Author Archives: evelynoconnor

Hamlet’s soliloquies

Posted on January 24, 2012 | Comments Off on Hamlet’s soliloquies

I don’t propose to offer a lengthy discussion of every soliloquy in the play. You can do that yourself. Or google it!

Rather, I’d like you to consider the following:

There are 7 soliloquies delivered by Hamlet and one by Claudius.

The purpose of the soliloquies is to reveal more about the thoughts, feelings, personality and mindset of the central character(s).

In the case of Hamlet, without the soliloquies, his behavior would make absolutely no sense. His father has been murdered and then reappears in the form of a ghost, ordering him to get revenge, restore order to the Kingdom and claim what is rightfully his – the throne. So if we weren’t aware of the moral and emotional turmoil going on inside his heart and soul, if we didn’t know that his mind was a constant battleground, we would not sit through this play. In fact we would probably boo at the central character and possibly even start taunting him for his inaction and cowardice.

Bearing all of this in mind, in the case of each soliloquy you could do the following:

CONTEXTUALISE – when is it delivered? What happens immediately beforehand? Does this prompt the ‘outburst’ of the soliloquy?

ANALYSE – what exactly is revealed from what the character says in each soliloquy? In the case of Hamlet we see that he is

(a) highly self-critical (this links in to the idea that he is a very self-aware tragic hero – unlike Lear, Hamlet is aware of his fatal flaw from the outset)

(b) morally aware (this links in to the idea that he is a very noble person whose delay is partially due to his desire to ‘do the right thing’ (he double-checks that Claudius is actually guilty) and partially due to his profound sense that violence is wrong (even if he would be obeying a powerful code of honor and revenge when engaging in this violence).

(c) deeply philosophical (his tendency to over-think things leads to his suicidal depression and also contributes to his inaction. One benefit emerges, however, in the beauty of the language created by Shakespeare to consider some of the greatest moral, spiritual and philosophical ideas known to humankind. Without these soliloquies the world would be a lesser place. And I mean that sincerely).

PERSONALISE

Can you identify the effect of Hamlet’s soliloquies on the audience? Most obviously, they allow us to identify him as the ‘hero’ of the play. Secondly they give us an insight into his thoughts and thus allow us to understand him on a deep level – otherwise we’d just be shouting ‘get on with it’ at the stage and possibly throwing things too! Finally, they allow us to sympathize with his plight, even to emphatise on some levels – yes I know none of us have ever had to avenge our father’s murder and kill our Uncle for shagging our mother, but we can emphatise with the idea of feeling obliged, even compelled to do something but being unable to muster up the will to actually do it (generally speaking that might be washing dishes, doing homework or breaking up with someone. Not quite as dramatic as what poor Hamlet is going through).

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Topic of the Week: Plagiarism

Posted on January 24, 2012 | 4 comments

I’ve found myself thinking about plagiarism a lot since I started this website. There’s not much confusion about what it is – taking someone else’s language, thoughts, ideas or expressions and passing them off as your own – but there seems to be no consensus anymore as to whether or not it’s ok. Particularly when it comes to the leaving cert.

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The major problem lies in the sheer volume of information your average teenager is expected to hold in their brain in order to sit this exam. If the teacher doesn’t provide a no nonsense, here are the essentials, forget about real learning synopsis of every aspect of the course, students and parents will look elsewhere. And who can really blame them? If it’s possible to fake knowledge and understanding and thus achieve an impressive set of results and entry into your college course of choice, why wouldn’t you? If there’s one thing we know about human beings, it is this. We do what works. If there’s a shortcut, we’ll take it.

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So does rote learning work? In the short term, possibly, and it really depends on the subject. In the long term, not at all. You’ll go to college and suddenly independent thinking, critical analysis, originality and initiative are all expected of you. In fact I frequently hear college lecturers bemoan the months of effort they have to put into de-programming first year college students from the rote learning that has become second nature to them in secondary school. My focus on turning my students into better writers sometimes drives them to utter despair but a robotic ability to learn off reams of facts is not something I can ever or will ever view as anything but pointless.

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There is no easy solution. Continuous assessment is wide open to plagiarism – you get your uncle the carpenter to do your woodwork project and voila, you’ve got an A. Reforming college entry is an obvious starting point – if you take away the points race, you remove the pressure on students and teachers to teach/learn to the test – but this solution is also riddled with problems. How else do you decide who gets into college? A lottery? Finally, reducing the number of subjects students study seems an obvious step forward, but is it right to narrow their exposure to the world of knowledge and ideas so early? And will students again just choose the ‘easy’ options? We already have a massive problem with a lack of uptake in Maths, Science and IT. Do we really want to make things worse?

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As for English as a subject, 75% of the Junior Cert and 55% of the Leaving Cert you will not see until you turn over and read the exam papers. You can rote learn until the cows moo loudly at dawn but if you don’t twist what you’ve learned to suit the question you will not do well. And most importantly of all, you must be able to write well. Perhaps years of sample answers you’ve been encouraged to learn off do you the greatest disservice of all, because they undermine your opportunities to practise constructing clear coherent sentences of your own.

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Finally, be aware that Ruairi Quinn has recently been quoted critiquing our fondness for predictable exam papers that don’t require students to think laterally, apply knowledge or demonstrate understanding. I think in coming years the exam papers will get less predictable. Whilst that makes me feel sorry for those of you desperate to get into your chosen college course, on some level it does make more sense to offer a genuine challenge. If only the stakes weren’t so high, I’d feel more supportive of it.

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Personal Essay – Practice

Posted on January 24, 2012 | 1 comment

This post is really for other teachers but if you’re a student and your mates are up for it, by all means read on and give this a go! One challenge we all face is to get the difference between short stories and personal essays absolutely clear in our heads. Of course there are often similarities – use of descriptive writing, opportunity to draw on personal experiences for inspiration, first person narration. However the fundamental differences are really important too.

  • A short story is fictional.
  • The narrator of the story can be anyone – a homeless person, a world leader, God, Hitler or a sheep.
  • You can use first person OR third person narration.
  • There is a plot, a setting, characters, a limited timescale (the tighter the better in my experience) and oftentimes a twist (again, having one is generally better than not having one in my experience!).

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  • By contrast a personal essay is based on reality (but feel free to exaggerate & even make things up as long as they sound believable – here if you want to include a talking sheep you’ll also have to mention the drugs you were on when this happened!!!).
  • The speaker is YOU – you are writing as yourself, a teenager who lives in Ireland. You cannot be a sheep for a personal essay 😉
  • You will (and should) use descriptive writing but you will also use quotes from your favourite bands and anecdotes from your childhood or family and offer your thoughts and opinions and attitudes and beliefs and feelings. You may use rhetorical questions and lists and statistics. In other words, every technique available to you.
  • You are not limited to a fixed timescale – a short story is a slice of life whilst a personal essay can be a montage of various events from past to present to future, from you, to your family and friends, to other people and cultures, from local to national to global.

In order to make this REAL for my students, I recently did this experiment in class. Everyone wrote a mini personal essay of between 200 and 300 words (including me). As a prompt we began with the words “My name is ___________. Let me tell you a little bit about the kind of person I am”. Each of us was allowed to give ‘clues’ to our identity but we made it a rule that you couldn’t make it too obvious. The reason I joined in was  because they bullied me into it!!! Ok, I’m being facetious. But in reality I think it made them feel less self-conscious about ‘revealing’ themselves, laying themselves bare to each other as it were (the essence of being a good writer if you ask me!). They also insisted that I write in the persona of me as a teenage girl. Again this made absolute sense – if I started referring to my husband and child I’d really have given the game away 😉

After creating a first draft, we all typed them up, same font and font size, I checked for spelling and grammatical errors (God help me this was time consuming) and then I printed them off. The first two girls who finished (thanks Lauren and Cathy) sat down with the list of names of people in the class and five sticky notes and created groups which were a genuine mixture of personalities and which kept close friends apart. This meant they were facing a real challenge guessing who the writer was and more importantly they were getting a true insight into people in the class they might not know very well. Each group of five was given six mini-essays (all bundles included my one but no group got a bundle including any of their own). Their job was to figure out who the writer was, a variation on the game of guess who where you have a post it note stuck to your forehead and you have to figure out what famous person’s name is written on it.

All of this took place over four 40 minute classes and not rushing things was definitely the key to success. My students were also pretty brave in finding the courage to reveal themselves publicly in front of their peers. Getting me to join in led to some pretty funny moments – any student in their right mind would be mortified to be mixed up with their teacher (the one person it is absolutely NOT COOL to be similar to in any way!). We did this immediately after a week of working on and creating short stories so the contrast helped in embedding the distinction between short stories and personal essays in their brains (at least I hope so). Finally, teachers, if you grade this EVERYONE GETS AN A. You cannot and must not give someone’s personality anything less, nor did I want to – this class are a great bunch of women and I’m lucky to be their teacher. In a few weeks time we’ll come back to them and analyse them from a writing point of view – what works, what doesn’t, which bits keep the reader most engaged and entertained but in the meantime I think they’ve learned a lot about personal essays and about each other (as have I) .

Below I’ve included my effort if you want a template to work off!!!

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Who am I?

I guess it really depends who you ask. My mother says I’m a ‘flibbertigibbert’, flitting from one thing to the next, never sitting still long enough to eat a decent dinner – or wash up afterwards! My father says I’m a nutcase – well actually, he sings a song “you’re a nut, beep, beep” and grabs my nose and twists it for the “beep beep” bit (funny man!) My sister tells me repeatedly that I’m ‘the adopted one’. I am a bit odd I suppose, but refusing to recognise that we’re even related is a bit harsh don’t you think?

My boyfriend says I’m pretty and smart. Far too pretty and smart to be going out with him. He’s wrong but I guess it’s nice to have someone who thinks you’re special. Special in a good way, not special in a ‘not the shapest tool in the box’ kind of way. Although on occasion I have done things that might cause people to label me a complete and utter spanner!

And me? I’m not sure how I feel about myself. Some days I think I’m just your average teenager, trying to figure it all out and not do too much homework along the way. Some days I think I’m a supersonic bolt of electric lightening sent to save the world from spinning out of control. And some days I wish, with all the power in every fibre of my being that I could just be somebody else. Just for a little while. And then those days pass and I get back to the business of just being me. It’s a tough job baby, but somebody’s gotta do it!

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Unseen poetry mistakes!

Posted on January 6, 2012 | Comments Off on Unseen poetry mistakes!

I recently came across a scrap of paper  written after correcting a bundle of unseen poetry tests. I may as well commit it to virtual paper before dumping it.

You need to remember the following:

  1. A quality response here will get you a lot more marks than sheer quantity.
  2. Divide your time equally between questions. Students often opt to answer two 10 mark questions (instead of one 20 mark Q) but then write a page long answer for (i) and three or four lines for (ii). It doesn’t take a genius to work out that getting 8 marks for (i) and 2 marks for (ii) (50% average) is a lot less effective than getting 7 marks for (i) and 6 marks for (ii) (65%).  Watch the clock. Take five minutes to analyse the poem, then 7 minutes to answer (i) and 7 minutes to answer (ii) – or just anwer the 20 mark question, writing for 15mins or so.
  3. Read the question carefully – know what’s expected when you’re asked to “write a response to the poem” (see here) and remember if you opt for the two 10 mark questions they’ll be asking you to focus on different aspects of the poem. If you find yourself saying the same thing for both answers THIS IS BAD!  One tip is to rewrite the question in your own words before you start to answer it. This makes you focus before you start to write.
  4. Remember poetry is the ultimate form of aesthetic language – this means that what you say is in many ways less important than HOW you say it. A poet is hyper-aware of the tricks and techniques they can use; aware that language has it’s own music and rhythm and flow. Thus you must identify techniques but more importantly say why the poet has chosen to use a particular technique – what effect do they achieve in using this particular technique???
  5. Zoom in on the poem. Look at the impact of individual words/phrases. A close reading of SOME (not all) of the poem is expected – but don’t worry about ignoring sections of the poem. You don’t need to offer a line by line analysis of the poem – in fact you shouldn’t – you couldn’t possibly in the time given.
  6. Don’t repeat yourself. If you say the same thing twice (even if you phrase it differently), the examiner will simply deduct marks because your answer loses its coherence as soon as you do this.
  7. Avoid slang. You should use FORMAL LANGUAGE for critical analysis – in the same way that you are expected to dress smartly for an interview, you are expected to ‘dress up’ your language for all of Paper 2 (in Paper 1 it depends on the task).

Anyway hope that’s of enough help that I was right to write it down before dumping that scrap of paper.

 

 

 

 

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Macbeth intro&concl.

Posted on December 6, 2011 | 4 comments

Introduction = road map.

Destination = question you have been asked.

Plan your route (brainstorm).

Let examiner know what directions you’ll take.

“During the play, Macbeth loses but ultimately regains our sympathy”

You must immediately address the question. Don’t simply agree 100% with the question – give a more balanced & detailed response:

“There is no doubt that our sympathy for Macbeth ebbs and flows throughout the play. (1) Initially, I had mixed feelings about his character – although a valiant soldier he also seemed to relish violence. (2) Following the murders of Duncan and (3) Banquo my sympathy for him declined at first but then reappeared in the face of his profound remorse. (4) However his brutal tyranny as King and his unnecessary murders of Lady Macduff and her children annihilated any sympathy I had left. (5) He never fully regained my sympathy, despite delivering a very moving speech upon hearing news of Lady Macbeth’s death”. (6) (Also discuss how the play ends)

Conclusion = highlights of your journey.

•Don’t give a summary of the story. Don’t introduce new information.

•Repeat the main idea (thesis) you’ve developed in your answer–but rephrase. Be wary of repeating exactly what you said in the introduction – change your phrasing if you repeat an idea.

•Sum up the major things you’ve learned from studying this aspect of the play.

•Show how what you have said has proven and/or disproven the question.

CONCLUSION: “Thus I only partially agree with the statement that “Macbeth loses but ultimately regains our sympathy”. His increasingly violent, volatile and reckless behaviour made it more and more difficult for me to sympathise with him, so in that sense he did lose my sympathy completely, particularly following the murders of Lady Macduff and her children. I can identify with his suicidal despair when his wife dies, and his reluctance to commit any more crimes when Macduff challenges him to fight. However, he never fully regained my sympathy because I couldn’t excuse the way he brought Scotland to its knees. Ultimately, his death seemed a fitting punishment for the bloody tyranny of his reign as King”.

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