The aim of this piece was to model the skills of analysis for a classic poem. The piece was written around the fifth week of a set of sessions on “Animalia Poetry”. I consider poetry to provide excellent opportunities for the development of both critical and creative skills, and through such activities with me students […]
Recently a student I was working with described a task they had at school in which they were to compose an essay that would compare a novel with a film. In my experience, students are often given such tasks to complete without either the lessons or insights into texts to do more than identify and […]
I love my work 🙂 Most mornings I wake up with the birds and head into my study with a coffee to log on and collaborate with students to further develop our studies together. They send me questions, plans, reflections and products to demonstrate what they are doing and to seek my involvement, whether it […]
What is justice, and what is injustice? Ok, this is my discursive/expository essay and I get to start it however I like. I therefore choose to start it with Erin Brokovich. Don’t complain – I could have instead gone for Steven Seagal’s lemon Out For Justice, so really you should be thanking me! The 2000 […]
I’ve read the first chapter or two. Immediately I recognise that a book like this is the absolute antithesis of Ernest Hemmingway’s work. Like a hard-nosed Puritan, Hemmingway set out to strip all frivolous animation and fun and phantasms from writing, and to present simple, direct, stark naked descriptions. Obviously the previous sentence does not […]
This is yet another 20 min short creative writing piece, this time in response to the image/prompt of “A cat having their tummy tickled”. For a word document version of much better presentation and formatting than what is shown here email me at [email protected]. Remember, your goal is to produce focused writing by: • illustrating […]
I’m going to consider for this analysis the section of the clip of “On Top of the World” by Imagine Dragons that I call “The prestige” that runs from 2 mins 14 seconds to 2 mins 52 secs. A title for this part of the narrative might be “Hello Stanley”. You can view the music […]
I am, and always have been, an avid reader (and writer!). Reading is many things, including: a habit; a skill; a tool; a challenge; a pleasure; a terrible seven-letter word; a wonderful opportunity. I’m lucky – I know a lot about reading! One of my jobs as a mentor to gifted students is to recognise […]
The aim of this piece was to exercise the skill of composing a narrative using an interesting structural device. There are many such narrative devices that can be exercised to form a narrative that realises greater suspense or intrigue at different stages of the story, including epigrams, flashbacks, cliffhangers etc. In this piece, the structural […]
This is yet another 20 min short creative writing piece, this time in response to the image/prompt of a set of clocks. For a word document version of much better presentation and formatting than what is shown here email me at [email protected]. Remember, your goal is to produce focused writing by: • illustrating the context, […]
