Can I let you into a little secret? I don’t like ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee. From reporting like this it would appear that I’m in the minority. I studied it at school and was never transported or uplifted by the story, as this article suggests you should be. To be fair, I didn’t develop a passion for many of the books that we studied (‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood is the only one). I did A-level English Literature and after that gave it up, tired of pulling apart a novel or poem rather than reading for enjoyment. Did I miss something? Is analysing a text and getting to know it thoroughly the only basis for truly appreciating a novel?
This author certainly seems to think that studying a set text can be the start of a life-long love of a book. I suppose I already read widely anyway so the books we studied at school were generally not introducing me to new authors. Looking at the new GCSE specifications, that doesn’t have to be the case. There is the potential (money and stock cupboards permitting) to study some books that are definitely not mainstream and the average student is unlikely to have read. It's interesting that some books crop up again and again at GCSE, clearly old favourites that stand the test of time and the analysis of 15 year olds. I studied 'Of Mice and Men' by John Steinbeck for GCSE and recently re-read it to help with the online resources we produced in Kerboodle! Have the added years and experience given me greater insight? I think I can create a better mental image of what's going on in the story, and feel sympathy for different characters. Perhaps I should re-read some of my other set texts, and give them another chance.
Most of us have a favourite book, but why? What is it about that book that you like so much? Mine is ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier. I love the mysteriousness that surrounds the storyteller, the intrigue of the tale and essentially sad ending. There’s nothing quite as disappointing as an author who chickens out at the last minute and finishes with a ‘happily ever after’ when it doesn’t fit the story. I’ve loved the book even more since staying at ‘Manderley’ on holiday last year and walking on the beach where Rebecca dies. I’m a sucker for anything that says ‘psychological’ in the blurb – I like a little bit of angst and quite a lot of thinking about it.
My sister-in-law cornered me on a recent visit and asked me to list my 20 favourite books, and I have to admit that I was stuck. I know what my favourite book is, but don’t have much of a list beyond that. We resorted to looking at the BBC’s Big Read list and talking through what might appeal to her. She does a lot of driving to and from work so I introduced her to Librivox, a website where books (generally those out of copyright) are read by enthusiastic amateurs. I’m currently working my way through by ‘Glimpses of the Moon’ by Edith Wharton as I do the ironing, and it’s a very respectable version.
And to finish with perhaps the most fundamental question of all, what is the point of reading novels? I once asked a 11 year old boy this question, and he answered that it gave you experience of places and people that you couldn’t or wouldn’t otherwise know about. I think he was wise beyond his years.
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Friday, 21 May 2010
NEWSFLASH!
AQA GCSE Literature Online: Mister Pip and AQA GCSE Literature Online: Lord of the Flies are now fully live on kerboodle!This concludes the AQA GCSE Literature Online series! Follow this link to order the Evaluation Product for any of the six titles in the AQA GCSE Literature Online series.
Introducing Mister Pip and Martyn Pig
Having worked with English Language and Literature for many years and taught in HE, FE and briefly at key stage 3 as well, I have found it hugely rewarding to be working as the in-house Development Editor (DE) managing the final part of the journey from authoring to publication of NT’s new online GCSE Literature resources – all six of them! It has been busy, hectic at times, but as part of the process I reread Romeo and Juliet, An Inspector Calls, and Of Mice and Men, which I taught at GCSE level, Lord of the Flies, which I studied in the Danish translation when I was doing the equivalent of my GCSEs in Denmark, and An Inspector Calls, which was on my reading list at university (some years ago now). These are all really exciting texts to be reading, studying and teaching, and there have been days this year when work didn’t exactly feel like work because I was engaging with texts like these, primarily looking at them from the point of view of a DE, of course, but with the Teacher and Student peering over my shoulders (one at each) and commenting as I went along.
In the process, I also read Martyn Pig by Kevin Brooks and Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. Both are new additions to the reading list for AQA GCSE English Literature and both are compelling reading in their own right. Being very familiar with the other four texts, I have to admit that I did not have particularly high expectations of the ‘MPs’ (as we ended up referring to them in-house to avoid the curious new combinations of ‘Mister Pig’ and ‘Martyn Pip’), but my hesitation didn’t last long and I have been singing their praises at any given (and not so given) opportunity for the last couple of months, which may be why Emma has asked me to enthuse about the merits of these two titles as very worthy additions to students’ reading lists in their GCSE years.
Preamble over, Mister Pip and Martyn Pig are, in my humble opinion, great stories, controversial and challenging in many ways, but there is nothing in them that is beyond GCSE students at all. In fact, both deal with extremely topical issues and one of the advantages in comparison to Lord of the Flies and Of Mice and Men is that the MPs are both contemporary novels.
Martyn Pig relates the events of one week in the life of the first person narrator, Martyn Pig, a disaffected youth who lives with his drunken and abusive father on an estate somewhere in England. Into the mix Kevin Brooks brings an accident which may or may not be murder but which needs to be covered up, the significant sum of £30,000, a love interest in the form of Martyn’s friend and aspiring actress Alex, her boyfriend Dean (the archetypal antagonist and rival), an unsuspecting aunt Jean, and Detective Inspector Samuel Breece. The story is like a murder mystery in reverse. Contrary to traditional detective stories, Martyn Pig is not about solving the murder but about hiding the truth. At first glance the genre and subject matter of the novel might suggest that there would not be enough in there to challenge higher tier students, but I would have to disagree with this view and think the novel would work equally well with higher and foundation tier students. The first person narrative forces students to make a clear distinction between the narrator and the author. Complex literary concepts such as the reliable narrator and the suspension of disbelief are central to the story and would lend themselves more to higher tier students. There is plenty to delve into in terms of plot, structure, use of language and literary techniques. In addition there is ample scope for exploring the history and development of the genre, which in itself is not uninteresting, and the adaptation to film and television series. The novel is ripe with social and moral questions and dilemmas which could be explored in group or class discussions. Equally, foundation level students would not be lost with this novel. Brooks uses Martyn’s narrative voice and use of language to make this a very accessible read in many ways, but he manages to do this without losing sight of the more sophisticated aspects of language, genre, and plot which higher tier students can explore in more detail.
Like Martyn Pig, Mister Pip has a first person narrator but here the similarities end. Mister Pip is a completely different novel in terms of style and genre. The novel is set in Bougainville, a tropical island in the South Pacific, during the civil war which saw the islanders cut off from the main land Papua New Guinea and Australia. Matilda is a young girl who lives on the island with her mother. They were about to join her father in Australia when the embargo was put in place and instead of a happy family reunion, Matilda experiences the horrors of civil war. Her only source of knowledge and inspiration is the self-appointed teacher, Mr Watts, who is the only white person on the island. Mr Watts is not a real teacher and his method of teaching is unusual to say the least. He reads Dickens’ Great Expectations to his students and invites the adults in the community into the classroom to teach the children about the local history, folklore and myths of the island. It is a beautifully written novel, ‘poetic, heartbreaking, surprising’, as Isabel Allende has commented. The result is a novel that will work well with both foundation and higher level students. As with Martyn Pig, Matilda’s first person narrative voice and use of language makes the novel an accessible read, but this does not detract from the complexity of the creative and literary skill involved in creating this piece of work which will appeal more to higher tier students.
From a teaching point of view, I like the idea of working with novels that combine accessibility with a good degree of complexity. These novels would enable me to teach across the whole ability range which I have always thought was an exciting prospect, allowing for a greater degree of peer learning through listening to and communicating ideas at all levels, which I think is a great way to teach language and literature.
But don’t just take my word for it. Read the novels, explore the online resources on kerboodle!, and see for yourself.
~ Maggie
In the process, I also read Martyn Pig by Kevin Brooks and Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. Both are new additions to the reading list for AQA GCSE English Literature and both are compelling reading in their own right. Being very familiar with the other four texts, I have to admit that I did not have particularly high expectations of the ‘MPs’ (as we ended up referring to them in-house to avoid the curious new combinations of ‘Mister Pig’ and ‘Martyn Pip’), but my hesitation didn’t last long and I have been singing their praises at any given (and not so given) opportunity for the last couple of months, which may be why Emma has asked me to enthuse about the merits of these two titles as very worthy additions to students’ reading lists in their GCSE years.
Preamble over, Mister Pip and Martyn Pig are, in my humble opinion, great stories, controversial and challenging in many ways, but there is nothing in them that is beyond GCSE students at all. In fact, both deal with extremely topical issues and one of the advantages in comparison to Lord of the Flies and Of Mice and Men is that the MPs are both contemporary novels.
Martyn Pig relates the events of one week in the life of the first person narrator, Martyn Pig, a disaffected youth who lives with his drunken and abusive father on an estate somewhere in England. Into the mix Kevin Brooks brings an accident which may or may not be murder but which needs to be covered up, the significant sum of £30,000, a love interest in the form of Martyn’s friend and aspiring actress Alex, her boyfriend Dean (the archetypal antagonist and rival), an unsuspecting aunt Jean, and Detective Inspector Samuel Breece. The story is like a murder mystery in reverse. Contrary to traditional detective stories, Martyn Pig is not about solving the murder but about hiding the truth. At first glance the genre and subject matter of the novel might suggest that there would not be enough in there to challenge higher tier students, but I would have to disagree with this view and think the novel would work equally well with higher and foundation tier students. The first person narrative forces students to make a clear distinction between the narrator and the author. Complex literary concepts such as the reliable narrator and the suspension of disbelief are central to the story and would lend themselves more to higher tier students. There is plenty to delve into in terms of plot, structure, use of language and literary techniques. In addition there is ample scope for exploring the history and development of the genre, which in itself is not uninteresting, and the adaptation to film and television series. The novel is ripe with social and moral questions and dilemmas which could be explored in group or class discussions. Equally, foundation level students would not be lost with this novel. Brooks uses Martyn’s narrative voice and use of language to make this a very accessible read in many ways, but he manages to do this without losing sight of the more sophisticated aspects of language, genre, and plot which higher tier students can explore in more detail.
Like Martyn Pig, Mister Pip has a first person narrator but here the similarities end. Mister Pip is a completely different novel in terms of style and genre. The novel is set in Bougainville, a tropical island in the South Pacific, during the civil war which saw the islanders cut off from the main land Papua New Guinea and Australia. Matilda is a young girl who lives on the island with her mother. They were about to join her father in Australia when the embargo was put in place and instead of a happy family reunion, Matilda experiences the horrors of civil war. Her only source of knowledge and inspiration is the self-appointed teacher, Mr Watts, who is the only white person on the island. Mr Watts is not a real teacher and his method of teaching is unusual to say the least. He reads Dickens’ Great Expectations to his students and invites the adults in the community into the classroom to teach the children about the local history, folklore and myths of the island. It is a beautifully written novel, ‘poetic, heartbreaking, surprising’, as Isabel Allende has commented. The result is a novel that will work well with both foundation and higher level students. As with Martyn Pig, Matilda’s first person narrative voice and use of language makes the novel an accessible read, but this does not detract from the complexity of the creative and literary skill involved in creating this piece of work which will appeal more to higher tier students.
From a teaching point of view, I like the idea of working with novels that combine accessibility with a good degree of complexity. These novels would enable me to teach across the whole ability range which I have always thought was an exciting prospect, allowing for a greater degree of peer learning through listening to and communicating ideas at all levels, which I think is a great way to teach language and literature.
But don’t just take my word for it. Read the novels, explore the online resources on kerboodle!, and see for yourself.
~ Maggie
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
NEWSFLASH!
AQA GCSE Literature Online: Martyn Pig is now fully live on kerboodle!
Follow this link to order the Evaluation Product for AQA GCSE Literature Online: Martyn Pig and/or any of the other titles in Nelson Thornes' AQA GCSE Literature Online series.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Election, SATs and jazz
Hello,
Well it’s finally arrived, Election Week! From an education perspective, the TES pre-election debate featuring the Lab, Lib & Tory education spokesmen was interesting, focusing on the topic: “Contrary to headlines in the popular press, teachers and schools have never been better”. There’s a good commentary and snippets from the people who followed the debate on Twitter here. What I’m finding most fascinating about the election this time round is the sheer amount of chatter about it – debates, online coverage, twittering (aside – I’m reliably informed this should be ‘tweeting’, but I prefer twittering, it’s more onomatopoeic!) – so many ways to catch up on what’s being proposed, purported and promised, and so many ways to have your say!
I’ve also read today that the three main parties concur that the SATs boycott should not go ahead (see article here) – Lib Dem man Laws sounds the most sensible, suggesting a replacement process of internal marking and selected moderation, which sounds to me like what’s being implemented with APP for KS3? If so, wouldn’t this make a lot of sense? Students would be used to working with this method of assessment, and it would be easier to judge their levels when they arrive in Y7 and subsequently to plan KS3 most effectively based on this information. I’m not a teacher though – comment and have your say! The team would be interested to hear your thoughts on this, and on APP in general. Is it working for you? Do you think it would be a good replacement for SATs at KS2 and ease transition to KS3?
In other news,
Emma
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Quiz update and a parental dilemma
The performance of Bleak Expectations in the Nelson Thornes quiz was, mathematically speaking, distinctly average. Where literature coincided with the categories we did well. We were good on girl’s names, famous people and medicine (Becky S even knew that ‘Skelegro’ was used for regrowing bones in the Harry Potter books). We faltered on dogs (although Ali knew the dog in the Secret Seven books and Garfield’s doggish housemate), crime and, most woefully, presidents. Sadly ‘David Palmer’ was not the answer to any of the questions, so the team’s knowledge of ‘24’ didn’t come in that useful. And despite Emma’s persistent suggestions, it turned out that the Isle of Dogs is not in Walford, nor did a named succession of dogs play Roly. The winning team got lots more points than us, and it’s difficult to see how we could brush up on our general knowledge to compete because the categories were so random. How could we have predicted that there would be ten questions on feet?
A quick reminder about our fabulous and friendly new version of Under Milk Wood, which published last Monday (a week early!). I was the development editor on this project and enjoyed working with the authors to make sure the suggested English and drama activities are interesting and relevant. I love this play because of the musicality of the language. I was part of a stage performance when I was in Sixth Form, and even now reading through I can hear the words being said by good friends. My twin sister and I played the part of Lily Smalls, talking to herself in the mirror; “Oh there’s a face!” It’s always fun to work on a product that you can relate to and enjoy.
On a more personal level, I am currently facing the challenge of how to get a small child interested in books. I’m the proud owner of an eighteen month old boy, who loves to run around outside and ‘baaa’ at sheep and dig in the soil. His father doesn’t read for fun, his paternal grandparents (who live very close by and have an undue influence on him) do not read for fun. Therefore, it’s up to me. I feel I’ve risen to the challenge in that his bookshelf is packed with books that have bits to feel and move, make funny noises, and even a couple that include puppets. We go to the library every week and we choose books together before we join in the nursery rhymes singing session.
He’s started to talk and one of his first words was ‘book’, generally said whilst backing towards you and expecting to sit down on your knee. However, he has the attention span of a goldfish and we rarely get beyond ‘Once upon a time…’ unless he’s in his cot for the bedtime story. I encourage him by stopping what I’m doing if he wants to look at books and by making it as fun as possible. I know the odds are against me on this one, but I will be upset if when he sits his GCSE English Literature exam he hasn’t even read the books.
I wonder if the use of IT in teaching English will encourage boys, traditionally the more reluctant readers, to engage with the texts? What do you think? In Kerboodle! we’ve got some amazing resources to go with the GCSE English Literature set texts. They help students to really think about and analyse what they’ve read, and to form and justify their opinions. They encourage a far deeper understanding of the text than I ever had at school, and I was a swot in English. The potential of e-resources to bring language and literature to life is enormous and we’re only just beginning to play with what can be done – but we have lots of ideas so watch this space.
A quick reminder about our fabulous and friendly new version of Under Milk Wood, which published last Monday (a week early!). I was the development editor on this project and enjoyed working with the authors to make sure the suggested English and drama activities are interesting and relevant. I love this play because of the musicality of the language. I was part of a stage performance when I was in Sixth Form, and even now reading through I can hear the words being said by good friends. My twin sister and I played the part of Lily Smalls, talking to herself in the mirror; “Oh there’s a face!” It’s always fun to work on a product that you can relate to and enjoy.
On a more personal level, I am currently facing the challenge of how to get a small child interested in books. I’m the proud owner of an eighteen month old boy, who loves to run around outside and ‘baaa’ at sheep and dig in the soil. His father doesn’t read for fun, his paternal grandparents (who live very close by and have an undue influence on him) do not read for fun. Therefore, it’s up to me. I feel I’ve risen to the challenge in that his bookshelf is packed with books that have bits to feel and move, make funny noises, and even a couple that include puppets. We go to the library every week and we choose books together before we join in the nursery rhymes singing session.
He’s started to talk and one of his first words was ‘book’, generally said whilst backing towards you and expecting to sit down on your knee. However, he has the attention span of a goldfish and we rarely get beyond ‘Once upon a time…’ unless he’s in his cot for the bedtime story. I encourage him by stopping what I’m doing if he wants to look at books and by making it as fun as possible. I know the odds are against me on this one, but I will be upset if when he sits his GCSE English Literature exam he hasn’t even read the books.
I wonder if the use of IT in teaching English will encourage boys, traditionally the more reluctant readers, to engage with the texts? What do you think? In Kerboodle! we’ve got some amazing resources to go with the GCSE English Literature set texts. They help students to really think about and analyse what they’ve read, and to form and justify their opinions. They encourage a far deeper understanding of the text than I ever had at school, and I was a swot in English. The potential of e-resources to bring language and literature to life is enormous and we’re only just beginning to play with what can be done – but we have lots of ideas so watch this space.
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
NEWSFLASH - LIVE ON kerboodle!
The electronic resources for An Inspector Calls have just gone LIVE on kerboodle! AND the evaluation resources for Mr Pip and Martyn Pig are now LIVE as well.Mr Pip is one of the new AQA set texts for GCSE English Literature, Unit 1, section B: Exploring Cultures. Martyn Pig is one of the new AQA set texts for GCSE English Literature, Unit 1, section A: Modern Texts.
http://www.nelsonthornes.com/aqagcse/english.html
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