stannesacademy.org.uk€¦ · Web viewSurely no one will venture to deny that the dog deserves this care at our hands? For of all animals, the dog, I think, may without doubt be

Language Paper 2

Name:

Teacher:

Date:

1

Y11 English Language Paper 2

Language Paper 2: Writers’ viewpoints and perspectives (modern and 19th century texts)

Question What to do Structure Time10 minutes to skim read both texts, focusing on the attitudes and viewpoints

Q1 Choose 4 true statements (4 marks)

Choose the 4 statements which are true – read and choose carefully!

Shade the circle within the box of the statements which are true

5 minutes (or whilst reading)

Q2 Write a summary of the differences (8 marks)

2 paragraphs plus summarising statement

1. Identify two main differences between the texts, ensuring you are focusing on answering the question

2. Write your answer using the structure

Difference – a sentence stating the difference you will explore Evidence from Source A – choose a piece of evidence which illustrates the differenceInference from Source A – state what you can infer from the evidenceComparative connective – eg however, on the other handEvidence from Source A – choose a piece of evidence which illustrates the differenceInference from Source A – state what you can infer from the evidence x2PLUS summarising sentence stating what

10 minutes

2

is different overallQ3 Language analysis (12 marks)

3 paragraphs

1. Circle or draw a box around the area of the text you are asked to focus on

2. Identify 3 powerful language devices and their effects

3. Focus on the EFFECTS of language

4. Write your answer using the structure

Point – The writer uses language (/ metaphors/ adjectives/ similes etc) to describe…. as ….Evidence – For example, they describe the sea as… ‘….’ Effect – This suggests/ has the effect of… Zoom – The word ‘…’ implies/ has connotations of…Why – The writer uses this word/ technique to make the reader think/ feel/ create the impression that…

15 minutes

Q4 Compare the attitudes/ perspectives and the methods used to convey them

1. Identify three differences in attitudes and the methods used to convey them

2. Write three comparative paragraphs using the structure

3. Remember to answer the question, and to compare methods and attitudes

State the difference in attitudes – Both writers feel/ think…, but… OR The writer of Source A feels…, whereas the writer of Source B feels…Method and evidence from Source A – The writer of source A uses…, for example…. ‘…’Analysis of the effects – This makes the reader think/ feel/ suggests… Comparative connective – On the other hand,…Method and evidence from Source B – The writer of source B uses…., for example,… ‘ …’ Analysis of the effects, focusing on what is different to Source A – This suggests… which differs to source ARestate the difference in attitudes – Therefore, overall,…

20 minutes

Q5 Informative/ persuasive writing

5 paragraphs (3 main, plus short intro and conclusion)

1. Identify form, audience and purpose

2. Spend at least 5 mins planning your answer

3. Create a clear argument in your introduction

4. Use a cyclical structure and some persuasive language devices

Introductory paragraphBegin with an anecdote – a story about how the issue has affected someone

In your next paragraph, explain how the issue affects people/ society more widely

Explain how the issue could affect your reader and what they should do about itConclusion

45 minutes

Focus on Question 2: Write a summary of the differences between…

Examiner’s advice:

3

This question is testing two skills: your ability infer (read between the lines) and to synthesize (put together) evidence to write a summary

Choose 2 – 3 clear differences (NOT similarities!) to write about Go into as much detail as possible – this often helps responses to move up a whole level When inferring, don’t just repeat your evidence Include a summary sentence at the end stating the key overall differences

What not to do:

analyse language/structure move away from the focus of the question – it isn’t just general differences! Must be

answering the question talk about similarities restate evidence instead of inferring use long quotations which aren’t embedded forget comparative language

Structure of your answer – 2 x these paragraphs:

Difference – a sentence stating the difference you will explore

Evidence from Source A – choose a piece of evidence which illustrates the difference

Inference from Source A – state what you can infer from the evidence

Comparative connective – eg however, on the other hand

Evidence from Source B – choose a piece of evidence which illustrates the difference

Inference from Source B – state what you can infer from the evidence, and how it is different from Source A

PLUS summarising sentence stating what is different overall

Mark scheme: 6-8

- Perceptive inferences from both texts- Judicious evidence from both texts relevant to the focus of question- Statements show perceptive differences between the texts

Practise round 1:

You need to refer to Source A and Source B for this question.

The ways that Toshiko and the ragamuffin boy lead their lives and treat dogs are different.

Use details from both Sources to write a summary of the different ways they lead their lives and treat dogs (8)

Source A:

In a smart and expensive neighbourhood of Tokyo, Toshiko Horikoshi relaxes by playing her grand piano. She's a successful eye surgeon, with a private clinic, a stylish apartment, a Porsche and two

4

pet pooches: Tinkerbell, a chihuahua, and Ginger, a poodle. "Japanese dog owners think a dog is like a child," says Horikoshi. "I have no children, so I really love my two dogs."

Many Japanese women like Horikoshi prefer pets to parenthood. Startlingly, in a country panicking over its plummeting birthrate, there are now many more pets than children. While the birthrate has been falling dramatically and the average age of Japan's population has been steadily climbing, Japan has become a pet superpower. Official estimates put the pet population at 22 million or more, but there are only 16.6 million children under 15.

Tinkerbell and Ginger have their own room and a wardrobe full of designer clothes. They have jumpers, dresses, coats and fancy dress outfits, neatly hung on jewelled hangers; hats, sunglasses and even tiny shoes. Horikoshi says she shops for her dogs most weekends and they get new clothes each season.

Source B:

Every dirty little ragamuffin boy I am sorry to say, seems to take the greatest pleasure in pelting and persecuting these poor outcast animals. Destitute and poor, he is forced to scrape a living and takes revenge on all poor animals unfortunate enough to cross his path. He is driven to beg, or steal until a lucky windfall provides him with money. He is a dirty, houseless, poor little gutter prowler.

At that point we step in, receive the poor animal into the Home, feed him and take care of him, and restore him to his master if he be sought after, or, if not, exert ourselves to obtain another kind master for him. I may here just make a passing remark, that no distinction is made; every homeless dog, be his race or condition what it may, is received into the Home when brought there.

Source A Source BWhere they live

What they do for a living

How they treat dogs

Why they treat dogs this way

In Source A, Toshiko lives in a wealthy area and has a prestigious job, whereas ragamuffin boy is very poor and must make money by begging. Toshiko lives in a ‘smart and expensive’ part of Tokyo, which implies she earns enough money to live their and is perhaps of a higher social class, as she also relaxes by ‘playing her grand piano.’ This suggests she has an expensive lifestyle, and is happy and comfortable. She seems to pay for this through her job as a ‘successful eye surgeon’ which suggests she has money and status which she has earned. On the other hand, the ragamuffin boy is ‘houseless’ showing he doesn’t even have a basic place to live, let alone a luxurious one. The source also states he must ‘beg’ or ‘steal’ for money, suggesting he is not happy or comfortable – but instead, desperate and miserable, and without a home or a job – the opposite of Toshiko.

5

o Sentence stating a clear difference

o Embedded evidence from Source A

o Inference saying what the evidence suggests

o Comparative connective

o Embedded evidence from Source B

o Inference saying what the evidence suggests

o Consistent comparison

o Overall summarising sentence

Overall, Toshiko is happy and wealthy, and as a result of this and her childlessness, treats her dogs like children, whereas the ragamuffin boy has a sad and difficult life and due to this, treats his dog very badly, abusing it in the way he has been abused.

Now, write the second paragraph about how and why they treat dogs differently.

Practise round 2:


The laws which apply to children working are different in the two time periods.

Use details from both Sources to write a summary of the different laws.

[8 marks]

Source A:

A McDonald’s restaurant has been fined more than £12,000 for employing schoolchildren illegally, forcing them to work overtime and late on school nights.

A franchise1 of the fast-food restaurant in Camberley, Surrey, was found guilty of working teenagers late into the night on school days, often without rest breaks. Child employment officers from Surrey county council found more than 50 breaches of the law.

The firm that runs the franchise, Ikhya Enterprises, was fined £12,400 by magistrates at Woking after being found guilty of 20 offences.

The breaches of regulations involved schoolchildren aged 15 and 16. One 15-year-old had worked 16 hours on a Saturday, seven hours over the legal limit. Another 16-yearold had worked from 5pm until 2am on a school day, when legally she should not have worked after 7pm.

Ian Hart, the council’s child employment officer, said: “This is one of the biggest prosecutions in the illegal employment of schoolchildren and it is refreshing that the court has taken such a tough stance. Employers have to be aware that we will not compromise our statutory duty to protect the children of Surrey and that we will take appropriate action.”

Mr Hart visited two McDonald’s restaurants in Camberley earlier this year after a complaint from a parent and found that none of the young employees had work permits. McDonald’s said in a statement that it only hired workers above school-leaving age.

The owner of the franchise in Camberley, Kevin Izatt, has been told to stop employing children under school leaving age.

Source B:

Questions are asked by a member of the Parliamentary Committee set up to investigate how boys are being mistreated when forced to work as chimney sweeps. The answers are in the boy’s own words.

6

Source A Source BDid laws exist to protect children?

Who is responsible for enforcing the laws?

7

What sort of treatment do the laws result in?

Annotate the mistakes in this answer:

The children in Source A are 15 or 16 but the children who are chimney sweeps are younger. The children in Source A were employed illegally which suggests their employment was illegal. On the other hand, the children in Source B are mistreated. The word ‘beaten’ suggests cruelty making the reader think of the boy being attacked. This suggests he is treated badly.

Redraft this one and add a paragraph of your own.

Practise round 3:


Young prisoners at Huntercombe and at Reading Prison are treated differently.

Use details from both Sources to write a summary of the different ways they are treated.

[8 marks]

Source A

But his second sentence was served at Huntercombe YOI near Oxford, a place that is pinpointed by many radical thinkers on juvenile punishment as having a particularly humane and constructive ethos and regime. It startled Charmion to find that the governor3, Paul Mainwaring, had brought in musical instruments and set up a recording studio because so many inmates4 were keen to make music. Charmion developed his recording skills, took NVQs5, was given a job training other inmates. Before his release, the prison helped him get funding to return on a regular basis and keep training inmates, "so I didn't have that terrible thing that trips so many kids up, even if they want to stay straight7, of having nothing when they get out". He was also funded by the trust to start his own company, Genocis, running arts and multimedia programmes with children who risked following a similarly delinquent trajectory to his own. If this were an isolated case, it would be risky to hold it up as proving anything. But in the course of 18 months spent talking with children - boys and girls - in six YOIs around the country for a book published earlier this year I was startled at how many said prison had given them something they needed and could not get outside: regular meals, a bed to sleep on, people who would listen to them, a chance to take stock of their lives and escape from a chaotic, drugfuelled, out-of-control spiral that would have led them deeper into crime. Often they praised a particular member (or members) of staff for caring about them and giving them valuable support and guidance. Education and skills training they would not, or felt they could not, get outside proved unexpectedly appealing and opened their minds to new directions.

Source B

They were quite small children, the youngest — the one to whom the warder gave the biscuits — being a tiny little chap, for whom they had evidently been unable to find clothes small enough to fit. I had, of course, seen many children in prison during the two years during which I was myself confined.

8

Wandsworth Prison, especially, contained always a large number of children. But the little child I saw on the afternoon of Monday the 17th at Reading, was tinier than any one of them. I need not say how utterly distressed I was to see these children at Reading, for I knew the treatment in store for them. Who wouldn’t be? The cruelty that is practised by day and night on children in English prisons is incredible, except to those who have witnessed it and are aware of the brutality of the system.

Every child is confined to its cell for twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four. This is the appalling thing. To shut up a child in a dimly lit cell for twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four, is an example of the cruelty of stupidity. If an individual, parent or guardian did this to a child he would be severely punished. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children would take the matter up at once. There would be on all hands the utmost detestation of whomsoever had been guilty of such cruelty. A heavy sentence would, undoubtedly, follow conviction. But our own actual society does worse itself.

Of course no child under fourteen years of age should be sent to prison at all. It is an absurdity, and, like many absurdities, of absolutely tragic results. If, however, they are to be sent to prison, during the daytime they should be in a workshop or schoolroom with a warder. At night they should sleep in a dormitory2, with a night-warder to look after them. They should be allowed exercise for at least three hours a day. The dark, badly ventilated, ill-smelling prison cells are dreadful for a child, dreadful indeed for anyone. One is always breathing bad air in prison. The food given to children should consist of tea and bread-and-butter and soup. Prison soup is very good and wholesome.

Source A Source BAre the children treated humanely or cruelly?

Is the focus on rehabilitation or reform?

What activities are the prisoners expected to do?

Practise round 4:

You need to refer to Source A and Source B for this question:

The ways that Milly’s vet and Mr Walker’s servant look after the dogs are different.

Use details from both Sources to write a summary of the different ways that they look after the dogs. [8 marks]

Source A:

Two years ago, when it was time for Milly to become a mother, Becky set about the business of canine love-matching via the internet. This eventually led her to Coventry, the home of a spotty suitor2 named Dexter. Then, when Milly failed to go into labour two days after her due date, the vet decided to perform a caesarean.3

9

'He started lifting the puppies out and eventually got to eight,' says Becky. 'We thought that was it but then he said: “I'll start on the other half now.” We couldn't believe it. It wasn't long before they were running all over the place, tipping over boxes of cotton wool and almost sliding off the table on to the floor.' Back home, the family made space for Milly and the puppies in their conservatory, with Becky sleeping on the sofa beside their basket, unwilling to leave them for even a minute.

Source B:

The late Mr. Thomas Walker, of Manchester, had a small Dalmatian dog, which was accustomed to be in the stable with two of his carriage-horses, and to lie in a stall with one of them, to which he was particularly attached. The servant who took care of the horses was ordered to go to Stockport 3 (which is distant about seven miles), upon one of the horses, and took the one above mentioned (the favourite of the dog), with him, and left the other with the dog in the stable; being apprehensive in case the dog, which was much valued by his master, should be lost upon the road.

Source A Source BHow the dogs are treated differently – like humans or animals?Why the dogs are treated differentlyLevel of care/ attachment to the dogs


The strange things that happen in both Sources are different.

Use details from both Sources to write a summary of the different strange things that happen. [8]

Source A:

Ghostly piano music in the middle of the night was terrifying the occupants of an old house, but ghost hunter Andrew Green soon solved the mystery. His clues were mouse droppings and rodent teeth marks inside the piano. He was convinced that mice gnawing felt pads attached to the piano wires were causing the ‘music’ and, of course, he was proved right when a few traps caught the culprits and their nightly performances ceased.

‘As much as 98% of the hundreds of ghost investigations I’ve carried out have proved to have non-occult1 explanations,’ said Mr Green as we chatted in his old cottage, appropriately next to the churchyard at Mountfield in East Sussex. ‘Once, four reports from motorists claiming to have seen a ghost at a particular spot turned out to be simply a woman’s dress left out on a clothes line.’

It’s that inexplicable two per cent that intrigues him. Like poltergeist2 activity. The frighteningly violent effects of this type of haunting have been experienced by several people, particularly families with adolescent children.

The ghost-hunter claims that on one startling occasion, he actually watched a bowl of oranges rise unaided off a sideboard, as if a clever magician had made his assistant float into the air. The bowl

10

then shattered into pieces as it plummeted to the ground and oranges bounced all round the room. In another investigation, he and the family involved saw a heavy clock mysteriously transport from one end of the mantelpiece to the other and back again. But he is convinced that such occurrences have nothing to do with the spirits of the dead. He believes they are caused by a type of energy we don’t yet understand which is generated by tense human emotions.

The typical poltergeist situation, he says, is a family who have recently moved house. The husband and wife are probably worried about having to change jobs and shortage of money because of the expense of moving. The young children are nervously trying to settle into new schools. It all adds up to a tense, emotional atmosphere – and such peculiar effects as he witnessed himself.

Not that Mr Green disbelieves in ghosts or that some people see them. It’s simply that they are electro-magnetism, he says, electrical impulses given off by people at times of stress. Somehow this electrical energy remains in the area and from time to time manifests itself in the form of an image.

Seeming to support his belief that ghosts are not spirits of the dead are his experiences with ‘living’ ones.

‘I’ve investigated a number of cases where people have seen ghost-like figures of individuals who were very much alive at the time, though elsewhere,’ he says. ‘Some people running an old bakery reported seeing a ghostly shape by the ovens on a number of occasions. Significantly, these sightings had only started after an old man who had worked in the bakery for many years had retired. When he died some months later, they ceased. I believe that after his retirement the old man had sat around with his former workplace constantly in his thoughts, and so strong was his yearning to be back that in some strange way his image was projected there. When he died, the cause of his ‘haunting’ no longer existed and it stopped.’

He has even been called out to investigate ghostly smells, like the posh London dental surgery where staff and patients often smelled bacon and eggs. There were no kitchens near enough to explain it, but again there was an explanation - the surgery had once been, Green discovered, the kitchen of a big house.

Source B

I now offer a trustworthy account, which has come to my own knowledge, of an appearance to someone present at the time of death.

Many years ago, Mrs D------, a person in humble life, but of tried and proved truthfulness, and rather matter of fact, said to me in a conversation about ghosts and ghost-seeing, ‘I never saw a ghost, but I have seen a spirit rise.’

‘If you tell me what you saw,’ I said, ‘I will write it as you speak, and will beg you to sign your name.’

This she did, and the present account is copied from her own words as I wrote them, and she put her signature:-

‘When I was sixteen years old, I was nursing a child of seven who had been ill since his birth with disease of the head. He had been for some days expected to die, but was quite sensible. About noon I left him in a little back parlour on the ground floor. His mother and a friend were with him. I was returning from the kitchen to the child, and had just reached the top of the staircase, when I saw, coming from the door of the room, the form of a little child. It did not step on the ground, but immediately went up over the staircase and disappeared from me. The bed on which the sick child had been lying was close to the door of the room, and that door was not more than about a foot

11

from the top of the staircase which I came up. As I entered the room, his mother said, ‘He is just gone.’ The figure that I saw was a little child, fair and fresh-looking, and perfectly healthy. It looked fatter and younger than the little sick boy, and had a very animated, happy expression. It was like a living child, only so light.’

Compare the above account of a vision by a girl of sixteen with the following narration of an imperfect vision of the same kind, which occurred, later in life, to the same person.

‘More than twenty years after that, I was sitting up with the mother of a child who had been ill three or four days with fits. It was no more than two years old. The mother had one arm under the child’s head. I was on the other side of the bed, lying by the side of the baby, and the fire was burning brightly on the same side of the room as that on which the mother sat. Suddenly I saw the fire darkened by something that seemed to flutter or move backwards and forwards before it. I noticed this to the mother, who was between the bed and the fire; but she did not see it, and declared that the fire was bright. The fits left the child about six o’clock, and it lay perfectly still till it had ceased to breathe about half-past ten. I saw the darkening of the fire for an hour before the child died, and the instant it expired the fire was distinctly visible.’

The seer of the above was an uneducated woman who could not account for the variation in her two visions, and who had certainly never heard of the different degrees of opening of the spirit sight. To me, therefore, the account of the second vision confirmed the truth of the first. Had she invented both stories, she would most likely have made the second instance appear the most striking and wonderful. But she was not given to invention. I have known this woman for many years and her character for truthfulness is quite above suspicion.

Source A Source BNumber of strange events

Explanation for strange events

Age of ghost/ type of strange event

Question 3: Language analysis (12 marks)

Examiner’s tips:

This question is testing your ability to write about the effects of language – why a writer made the choices they did

Be specific about effects of language You gain the most marks from writing about what language suggests and makes us feel You DO NOT gain the most marks from technique spotting – avoid this! Only mention techniques if they are there and you can comment on them You are aiming for three paragraphs here You can also analyse sentence forms eg short sentence, one-word sentence, long sentences,

listing

Avoid:

Technique spotting

12

Writing vague statements eg ‘makes the reader scared’ ‘makes the reader want to read on’ Writing about the wrong part of the text or source – it will usually specify! Using long, unembedded quotations

Mark scheme:

Analyses the effects of language Judicious use of evidence Sophisticated and accurate use of subject terminology

Structure:

Point – The writer uses language (/ metaphors/ adjectives/ similes etc) to describe…. as ….

Evidence – For example, they describe the sea as… ‘….’

Effect – This suggests/ has the effect of…

Zoom – The word ‘…’ implies/ has connotations of…

Why – The writer uses this word/ technique to make the reader think/ feel/ create the impression that…

You can comment on:

Powerful words/ phrases Metaphors Similes Sentence structures eg long, short, simple, listing A collection of nouns, adjectives or verbs Sound effects eg sibilance, alliteration

Practise round 1:

You now need to refer only to Source B from lines 1 to 12.

How does the writer use language to describe child prisoners? (12)

Sir, I learn with great regret, through the columns of your paper, that the warder1 Martin, of Reading Prison, has been dismissed by the Prison Commissioners for having given some sweet biscuits to a little hungry child. I saw the three children myself on Monday preceding my release. They had just been convicted and were standing in a row like frightened mice in the central hall in their pitiful prison dress, carrying their well worn sheets under their arms, previous to their being sent to the cells allotted to them.

They were quite small children, the youngest — the one to whom the warder gave the biscuits — being a tiny little chap, for whom they had evidently been unable to find clothes small enough to fit. I had, of course, seen many children in prison during the two years during which I was myself confined. Wandsworth Prison, especially, contained always a large number of children. But the little child I saw on the afternoon of Monday the 17th at Reading, was tinier than any one of them.

How does the writer describe the prisoners?

Evidence? Why do they do this?

Vulnerable

13

Neglected

Small

Weak and hungry

The writer uses a simile to convey how vulnerable and scared the children are. They are described as ‘like frightened mice’ which suggests they are terrified of being in this alien, adult environment and are in danger of being harmed. This is because mice are small, vulnerable creatures, who are hunted by predators and due to their size and lack of defence, are often caught and killed or eaten. This gives the impression that the children could be hurt and don’t have a way to defend themselves in this frightening environment, as well as suggesting that they, like mice, are at the bottom of the food chain in the prison. The writer could be doing this to create sympathy for the children, to persuade the readers that their poor treatment in prison is wrong.

Practice round 2:

You now need to refer only to Source A from lines 3 to 9.

How does the writer use language to show the behaviour of the puppies? [12 marks]

This rural scene is like something out of a painting, but suddenly it erupts into chaos. Around the corner of a barn appear 16 frisky Dalmatian puppies, tumbling and scampering in every direction as they are pursued by their owner, 21-year-old Becky Elvins.

As quickly as she can scoop them up and place them in their large wicker basket, they spill out again, darting between her legs, nipping at her wellingtons and endlessly disappearing and reappearing in a polka-dot whirl. I feel exhausted just watching the bedtime bedlam1 which has been part of Becky's routine for the past seven weeks.

How does the writer describe the puppies?


Mischievous

Energetic

14

o Clear point stating how the children are described

o Short embedded quotation

o Sentence explaining the effects

o Zooming in on a specific word and what it implies

o Stating WHY the author chooses these technqiues

Excitable

Practise round 3:

How does the writer use language to convey the suffering of stray dogs? (12)

Now, I would ask, what more dreadful cruelty and inhumanity could men be guilty of than allowing hundreds of animals so utterly and entirely dependent upon us for food as the dog is, to die of lingering starvation in the streets?

In the case of the poor dog there is no dishonesty, no pretence, theirs is real suffering; and I confess I cannot understand how any person can witness the dejected, pleading look of a starving dog without being deeply affected by it. All around life is bustle and activity, whilst these poor abandoned animals, every one possessing a heart ready to expand with such love and gratitude to a benefactor1 as few are capable of feeling, are lost and starving, are battered and persecuted and left to die a most painful and lingering death. The object of this Home for Lost and Starving Dogs is to afford a remedy for this great and too abounding misery.

Every dirty little ragamuffin2 boy I am sorry to say, seems to take the greatest pleasure in pelting3 and persecuting these poor outcast animals. Destitute4 and poor, he is forced to scrape a living and takes revenge on all poor animals unfortunate enough to cross his path. He is driven to beg, or steal until a lucky windfall provides him with money. He is a dirty, houseless, poor little gutter prowler5.

How does the writer describe the suffering of the dogs?


Shows the dogs are starving

Makes their suffering seem urgent

Appeals to those who could help

Practice round 4:

How does the writer use language to describe the watercress girl? (12)

15

The little watercress girl who gave me the following statement, although only eight years of age, had entirely lost all childish ways, and was, indeed, in thoughts and manner, a woman. There was something cruelly pathetic in hearing this infant, so young that her features had scarcely formed themselves, talking of the bitterest struggles of life. I did not know how to talk with her. At first I treated her as a child, speaking on childish subjects; so that I might, by being familiar with her, remove all shyness, and get her to narrate her life freely. I asked her about her toys and her games with her companions; but the look of amazement that answered me soon put an end to any attempt at fun on my part. I then talked to her about the parks, and whether she ever went to them. "The parks!" she replied in wonder, "where are they?" I explained to her, telling her that they were large open places with green grass and tall trees, where beautiful carriages drove about, and people walked for pleasure, and children played. Her eyes brightened up a little as I spoke; and she asked, half doubtingly, "Would they let such as me go there-just to look?" Her little face, pale and thin with privation, was wrinkled where the dimples ought to have been, and she would sigh frequently.

The poor child, although the weather was severe, was dressed in a thin cotton gown, with a threadbare2 shawl3 wrapped round her shoulders. She wore no covering to her head, and the long rusty hair stood out in all directions. When she walked she shuffled along, for fear that the large carpet slippers that served her for shoes should slip off her feet.

How does the writer describe the girl?


As though she has missed her childhood

In poverty

Cold and weak

Question 4: Compare how the writers convey their feelings towards/ viewpoints/ perspectives on/ attitudes to…

Examiner’s tips:

You must comment on both the writer’s attitudes and the methods they use to convey these You can look at similarities and differences – different to question 2! Don’t forget to analyse the effects of the methods, as well as just spotting them Include embedded evidence/ textual references from each text Look at how writers may have similar methods/ attitudes – but used/ conveyed differently,

comparing ‘like with like’ ALWAYS refer to the writer’s views/ feelings/ attitudes/ perspectives

Don’t:

Forget to link consistently link to an attitude or perspective Forget to write about methods

16

Forget to compare Forget to analyse/ mention effects Run out of time!

What do we mean by viewpoint/ attitude?

• How the writer feels/thinks about…

• What the writer focuses on/draws our attention to.

• What is the writer trying to make us feel about…

• What is the writer’s tone? How do they come across?

• Do they have a particular bias towards anything?

• What are their opinions?

What methods can I write about?

Tone Perspective – first person, third person? Form of text – letter, diary, article Structure – cyclical or progressive? Beginnings and endings Changes in focus – zooming in/ out Language eg descriptive language, emotive language Imagery eg metaphors, similes Sound eg alliteration, plosive sounds, sibilance Persuasive techniques eg rhetorical question, direct address, rule of three Use of expert opinions and statistics Use of interviews Sentence structures eg long, complex, simple, short, listing Titles

Mark scheme:

Compares ideas and perspectives in a perceptive way Analyses how writers’ methods are used Selects a range of judicious supporting detail from both texts Shows a detailed understanding of the different ideas and perspectives in both texts

Structure:

State the difference in attitudes – Both writers feel/ think…, but… OR The writer of Source A feels…, whereas the writer of Source B feels…

Method and evidence from Source A – The writer of source A uses…, for example…. ‘…’

Analysis of the effects – This makes the reader think/ feel/ suggests…

Comparative connective – On the other hand,…

Method and evidence from Source B – The writer of source B uses…., for example,… ‘ …’

17

Analysis of the effects, focusing on what is different to Source A – This suggests… which differs to source A

Restate the difference in attitudes – Therefore, overall,…

Practise round 1:

The Sources that follow are:

Source A: 21st Century non-fiction

Living Dolls by Elizabeth Day

A newspaper article in The Observer published in 2010.

Source B: 19th Century literary non-fiction

London Labour and London Poor by Henry Mayhew

An article in which a child watercress seller is interviewed by Henry Mayhew.

Source A:

They parade in miniature ballgowns, wear false eyelashes and can be as young as five… We venture into the world of mini beauty pageants to meet the young princesses and their pushy parents.

Amber is seven years old and loves Miley Cyrus. She sleeps with a poster of the actress above her bed and stores all her most treasured possessions in a glittery purple box emblazoned with the image of Hannah Montana. She also likes watching music videos on YouTube and making up dances to accompany the songs of JLS, her favourite boy-band. But, most of all, Amber likes to collect stones. "This is my red collection," she says, unzipping her pink rucksack and carefully lifting out a series of rust- coloured stones. She lays them in a line on the carpet and looks at them proudly.

To all intents and purposes, Amber is a confident little girl with an array of enthusiasms and interests. But it is hard not to notice as she talks that her eyelids are powdered with gold eyeshadow. Her hair has been styled with two sparkly hairclips and she is wearing a pale pink dress studded with fabric flowers. Later, she will show me a certificate she was given for taking part in the Mini Miss UK competition earlier this year. Because as well as being a normal seven year-old, Amber is also an aspiring child beauty queen.

Did she enjoy entering the beauty pageant? Amber thinks for a second and then nods her head. Will she be entering any more? "Yes." She pauses, a touch uncertainly. "If Mummy told me to."

Five years ago, there were no mini beauty pageants in Britain. Today, more than 20 are held each year with thousands of girls (and sometimes even boys) taking part. Many of the contestants are as young as five. A typical beauty pageant will consist of several rounds, often including an "evening wear" section and a talent round, in which contestants will display a particular gift, such as singing, dancing or baton-twirling. For a successful child beauty queen the rewards can be lucrative – the winner of Junior Miss British Isles can expect to pocket £2,500 – but it takes a lot of work. Sasha Bennington, 13, one of the most successful child beauty queens on the UK circuit, undergoes a gruelling beauty routine to keep up appearances and insists on a spray tan every week, a new set of acrylic nails2 each month and regular bleaching of her white blonde hair.

To their critics, such beauty pageants are exploitative, pressurising children to adopt adult mannerisms that they do not fully understand and enforcing the message that physical appearance

18

is all-important. Yet many in the pageant industry insist it is a harmless pastime that instils young girls with confidence and self-esteem.

Glossary:

beauty pageants1 – a type of competition where contestants parade on a stage in front of an audience.

acrylic nails2 – false, stick-on nails made of plastic.

Questions:

1. How does the writer feel about beauty pageants? 2. How does the writer feel about experiences of childhood for contestants?3. How do you know? Give two pieces of evidence.4. What method does she use to convey the experience of Amber?5. How does the title help to convey her attitude?

Source B:

The little watercress girl who gave me the following statement, although only eight years of age, had entirely lost all childish ways, and was, indeed, in thoughts and manner, a woman. There was something cruelly pathetic in hearing this infant, so young that her features had scarcely formed themselves, talking of the bitterest struggles of life. I did not know how to talk with her. At first I treated her as a child, speaking on childish subjects; so that I might, by being familiar with her, remove all shyness, and get her to narrate her life freely. I asked her about her toys and her games with her companions; but the look of amazement that answered me soon put an end to any attempt at fun on my part. I then talked to her about the parks, and whether she ever went to them. "The parks!" she replied in wonder, "where are they?" I explained to her, telling her that they were large open places with green grass and tall trees, where beautiful carriages drove about, and people walked for pleasure, and children played. Her eyes brightened up a little as I spoke; and she asked, half doubtingly, "Would they let such as me go there-just to look?" Her little face, pale and thin with privation1, was wrinkled where the dimples ought to have been, and she would sigh frequently.

The poor child, although the weather was severe, was dressed in a thin cotton gown, with a threadbare2 shawl3 wrapped round her shoulders. She wore no covering to her head, and the long rusty hair stood out in all directions. When she walked she shuffled along, for fear that the large carpet slippers that served her for shoes should slip off her feet.

"I go about the streets with water-cress, crying, 'Four bunches a penny, water-cress.' I am just eight years old--that's all, and I've a big sister, and a brother and a sister younger than I am. On and off, I've been very near a twelvemonth in the streets. Before that, I had to take care of a baby for my aunt. No, it wasn't heavy--it was only two months old; but I minded it for ever such a time--till it could walk. It was a very nice little baby, not a very pretty one; but, if I touched it under the chin, it would laugh. My mother learned me to needle-work and to knit when I was about five. I used to go to school, too; but I wasn't there long. I've forgot all about it now, it's such a time ago; and mother took me away because the master whacked me. I didn't like him at all. What do you think? he hit me three times, ever so hard, across the face with his cane; and when mother saw the marks on my cheek, she went to confront him, but she couldn't see him--he was afraid. That's why I left school.

Glossary:

19

privation1 – not enough food or water to nourish her. threadbare2 – clothing that is old and worn out. shawl3 – an item of clothing that is worn over the shoulders.

1. According to this author, what has caused this bad experience of childhood?2. Is the child able to enjoy childhood at all?3. Who is responsible for this?

For this question, you need to refer to the whole of Source A, together with the whole of Source B.

Compare how the writers convey their different attitudes on experiences of childhood (16 marks)

Paragraph 1 Paragraph 2 Paragraph 3

Difference/ similarity in attitudes

Both writers feel disapproval that the children have not been able to fully enjoy their childhoods, but for different reasons.

Both writers feel children should be able to enjoy themselves and have fun, with the writer of Source A showing children can still do that, but the writer of Source B showing not all children can.

The writer of Source A feels privileged children with pushy parents can have a negative experience of childhood, whereas the writer of Source B focuses on devastating impact of having no parental care on childhood.

Method and evidence in Source A

Method and evidence in Source B

Example paragraph:

Both writers feel disapproval that the children have not been able to fully enjoy their childhoods, but for different reasons. The writer of source A argues beauty pageants are the cause of this, and disapproves of these – an attitude conveyed through the

20

o Sentence stating the difference in attitudes

o Method and embedded evidence from source A

o Analysis of the effect, linking to attitudes

o Comparative language o Method and evidence

title ‘Living Dolls.’ As dolls as inanimate objects whose only purpose is looking pretty, this suggests the writer thinks the children taking part in pageants are treated like dolls – ornamental, and dressed up, rather than being allowed to play and enjoy childhood. She also says they must adopt ‘adult mannerisms’ suggesting they are encouraged to behave in a sexualised way, again taking away their childhood. The author of Source B agrees the child he describes has not experiences childhood, but due to poverty instead. The title of ‘London Labour and London Poor’ suggests the importance of poverty in affecting childhood, and he also describes her as talking of the ‘bitterest struggles of life.’ The word ‘bitterest’ suggests just how difficult and terrible the watercress girl’s childhood has been, and how tragic her story is – whereas the author of Source A focuses on Amber, who has a relatively comfortable life. Overall, this shows the authors both agree childhood can be taken away, but disagree about what causes this.

Practise round 2:


Compare how the writers convey their different perspectives on the treatment of dogs.

In your answer, you could:

compare their different perspectives compare the methods they use to convey their perspectives support your ideas with references to both texts.

Source A:


Why Japan prefers pets to parenthood

An online article from The Guardian newspaper from 2012.


An Appeal for the Home for Lost and Starving Dogs

A published essay from 1834.

Source A:

In a smart and expensive neighbourhood of Tokyo, Toshiko Horikoshi relaxes by playing her grand piano. She's a successful eye surgeon, with a private clinic, a stylish apartment, a Porsche1 and two pet pooches: Tinkerbell, a chihuahua2, and Ginger, a poodle. "Japanese dog owners think a dog is like a child," says Horikoshi. "I have no children, so I really love my two dogs."

Many Japanese women like Horikoshi prefer pets to parenthood. Startlingly, in a country panicking over its plummeting birthrate, there are now many more pets than children. While the birthrate has been falling dramatically and the average age of Japan's population has been steadily climbing, Japan has become a pet superpower. Official estimates put the pet population at 22 million or more, but there are only 16.6 million children under 15.

Tinkerbell and Ginger have their own room and a wardrobe full of designer clothes. They have jumpers, dresses, coats and fancy dress outfits, neatly hung on jewelled hangers; hats, sunglasses and even tiny shoes. Horikoshi says she shops for her dogs most weekends and they get new clothes each season.

21

o Sentence stating the difference in attitudes

o Method and embedded evidence from source A

o Analysis of the effect, linking to attitudes

o Comparative language o Method and evidence

In Japan designer labels such as Chanel, Dior, Hermès and Gucci offer luxury dog products. This canine couture3 doesn't come cheap. A poodle pullover can cost £160 or more. In many parts of Tokyo, it is easier to buy clothes for dogs than for children. Boutiques sell everything from frilly frocks to designer jeans, from nappies to organic nibbles, and smart "doggie bags" and buggies or pushchairs to transport them in.

Japan has arguably the world's most pampered pooches4. Tiny lapdogs such as miniature dachshunds5, poodles and chihuahuas are particularly popular because most people in Tokyo – one of the most densely populated cities in the world – live in small apartments. And there's a growing market in services and treats for pets.

The pet industry is estimated to be worth more than £8.2bn a year and has expanded into gourmet dog food stores, hot spring resorts, yoga classes and restaurants where dogs sit on chairs to eat organic meals.

In his one-room flat in a Tokyo suburb, Jiro Akiba feeds treats to his dog Kotaro, a miniature dachshund, weighing only 3.4kg. His name means "first-born son". "He's like a first baby for us, so that's why we decided to call him Kotaro," says Akiba. "It's good to have a dog if you don't have a baby, because it is quite fun to take care of him like a baby."

One young man we spoke to had dressed his dog up in a white hoodie and jeans, shoes and sunglasses because, he said, he wanted his dog to look "cute, cool and tough". His proud owner said he hoped his dog's look might attract young women, but so far he hadn't met anyone to share his life with.

Economic stagnation has hit young men particularly hard. More than 10 million people aged between 20 and 34 still live with their parents. They can't afford to get married and start a family, but for the odd luxury or treats for their dogs, they can – and do – splash out.

Smart buggies and designer doggie bags are essential for any self-respecting dog like Kotaro. "My dog really hates to go out with his feet," says Akiba. "Kotaro doesn't like walking at all."

For dogs in urgent need of exercise after a lifetime being pushed or carried around, there are spas and hot springs, which look identical to the ones for humans. For £65 a session, an attendant in a wetsuit will give Kotaro one-to-one swimming lessons, relaxing bubble baths, body massages using aromatherapy oils, deep-pore cleansing and mud packs, and even flossing or manicure services. Many dogs are "regulars" who come at least once a week – running up annual bills of £3,200 or more.

In Tokyo, it is easier for Horikoshi to find a canine daycare centre for Tinkerbell and Ginger than it would be to find a nursery place for a child. If Akiba and his partner decide to go on holiday, they can pay £70 a night to leave Kotaro in a dog hotel.

Glossary:

Porsche1 – a very expensive, sporty car

chihuahua2 – a very small breed of dog

Canine couture3 – expensive clothes and fashion items for dogs

pooches4 – informal term for dogs

dachshund5 – a small dog with a long back and short legs

22

Source B:

A storm of indignation and ridicule has been aroused due to the opening of the “Home for Lost and Starving Dogs.” Really it would seem that by some people any help given to suffering dogs is considered a crime, and they think it is perfectly acceptable to allow the poor animals to die of persecution and starvation in the streets.

The “Home for Lost and Starving Dogs” owes its origin to a lady by the name of Tealby. She had for some time been in the habit of collecting the poor animals which she found in the streets, in a starving state, in her own neighbourhood, and paying a person so much a week for each until they were recovered, and new homes could be obtained for them.

Surely no one will venture to deny that the dog deserves this care at our hands? For of all animals, the dog, I think, may without doubt be the most domestic, the most intelligent, and the most exclusively devoted to man. He is entirely dependent upon us, and gives up his whole life, with all its energies and all its instincts, to our service. His master possesses his whole heart. He attaches himself with the most unselfish love to him and to his family: be the master a king or a beggar, happy or miserable, kind or cruel.

Now, I would ask, what more dreadful cruelty and inhumanity could men be guilty of than allowing hundreds of animals so utterly and entirely dependent upon us for food as the dog is, to die of lingering starvation in the streets?

In the case of the poor dog there is no dishonesty, no pretence, theirs is real suffering; and I confess I cannot understand how any person can witness the dejected, pleading look of a starving dog without being deeply affected by it. All around life is bustle and activity, whilst these poor abandoned animals, every one possessing a heart ready to expand with such love and gratitude to a benefactor1 as few are capable of feeling, are lost and starving, are battered and persecuted and left to die a most painful and lingering death. The object of this Home for Lost and Starving Dogs is to afford a remedy for this great and too abounding misery.

Every dirty little ragamuffin2 boy I am sorry to say, seems to take the greatest pleasure in pelting3 and persecuting these poor outcast animals. Destitute4 and poor, he is forced to scrape a living and takes revenge on all poor animals unfortunate enough to cross his path. He is driven to beg, or steal until a lucky windfall provides him with money. He is a dirty, houseless, poor little gutter prowler5.

At that point we step in, receive the poor animal into the Home, feed him and take care of him, and restore him to his master if he be sought after, or, if not, exert ourselves to obtain another kind master for him. I may here just make a passing remark, that no distinction is made; every homeless dog, be his race or condition what it may, is received into the Home when brought there.



Are dogs treated well, or badly?

Do the writers approve or disapprove of the treatment of dogs?

What are their different perspectives on WHY dogs are treated in these ways?

23



Practise round 3:


Compare how the writers convey their different views on the strange things that happen.


compare their different views on the strange things that happen compare the methods the writers use to convey their different views support your response with references to both texts.

Source A: 20th Century non-fiction

Ghostbuster shatters the myth about Phantoms by Jack Pleasant

A newspaper article published in the 1980s. . Source B: 19th Century literary non-fictio

From Matter to Spirit

An extract from a book by Sophia Elizabeth de Morgan, published in 1863.

Source A:

Ghostbuster shatters the myth about phantoms

Ghostly piano music in the middle of the night was terrifying the occupants of an old house, but ghost hunter Andrew Green soon solved the mystery. His clues were mouse droppings and rodent teeth marks inside the piano. He was convinced that mice gnawing felt pads attached to the piano wires were causing the ‘music’ and, of course, he was proved right when a few traps caught the culprits and their nightly performances ceased.

24

‘As much as 98% of the hundreds of ghost investigations I’ve carried out have proved to have non-occult1 explanations,’ said Mr Green as we chatted in his old cottage, appropriately next to the churchyard at Mountfield in East Sussex. ‘Once, four reports from motorists claiming to have seen a ghost at a particular spot turned out to be simply a woman’s dress left out on a clothes line.’

It’s that inexplicable two per cent that intrigues him. Like poltergeist2 activity. The frighteningly violent effects of this type of haunting have been experienced by several people, particularly families with adolescent children.

The ghost-hunter claims that on one startling occasion, he actually watched a bowl of oranges rise unaided off a sideboard, as if a clever magician had made his assistant float into the air. The bowl then shattered into pieces as it plummeted to the ground and oranges bounced all round the room. In another investigation, he and the family involved saw a heavy clock mysteriously transport from one end of the mantelpiece to the other and back again. But he is convinced that such occurrences have nothing to do with the spirits of the dead. He believes they are caused by a type of energy we don’t yet understand which is generated by tense human emotions.

The typical poltergeist situation, he says, is a family who have recently moved house. The husband and wife are probably worried about having to change jobs and shortage of money because of the expense of moving. The young children are nervously trying to settle into new schools. It all adds up to a tense, emotional atmosphere – and such peculiar effects as he witnessed himself.

Not that Mr Green disbelieves in ghosts or that some people see them. It’s simply that they are electro-magnetism, he says, electrical impulses given off by people at times of stress. Somehow this electrical energy remains in the area and from time to time manifests itself in the form of an image.

Seeming to support his belief that ghosts are not spirits of the dead are his experiences with ‘living’ ones.

‘I’ve investigated a number of cases where people have seen ghost-like figures of individuals who were very much alive at the time, though elsewhere,’ he says. ‘Some people running an old bakery reported seeing a ghostly shape by the ovens on a number of occasions. Significantly, these sightings had only started after an old man who had worked in the bakery for many years had retired. When he died some months later, they ceased. I believe that after his retirement the old man had sat around with his former workplace constantly in his thoughts, and so strong was his yearning to be back that in some strange way his image was projected there. When he died, the cause of his ‘haunting’ no longer existed and it stopped.’

He has even been called out to investigate ghostly smells, like the posh London dental surgery where staff and patients often smelled bacon and eggs. There were no kitchens near enough to explain it, but again there was an explanation - the surgery had once been, Green discovered, the kitchen of a big house.

‘It seems possible,’ he says, ‘that the hundreds of rashers of bacon and eggs cooked there years before had impregnated their smell in the chimney.’

As well as the sophisticated equipment he uses for ghost-hunting, such as tape-recorders, infra-red cameras and thermometers, he usually takes along a ruler and a bag of flour.

‘The flour is to detect human footprints if I think a hoax is being carried out,’ he says.

Glossary:

25

occult1 – supernatural, not scientific poltergeist2 – a type of ghost that causes objects to move

Source B:

I now offer a trustworthy account, which has come to my own knowledge, of an appearance to someone present at the time of death.

Many years ago, Mrs D------, a person in humble life, but of tried and proved truthfulness, and rather matter of fact, said to me in a conversation about ghosts and ghost-seeing, ‘I never saw a ghost, but I have seen a spirit rise.’

‘If you tell me what you saw,’ I said, ‘I will write it as you speak, and will beg you to sign your name.’

This she did, and the present account is copied from her own words as I wrote them, and she put her signature:-

‘When I was sixteen years old, I was nursing a child of seven who had been ill since his birth with disease of the head. He had been for some days expected to die, but was quite sensible. About noon I left him in a little back parlour on the ground floor. His mother and a friend were with him. I was returning from the kitchen to the child, and had just reached the top of the staircase, when I saw, coming from the door of the room, the form of a little child. It did not step on the ground, but immediately went up over the staircase and disappeared from me. The bed on which the sick child had been lying was close to the door of the room, and that door was not more than about a foot from the top of the staircase which I came up. As I entered the room, his mother said, ‘He is just gone.’ The figure that I saw was a little child, fair and fresh-looking, and perfectly healthy. It looked fatter and younger than the little sick boy, and had a very animated, happy expression. It was like a living child, only so light.’

Compare the above account of a vision by a girl of sixteen with the following narration of an imperfect vision of the same kind, which occurred, later in life, to the same person.

‘More than twenty years after that, I was sitting up with the mother of a child who had been ill three or four days with fits. It was no more than two years old. The mother had one arm under the child’s head. I was on the other side of the bed, lying by the side of the baby, and the fire was burning brightly on the same side of the room as that on which the mother sat. Suddenly I saw the fire darkened by something that seemed to flutter or move backwards and forwards before it. I noticed this to the mother, who was between the bed and the fire; but she did not see it, and declared that the fire was bright. The fits left the child about six o’clock, and it lay perfectly still till it had ceased to breathe about half-past ten. I saw the darkening of the fire for an hour before the child died, and the instant it expired the fire was distinctly visible.’

The seer of the above was an uneducated woman who could not account for the variation in her two visions, and who had certainly never heard of the different degrees of opening of the spirit sight. To me, therefore, the account of the second vision confirmed the truth of the first. Had she invented both stories, she would most likely have made the second instance appear the most striking and wonderful. But she was not given to invention. I have known this woman for many years and her character for truthfulness is quite above suspicion.


26


Do both writers believe in the supernatural?

How do the writers feel about the supernatural – which is amused, and which is serious and scared?

How certain are both that their opinions are ‘true’?



Practise round 4:


Compare how the writers convey their different views of children being imprisoned.


compare their different views compare the methods the writers use to convey their different views support your response with references to both texts

The two Sources that follow are:


Prison can be the right place for kids by Angela Neuslatter

An online article in The New Statesman magazine published in 2002.


A letter written in 1897 from the writer, Oscar Wilde to the Editor of The Daily Chronicle newspaper after he had been released from prison

27

Source A:

Prison can be the right place for kids

Charmion Togba was not the kind of kid you'd have wanted on your patch1. He says it himself. At the age of 16, he was manufacturing drugs and selling guns. But that's all changed. Today he works with children at risk, and this summer he is running rehabilitation courses funded by the Arts Council and Youth Justice Board. Reflecting on the change, he gives a big smile: "It was prison that turned me around. I was angry, directionless and saw only a future in crime. The place I was sent treated me with decency and helped me see I could make different choices. It gave me the opportunity to develop in a way I wanted." It's not what you expect to hear from someone locked up at Her Majesty's Pleasure2 while still just a child - Charmion was 17 at the time and this was his second sentence. His first sentence, at the age of 16, served at Feltham Young Offender Institution (YOI), had done nothing to improve his frame of mind: "You learnt survival of the fittest, to shut up and shut down . . . I came out more not less ready to commit crimes." But his second sentence was served at Huntercombe YOI near Oxford, a place that is pinpointed by many radical thinkers on juvenile punishment as having a particularly humane and constructive ethos and regime. It startled Charmion to find that the governor3, Paul Mainwaring, had brought in musical instruments and set up a recording studio because so many inmates4 were keen to make music. Charmion developed his recording skills, took NVQs5, was given a job training other inmates. Before his release, the prison helped him get funding to return on a regular basis and keep training inmates, "so I didn't have that terrible thing that trips so many kids up, even if they want to stay straight7, of having nothing when they get out". He was also funded by the trust to start his own company, Genocis, running arts and multimedia programmes with children who risked following a similarly delinquent trajectory to his own. If this were an isolated case, it would be risky to hold it up as proving anything. But in the course of 18 months spent talking with children - boys and girls - in six YOIs around the country for a book published earlier this year I was startled at how many said prison had given them something they needed and could not get outside: regular meals, a bed to sleep on, people who would listen to them, a chance to take stock of their lives and escape from a chaotic, drugfuelled, out-of-control spiral that would have led them deeper into crime. Often they praised a particular member (or members) of staff for caring about them and giving them valuable support and guidance. Education and skills training they would not, or felt they could not, get outside proved unexpectedly appealing and opened their minds to new directions.

glossary:

patch1 - an area you live in or are responsible for

at Her Majesty’s Pleasure2 - held in a British prison

governor3 - head of a public institution e.g. a prison or YOI

inmates4 - someone held in a prison or YOI

NVQs5 - a qualification in a vocational subject at a level equivalent to GCSEs or A-Levels

Prince’s Trust6 - a charity that helps young people with training programmes, mentoring and support

stay straight7 - avoid committing further crimes and getting in trouble with the authorities

Source B:

To The Editor, The Daily Chronicle, Friday 28th May 1897.

28

Sir, I learn with great regret, through the columns of your paper, that the warder1 Martin, of Reading Prison, has been dismissed by the Prison Commissioners for having given some sweet biscuits to a little hungry child. I saw the three children myself on Monday preceding my release. They had just been convicted and were standing in a row like frightened mice in the central hall in their pitiful prison dress, carrying their well worn sheets under their arms, previous to their being sent to the cells allotted to them.

They were quite small children, the youngest — the one to whom the warder gave the biscuits — being a tiny little chap, for whom they had evidently been unable to find clothes small enough to fit. I had, of course, seen many children in prison during the two years during which I was myself confined. Wandsworth Prison, especially, contained always a large number of children. But the little child I saw on the afternoon of Monday the 17th at Reading, was tinier than any one of them. I need not say how utterly distressed I was to see these children at Reading, for I knew the treatment in store for them. Who wouldn’t be? The cruelty that is practised by day and night on children in English prisons is incredible, except to those who have witnessed it and are aware of the brutality of the system.

Every child is confined to its cell for twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four. This is the appalling thing. To shut up a child in a dimly lit cell for twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four, is an example of the cruelty of stupidity. If an individual, parent or guardian did this to a child he would be severely punished. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children would take the matter up at once. There would be on all hands the utmost detestation of whomsoever had been guilty of such cruelty. A heavy sentence would, undoubtedly, follow conviction. But our own actual society does worse itself.

Inhuman treatment by Society is to the child the more terrible because there is no appeal. A parent or guardian can be moved, and let out a child from the dark lonely room in which it is confined. But a warder cannot. Most warders are very fond of children. But the system prohibits them from rendering the child any assistance. Should they do so, as Warder Martin did, they are dismissed.

Of course no child under fourteen years of age should be sent to prison at all. It is an absurdity, and, like many absurdities, of absolutely tragic results. If, however, they are to be sent to prison, during the daytime they should be in a workshop or schoolroom with a warder. At night they should sleep in a dormitory2, with a night-warder to look after them. They should be allowed exercise for at least three hours a day. The dark, badly ventilated, ill-smelling prison cells are dreadful for a child, dreadful indeed for anyone. One is always breathing bad air in prison. The food given to children should consist of tea and bread-and-butter and soup. Prison soup is very good and wholesome.

A resolution of the House of Commons could settle the treatment of children in half-an-hour. I hope you will use your influence to have this done. The way that children are treated at present is really an outrage on humanity and common sense. It comes from stupidity.

Sir, your obedient servant, Oscar Wilde May 27th 1897

Glossary:

warder1 - a prison guard

dormitory2 - a room containing numerous beds that serves as a sleeping area

29



Do both writers think children are treated fairly in prison?

What do the writers think the main purpose of prison is – punishment or reform?

Do they think prison offers children opportunities or holds them back?



Question 5:

Examiner’s advice:

Plan before you start writing What characterised the best of these responses was the ability to engage with the ‘big

ideas’: politics, economics, gender, aesthetics, class, morality, psychology, even philosophy. Choose which side of the debate you are going to argue and stick to it – your job is to create

a strong argument on one opinion, not to weigh up different arguments Clarity of argument is the MOST IMPORTANT part of this question Begin with an introductory short paragraph, which engages the reader and makes your

perspective clear from the very first sentence

30

Your paragraphs should be logically sequenced and work together to build an argument, rather than a random selection of unlinked paragraphs

Don’t:

Weigh up both sides of the argument – you are arguing for OR against Forget the importance of SPAG – this is worth 16 marks!!! Forget to plan Write a series of random, unlinked paragraphs Forget to use linguistic or structural devices Overuse linguistic or structural devices

SPAG checklist

Accurate sentences – no run-ons or fragments Variety of sentence structures: complex, long, short, simple Accurate spelling Write in a consistent tense Accurate use of punctuation: commas, semi-colons, colons, speech Appropriate register – formal Appropriate form – newspaper article, letter etc

You could be asked to write:

A newspaper/ magazine article Text for a speech A letter Text/ blog for a website Leaflet

FeaturesNewspaper/ magazine article

Text for a speech

Text for a website

Letter

31

Leaflet

Structuring your answer

Introductory paragraph Snappy, engaging opening which hooks the reader Makes clear your argument in 1st two sentences You could use a rhetorical question, or a short sentence for

impact You could outline the main points you will explore in your

writing You could use direct address ‘You….’ To address the audience

directly Don’t start with ‘I agree with the statement because…’

Begin with an anecdote – a story about how the issue has affected someone

Try to use a repeated opening sentence structure for each paragraph

Use emotive language to describe a story of how the issue has affected someone (can be real but will probably be imaginary!)

Use a rhetorical question to appeal to the reader


Use the same repeated sentence structure to open ‘This isn’t just an issue that has affected one person in this

devastating way. It is something that hundreds of thousands of us struggle with every day.’

Explain the scale of the issue and the variety of people/ ways it can affect people

State the opposite side of the argument and then rebut it (argue against it). ‘Some believe that the environment is not our concern. They are wrong, because it is our actions that are destroying it.’

Explain how the issue could affect your reader and what they should do about it

This could affect you too – here’s why Explain how it could impact your reader’s lives Use emotive language to appeal to their emotions End with a call to action of how they can do something about

the issue

Conclusion End with a snappy, convincing conclusion, summarising your ideas and referring back to something you mentioned in paragraph 1/ introduction

‘School pupils should not be punished with detentions. They are the modern equivalent of being imprisoned.’

32

Write an article for your school magazine or website in which you argue for or against the statement. (24 marks for content and organisation 16 marks for accuracy) [40 marks]

Detentions: inhumane punishment plagues our schools

20 minutes to go. 19 minutes to go. 18 minutes to go. The clock ticks unbearably slowly in the detention hall. Our hands are weary with writing futile lines: ‘I will not get a detention’ x80. An innocent soul dares to look at his phone to check the time, and is instantly remanded with an extra 15 minutes. The injustice, the isolation and complete lack of learning mean that detentions – a modern day imprisonment in a dusty school hall – must be abolished for the welfare of children everywhere.

This is your headteacher speaking: proceed to the hall for your 30-minute detention. This is how it starts. A tiny, innocent Year 7, terrified of the older students arrives late to her lesson due to a horrendous crush in the corridor. She limps as fast as she can to her next lesson, he tie askew and bag ripped from being brutally pushed by two intimidating Year 11s – but she is too late. Her eyes brim with tears as her teacher issues a 30-minute late detention. She quickly brushes them away and sniffs, silently taking her seat in defeat – knowing that if she dares to question this decision, the detention length will be doubled. Now this young victim faces half an hour of silence and isolation, as well as the wrath of her parents who will be notified by text. How can we stand by and let this injustice continue?

This is your headteacher speaking: proceed to the hall for your 1-hour detention. As horrific as this story is, the inhumane nature of detentions affects not just one innocent Year 7, but hundreds and thousands of children across the country. Imagine this: between 3.30pm and 4.30pm, students in inner-city London and rural Scotland are unified in the isolating hour of punishment. These students all sit, obediently facing the front, writing lines in isolation. This isolation, the lack of contact and communication is unnatural for children and teenagers, and an inhumane way to punish them. Supporters of detentions argue it is necessary to take these harsh measures, but if children are forced to spend this precious portion of time in isolation, how can we expect them to develop emotionally and socially? When will they spend time with their friends and family? The cruelty of this practice is obvious, as is its devastating impact.

This is your headteacher speaking: proceed to the hall for your 2-hour detention. I know what you are thinking – no detention lasts 2 hours! That’s where you’re wrong. Research suggests most schools have a severe sanction of 2 hours or more, sometimes on a Saturday to punish repeat offenders. It goes without saying that to imprison children in a dusty hall for so long is an extreme infringement of their liberty. Imagine your child, your hardworking, darling child being treated in this inhumane way, possibly due to misunderstanding, like the innocent Year 7 we already mentioned. Your child would be sitting, writing lines, learning nothing, suffering in silence and boredom. Most children who sit detentions will also sit more – so they do not even succeed in teaching children right or wrong. Would you stand for this? If your answer is no, you have the power to change this sorry situation. Write to the headteacher today to express your discontent for this cruel and ineffective system, and together we can tackle this injustice of vulnerable children being unfairly punished.

3 minutes to go. 2 minutes to go. 1 minute to go. Time is running out for the old-fashioned and inhumane use of detentions as the main punishment in schools – what will you do to help end this barbaric practice?

33

‘The rise in knife crime amongst young people is closely connected to the popularity of drill music and violent video games.’

Write an article for your school magazine or website in which you argue for or against the statement. (24 marks for content and organisation 16 marks for accuracy) [40 marks]

Vocabulary:

Senseless violence

Imitation

Glamourisation of crime

Free will

Injustice

Stereotyping of young people

Prejudiced

Simplistic

Ignorant

Inequality

Belonging

Identity

Big issues to link to: inequality, stereotypes, role of young people

Introductory paragraph




34

Conclusion

‘Our consumerist society is destroying the planet. Plastic waste, an addiction to fast fashion and an unsustainable use of electricity mean that if we don’t act now, planet earth will be ruined.’

Write the text for a speech to be given at a school debate in which you argue for or against this statement. (24 marks for content and organisation 16 marks for technical accuracy) [40 marks]

Vocabulary:

Consumerism

Fast fashion

Addiction

Materialism

Greed

Capitalism

Obsession

Climate change

Global warming

Globalisation

Media

Self-centred

Wasteful

Unsustainable

Destructive

Greta Thunberg

Big issues to link to: responsibility, injustice, blame



35



Conclusion

‘The use of smart phones is destroying young peoples’ lives today: they are addicted to social media, obsessed with appearance and constantly comparing themselves to others. Smart phones should be banned for under 16s to allow them to focus on what is important – school.’

Write a letter to a newspaper explaining your perspective on the statement (24 marks for content and organisation, 16 for technical accuracy.

Vocabulary:

Addiction

Obsession

Comparison

Perfection

Objectification of women/ girls

Unattainable standards

Mental health issues

Communication

Connectedness

Technology

Sophistication

Technological advancement

Artificial intelligence

Virtual reality

Identity

36

Big issues to link to: role of young people, self-image, impact of technology





Conclusion

‘Young people should not be blamed for joining gangs – society should, as it has failed them.’

Write a newspaper article explaining your perspective on the statement (24 plus 16)

Vocabulary:

Targeted

Groomed

Exploited

Recruited

Sense of belonging

(lack of) role models

Status

Educational initiatives

Funding for youth projects/ centres

Injustice

37

Inequality

Prejudices

Disadvantage

Deprivation

Collective





Conclusion

Additional practice:

‘Beauty contests and talent competitions are a good idea because they give young children confidence and something to aim for.’

Write a letter to your local radio station in which you argue for or against the opinion expressed in the statement. [24 marks for content and organisation 16 marks for technical accuracy] [40 marks]

‘Pets are either treated too well or too cruelly!’

Write the text for an article to be published on your school’s website in which you explain your own point of view. (24 marks for content and organisation 16 marks for technical accuracy) [40 marks]

38

‘Children of school age should not be working at all. They should be focused on their school work and helpful to their parents. Working for money comes later’. Write the text for a speech to be given at a school debate in which you argue for or against this statement. (24 marks for content and organisation 16 marks for technical accuracy) [40 marks]

39

Documents

stannesacademy.org.uk€¦ · Web viewSurely no one will venture to deny that the dog deserves this care at our hands? For of all animals, the dog, I think, may without doubt be