N5 War Photographer

We finished our initial study of Duffy's 'War Photographer' today, and looked at a short interview with Don McCullin, one of the photographers from whom Duffy drew inspiration when writing her poem.

Here is another documentary about Don McCullin and war photography--it is absolutely fantastic and will help consolidate understanding of the poem and its message:

BBC Imagine: McCullin

Great work so far, everyone!

S3 Talking Turkeys

Today we talked about turkeys!

Benjamin Zephaniah, 'Talking Turkeys'

We then went on to examine the poem independently. Great fun!

We Are Writers--Last Chance to Order!

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all your hard work in making the school book possible. I'm sure you are all as impressed as I am by the quality and breadth of the work in our beautiful publication. Remember that it's in the Library and anyone can take a look at the sample copy. Nearly 500 of you, yes, FIVE HUNDRED (!) contributed, and you each have your own chapter.

It's your LAST CHANCE to get your order in--orders are due tomorrow, Wednesday 3rd December. We need to order right away so that the books will arrive in time for Christmas. Be a part of the action!

You can find a copy of the order form here: http://images.scholastic.co.uk/assets/books/5758.f.pdf

If you don't have a printer, don't worry! You can always bring your £5.99 in and fill in the order form at school.

Thank you,
Mr Green

S3 'The Last Laugh'--over to you!

Today we turned to more creative tasks after having spent some time on a critical essay examining Owen's 'The Last Laugh'.

Your task was to create a poem on the subject of war which uses personification to give power to the war machinery. The aim was three stanzas' worth of fine poetry, and some of you are there already, and in the redrafting stages.

One big thing we learned about was how poets break sentences for effect (remember: no paragraphs in poetry!).

S1 Stargazing 2

Today, along with checking in on Learning and Reading Logs (keep up the good work, everyone!), we took a little look at constellations, which are an important part of the storyline of Underground to Canada, and to the escape of slaves in general.

After examining where and how the Little Dipper/Plough looks in the night sky at the moment, and where the North Star (Polaris) is from there, we learned that what we see in the sky when we think we're looking at the North Star is actually three stars!

We then looked at the first part of this documentary (History Channel), which we found rather challenging at first, and learned a little more about Polaris and how we see stars in the sky. What interesting fact did you write down?

S1 Stargazing

This week, you're all looking out for the Big Dipper (Plough), part of Ursa Major.

Here's a wee spotting guide to help you: Virgin: how to spot star constellations

If you have an app, or another site which is helping you, feel free to tell us all what it is in the comments below!

S1 Underground to Canada Vocabulary

Here are this week's words, folks:

rouse
boll
dusk
timid
stalls
twitch
listless
trough
collard
rattan
shuffle
elegant
tote
cautious
pout
furrow
crinkled
clipped
resemble
exhausted

Same as last time--you need to know how to use and spell these words. They are taken from chapters 6-8. Assessment from 25th November.

Nat 5 Macbeth

Here are the scenes we identified as being most important to our understanding of the play:

1.1: Witches (themes/atmosphere)
1.3: Witches + M
1.5: LM + evil spirits
1.7: LM manipulates M
2.1: M hallucinates/daggers
2.2: D is murdered/consequences
3.4: Banquet
4.1: Witches/apparitions
5.1: demise of LM
5.2: Truth is out
5.5: Tomorrow

Reread these scenes, ensuring your notes are tidy and up to date. You will need them for the essays you will be practising over the next few weeks and months.

Advanced Higher--the chickens

Here's what you were working on today:

The colours chosen for Chauntecleer are taken from heraldry. Some are also liturgical colours used in church services. These choices help us to understand that C is a high status character.

His description follows the rules of rhetoric, in accordance with the ideas of nobility and chivalry. Annotate C & P with the vocabulary used to describe each bird, to emphasise their 'gentil' status.

What point is Chaucer making by the strong contrast between the magnificence of C and the poverty and modesty of his widowed owner? Use this approach, and some of the techniques you noted about rhetoric in the last section. Write your own description of two contrasting figures whose paths cross. Perhaps a politician and Mother Teresa meet at a conference, or a member of a royal family meets a senior citizen in a care home...

S2 'The Raven' Homework

Due 21st November

Write your own stanza which imitates the second stanza of The Raven. Ensure you replicate rhyme scheme, internal rhyme, rhythm, alliteration and patterns of repetition. You should also echo the tone and mood of sadness/melancholy in the poem.

Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December,                      A
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.          B
Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrow                  C
From my books surcease of sorrow, sorrow for the lost Lenore.           B
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore,             B
Nameless here forevermore.                                                                B

S4 National 5 Macbeth

Here is the link to Ian McKellen's exploration of Macbeth's 'Tomorrow' soliloquy. We will finish up with the imagery (and the play!) tomorrow with a view to writing on the whole play next week.

Ian McKellen Macbeth

S1--The Music of Underground to Canada and Homework

Here are some of the songs we worked with over the past two days:

Jimmy Crack Corn/Blue Tail Fly
American/Canadian National Anthems
Let My People Go--Paul Robeson
Let My People Go
Go Down Moses--Louis Armstrong

Homework
Write these words in the back of your jotter. You must learn how to spell and use them correctly. One way to do it would be to first look the words up in a dictionary, then create a sentence for each. You could then employ the learning strategies you know, including 'Look, Cover, Write, Check', to ensure you've learned how to spell them.

tolling
wisp
plodding
clung
abolitionist
stifling
gourd
sullen
sieves
huddle
rumpled
magnolia
frail
drawl
overseer

Task 2:
Research and write down four facts about Quakers.

All due Tuesday 11th November

The Raven

Here are the videos, as promised:

The Raven

and

The Simpsons

Remember, your spooky poems are due next Friday, 7th November!

Happy Halloween--stay safe, everyone!

Advanced Higher Creative Writing

Almost everyone's 'Home' pieces are in, so we're now on to our next focus: competition!

We have decided to start with the Neil Gunn Writing Competition and the Tower Poetry Prize.

School deadline for first drafts: Friday 12th December

We Are Writers

DUE 29TH OCTOBER!

Instructions for those who either missed them or forgot...

You have been asked to produce a short piece of writing on the broad topic  of ‘home’. You will have been given some class time for this, with the understanding that it should be completed over the October holidays. Written pieces do not have to be lengthy, and can take on almost any form (story, poem, recipe, letter etc.). As a guide, a single page of the printed book can hold up to 225 words.

This topic is to be interpreted very widely, and creativity is encouraged. ‘Home’ does not have to mean an individual’s home, or even a personal piece. The piece could be about the Earth as our home, Scotland (and beyond!), an ideal future home, a recipe that is special, a letter to someone or something (perhaps even taking on a persona, such as a soldier away from home, or someone travelling), or it could deal with one of the many popular sayings about home.

We are excited about this—coinciding with Scottish Book Week at the end of November is the publication of Dingwall Academy’s first compilation of pupil writing.  The deadline for submissions is 29^th October.

We Are Writers—Uploading your work

Because so many are writing (and some great work has been posted up so far!), we will have two volumes, a UK first. These two volumes are ordered alphabetically.

Pupils simply need to follow the instructions attached in order to upload their carefully constructed and proofread work to the publisher’s website. Very basic instructions and passwords are below. Uploading can be done either by typing directly into the text box, or by cutting and pasting from Microsoft Word or similar. Pupils are well aware of the very real audience they are writing for!

  

Surnames starting with A-L

1.       Go to: writers.scholastic.co.uk

2.       Click ‘Children’s Login’

3.       The book password is: (email Mr Green if you don't know!)

Surnames starting with M-Z

1.       Go to: writers.scholastic.co.uk

2.       Click ‘Children’s Login’

3.       The book password is: (email Mr Green if you don't know!)

If you are not currently in an English class, but are interested and would like to contribute, please do! Every pupil in the Academy is welcome to submit their work.

The deadline for submissions is 29^th October.

We are looking forward to reading everyone’s submissions, which will ultimately be available in print from early December—order forms will go out next month.

N5 Macquestions

National 5 Macbeth questions... created by you!

Choose THREE and write short (3-4 paragraph) responses to each.

DUE Monday 29th September

Advanced Higher... your first question!

The Canterbury Tales is acknowledged to be one of the best of its kind: Estates Satire. One of the estates Chaucer is particularly interested in is those who pray: the Church. Discuss his portrayal of ecclesiastical pilgrims, considering what we learn of Chaucer's attitude towards the Church and its members as a result.

Due: 01 October

Dingwall Academy Writers

Keith Gray's visit seems to have inspired many of you to come out of the woodwork--you are writers! Time to share our passion for writing: if you are S1-6 (yes, everyone!), then come along to my room on Thursday at lunchtime. Do bring your lunch. We will discuss then what visions you might have for a writing group at the Academy, and ensure that Thursday is the best day for everyone. Looking forward to seeing you all!

Book orders S1-6

Reminder: C2C (Scholastic) Book Club: If you want to do this online, the web address is http://schools.scholastic.co.uk/dingwallacademy and we need orders to be placed by 22nd September.

Go on, you know you need a new book!

S1

Welcome to Green's Galaxy, S1! I'm looking forward to a great year with you all.

We have now finished our Fairy Tales, and will be shortly moving on to a novel which I know you will enjoy. You'll have plenty of opportunities to stretch your skills, and you'll write your first critical essay at the end. I hope some of you are decent singers, because I'm not, and there's music involved...

Today we reviewed proper nouns and collective nouns.

We drew pictures of our family to help us remember proper nouns, labelling them with names, months, places and days.

When we investigated collective nouns, we drew a group of our favourite animal (i.e. a group of tortoises, or cats, or lemurs etc.). We then identified the collective noun for that animal, and worked with using singular verbs in a few lines to describe the group (remember, collective nouns are singular!).

We all felt it was a really informative and entertaining lesson--the best kind!

REMINDER: Keith Gray articles due tomorrow (digital copies--remember to email or bring your memory stick!)

National 5 1.3

Today we discussed our upcoming Macbeth trip a little further. We have provisionally booked 20 pupil tickets, and are sorting out travel arrangements.

We also looked at C2C Book Club, and you were encouraged to buy books. If you want to do this online, the web address is http://schools.scholastic.co.uk/dingwallacademy and we need orders to be placed by 22nd September.

We then moved on to the challenge:

Having written your paragraph on our first impressions of Macbeth in 1.2, use 1.3 to investigate and discuss how our perceptions of this character change as we progress through Act 1.

National 5 Macbeth... continued

Today we attempted to finish digging for our golden quotes. We wrote one paragraph on how Macbeth is characterised in 1.2.

Some of the quotations:

"For brave Macbeth — well he deserves that name — 
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish'd steel, 
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valour's minion carved out his passage 
Till he faced the slave." I. ii. 16-20. 

And again, Ross speaks of him as 
"Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof." I. ii. 54. 

"As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion." I.ii.35

"What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. I.ii.67


I also introduced you to www.shmoop.com/macbeth/, which is an excellent revision site, and for those of you who struggled with reading the play in its entirety, it may well be the lifeline you are looking for. Check it out!

National 5... in case you missed it...

Today we were working on Macbeth 1.2.

We watched: this summary and then worked with Table F's notes.

Our main aim was to look how Macbeth is characterised by Shakespeare in the opening scenes, with the understanding that this characterisation is in no way fixed. We began to 'dig for gold': finding and explaining quotations (at least 5) in the scene which tell us that Macbeth is at this point considered a great man.

Most groups were at one or two quotations, so we will finish this activity in the first period tomorrow before going on to 1.3, where we will similarly look at the portrayal of Macbeth, Banquo and the witches.

National 5 Macbeth

It has just come to my attention, thanks to Sophie's mum, that Macbeth is coming to Eden Court. It's a little different: an operatic version!

You can access the Eden Court page HERE

Let me know if you think you'd like to attend. It's an evening performance, and I'm happy to arrange it if we have a decent number of students wishing to go.

Higher 'All My Sons'

Hi everyone,
Here are the notes, as requested, from Mrs Merrell.

Happy reading, and for those of you coming in for a little extra on 'Fern Hill', see you Monday.

Higher folios

Just a reminder:

1 piece: this Thursday

2nd piece: next Thursday

(these can be in whichever order you like--Creative then Discursive... Discursive then Creative... up to you!)

Circus homework

S4: complete your persuasive talks on elephants in UK circuses so you can deliver them tomorrow. No excuses! You can do it!

Tap, tap, tap! Attention National 5s!

Hi everyone,

SQA have just produced a table which suggests some past papers (Standard Grade Credit and Int 2) which could be used to help support your study. You can find them HERE.

We will certainly be making good use of this in class in the weeks to come, but I know many of you are already preparing for the external exam (go you!) and I wanted to make sure you had this information as soon as possible. The papers are all recent, so you should be able to get them (with mark schemes, although use with some caution) on the SQA English subject website (SG here and Int 2 here).

Happy revising!

Higher Poetry: e.e. cummings

Here's the poem we looked at today. We will finish up with it on Monday, then continue with Fern Hill:

[in Just-]

BY E. E. CUMMINGS

in Just-

spring          when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles          far          and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far          and             wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's

spring

and

         the

                  goat-footed

balloonMan          whistles

far

and

wee

Higher interpretations

Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows. –John Betjeman


Today we worked in our groups, considering the topic of childhood through the lens of the above quotation. 

Our responses:

“As a child, everything is new and exciting, and sensory, but when you get older, things are more reason-based, and everything gets duller, realising you have to think about everything and do something with your life.” 
Thus spake the Pink Toothbrushes.

“When you’re younger, there’s no complex meanings behind anything, and you’re totally carefree. The ‘dark hour’ represents adulthood, and how you always have to think about things. Nothing is as simple anymore.” 
So sayeth those guys wot have no name (Orange Watch) J 

“As a child, you just take things as they are; you don’t analyse them. But when you get older, your innocent view of the world gets distorted, and you begin to realise the evil in the world.” 
More guys with no name… duuuuuuuuuude. (Blue Strawberry)

“Your childhood is limited, and there is no need for complex thoughts. Everything is simple, and it’s based on your sounds, smells and sights, however when you grow up, you realise that not everything is good, and your innocence is distorted by the darkness of reason.” 
The green footwear have spoken.

“The quote describes the wonder that children feel for the world through experiencing different senses, however, this innocence is replaced with a burden of responsibility and a new kind of reality. The reality experienced when they’re younger is perhaps more real than our adult rationalisations.” 
Violet Alphas… get that!

“When you’re a child, you observe everything and take everything in, and it’s all new and good, but when you grow up, you become quite one-track-minded, and only observe what you want to. The world’s all right, but the novelty wears off!” Cosy jumpers… not so cosy when the novelty wears off! Or in summer. 
–the Charcoal Knitwear Band

“Childhood is measured in experiences and sensations. Adulthood is a record of what happened, not the impact it holds emotionally. Adults are seen as dark and boring to a child.” 
100 Burned Books (not just the banned ones).

S1 Poetry Homework

Find and print/email/post a poem which deals with the theme of love. You may post below in the comments.