Please answer the following questions in the comments box below. You should provide examples/evidence from your research to support the comments you make.
Here is Helen’s answer:
The following presentations provide the background to George and Lennie’s America in the 1930s. Students researched key topics including Robert Burns’ poem To a Mouse, the Great Depression, the American Dream, as well as attitudes to race and to women.
Here is a selection of some of their presentation slides.
The Salinas Valley and California in 1930s – Toby
What is the role of women and black people – Courtneys
The role of black americans in the 1930s – Erin
The great depression and the dust bowl in 1930s – Ty P
As you know, the social and historical context of Macbeth is an intrinsic part of the controlled assessment, accounting for half of the 40 marks available. To help you get a better understanding of the period in which the play was written, please work through the questions on the attached PowerPoint. To do this, you may: 1) save your own copy of the PowerPoint and then add slides to it with your answers; 2) write your answers on a Word document; or 3) write your answers in the comments box below.
Any questions? See me or write to me below – before Tuesday 7 October!
Year 9 students of Of Mice and Men, I have attached some resources to help you research and revise the context of the novel: the USA in the 1930s.
The GCSE examination board advises students that ‘general comments about the Dust Bowl and what happened in 1930s America are not what is required. It is much more apposite (appropriate) to make comments about how the theme impacts on the characters in the ranch and its hierarchy.’ Elsewhere, the examiner says that ‘candidates should avoid points about context…which are ‘bolted on’ but not strictly relevant’ to the extract chosen or questions to be answered. To sum up, do not write a paragraph about the Great Depression; instead, allow your background knowledge of this period of time to seep through your answers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpfY8kh5lUw#t=27 (This video lasts approx. 27 minutes and is an interesting, largely anecdotal, account of the Great Depression and its social effects in 1930s America.)
In your Macbeth controlled assessment, you must ‘explain your understanding of the differences between the original context of the play and the context of your chosen adaptation’. The context means the time and place that it was written and performed. You will therefore ‘explain the relevance of the play and the adaptation for different audiences at different times’.
To enable you all to write with confidence about the context of the play and its adaptation (the Rupert Goold film starring Patrick Stewart), your homework task is to research and prepare a presentation on one of the topics below (depending on when your birthday falls). Your presentation will be given to the class on Wednesday 1 & Thursday 2 October and you can use either PowerPoint or prezi.com to accompany it. You may present to the class on your own or with a partner; absolutely no more than two students per presentation!
Useful websites for your research are below
English at Teignmouth 