“Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood” This is a quote said by Mark Antony to Julius Caesar after he got assassinated by Brutus’s conspirators. To me this quote means that, the people who assassinated Caesar should suffer because not only they have killed him, but they have stabbed him so much to the point where his very rich blood all came out.

This is a photograph by Jo Naylor. I chose this photo because i thought that it explains how bloody the scene was when the conspirators killed Caesar.

“Blood and destruction shall be so in use…” Another quote said by Mark Antony. This time he is saying that, the country  will be a huge mess without Caesar, everything is going to be out of control like people killing each other.

This photo is taken by photographer Yurie Parpenkino. I interpreted the daylight in the photo as Caesar. When he died, a storm had came, symbolizing destruction and death.

“And Caesar’s spirit ranging for revenge” Means that, even though Caesar’s dead, his spirit will still be alive trying to get its revenge on the conspirators that killed him.

This is picture by Gabriel Aloysius. I chose this picture because to me it expresses anger, and from the quote we could see that Caesar is very angry even though hes dead, and he wants revenge on the conspirators that killed him.

Education for Leisure is written by Carol Ann Duffy and is published in 1986. This poem is about a person stranded in a room. This person is filled with anger and frustration, therefore he releases his anger by killing a Goldfish and a fly with his thumb. In the end of the poem the person grabs a bread knife and goes outside. It implicates that he is going to kill someone.

British exam board, Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) removed the poem ‘Education for leisure’ by Carol Ann Duffy from GCSE syllabus. AQA received three complaints since 2004. Two of the complaints refers to the knife crime and one had concern with flushing of goldfish. AQA banned this poem in GCSE because it contains violence.

After the banning of the poem in schools, poets claimed that the board’s move to remove the poem from the curriculum was a wrong move. They said that the board has missed the fundamental point of the poem; the poem was made so that the students would debate the causes of street violence. Moreover, Ms. Duffy’s literary agent said: “It’s a pro-education, anti-violence poem, you can’t say that it celebrates knife crime. What is does it the opposite”

Some teachers and the board claims that the poem is very violent, it starts with “Today I am going to kill something. Anything.’’ This is inappropriate especially for students in a young age of 14-15. “I am going to play God.” This suggests us that the person is saying that he wants to play God wants to control life.The poem makes a reference to killing a fly and goldfish. It also shows the person holding a bread knife and going outside, which implies that he is going to kill someone. For these reasons AQA removed the poem from GCSE curriculum

Response of Carol Ann Duffy after her poem got removed from the syllabus:
She made a poem as a response to the AQA. And the poem is:

You must prepare your bosom for his knife,
said Portia to Antonio in which
of Shakespeare’s Comedies? Who killed his wife,
insane with jealousy? And which Scots witch
knew Something wicked this way comes? Who said
Is this a dagger which I see? Which Tragedy?
Whose blade was drawn which led to Tybalt’s death?
To whom did dying Caesar say Et tu? And why?
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark – do you
know what this means? Explain how poetry
pursues the human like the smitten moon
above the weeping, laughing earth; how we
make prayers of it. Nothing will come of nothing:
speak again. Said by which King? You may begin.

The blog post is written with the help of Kianu Taylor, and Shunsuke Winston.

Sources:
- Poem banned from schools over knife crime fears- Use this for background information
- There’s no rhyme or reason to this ban-Use this as an argument for the poem
- Top exam board asks schools to destroy book containing knife poem
- This could have been a debate about Education for Leisure
- Poems & Politics – Education for Leisure – Carol Ann Duffy Read the comments
- Mrs Schofield’s GCSE
- Poet’s rhyming riposte leaves Mrs Schofield ‘gobsmacked’

Read the rest of this entry »

In the start of the year, my writing was very poor allowing me to get bad grades. After few months, I read books, and I began my sessions with my new tutor allowing my english to get better. Therefore I got better grades at the end of the year, for example, my Romeo & Juliet, and my Creative Response analysis.

I really need to work on my supporting my argument, for example, in the beginning of the year we did the ‘Myth Essay,’ what made me get a low grade was me not supporting my evidence, and in the end of the year we did the ‘Romeo & Juliet’ essay and if I supported my argument better I would’ve got a much better grade. My goal next year is to improve in supporting my arguments.

Intelligence in animal farm is needed especially to those ‘pigs’. Since all the pigs are smarter/ more intelligent than other animals they take the role of leadership. The pigs used their power with the cow’s milk and the apples situation by using effective rhetorical devises. They said milk and apples are for pigs in order to prevent Jones from coming back, therefore they used their intelligence to feed themselves without anyone realizing that they are just make an excuse about Jones so they could feed themselves. On the other hand, if the pigs didn’t use rhetorical devises, their excuse wont be as affective, and they won’t use their power often. Another example of how intelligence is important in animal farm, is when Napoleon and Snowball were having a power struggle, since Snowball is better with words and language, he persuaded all the animals and won over Napoleon. Due to the fact that the pigs are more intelligent than other animals and their effectiveness of language, they can get whatever they want or need.

The first thing that came to mind was Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler was a strong leader due to his use of language that persuaded almost everyone in Germany at the time. Hitler knew what everyone wanted and needed so he used persuasive devises such as rhetorical questions, at the time there was an organisation “Treaty of Versailles” which was after WWI, England, France, and United States created rules that Germany can’t build armies, had to give away land, etc, and Hitler promised everyone in Germany that he doesn’t care about the rules, will get Germanys land back as well as the armies, this persuaded mostly everyone.

Language is like power when you have it no one can stop you. It is really important, for example in school there are so many debates such as elections for student council president, the only way you could win is when you use powerful language. By that I mean using persuasive devices and also using your tone of voice can helps. After a fight with your brother, and your parents ask you whose fault it is, the only way you can get out of the situation is by persuading your parents its not your fault. To me language is another way of saying power.

1. Briefly describe the resources you gathered and how you applied them to your learning and your artwork? (This may include practice work done in class, as well as techniques, research, artists’ work etc.)

The painter that caught my attention by his piece ‘The Scream’ was Edvard Munch. I liked his piece ‘The Scream’ the most because of the colors it had in it. I like warm colors such as orange, light red and dark yellow, so the first thing I started to do was practicing how to make those colors. In order for me to know how to make those colors, I went onto Youtube and found videos that explained how to make warm colors by mixing two or more colors together. I also gathered information that explained, it is always better to use hard brushes in a large area than a soft brush, because when you use soft brush the paint will look different when its dried up and the paint will turn watery. These were the informations that I gathered and helped me.

2. Describe the difficulties you had and how you tried to overcome them. Provide specific examples in your work or process to support your statements.

I encountered two major problems in my painting. One of them was the ground. I chose the color brown for my ground and as it gradually got down the color would darken by using the color black, the same I did with my sky. During the process of me painting the ground, everything looked perfectly fine, but when I blow dried it, I realized the brown wasn’t getting darker. I tried to overcome the problem by adding more black to the brown as it got down and that made the ground look much better than before. The other problem I encountered was my kite. At first I thought red would be a really good color for my kite, but after I did it, the kite stopped showing because of the sky in the background. The sky was dark orange so thats why the kite stopped showing. So I tried to overcome the problem by painting the kite green, but instead of looking like a kite it started looking like a flying saucer.

3. What are the strengths and weaknesses in your work? What do you think you have learnt or improved on? Provide specific examples to support your statements.

I think the major strengths in my painting were the sky, and my three palm trees. The sky was what I perfectly imagined it would be in my mind. It had colors that gradually got warmer and warmer as it got down. I liked that because it shows that the painting is not as simple as the picture. The picture had the color blue only for the sky, I thought that that was too simple so I tried to make it more meaningful and more complex. I also liked my palm trees because they were spiky like real palm trees, and instead of green I used the color brown because again I thought the color green wasn’t original and too simple.

My major weaknesses were my ocean and my kite. I didn’t like my ocean at all because it looks like blue ground, it doesn’t actually look like an ocean. Next time I will try to make small waves so it would actually help the ocean look like an ocean. I didn’t like my kite aswell because it doesn’t look like a kite because it didn’t have the string that the person is supposed to hold, it looks like a guy pointing to a flying saucer  and the color green was a bad choice because it doesn’t fit the painting at all it looks like it randomly came out of nowhere. In order to make the kite look like a kite I would have to paint the string so its easier for a person to tell if its a kite or something else and pick a sensible color.   

4. Identify effective strategies or goals to further develop and improve your artistic processes (this may include research, planning, your painting skills, time management etc.). Please remember, a successful piece doesn’t have to look “real.”

If I had planned well there wouldn’t be any weaknesses in my painting. I didn’t care at all in my planning and I really regret it. Due to my lack of planning I encountered up hills that made life harder for me. My planning didn’t only effect my painting it also effected my painting skills. I didn’t find enough information about painting techniques, and this might effect my paintings in future projects. Now I know how important planning is. If I have the opportunity to do this project again, I will work on my planning the most.

After a depressing day of not finding my giant furry balloon, mom got me for my birthday, I went up the stairs into my room. I looked up at the ceiling and glazed with shock ness. Could it be my giant furry balloon! I held my balloon and promised to never lose it again.

http://www.simplyreadbooks.com/admin/book_images/lightbox/red-tree-tree.jpg

France is a popular country located in europe. France is also popular because of its life expectancy. Life expectancy in france is between about, 81 to 82 which is very high, during 1960 the life expectancy in France was also high it was about 75 years, although these couple of years France’s life expectancy became 10 years higher. The agricultural land in France is:

• • • 4% of urban fabric
    • 1% Industrial or commercial units and transport networks
    • 29% arable land
    • 2% permanent crops
    • 16%pastures
    • 13% heterogeneous agricultural areas
    • 28% forests
    • 4%natural environment with shrub or herbaceous vegetation
    • 2% open natural spaces with little or no vegetation
    • 1% industrial or commercial units and transport networks\
    • The GDP (purchasing power parity) in France is $2.16 trillion the country comparing to the world.2010
    • The age structure in France is 0-14:15.6%
    • 15-6465%
    • 65and over 16.4%
    • the median age Total 39.7 male 38.2 female 41.2

“Before she died” is a poem that makes you think that friends or family members are one of the most important things that ever exist. “Before she died” is the 26 poem in the 180 poem website. During this poem, Karen uses her knowledge to show emotions by just exaggerating or the poetic device called hyperbole, for example when she said, “When I look at the sky now, I look at it for you.”

“Before she died” is a poem about a boy or a girl loosing his/her friend, family member or a pet. During this poem Karen tries to focus on the background image by allowing communicating with the readers by using different kinds of imagery and sometimes the mood of the speaker, “With all the leaves gone almost from all trees…” This diffidently created a background image to me.  Another source of the poetic devices I found during this poem was metaphor. The metaphor I found during this poem allowed me to know how sad the person is, before his/her friend died by comparing the life before the friend or family member died and after, creating an evidence to that the person said “It will take a long time to know how it is for you. Like a dog’s lifetime — long — multiplied by sevens.” Using these poetic devices I found it easy for me to understand what was going on, or what the main idea was based on.

The content of this poem was based on the person. The person couldn’t see the world as he did before his/her family member, friend, or pet died. All the way to the end of the poem. I also found out that the person still misses his/her family member, friend, or pet, “When I look at the sky now, I look at it for you.” Another interesting fact about this poem was when Karen compared the life before the family member, friend, or pet died and the way the person lived after she died.

I have thought and asked myself what the message that is been told by the poet. The poet which is Karen Chase tried to communicate with others (the poem readers or audience) that friends, family members and also pets are one of the most important things that ever exist without them life would of been horrifying. Friends are the ones that stand out for you, so do family members, and pets are there that act like a mate to you.