"Die Welle" (The Wave)

Just to let you know that I've booked tickets for "Die Welle" at The Cameo on Thursday (2nd October) for 9.10. I hope to have the tickets with me on Thursday morning in class. Again, the tickets will cost you £2 - well worth it.

Remember, nobody needs to go to see this film, but it I think it would be interesting (this in itself is an interesting educational issue: the value of the "stuff" that you, as a student, are not required to do).

Link to The Cameo: http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema_home_date.aspx?venueId=edbg

More information on "Die Welle": http://www.welle.info/

25 Sep 08 - More on writing

We covered quite a lot of ground today.

We looked at plagiarism and referencing and discussed these at some length (see links in the last post entitled "some useful online resources").

I asked everyone to write one sentence that outlined the purpose of their education essay (due in next week). It is crucial to have a sense of purpose in any form of communication that you produce. Without a sound sense of purpose your essay, report or presentation will appear to be confused and poorly prepared. It'll be interesting to compare these "purpose sentences" to the final essays.

I asked students to come up with some useful tips from the essay booklet. Students referred to the importance of planning and the use of cards in planning. David brought up a very good point: it is helpful to devise our own questions that we hope to answer when we start our research. This will help us read and research with a sense of purpose (again note importance of purpose).

We looked in an almost forensic way at the features of essays: topic sentences; transition words and phrases; introductions; and endings. Students were set the task of re-assembling an essay that was cut up into pieces. It helped us focus on structure. The introduction to that essay gave significant clues as to how the essay should be re-assembled.

Finally, I plan to book tickets for the film "Die Welle" (The Wave). I'm hoping to get tickets for next Thursday at 9.10 for the Cameo Cinema (see link: http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema_home_date.aspx?venueId=edbg) About 11 students say that they'd be interested. Keep an eye on the Blog for confirmation of that.

Remember essays on education for next week. 800 -1000 words. Preferably typed (Times New Roman/Arial 12 point)

Some useful online resources

Here are some links to resources on academic writing and reading:

http://vsac.cele.nottingham.ac.uk/writing/

http://www.ssdd.bcu.ac.uk/learner/writingguides/1.20.htm

Useful phrases for academic writing: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/sshl/page-2224

The passive voice in writing: http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/passivevoice.html

Academic vocabulary: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/sshl/page-1572

http://vsac.cele.nottingham.ac.uk/reading/

http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm

http://www.gcal.ac.uk/student/coursework/writing/index.html

http://www.uefap.com/reading/

Thinking about what to write: http://www.mdx.ac.uk/WWW/STUDY/Spider.htm

Here's a useful link about academic language vocabulary (it's aimed at second language speakers, but everyone should have a look): http://vsac.cele.nottingham.ac.uk/vocabulary/

Here are some links for advice on referencing in essays.

http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm (this provides information on the Harvard system of referencing)

http://www.jiscpas.ac.uk/writingreferencelist.php

Edinburgh University notes on plagiarism: http://www.aaps.ed.ac.uk/regulations/Plagiarism/Guidance/StudentGuidance.doc

Thursday 18th September - Thinking about essays

We started the class with by reading George Orwell's "Why I write" (see link: http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw).

There were a couple of reasons for this: it is an example of some very good essay writing; it also touches upon education in general and, in particular, the importance of writing.

I asked students to come today with some kind of plan for their education essay. I highlighted the importance of knowing what the purpose or point of your essay is. So, I asked students to explain the purpose of their essays to the person sitting next to them. Then that person told the whole class what their partner's essay is going to try to achieve (ie. the purpose).

The aim of this exercise was to get students really thinking about the overall aim and structure of their essays. Sometimes we feel we have a secure sense of our essays but then seem to struggle when we try to communicate those thoughts to others. Of course, you will have to communicate those thoughts eventually in a piece of writing.

Obviously, you will not go through this activity with every essay you write but you will (or should) discuss assignments with your fellow students: it is one of the best ways to start making sense of your seemingly random thoughts on a subject. You’ll often find that other students have anxieties about their chaotic thoughts on an assignment or topic. This process of dialogue should put some shape and structure to your ideas.

We also looked at a representation of my (seemingly) chaotic thoughts on essay writing on the board. It was a messy diagram of everything that you need to think about when writing an essay. This, if you like, is what a plan for a book on essay writing might look like. The point is that a plan does not have to be a neat list of topics.

I then gave everyone their very own copy of a booklet on essay writing. I asked everyone to read it and think about three useful points that they encountered in their reading of the booklet (we'll take it up there from next week). If you weren't in today, I'll be in on Friday this week and Wednesday next week - you can swing by my office (115) and I'll give you a copy.

I set Thursday 02 October as the deadline for the education essay. My original question was "What is the purpose of education?" However, as I hoped, most people have adopted their own approach to that question. As such every essay will be different. You should re-title your essay to reflect the specific focus of your essay.

Expanding on the subject of education, we talked about a new German film that is being released on Friday ("Die Welle"). I'm hoping to bring some Higher English students to it at some stage. If anyone is interested, let me know by next week or post a comment here. See below for a link to an article in The Guardian about the film:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/16/schoolsworldwide.film

Education for ...

Today we introduced the notion of the essay.

In groups we tried to define the essay. A jumble of words and phrases came back from the groups which all approached as good a definition as you can get:

Original meaning : ‘to try, to attempt’
Focused on a certain subject
Formal/informal. Will conform to a certain length and depth
An exhibition of knowledge
Has a purpose of analysing and describing a certain topic.
Opinion based.
An interpretation of subject. Wide variety of essays.
Written account of ideas and facts. Structured: intro, body, conclusion. Evidence-based.
Will include references. Can be emotional/informative. Investigation.
Written response to chosen subject. Develops ideas points – informs analyses and evaluates.


We’ve been writing essays since secondary school and you will continue to write them in your university careers and beyond.

Some people expressed concern about writing essays. Some people expressed a reluctance to plan and instead jump right in to writing it.

When asked to produce a focused, structured piece of complex writing which naturally flows from one point to the next and eventually leads to a conclusion of some sorts (another way of seeing an essay), it is crucial that we do some planning. This can’t be stressed too much. Without some sort of a plan, the essay-writing process can be tortuous and the final product will almost always be poor.

We started our first attempt at an essay. We took the very general question of “what is the purpose of education?” and discussed it in groups. Discussion (whether in groups or with yourself) is a vital part of the planning process. You need to get the abstract ideas and thoughts down on paper in some format. Then, and only then, can we start putting some shape to these concepts. I don’t care what your plan looks like – but there should be some evidence that you’ve thought through what you’re going to write before you write.

Our first goal is to write an essay in the region of 800 to 1000 words. However, this week I DO NOT WANT anyone to start writing the essay. I am trying to slow right down the process that many students rush: planning the essay. I know a lot of students just like to get started. This works for some students, but for many the resultant essay can be a bit of a mess in terms of coherent thought and argument.

I’ve talked to most people today about the approach they are taking to the essay and there are a range of different interpretations of the original, broad question – just let the overall idea of your essay and in particular your purpose float around your head for a week.

------ On a related point ...

You may know now about the controversy about Carol Ann Duffy's poem "Education for Leisure" being axed from the GCSE English curriculum in England. As an act of solidarity with Duffy, I intend to use the poem with my Higher English class.

Duffy's poem is, amongst other things, about education which fits in neatly with what we've been discussing today.

You can look at some of the links below to broaden your discussion.

Some links to do with the Duffy poem:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7594566.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/04/english.knifecrime

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/06/gcses.poetry.carol.ann.duffy


Some links about education in general ....

What do the main political parties think? (A number of students raised the issue of the government's role in education)

http://consult.libdems.org.uk/post16/index.php/consultation-paper/values-and-purpose-of-education-and-skills/

http://www.labour.org.uk/education

http://www.snp.org/node/9547

http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=people.opportunity.page

Thursday 04 September

We met in class today for the first time.

Everyone did their first oral presentation task by interviewing and introducing another student. We scratched beneath the surface of everyone's lives - interesting stuff!

I asked four small groups to come up with a visual representation of "communication." These were thought-provoking and helped our subsequent attempts to come up with a written definition ....

As can be seen, there seemed to be a consensus that communication involved a process where some form of information or meaning is passed between two or more entities.

These general thoughts about communication focused our attention on the communication processes that we will be encountering on the course. I highlighted that at times students will be the producers/senders of information and meaning through writing and presentations. At other times students will be receivers of information and meaning in their encounters as readers and viewers. Of course, generally we will be both producing and receiving information in a single activity (eg. discussions).

The course attempts to develop students communication skills in reading, writing, talking and listening. There are quite a few assessments, but all of them come back to these basic, but important, skills. Furthermore, given the nature of the course, and the high calibre of the student, we like to stretch you a bit!

I also mentioned that students are encouraged to use research and themes from other courses as the basis for the writing and presentation activities. I've talked to Joe McCusker and it seems that there are opportunities for students to use the personal projects from his course as the basis for writing tasks for Communication 4 and Oral Presentation Skills.