Familiarisation activities for the English exam

To become more familiar with what the digital exam will look like, go to this link.

username: English2017

password: NZQA2017

exam start code: 7241

The only exam that our class is doing is called:

90851

Show understanding of significant aspects of unfamiliar written text(s) through close reading, using supporting evidence.

You will see two other exams. Please do NOT do those exams, as we have not prepared for them!

A resource which you may find helpful is this one here by David Schauman on Six Secrets to Cracking Unfamiliar Poetry:

This BBC Bite Size Revision site is useful for revising language techniques and their effects. 

Non-fiction: reading & writing about

TEXT C: NON-FICTION

This extract is from an advice column in the magazine Tearaway.

Don't be an Egg! Three Golden Rules of Online Safety

The Internet can be a scary place. No, really. I don't want to be a fear-monger here, but behind its cuddly kitten.gif exterior lies a shady pack of wolve ready to bully, steal, and deceive, while cloaked in the shroud of anonymity.

1. Don't say anything online that you wouldn't in real life

We've all seen them-keyboard  warriors spewing venomous nastiness over the Internet. Not 5

only is this a very uncool thing to do, but as one Twitter troll in Britain found out this year, it can have some dangerous real-life consequences.

This doofus decided to  repeatedly  taunt  the professional  boxer  Curtis  Woodhouse  after he lost  to Shayne Singleton.  Eventually,  Woodhouse  decided  that he'd  had  enough,  and

somehow tracked down the troll's real-life address. Woodhouse then live-tweeted paying 10 this anonymous man a visit, putting the fear of God into the dude until he publicly and quite embarrassingly apologized.

It's all fun and games until a professional boxer decides to take exception to your bullying tactics and pay you a visit, isn't it?

2. Nigeria does not have a prince, and even if it did, he wouldn't email a teenager for money 15

Ah yes, the famous Nigerian  email scam! His email says he's filthy  rich but  needs money to escape his exile and  get access to his funds. Could  you please lend him, oh I dunno, like

$5000? He'll pay you back with interest!

These are all part of a family of scams called "phishing". Phishing means sending mass emails with generic offers and promises of greater riches, hoping that you'll be dumb enough 20

to send money or personal information that can be used to steal your identity or access your credit card.

Avoid the9e scams by giving out as little information as possible, and (duh) don't send large amounts of money to people you don't  know. And  don't  open emails or  attachments  from addresses you don't recognize. 25

3. Jeepers creepers, where'd you get that stalker?

I've met some really amazing, smart and lovely people over the Internet. But as a brief glance at the shadier corners of Reddit or 4chan will confirm, there are some real creeps out there.

If this person you met on Twitter who likes all the same bands and movies as you do and just totally gets you wants to meet up, always do it at a safe, public place the first time you meet. 30

Also, I understand that as teenagers we have raging hormones, but please do NOT send "inappropriate" selfies to anyone. Studies have found that around 17% of  recipients  share the photos that they receive, and 55% of those share them with more than one person. Even if the recipient is someone you can trust NOW, are you 100% certain that they will be forever?

Source (adapted): Jason Kim, "Things You'll Wish You Knew, Later: 4 Golden Rules of Online Safety", Tearaway, Term 3 2013, p 12.

QUESTION THREE: NON-FICTION

Refer to Text C, “Don’t be an Egg! Three Golden Rules of Online Safety”, on page 4 of the resource booklet to answer this question.

The three rules Kim recommends, in my own words, are:

1. (i) Identify ONE language feature the writer uses to help us understand his ideas about being safe on the Internet.

(ii) Provide an example of this language feature from the text.

2. Explain how this language feature helps us to understand the writer’s ideas about being safe on the Internet.

3. Explain how the writer helps us to understand his ideas about being safe on the Internet

throughout the text.

Support your answer with reference to the techniques, including language features, that the writer uses:

• to appeal to his target audience
• to structure his ideas effectively
• to comment on the impact of the online world.

Internet conversations

Work for Friday 20 October 2017

Part One: in groups or pairs, talk about internet safety.  

You need to:

• share your ideas (at least two ideas per person)
• use eye contact
• use appropriate body language
• ask questions of each other
• help the conversation flow

Questions to guide you in your conversation:

1. What do you like doing most online and why? (keep it clean!) e.g. is it watching Netflix, or snapchatting with school friends, or participating in a specialist sports forum...
2. What do you think are the big differences between how you use the internet and how older members of your family use the internet?
3. What is a phishing scam and how can people recognise one?
4. What is trolling and what should we do about it?
5. What do you think would happen to your social life and friendships if the internet crashed for several weeks, worldwide?
6. What are the three most important cyber smart tips you would give a 13 year old who was just starting out using social media?
7. Which websites are the best source of current events or sports news?  What makes them good websites?

Every group needs to be recorded on screencastify or on someone’s phone.  This then needs to be shared with Ms Quick.  You could take turns being the recorder and run the conversation more than once so that we get reasonable quality filming so Ms Quick can mark the section on eye contact and body language.  This is worth credits, so please work carefully on it.

It Was Over Before it Began

Reading and discussing whitebait

I'm sorry that I'm not at school today.  I was sick in the last part of the holidays, and am still sick.

We have two learning goals today:

1. To read and understand an article on whitebaiting.
2. To share our own thoughts on whitebaiting, the article and our own experiences.

Step one: reading about whitebaiting.

• Read this article from someone who comes to the West Coast every year to whitebait.  Don't worry about the tricky words she sometimes uses, just keep going and you will work out her main points.

Step two: what do you already know about whitebaiting?

• Make notes so that you can share your ideas with others.  

Step three: sharing our ideas and experiences with whitebait.

• In groups of 2 or 3, record yourselves (using your phone or scnreencastify) discussing the whitebait article, and the topic of whitebaiting more generally.  Here are some questions that could help you get the conversation going:

1. What is whitebait and when and where can you catch it?
2. What equipment do you need for whitebaiting?
3. What are the best places on the Coast for whitebaiting?
4. Why do you have to get up so early to go whitebaiting?
5. What is your favourite whitebait recipe?
6. Why do some people want to be ban whitebaiting?
7. What are some of the rules to do with whitebaiting?

At the end of your recording, you must share the recording with Ms Quick.

How to study for your English Unfamiliar texts exam

How to study for your English Unfamiliar texts exam

Apply the process below to each of the THREE texts: poetry, prose & non-fiction.

1. Buy some highlighters!  

2. All the clues are in the text.  Look really carefully at the title, and at the description of the what the text is about at the top of each text.

3. Read the entire text before you look at the questions.

4. Now look at the exam questions.  Put your finger under each word to be sure that you know exactly what you are being asked.

5. Now you know what the examiner is interested in, read the text again.  Think about what you learn from the text that helps you answer the exam questions.

6. Now you can answer the technique question, and give an example.

7. The big question is next.  Look very carefully at what it is asking you to do.  Take time to plan your answer.  Find 3-6 examples to support your answer.  Write three paragraphs (or more).  There will usually be three guiding questions, and you can write one paragraph on each guiding question.

8. Key words or phrases that will help: shows, helps us to understand, emphasises

9. If you can show how several techniques are used together to develop an idea (in response to the question), then you can achieve with merit.

10. Think about the deeper meaning of the text.  What do we learn from it?  If you can show a perceptive (deep & thoughtful) understanding of the text, and link it to the wider world or to other texts, that you can achieve with excellence.

You're 100% wrong about...seafood

QUESTION THREE: NON-FICTION

We started by highlighting the text in two colours.  

Colour 1 = how the writer feels about seafood.

Colour 2 = why the writer feels this way.

Refer to Text C, “You’re 100% Wrong About … Seafood” which I handed out in class on Friday to answer this question.

(a)          Select (✔) ONE language feature the writer uses to describe seafood.

Adjective(s)	Hyperbole	Rhetorical question(s)
Alliteration	Listing	Sibilance
Allusion	Onomatopoeia	Simile
Colloquial language	Punctuation	Verb(s)

Give an example of this language feature from the text.

(b)          Explain how this and / or other language feature(s) helps you to understand the writer’s attitude towards seafood throughout the text. You might consider:

•              the writer’s overall opinion of seafood

•              why the writer has chosen to express his opinion in this way

•              why the writer wishes his opinion was different.