[senco-forum] White UK Heritage

I am sorry everyone has gone of on one about my use of the

Hi Richard
  I think the board you do must be Edexcel.  We do AQA and we don't have any prose pre-release stuff.
  I know what you mean about equal access in a multi-cultural society.  One of our recent GCSE exam papers had a passage by Bill Bryson to compare with a car advert aimed at young women of the type seen in colour magazines which come with papers like The Telegraph.  Another had a piece by John Steinbeck and a leaflet job description for apple picking which seemed to be written specifically for the exam.  
  But is this problem with accessibility cultural or is it to do with class?  'Higher level language skills' seem to me to be 'middle class language skills'.
  Amanda
  Secondary SENCO
  Cornwall

Richard Cook <richard_cook at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
  This raises the broarder issue of how exam boards can ensure equal access in
an increasingly multi-cultural society. At my school we are battling with
this year's pre-release material (can't recall which board)which is all
around the Glastonbury festival.

The first three pieces of source material are from the Guardian, Sunday
Telegraph and the Times. Most of our pupils don't read newspapers per se -
never mind the level of english in these three papers. Glastonbury is an
enigma - no concept of. Festival - Asian girls? - don't think so.

I'm sure most of 'white UK heritage' - middle class will know of the
fesitval or at least know what it is about - my pupils (inner city -
multi-ethnic) are starting from scratch they have no experiance to relate to
this.

Richard

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk]On Behalf Of Amanda
Sent: 25 March 2007 14:28
To: webmaster at aylesburyvale-sec.bucks.sch.uk; janrolnick at aol.com;
senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] White UK Heritage

Hi Mark

I teach AQA English and I agree that that the poetry is a problem. I
didn't like the previous syllabus because it was just too difficult to do
two separate poetry sections in the exam. But I do object to the current
selection which seems to have poems of dubious literary merit and nothing
from mainstream English poetry. It's all 'foreign'.
I, too, am exploring alternatives. We offer Eng Lit and Media Studies as
part of our system of options. I am offering Entry Level English to a few
this year.

Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall

"webmaster at aylesburyvale-sec.bucks.sch.uk"
wrote:
Not really sure if any belittling has gone on.

In my experience the problem often lies with the curriculum.
The UK curriculum is becoming more and more 'feminised' in
my opinion.

For example: One of my roles is teaching GCSE English (AQA)
in a PRU. Around three years ago the syllabus changed. They
threw out white male British working class Simon Armitage's
poems leaving just the 'Poems from different cultures'. I
used to love teaching Armitage's poems because they were
soooo relevant to my students and they really got into them.
They dealt with issues such as domestic violence, the hard
man image, sociopaths, etc. "This poem is about a boy who
heats up some scissors in a bunsen burner and passes them to
an unsuspecting girl and how the poet feels terrible guilt
to this day about doing so. Have you ever done anything
you've regretted?" This great material for these disaffected
lads. Now it seems they are not to study poems from their
own culture.

But back to your query, we need to find ways of adapting the
curriculum to these children's needs.

A couple of years back I took a presentation to several
local comp's extolling the benefits of replacing English Lit
with Media Studies for some students to imnprove behaviour
and achievement. Some of those schools are now in their
second year of this and reports are good.

I'm probably teaching egg sucking here but getting staff to
adapt materials in favour of boys. Research tends to show
that girls will do well regardless of stimulus material etc,
so I think a bit of positive discrimination in the boys
favour is a good thing.

So when I teach Romeo and Juliet the question is "Violence
and conflict are central to Romeo and Juliet. Discuss with
reference to one (or two for more able /motivated students)
scene from the play" The (full colour) study booklet has a
front cover which features a manga style Romeo and Juliet
where Juliet has a rather ample bosom.

Another obvious technique is to make full use of alternative
methods of presenting their work. One of the English
assignments I get them to write using powerpoint. I tell
them that they are putting together a presentation which
goes down much better than telling them to write an essay. I
also make use of the oral assesment option which you are
allowed as an alternative to writing for one assignment.
According to the exam board very very few schools are taking
advantage of this option. Why when we are told there are so
many underachieving boys?

I could go on and on. I haven't even talked about completely
alternative curriculums, AQA Unit Award scheme, Asdan, etc.

Not sure if this is the kind of thing you had in mind but
when it comes to boys underachievment I really do think that
the curriculum is one of the major thing s we have to
change.

Hope this helps

Mark

Oh and give them some breakfast. Jam on toast on a serviette
is nice and easy.

----- Original Message -----
From: janrolnick at aol.com
To: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Subject: [senco-forum] White UK Heritage
Date: 23-Mar-2007 11:24:02 GMT

> I am sorry everyone has gone of on one about my use of the
> term White UK Heritage. It is not my terminology but what
> we have been told to use. I don't care what we call them -
> but you all know who I mean! My original request was for
> help with how to raise the achievement of these children
> plus the Black Affrican/Afro-Caribbean children - can
> anyone help with some practical suggestions rather than a
> grammar lesson? I don't understand why some mebers of the
> forum find it necessary to try to belittle others! Surely
> we are all in th same business - trying to help th
> children?
>
> Thank you
>
>
> Janice Rolnick
> SENCO/AST
>
> ==========================================================
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--
Mark Norwood
www.avssc.org
"The e-mail of the species is more deadly than the mail"
(Stephen Fry)

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Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall

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Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall