Transcript John Steinbeck’s ‘The Pearl’ and Improving Our Writing Levels

John Steinbeck’s ‘The Pearl’ and
Improving Our Writing Levels
Lesson 5: Using connectives within development and
preparation for the exam
Learning Objectives
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WHAT DO DOES IT MEAN WHEN AN
EXAM STATES, ‘WRITE ABOUT ITS
EFFECT ON YOU’?
You are human: you are affected by words, thoughts, images,
behaviours, jokes, beauty, ugliness, beer, events, music, film, family,
friends, tweets, accusations, awards, rewards, swords, pets, youtube
clips, videos gone viral, what you see, smell, hear, taste and touch,
girlfriends, boyfriends, animals, facebook status updates, poems, novels
and so on...
So what’s the effect?
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Remember the affect/effect rule?
Starter 1: Reviewing the Exemplar
Developing the initial idea
After reading the new TV guide this week I had just one thought—why are we still being
bombarded with reality shows? This season, the plague of reality television continues to
darken our airwaves. Along with the return of viewer favourites, we are to be cursed with
yet another mindless creation. Prisoner follows the daily lives of eight suburban
housewives who have chosen to be put in jail for the purposes of this fake psychological
experiment. A preview for the first episode shows the usual tears and tantrums associated
with reality television. I dread to think what producers will come up with next season, but
if any of them are reading this blog—stop it! We’ve had enough reality television to last us
a lifetime!
Highlight the topic sentence and annotate whether you think it follows the five
guidelines.
Underline the development section and annotate HOW you think the topic sentence is
developed. If possible, give more than one response in your annotations.
Highlight the summary sentence/s and state whether it/they follows the Starter guide:
avoid repetition but finalise the point in different words.
Finally, say WHY this extract is an example of effective development.
Starter 2: Using connectives within a
topic sentence paragraph
See green grid; recall
War Poetry work
The sun was warming the brush house, breaking through its
crevices in long streaks. And one of the streaks fell on the
hanging box where Coyotito lay, and on the ropes that held it.
It was a tiny movement that drew their eyes to the hanging box.
Kino and Juana froze in their positions. Down the rope that hung
the baby's box from the roof support a scorpion moved slowly.
His stinging tail was straight out behind him, but he could whip it
up in a flash of time.
Kino's breath whistled in his nostrils and he opened his mouth
to stop it. And then the startled look was gone from him and the
rigidity from his body. In his mind a new song had come, the Song
of Evil, the music of the enemy, of any foe of the family, a savage,
secret, dangerous melody, and underneath, the Song of the
Family cried plaintively.
The scorpion moved delicately down the rope toward the box.
The Changing Character of Kino
He smelled the breeze and he listened for any foreign
sound of secrecy or creeping, and his eyes searched the
darkness, for the music of evil was sounding in his head
and he was fierce and afraid. After he had probed the night
with his senses he went to the place by the side post where
the pearl was buried, and he dug it up and brought it to his
sleeping mat, and under his sleeping mat he dug another
little hole in the dirt floor and buried his pearl and covered
it up again. And Juana, sitting by the fire hole, watched
him with questioning eyes, and when he had buried his
pearl she asked, "Who do you fear?"
The Perfect Paragraph/s
 1 - Topic sentence  1b- (follow the five guidelines; get out your guidelines sheet)
 2 - Development with short quotations that use QMs
 3 - A range of simple, compound and complex sentences
 4 - Punctuation that breaks up the clauses from one another and a range of
punctuation such as: APOSTROPHE/EXCLAMATION MARK/QUESTION MARK/COMMAS,
FULL STOPS, SEMI-COLON (perhaps for a compound sentence without a connective)
 5 - A thoughtful, detailed response that EXPLORES the actual task (around 12 lines)
 6 – Consideration of subtext, if there is any
 7 - Connectives (followed by a comma if they begin a sentence)
 8 - A summary sentence that sums up your idea but doesn’t repeat the topic sentence
In the second extract, Kino is afraid that somebody might
steal his pearl. He seems anxious and even paranoid.
Comparing and contrasting the two extracts, explore the
changing character of Kino and the effect this has on you,
the reader.
The Exam 1/2
 One paper will be a one-hour writing paper
 The other paper will be a one-hour reading paper
For pointers, see Year 11 website: www.english-revision.net
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Check out these on Exam Preparation Documents:
‘Reading Skills, Using PEE, Recap’ document.
‘Using Standard English’ document.
‘TES WJEC Tips’ document. (see all slides, especially slide 9, 20-25)
‘The Questions Asked: The Skills Needed’ document.
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See all, if desired, but especially Video 4 and (link) 5 on Weblinks.
The Writing Paper 2/2
Possible tasks:
Write an Article
Write a Review
Write a Leaflet
Write a Speech
Write a Letter
Remember PALF. TIPTOP. TOPIC SENTENCE STRUCTURE. (reading
paper to include PEE/quotation) AMBITIOUS VOCABULARY.
EXPRESSIVE BUT APPROPRIATE PUNCTUATION. PLAN FIRST!
Use AFORREST.
Extension:
Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind- stone, Scrooge! a
squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old
sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever
struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as
an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his
pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes
red, his thin lips blue and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.
A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry
chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him;
he iced his office in the dogdays; and didn't thaw it one degree at
Christmas.
External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No
warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that
blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon
its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather
didn't know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and
hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one
respect. They often "came down" handsomely, and Scrooge never
did.
PLENARY
What have
we learnt
today?
•You
tell me!