A2 Comms

Click on THIS interesting article as part of your understanding of the relevance of feminism in contmeporary Britain.

AS & A2 Literature

I recently attended a training course on all aspects of OCR Literature coursework. Click HERE to access Moodle. Log-in then choose your Literature course (AS or A2) and click 'OCR for AS' or 'OCR for A2'. There you can find several coursework examples, including some with an accompanying commentary.

A2 Literature

HERE's a great link to a casebook on the work of Philip Larkin. Read this to complement our studies in class.

AS Literature

Click HERE for an online study guide to Alan Bennett's work.

NB. Do NOT be tempted to copy directly from this source - if you decide to quote from it, use quotation marks and use a footnote at the botom of your page.

IB English

Read THIS recent article about a new translation of 'Madame Bovary'. The notion of translation itself might be a very interesting focus for some of your essays, so definitely worth taking a look!

AS Language & Literature

Among other things, THIS article accuses The Kite Runner of 'exploiting' the sympathy people feel towards Afghanistan. Do you agree?

A2 Communication and Culture

A few years old now, but HERE is an interesting article on the blurring between Fiction and Non-Fiction.

AS Communication & Culture

Click HERE for an interesting article on what happens to clothes. Might inspire some of you to take an alternative approach to yourr 'You are what you wear...' coursework choices.

AS Communication and Culture

Click HERE for the latest installment of 'Fry's Planet Word'. This week the show was about the effect that technology has had on communication over the years - this may be something that's useful to you in your coursework project.

A2 Literature

*** COVER WORK - Friday 7th October ***

Click below to watch a lecture by Junot Diaz. As you watch, answer the questions on the accompanying question sheet and read the relevant parts of the novel.

AS Communication and Culture

Click HERE for an American college student explaining Goffman's approach in a video presentation.

AS Language and Literature

Click below for an alternative version of Williams' play from 1995. Do you prefer this to the Marlon Brando version?

AS Literature

Those of you that enjoyed this week's 'creative' approach to Talking Heads might like to see this version. Do you think Bennett's idiom has been captured by this spoof?

IB English

Click HERE for an informed and scholarly
conversation about 'Madame Bovary' and the
obscenity trial faced by Flaubert. Essential listening if you choose this as one of your World Lit project texts.

All Subjects

For those of you who joined the College this year: welcome to my blog! For starters, all students of English and Comms should take a strong interest in language. Here's the wonderful Stephen Fry with his new series 'Fry's Planet World'.

AS Language and Literature

Here's a review of a recent production of 'A Streetcar Named Desire'.

AS Communication and Culture

Take 10 minutes to try THIS questionnaire which helps you to create your own Johari Window model.

AS Literature

THIS is a review of a more recent work by Alan Bennett.

A2 Literature

As you complete your homework on the opening of 'The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao', check out this interview with author Junot Diaz:

IB English

As we focus on 'Perfume' this week and iconic 90s band Nirvana are being remembered as 'Nevermind' turns 20, here's Kurt Cobain's take on Grenouille:

A2 Communication and Culture

As you're deciding on whether or not Feminism is relevant in 2011, check out THIS article from The Guardian.

Also, listen to THIS excellent radio discussion on the topic.

ALL SUBJECTS

CALLING ALL ENGLISH AND COMMS STUDENTS!

Your performance at A2 / IB Year 2 will benefit from a knowledge of a wide range of literary texts. For the remaining three weeks of term, film adaptations of classic texts will be shown in room 1E5 during lunchtimes.

GREAT BOOKS ON FILM!
Monday 20th / Tuesday 21st: Madame Bovary
Wednesday 22nd / Thursday 23rd: The Trial
Friday 24th / Monday 27th: Love in the Time of Cholera
Tuesday 28th / Wednesday 29th: The Handmaid’s Tale
Thursday 30th / Friday 1st: Lolita
Monday 4th / Tuesday 5th: A Picture of Dorian Grey
Wednesday 6th / Thursday 7th: Crime and Punishment

EVERY LUNCHTIME IN 1E5

A2 Literature

Obama is NOT Othello! Do you agree? Read THIS article which gives a very specific angle to the play's contemporary relevance.

A2 Communication & Culture

Remember to visit http://www.communicationandculture.co.uk/ as part of your revision

IB English

Reminder: Your review of 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' is due in tomorrow (Thursday). HERE's another example of a personal review of the novel.

AS Communication & Culture

Following on from our discussion of advertising, it's worth reading the press surrounding THIS new film.

A2 Communication and Culture

Another song idea for Kallum's podcast HERE
Phoebee here's an extract from THIS Guardian article:

On some level, all reality show judges can be swayed by human emotion. Have a decent enough sob story and you're guaranteed a shortcut to the X Factor bootcamp stage. MasterChef has its "passion test", where points are essentially awarded to the contestant who can repeat the words "fire" and "determination" the most in a single minute. Lord Sugar even let Michelle Dewberry win The Apprentice because she mentioned she had a bit of a rubbish childhood

Karen THIS is relevant to your podcast
Rihanna might be able to use some quotes from THIS
Nathan THIS might be useful for a few soundbites
Sharayne - more celebrity fighting
Kamron please read THIS
Harmoni THIS is relevant to your project on British holidays
Chantelle and Paige: an intelligent account of a relatively recent celebrity event

A2 COMMUNICATION & CULTURE

A creative coursework piece has emerged on YouTube - worth watching as it shares many themes with the topics some of you have chosen:

A2 LITERATURE

Below are the film clips which will be most useful to your coursework projects:

A2 Literature

Many thanks to Omar... here is a LINK to a radio discussion about whether or not having black ancestry makes you 'black' or 'mixed race'. Perfect for the Obama and Diaz elements of coursework.

AS Literature

Watch THIS very insightful (and funny) show by Charlie Brooker, which sheds a 21st century light on conspicuous consumption (a key theme of The Great Gatsby)

IB English

THIS article on Edna O'Brien and her relationship with Dublin is reminiscent of that experienced by Joyce (indeed, 'A Portrait of the Artist...' is referenced here).

*ALL SUBJECTS*

It would be useful for all of my students to watch 'Faulks On Fiction', Saturdays at 9pm on BBC2. The first episode is available on iPlayer HERE

Set for series record, it looks set to be relevant to all English and Comms courses!

A2 Communication & Culture

Click HERE to hear the leading Marxist historian, Eric Hobsbawm tells Andrew Marr that the inequalities inherent in capitalism has made people question its supremacy, and he argues that Marx remains as relevant today as in the last century.

AS Language & Literature

Click below to see an interview with Chinua Achebe:

A2 Literature

Click HERE to see Barack Obama discussing his memoir 'Dreams From My Father'.

IB English

To supplement our discussion on James Joyce's Ulysses today, take a look at this dramatisation of the novel: