Kasey's English Journal

I am looking forward to reading your autobiographical writing in response to the different extracts we have read. Why not explore your local library this half-term and find some more autobiographical writing – you could try Roald Dahl’s book Flying Solo which tells you more about his experiences during the Second World War when he was a pilot.

Or just enjoy reading any of your favourite books. I am going to be reading the Hunger Games this half-term as it has been recommended by so many people. I hope to hear you talk about your reading when you are back after half-term – have a good break.

Ms  Lindsay

Today we had some interesting discussions as a result of the extracts you read in class. We discovered that the Norman invasion of 1066 meant that French was the language of power at the time and everybody was expected to speak French; you could only have a high status role in society if you spoke French. Move on in history and in Tudor times we find that the Welsh were punished for speaking Welsh but today the language is protected and eveybody in Wales is encouraged to use it. We also heard the story of a Finnish student who went to Sweden and was told off at school for speaking and writing in Finnish and how this made her lose her confidence, she stopped talking and felt depressed and sad at school.
This lead to a number of stories about the words you have heard people use to describe somebody new to this country. We agreed that name calling or making negative comments about somebody who may not understand English that well or have only lived here for a short time is unacceptable. Many of you were keen to share more stories about this but we ran out of time. We felt that we have hit on another aspect of language that seems very important and we will continue this discussion tomorrow.
In the mean time, talk to your family about ‘identity’ and ‘heritage’ – what do we mean by these words and and why are they linked to language?

Dear Year 7,

I am sorry that I won’t be here to meet you in person but I will see you on Friday when you have your next English lesson. I am Ms Lindsay and I job share with Dr Ovenden; I work in the school on Mondays and Tuesdays so I will be teaching you on  Monday and Tuesday.

The reason why I am not in today is because I am taking a Year 9 class to the Olympic Park for the day – I will come and  tell you all about it on Friday. I have found the Olympics very exciting as I live near the park and have seen it grow the last 7 years, it has transformed the area around Stratford. I have become much more interested in cycling since visiting the Velodrome and have also seen basketball for the first time. The paralympic athletes have inspired me to think more about my attitude to exercise and living healthily – what about you? What sports interest you and do you take part in any particular sport?

I am very keen on reading and would like to have more time to read. I read books, newspapers and also enjoy the poems and stories written by students. What do you enjoy reading? Do you have any books you would like to recommend or do you have favourites you read in Primary school that you remember well? If you don’t read a lot, do you have any particular reason for not reading? I can also read and speak another language, Afrikaans, which is one of the many official languages spoken in South Africa, the country where I was born and grew up. I can also speak and read German – not very well! – as I learned this at school. Do you speak any other languages?

I enjoy learning about people and new topics as well as thinking about difficult questions. I find I learn by reading, listening, thinking and talking to others. What kind of learner are you and what do you think makes a good learner? Do you have particular topics you are interested in or have enjoyed learning about? Please share these with us! We think that listening to each other in class and working with each other helps us all to learn and this is what we would like to see in our English lessons.

I am really looking forward to reading your letters and meeting you on Friday!

Yours sincerely,

Ms Lindsay

I have enjoyed reading Hard Times by Charles

Dickens. I was inspired to read it for two reasons.

I read one of the opening scenes with our Year 10

class last year and we enjoyed it so much I wanted

to read the rest of the book. It is also 200 years

since Dickens was born – 1812 – so it seemed a 

good idea!