORDS.
2. Brainstorm - any potentially relevant idea/bit of
text. Recall, plus look at notes + text. SPIDER + Q?
3. Group ideas – can you group/link anything? NB
type of text (form). LABEL SPIDER + PARA LIST.
4. Develop ideas – run through text. Bits of
craft/groups of details support? ADD TO PARAS.
5. Order ideas – is there a thread or way of
organising your main thoughts? CONSIDER FLOW
6. Check the question again…then write, using plan.
You can re-draft to say what you really mean.