Diving Bell
Teacher blog: When it's good to say it's bad
One of the problems is that students forget that they’re supposed to be forming a personal response to the texts. And that often begins with
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Diving Bell
Aug 19, 20192 min read
Classroom of the Future Still Buffering
Twenty years ago, the principal of my school complained that our ICT budget got bigger every year. I remember suggesting that before we...
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Diving Bell
Aug 17, 20194 min read
Student blog: analysing the quote
Analysis does NOT mean paraphrase it. You should say how the quote shows your point (so you’ve got to have one of those) not that it does.
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Diving Bell
Aug 15, 20191 min read
Teacher Grammar
It's the weak chink in most people's armour, if they were born after 1975. Can you spot a grammar error - and identify it?
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Diving Bell
Aug 12, 20193 min read
Teacher blog: A better way of marking
The Pattern of Mistakes (POMs) marking strategy identifies the most common mistakes and prioritizes the order of tackling them.
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Diving Bell
Aug 10, 20193 min read
Student Blog: How to Quote Good
Good quoting mechanics make the difference between looking like you speak English, and looking like you hurt it.
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Diving Bell
Aug 6, 20192 min read
Student blog: The stand-out essay feature
You need to expand on the (big, impressive, profound) idea you’ve raised in the topic sentence with a few more sentences before moving ele
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Diving Bell
Aug 5, 20193 min read
History Blog: Precision Language – Do You Speak It?
The exponential growth of imprecise language in Stage 4 and 5 means History students who under-achieve by Stage 6.
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Diving Bell
Aug 2, 20193 min read
Student blog: Topic sentences that convince markers
There are three things you must do in your topic sentence:
1. Make a clear reference to the question
2. Bring up the first idea mentioned
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Diving Bell
Jul 31, 20194 min read
Teacher blog: Developing a discursive
The struggle with the discursive mode The rework of HSC English Module C has been a good one; it gets away from the prepackaged creative...
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Diving Bell
Jul 28, 20193 min read
Student blog: Outlining your argument
Good essays answer the question and explain their answer. This is an argument. Bad essays repeat the question and say memorized, irrelevant
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Diving Bell
Jul 24, 20193 min read
Teacher blog: Trials and Revelations
Bands 3 and 4 are solidly made up of well-meaning kids who think that memorizing ten quotes and telling you where polysyndeton can be found
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Diving Bell
Jul 20, 20193 min read
Student blog: Giving context in your introduction
After you’ve given a straight answer to the question in your thesis statement (if you’re confused about this, read the last blogpost...
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Diving Bell
Jul 14, 20193 min read
Student blog: WTF is a thesis statement anyway?
Are your essays terrible? It's probably because of one of these problems: 1. You don't understand what an essay actually is - I mean, WTF...
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Diving Bell
Jul 10, 20193 min read
Teacher blog: Using model answers
Sadly, most students aren't really receptive to model answers until after the Trials. Most Year 12s will try to use what they already...
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