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Viewing entries from category: KS5 Resources

The Edusites’ Guide to Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi” »

Richard Gent | Thursday January 18, 2024

Categories: KS5 Resources, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi”

Summary of the Plot It is generally accepted that that there are five main characters in the play: the Duchess and her husband Antonio (her steward) who are virtuous, chaste, innocent and good: and, conversely her twin brother Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria who is vilely repulsive, evil, jealous and obsessed; and their elder brother the Cardinal who is ice cold, utterly depraved and corrupt. Between these two poles we have Bosola a cynical malcontent who has been in the service of the Cardinal and… [ read full article ] »


The Edusites Guide to Lynn Nottage’s ‘Sweat’ »

Richard Gent | Wednesday January 10, 2024

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Sweat Lynn Nottage, Lynn Nottage

Synopsis and Overview In 2008 Jason and Chris are released from prison, having served time for the horrific injuries they inflicted on Stan, a bar-keeper and Oscar, his assistant, in the violent brawl in 2000, which forms the climax of the action. Jason is still angry and belligerent with Evan, his parole manager; Chris is softer: repentant, and later claims that Bible has ‘saved my life’. Subsequently we see them with their respective mothers: Tracey: like Jason, is belligerent,… [ read full article ] »


The Edusites Guide to Athol Fugard | The Train Driver, Coming Home & Have you Seen Us? »

Richard Gent | Saturday December 30, 2023

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Athol Fugard, The Train Driver, Coming Home , Have You Seen Us?

The Train Driver Synopsis and Overview Sometimes referred to a ‘memory play’ it is bookended by soliloquies by Simon Hanabe, one of the two characters in the play. He has lost his job as the gravedigger and cemetery attendant at the graveyard of Shukuma, a squatter camp on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth. The play, a series of exchanges with Roelf Visagie, the second character in the play who has much the bigger role and is inclined to lengthy monologues, is the story of how and why… [ read full article ] »


The Edusites Guide to Evelyn Waugh’s ‘A Handful of Dust’ »

Richard Gent | Wednesday May 24, 2023

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature

Excerpt from Background and Authorial Context Waugh and his first wife, The Hon. Evelyn Gardner, divorced in the Autumn of 1929 on the grounds of her flagrant and open adultery with one of the couple’s ‘friends’, John Heygate. They had been married for little more than a year, almost entirely unhappily. She had come to detest him very rapidly and his infatuation with her class and good looks proved ephemeral. They were too young, hedonistic (at least in her case) and immature… [ read full article ] »


The Edusites Guide to Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew”. »

Richard Gent | Monday May 22, 2023

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature

Excerpt from The Introduction The play ends with three newly married couples: Petruccio and Katharina Lucentio and her sister, Bianca and Hortensio (Petruccio’s friend) and his rich widow All are happy and content with their lot, none more so than Petruccio and Katharina, apparently. The play asks us to consider the routes their courtships and marriages have taken and the changes they have wrought within each of them. The drama is, critically, a play within a play: metatheatre; the… [ read full article ] »


The Edusites Guide to Dystopian OCR Literature - Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Handmaid’s’ Tale »

Richard Gent | Thursday November 17, 2022

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Archived Resources, KS5 Archive, OCR A Level, Prose, Nineteen Eighty Four

The Edusites Guides to Dystopian Literature Features and Characteristics of Dystopian Literature New PDF Context: Setting and Warnings New PDF Plot, Characters and Narrative Voices New PDF Themes New PDF Resources for Teaching Nineteen Eighty-Four Nineteen Eighty-Four - Lessons Nineteen Eighty-Four - Sample Tasks - Mocks Resources for Teaching The Handmaid's Tale The Handmaid's Tale - Lessons The Handmaid's Tale - Sample Tasks - Mocks Links to Dystopia Online Writing the future: A… [ read full article ] »


The Edusites’ Guide to ‘The Merchant’s Tale’ »

Richard Gent | Friday September 30, 2022

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Poetry, Chaucer

Excerpt from The Introduction Geoffrey Chaucer wrote 'The Canterbury Tales' at the end of his life and career in the 1390s, the end of the C14th. He was a scion of the post conquest upper middle class, now integrated and 'modern' in the context of the time. He had been a soldier and diplomat and was later a royal servant and pension holder. He was married but lived apart from his wife for most of their married life. He wrote the Tales to amuse himself and his friends: it was… [ read full article ] »


The Edusites Guide to Tom Stoppard’s ‘Indian Ink’ »

Richard Gent | Thursday October 07, 2021

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Drama, Indian Ink

“Simple black or blue-black ink also used in medical applications. Made of soot (or ‘lampblack’) and mixed with gelatin or shellac as a binder. Much used by artists because when it dries it does not bleed” In 1930 Flora Crewe, an English upper- class socialite and poet, travels to India where she believes the hot weather will be good for her developing tuberculosis. She is 35, a model, a communist and her poetry has become controversial because of its open sexuality.… [ read full article ] »


The Edusites Brief Guide to the Poems of Jackie Kay »

Richard Gent | Thursday April 22, 2021

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Poetry, Jackie Kay, Jackie Kay CAIE

The works: these poems are taken from two anthologies: The second half of “The Adoption Papers’, entitled ‘Severe Gale 8’ (1991) and “Other Lovers” (1993). ‘From Stranraer South’ has been reserved our essay question. All you need to know: Encyclopedia.com “The Adoption Papers”: gives a detailed and comprehensive account of her life and its cultural context up to 1991. There is plenty more, including two very helpful reviews from… [ read full article ] »


The Edusites Guide to A Level King Lear »

Richard Gent | Wednesday February 10, 2021

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Drama, King Lear, Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Plays, Shakespeare - Other Activities and Resources, Starters & Teaching Ideas

Often regarded as the most complex, intense and overwhelming of Shakespeare’s mature tragedies, the plot and structure of the play are surprisingly straightforward.   Lear persists in dividing Britain between his three daughters. Two of the three accede enthusiastically to his demand for flattery as a condition of this. The third, Cordelia, refuses, marries the King of France and leaves him, prompting sharp criticism of Lear from Kent, a loyal courtier. The two remaining sisters,… [ read full article ] »


The Edusites Guide to The Kite Runner »

Richard Gent | Monday November 16, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature

Why read and study 'The Kite Runner'? Whether you were born before, on, or after September 11th 2001; whether you were in New York, Kabul or neither; and whether you are an atheist, agnostic or religious believer you cannot fail but be familiar with the images of the destruction of the World Trade Centre on that day. This brilliant novel is not an account of that day and nor does it purport to be. Nonetheless it explains the fanaticism and murderous monomania that lay behind it better… [ read full article ] »


The Great Gatsby - Ten Common Misconceptions »

Richard Gent | Thursday October 29, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature

At Edusites English we don't regurgitate resources you can find anywhere else as all of our resources are written for us by experts at the centre of the development of English as a discipline in our schools and colleges. Please do not share these with non subscribers. We are a not for profit run by volunteer teachers and all of your subscription payments are spent on expert resources and keeping our vast servers functioning with no advertising. Here Chris Barcock Chief Examiner was very… [ read full article ] »


A Guide to Gothic »

Victoria Elliott | Wednesday June 17, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, Hot Entries, Prose, Frankenstein, Northanger Abbey, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Victorian Literature

    A Level Gothic Guide New pdf   What makes Gothic? Although it’s never easy to define precisely the characteristics of any given field of literature, Gothic defies pinning down more than most. Ghosts and monsters are an easy and flippant answer to ‘what makes Gothic’; but not all Gothic has either or both. The presence of psychological and physical terror is one key characteristic, as is a concern with morality, often represented by the religious. The term… [ read full article ] »


A Handful of Dust | Mocks | Sample Questions and Indicative Responses »

Richard Gent | Sunday May 24, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature

Remember that you are being tested on your knowledge and understanding of the whole text from which you are expected to make relevant and judicious selections of detail to frame your answer. Mock Exam Question 1 New PDF Mock Exam Question 2 New PDF Mock Exam Question 3 New PDF Question 1 EITHER A How are town and country compared in the novel and with what effects and outcomes? OR B In Brazil she wore a ragged cotton gown of the same pattern as Rosa's. It was not unbecoming. Tony watched… [ read full article ] »


A Handful of Dust | Lesson Three »

Richard Gent | Sunday May 24, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature

Lesson Plan Three The place of the Church and Faith at Hetton and in the novel Starter Activity Read through the following extracts and then split into four groups: working with one extract per group decide exactly and concisely the contribution each of them makes to this aspect of the novel. You can go back to the text and look at broader detail and context in which they appear. A Tony invariably wore a dark suit on Sundays and a stiff white collar. He went to church, where he sat in a large… [ read full article ] »


A Handful of Dust | Lesson Two »

Richard Gent | Sunday May 24, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature

Lesson Plan Two Mrs. Rattery: what contribution and difference does she make to the novel? Starter Activity Split into three groups/ pairs and look carefully at the following extracts, one per group. What do they tell us about the lady and in what respects does she challenge society as it has so far been presented to us? A Jock's blonde was called Mrs Rattery. Tony had conceived an idea of her from what he overheard of Polly's gossip and from various fragments of information let fall by… [ read full article ] »


A Handful of Dust | Lesson One »

Richard Gent | Sunday May 24, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature

Lesson Plan One Starter Activity Blame and responsibility - See Guide Re-read pages 107-112 (in the Penguin Edition): ‘It was nearly an hour before the news reached Jock and Mrs Rattery……'But, you see, I know Brenda so well.' The issue of responsibility is extenuated and repeated from the last line of the scene discussed in the commentary.  Locate the following references and note down who says them and, if possible, why. No one to blame though’ ‘It… [ read full article ] »


The Taming of the Shrew | Lesson 3 »

Richard Gent | Saturday May 23, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature

Lesson Three Preparation Make sure you have prepared this passage thoroughly and that you have noted down any words whose meaning you are unsure of. In the class as a whole, take the parts in this extract and read it through: then change the parts and read it again. Now you should have become very familiar with the scene. Starter Activity Lesson 3 Student Activities to print New PDF Enter BAPTISTA, KATHARINA, BIANCA, GREMIO, and HORTENSIO. LUCENTIO and TRANIO stand by BAPTISTA Gentlemen,… [ read full article ] »


The Taming of the Shrew | Lesson 2 »

Richard Gent | Saturday May 23, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature

Lesson Two Preparation Make sure you have prepared this passage thoroughly and that you have noted down any words whose meaning you are unsure of. In the class as a whole, take the parts in this extract and read it through: then change the parts and read it again. Starter Activity Lesson 2 Student Activities to print New PDF Now you should have become very familiar with the scene. VINCENTIO [Seeing BIONDELLO] Come hither, crack-hemp. BIONDELLO Hope I may choose, sir. VINCENTIO Come hither, you… [ read full article ] »


The Taming of the Shrew | Lesson 1 »

Richard Gent | Saturday May 23, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature

Lesson One Preparation Make sure you have read and noted down ALL the unfamiliar and technical vocabulary that he uses. Decide on his tone of voice both within each speech and between the two of them. And then how an audience might react to him and what he says Starter Activity Lesson 1 Student Activities to print New PDF In groups of two or three take turns in reading the following two soliloquies of Petruccio. PETRUCHIO I pray you do. Exeunt all but PETRUCHIO I will attend her here, And woo… [ read full article ] »


The Taming of the Shrew | Mocks | Sample Questions and Indicative Responses »

Richard Gent | Saturday May 23, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature

Mock Exam Question 1 New PDF Mock Exam Question 2 New PDF Question 1 EITHER A Compare and contrast Grumio and Tranio as servants and distorted images of their masters. OR B Read the following passage carefully. PETRUCHIO Thy gown? why, ay: come, tailor, let us see't. O mercy, God! what masquing stuff is here? What's this? a sleeve? 'tis like a demi-cannon: What, up and down, carved like an apple-tart? Here's snip and nip and cut and slish and slash, Like to a censer in a… [ read full article ] »


A Guide to Hamlet »

Steph Atkinson | Wednesday May 20, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Drama, Hamlet, Hot Entries, Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Plays


The Edusites’ Guide to Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi” - Mock exams with indicative content »

Richard Gent | Saturday January 18, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi”

Remember that you are being tested on your knowledge and understanding of the whole text from which you are expected to make relevant and judicious selections of detail to frame your answer. Mock Exam Question 1 New PDF Mock Exam Question 2 New PDF Mock Exam Question 3 New PDF Question 1 EITHER A How far do you believe that in writing 'The Duchess of Malfi' Webster's main interest was to highlight  inequalities between men and women? OR B Read the following passage from Act 3… [ read full article ] »


The Edusites’ Guide to Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi” - Lesson 3 »

Richard Gent | Saturday January 18, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi”

Lesson Plan Three Oh the horror! No Revenge Tragedy would be complete without the catalogue of horrific items we touched on at the start of the commentary. In this lesson we want you to research (singly or in pairs) the following items in detail and then decide on the significance of their dramatic functions in the play. There should be a prize for the most thoroughly researched and enlightened contribution! The learning objective here is to understand the ways in which the conventions of the… [ read full article ] »


The Edusites’ Guide to Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi” - Lesson 2 »

Richard Gent | Saturday January 18, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi”

Lesson Plan Two The learning objective here is to focus on the Cardinal by firstly looking at what is said about him by characters we know we can trust: Antonio and Delio and then look at the Cardinal in action to see how what they say is embodied. Starter Activity In Act One we are given initial character sketches of the brothers: this is the exchange between them on the Cardinal:- DELIO.  Now, sir, your promise:  what 's that cardinal?   I mean his temper?  They… [ read full article ] »


The Edusites’ Guide to Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi” - Lesson 1 »

Richard Gent | Saturday January 18, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi”

Lesson Plan One In this lesson we will look at our introduction to the play and its issues in Act One scene one. The learning objective is to develop our understanding of the ways in which the characters introduce themselves and each other and which of the play's major themes are broached. We will then go on to link these points to moments later in the scene when they flag critical moments in the drama. By the end we should be able to answer the question: ‘how important is the opening… [ read full article ] »


Sweat | Mock Exam C »

Richard Gent | Saturday January 11, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Analysing Drama, Sweat Lynn Nottage, Lynn Nottage

Remember that you are being tested on your knowledge and understanding of the whole text from which you are expected to make relevant and judicious selections of detail to frame your answer. Mock Exam Question Paper C New PDF Either Question 1 How does the following passage from the end of 1.5 develop and comment on the centrality of work to the characters’ lives and personalities in the play? One is reminded of Charley’s eulogy of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s ‘Death… [ read full article ] »


Sweat | Mock Exam B »

Richard Gent | Saturday January 11, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Analysing Drama, Sweat Lynn Nottage

Remember that you are being tested on your knowledge and understanding of the whole text from which you are expected to make relevant and judicious selections of detail to frame your answer. Mock Exam Question Paper B New PDF Question 1 Look again at this extract from Act One Scene Two: our introduction to Tracey, Cynthia and Jessie. How does Nottage create our first impressions of the three of them and how any two of those impressions are developed at particular moments, later in the play?… [ read full article ] »


Sweat | Mock Exam A »

Richard Gent | Saturday January 11, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Sweat Lynn Nottage, Lynn Nottage

Remember that you are being tested on your knowledge and understanding of the whole text from which you are expected to make relevant and judicious selections of detail to frame your answer. Mock Exam Question Paper A New PDF A Either:- Question 1 Read through this extract from Act Two Scene Four very carefully. How does Nottage develop conflict and tension here and what are their outcomes later in the play? You might have considered some or all of the following:- There is conflict between… [ read full article ] »


Sweat | Lesson 3 »

Richard Gent | Saturday January 11, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Sweat Lynn Nottage, Lynn Nottage

2008: Act 1.1, and 2.7: the scene with Evan, Chris and Jason The learning objective is to develop our understanding of Chris and Jason eight years after the fight when they have served their jail terms. Re-read these scenes out loud and make sure you are very familiar with them. The split into two groups, one per scene. Printable Activity Sheet New PDF Starter Activity What impressions of the characters do you form as you read through each scene? How effective is Evan in his role of Parole… [ read full article ] »


Sweat | Lesson 2 »

Richard Gent | Saturday January 11, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Sweat Lynn Nottage, Lynn Nottage

Cynthia’s promotion and its consequences: Act Two Scene Three. The learning objective is to develop and complete our understanding of Cynthia, and appreciate the ways in which Stan acts as the good friend to support her. Read through the scene between Cynthia and Stan from the opening, up to the entrance of Tracey and Jessie. Cynthia: On a cruise, Panama Canal. That’s where I’d like to be right now………. ……………….… [ read full article ] »


Sweat | Lesson 1 »

Richard Gent | Saturday January 11, 2020

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Sweat Lynn Nottage, Lynn Nottage

In this lesson we will look at a very famous poem by the leading artist of the Harlem renaissance, Langston Hughes, the end of which Nottage quotes as her preface to the play. The demise of loyalty and patriotism, the fracturing of the country and bitter discontent of the ‘have nots’ in the play find a potent parallel in Hughes’ depiction of social inequality in the 1930’s depression.  We are back to a significant proximity to the alleged ‘American… [ read full article ] »


A Level English Literature »

Emily Prentice | Monday November 11, 2019

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Prose, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, The Awakening, The Bloody Chamber

Edusites English Literature A Level provision is updating... Sweet Bird of Youth The play was completed and first staged on Broadway in 1959. Its origins lay earlier in the fifties in two separate short plays: ‘Chance and the Princess’, a two-hander written by Williams for his close friend, the former silent movie star Tallulah Bankhead: and a second very different piece ‘The Pink Bedroom’ which was the basis for Act Two of the finished product. Williams’ working… [ read full article ] »


A Guide to Hamlet | Act 5 »

Steph Atkinson | Monday May 20, 2019

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Drama, Hamlet, Hot Entries

A Guide to Hamlet | Act 1 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 2 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 3 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 4 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 5 Hamlet: tragic hero? Hamlet is usually regarded as the finest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and one of the greatest tragedies ever written; however, it is frequently defined as ‘tragedy’ with little or no reference to tragic tropes, either Greek, Renaissance or later theories of tragedy, or with insufficient consideration of other useful theoretical… [ read full article ] »


A Guide to Hamlet | Act 4 »

Steph Atkinson | Monday May 20, 2019

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Drama, Hamlet, Hot Entries

A Guide to Hamlet | Act 1 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 2 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 3 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 4 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 5 Hamlet: tragic hero? Hamlet is usually regarded as the finest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and one of the greatest tragedies ever written; however, it is frequently defined as ‘tragedy’ with little or no reference to tragic tropes, either Greek, Renaissance or later theories of tragedy, or with insufficient consideration of other useful theoretical… [ read full article ] »


A Guide to Hamlet | Act 3 »

Steph Atkinson | Monday May 20, 2019

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Drama, Hamlet, Hot Entries

A Guide to Hamlet | Act 1 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 2 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 3 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 4 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 5 Hamlet: tragic hero? Hamlet is usually regarded as the finest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and one of the greatest tragedies ever written; however, it is frequently defined as ‘tragedy’ with little or no reference to tragic tropes, either Greek, Renaissance or later theories of tragedy, or with insufficient consideration of other useful theoretical… [ read full article ] »


A Guide to Hamlet | Act 2 »

Steph Atkinson | Monday May 20, 2019

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Drama, Hamlet, Hot Entries

A Guide to Hamlet | Act 1 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 2 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 3 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 4 A Guide to Hamlet | Act 5 Hamlet: tragic hero? Hamlet is usually regarded as the finest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and one of the greatest tragedies ever written; however, it is frequently defined as ‘tragedy’ with little or no reference to tragic tropes, either Greek, Renaissance or later theories of tragedy, or with insufficient consideration of other useful theoretical… [ read full article ] »


Athol Fugard | Have You Seen Us? | Exam Questions »

Richard Gent | Thursday January 03, 2019

Categories: KS5 Resources, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Athol Fugard, The Train Driver, Coming Home , Have You Seen Us?

All Plays Sample Essay Titles Recap: the following tasks have already been set in Specification 9695 papers 31-33 for all three texts In what ways and with what dramatic effects does Fugard present characters who face moral choices in these plays? Discuss Fugard’s dramatic presentation of ‘white guilt’ in ‘The Train Driver’ and ‘Have you seen us?’ Discuss Fugard’s dramatic presentation of prejudice in these plays. Discuss Fugard’s dramatic… [ read full article ] »


Athol Fugard | Coming Home | Exam Questions »

Richard Gent | Thursday January 03, 2019

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Athol Fugard, The Train Driver, Coming Home , Have You Seen Us?

Sample Essay Titles Recap: the following tasks have already been set in Specification 9695 papers 31-33 for all three texts In what ways and with what dramatic effects does Fugard present characters who face moral choices in these plays? Discuss Fugard’s dramatic presentation of ‘white guilt’ in ‘The Train Driver’ and ‘Have you seen us?’ Discuss Fugard’s dramatic presentation of prejudice in these plays. Discuss Fugard’s dramatic presentation… [ read full article ] »


Athol Fugard | The Train Driver | Exam Questions »

Richard Gent | Thursday January 03, 2019

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Athol Fugard, The Train Driver, Coming Home , Have You Seen Us?

All Plays Sample Essay Titles Recap: the following tasks have already been set in Specification 9695 papers 31-33 for all three texts In what ways and with what dramatic effects does Fugard present characters who face moral choices in these plays? Discuss Fugard’s dramatic presentation of ‘white guilt’ in ‘The Train Driver’ and ‘Have you seen us?’ Discuss Fugard’s dramatic presentation of prejudice in these plays. Discuss Fugard’s dramatic… [ read full article ] »


Athol Fugard | Have You Seen Us? | Lesson 2 »

Richard Gent | Wednesday January 02, 2019

Categories: KS5 Resources, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Athol Fugard, The Train Driver, Coming Home , Have You Seen Us?

Lesson Plan Two Starter Activity In class re-read the epilogue to the play and carefully consider both what Henry says and how he says it. Solly has told him that he is forgiven: he has told Solly that he loves him. For Henry at the moment there is nothing more to say: he wanted ‘nothing that would violate the moment’. He does not regret never seeing Solly and Rachel again. They have been the agents of his ‘short journey from hate to love’ and their job is done. But he… [ read full article ] »


Athol Fugard | Have You Seen Us? | Lesson 1 »

Richard Gent | Wednesday January 02, 2019

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Athol Fugard, The Train Driver, Coming Home , Have You Seen Us?

Lesson Plan One Music in the Play Starter Activity Go through the play and list the occasions when Fugard introduces musical accompaniment to the action and which of the characters does so. Re-read the passages and research the detail of the different types of music we hear: for example Afrikaans folksong, Name songs, Mariachi music and Hebrew songs of praise. This might well be done as preparation for the Main Activity. Printable Activity Sheet New PDF Main Activity There are four musical… [ read full article ] »


Athol Fugard | Coming Home | Lesson 2 »

Richard Gent | Wednesday January 02, 2019

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Athol Fugard, The Train Driver, Coming Home , Have You Seen Us?

Lesson Plan Two Starter Activity Look at this early scene in Act One on PP 62-65 starting with the SD ‘Mannetjie begins taking off his shoes……’ to Veronica: ‘Dead and buried in Cape Town’. Working in groups of three or four read through the exchange to yourselves and then divide it up into the group number and read it (or portions of it) aloud to each other. Then:  discuss and agree on the tone, nuance and emphasis of the lines and how those qualities… [ read full article ] »


Athol Fugard | Coming Home | Lesson 1 »

Richard Gent | Wednesday January 02, 2019

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Athol Fugard, The Train Driver, Coming Home , Have You Seen Us?

Lesson Plan One Starter Activity Look at Alfred’s long speech to Veronica from Act One, P73 ‘Here they are….. ‘ to P74: “So that is how it was’. Working in groups of three or four read through the speech to yourselves and then divide it up into the group number and read portions of it aloud to each other. Then:  discuss and agree on the tone, nuance and emphasis of the lines and how those qualities are modulated and varied/ developed as Alfred speaks it.… [ read full article ] »


Athol Fugard | The Train Driver | Lesson 2 »

Richard Gent | Wednesday January 02, 2019

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Athol Fugard, The Train Driver, Coming Home , Have You Seen Us?

Lesson Plan Two Look again at scene six P34 Simon: ‘So what you thinking Roofie?’ to P38 Lights fade out completely on the image of Roelf digging. As in Lesson One take roles and read the passage aloud, or in groups with one member of the group reading the stage directions and others (if there are more than three) offering constructive criticism of the performance. Make sure you record your responses. Starter Activity 'Nobody else wanted her, Simon… I do, and that’s… [ read full article ] »


Athol Fugard | The Train Driver | Lesson 1 »

Richard Gent | Wednesday January 02, 2019

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Cambridge AS and A Level 8695 IGCE, Drama, Athol Fugard, The Train Driver, Coming Home , Have You Seen Us?

Lesson Plan One Remind yourselves of and re read pages 4-9 of the Faber edition of the play (the first five pages of the text at the start of Act One). Take roles and read the passage aloud, or in groups with one member of the group reading the stage directions and others (if there are more than three) offering constructive criticism of the performance. Look especially hard at the implications of the third of these tasks as you do this. The central question here is what are your first… [ read full article ] »


Indian Ink - Questions and Indicative Content »

Richard Gent | Friday October 14, 2016

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Drama, Indian Ink

Question 1 Either A Anish This is so kind of you. Mrs. Swan Oh no. Your letter was irresistible. Having an artist to tea was beyond my fondest hopes for my dotage. We’ll let it sit a minute. Do you think you take after your father? Anish I don’t know. I would like to think so. But my father was a man who suffered for his beliefs and I have never had to do that, so perhaps I will never know. Mrs. Swan I really meant being a painter. You are a painter like your father. Anish… [ read full article ] »


The Edusites Guides to Indian Ink »

Richard Gent | Thursday October 13, 2016

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Drama, Indian Ink

The Edusites Guide to Tom Stoppard’s ‘Indian Ink’ Click on the pdfs below to access the guides Example content Synopsis and Overview In 1930 Flora Crewe, an English upper- class socialite and poet, travels to India where she believes the hot weather will be good for her developing tuberculosis. She is 35, a model, a communist and her poetry has become controversial because of its open sexuality.  She stays for five days in the town of Jummapur ‘up from Bombay’.… [ read full article ] »


Indian Ink Lessons »

Richard Gent | Friday October 07, 2016

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Drama, Indian Ink

Sample Lesson Plan One In this lesson we will look at the scene below from Act One. The learning objective is to develop our understanding of the ways in which the characters are developed by the interactions between them and how they and their relationship has developed by the end of the extract. We will then go on and consider which of the play's major themes are broached here. By the end we should be able to answer the question: ‘how important is this scene in developing the tone,… [ read full article ] »


The Merchant’s Tale Lesson Five »

Richard Gent | Tuesday September 29, 2015

Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Poetry, Chaucer

Lesson Plan Five Essay and Indicative Responses New PDF In this lesson we will look essay responses to the question posed in Lesson 4 and discuss what other questions could be posed. Question What do these extracts from the Merchants' encomium and Justinus's withering criticism of Januarie's intentions tell us about The Merchant and his attitudes to marriage and in the Tale? Do alway so as women will thee rede. Lo how that Jacob, as these clerkes read, By good counsel of his mother… [ read full article ] »