Haslingden High School English Faculty HOMEWORK BOOKLET Year 8 Block B Autobiographical Writing Name: Form: Subject Teacher: Date Given: Date to Hand in: Level: Effort: House Points: Comment: Target: Parent / Guardian Comment:
SECTION A: RESEARCH All students complete this section (1 Hour 30minutes) DEFINITION OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY: DEFINITION OF BIOGRAPHY: WHAT IS A COAT OF ARMS? FIND OUT WHAT THE SYMBOLS ON THE SCHOOL S COAT OF ARMS ARE AND WHAT THEY REPRESENT. (A place to start might be www.ngw.nl/int/gbr/h/haslingd.htm)
Even colours have special meanings in coats of arms. Colour in these boxes with the matching colour. PEACE & SINCERITY MILITARY STRENGTH/ WARRIOR TRUTH & LOYALTY HOPE & JOY CONSTANCY (& SOMETIMES GRIEF) ROYAL MAJESTY & JUSTICE GENEROSITY AMBITION ORANGE, GOLD/YELLOW, PURPLE, BLUE, SILVER/WHITE, BLACK, RED, GREEN Higher & Extension What else do you associate with the colour:- Red? Yellow? Green? In English, we call these associations, connotations.
A Coat of Arms You are going to design your own personal coat of arms. You should make it as imaginative, colourful and attractive as possible but remember you mustn t use any words! In this section you should draw something to represent your personality? Are you a joker? A good listener? Brave? Competitive? In this section you should draw something to represent a favourite hobby of yours or something you like doing in your spare time. Here you should choose something to represent your favourite subject at school. Finally, draw an image to represent your dreams or ambitions for the future.
SECTION B: READING (1 Hour) All students complete questions 1 to 4. Higher Level Students also complete questions 5 to 8. Task 1: Read the following extract taken from Cider with Rosie, an autobiography written by Laurie Lee in 1959. The morning came, without any warning, when my sisters surrounded me, wrapped me in scarves, tied up my bootlaces, thrust a cap on my head, and stuffed a baked potato in my pocket. What s this? I said. You re starting school today. I ain t. I m stopping ome. Now, come on, Loll. You re a big boy now. I ain t. You are. Boo-hoo. They picked me up bodily, kicking and bawling, and carried me up the road. I arrived at the school just three feet tall and fatly wrapped in my scarves. The playground roared like a rodeo, and the potato burned through my thigh. Old boots, ragged stockings, torn trousers and skirts, went skating and skidding around me. The rabble closed in; I was encircled; grit flew in my face like shrapnel. Tall girls with frizzled hair and huge boys with sharp elbows, began to prod me with hideous interest. They plucked at my scarves, spun me round like a top, screwed my nose, and stole my potato. I was rescued at last by a gracious lady the sixteen-year-old junior-teacher who boxed a few ears and dried my face and led me off to The Infants. I spent that first day picking holes in paper, then went home in a smouldering temper. What s the matter, Loll? Didn t he like it at school, then? They never gave me the present! Present? What present? They said they d give me a present. Well, now, I m sure they didn t.
They did! They said: You re Laurie Lee, ain t you? Well, just you sit there for the present. I sat there all day but I never got it. I ain t going back there again! NOW ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: 1. Which important day in his life is Laurie Lee describing here?... 2. What nickname do his sisters use to refer to him?... 3. What does he take to school to eat?... 4. In the second paragraph, Laurie Lee uses a simile to describe the playground. He writes the playground roared like a rodeo. a) What is a rodeo?............
Higher Level Students 5) By using this simile, what is the writer trying to suggest about the playground?...... 6) There are two more similes in paragraph two. Find one of them and explain what it suggests about the playground or the people in it. (Remember a simile is when the writer compares one thing to something else using the words like or as.) The simile... suggests that the......... 7) How old is the teacher who rescues Laurie?... 8) Look at the end of the extract again. What misunderstanding has occurred that makes Laurie say, I ain t going back there again!?...........
SECTION C: LITERACY (30 minutes) All students complete this section In the passage below, a teacher is recalling a memory from her childhood, but she has made many common errors that need correcting before this can be published in her autobiography. Your job is to proofread the passage, underlining any mistakes you find. Pay close attention to the following: was/were there/their tenses TIP: Remember the whole account should be written in the past tense. Our absent-minded teacher keeps slipping into the present tense. When I were a little girl I remember I have a few massive fights with my brother but there is one I remember the most clearly. He has been making a model aeroplane for weeks, a Spitfire, and he were really proud of it. I wanted him to test me on my French homework right their and then. He refused. In a sulk, I picks up his Spitfire and I break it on the windowsill. He cried loads then he punches me on the nose and broke it. I can t tell over him though so I had to say I fall over.
Now rewrite the passage correctly in the space provided.
Self-Assessment Look again at the success criteria and then answer the following questions about the writing task: What do you think you have done well? What areas could you improve?