Watching the film of the book in an English lesson

[snorri]

I remember doing julius Caeser at GCSE, watching the video helped me.

There were no videos in my day, but we were able to buy a paperback A4 size from a local shop with the story in pictures and the words in balloons above the characters heads which greatly assisted understanding of Willy Shakespeare.
These were not happy days.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Great Expectations is a great book, and not really all that hard to read. If you read it a chapter per day, you're through it in two months.Of course I would not have done that as a kid. I would just get one of those student notes books. I think those student notes books, like the York notes, are interesting to read anyway, but not instead of the book. There was a good BBC TV series in the 80s with Joan Hickson as Miss Haversham and Patsy Kensit as the young Estella. I think that was 12 episodes long. The David Lean film was also great. That last BBC adaption looked bloody awful so I didn't watch it. They always mess about with the ending in the adaptions. Dickens wrote two endings himself, one very ambiguous, so there could be a question on that. Film adaptions often omit characters, in particular Orlick.

 

[jefmcg]

to this day, many decades on, I have never read either of the 2 books we studied for English O Level.

What was so terrible about those books that you've been avoiding them for decades?

And do English schools really only study two novels a year?

 

[spen666]

What was so terrible about those books that you've been avoiding them for decades?

And do English schools really only study two novels a year?

What was so terrible? I don't know as I have never read the books! I was able to get enough information to pass my exams by watching TV versions or seeing them performed live. Seemed little point in spending unnecessary time reading the books as well.

And do English schools really only study two novels a year? Of course not. Don't be silly. the O Level course was taught over 2 years, so it was 2 books over 2 years, not 2 books per year. the latter would have been positively draconian

 

[jefmcg]

What was so terrible? I don't know as I have never read the books!

let me spell it out: what were the names of the two books?

(we had to read Kes/A Kestrel for a Knave amongst many others. They also showed us the film. From the other side of the world, Ken Loach is completely incomprehensible - both metaphorically and literally. The film needs subtitles!)

 

[Floating Bombus]

Great Expectations is a great book, and not really all that hard to read. If you read it a chapter per day, you're through it in two months.Of course I would not have done that as a kid. I would just get one of those student notes books. I think those student notes books, like the York notes, are interesting to read anyway, but not instead of the book. There was a good BBC TV series in the 80s with Joan Hickson as Miss Haversham and Patsy Kensit as the young Estella. I think that was 12 episodes long. The David Lean film was also great. That last BBC adaption looked bloody awful so I didn't watch it. They always mess about with the ending in the adaptions. Dickens wrote two endings himself, one very ambiguous, so there could be a question on that. Film adaptions often omit characters, in particular Orlick.

Sounds like a sensible way to read it and probably close to the way it was intended to be read, as Dickens tended to write for serialisation. But when you consider English will be just one of ten or so GCSE subjects, I'm not sure it's practical for most.

 

[Yellow Fang]

let me spell it out: what were the names of the two books?

(we had to read Kes/A Kestrel for a Knave amongst many others. They also showed us the film. From the other side of the world, Ken Loach is completely incomprehensible - both metaphorically and literally. The film needs subtitles!)

That reminds me, I still have the last half hour to watch. It has some good scenes, but I reckon the book was must have been better.

Think yourself lucky, we had to do Jane Eyre. Not just Victorian literature, Victorian chick lit.

 

[Julia9054]

I remember The Mayor of Casterbridge and Tess of the D'Urbavilles. Both utter drivel according to my teenage self! I have never been tempted to re read to see if i agree with former me!
I am an extremely fast reader and had knocked each one off in a couple of weekends. I have never been able to read a book a bit at a time. I then had to endure months of waiting for my classmates to catch me up!

 

[Profpointy]

The painful thing about English lessons in school was the interminable reading aloud in class. Of course, you get bored so read ahead, then get told it's your turn to read and you're about 10 pages ahead so get told off for not paying attention. How this misery is expected to get kids interested in literature god only knows. Of the book is shyte as well you are on to a loser. I'd usually read the wretched thing the first week anyway so doubly dull to do it again in class. We did Shrimp and the Anenome - what a bore ! The other group got 1984 - the most important novel of the 20th century and itterly gripping. Harrhumph!

Reading out Shakespeare isn't quite as bad, but still rather dry. I was lucky I'd previously been taken to see Macbeth and was enthralled and gained a lifelong love of Shakespear before it was killed by English lessons. Anyone remember those awful BBC Shakespeares with otherwise good actors ratling through lines to show how clever they are rather than entertain and of course ponderously labour any jokes. We did get the odd trip to Stratford which showed how it should be done. More positively I was still seeing new things in almost every line after a year of it, but still dry read out.

 

[Sandra6]

let me spell it out: what were the names of the two books?

(we had to read Kes/A Kestrel for a Knave amongst many others. They also showed us the film. From the other side of the world, Ken Loach is completely incomprehensible - both metaphorically and literally. The film needs subtitles!)

I never read the book, but watched the film as a child and thought it was amazing. I'd have loved to have studied that in English, but if you don't understand the dialect, or the social environment, it must be quite challenging.

 

[Floating Bombus]

We did Shrimp and the Anenome - what a bore ! The other group got 1984 - the most important novel of the 20th century and itterly gripping. Harrhumph!

Never even heard of Shrimp and the Anemone. But after reading 1984, you should read We by Zamyatin; it's what Orwell was inspired by/quite obviously picked ideas and phrases from.

 

[subaqua]

In this years English lit it's " a Christmas Carol" daughter has read it and watched several interpretations . Muppet version is rather good ....

 

[Profpointy]

The teachers job is to get as many pupils to pass the exam as possible, if watching the film helps to cement the basics of the plot in the minds of some pupils then she has done her job.

If the pupils are anything like i was, a fair few will not have read the book, and the teacher knows this.

I remember doing julius Caeser at GCSE, watching the video helped me.

Was it this version?


View: https://youtu.be/kvs4bOMv5Xw


I saw it at Stratford the other day and was disapointed that they't cut that bit

 

[KnackeredBike]

Problem with English literature is they choose the most boring books imaginable and basically train you to parrot verbatim plot analysis. Even watching the films was tedious. I really don't understand why we have some dogged need to force teenagers to plough through a Shakespeare play.

 

[midlife]

let me spell it out: what were the names of the two books?

(we had to read Kes/A Kestrel for a Knave amongst many others. They also showed us the film. From the other side of the world, Ken Loach is completely incomprehensible - both metaphorically and literally. The film needs subtitles!)

We did Kes at school too. Not too tricky for a Yorksire lad

Shaun

Ps the football match in the film of Kes is one of the funniest things ever lol