by Carolyn | Sep 23, 2017 | English, Film
An archetype is an original model of something, what we may call a prototype. According to television producer Aaron Spelling there are only 5 stories and they have all been told. The job of the modern producer or filmmaker is to find new ways of telling them. These 5...
by Carolyn | Sep 19, 2017 | English, Film, Literature, Teaching
I don’t know about you but I get really peeved when people use the word ‘classic’ as a synonym for ‘old’ or ‘dull.’ People arguing against the inclusion of classic literature in English courses invariably infer that if a text is a classic then it is old and...
by Carolyn | Sep 16, 2017 | English, Film, Literature, Reading, Teaching
Teaching visual literacy and film can be a lot of fun. If there is anything our students are familiar with it is film. However, just like novels, plays, poetry and other forms of literature, film has its own conventions and terminology. I have to make a confession...
by Carolyn | Aug 8, 2017 | English, Literature, Reading, Teaching
Imagine all the students in your English class arrived each day having read the novels, plays, poetry or short stories that they were working on. Imagine not being frustrated because the lesson you so carefully prepared didn’t work because the students hadn’t done the...
by Carolyn | Oct 12, 2016 | English, Teaching
Bright Shiny Objects (BSO): Any new, interesting, intriguing, colourful idea, strategy or possibility. Designed to excite, stimulate, side-track, deviate and beguile. Guaranteed to deflect focus. Confession Long before it was diagnosed many of my students labelled me...
by Carolyn | Sep 24, 2016 | English, Teaching
Why teachers didn’t get a mention in Bob Dylan’s 1964 hit song is a mystery to me. Writers, parents and politicians are mentioned and of course they are important, but surely great teachers are significant instruments of change. That teaching as a profession has...
