Please complete all tasks in the homework jotter provided

Pupil Voice

A focus group of S2 pupils in May 16 stated that they believe English homework should:

The same group also felt English homework should:


Week/ Date / Task / Traffic Lighting
Week 1 / Writing Skills 1 - Personal Reflective Writing
Week 2 / Reading Skills 1 – Word Choice
Week 3 / Reading Skills 2 - Connotations
Week 4 / Reading Skills 3 – Denotation & Connotations
Week 5 / Reading Skills 4 – Words in Context
Week 6 / Reading Skills 5 – Words in Context 2
Week 7 / Reading Skills 6 – Words in Context 3
Week 8 / Developing Your Vocabulary 1
Week 9 / Reading Skills 7 – Writing About Word Choice
Week 10 / Reading Skills 8 – Identifying Sentence Structure
Week 11 / Writing Skills 2 –Creative Writing Gothic
Week 12 / Reading Skills 9 – Formal & Informal Language
Week 13 / Reading Skills 10 - Tone
Week 14 / Reading Skills 11 - Similes
Week 15 / Reading Skills 12 - Metaphors
Week 16 / Developing Your Vocabulary 2 – Word Wheel
Week 17 / Critical Reading Skills 1 – Imagery in Music
Week 18 / Critical Reading Skills 2 –Analysing Imagery
Week 19 / Critical Reading Skills 3 – Writing an Introduction
Week 20 / Critical Reading Skills 4 – PEE Paragraphs
Week 21 / Critical Reading Skills 5 – Writing a Conclusion
Week 22 / Reading Skills 13 – Holocaust Memorial Day
Week 23 / Advertising Skills 1
Week 24 / Writing Skills 3
Week 25 / Newspaper Reading Skills 1
Week 26 / Newspaper Reading Skills 2
Week 27 / Newspaper Reading Skills 3
Week 28 / Newspaper Reading Skills 4
Week 29 / Writing Skills 4

Writing Skills 1

You have to complete a short essay describing something that happened to you over the summer.

It could be good (ie. a holiday, a day out with friends, a surprise, a lovely day)

or

It could be bad (a disappointment, a sad event, a difficult day)

  • Your essay must:

Describe what happened

  • Your essay should:

Describe how you felt about this

  • Your essaycould:

Describe how you now feel looking back on the incident

Here is a short exemplar piece to remind you of the features of personal reflective writing.


Reading Skills 1

Word Choice – Interesting Words

Good writers will carefully select every word they use in order to describe how someone or something looks or feels.

In English, we sometimes refer to this as their word choice.

Good writers will often try to show how someone/something is looking/feeling rather than simply telling the reader.

Consider the difference between the two sentences below:

  • Suzy was scared to open the door.
  • Suzy hesitated as she went to open the door. Her heart was beating wildly.

Task 1

Read the extract below (from a fabulous novel called ‘Skellig’).

Write out words the writer uses which SHOW the garage is run down.

The outside doors to the back lane must have fallen off years ago and there were dozens of massive planks nailed across the entrance. The timbers holding the roof were rotten and the roof was sagging in. The bits of the floor you could see between the rubbish were full of cracks and holes. The people that took the rubbish out of the house were supposed to take it out of the garage as well, but they took one look at the place and said they wouldn’t go in it even for danger money. There were old chests of drawers and broken wash-basins and bags of cement, ancient doors leaning against the walls, deck chairs with the cloth seats rotted away.

Task 2

Word Choice – Connotations!

For example, the word chocolate has the following connotations: tasty, smooth, Easter, fattening, messy and indulgent.

Writers often use words that develop the meaning that they are trying to suggest.

Look at the words below and try to suggest 5 connotations for each example.

Example / Connotations
Fire
Green
David Beckham
Christmas
School

Reading Skills 2

Word Choice – Examining Connotations

Task 1

Copy and complete the table by:

  1. explaining what the word in bold means
  2. saying what it suggests or shows

Example / Explanation of word / What is suggests
Jenny clung to her mother’s hand. / It could mean that Jenny held her mother’s hand very tightly. / It suggests that Jenny might have been frightened for some reason and that she doesn’t want to let go of her mother’s hand. This is because she feels safe holding it.
Sam slouched at his desk.
A figure was lurking at the door.
Tom whisked the photograph way.
The cat bolted straight out of the door

Reading Skills 3

Word Choice – Connotations and Denotations

DENOTATION/CONNOTATION EXERCISE

! A denotation is the definition of a word, as you would find it in a dictionary.

Task - For each pair of words and a phrase, list the one that is positive in the “Positive Connotations” category, the one that is negative in the “Negative Connotations” category, and the phrase that is a more neutral definition for both words in the "Denotation" column.

1. fragrance, odour, a smell sensed by the olfactory nerve

2. brainwash, persuade, influence one way or another

3. delayed, not on time, tardy

4. somewhat interested, nosy, curious

5. lazily, without haste, leisurely

6. ask of someone, demand, request

8. gathering, a large group, mob

9. slim, skinny, less than average build

10. discuss with others, debate, argue

Positive Connotations / Denotation / Negative Connotations
1. fragrance / A smell sensed by the olfactory nerve / odour
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Reading Skills 4

Word Choice - Words in Context

He was his usual charming self, never stuck for words. I was pleased enough to see him to begin with but after a bit when I saw him sweet-talking my mother and her cheeks turning pink, I went off him.

The word charming means

I worked this out because the writer tells us that… _____

The monster sat on the pillow and stared at me with its red eyes. It had changed again. It was now – most horribly, grotesquely, - half human in shape. It had a domed head, but no hair, no nose, no ears. It had two eyes and a thin slit of a mouth.

The word grotesque means

I worked this out because the writer goes on to describe the monster as…

A hot September Saturday in 1959, and we are stationary in Cheshire. Ahead of us, a queue of cars stretches out of sight around the corner. We haven’t moved for ten minutes.

The word stationary means

I worked this out because

Reading Skills 5

Word Choice – Words in context 2

Task 1 – You MUST complete this task

Use the methodology we have followed in class and in the previous homework.

(Remember, you could also use if you really can’t work out the meaning yourself!)

1The snake’s inert body sat before me, coiled like a spring. It was motionless and I almost thought it was made of stone.

Step 1 The word “inert” means…

Step 2I worked this out because…

2The teacher picked out the pupils at random. She ran her eyes down the page, closed her eyes and dropped her pencil about half way down.

Step 1 The word “random” means
Step 2

3The monster’s face was hideous.It had 2 beady green eyes, which drilled in to you when you looked at it. Its dome shaped head was slimy and green and its nose protruded from its face like an unsightly wrinkled carrot.

Step 1

Step 2

4The girl came from an unstable background. Her mother had run off with the circus when she was only 3 years old; her father drank too much and was always working away; her brothers and sisters had been adopted and she was all alone in the world.

Step 1

Step 2

5The teacher was criticalof John. She told him he was untidy; she constantly nagged him about his timekeeping and worst of all, she humiliated him in front of his classmates.

Step 1

Step 2

6The girl’s movements were ungainly. She lumbered about bumping in to things. Her arms swung wildly at her sides and occasionally she’d trip over her outsized feet.

Step 1

Step 2

Task 2

Now you MUSTwrite a sentence with words 2,3 & 5 to prove you know how to use the word.

1. inert4unstable

2. random5critical

3. hideous6ungainly

You COULD also write sentences with words 1 & 6 to prove you can use this challenging vocabulary!

Reading Skills 6

Word Choice – words in context 3

STEP 1Give the meaning of the word

STEP 2 Say how you worked it out quoting from the passage

Number 1 has been done for you:

1The teacher glared at the boy. Her eyes did not move from his face for a full 3 minutes and he could tell she was not pleased with him.

The word glared means

I worked it out because

The word “glared” means to stare at someone in a negative way.

I worked it out because the writer describes how her “eyes did not move” which shows she is staring and “she was not pleased” shows she is unhappy with him.

2The burglar moved cautiously around the room. He tip-toed across the wooden floor ensuring that he did not knock anything over.

The word cautiously means

I worked it out because

3The polite lady curtseyed in front of the mayor and extended her hand ready to shake it. “I am so pleased to meet you at last” she beamed.

The word polite means

I worked it out because

4The traffic was stationary. The line of cars stretched for about a mile and there was no sign of it moving.

The word stationary means

I worked this out because

5The man inadvertently knocked over the chair. He had been so focussed on answering the door that he was not paying attention to anything around him and it clattered to the floor.

The word inadvertently means

I worked this about because

6The man had an unassuming presence in the room. He kept himself to himself, he did not show off about his achievements and he avoided the limelight at all costs.

The word unassuming means

I worked this out because

Developing Your Vocabulary – 1

Below, you have an example of a ‘TARGET’ puzzle.

You MUST:

try to form as many words as you can from these 9 letters.

Each word should be 3 or more letters long and must contain the middle letter (M).

You SHOULD:

try to find one 9 letter word here

(HINT: they are not happy!)

You COULD:

try to find a target of 20 different words

Reading Skills 7

Word Choice – writing about word choice!

Read the following passage:

During the Easter Weekend there was a storm. The winds, racing up to force 12 in gusts, wreaked havoc with the bins behind the local houses: rubbish danced around the once tidy streets and front gardens of the local houses. Slates were ripped from roofs; doors were torn from sheds and shattered in the heavy winds. One eyewitness described their experience of the storm to being locked inside a washing machine on spin cycle: such was the tumultuousness of the evening.

Task 1

The writer clearly shows how serious and powerful the storm being described is.

You have to analyse how the writer’s word choice creates a powerful description.

Use the template below to write about 3 different words you have located in the above piece of writing that help to give you this impression.

  1. The writer uses word choice to describe the…
  2. The word ______has connotations of______and ______.

For example:

Havoc

  1. The writer uses word choice to describe the effect of the wind on the bin areas.
  2. The word havoc has connotations of chaos, and destruction.

Reading Skills 8 – Identifying Sentence Structure

Sentence Structure – Identifying the Techniques

Read the passages below carefully.

Each excerpt contains at least one feature of sentence structure.

Your task is to identify and highlight the feature (remember, think punctuation, sentence types and sentence patterns) and explain the effect of this sentence structure.

Writing Skills 2

You have to use your 5 senses to create a detailed gothic description of this image.

Use this definition to help you:

  • Your description must:

Contain adjectives describing what you can see, hear and smell

  • Your description should:

Use similes or metaphors to add to your description

  • Your description could:

Use a variety of sentence lengths and punctuation


Reading Skills 9

Tone – formal and informal language

When reading for understanding, analysis and evaluation, or writing essays, you must be aware of the use of formal and informal language.

Formal languageis recognised as Standard English. Formal language is precise and accurate and is often found when someone is talking or writing about subjects that are important.

Formal

Informal language is language that is generally used with friends and family or by writers in an attempt to connect with the reader.

Informal

Task

Read the 10 sentences below.

You have to rewrite them in your jotter, changing any words or expressions, which you think are informal to a more formal tone or expression.

Example:I don’t like English cause there’s too much writing and you get tons of homework.

Answer – I do not like English asthere is a great deal of writing and the homework is very demanding.

1. The striker for the team done good in the match.

2. My wee sister was born in Paisley mate.

3. I heard the door going. When I opened it there were two guys there selling double-glazing.

  1. At the weekend my friend Lorna likes wearing trackies and stuff.
  1. My maw loves watching ‘Corrie’ on the telly.
  1. I had a shot of my pal’s new ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’. It was well wicked.
  1. When I was little I nicked a packet of fags from the corner shop.
  1. I got loads of money for my birthday.
  1. The bell went after break but there was all these kids on the stairs and I couldn’t get to tech on time.
  1. I got a letter home my dad was going mental at me but my ma didn’t go ballistic and said it was ok and she’d sort it.

Reading Skills 10

Tone

When listening to people talking we understand their mood – how they are feeling – by how they say things – the toneof their voice.

When reading a book, a play, or a text we can’t hear the writer’s voice so we have to rely on certain words and punctuation to show us how a character speaks or a how a writer feels about a subject.

TASK

Read the 10 sentences below.

Copy the sentences neatly into your jotter and then select one of the tones(from the tone box) which you think best matches how they would be said aloud.

(Beware; some punctuation has been removed in order to make you think!)

For example:

1.Well done. That was a clever thing to do. = positive

2Get out of my way, peasants.

3.Look out, that horse is out of control.

4.Yay. We’re all going to Disney Land.

5.Milk helps young bones develop.

6.You stupid boy. Look at the mess you’ve made.

7.We’ve won the cup for Scotland.

8.But mam, please, please please can we get a dog.

9.I love your dress. My gran has curtains just like it.

10.Leave me alone.

Tone Bank

Reading Skills 11

Figurative language –similes

A simile is a figure of speech, which compares one thing to another, different thing, to make a vivid picture in the reader’s head.

A simile is a description of a thing or idea that: compares

  1. something
  2. with another thing

To understand a simile and how it compares two things, we must look at both things separately for the characteristics that we know they have and then compare them to see what they have in common.

Example

Here is a simile:

The boy was happy as a lark playing in the garden.

1. What are the characteristics of a lark?

Bird flying freely, singing a beautiful song

2. How do you think the boy must be feeling playing with his toys?

The boy is perhaps happy to be left to do as he wants.

3. What do the boy and the lark have in common?

They are both free to do as they wish and are made happy by this.

Now it is your turn to describe how a simile works.

Fill in the boxes for the following examples:

  1. Mrs. Fielding’s chocolate cake was as solid as a rock.

What are the characteristics of a rock?

A rock is…

What are the characteristics of a good sponge cake?

A good sponge cakes should be….

What do we come to understand about Mrs. Fielding’s cake?

His cake is…..
  1. Jack dived into the freezing water and swam like a fish.

What are the characteristics of how a fish swims?

How does Jack move in the water?

What do we come to understand about Jack’s swimming ability?

Reading Skills 12

Figurative language – metaphors

A metaphor is also a figure of speech which substitutes one idea or object for another to improve our understanding.

Example

Here is a metaphor:

His face was weathered by a long, troubled life.

1. What are the characteristics of anything that is “weathered” ?

They are tired looking, shabby, worn.

2. What impression do we get of this man’s face?

It is probably marked by worry lines, appears gaunt, pale, or looks older than he should.

3. What do we understand about this man from this description?

As a result of his hard life he looks older than he really is.
His troubles have actually affected his looks.

Task

Now you have to analyse what the following metaphors suggest to you as a reader.

  1. The boss thundered into the room.
  • What are the characteristics of thunder?

What is the boss doing that can be related to thunder?

  • What do we understand about the boss from the use of this metaphor?
  1. The dusty highway snaked its way far into the surrounding mountains.

What are some of the characteristics of snakes?

  • What characteristics of the road could be related to a snake?
  • What is the image we get of the road by the use of this metaphor?

Developing Your Vocabulary – 2