10EN - 'Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare

Hi there Year 10

Poor Juliet has a very hard time of it in Act 3 Scene 5 with her father wanting to marry her off to someone of his choosing, Paris. Imagine that! Obviously she is not best pleased with this idea and as a result they have a blazing row.

Was Shakespeare basing this scene on what happened in Elizabethan England? Well, it's your job to find out. Go to this site http://www.william-shakespeare.info/elizabethan-wedding-customs.htm and answer the questions below, either in your books, on refill or they can be word processed. Read all of the information first before answering the questions.

1. Who benefited from an arranged marriage?

2. Name two reasons why families might arrange a marriage.

3. What class in society preferred arranged marriages?

4. How might a gentleman know what his intended bride looked like before seeing her on the wedding day?

5. What reputation did single women have in Elizabethan England?

6. What was the usual age of consent for a boy to marry?

7. Shakespeare's marriage to Anne Hathaway was carried out in extraordinary circumstances. What were they?

8. What was the dowry?

9. What was the first stage of the wedding ceremony and why was this undertaken?

10. How was a typical wedding celebrated?

11. What materials were wedding garments made from?

12. Which colour would you not wear at a wedding and why?

Love that Language!

Hi everyone

To be able to express ourselves the way we need to we have to know the basics of how our language is put together.

Did you know that there are 4 catergories of NOUNS?

1. Proper - Sydney, Miss Hayton, TSB Arena...(Did you notice the capital letters?)

2. Common - pen, desk, father, brother, cat, pet, girl, tree...

3. Collective - pod of whales, murder of crows, flock of sheep, herd of cows...

4. Abstract - hope, courage, friendship, love, hate...(You can't touch this).

How about those pesky APOSTROPHES?

This is dedicated to Fran:-)

You can really mess up the meaning if you don't know where to put the apostrophes. Here is the one and only guide you will ever need to get it right:

So, when do you put an apostrophe in?
In two situations:

1. In shortened or contracted expressions, as in shan't (shall not), won't (will not), doesn't (does not), she'll (she will), what's (what is), it's (it is), Jim's gone (Jim has gone), and so on.

2. In possessive expressions, where one thing belongs to someone or something else. Examples might be: Joan's essay, or the student's essay, or the country's economy, or Middlesbrough's Town Hall.

Question: What if it's plural, when there's more than one thing doing the possessing?

Answer: The apostrophe goes after the possessing things. Here are some examples to make this clearer:
The student's essay (one student and one essay), the student's essays (one student and more than one essay), the students' essay (more than one student, collectively writing one essay), the students' essays (more than one student, more than one essay).

Another Question: What if the word doing the possessing is plural, but doesn't end in s, like children, or women?

Answer: You put in an apostrophe after the word, and then put in an s. So you write women's liberation, and people's health, and children's books.

When Not To Use An Apostrophe...
This is probably the most important thing to learn, because most mistakes with apostrophes happen when people put one in where there shouldn't be one.

1. You don't use an apostrophe to show the plural, that is to show that there's more than one of something. It's wrong to write more than one student as student's. Similarly, more than one essay is essays, not essay's, more than one book is books, not book's, and so on.

2. The other very common mistake is to put an apostrophe on its, when its is possessive. This is the most common mistake, and the one which teachers get very cross about. So we'll give it a section on its own.

It's Its

When do you put an apostrophe in, to write it's, and when do you leave it out, to write its? This question causes more trouble than all the other questions about apostrophes put together. The trouble is that it's/its isn't one thing, it's two, or even three.
Here are some examples:
The disease and it's symptoms [wrong], it's a fatal disease [right], it's fallen over [right], the University continues to update it's courses [wrong], the French Revolution and it's causes [wrong]

The rule is:
It's is a shortened form of it is or it has (that's two things out of the three). Its is a possessive form.
Here's an example to make this clear: It's true that the book lost its pages. The first it's has an apostrophe (because it's short for it is) and the second its doesn't (because it's possessive). The best way to fix this in your mind is to write that sentence out a few times.
One way of checking whether its should have an apostrophe or not is to try substituting for it. If you can substitute it is or it has, and the sentence still makes sense, then it's should have an apostrophe. If you can substitute the, and the sentence still makes sense, then its should not have an apostrophe. In the example above:

It is true that the book lost the pages - this makes sense

The true that the book lost it is pages - this doesn't make sense

One Complication:

Question: What do you do if you have a possessing word which isn't plural but still ends with s? Do you put Dickens' novels, or Dickens's novels?

Answer: It's up to you. Either is correct, so use whichever you think sounds better. The same goes for Los Angeles's or Los Angeles' traffic, but there are some cases where it definitely sounds better to put the 's form rather than the simple '.

EN101 - 'Your Shoes' by Michele Roberts

Hi there

Re-read the story so that you explore all the angles - a good story has layers which is what makes it worth reading in the first place.

Being a first person narration it is naturally biased to one person's point of view. This has its advantages and disadvantages - it means you get to know the character extremely well but don't really get to explore what other character's think, and this is always very revealing.

In this story the author makes you hunt for the clues - they are there, as the mother lets things slip that give us some idea about her relationship with her daughter.

The title may also refer back to an old adage that you only understand someone when you walk around in 'their shoes' - does this apply to the mother?

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with:-)

RESOURCES:

Click here to read more about Michele Roberts and what influences her writing.

Click here to link to an excellent revision site which has an entertaining video about the story, revision of all aspects and essay practice.

Click here for a study guide from Teachit which goes with the story.

Click here for a PDF which has thinking questions for the story.

Welcome to the Imaginarium

To all my students

I hope you are going to enjoy your year and give it your absolute best. We'll be busy thinking about and sharing lots of ideas, in all sorts of ways. The most important thing to remember is that your thoughts are just as important as anyone else's so express them then we can all benefit from your wisdom. As the old saying goes: "Many hands make light work" - this is definitely the case with participating in discussions!

I'm hoping that this blog will be a place you can use to help you with English and broaden your knowledge.

Make this year count for you!