Literature
Meeting at night
This story is told through an absolute minimum of images, and a few linkers. It also works very well as a script for a film! Meeting at night I. The grey sea and the long black land;And the yellow half-moon...
Literature
The Difficulty Sheet
The material described here is an attempt to deal with this eternal complaint from students. Complaints about difficulty can arise with any type of reasonably challenging text, but poetry by its very...
Literature
To Make a Play
This is a poem that uses very simple, 'everyday' language - there are no exotic phrases or words that make you reach for a dictionary. On the other hand, the meaning is not immediately clear because the...
Literature
Bloody Men
Here is a fairly simple poem, which makes its case by starting with a straightforward simile which is developed into a full-blown analogy. All students should be able to grasp the text. The issue then...
Literature
Approaches to the sea
This page is principally about the idea of 'approach', which also involves 'tone', and finally 'style'. This are all terms which refer to complex concepts which can be endlessly elaborated, but it is...
Literature
The Cool Web
This short poem poses quite difficult questions about whether language is a comfort or a soporific. Is language a necessary means of reducing the world to the manageable ? The poem can be taught as an...
Literature
Ben Jonson's son
There are things in life that are hard to bear. That is a very simple, even obvious, statement, but if we take the words literally, they point at experiences which are appalling to contemplate. What a...
Blog
November/December Updates Free
For many of us, the festive season has well and truly arrived. Here in the UK, many towns have held events in which a local celebrity switches on the town's Christmas lights, and these same celebrities...
Activities
AWL Sublist 1
This page focuses on words from the Academic Wordlist sublist 1. There are Quizlet flashcards, a gap fill exercise to learn these words, and a writing prompt and speaking task to practise using them....
Activities
AWL Sublist 2
This page focuses on words from the Academic Wordlist sublist 2. There are Quizlet flashcards, a gap fill exercise to learn these words, and a writing prompt and speaking task to practise using them....