When you come back next term, you'll be doing IGCSE English Language & IGCSE Literature with Miss Liz and Mr Michael.
Over the summer they are setting you all some reading homework to help you prepare for your IGCSE English course.
As you know, for Literature there are some set texts you have to study, and you will be examined on them at the end of the 2-year course.
One topic you will cover is 'Short Stories', and there are ten short stories you need to read.
For homework, each of you will be assigned to a particular story.
You need to prepare a presentation for the rest of the class explaining what the story is about - you can do this in whatever format you like - for example: as a blog post, a Powerpoint presentation, a poster, a YouTube vlog, a diorama, a short play, a song, or any other form you like, so long as you clearly explain the following things:
All ten stories can be found in the Cambridge IGCSE fiction anthology "Stories of Ourselves."
They are:
Sredni Vashtar (written in 1912, by Saki) - UTSAV AND OAK
The Phoenix (written in 1940, by Sylvia Townsend Warner) - ALEX AND FARREL
The Prison (written in 1950, by Bernard Malamud) - POJ AND JAY
Billenium (written in 1961, by J.G. Ballard) - A.K. AND SAMYAK
The People Before (written in 1963, by Maurice Shadbolt) - RAY
Ming's Biggest Prey (written in 1975, by Patricia Highsmith) - KEVIN AND MARK
Games at Twilight (written in 1978, by Anita Desai) - ANSHUMAN AND TAO
To Da-duh, in Memoriam (written in 1985, by Paule Marshall) - KHUSH
Of White Hairs and Cricket (written in 1987, by Rohinton Mistry) - AKSHIT
Tyres (written in 2000, by Adam Thorpe) - NIDHI
Obviously the first thing you need to do is read your story, and try to understand it yourself! (There are bound to be words that you don't know - dictionary.com is your friend!)
If you weren't at school (hello Kevin!) and you didn't get given a copy of the story, try to find a copy online - but if you can't do that, you can STILL research the story online and prepare a presentation to help yourself and your classmates learn about the story.
If you type the title & the writer's name into Google, you will find prezi presentations, sparknotes, blogs and other sources of information to help you understand your story and its background.
Once you've finished creating your presentation, it would be A VERY GOOD IDEA to read the rest of the stories (or as many as you can!) over the summer holiday, if you have the time.
(If you find your story super hard, and you are completely stuck, it would be better to pick one of the other stories to read and research - if you show up at the start of term having done nothing I WILL COME BACK FROM UGANDA AND GO HULK SMASH RAAAAH.)
Over the summer they are setting you all some reading homework to help you prepare for your IGCSE English course.
As you know, for Literature there are some set texts you have to study, and you will be examined on them at the end of the 2-year course.
One topic you will cover is 'Short Stories', and there are ten short stories you need to read.
For homework, each of you will be assigned to a particular story.
You need to prepare a presentation for the rest of the class explaining what the story is about - you can do this in whatever format you like - for example: as a blog post, a Powerpoint presentation, a poster, a YouTube vlog, a diorama, a short play, a song, or any other form you like, so long as you clearly explain the following things:
- Introduce the writer (name, gender, where they're from, what other things they wrote, what they were well known for - anything you can find that is interesting.)
- Introduce the story: (where & when is it set? Is it from a particular genre like horror, mystery, scifi, romance etc?
- Is it told in the first person (as if the main character is telling you their story directly) or the third person (as if the writer is telling you a story about somebody else)?
- Introduce the main character (name, where they are, what they're doing, what they want etc)
- Summarise the key points of the story in 500 words or less.
- Identify which part of the story you think is the most exciting & memorable.
- What do you think the main THEME of the story is?
All ten stories can be found in the Cambridge IGCSE fiction anthology "Stories of Ourselves."
They are:
Sredni Vashtar (written in 1912, by Saki) - UTSAV AND OAK
The Phoenix (written in 1940, by Sylvia Townsend Warner) - ALEX AND FARREL
The Prison (written in 1950, by Bernard Malamud) - POJ AND JAY
Billenium (written in 1961, by J.G. Ballard) - A.K. AND SAMYAK
The People Before (written in 1963, by Maurice Shadbolt) - RAY
Ming's Biggest Prey (written in 1975, by Patricia Highsmith) - KEVIN AND MARK
Games at Twilight (written in 1978, by Anita Desai) - ANSHUMAN AND TAO
To Da-duh, in Memoriam (written in 1985, by Paule Marshall) - KHUSH
Of White Hairs and Cricket (written in 1987, by Rohinton Mistry) - AKSHIT
Tyres (written in 2000, by Adam Thorpe) - NIDHI
Obviously the first thing you need to do is read your story, and try to understand it yourself! (There are bound to be words that you don't know - dictionary.com is your friend!)
If you weren't at school (hello Kevin!) and you didn't get given a copy of the story, try to find a copy online - but if you can't do that, you can STILL research the story online and prepare a presentation to help yourself and your classmates learn about the story.
If you type the title & the writer's name into Google, you will find prezi presentations, sparknotes, blogs and other sources of information to help you understand your story and its background.
Once you've finished creating your presentation, it would be A VERY GOOD IDEA to read the rest of the stories (or as many as you can!) over the summer holiday, if you have the time.
(If you find your story super hard, and you are completely stuck, it would be better to pick one of the other stories to read and research - if you show up at the start of term having done nothing I WILL COME BACK FROM UGANDA AND GO HULK SMASH RAAAAH.)
