A2 Comms - Looks like Kanye has been revising!

GCSE English revision work

How to use colons: Colons - click here

How to use commas to separate clauses: Commas - click here

How to use commas in dialogue: Dialogue - click here

If you want to revise and practise more elements of grammar, click here to reach the Khan Academy site for English.

Remember that there are also practice exam papers on Moodle, as well as the blended learning materials for English (link on the Moodle course page).

GCSE English - Screen casts for Paper 2

Please watch these revision videos so that you feel fully prepared for the assessment next Monday:  

Part 1:

Part 2:

A2 Comms - Class Notebook

I have created a class notebook for our A2 Comms class on 365. This is a virtual space for us as a class - there is a content library where I have put lesson slides and materials . Plus you each have your own notebook area (a bit like an electronic exercise book) where you can store your own notes, transfer slides/materials over from the content library, and upload work for me to see. I can also leave you verbal feedback in your notebook.

Find the class notebook by going to your student email and clicking on the 365 waffle on the left:

Then click on the OneDrive icon:

Then click on 'Shared with me':

Then you will see the class notebook:

Please can you upload your script under the coursework tab. I will leave you individual feedback on it. Thanks!

A2 Comms: If you have a spare 10 minutes, watch this...

James Baldwin gives  a speech at Cambridge University in 1965.

Should women be free to make money from their erotic capital?

Here's a good example of an argument being delivered concisely and clearly, and which draws on the theories we study in A2 Comms: Soapbox - The Daily Politics show 19/2/18

What then follows is a good discussion around the thesis offered in the clip above - definitely worth watching to warm yourselves up for Section A in the exam: Discussion re 'erotic capital'

A2 Comms - Great article to read!

Pertinent article in today's Guardian newspaper - great for Post Colonialism:

I’ve had enough of white people who try to deny my experience

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/24/white-people-tv-racism-afua-hirsch?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Outlook

A2 Comms - student answer to globalisation homework task

To what extent are you a product of globalisation?

I believe that I am a product of globalisation, I say this whilst typing on my HP laptop made in Taiwan, whilst watching the globalisation video on my Lenovo tablet made in China. Culture has become so fluid that I am unsure of any British made items I actually own, it's so easy to acquire things by the click of the button especially with modern apps like Ebay (mostly ships from China).

Being connected with the rest of the world in a western, industrialised society has never been so easy, having friends all over the globe is becoming easier due to apps like Monkey which lets you video chat with random people all over the world with the chance to add them to Snapchat afterwards. Being someone with family everywhere I see every day how globalisation has changed my life, the fact that I can message my cousins in America or my brothers in Canada, all by the click of a button is amazing.

The world we live in has become so interconnected that you have to start to question if anyone really has any culture or how solid was 'our' culture to begin with if it's been so easy to change. Throughout the world, we have all dissected everyone's culture, adapted and added the thing we like into our own individual culture.

It's hard to argue that I am not a product of globalisation when the broccoli I cooked with earlier was imported from Spain, almost all the food I cook with and eat have been imported from other countries due to the climate in Britain not being able to grow certain fruits and vegetables all year round. So, I have almost been forced into being a product of globalisation due to the country my dad chose to inhabit.

The truth is that us millennials don’t know and we definitely wouldn’t be able to recognise a world without globalisation, when we are on holiday and absolutely drunk we are most likely to stumble into a fast food global giant such as Mcdonalds because we know it and recognise it in a place where everything else seems to be so 'foreign' to us.

So many of the known global giants that I love, and couldn't live without such as my Apple phone, designed by Apple in California but assembled in China are a product of globalisation. If it wasn’t for globalisation this already expensive phone would cost almost double due to the fact that workers in America – a fully developed country, compared to the workers in China - which is still a developing country would demand to be paid more, therefore, increasing the price that we would have to pay as the consumer.

To conclude, I am a product of globalisation like most of my peers and the generation after me who will have no idea what life without imported goods looked like. Globalisation is wonderful to some extent but what price do we really pay to live the life of imported luxury?

by 'Princess Aishat'

GCSE English - Revision screen-casts for Paper 2

Watch the revision screen-casts by clicking the links below:

Paper 2 - part 1

Paper 2 - part 2

GCSE English - advice & suggestions for Paper 2

Respond to the text you have been given by sharing your advice and suggestions on the Padlet wall by clicking the hyperlink below:

Give advice for Paper 2

A2 Comms - Do you need to remind yourself about Bernays & the birth of modern advertising?

A2 Comms : Objects Of Desire / The Century of the Self

Recap from the 3 week return from last summer: watch the first half an hour and remind yourself of Bernays' contribution to the modern world of advertising:

Objects of Desire Padlet wall

The Padlet wall for today's Objects of Desire lesson is here: https://padlet.com/clareswhere/1uvg77bvyo4m

Naomi Klein - No Logo

'No Logo'

A2 Comms - Stuart Hall

A2 Comms - example student answer to globalisation homework

To what extent is my cultural identity a product of globalisation?

'Living in the western world, in a capital city, I’m very much included in a multicultural world. As well as that, my grandparents are from a completely different culture and that has influenced my personal identity.

After creating my cultural map, I saw my main interests stem from the western world, like America. This didn’t surprise me as I consciously involve myself in American television programmes, music and art. But I was more surprised at how widely my interests spread across the globe, from Japan to Mexico.

In the past I would have had a stronger British and Bajan identity but because of globalisation those identities are becoming more fluid and are mixing with other cultural practices and ideologies. I think my generation, especially in the western world, are huge products of globalisation. I have grown up in a society where access to the internet and easy global travel is the norm, and I wouldn’t think twice about hopping on a plane to get to Brazil, or looking up a native tribe in Africa to get a wider perspective of the world.

There are many positives and negatives about globalisation. Globalisation allows a sense of recognition and familiarity with other parts of the world. For example, having a well known brand name in a country you don’t know would make me feel more comfortable and subconsciously I would link that brand name to home. Unfortunately, globalisation has meant a loss in traditional and native cultural practices and identity, leading to future generations not knowing or recognising their cultural heritage.

I personally enjoy and embrace the fact that my identity is influenced by so many different cultures, as I feel it gives more depth to my personality, therefore making me more interesting as a human being, and hopefully more understanding of other people and their native culture.'

A2 Comms - Globalisation homework

Globalisation explained:

 

Further watching - Naomi Klein on Globalisation & big brands:

A2 Comms - British attitudes towards the niqab

Link to C4 discussion on the niqab

A2 Comms - Race & identity

Click here to read this article - a fascinating read.

A2 Comms - Multiculturalism

A good discussion here on the nature of multiculturalism in Britain today: click here

A2 Comms - #dtmh

You can watch a channel 4 news interview about the latest debate regarding the editing and representation of black hair here.

It's also worth watching this from a few years ago.