Back from the wilderness: what's been going on?

Hello wonderfulls!

I am recovering and feel strong enough to put out a call and find out what you have been up to. I very much hope to be back on Friday and need to consider what we will do. 

AS - I have seen some scrumptious Power texts on your blogs. What have you been doing with those? Have you done a half term assessment yet? How are your text message investigations going? I was thinking we could do some more input on those or sit a Power assessment on Friday? Read the A2 info below if you fancy getting ahead on some stuff for next year. Otherwise, visit the Andrew Moore website I recommended in another post, revise and do further research on the theory we have done. Practise applying those ideas to any text you can lay your hands on, from formal letters to transcribed real or dramatic conversations to charity appeal adverts, to whatever has authority over the audience and/or seeks to influence them.

A2 - I know you haven't been getting much input but I hope you have been pointed in the right direction to do some Language Change work. Have you been using the textbooks? What else have you been doing? Some extension work would be to watch some period dramas set after 1700 and get some familiarity with how people behaved and taked (but beware that popular dramas are updated with modern morals, sensibilities and political correctness) so perhaps better would be to read some literature written after 1700 but both would be useful. For Language students, a really good choice is Wuthering Heights which is one of my fave books and also has some interesting dialect written phonetically. Also the play Pygmalion (which My Fair Lady was based on) would be very useful for ideas about prescriptivism. Visit The British Library website - I will be giving you some questions if you haven't had them already but it doesn't hurt to explore for yourself what they have in terms of educational resources. Don't forget to revise Power, Gender and CLA.

Comment or email me please - you guys know better than anyone else what you have actually accomplished and what you need. 

Thinking about you all and I really want to be back and teaching.