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A short class with Sarah and her students. The other ways are under More.
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Here is a question: Discuss how Hughes presents violence in 'Crow Tyrannosaurus'. What is the command word?
Discuss.
And what does discuss ask you to do?
To weigh more than one aspect or view before reaching a conclusion.
Good. And the focus?
Violence, and how Hughes presents it.
So you plan three or four aspects, such as the title, the imagery, humanity and the absence of comfort, and end with a conclusion.
Suppose the paper prints a few lines from the poem and asks you to explain them. Where do you begin?
With locating them: are they from the opening, the development or the close?
Yes. Then?
I paraphrase them in my own words so that I show I have understood.
And after that?
I analyse a device and its effect, and then link it to the poem's vision of violence and survival.
Locate, paraphrase, analyse, link. That is your route.
You have written your answer. How do you check it?
I look at the command word first, to see whether I answered what was asked.
And then?
I check that I mentioned the title and gave evidence with its effect.
Anything else?
Whether I linked my points to the poem's vision, and whether I stayed within the word limit.
Good. Five minutes of checking can lift an answer a whole level.
state, explain, discuss, comment, analyse, compare and evaluate each ask for a different kind of answer.
short answer, long answer, extract-based, critical appreciation and comparison.
a long-answer paragraph plan of Point, Evidence, Explanation and Link.
locate, paraphrase, analyse and link.
use the checklist to test an answer for the command word, the title, evidence, effect and links to the poem's vision.
A short answer of about 50 words to the question what does the title suggest: the title joins a living bird and a prehistoric meat-eating dinosaur with no word between them, so it suggests that the two predators share one appetite and violence across millions of years, and it announces the poem's central pairing and its dark view of nature.
An outline for the long-answer question discuss how Hughes presents violence: point one, violence as a condition and not an exception, with the title and the stark imagery; point two, violence across time, through the pairing of Crow with Tyrannosaurus; point three, violence in human beings as well as animals; point four, the absence of comfort and the dark mood; then a conclusion that answers the question directly.
A method for an extract question: say whether the lines come in the opening, the development or the close, put them in your own words, name a device with its effect, and link them to the idea that violence and survival are part of existence.
A comparison plan with Hawk Roosting: compare the vision of nature, since both poems deal with predators and power; the voice, since the hawk speaks for itself in a calm, self-assured monologue while in this poem you should check in your copy who speaks and how the voice presents Crow; and the tone, setting the hawk's calm self-assurance against the stark, unsentimental tone of this poem.
Read the word that tells you what to do / plan your points and write them through / own words, proof and link as well / check the clock before the bell.
A student spends the first three minutes of an exam underlining the command word and sketching four points. The student beside her starts writing at once and wanders off the question. At the end, her answer is clear and complete, and his is not.
Some Excellent Debaters Command Attention, Charm Everyone: State, Explain, Discuss, Comment, Analyse, Compare, Evaluate.
L.P.A.L. - Locate, Paraphrase, Analyse, Link, the four steps for an extract question
Term
What does the command word discuss ask you to do?
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Term
What does PEEL stand for?
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Term
What are the four steps for an extract-based question?
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Term
How should you approach a comparison question?
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What should you check at the end of an answer?
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The word in an exam question, such as state, explain, discuss or evaluate, that tells you what kind of answer is required.
A short passage printed from the poem on which a question is based.
A paragraph plan: Point, Evidence, Explanation and Link back to the question.
To restate a passage in your own words while keeping its meaning.
An answer that sets two texts side by side and shows how they are alike and how they differ.
A specific feature of the poem, such as an image, a word choice or a line reference, used to support a point.
A short plan of the points an answer will make, drawn up before writing.
The approximate length that a question asks for, which shows how much detail is wanted.
This lesson prepares you to answer exam questions on 'Crow Tyrannosaurus': short-answer, long-answer, extract-based, appreciation and comparison questions, with a method for each, model answers and a checklist for marking your own work.
Questions on this poem usually ask about its subject, its central pairing of Crow with Tyrannosaurus, its themes, its devices, its tone and mood, or they ask for a critical appreciation or a comparison with another poem. This lesson sets out five question types, a method for each, a bank of practice questions, worked model answers and a self-marking checklist. The aim is to turn what you know about the poem into well-structured answers that use your own words, give evidence and explain effects.
Reading the question. Underline the command word and the focus of the question. State asks for a brief, direct answer. Explain asks for reasons. Discuss asks you to weigh more than one view or aspect before concluding. Comment asks for your reading of the effect. Analyse asks you to break something into parts and say how they work. Compare asks for similarities and differences. Evaluate asks for a reasoned judgement.
Type 1: short-answer questions (about 40 to 60 words). Example: what does the title suggest? Give a focused answer of two or three sentences: a point and its explanation. Do not retell the whole poem.
Type 2: long-answer questions (about 150 to 250 words). Example: discuss how Hughes presents violence in the poem. Plan three or four points and write each as a PEEL paragraph: Point, Evidence (a brief reference by stanza or image), Explanation and Link back to the question. Begin with the title, and end with a short conclusion.
Type 3: extract-based questions. The paper may print a stanza or a few lines and ask you to explain them, comment on a word or say how they relate to the poem. Use four steps: Locate the extract in the poem's movement (opening, development or close), Paraphrase it in your own words, Analyse a device and its effect, and Link it to the poem's vision of violence and survival.
Type 4: critical appreciation questions. Use the seven-part structure from the lesson on critical appreciation: introduction, subject and theme, structure and form, imagery and symbols, language and sound, tone and mood, evaluation and conclusion.
Type 5: comparison questions. You may be asked to compare this poem with another poem about nature or animals that you have studied, such as Hughes's 'Hawk Roosting'. Choose three points of comparison, for example the vision of nature, the voice and the tone, and write similarities and differences for each point, instead of summarising the two poems one after the other. In 'Hawk Roosting' the hawk speaks in the first person with calm self-assurance about its power over the world; 'Crow Tyrannosaurus' has a title that sets a mythic bird beside a prehistoric predator, and the poem shows violence in nature and in human life.
A question bank to practise on.
A self-marking checklist.