Y9 Miss Luce letter homework

This letter (sorry - it is very small!) was written by John Steinbeck to Claire Luce, an actress who was playing Curley’s Wife on Broadway, and who had expressed worries about playing the character. Answer the following questions in your books in full sentences. (Ignore the questions at the bottom of the letter)

1.    Read the letter carefully.

2.    Look up any words you don’t understand in a dictionary. Make a note of their meaning.

3.    What was Curley’s wife’s ‘fixation’?

4.    Why does Steinbeck suggest that she had become a hard character?

5.    What does Curley’s wife crave above all else?

6.    Why does he suggest that you would never get to know the real Curley’s Wife?

7.    Does this letter change the opinion you had of Curley’s Wife? Explain why or why not.

8.     *Extension: read this article on the blog about Curley’s Wife and write a short response explaining how this further adds to your understanding about the character.

What will you be binge-watching tonight? New words for 2015

Every year, there are reports on new words that lexicographers have included in new versions of dictionaries. Read this article about new entries for this year and have a think about the following:

1. Are lexicographers (people who write dictionaries) doing a job which is prescriptivist or descriptivist in nature?
2. What do you think about the inclusion of these words. Would you have included them? Have you heard all of them being used?
3. The fact that 'trans-gender' has been included is of great importance to our work on language and gender. Does the word's inclusion reflect changing societal attitudes? How will these social attitudes change the way we study language and gender?

Year 9 Homework - Curley's Wife Set Friday 6th November

Imagine you are Curley’s Wife. Write a letter home to your sister, telling her what life is like for you on the ranch.  Are you happy? How is your marriage working out? How do you fill your days?

You are aiming to show my your understanding of the character, but should also write accurately and well. (No non-negotiable errors!)

Due Tuesday 10th November. You will need to do this on paper, as I have your books.

Year 12 homework - Representation. Week 1 after half-term

Due to be handed in Thursday 12th November

The representation of gender in the media

The text on your handout (I can't reproduce it here - if you've lost it you'll have to borrow someone's or find me) is an opinion piece by Barbara Ellen writing in The Observer. It was written in response to a large number of articles in newspapers, magazines and on the internet criticising a well-known film actress for appearing to have used artificial means to rejuvenate her face and skin.

Below the task is a commentary about how this piece represents her. This is an example of how to write about representation, using linguistic knowledge. I do not expect you to write in this amount of detail… yet!

Your Task:

1. Read the article about Nicole Kidman and the analysis of how she is represented.

2. I would like you think about how women and / or men are represented by the media.

Find two pieces of media (advert, article, transcript of a TV ad…) that represent either women or men in either a positive or a negative way. You may find one  about men and the other about women, or both about women but one positive and one negative etc

Bring them to the lesson and be prepared to share some of the ways in which you think the language creates those representations.  I don’t expect you to have done an analysis like the example, but I expect to see copies of the texts, with parts underlined. Try to label those parts with linguistic features. Write a brief comment about how this language is creating a representation.

 * You may wish to have a go at writing up a couple of features into a paragraph, in a similar way to the example