Bb has spent lots of this week making blogs, minecraft videos and some Lego ones. We have done some worky stuff, but as she is having an imagination/play explosion, this has also been lovely and vital 
Sb has been working hard. The first of the past papers suggests we are on track for a comfortable b in geog if we keep going , which is a nice place to be! I haven’t marked the biol yet as not finished, but sb found it much harde as very factual, so we are prob on a hopeful c trajectory. Neither of us feel comfortable with that, so I have altered her tick sheet from next week to push the biol, being aware tho that we are close to her first classical civ paper and piano exam, so a bit to juggle! Told her that it is no big deal and just good to do your best.
It’s hard enough juggling things with just two gcses. Am mightily impressed with how much SB packs in. Also how hands on you are helping support her. We are very not hands on and just realising recently that we should have been more on top of class civ as C is stressing about it as doesn’t feel prepared and that makes her less able to think clearly. Your DH told me all her notes could be taken in for the CA. We had thought nothing at all and getting sick in pit of stomach feeling due to unpreparedness until her schooled friend said you can take 40 words in, when checking that, your DH referenced a document that helps a bit to explain (it is lengthy and I didn’t understand all of it – especially difficult reading on phone screen) what the CA entails. Tomorrow C needs to read all of chapter 6 as she doesn’t know which bit is the relevant bit so best to read it all. Feeling it’s all happening at a faster pace than we need.
Thankyou
tbh, i have done nothing at all for class civ and french, as we are paying someone else! but am a bit worried about the class civ, as thought they perhaps should have had a practice run at it? and pointers to do better. mind you, for this one, we will celebrate a C! SB has really enjoyed doing it, but I think we currently have no idea re technique! DH tho has looked into it, and is not worried, so i am going to just breathe it through! I think SB said she had a chapter to read [actually i think she said 700 pages, but hoping that is an exaggeration! adrian from the school has come through, and she is having 2 x 4 hours with a break after 2 hours as we just have no idea how long it will take – cant believe quite that long tho!
C does essay plans with Aideen that I would call mind maps and she calls spider plans (I think – something spidery anyway!). We only have this week to prepare as the weekend busy so she says she will get that done and transcribe some quotes from the text into her notes and hope for the best. Not helped by not having read book 6 yet. I had expected support but think S has found he is time constrained and unfortunately he can not do mon-fri before 7pm. Of course those are the days and times we are most free. If we had known that beforehand then a different decision may have been made. I don’t think he will do for home edders again as his diary too limited.
C has also really enjoyed it and he is a good teacher, enthusiastic and passionate about the subject.
sb out so much this week that having a bit of a panic now! thinking we should do a mind map too. not sure whether they have to talk about dido and aeneas and then decide which one on balance they feel sorry for [this is how i would do it] or whether just one of them [what sb thinks!] have asked her to ask steve. but might ask dh to email him. she has loved the lessons and really enjoyed it, so i am just hoping that we get a pass overall and counting the experience as the good thing. SB not done any of this kind of thing before tho so completely in the dark, and I’m not an essayist either! as i said – breathe!
ok, have printed this off from the controlled assessment burb [see below!] so cant take the book in, but can take in all notes including a mindmap/plan. will see if sb/c want to skype at some point in the week when they both have thought about the plan!
RESEARCH
Keep a note of where you find things, for 2 reasons:
1. you might want to look again at a particular idea or quote you have noted down and it will make it easier to find
2. you should include a bibliography at the end of your essay, including ancient sources, modern books and websites.
It is a good idea to keep a log (or diary) of what you have looked at, and when. Make a note also of how useful it was, and how
much detail it gave you.
You will be allowed to take notes and a plan into the room when you write up your task which has to be done under
controlled conditions. Make sure your notes are legible and organised. You don’t want to waste time looking for
something when time is precious.
PLANNING AND WRITING
• You will need to select the information and sources which are most useful and relevant for answering the question.
• Don’t just write an account; explain how far, or to what extent the sources are useful etc.
• Support your arguments with evidence from the sources. Remember to evaluate them.
• Try and reach a conclusion at the end.
• You should aim to write about 2000 words.
• You should add a word count and a bibliography.
• Any quotes should be relevant to your argument and can be either in the main part or in a footnote
once you have been given the task (or choice of tasks), you will have time to do the research/fieldwork, collect information and
make notes which you will use later when you write up the task. Your teacher will tell you how much time you will have (probably
several weeks) and will give you advice on how and where you will gather data (for example on a field trip) and/or where you will
find recourses (for example the library or the internet).
Things to think about/remember:
• think about how you will approach the task. (You can discuss this with your teacher)
• make a plan of how you will spend the time you have for research/data collection. This way, you can make sure that you
have time to cover everything you want to do. This plan may be useful to refer back to you when you are writing up the
task
• make sure that you keep a record of where all the information you want to use comes from. This will allow you to include
references and a bibliography when you write up the task
• think about how you will use your research or the data that you have collected to respond to the task. It maybe helpful to
make a basic plan so that you can check you have all the information that you need
• remember, you will not have access to resources other than your notes when you write up the task, so you need to make
sure that you have all the information that you need in your notes.
During research/data collection, you can talk to your teacher about the task and ask them for advice. You can also work with other
candidates and share ideas about the task with them. With out-of-classroom fieldwork, group data collection is allowed on health
and safety grounds. However you must be aware of all the data collection methods used as you will need to write about these later.
Steve said to them on that day they did at his house that you can choose to feel sympathy for either Dido or Aeneas or both. So I wonder if SB misremembers that as only needing to look at one?
I think you have to look at both and then come to your conclusion? If only looking at one SB may have trouble getting to 2,000 words and think the argument is less strong only putting one side?
Much of the controlled assessment guidelines are not relevant for the question they have been given as seems to be a personal response to the text. C is struggling and I think doing English alongside has been a big help for her so do feel sympathy for SB as it is HARD.
Also, I’ve warned C that this is apparently a hard GCSE to get a good grade in – there are grumblings that there is growing evidence that OCR RE is far easier (so I was interested in Em’s comments on another post here – now I can see why) to get a high grade in than OCR Class Civ. Teachers have been pooling anonymised data and shows a significantly significant difference in the grades the same children get. This is bad for Classics overall as the perception is that it is too hard to get the good grade and so students don’t choose it (education being all about the grade you get and not about whether you have had your mind expanded and enjoyed learning something), schools beginning to not like it too as it pulls their grades down for league tables. The battle mostly likely seen by Classics teachers in state schools I guess, private will just do what they’ve always done.
The school where C is taking the CA suggested “I would suggest that she doesn’t have too many notes, as you say, they can be more of a hindrance than a help. Key ideas and quotes rather than lots of text to read through.”. I had asked them about taking the book in and at 2am I sent another email:
“Further to my previous email included below, on reflection (at nearly 2am!), I will tell Chloe to spend time this week identifying the key quotes she may like to include as evidence, and add them to her notes.
If she does that this week it should help her clarify her arguments in preparation and save time finding them (and possibly being distracted by reading long sections again) during the writing up sessions.
So you don’t need to check whether she can bring the book in too, she will just have a folder containing her notes. I will get her to label it clearly with her name and the exam details. Should she add your name to it so it is returned to you after each session?”
The folder of notes is left with the school between sessions.
C seems to do a web plan and also paragraph bullets. She’s read Book 6 and think the only relevant bit for their question is pgs 135-6 where Aeneas sees Dido reunited with her husband. Though you can feel sorry for Aeneas having such an ordeal down there and seeing how his life is really mapped out for him and everyone. Is he merely a puppet?
The things he emailed through last week were useful though not referenced – we googled the first few words and found where he lifted them from. lit chart.com is the source for the section referring to colour boxes. We had a big argument as she wanted to include the Latin line in the Latin and I said she couldn’t as she is reading a translation so needed to find that line in the book she is referencing. (which she did page 83, line 361).
I’m sure she’d be happy to Skype about how she pulls her plan together.
I think a checklist should go in their notes. Thing I think should be included:
Quotes = Evidence.
Check all Spelling/Grammar. If not sure, use words you are sure you can spell correctly or simplify the sentence!
Does what I say make sense?
Did I develop a clear conclusion?
Add word count.
Bibliography: Wordsworth Classics 2004 edition of The Aeneid by Virgil (is there a ‘proper’ way of doing this – I seem to think there is. Spotted a nice dedication in there!)
Should they add “sources include information provided by tutor in sessions”?
You need to list your primary sources. Steve says the primary source is the book they are reading – I think the primary source would have been the Latin version, not a translation so I’m a bit confused there. But happy to be corrected. So in this case the primary source and the bibliography is the same?
C says SB was right – Steve said they could look at Dido or look at Aeneas or look at both. He said both was better.
I would have just told them to look at both.
thanks, i am in a right royal panic, not helped by the fact that today she just did arts award stuff all day! and is now out to cadets. she says she doesn’t want to do anything tomorrow as it is her birthday, and thurs is french and multisports. all evenings full. it is a bit hard to be the going out to work orgoplanner
SB has got the weekend though. We don’t so pushing now. This is c’s prep plan so far if it helps SB break it down: Mind map reasons to feel sympathy for Dido. Then mind map reasons to feel sympathy for Aeneas. Then a mind map of sympathies for Roman and modern perspectives, to include Virgil’s sympathies. Think about her conclusion. Then to think about her introduction (to include what does ‘sympathy’ mean?), she may like to do this first but I think easier to start mind mapping first. Identify quotes from the book to evidence points she’s mind-mapped. C then wants to bullet point her paragraphs. I keep warning her that she is not to draft it (this would be her preference). C has found it utterly overwhelming as she has so much information. After C had had her big stab at the dido/aeneas mind maps, she got frustrated so we ended up putting all relevant pieces of paper on the kitchen island and the plan is for her to reduce it all down so salient points are on as few pieces of paper as possible.
thanks michelle, thats the kind of ideas i had in my head too, putting each in an ancient and then modern context, perhaps with something about how sympathies could be different. [i am presuming they have something on roman sympathies or we will be looking that up!] i am on call all weekend, so may not be at home at all. but yep, we have the weekend, but hoping she had a plan to discuss at the next and last skype!! i am saying to myself that actually, it is enjoying the learning that is important, but i have done too many exams myself to feel comfortable with exams by proxy feeling unprepared!!! [and i could in part be also doing distraction panic from other things!]
SB has put 2 hours of solid work into it at the moment. we’ve started with the middle
and she is then going to decide after doing all the middle what her answer is for the introduction and conclusion 
[best way really] . currently she has thought of 3 big reasons to have sympathy for dido, and has tagged that with roman context/ possible roman sympathies and modern context and sympathies, and has thought about virgil for one of them and ‘is thinking’ for the other 2 about virgil [said in a teen way 
] and then will add her own thoughts for each bit when done aeneas reasons and made a decision. we have decided that amongst her notes she might have a spelling list, as vergil and sympathie are not likely to garner marks 
so current hope is to have at least the middle section, even if only indicated where going to have quotes rather than the quotes themselves, to send to steve by friday for a review of is this along the right lines
still breathing
however noticed this in the spec
‘ Teachers must not
- comment on or correct the work
- practise the task with the candidates
- provide templates, model answers or feedback on drafts.’
so thinking that probably cant run a draft by steve – have asked DH to email and check so we dont send and sb gets disqualified!