Newest Poetry Anthology

 Hi all!

I'll be preparing annotations for the latest poetry anthology for AQA shortly. I've been preparing over the holidays and wanted to release them as they come. If there are any poems I am missing or if there is a deep dive that you wish me to go over for any of the novels, please let me know in the comments below.

Thanks and happy revising! 

Frankenstein - Getting your knowledge set

Characters:

Victor Frankenstein - the guy that creates a creature

Elizabeth Lavenza - Victor's adopted sister/'cousin'

Alphonse Frankenstein - Victor's father 

Caroline Beaufort - Victor's mother
William Frankenstein - Victor's younger brother, is murdered 

Justine Moritz - servant to Frankenstein family after her mum dies, executed for 'murdering William'
Monster - gross looking creature created from dead bodies, just wants to be loved
Robert Walton - opener and closer of the novel, sails the sea, writes letters to his sister
Henry Clerval - Victor's best friend, studies with him, looks after Victor

Basic Plot:
Beginning (Letters): Story starts with Robert Walton writing a series of letters to his sister. These letters detail how Robert got to become a sailor of the seas and the obstacles he had to overcome. The last letter before the story starts even states, "I have resolved every night, when I am not imperatively occupied by my duties, to record, as nearly as possible in his own words, what he has related during the day." Robert Walton says this to his sister because he almost couldn't believe his own experiences. The rest of the story is written through the letter. This is called an epistolary novel and is a form of structuring. 

Beginning (Chapters): At the beginning, we received the necessary background needed to build Victor's character. We learn much about his childhood, his personality, and his family. After losing his mother, he starts contemplating life. He wants to figure out a cure for all disease so that human death only occurs from some sort of accident. However, after much deliberating, Victor decides to try and create human life by building a body. While creating his monster, he is comments on how attractive it is. The luscious hair, the black lips, the eyes, and how the blood vessels in his muscles are so graceful. The minute the monster comes to life, Victor realises his mistakes and abhors his creation for how ugly it is.

Middle: The monster runs away but Victor is put into emotional turmoil. He hopes that his monster has run off and died somewhere but can't shake the feeling that his creation has done something horrible. He returns home but keeps hearing of all these horrible accidents and can't help but to piece together the idea that his monster was somehow responsible. His brother is murdered, his cousin killed for justice, his friends die.

Around the middle, we also hear from the monsters side of things. He went on and observed a family which is how he learned to speak English. When he tried to introduce himself to the blind old man, he was interrupted by the son of the man and the monster is cast away, yet again. All the monster really wanted was to feel the sense of belonging and attachment to someone else. We also hear about how the monster stole Victor's brother (without realising it was Victor's brother) and how he had accidentally killed him. He allowed the cousin (Justine) to take the blame (funny how Justice is the root of Justine... Hmm..) for which she hung. Victor tries to run off but the monster promises to follow him to the ends of the earth. Victor finds an abandoned hut by the sea to create a companion for the monster but soon changes his mind. For this, the monster kills Victor's best friend.

End: Victor and Elizabeth get married and on their wedding night, the monster kills Elizabeth. Victor runs away, the monster follows. That's where this comes full circle. Victor climbs aboard a ship led by Robert Walton. Victor is so unwell, he can barely speak. Before he dies, the monster finds him, and tries to speak to him but Victor is unconscious but Robert allows the monster to talk with him. Victor dies, the monster vows to never be seen again, and Robert goes off having the weirdest sea trip he's ever had. 

Poetry Annotation Help - year 11

This is a found resource that you are welcome to use to get a basic understanding of poetry. This goes through the basic annotations that you need to help you understand and analyse the poems deeper.


Do not just copy these annotations and expect to understand the poem. You need to apply what you have learned and make your own annotations of what you think the poems are about!

Click here to find the poetry annotations

Reminder: this is not the work of Miss Harasen. It was not done by a teacher at our school, simply a resource found online that would be able to help you.

Revision Flashcards

Good afternoon,

I've created a group of flashcards that can be accessed on any device by downloading the app "Quizlet"

Not only is this tool great for revising your language devices, but it also has a wide variety of flashcards for any subject you need.

To find the language devices flashcard set, click here.

As mentioned, Quizlet can be accessed on your phone, tablet, or even your laptop.

Happy revising!

Jekyll and Hyde - A Brief Overview

Again, brief. This is to help with understanding the most basic information about Jekyll and Hyde.
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Context
The novel was written by Robert Stevenson. He was born in Scotland in 1850. His family background included scientists, engineers, and a religious priests. When we discuss this idea of religion vs science throughout the novel, you can see that this was reflected in Stevenson's life. In 1859, Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species which made it impossible to believe that God created the world in seven days. This made many people see it as an attack on religion. Darwin's theory came at a time of divide between the scientific community and religious community. Many thought that you had to choose between the two. There was no way you could believe in both. Many members of the religious community viewed science and scientists as meddling in matters only God should meddle in. This is essentially what Dr. Jekyll does in the novel. 
This novel also came at a time when Victorians viewed people as having a dual nature. That means that people were viewed as being both good and evil. It just depended on what we let people see. 

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Plot
Here's the deal. I'm going to break down the plot for you, chapter by chapter, in one sentence. (Side note: there is a belief that if you can't explain something in one sentence, you don't really know it, so do with that what you will).
Chapter 1 - Story of the Door
Enfield and Utterson pass a door which reminds Enfield about a story he heard about a strange man named Mr. Hyde that trampled a girl then paid off the family after entering the door and coming out with a check for a large amount of money.
Chapter 2 - Search for Mr. Hyde
Utterson has heard the name of this man before and starts to investigate it because the name is also on his friend, Dr Jekyll's, will and Utterson is worried Hyde wants to kill Jekyll to benefit from the will.
Chapter 3 - Dr Jekyll was Quite at Ease
Utterson speaks to Jekyll about his worries which Jekyll brushes off while assuring Utterson that he can be rid of Hyde any moment he chooses.
Chapter 4 - The Carew Murder Case
An elderly man is murdered by Hyde using half of a walking stick given to Jekyll from Utterson years earlier but there is and has not been any sign of Hyde for two months (though there are witnesses to state he was indeed the one to murder the old man).
Chapter 5 - Incident of the Letter
Jekyll assures Utterson that Hyde will never been seen or heard of again because of a letter that Hyde had written but when the letter is compared to Jekyll's own handwriting, Utterson is forced to believe that Jekyll forged the letter to cover up for Hyde.
Chapter 6 - Remarkable Incident of Dr Lanyon
Lanyon is on his deathbed (he blames Jekyll) but hands Utterson a letter that he says will explain everything (including his own sickness) but not to open it until Jekyll is missing or dead and then Lanyon dies.
Chapter 7 - Incident at the Window
Utterson and Enfield spot Jekyll in a window looking like a prisoner but Jekyll's expression changes to absolute terror, so much so that it "froze the very blood" of the two below.
Chapter 8 - The Last Night
Utterson breaks into Jekyll's lab to find a body that may or may not be his on the floor near a will that has crossed out Hyde's name and has put Utterson instead.
Chapter 9 - Dr Lanyon's Narrative
Lanyon's letter that was given to Utterson is read and describes how a small looking man took a potion and turned into Jekyll before his eyes, causing Lanyon to become ill.
Chapter 10 - Henry Jekyll's Full Statement of the Case
Jekyll tells the story of how he turned into Hyde and how he became addicted to his dark side and how it was so powerful it overtook him.

Responding to Poetry

A quick look at BBC Bitesize will tell you what you need to know about how to respond to poetry. If you need things broken down further for you, that's what this is here for!
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One rather important thing to remember when responding to poetry is that while your opinion is important, you also need to include a critical analysis of the poem. Often times, students will do one or the other, usually with the focus on how the poem makes them feel.

You know you are going to be asked to compare two poems for your GCSE. There's no way of getting around that. By mixing your personal response and your critical analysis, you can be sure to hit your AOs.

But first, what is your personal response? 
Your personal response goes beyond "I like this poem. It is a good poem." While it's fine and dandy that you like this poem, this doesn't really say anything of substance. I like cats. That means nothing to you, right? But if I said, "I like cats because they have the cutest little paws. You can never tell what they're thinking or if they are planning your murder. Plus, you can give cat's catnip and watch them go psycho for a while." In your mind, you're either going "Miss is right! Cats are the cutest!" or "Miss has no idea what she's talking about. Dogs are the best." Either way, you've formed an opinion off of what I said. You're either agreeing with my personal response or disagreeing to it.
Let's look at an example from BBC Bitesize.

Dusting the Phone by Jackie Kay

I am spending my time imagining the worst that could happen.
I know this is not a good idea, that being in love, I could be
spending my time going over the best thing that has been happening. 

Sample response:
We can see that the speaker is 'in love' and she imagines 'the worst that could happen'. This is striking because we imagine being in love as being something that makes people happy. However, the first stanza shows that this isn't always the case and that love can make someone anxious and worried.

What do you notice?
The response uses the pronoun 'we'. This is because the response writer is referring to themselves as part of the collective "reader". Not once has the response writer used "we know this because". That is implied information. This personal response is built around textual references and opinions that we can make based off the text. The response writer forms an opinion and backs it up with references from the text.

When forming your response or opinion to the poem, here are some questions to keep in mind.
- how does the poem make me feel?
- are there particular parts of the poem that stand out to me? why?
- what is the poet saying or how is the poet expressing themselves to make me feel this way?
- are there other ways someone might interpret the poem?
- what are the details that might support another interpretation?

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So you have your personal response, but now what? You need to think more in detail about the effect on the reader and what the poet is doing to get this effect. 
Questions to consider:
- is it clear what the poem is about?
- could the poem be about different things? why do you think this?
- are there key lines or phrases that stand out to you?
- are there clues in the title or start/end of the poem?

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Structuring a Comparative Essay
There is no way to effectively write this essay without planning it first. Writing without planning is only setting yourself up for failure. It takes 5 minutes to make a plan. Do it.

There are two common structures for comparing poetry. The first is simple but it doesn't allow for much critical analysis. This is:
- Introduction
- Poem A
- Poem B
- Conclusion
While this structure allows you to speak on both poems separately, it was by comparing poetry on different aspects (theme, language, etc) that shows higher thinking.

This is why I suggest using structure B.
- Introduction
- Poems A + B Themes
- Poems A + B Structure
- Poems A + B Language
- Conclusion
The topics of each paragraph can be changed. For example, you can change out Themes with Context.

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The last thing of note is to remember to see your ideas through. The most common mistake made in your mock exams was that your ideas were there, but they weren't sufficient. Really good ideas were mentioned in passing, as if you weren't sure if they were good enough, but then never mentioned again. Be confident in how you approach the poetry, the language, structure, themes, attitudes, contexts. You've got this!

Lord of the Flies - Summary and Significance

Chapter 1 - The Sound of the Shell
Summary
Ralph and Piggy find a conch shell to use to call the rest of the boys.
Ralph is voted as the leader.
Jack was unable to kill the pig.
Significance
Introduction to order and structure
Introduction to conflict over leadership

Chapter 2 - Fire on the Mountain
Summary
Rules are set
Fear of the beast
Working to build a fire that gets too big
Establishing Jack and his choir boys as hunters.
Little boy may have died in a fire but no one acknowledges it.
Significance
Shows danger of situation
Shows lack of logic from boys
Shows little remorse to consequences.

Chapter 3 - Huts on the Beach
Summary
No one helps Ralph build huts.
Conflict between Jack and Ralph over who is helping.
Simon finds peace and tranquility.
Significance
Displays Ralph's lack of leadership skills
Shows lack of maturity among the boys
Displaying conflict between Ralph and Jack (order vs fun)

Chapter 4 - Painted Faces and Long Hair
Summary
Roger throws stones at the littleuns.
Signal fire has gone out just as a ship passes by.
Jack kills a pig but is yelled at by Ralph for letting the fire go out.
Conflict between Jack and Ralph builds (Jack slapped Piggy).
Significance
Jack losing morals
Foreshadowing Jack as barbaric and Ralph as civil.

Chapter 5 - Beast from Water
Summary
Ralph holds a meeting to restore order.
Boys get distracted about beasts.
Everyone follows Jack. Nothing got accomplished in the meeting.
Significance
Fear of beast
Ralph's downfall as leader

Chapter 6 - Beast from Air
Summary
Airplanes battle overhead; dead man parachutes onto island.
Jack and Ralph rebond over searching for beast.
Boys do not take the hunt seriously and make a game of pushing stones into the ocean.
Significance
Conventions of civilization are diminishing.
Jack becomes a more powerful and menacing figure.

Chapter 7 - Shadows and Tall Trees
Summary
Jack and Ralph attempt to kill a pig.
Ralph agrees to go on a hunt to try and solidify his position as leader.
Jack has seen the monster (the dead man in the parachute)
Significance
Ralph gets caught up in the instinctual excitement over hunting and killing.
Power struggle between Jack and Ralph
Ralph forgetting his morals in the hunt is a win for Jack.

Chapter 8 - Gift from the Darkness
Summary
Jack tries to take Ralph's role as leader.
Jack starts his own tribe.
Jack's tribe raids Ralph's fire but invites them to eat meat with them.
Simon has a seizure in the jungle, after spotting the pig head impaled on a stick.
Significance
Jack uses the beast to rule his tribe.
Ralph is in conflict with his morals and his instincts.
Simon's incident indicates the persuasive power of instinct of chaos and savagery the Lord of the Flies represents (pig head, not the book).

Chapter 9 - A View to a Death
Summary
Simon awakens, finds that the beast is just a body, heads to beach to tell others.
Ralph and Piggy dine with Jack who has become king of his tribe.
It starts to rain and Jack's tribe does a wild dance and in the frenzy, kill Simon.
Significance
With Simon's murder, the last bit of civilization has left the island.
Simon's death exemplifies the power of evil within the human soul.
Shows that the boys, except Ralph, Piggy, and Samneric, are inhuman savages.

Chapter 10 - The Shell and the Glasses
Summary
Ralph is taking blame for Simon's murder; Piggy says it was an accident.
Jack attacks Ralph's small group to steal Piggy's glasses.
Significance
Jack now has full power.
Piggy's glasses, a symbol of civilization, are now in Jack's hands.
Major symbols have lost their importance.

Chapter 11 - Castle Rock
Summary
Ralph and Jack fight, Jack captures Samneric.
Roger shoves a rock down the mountainside which shatters the conch shell and kills Piggy.
Ralph escapes into the jungle.
Significance
Ralph is left alone on the island.
Ralph becomes to prey for the hunters to find.
Piggy's death signifies the death of order, structure, rules, civility.

Chapter 12 - Cry of the Hunters
Summary
Ralph destroys the Lord of the Flies
After being chased out of the jungle, Ralph falls to the feet of a naval officer.
Significance
Haphazard fire brought the attention of the naval ship to rescue the boys.
The boy's savagery brings the rescue rather than the order and structure they were hoping to achieve.
Nothing can be as it was before coming to this island.