Category: Richard III
PTS 014/088: With This Ring … ?
‘RICHARD: Vouchsafe to wear this ring.
ANNE: To take is not to give.’ (RIII, I.ii)
PTS read-through: The Merchant of Venice, Act V
Occasionally, actually quite often if you’re me, you say things in class which get far more of a reaction than you anticipated. One of those moments came recently, when I suggested that an engagement ring was a symbol of ownership, not so different from a brand on a cow, if you thought about it.
‘Silence invaded the room’, as Steinbeck might have said.
The students were either reappraising their world-views, or they were reappraising me. It’s never easy to tell which.
Our revels now are ended … Class of ’19
Occasionally, teacher good luck messages and the valedictories get a bit mawkish or twee (and wearing my heart on my sleeve, I’m probably as guilty of this as others). That said, I still want to write one for my Y13s.
QotW (#77): 20 May 2019
When you teach Richard III you almost inevitably touch on the idea that ‘history is written by the winners’, as Orwell said in 1944 (and again, of course, so horrifically in Nineteen Eighty-Four). [a]
Who were victorious over Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex in the end? Would he have recognised the history they wrote for him?
How to … write a conclusion
If beginnings feel tricky (until you read this, naturally), then signing off an essay can feel just as daunting, and it’s equally important. Faced with the time pressure of writing an additional half paragraph of analysis only to finish mid-
-sentence, or writing a strong conclusion, I know which one I’d choose every time.
How to … write an introduction
It’s that time of year again.
OCR A Level English Literature (paper 1): Thursday, 23 May, 13:30hrs
AQA GCSE English Literature (paper 1): Wednesday, 15 May, 13:30hrs
as well as mocks for Y10 and Y12 students … and the most daunting thing of all is starting your answer. (For tips on how to end your essay, click here)
“Do I need an introduction? Why? What should be in it?”
QotW (#75): 06 May 2019
Last week’s pre-exam discussions with Year 13 looked again at how we might adopt a Feminist critical stance to our exam texts. The fabled AO5, I hear OCR students gasp …
[book review] Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time
Is this the ultimate ‘cold case’?
The Daughter of Time arrives with some hefty baggage in terms of its critical reception.
Continue reading “[book review] Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time”
QotW (#74) 29 April 2019
I shall despair; there is no creature loves me,
And if I die no soul shall pity me. (Richard III: V.iii) [a]
No matter how many times I watch it – with Y9, 12 and 13 classes, or alone – Benedict Cumberbatch can move me to tears, delivering what I think are the saddest lines in Shakespeare.
The saddest lines … by arguably the biggest villain?
6-minute Shakespeare
Time-limited tasks are like a triple shot of caffeine …
It’s human nature, you panic. I don’t care what your name is. You can’t help it. Fuck, man, you panic on the inside, in your head, you know? You give yourself a couple of seconds. You get ahold of the situation. You deal with it. What you don’t do is start shooting up the place and start killing people. (Reservoir Dogs: Quentin Tarantino, 1992)
It’s less than a month to go before the Shakespeare exams my Y11s and Y13s will be taking. The Y12s and Y10s have mocks broadly over the same period.
Today’s post relates to three things I often say in the classroom:
The Boar's Head, Eastcheap 