Olive Mooney

Photo with author's permission

On Thursday 25th April we welcomed Olive Mooney, author of The Chronicles of Cadaver College, to St Columba’s.

She read to an entranced audience of Primary and 1st Formers from the first volume of the series, The Book of Ornis, in which young Simon de Bruin discovers himself in a very strange place. He doesn’t know where he is or how he got there, and he has barely arrived before his leg is savaged by an invisible hound. What’s more, the strange people he meets seem to expect something from him—something heroic—yet at the same time they seem disappointed that he’s not somehow...bigger. And so begin the Chronicles.

After the reading we got the opportunity to ask questions. Olive, choosing from a sea of waving hands, was asked such things as: do you write longhand or type, do you have a special room to work in, who was your favourite author, what was your worst editing experience, do you like children, and would St Columba’s be a good location for the film version? All of which she answered with aplomb, and we finished a very entertaining morning with a book-signing session.

Pride and Prejudice Wordle

This term, V form are studying Pride and Prejudice as part of their comparative selection. Here is a word-cloud of the 150 most-used words in the complete text (click on the image for a closer view).

For discussion in class:

• the relative importance of the major characters
• key words - 'family', 'sister/s', 'friend', 'Lady', 'might', 'opinion', 'manner', 'conversation' and so on...

'The Gay Rainbow Across my Electoral Office'

Check out this speech by New Zealand member of Parliament Maurice Williamson following the decision to legalise gay marriage in that country.

What rhetorical devices does he use? How does he use humour? How does he address those with whom he disagrees? Which parts of his speech are pre-planned and which off the cuff? How would you feel if you disagreed with him?

And just enjoy it...

Markup

No 16 in a series of occasional reviews of iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad apps useful for English literature and language learning and teaching.
 
Markup has just been released by the team who created one of our favourite tools, Showme. 

Designed for the iPad, it is a neat 'paperless grading app' which is simplicity itself - you open a document from your iPad (using the familiar 'open in'), or by emailing it to a special address, use the writing tools to mark the piece, and then export it as a PDF by email back to the pupil. The developers have plenty of interesting plans ahead for the app, and it's available at a modest cost from the iTunes store.

This is truly handy for the increasing number of essays, projects and assignments coming to English teachers in electronic form.

Love: Kane, Rivers, Leroux, McMullan

In her fine Transition Year Extended Essay, Iyobosa Bello-Asemota examined four books dealing with love - The Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane, A Voice in The Wind by Francine Rivers, The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (original), and The Phantom of the Opera by Kate McMullan (revised edition). 

In her conclusion, she states: 


"Having spent so much time writing an essay with its focus on love, I finally feel as though I now have a better grasp on what it truly means to love something or someone. I now understand what motivates people to do things onlookers would regard as irrational, things that they normally would not have the strength or courage to do. I also understand why some would look upon the notion of love or being in love with disdain or would regard rash acts born of this love, to be foolish. While I do not hope to justify the evil acts people do in the name of love, regardless of whatever form it manifests in, I must admit that love’s influence is as wide and as deep as any ocean."

Read Isoybosa's full essay here.

Leaving Cert English blog

Here's a quick plug for all Leaving Cert pupils for Evelyn O'Connor's site leavingcertenglish.net, which has lots of excellent advice on preparing for your exam. Advice and resources are clearly divided between Paper I and Paper II, and recent posts include:

• Imagery in Macbeth
• Tone in Language pieces
• Argupersuasionment (including an excellent Sketch Show clip

Evelyn O'Connor always writes in a lively, direct and helpful way - and she was the 2012 Teacher of the Year to boot, so this is a site well worth your attention.

Sylvia Plath: a life reviewed

For those studying Sylvia Plath for their Leaving Cert, Guardian Shorts have recently published a handy and inexpensive e-book called Sylvia Plath: a life reviewed. This is a collection of articles and reviews from the Guardian and the Observer over the last 50 years, and is a good introduction to 'the idea of Sylvia' and 'the reviews, discussions and arguments that have dogged the Sylvia Plath legacy for the last 50 years'.

Holiday Leaving Cert Revision

Our VI formers are, no doubt, already deep into holiday revision before next term's Leaving Certificate exams.  

Here are some resources from this blog and elsewhere that will be useful. But bear in mind: keep focussed mainly on the texts themselves, and keep reading and thinking about topics for the composition question.


MACBETH:
1. Seven revision podcasts, including:-

• The crucial moment : the soliloquy in Act I scene vii before the murder.
• The real Lady Macbeth.
• King Macbeth - law and order in Scotland.
• Malcolm the hero?
• The Witches and the Supernatural.
• A quotation auto-test.
• Macbeth's tragic end - 'Tomorrow, and tomorrow ...'

2. The whole text of the play in a variety of formats - put it on your computer/tablet/e-reader for easy access. 3. Notes from a thought-provoking talk on the play given by the playwright Frank McGuinness at the Abbey Theatre. 4. BBC Bitesize microsite for revision (level - GCSE). 5. Times Educational Supplement resources, including our own podcasts [requires registration]. 6. Shakespeare Searched: a 'Google for Shakespeare' - terrific resource for looking up quotations, self-testing and so on. 7. 'Macbeth in Monaghan' series on RTÉ radio [podcasts]. 8. A series of ShowMe analyses of key moments in the play, using video and audio annotation.  9. Newbridge College 'resource pack' on the play.  10. Evelyn O'Connor at LeavingCertEnglish.net has a series of posts on the 'Blame Game' in the play here. 


THE GREAT GATSBY:
1.  15 key moments from the novel analysed via ShowMe.
2. Lots of good background and activities from the New York Times Learning Channel.


POETRY:
15 short talks on 'The Patterns of Poetry' (runner up in the 2010 Edulog Awards). Useful for any poetry question, and certainly for the Unseen Poem.


LANGUAGE:
Evelyn O'Connor's site LeavingCert.net has lots of good advice on Paper 1 (and 2, too).  Have a hunt through Categories on the left.

Senior Poetry Prize 2013

We're now on holidays, and pupils have time to think about and start their entries for the Senior Poetry Prize.
 
The theme of the Peter Dix Memorial Prize for Poetry 2013 is journeying of various kinds : Going Places / Journeys / Travel. Entries by VI, V and IV pupils should contain a portfolio of 2 to 5 poems inspired by this idea. To quote from Mr Canning's rubric:

The above are general themes which triggered Peter Dix to write certain poems, and hopefully they will inspire the same from some of you.

Poems should be at least ten lines long and no more than forty lines in length, and typed.
The winning entry will be based on the overall standard of the entrant’s body of poems. There will also be a prize for the best poem if it is not in the winner’s selection. All other strong entries will be posted on www.sccenglish.ie.

The English Department will also give smaller book-tokens to strong entries that do not win the Prize. 

You can treat the ideas in a free way: any connection is fine, as long as the poems are clearly connected by image, inspiration, theme, form, situation, context …

The Peter Dix Memorial Prize for Poetry was presented by the Dix family in memory of Peter, who died in the Lockerbie tragedy in 1988.  The Memorial (pictured above), by sculptor Joe Sloan, is kept in the Library and inscribed with the names of past winners.

Entries are to be emailed to Mr Canning by Friday 24th May.

'The Submarine', March 2013

You know it's approaching the end of term when the latest edition of the Library magazine The Submarine appears. The March 2013 edition is the usual mixture of interesting commentary (in the editorial), pupil reviews and staff writing.  For instance, this time Dr Bannister writes about The Pilgrim's Progress, Alina Stiehler about Bad Karma, Ally Boyd Crotty about Markus Zusak's The Book Thief and Mr Brett on Irish Classrooms and British Empire. There's creative writing by Sofia McConnell and Iyobosa Bello-Asemota and lots of fine illustrations, as well as more junior pupils commenting on their current reading.

Read the magazine online above via Issuu, by clicking once for a closer view, once more for still closer, and by using the arrows to navigate.

Junior Poetry Prize 2013

Entries for this year's Junior Poetry Prize are due in by Thursday 11th April, and all in P, I, II and III are encouraged to take part. The theme this year is 'Old and New', and full details are on Ms Smith's notice.

My First Time Away from Home

In his recent exam for Mr Jameson, I former Nevin McCone wrote this as his composition:

It was my first time away from home and family. I was five years old at the time and I was staying at my granny’s house.

The daytime was always great with Granny. We would run around the garden and play with the dog. In the summer we would listen to the lone cow’s moo in the field. When we heard it we would fall to the ground laughing in the bright, dazzling sun. 

I had never slept at Granny’s house before but I did always stay for tea. There was always a smell coming from Granny’s marvellous kitchen. Whether it was delicious cupcakes or scrumptious roast beef, Granny knew best! All the family would be at the table enjoying a piping hot cup of tea. But this time it was different….

Mum and Dad had just left at eight o’clock. Things were still going well. Soon the moment I had been dreading came around. Bedtime. I don’t think I got a single wink of sleep that night. First of all the bed sheets smelt of the horrible stench of old people. Already being freaked out I heard the most terrible sound I think I have ever heard in my whole entire life! Granny was taking out her false teeth. 

She groaned as she attempted to get them out, like a wolf howling at the full moon. Then came the plop as the teeth went into the glass of water.  Now I was freaked out and traumatised. Just as I thought it couldn’t get any worse, good old Gran started snoring. The windows, walls and doors must have been made of titanium because how she didn’t wake up the county is truly beyond me. Like a roar of a steaming locomotive she went on into the night. Finally after counting 5,672 snores Granny eventually awoke.

It was a miserable day and was raining, not cats and dogs, but mammoths and elephants. When I hauled myself out of bed and carried my legs downstairs, Gran was back to her old self, making me a bowl of Coco Pops and roasting hot milk. Surprisingly Mum and Dad came just before lunch, which was an extremely great relief to me. Driving away with Gran’s frail hands waving at us in the near distance I looked out the window and was asleep before you could say “dentures”.

Articles of the Week 2012-13

This is an ongoing listing of links to the Articles of the Week used with our Leaving Certificate pupils this academic year.

The idea came from the American teacher and writer Kelly Gallagher, and it fits very well into the Leaving course, getting pupils used to reading interesting articles and thus helping them in both the comprehension and composition sections of their Paper 1, as well as expanding their knowledge base and providing interesting topics for discussion.

Click here for Gallagher's current articles, and read more about the theory behind the scheme in his excellent book Readicide: how schools are killing reading and what you can do about it. Pupils have to mark up the articles with annotations before class discussion.

1. 'Turn off the Phone (and the Tension)' by Jenna Wortham, New York Times, August 2012.
2. 'Personal Bests', by Caragh Little, Huffington Post, September 2012.
3. 'The Britishisation of American English', by Cordelia Hebblethwaite, BBC News, Washington DC, September 2012
4. 'The Innocence of Islam', by Vincent Durac, The Irish Times, Saturday 22nd September 2012
5. ‘Books Change How a Child’s Brain Grows’ by Moheb Costandi in Wired Science, October 18th 2012
6. 'Sexist stereotypes dominate front pages of British newspapers', by Amelia Hill, The Guardian, Sunday 14th October 2012
7. 'Why Old-School Rote Learning is Still Important' by Annie Paul Murphy, Time Magazine, November 8th 2012
8. 'Text Messaging Turns 20' By Tracy McVeigh, The Observer, December 2nd 2012
9. 'Highlighting Is a Waste of Time: The Best and Worst Learning Techniques', by Annie Paul Murphy, Time Magazine, January 2013.
10. 'The Newtown shooting makes us feel helpless' by Charlie Brooker, The Guardian, December 17th 2012
11. ‘The introverts who walk the walk, but have no time for talk’, by Carol Ryan, The Irish Times, January 22nd 2013

The Heinemann 'Heroes' series

The Library has just catalogued eight books in the Heroes series from Heinemann/Pearson Education.

These are specially commissioned books by established children's authors and are, as Heinemann themselves say "Epic stories of villains, crime, horror and adventure, these are the books boys and girls will not be able to put down... Created with series editor Frank Cottrell Boyce,HEROES is a new series of short, accessible original fiction novels and plays that teenage boys and girls will love. The perfect whole-class readers for Key Stage 3!"  (in Columban terms, KS3 is ages 11-14, effectively forms Primary, 1st and 2nd).

Librarian Mr McConville recommends these very much, both for slightly reluctant readers and for pupils whose second language is English. They are a step up from the Barrington Stoke easy readers. In content they are very direct - you are straight into the adventure through the eyes of the protagonist - yet skilfully written and very engaging, and at about 120 pages there is room for character and plot development too, so they are genuine novels. They are also nicely made small hardbacks with excellent cover designs.

The titles are:

• The Perfect Enemy by F.E. Hinton - a boy opens a mysterious box and releases his evil double.
• Demon Hunters by Bali Rai - a time-travelling demon hunter takes on Jack the Ripper.
• i-assassins by Christopher Edge - ELITE teenage cyber spies protect the world.
• Do not Wake the Devil by A.F and P. Peters - Strange beasts roam the hills, an ancient menace is stirring.
• Ghost Game by Nigel Hinton - a haunted house, the presence of evil, a deadly game.
• Blood Oath by Chris Priestly - a young tribesman seeks to revenge the death of his father by joining the Roman Army in Britain.
• Eg and Me by David Grant - a key to a secret door leads to a tunnel to a secret and very scary world.
• Monster Island by Justin Richards  - experiments on a secret island have produced monsters, and now they're out.

They are to be found on the Quick Reads shelves in the Junior Reading Room, and are identified by a red dot on the spine (the Barrington Stokes have a yellow dot).

Whole School Evaluation (MLL)

In September 2012, inspectors from the Department of Education and Skills visited the College for four days. The official Whole School Evaluation (Management, Leadership and Learning) has now been published on the DES website, and can be read in full here.

The College welcomes the strongly-positive nature of this report, which is a tribute to the quality of education available at St Columba's, and to all who work here, both pupils and staff.

Among the findings are (quotations in bold type):

TEACHING
·The quality of teaching ranged from good to very good with some examples of excellent practice.
·The level of planning and preparation for the lessons observed was of a consistently high standard.
·Staff, many of whom live on campus, give their time and expertise to support the school and to foster student academic and sporting attainment and personal development.
·There is a carefully organised programme of support for academic attainment. ·Academic results in state examinations in the vast majority of subjects are consistently high.
 ·Students with special education needs are well supported through individual and group withdrawal and by significant individual support from subject teachers. ·In class, the quality of questioning was consistently high.
·There are excellent levels of formative written assessment and also high levels of oral feedback.
·Students and parents were particularly complimentary about the Transition Year Programme in the school.  

 PUPILS & LEARNING
·In class, student engagement was very good, showing students’ willingness to contribute to discussions and their participation in planned activities. ·A positive rapport was evident between students and teachers.
·Student behaviour was very good and was underpinned by effective classroom management and positive interactions between students and teachers.
·There is continual tracking of student academic progress, and rigorous analysis of state examinations annually.
 ·There is comprehensive guidance and counselling support available to students underpinned by the boarding school staff most of whom teach in the school.
·The school is pro-active in highlighting and pre-empting issues around bullying. ·Social, sporting and personal development are effectively catered for.
·There is a very comprehensive sporting programme.
·There is an effective students’ council.
·Pupils have a range of opportunities ... to get involved in leadership roles.
·Pupils show significant levels of satisfaction with life in school.

MANAGEMENT
·The school is very well managed by senior management comprising the principal and deputy principal who have a clear and shared vision and work together as a committed and highly effective team.
·There is a strong culture of delegated leadership and devolved responsibility. ·St Columba’s is a very reflective school and is excellently placed to engage in the school self evaluation process.
·The Board of Management members bring a wealth of educational knowledge, expertise in various fields and experience to their work and show a deep commitment to the school.

PARENTS
·Parents are very happy with the quality of education, care and range of supports being provided for their children.
·There is a vibrant parents’ association which has a significant social purpose which is to include and to invite parental involvement in the school in every way possible.
·The parent body is both valued and listened to by management.

FACILITIES
·This is a unique educational environment with a vast range of educational and recreational facilities.
·The campus and buildings are very well maintained.
·Partly because of this, there is an atmosphere of well-being in the school.

Extended Essay: Donoghue, Christopher, Frank

In her Transition Year Extended Essay, which last term received one of just four Commendations in the Form, Bethany Shiell wrote about three books in which the central characters are 'confined' in some way. She comments:-
 
"My first plan was to write this essay on the theme of Racism. So I began reading Anne Frank, but I soon realised that the book didn’t actually have much on that theme, but it did have a lot of insight on being trapped; Anne constantly wrote about her relationships with the people she was stuck with and the troubles she found living in such a small space. This made me change my theme to Confinement, as I found it more interesting.
 
According to the Collin’s English Dictionary, to Confine is to “keep close or within bounds; limit; restrict. To restrict the free movement of.” This is the case of all the main characters in the three books I have chosen, which were Room by Emma Donoghue, Stolen by Lucy Christopher and The Diary of Anne Frank." 

Read Bethany's full essay here. 

Sports Books in the Library

The Librarian, Mr McConville, has put together a handy list of some new sports books available in the Library now: click here to read and/or download it.  Included is a book much in the news recently, David Walsh's Seven Deadly Sins: my pursuit of Lance Armstrong.

This supplements our summer reading list last year, which has its own sports section (pages 6-7), and which will be updated next term.

Green Shoots

We've previously used the excellent and very efficient self-publishing service from Lulu to create two books based on this blog, Going Places (2008) and Outside the Frame (2010). Here's a DigiTeach article from the Computers in Education Society of Ireland site on how this worked.

We've now built on this by, for the first time, self-publishing our own text-book for internal use in our Junior Certificate classes, called Green Shoots (the title is from Bernard O'Donoghue's poem 'Aine'). This collects our material for II and III forms (leading up to the JC exam) in an attractive form and cuts down on lots of photocopying. As before, the cost is remarkably reasonable, and we are likely to repeat the exercise in future, certainly with the new Junior Cycle Programme which starts in English in September 2014.

Below and above, photos by Bella Purcell (last year's winner of the school Photography Prize) which feature as the front and back covers of the book. Click on them for a closer look.