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Junior Cert English 2

Posted on May 7, 2011 by evelynoconnor | Comments Off

Here’s the lowdown on Paper 2:

Section 1 DRAMA – 20 mins for unseen, 25mins for studied.

Unseen drama – there are two drama excerpts but you only need to answer on one.

The first is Shakespearean, and although the language is more difficult, the questions tend to be slightly easier. The second is modern drama.

There are usually three questions (15 marks each) and you need to answer two BUT NOT ALWAYS, sometimes they ask you to answer all three (10 marks each) so read the paper carefully. The type of questions that come up are:

Describe a character or the relationship between two characters (see list of personality traits). Pick a character you like & explain why. Write a character sketch.
What is the main theme/message in the extract?
Describe the mood (dramatic/serious/tense/humorous…)
Describe the setting.
Imagine you are directing this scene – discuss two or more of the following: acting, blocking (movement on stage), body language/gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, costume, props, set design & setting, sound effects, music, lighting.
Write an ending for the scene / continue the scene / write a dialogue between two of the characters (including stage directions)

Studied drama – there are usually two questions and you answer whichever one you prefer. Sometimes you are asked to write an essay style answer for 30marks, sometimes they ask you to answer two related 15 mark questions. Try to write between one and a half and two pages but don’t go over the time allocated – 25 mins. The type of questions that come up ask you to write / write about

A central character (a winner or a loser, lucky or unlucky, your favourite character, hero, heroine, villain)
The relationship between two characters (they might specify – a tense/conflicted/loving/close/important relationship)
Character profiles & an introduction to the play (focusing on the main theme) for the programme.
Discuss the main theme/message of the play (2006 they specified one of these 4 themes: love/death/conflict/harmony) and show how this is relevant to your own life.
Discuss the mood of the play (serious or lighthearted) and the impact this had on you.
Describe the world of the play & discuss whether you would/would not like to live in this society.
Would you recommend this play? (plot, setting, themes, characterisation, style of writing, opening & ending)
A scene from the play – one filled with conflict or the most dramatic/memorable/tense/atmospheric/happy/sad/funny/tragic and discuss how this mood/feeling is created.
Describe how you would produce a scene from the play you have studied.
The opening scene or the final scene(s) – their impact on the audience & on you personally.

Section 2 Poetry – 20 mins for unseen, 25mins for studied

Unseen poetry – there are usually three questions (15 marks each) and you need to answer two BUT NOT ALWAYS, sometimes they ask you to answer all three (10 marks each) so read the paper carefully. The type of questions that come up are:

Describe the speaker /poet / the poet’s relationship with a person, place, issue or event (see list of personality traits)
Describe the mood in the poem / how is this mood created.
Identify the theme (explain the central message of the poem in your own words)
Discuss the style of writing (imagery /sound effects /structure /rhythm etc…) and explain why these features appeal to you.
Do you like the poem (why/why not?)
Discuss the title or choose a suitable title for this poem.

Studied poetry – there are usually two questions and you answer whichever one you prefer. Sometimes you are asked to write an essay style answer for 30marks, sometimes they ask you to answer two related 15 mark questions. Try to write between one and a half and two pages but don’t go over the time allocated – 25 mins.The type of questions that come up ask you to discuss a poem

which deals with an important issue & the insights it gave you.
which made you think.
a love poem.
which deals with either war or peace.
which deals with youth or old age.
setting / set in an interesting time or place.
An unusual poem (unusual style/subject matter/experience).
which celebrates a person, place or thing.
with vivid imagery / which offers vivid images of a person.
filled with imagination.
which describes the poet’s wishes or thoughts.
A poem with an interesting title.
with interesting sound effects / musical qualities.
Your favourite poem (for inclusion in an anthology).
A poem with a special personal meaning for you.
Compare two poems which deal with a similar theme.
Compare the poem you liked best with the poem you liked least.
Your favourite poet.

Section 3 – Fiction- 20 mins for unseen, 25mins for studied

Unseen fiction – there are usually three questions (15 marks each) and you need to answer two BUT NOT ALWAYS, sometimes they ask you to answer all three (10 marks each) so read the paper carefully. The type of questions that come up are:

Describe a character / the relationship between two characters.
Describe the mood and how it is created.
Discuss the way the setting is described – does it bring the place to life for you?
Discuss the style of writing – do you like the way the piece is written?
Does this extract make you want to read on? Why/why not?
Discuss the themes / relevance to a teenage audience.
Write a dialogue based on the extract.
Predict an ending for the extract.

In 2004 they indirectly asked a question about catharsis – tough question! It was phrased like this “We enjoy reading stories because they enable us to explore the outer edges of the unknown, strangeness, things that cannot be explained – without feeling any danger to ourselves”. Do you agree?

On the surface this seems like a really tough question so let me make it simpler for you. Have you ever wondered why you like horror movies? Or violent video games (even though you’re not a violent person in real life)? Or Eastenders (it’s so bloody miserable and depressing all the time)? Or books that make you cry (I’m not a fan of PS I Love You but most of my – female – students love it)?

Some people suggest that we like all of these things because they’re not real. We can experience scary things in a fantasy way without putting our ‘real’ self in danger -the fear/rage/depression/sadness leave us as soon as we switch our brains off from the movie/video game/telly/book.

This process of temporarily experiencing negative emotions and then ‘cleansing’ them is known as catharsis. We enjoy this process because it helps us to lose ourselves in someone else’s life for a while (if our own life sucks) or to appreciate how good we have it (if our own life is better than what we’ve just watched) when the movie/video game/telly/book ends.

Studied fiction – there are usually two questions and you answer whichever one you prefer. Sometimes you are asked to write an essay style answer for 30marks, sometimes they ask you to answer two related 15 mark questions. Try to write between one and a half and two pages but don’t go over the time allocated – 25 mins. The type of questions that come up are:

Describe a central character (one you admire, one who experiences change, one who makes an impact on others)
The relationship between two characters (they might specify – a conflicted/loving relationship)
Describe the setting of your novel / short story and explain how it is important to the plot.
Describe the mood or atmosphere of a novel or short story you have studied.
Discuss an interesting theme / conflict between good and evil.
Discuss a twist / surprise / unexpected development and how this added to your enjoyment of the book / short story.
Discuss features of the writer’s style which you found interesting.
Rate your novel out of 5 stars and justify your rating OR would you recommend this novel to your peers OR would you nominate it for an award (one year they gave prompts that you might like to discuss – plot, setting, themes, characterisation, style of writing, opening & ending).
Choose your favourite section. Describe what happens and say why you enjoyed it/found it memorable.
Discuss the opening or ending of a novel / short story you have studied & say whether or not it impressed you.
Discuss the appropriateness of the title of the novel.

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Posted in Junior Cert

Tagged cert, certificate, english, junior

Directing a scene…

Posted on May 7, 2011 by evelynoconnor | Comments Off

You are often asked the following question:

Imagine you are directing this scene – discuss two or more of the following: acting, blocking (movement on stage), body language/gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, costume, props, set design & setting, sound effects, music, lighting.

Here are some of the things you should consider – the following was compiled by my sister who works in a theatre in London & thus is my guru on all things thespian!

COSTUMES:

ERA – when the play takes place. Think about what kind of clothes people wore then. If you don’t know google it or look for old photos.
PERSONALITY OF THE CHARACTER – what can you reveal about them from the clothes they wear?
FUNCTIONALITY -will their costume get dirty? do you need a clean shirt for eah performance? how often will they have to change clothes? will they have time? should they wear layers? will they be too hot?
MAKE-UP, WIGS, BEARDS are usually the responsibility of the wardrobe department. Do they need to look older? Younger? Hairier?

SET & SETTING

REALISM – do you want the set to look like a real place?
SYMBOLISM – is the set trying to show an idea visually?
SCENE CHANGES / LOCATIONS – How many? How often?
COLOURS & MATERIALS – Real wood / furniture or scenic painting?
CONSTRAINTS OF THE SPACE / SIGHTLINES – Are there pillars etc.. which you need to build around?

PROPS

ERA – how does a modern TV look different from one from the 60’s? Should they write with a biro or a quill?
FUNCTIONALITY -how are they used? who move them on & off?
REALISM / DETAIL – how close are the audience to the props?
DURABILITY – will they survive being handled by the actors every night for the entire run?
CONSUMABLES – is there food/drink/something which gets broken? If so they will need to be replaced every performance.

FACIAL EXPRESIONS/GESTURES/ACTING

EXPRESSIONS -raising an eyebrow, frowning, dead-pan, smiling (real or fake?), mouth open, eye contact?
GESTURES -posture, arms crossed, hands gesticulating, legs crossed (away or towards?), nail biting, fiddling (with hair, prop), fidgeting, fists clenched, nodding head, scratching head, shaking, spitting, picking nose!
ACTING – speed of movement, position on stage, closeness/distance from other actors, pauses. Realistic acting or melodrama?

LIGHTING

COLOURS -is it warm/cold/romantic/frightening? Do you use natulalistic colours (daylight) or bright splashes of colour?
ANGLES – do you want spooky shadows? brightly lit? muted candlelight?
3 POINT LIGHTING – to make the actors look naturalistic you need to light them from 3 ifferent directions.
INTENSITY – from which direction is the light strongest? Is the un/moon shining from one direction? Or is the stage evenly lit all over?
EFFECTS/GOBOS – do you want to project a sign / have flickers?

MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS / TONE OF VOICE

BACKGROUND -are they setting the scene? should the audience be aware of them or not?
SPECIAL SOUND EFFECTS – eg gunshot, doorbell, phone etc… Does it interrupt the action? Is it expected or not?
MUSIC – does it add to the atmosphere? How loud do you want it to be? Is it live or recorded?
TONE OF VOICE – extremely important for revealing the mood of the character. What feeling are they revealing when they speak? What volume do they speak at? Can they project adequately? If they whisper, use stage whispers. Does any character have a stutter? lisp? accent?

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Posted in Junior Cert

Tagged cert, directing, english, junior, theatre

From word to paragraph…

Posted on May 7, 2011 by evelynoconnor | Comments Off

When you brainstorm you’ll often just have individual words written down but if you want to turn a word into a paragraph of prose how do you do it?

I showed my leaving certs how the other day. I asked them for a word. They came up with ‘sex’ (hormones, hormones, hormones).

Then I wrote a list on the board as follows:

Imagery = 5 senses = SIGHT SOUND SMELL TASTE TOUCH
Rhetorical question
Repetition
Thoughts & Feelings
Short snappy sentences
Suspense
Twist

As we used each technique we crossed it off.

Here’s the paragraph we came up with:

Does he seriously think I’m going to sleep with him? I’m really really drunk and I can smell the stale sweat of his armpits, see the yellow plaque on his teeth. I can taste the puke in my mouth and the thump of a dance tune hammers into my brain. He reaches over and grabs my ass. I’m definitely going to puke again. ‘Get me out of here’ a voice screams in my head. But I can’t leave. You see this is my job. And if I don’t sleep with him my children don’t eat”.

As a rule I find students need to think less about what they write and more about HOW they write. Having a list of techniques written down forces you to be more stylish in your writing.

Now over to you. Pick a word, any word. Try to write 8 or 10 stylish sentences. As you use each of the techniques above cross them off.

You’ll probably be pleasantly surprised at the result but disheartened at how long it takes. Practise writing one paragraph every day and you’ll get quicker at it.

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Posted in Composing, Question B

Tagged cert, certificate, english, how, junior, leaving, paragraph, Word

Unseen poetry

Posted on May 4, 2011 by evelynoconnor | Comments Off

Generally speaking you can answer one 20 mark question or two 10 mark questions so we’ll deal with them separately here.

The 20mark question usually goes a little something like this:

Write a personal response to this poem, highlighting the impact it makes on you.
Describe the impact this poem makes on you as a reader.

As with studied poetry you are expected to include sentences which use the pronoun ‘I‘.

Talk about how the poems made you feel.
Identify what they taught you, how they made you look at an issue(s) in a new way.
Mention how these themes are relevant to your life.
Discuss what you enjoyed in the poet’s style of writing.

Remember though, no matter what the question, you are expected to quickly figure out the message/theme of the poem, identify some techniques, and comment on the feelings created in the poem and in you. DO NOT go off on a long rambling tangent about how this poem reminds you of this thing that happened to you once. Mention the poem’s relevance to your life in passing but stay focused – your job is to discuss and interpret the poem and how the poem affects you emotionally/intellectually not to talk about yourself (you can do this in Paper 1 QB and essay).

10 mark questions

Questions on the mood/feelings/atmosphere (see poetic techniques & terminology)

What is the mood of this poem and how is it conveyed?
How does this poem make you feel? Explain by detailed reference to the poem.
How well does the poem capture the boy’s sense of excitement and hope?
Choose two phrases which best capture the girl’s feelings. Give reasons for your choices.

Questions on the setting (see language of narration / descriptive writing)

Do you like the world that the poet describes in this poem? Give reasons for your answer.

Questions on the imagery/ style of writing (see poetic techniques & terminology)

Choose one image/line from this poem that appealed to you. Explain your choice.
The poem uses beautiful imagery to capture an ugly reality. Discuss.
The poem makes effective use of irony – discuss.

Questions on the poet/speaker/characters in the poem

What impression do you get of ….. the poet’s father – the father/son relationship? (see list of character traits).
What impact does this childhood experience have on the poet/speaker?
What kind of life do you think the speaker lives?

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Posted in Unseen poetry

Tagged cert, certificate, english, junior, leaving, Poetry, Unseen

Originality vs. Cliche

Posted on May 3, 2011 by evelynoconnor | 1 comment

Almost everyone uses cliches at some stage in their writing – ideas that have been overused to the point of being completely boring, obvious and predictable. When you sit down in front of a blank piece of paper the first ideas that pop into your head will more than likely be very similar to the first ideas that pop into the heads of the other 12,000 odd students who choose the same essay topic or question B that you have.

So how do you make your writing stand out? How do you spark some originality in the pressure cooker of the exam hall?

In my opinion half the battle is to move away from a focus on WHAT you’re saying and think more about HOW you’re saying it. Focus on your technique.

Take for example the question we did in class today: you have recently been asked to write a letter to the Department of Education & Science offering your opinion on what makes a good teacher. Certain cliches will pop into your head – classroom control, hard-working, passionate about their subject, patience, good communication & people skills, innovative approach to learning.

So far all we have is a list. It’s a fairly obvious list and most people would agree with it as a starting off point. But we have not yet said ANYTHING original. Now look at the following examples, one irritatingly informal and full of cliches and generalisations, the other quite witty, entertaining and enjoyable to read.

Example 1 = I am a leaving certificate student and in my opinion if a teacher wants to be good at their job they need to relate to what their students are going through. I mean not all of us have an easy life and sometimes when teachers get on our backs about stupid stuff like homework it just really annoys us. So yeah, I think being able to realise that students have a life outside of school and can’t always put school first is one thing that makes someone a good teacher.

In this example the student TELLS us their opinion and sounds like a bit of a whinger (look at the use of informal phrases such as ‘I mean’ ‘stupid stuff’ ‘so yeah‘) We probably agree with their ideas but we don’t feel like they’ve told us anything we don’t already know.

Example 2 = Let me illuminate for you the essence of the magic muinteoir. It’s Monday morning. I barely slept last night. My beautiful niece Saoirse (daughter of my brain-dead sister who got knocked up at 16) is teething and let’s just say our house isn’t on Wisteria Lane. Paper thin walls mean I arrive at school with the memory of her wails just fading. Then Alan, my super-gay best-friend decides to stick his leg out and trip me in the corridor (in front of Peter, school ride). How funny. I arrive late to first class. Crap… No hold on, it’s ok. It’s Biology. Mr. Watts senses intuitively that it’s been a bad day, a bad week, hell a bad year. He sidles quietly down to my seat, fills me in on what the rest of the class are quietly doing in pairs, offers to help me catch up and doesn’t blow a gasket that I don’t have my homework done – but does insist that he gets it tomorrow. Here is a safe haven from the madness that is my life & even though I’m tired I want to learn. Is this essence something you can capture? Or sell? Or even fully understand? Maybe all great teachers are just hard-wired this way. Understanding is part of their nature & learning is their bible.

In this example the writer DRAWS US IN to their experience of good teaching. They set the scene through the senses : sights, sounds, touch (being tripped) and draw us in emotionally by describing their feelings (How funny… Crap…). They give the teacher a believable identity by offering his name & subject, then describe his behaviour in detail. We are sucked into the moment because the writer proves his point using a specific anecdote instead of just making bland factual statements. It ends with 3 rhetorical questions which link back to the question being asked and a dramatic statement which uses hyperbole – hard-wired/nature/bible. The second example also stays focused perfectly on the task at hand – nobody asked you to slag off ‘bad’ teachers, the question asked you to explain/discuss/describe what it is that makes someone a good teacher. So example 1 wanders off point, example 2 sticks with the Q throughout.

By the way, I made up both of these examples so don’t be worrying that I’m going to publish something you’ve written up here. It’s not gonna happen – unless you write something amazing that just HAS to be published and if you do I’ll ask your permission first! Hope this helps rather than just telling you to be more original! Remember these two rules: