Coursework Titles

Here are some suggestions for coursework essays on "The Handmaid's Tale". You can of course negotiate a question of your own if you wish, but I thought you might like some starter ones. P.S. Please don't all go for the same question. The Exam Board won't like it. Anyway. Have a browse. As English Literature Possible Coursework Essay Questions the Handmaid's Tale

A Link to the BBC Interview with Margaret Atwood on The Handmaid's Tale

The Glass Menagerie

An Interview with Margaret Atwood

Click on the QR Code to go to BBC Radio 4 An Interview with Margaret Atwood on "The Handmaid's Tale"

Trailer for The Stepford Wives Bryan Forbes 1975

Themes in "The Handmaid's Tale" include the female struggle for identity and the way men and the state exrecise power and control over women. . This film by Brian Forbes is about a contemporary American feminist dystopia where suburban housewives are replaced by robotic models.

And if you want to watch the whole film...

Owen Sheers speaking about his book "A Poet's Guide to Britain"

Handmaid's Tale Lecture Part 1 Ownership, Control and Identity

I apologise for the guy's obsession with Photoshoping himself into the slides, but his intro to "The Handmaid's Tale" is, nevertheless, quite good! Oh dear!

Handmaid's Tale lecture part 2

A Lecture on the Handmaid's Tale Part 3

Now you have completed the AS course, you should visit the A2 Literature Blog.
The A2 Literature Stoodle Click on the link. Your theme is Love Through the Ages from Chaucer to the present day.

We will be starting with "The Miller'sTale" Chaucer. I will give you a course booklet, reading list, Literature time line, and pack on how to keep your notes on wider reading when you return after half term.

There might be lots of you on various visits for other subjects, but you must collect any work missed from your English teachers as we are actually starting the A2 course and all the work we do in the Summer term is vital to your A2 exam.

Looking forward to seeing you again,
Mrs Sims
xx

Just a little reminder....
YOUR EXAM IS ON 16th MAY!!!!!!
ARE YOU READY?
x

REVISION TASKS 

Try a few of these tasks to prepare for the exam. Hope you did some wider reading during the Easter holiday?

1.       Re-read the poems.

2.       Mindmap each poem.  You could use language, structure, form, content, themes and Carol Ann Duffy’s concerns as your skeleton map.

3.       Choose three images / phrases in each poem you think are particularly effective.  Make some notes that you could use to help explain in detail what you find interesting about them.

4.       Select a theme or concern from Carol Ann Duffy’s work and list all the other poems that also touch on this area.

5.       Choose a motif / recurring image.  Find three poems in which it occurs.  Explain in detail why Carol Ann Duffy uses it in each context.

6.       Choose a really difficult poem that you struggle with and discuss it with someone else.  Read it with them.  Try to explain it to them.  Get them to ask you questions about it.

7.       Go through the vocabulary appropriate to use when discussing Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry.  Write any unfamiliar words and their meanings on post-its.  Put these somewhere you will see them and remove them as you learn them.

8.       Write down ten things you know about Carol Ann Duffy and her life.  Try to connect each of these points to a different poem.

9.       Choose a poem and identify one feature of language, one of structure and one of form that you think are particularly significant about your poem.  Explain your choices.

10.    Read each poem’s title.  Think about why it was chosen.  Consider what you would write in an essay to explain Carol Ann Duffy’s possible reasons for choosing the title.

11.    Choose two past questions; write an essay plan for each.  Try replacing the suggested poems with others that could have been used for these questions.

12.    Practise writing an essay to time.  Check the introduction, topic sentences and conclusion are clearly focused on the assessment objectives and examination question.

TeeHee A dramatic performance of The World's Wife: Little Red Cap and Queen Herod.

A teacher gives us a You Tube lecture on Mrs Lazarus..

In Rememberance of Ken Saro-Wiwa Part 1

You've just completed your mock exam on this and I thought it might aid your "contextual" appreciation of the struggle for identity in the 20th and 21st Century if you did a little more background research on where your texts are coming from. Do watch this, although there are some upsetting scenes.
Part 2 seems to be missing from You Tube. Sorry.
Mrs Sims

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Wider Reading Poetry List

You don't have to read them all. Do access the sites suggested to get background information and listen to some of the poets performing their own work.

Suggestions for Wider Reading in Poetry

Wider Reading Poetry

The poetry of resistance is very much about the struggle for identity.




Try Poetry by Benjamin Zephaniah, Langston Hughes, Bobby Sands and Lemn Sissay.



Poetry of Lemn Sissay Click here