Mrs Sanders - Hassan Confusion After The Framing

We have begun to write another essay, in which we need to write from Hassan's viewpoint. We need to write a narrative showing Hassan's bewilderment concerning the way Amir treated Hassan, when he framed him. We discussed and planned this essay in class, which we will continue at home. There was some confusion about what Hassan is exactly bewildered about, the incident or the framing, but we managed to clear this up by discussing it in class.

The Caretaker - Davies' Attitude to Aston

We began to look at another extract from a past paper. The question asked us about Davies' attitude towards Aston and it provided us with an extract, where Davies was complaining about Aston smiling at him, to Mick. It also showed how Aston had brought Davies a pair of shoes, but he seemed ungrateful and this was shown through Pinter's use of statements and questions. We began to answer the essay question and we were are going to finish it in our own time.

U.S President Kennedy Speech

We have begun to write an essay based on the techniques that Kennedy uses to convey his ideas to the audience. We discussed how to structure our first paragraph and what we needed to include within in it. From then we began to quote certain words and go into more detail about the terms Kennedy uses, such as strong verbs and abstract nouns. These types of words, such as "unite" and "war" inspire and motivate us, as an audience, which then makes us remember what Kennedy said later on. We are currently going to continue the essay at home, writing about things such as Kennedy's attitudes and the choice of vocabulary.

The Kite Runner - Chapter 23

We continued making notes on Chapter 23, concerning Amir's character. I think he doesn't truly get the redemption he seeks until the very last chapter, when he runs after the kite Sohrab wanted in a kite flying competition. As a group, we discussed the idea of the double filter of the narrative, in that we see the story through the authoritative Amir and then through the child. We came to the conclusion that from Chapter 10 onwards Amir begins to look back retrospectively, rather than the story being told through a double filter. Currently, we are continuing making notes on this chapter as it is quite important in the development of Amir's character and his journey to redemption.

Chapter 23- Amir in Hospital

We are now beginning to analyse Chapter 23, where Amir is in hospital, after being beaten by Assef. I began looking at how the narrative viewpoint changes and how it became broken and disjointed to begin with, which shows how Amir is falling in and out of consciousness. We looked at the difference in tone and feeling from Amir, in this chapter. Before the beating, Amir was a self-loathing character, but now I think he is slowly beginning to accept himself. I think he feels quite positive about what happened to him, because on some level he believed he deserved it. We are also analysing other techniques used, such as the way Amir asks himself so many questions when he's going in and out of consciousness.

Aston's character - The Caretaker

On the double lesson, on Monday, we began to write the essay involving Aston's character and how Pinter uses representations of speech and other dramatic techniques to present him. I used my notes that I had made previously and compared it to the last section of the last scene, where Aston stands up for himself and is generally more authoritative. Currently, I have almost completed the essay. I learnt, from previous essays, that it would be best not to quote in my first paragraph and I should write generally and then be more specific in my next few paragraphs.

Amir's Guilt-techniques

On Friday, we looked into incorporating key terms into our essays, so it would be clear what we were writing about. In GCSE, we didn't need to include key words, such as "metaphors" or "adjectives", but when analysing The Kite Runner, at A Level, we did, so as to explain out point in more detail. I started to change parts of my sentence structures, to add in the techniques Hosseini uses and I incorporated more of my ideas into the essay.

Mrs Biddle-Analysing speeches

On Friday's lessons, we analyse speeches by prominent people, such as Gordon Brown and J.F. Kennedy. Today, we looked at Kennedy's speech and we discussed as a group, the techniques that were used to make it more memorable to the listener. We picked out key words, such as "tyranny" and "disease" and discussed the effect these abstract nouns, in this case, had on the reader. There were metaphors, lists as well as powerful verbs used throughout it. After highlighting certain parts of the speech, I found out that all these techniques are aimed to make the overall speech memorable to the listener, so they will ponder on what was said later on.

Amir's Guilt

In Mrs Sanders lesson today, we discussed the essay involving Amir's guilt. I had re-wrote it, in order to improve it because some of my ideas were unorganised and confusing, even to myself. I found that if I put the narrative viewpoint first in my essay, it should be easier to 'hang' my ideas from it and expand them. I think I needed to make Hosseini the centre of my essay, by uses phrases such as "I wonder why Hosseini...". In this way, I think it helped me to structure the essay and to channel my ideas across to the reader. I am currently finishing off this essay, by summarising by points and adding in a few extra ideas and themes involving Amir's guilt.

The Kite Runner- Narrative Viewpoint

We started the first few paragraphs of our essay concerning Amir's guilt and we swapped with each other, so we could share ideas. I found that I was trying to squeeze too many ideas into one essay, which resulted in disjointed paragraphs that didn't make too much sense. I found that I need to concentrate more on the narrative viewpoint and construct my ideas around that. I am currently re-writing this essay, using these points, so in the future, I will be able to write a coherent essay.

The Caretaker- Aston's character

On Monday's lesson, we gave in our essay about how Pinter presents the relationship between Mick and Davies. We then began to analyse another essay question, based on Aston's character. We annotated the extract that was provided to us in the form of an exam question, ready to answer the essay. I picked out another episode elsewhere in the play, which was near the end. It involved Aston being authoritative towards Davies, about the bed situation. I started to find quotes from the extract I had found so I could get an idea of Aston's character. We are currently completing this question in class. 

The Kite Runner-Khaled Hosseini

In my last exam style Kite Runner essay, we had to write in the mind-frame of Baba-Amir's Dad. I think you have to know the characters extremely well to be able to do this, because you're meant to be them, you're meant to think the way they do when you write the essay, which is quite difficult. I always find that starting essays is also difficult, but as I get more into the essay, I find it easier. 

We had to begin to write another essay style question, but this was concerning Amir's guilt. This type of essay is more based on dramatic techniques and the narrative viewpoint. I think Hosseini is quite clever in the way he uses a double filter through Amir and I tried to show this when I started the first few paragraphs of the essay. There are so many factors to Amir's guilt that it can be a struggle to get them all into one essay. I think one of the hardest things when writing, is making sure I get my ideas across well enough, so the examiner understands and so any reader understands. I think I need to improve the way I do this, but if I keep practising, hopefully, I'll improve! :)

The Caretaker-Harold Pinter

This week involved us reviewing our past exam answer. I found out that I do need to think more about the context I put my ideas in, to make my essays sound better. We also began to work through another exam style question, by annotating the copy provided to us as well as choosing another extract to compare it to. I found this quite interesting, because I was able to understand Mick and Davies' relationship more. I think analysing the way Pinter uses dramatic techniques and representations of speech is difficult, but I think I am beginning to get used it. It is a big difference to GCSE English language, but the more I practice writing these essays, the more I learn about the characters. I am finishing off the essay involving the relationship between Mick and Davies, at the moment, but I always seem to find it difficult to begin the essay, but again, I'm getting used to it! :)