Late sitters - English text

[moved]

Hope you all got through the weather OK and that the exam went well. If anyone would be able to let me know which text was used for the late sitting I would be grateful as I will add it to the list of texts used on the sticky at the top of the forum.

[kegsteacher]

As I understand it, it was Ian McEwen's Atonement. That is unconfirmed, of course

[moved]

Many thanks - great book.

[Chai]

And the first English paper featured Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Luis de Bernieres, I believe.

But are these typical of books a 10-11 year old should have read? I'd better hurry my 4-year old along then. We are still at Floppy and Biff.

[moved]

That is correct and no one expects them to have read them.

[Chai]

True. There is a difference between having read the words and having truly read the story.

Level of inference / vocabulary knowledge expected for 11+ English is high in any case.

Good activities are always to ask your child how he or she feels about a book or what he or she thinks of a character in the book. Ask WHY. Give evidence to support answers. Teach them how to quote.

For example, they could answer a question on character by starting like this:

The words "***" and "***" in line yy suggest that.......

Just thoughts on a very very cold Wednesday night as the snow falls.

[DiW]

So that's what the first English novel was I was trying to work out what it could be from DD's very brief description - didn't think of that one!

[Abba]

DS did his best to remember where the excerpt was from and reported Capt Corelli’s Mandarin I do feel for our DCs!

[Chai]

That made me smile

[First-timer]

I heard that spelling was tested instead of synonyms. Looks like they're shaking things up a bit.