Emmanuel was a baby born in a war zone. His is physically disabled. Here he sings 'Imagine' on the x-factor. It is very humbling and provides an example of responding to conflict for students - both from the point of view of emmanuel, his mother, the audience and the judges. This performance provides a good discussion starter, Tissues may be required.
This resource pack explores the first meeting of Romeo and Juliet. The notion of "love at first sight" is discussed; the scene is set in context and students move on to looking in detail at the religious imagery used by Romeo and Juliet in Act 1, Scene 5. The sonnet form is then introduced. Students investigate Shakespeare's use of this form at this point and then progress to identifying other sonnets in the play.
"The Romantic poets
This week, in the Guardian and the Observer, every day's paper comes with a free pamphlet on one of the great Romantics poets, from John Keats through to William Blake.
As well as a selection of the poets' finest works, each pamphlet contains excerpts from their personal correspondence and a foreword from a modern-day admirer, with Christopher Hitchens championing Percy Bysshe Shelley, Margaret Drabble on William Wordsworth and Don Paterson writing in praise of Robert Burns.
On the website, you can listen to readings of the featured poet's poems, join our daily discussions of their seminal works with the books blog's poet-in-residence, Carol Rumens, and download this week's books podcast, in which literary editor Claire Armitstead talks to Andrew Motion and the series editor, Nicholas Wroe, about the Romantics' legacy.
If you missed out on any of the booklets, click here to buy copies from the readers offers department "
a brief little discussion - like the comment: How exactly do they think knowing their grade is going to help them improve?? - perhaps i should ask the same of my students.