Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde assessment
Year 9, I know you found some of the questions on the novella difficult today – I suggest that you go on-line to reread the chapter called Incident of the Letter again (this is chapter 5.) You will be retelling the chapter from the point of view of Mr Guest, Mr Utterson’s clerk. Remember that…
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The analytical essay – Fate in ‘Romeo and Juliet’
During these last two weeks of term you will be writing your analytical essay. Our title is ‘How does William Shakespeare explore the idea of fate in his play ‘Romeo and Juliet’?. The finished essay needs to be handed in on the last day of term, Thursday 28th March. This will be your homework for…
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Romeo and Juliet – The Insults Duel
Today we had volunteers duel verbally in Shakespearean insults and it was a close tie between Louie and Kai, who demonstrated their sharp tongues to deadly effect! ‘Thou simpering, lily-livered pantaloon’ was one of my favourites.
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Romeo and Juliet – Oxymorons
The class looked closely at Romeo’s early speech in which he speaks in oxymorons in order to express his unrequited love for Rosaline. Many of the tableaux created by the boys were really effective at showing the tension in the images. Well done!
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Romeo and Juliet – The Prologue and its purpose.
Last week we translated the prologue as a class and considered the question ‘Why does Shakespeare tell us the ending at the beginning?’ Ebeneezer made the well-observed comment that it forces the audience to react differently to the play. We discussed how ‘pageturners’ are all about how the plot advances, yet here we focus on…
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Romeo and Juliet – Initial discussions
This week we have started to delve into Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The first task you approached with gusto was galloping around the classroom to the rhythm of iambic pentameter. We established the natural rhythm and then went on to read the prologue. Today we began to ask questions about why Shakespeare decided to…
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Extended reading – Short Stories
Your stories will be allocated to you on Thursday 25th October. Please read the following so that you are clear about your task. Extended reading – Short Story Reading and Research project – 2 weeks How will we be working? You will work in pairs – to choose somebody to work with you need…
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Comparing Short Stories
Year 9 we are looking forward to marking your essays comparing Vendetta and The Schoolteacher’s Guest. We will set you a reading task linked to short stories next week – if you have a favourite short story author you would like to research this is your chance to make a suggestion. You will be asked…
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