Level 3 Award in English for literacy and language

teaching

Writing master class

My Polish Teacher’s Tie

• Did you enjoy the story? Why? Why not?

• Anything not ‘ring true’? Or do you think the

characters and situations reflect ‘real life’?

• Did the story make you think about something you

had not perhaps considered much before?

Helen Dunmore from the AQA Moon on the Tides anthology

Analysing a literary text

• Pay close attention to themes, language and structure.

Two main approaches:

• start with general questions and aspects of the text and work inwards towards more detailed analysis, or

• start with details or specific aspects of the text and work outwards to arrive at wider meanings.

Consider the following questions:

• What is happening in this story?

• What do you think it’s about?

• Do you think the author is trying to make us think about something in particular?

ThemesActivity Part 1• Choosing a theme card or cards that you think represents

themes in this story.

Part 2• Write your own ‘interpretation cards’ for any major concerns

that you feel the cards do not cover.

Part 3• Find a quote from the story that relates to one of the themes

above.

Be prepared to feedback.

Focus on specific details

Concentrate on the clothes featured in the story

• How is Carla Carter dressed for her job? How does it compare with the appearance of other characters?

• How is the Polish Teacher’s tie described?• Why do you think the author added these details? Is she linking

any of the characters?• What is Dunmore suggesting perhaps?

• How do the answers to these questions lead to some of the more ‘general’ ideas on the theme cards?

LanguageActivity

• In this story, the majority of poetic techniques appear on the last page. Underline and annotate any that you notice.

• Why do you think the writer has used more poetic techniques at the end? What could be her intention? What effect does this have on the reader?

DIRT Task

Writing master class

• Plan appropriately according to audience, purpose and

situation.

• Draft, using techniques at text, sentence and word level.

• Write fluently, coherently and cohesively.

• Write accurately and legibly using conventions of lexis

and syntax, to include grammar, spelling and

punctuation appropriate to purpose.

• Edit and proof-read at text, sentence and word level.

“How does writing

shape your view

about how ‘good’

you are at

English?”

Features of texts

What are the features of these two texts?

Leaflet

Letter to a local

newspaper

Audience

Purpose Genre

Lexis &

syntax

Multi-modal

features

‘Good’ writers:

•Consider factors such as audience, mode and

purpose before they write. Why?

•Reflect on the stages you go through when you write or

design a text…

Now, arrange the writing process cards - are any stages

missing? What parts are most difficult?

Is this a real representation, or do you see writing as a

messier process? If so, how?

Planning

Tony Bunzan - mind mapping

Geoff Petty – spectacles

Take the

quiz R2

Oliver Caviglioli

Drafting

Quick write on the theme of writing conventions.

What are your

experiences of/

understanding of

‘academic writing?’

Multimodal Action Research and Reporting Guide (2014)

Standard English

Is this an acceptable way to start a journal article?

I’m gonna start by asking you – the readers of this here journal –

a question …what are your thoughts on how I’m writing – right

here, right now?? I’m kinda breaking convention as I type (in so

much I see it). I’m hoping you’ll know the point I’m making …but

I’m not gonna do this for long – ‘cause it feels kinda wrong and

I’m gettin’ uncomfy now :-/”

Watch David

Crystal’s speech on

standard and non-

standard English

Writing conventions: organisational features

‘To organise any text into a cohesive whole, writers and speakers need to keep their readers and listeners well informed about where they are and where they are going… Grammatical resources … signpost the way… from the beginning to end of a text.’

Using Functional Grammar, Butt D, Fahey R, Feez S, Spinks S, Yallop C (2000), Maquarie University

Text

organisation

Cohesion

i.e Back

referencing

& lexical

links

Visit online page

and undertake

R3

https://ccpathways.co.uk/l3-english-writing

Cohesive?

Text A

I am applying for a B.Ed. course because I was a teacher in Nigeria and

I would like to continue that career in this country. Since I came to

England five years ago I have worked as a volunteer in a community

school in Camberwell on Saturdays, teaching English to children from

the ages of 7 to 16. In Nigeria I studied education with English as my

teaching subject. I very much enjoyed my six years teaching upper

primary children and gained a great deal of satisfaction when I saw the

children respond and understand the things I taught. As well as working

in the community school, I help out at my Church, both with the Sunday

school and with the Choir. The English part of my degree course

covered English language and English literature written by English and

African writers. Now I have my own children, whom I teach daily at

home.

Cohesive?

Text B

My work experience in the head office of The Pizza Palace gave me

experience of office practice in this country. As part of my work

experience I developed a database of regular customers, and I then

trained the other staff in how to use it. These other people were very

nice. This showed me how IT skills are used practically in business, and

helped me develop my interpersonal skills. I enjoyed working in a food-

related industry and I learned a range of new skills.

Writing conventions: organisational features

CohesionThis refers to the linguistic means by which sentences in texts are linked together.

There are many ways that texts can be made cohesive, including:

Back referencing

‘Reader, I married him.’

Who is ‘I’?

Who is ‘him’?

How can you decide?

In addition to pronouns, the definite article ‘the’ is often used to refer back to

something earlier in the text, for example,

Local firm to cut 200 jobs

Printer John Bragg’s father and grandfather worked for Belstock Printing before him.

But there is no chance that his son will follow this family tradition. The company

announced yesterday that it will shut down at the end of the month.

(‘the company’ is a back referencing to….? Any others?)

Activity – Marco Polo. Can you identify the back-referencing?

Visit online page

and undertake

R5

Writing conventions: organisational features

Lexical links

Another way in which texts are cohesive is through

lexical links such as:

• repetition of key words

• key items repeated in different forms, e.g. electricity,

electric, electrical

• use of synonyms, e.g. firm, company

• use of words from the same lexical set, e.g. father,

grandfather, son.

Homework

• Review session content

• Undertake tasks on writing course page e.g. R3,

R5, R6, R7 & R8

• Review / start you Knowledge of Language

workbook