Apostrophes and thinking about reading

We started today with a quick quiz on apostrophes. Remember that there are different uses for the apostrophe. The purpose, though, was to draw your attention to the BBC Skillswise site which is a useful place to go to revise your writing and reading skills. It also has resources on numeracy.

We then started to look at the differences between tabloid and broadsheet newspapers. You came up with some good examples of both. You made the point that tabloids tend to focus on issues to do with celebrity and entertainment. They can often exaggerate and use emotive language. Broadsheets, on the other hand, are often more interested in world affairs and social issues. They are, you said, more informative, formal and more complex.

You started on a practice reading assessment - I'll give you feedback on that next week.

Thoughts on University Open Day in the Music Box

I'd be interested to know people's thoughts on the little trip that we had down to the University Open Day. Did anyone find out anything useful? Did it help make anything clear for anyone? Any thoughts at all on your next steps?

Reflecting on and preparing for discussion

Today we started off by looking back to the group work on Personal Statements that you were involved in last week.

I've made some comments on that in a previous post.

You will be doing more group discussion next week.

I asked everyone to choose a website that is useful for job or course hunting. Everyone will be talking about these sites next week. You need to talk about what's on the site and evaluate the site as a resource.

Everyone completed a worksheet on their chosen site in preparation for the discussion activity next week.

Student's choice of websites

Nicola: www.reed.co.uk

Sinead: www.jobs.stv.tv

Scott: www.scottishlegaljobs.com

Dale: www.monster.co.uk

Alex: www.s1jobs.com

Andrew: www.s1jobs.com

Kitlei: www.scotcareers.co.uk

Paul: www.s1jobs.co.uk

Stuart: www.monster.co.uk

Shahrzad: www.jobsearch.co.uk

Ameera: www.jevc.ac.uk

Gemma: www.west-lothian.ac.uk

Group work on personal statements

On the 30 October we looked at two personal statements for students applying to university. We looked at the strength and weaknesses of the two statements. One came out clearly on top - mainly because of its clear paragraphing and writing.

What I was also interested in was how people organised themselves in groups. I stood back a bit from the groups to observe how you organised yourself. Some groups worked very efficiently while other groups got a bit side-tracked from their objective.

On the whole, though, your interpersonal skills as a class are good. Sometimes it just takes a bit of confidence to be the one to get your group back on track.

Thanks for your evaluations - they were insightful and honest.