Learning Intentions

Learning Intentions • Demonstrate your understanding of the poem 'Shooting Stars' in preparation for your first full critical essay. • Revise how to write introductions and practise your global statement for 'Shooting Stars' • Focus on the main body of your essay and PCQE

Past Paper Question 2008 Question 12: Choose a poem which deals with conflict or danger or death. Show how the poet creates an appropriate mood for the subject matter and go on to discuss how effectively s/he uses this mood to enhance your understanding of the central idea of the poem.

Introductions • Remember, your introductions are very important as they set the scene of your essay and show that you will have a clear line of thought/argument, which focuses specifically on the question you have chosen. • If you break your introductions into GLOBAL and SPECIFIC statements then you already know how to begin your C.E. regardless of the question you will choose in the exam.

Global Statements Your GLOBAL statement is the bit you take into the exam with you and it always contains the exact same information: • Title • Poet • Genre • Main message of the text

Specific Statement Your specific statement is the part of your introduction, which you alter depending on the question you have chosen. This also contains the same information regardless of task: • Reference to BOTH parts of the task • The three main techniques you will write about IN ORDER to answer the essay question

Main Body of Essay • Point - this signposts to the reader what you will focus on in this particular part of your essay and also refers back to the task. • Context - introduce your evidence by explaining its background by stating where it appears in the text and, if necessary, who said it and to whom. • Quotation - evidence from the text that supports the point you are trying to make. • Evaluation - show how the quotation supports your point by analysing techniques, discuss your personal response and evaluate how effective the writer has been. Refer back to the task

PCQE The poet creates an appropriate mood for the subject matter (note how the question is and can be repeated) of death from the outset with the opening words re-animating her dead voice:‘After I no longer speak…’Using the first person, the persona reveals she is clearly speaking to us after her death and is presenting to us her personal feelings and horrific experience which she is going to share with us as though speaking from beyond the grave. This bleak mood surrounding her death is continued with the description of what her tormentors do to her body and mind, after and before her death. After death her fingers are broken to ‘salvage my wedding ring’. Use of the word ‘salvage’ infers that the Nazis' value the gold over her life and they are picking over her dead body as if it were a scrapheap, looking for items of worth. This is in direct contrast with the speaker's feelings as the use of the word 'my’ highlights how the dead woman valued the ring for symbolic personal reasons but the fact that the soldiers ‘break’ her fingers show the soldiers only see the material value and care nothing for the woman as a human being.

Mini-Essay Feedback Your mini-essays on 'Strawberries' showed great potential and you all understood the poem and its central concerns. However, you should think about: • The structure of your essay as many of you did not refer back to either part of the task. • Looking at key points of the poem and focusing on them rather than looking at a different technique in each section. • Providing a context to your quotation. • Going beyond the obvious in your evaluation.

Learning Intentions