Author Archives: evelynoconnor

Topic of the Week: 2011

Posted on December 1, 2011 | Comments Off on Topic of the Week: 2011

Topic of the Week: 2011

When I look back on 2011, a fog of global, national and local news events form a backdrop to my personal triumphs and tragedies. This is the year I truly discovered the power of technology; it’s the year my daughter turned three; the year my ‘little’ sister got married; and the year my English teacher Mrs. Freeley died (poetically enough, on Christmas Eve). Yet so much more happened and somewhere within it registers that my concerns are but a tiny splash of insignificant paintdrops on a much broader global canvas. So what major events did happen in the past year?

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2011 was thankfully a bad year for tyranny – the Arab Spring saw popular uprisings explode all over the Islamic world and corrupt governments were overthrown in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Social media (like twitter & facebook) made it increasingly difficult for dictators to suppress civil resistance and the effectiveness of people power became an inspiration to suppressed populations worldwide.

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Economically, the endless global recession hit Europe particularly hard and a €1 trillion bailout fund may not be enough to save the Euro. Certainly in Ireland we appear to have lost our sovereignity (when the Germans get to see our budget before we do) and have tired of austerity budgets yet it seems there is no end in sight.

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Disillusionment with paying the price for mistakes made by bankers was not confined to Ireland. The Occupy Wall Street movement began in New York in September (protesting against social and economic inequality, high unemployment, greed, corruption, and the undue influence of corporations) and spread worldwide. They believe an awakening is at hand, whereby entire populations will come to realise that democracy is being fundamentally undermined by capitalism, particularly when there is no accountability for the wealthy and the powerful despite their mistakes leading us into the greatest recession since the 1930’s (sadly the more things change the more they remain the same – it all reminds me of that famous Orwellian parable that ‘all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’).

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Meanwhile, this was a year blighted by natural disasters. Flooding proved a fatal bedfellow, killing 903 in Rio de Janeiro (Jan), 657 in Thailand (July), 434 in Pakistan (Sept), 207 in Cambodia (Sept) and 1249 in the Phillipines (Dec). In March an earthquake and tsunami killed 15,840 in Japan and destabilised several nuclear power plants. In July the UN officially declared a famine in Somalia. Tens of thousands had already died. In October 604 died in an earthquake in Turkey. Our obsession with recession seems suddenly petty by comparison.

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Yet we are human, and thus weak, and we love a distraction from pain and poverty and hardship. The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton was the media event of the year, attracting an estimated 2 billion viewers worldwide. Planking became an internet phemomenon. And in actual real significant good news (rather than tabloid generated nonsense) the world’s first artificial organ transplant was performed in Sweden in July. Closer to home, we elected Michael D. Higgins (the cutest maneen in Ireland according to my first years) as President. Nice to see that a poet and intellectual is our ambassador of choice in an era when stupidity is supposedly glorified…

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On the 31st of October the world’s population reached 7 billion but – as tends to happen – lots of people also died. We may not shed too many tears for Osama Bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi or Kim Jung Il but I’m guessing at least some of you will lament the passing of Seve Ballesteros, Amy Winehouse, Steve Jobs and Gary Speed. At home our 7th taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald and former minister for finance Brian Lenihan also died. And if you cast your mind back you’ll remember the tragic murder of Michaela Hart McAreavey last January in Mauritis and the death of six people following an airplane crash at Cork Airport the following month.

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Finally, Europe had mixed fortunes in 2011. In Ireland, the visit of the Queen was a historic moment reminding us that it is possible to truly put the past behind us and days later we welcomed Barack O’Bama home to Offaly. In Spain the decision of ETA (Basque separatists) to declare an end to their violent campaign for independence after 43 years was widely celebrated. Sadly in Norway, the shootings in Utoya sent a generation of politically active youth to their graves.

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And so you have it. These are the events we’ll relive on ‘reeling in the years’ in years to come. Click on over to Facebook for links to relevant articles.

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Topic of the week: Education

Posted on November 30, 2011 | Comments Off on Topic of the week: Education

Topic of the Week: EDUCATION

In Ireland, education is a national obsession. Every day there’ll be at least one article in the papers about exams, grinds, points, college places or grants. Every year we hear about the Young Scientist exhibition, the Texaco art competition, the Concern debates and the All-Island school choir competition, as well as the many aspiring entrepreneurs who develop new products and often end up with international funding to develop their brand. Nonetheless, we also live in an era where our method of assessing students (the dreaded Leaving Cert) and method of selection for entry to third level (the points system) is brutal. The pressure on students is immense and the recession only raises the stakes as we all begin to feel that qualifications are the only way to get out & stay out of the dole queue. Add into the mix the fact that multi-national corporations are starting to question the emphasis on rote learning in our system (a system which produces graduates (supposedly) incapable of thinking critically or creatively) and we suddenly realise this is not exactly the recipe we need to lift ourselves out of the doom or to create the ‘smart economy’ of the future that would make Ireland the place to do business. So what is it like to go to school in Ireland now? And what changes do we need to make to transform our schools so that they become the global model for success?

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Sample Questions:

2009

Write an article (serious and/or light-hearted) for a school magazine about your experience of education over the last number of years.

2007

Imagine you are running for the position of Student Council President in your school. Compose an informative election leaflet encouraging students to vote for you. It should outline your own leadership qualities and the changes you would like to introduce into your school.

2004

You have been asked to give a short talk to a group of students who are about to start first year in your school. Write out the text of the talk you would give.

2003

You have been asked by the school principal to give a talk to your class group on the importance in life of “understanding the system”. Write out the talk you would give.

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Studied poetry made easy!

Posted on November 29, 2011 | Comments Off on Studied poetry made easy!

I came up with the idea for these study guides about six months ago and I’ve been working on them ever since. I’ve always had a rule that I don’t give grinds but – particularly since I started this site – I’ve been under some pressure to change my mind! Between corrections for three exam classes and my adorable but demanding 3yr old the only months I’d have the time (or energy) to give grinds is during the summer – when no-one wants them!

So instead I came up with the idea of “teaching” people the poets on the course using mp3’s. Each study guide is about an hour long and is divided into seven tracks. The first is a short biography of the poet, then a discussion of six (or occasionally seven) of the prescribed poems by this poet and each guide is approximately an hour long. We recorded them in a studio so the sound quality is very good and they’re carefully edited to get rid of any ‘ah’ ‘um’ or occasional cursing when I made a mistake! All you need to do is download them, then stick them on your phone or iPod or whatever mp3 player you’re having yourself. And don’t forget your headphones 😉

I think the beauty of them as an idea is that you can listen to them wherever and whenever you like – on a bus, in a car, when you’re out for a walk or a jog. They fall into the new category of “on-demand” media that’s so popular at the moment. You can pause, rewind, repeat if there’s something you don’t understand and listen to them as often as you like. Hopefully, learning the poetry will be a lot easier this way and at €2.49, a hell of a lot cheaper than €30 an hour grinds!

Click here to get to download the audio study guides.

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Topic of the Week: Teen Culture

Posted on November 27, 2011 | Comments Off on Topic of the Week: Teen Culture

Topic of the week: TEEN CULTURE

There are so many cliches flying around about teenagers, it’s hard to know where to begin. If you believe everything you read in the papers, they eat too much, binge drink too much, have lots of casual sex, spend most of their time online, hate school but spend thousands on grinds and are generally speaking lazy and selfish. On the other hand, most of the teenagers I know are sick and tired of these stereotypes. Many are creative, entreprenurial and extremely active in their communities. So which ‘version’ of youth should we believe?

Here are some sample questions from the exam papers:

2011 Write an article for a popular magazine in which you outline your views about the impact of technology on the lives of young people.

2009 Write a short speech in which you attempt to persuade a group of parents that older teenagers should be trusted to make their own decisions.

2009 Imagine your art teacher is compiling a photographic exhibition to reflect the lives of young people today. Write a letter to your art teacher proposing five images that you believe should be included & give reasons for your decision in each case.

2008 Write a letter to Jon Savage responding to this extract from his book and giving your own views on today’s teenage culture.

2008 Write a short story in which the central character is a rebellious teenager (male or female)

2007 Write a personal essay on the idealism and passions of youth.

2001 Write a letter to Martin Mansergh in which you outline your response to his view of young Irish people (you need to read this article to write your ans).

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Openings & Endings

Posted on November 26, 2011 | Comments Off on Openings & Endings

“Oh wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?”

It’s happened to us all. You cosy up on the couch to watch a movie but despite the massive bowl of popcorn, industrial size bag of malteesers, pint glass of coke and a surround sound system that could shake the dead in their shrouds, after twenty minutes you’re squirming, fidgeting and generally feeling vaguely frustrated. You channel surf in the hope of finding something better – or you stick it out to the bitter end but wander off to bed lamenting the fact that you’ll never get those wasted two hours of your life back again. So what is it that draws you into a story and then leaves you feeling deeply satisfied at the end???

I’ve recently been looking at how writers begin and end their stories. One question that frequently appears on the Junior Cert asks you to examine whether the opening and/or closing scene of the novel/play/short story you have studied impressed you. For the Leaving Cert you need a firm grasp of how your single and comparative texts begin and end.  Regardless of genre – film, novel, play or short story – as a reader/viewer you have certain expectations & if these are not fulfilled you may just walk out of the theatre or throw aside the book! However you may find it difficult to verbalise exactly what it is that left you feeling frustrated & disappointed so here’s a list:

The opening chapter or scene should do most or all of the following:

  1. Introduce the setting – where and when the story takes place.
  2. Grab your attention – make the reader curious by holding back info. & creating some unanswered questions in our minds.
  3. Introduce main characters AND make sure they are in some way likable/sympathetic.
  4. Something should happen – the plot should begin.
  5. You might want to introduce the central theme(s).
  6. Style of writing or mise en scene must be descriptive/cinematic.

What you do NOT want:

  1. Too much background info which slows down the pace of the action & can make it boring.
  2. Too many characters introduced all at once which can be confusing.
  3. If you find the language or plot too difficult it can be off-putting – but this might be ‘your’ problem so be wary of writing off a novel or film for this reason.

However a novel/play or film can have a perfectly decent opening scene but still leave you with a sour taste in your mouth. We’ve all had the experience of coming out of the cinema feeling vaguely harassed and bewildered because the end just didn’t make sense. Or it was totally predictable and cliched. Or it was cheap – some kind of deus ex machina because the writer couldn’t think of any other way to end things. So here’s a list of elegant endings…

The end of a film/play/novel should do most or all of the following:

  1. Writer must give us closure – an air of finality. We need the writer to tie up most loose ends (generally speaking to be left thinking is good, to be left wondering is annoying).
  2. You want a twist – an ending which is unexpected makes us feel shocked & energised. A predictable ending (one which is clichéd & expected) is boring & disappointing for the audience.
  3. The end must make the audience FEEL something – it doesn’t matter whether it’s happy or sad or frightening or a mixture of loads of conflicting emotions. The important thing is that you made the audience care about the characters & the ending produced an emotional response in them.
  4. The end should leave you feeling that you’ve learnt something, it should leave you thinking about the themes & characters and should somehow capture a profound truth about life. The best stories change you as a person and offer you a new way of looking at the world.

What you do NOT want:

  1. Sudden ending – we’re left with no film idea of what happened to the main characters.
  2. Predictable ending – no twist, nothing unexpected. A story-by-numbers which follows genre rules so closely that we know exactly what to expect.
  3. Lots of loose ends left dangling. Challenging us to decide for ourselves what the ending means is fine but don’t just ‘forget’ to resolve things.
  4. Tacked on / far-fetched / sudden ending – one that doesn’t ‘fit’ in with the rest of the plot or one that isn’t credible.
  5. An ending which kills someone off for no good reason – or worse a story with such lacklustre characters that you don’t care if they live or die!

My students also suggested that you don’t want an ending where good is punished and evil rewarded. I don’t really agree with this. Of course bad things happening to good people is upsetting but it’s also true to life. Sadly.

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