Pre-reading Year 8 homework booklet
Transcript of Pre-reading Year 8 homework booklet
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Pre-reading Year 8 homework
booklet October Half Term 2021
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Contents
Page 3 Introduction and reading rules
Pages 4-5 English
Pages 6-7 Geography
Pages 8-9 Maths
Page 10 Design and Technology
Pages 11-12 Science
Page 13 Computing
Pages 14 History
Page 15 Music
Page 16 Art
Page 17 French
Page 18 Physical Education
Page 19 EBC
Page 20 Drama
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Introduction
This homework booklet is designed to encourage you to read and research
the topics you will be studying in each subject next term.
Research shows that pupils who read regularly, achieve higher results in tests.
WPSFG Reading Rules
First reading is understanding
• Highlight any words you do not understand and try to use strategies to
work out what they mean
• Track with a ruler
• Summarise key points
Second reading is zooming in
• Identifying any interesting features
• How does the extract make you feel?
• How might this extract be interpreted by others?
Once you have finished your pre-reading, look for other examples of
research and reading you could do
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The origins of A Christmas Carol
Dickens set out to write his pamphlet-turned-book in spring 1843, having just read
government report on child labor in the United Kingdom. The report took the form of
a compilation of interviews with children that detailed their crushing labours.
Dickens read the testimony of girls who sewed dresses for the expanding market of
middle-class consumers; they regularly worked 16 hours a day, six days a week,
sleeping—like Martha Cratchit—above the factory floor. He read of 8-year-old
children who dragged coal carts through tiny underground passages over a
standard 11-hour workday. These were not exceptional stories, but ordinary. Dickens
wrote to one of the government investigators that the descriptions left him
“stricken.”
This new, brutal reality of child labour was the result of significant changes in British
society due to the Industrial Revolution. The population of England had grown 64%
between Dickens’ birth in 1812 and the year of the child labour report. Workers were
leaving the countryside to crowd into new manufacturing centers and cities. More
and more, employers thought of their workers as tools. Workers were becoming like
commodities: not individual humans, but mere resources, their value measured by
how many nails they could hammer in an hour.
Popular theories about how—or whether—to help the poor often made things
worse. The first was the widespread belief that poor people tended to be so
because they were lazy and immoral, and that helping them would only encourage
their laziness. If they were to be helped, it should be under conditions so awful as to
discourage people from seeking that help. The new workhouses were the perfect
solution—where families were split up, food was minimal and work painful. “Those
who are badly off,” says the unreformed Scrooge, “must go there.” Associated with
this concept were the ideas of Rev. Thomas Malthus, who cautioned against
intervening when people were hungry because it would only lead to an untenable
population size. Better that the poor should starve and therefore “decrease the
surplus population.”
What he wrote was that employers are responsible for the well -being of their
employees. Their workers should not be seen as tools for production but as humans.
They are of value as “fellow-passengers to the grave,” in the words of Scrooge’s
nephew, “and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.” Employers
owe their employees as human beings—no better, but no worse, than themselves.
“Oh God!” the ghost growls, “to hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too
much life among his hungry brothers in the dust!” In other words, Dickens reminded
his 19th-century readers—and today’s—not to mistake their good fortune of landing
in a high place for their worth.
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Reflection questions:
1. Highlight and clarify any words you do not understand.
2. What made Dickens want to write ‘A Christmas Carol’?
3. Look again at this quote:
‘The first was the widespread belief that poor people tended to be so
because they were lazy and immoral, and that helping them would only
encourage their laziness.’
How does this link to stereotypical beliefs held about poor families in
society today?
4. Why do you think writing a book would be the best way to communicate
Dickens’ concerns about society?
John Leech’s original illustrations in
the first publication of A Christmas
Carol. Here, he depicts the children
of ‘Ignorance’ and ‘Want’,
John Leech’s original illustrations in
the first publication of A Christmas
Carol. Here, he depicts the Ghost of
Christmas Yet to Come and
Scrooge
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Geography: Globalisation
What is ‘Globalisation’?
Taken from BBC Bitesize and Geog.3
The world is now a very small, interconnected place, as a result of globalisation.
Globalisation is the increasing connection between places and people across the planet.
Companies, products, ideas and lifestyles are spreading around the world. Globalisation
has been taking place for hundreds of years, but has sped up enormously over the last
half-century due to developments in technology and transport. Improved transport
means that people and products can be moved around the world more quickly.
Distance between places hasn’t changed but the time needed to cover these distances
has. Improvements in technology, such as the internet, has meant that money can be
transferred instantly between locations. People can also use telephones and the internet
to communicate more easily in ‘real time’. Millions of people are interconnected thanks
to the power of the digital world via platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Skype or
YouTube. Books, movies, and music are now instantaneously available all around the
world thanks to the development of the digital world and the power of the internet.
Distant places now seem much closer today than they did in the past – we can even see
them in real time too!
Have a look at the facts below that show how globalised the world is:
• In the early 1900s it used to take roughly 6 weeks to travel to Australia by boat. Now
it takes 24 hours by plane!
• On average there are 3.5 billion Google searches a day on mobile phones
• 70% of our chocolate in the UK comes from African countries e.g. Ivory Coast
• Avocados are grown mostly under the tropical temperatures of Mexico, the
Dominican Republic or Peru, but world trade means that avocado is common in
meals all over the world.
There are also other examples of globalization regarding traditions like Black Friday in the
US, the Brazilian Carnival or the Indian Holi Festival. They all were originally created
following their countries’ local traditions and beliefs but as the world got to know them,
they are now common traditions in other countries too.
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Tasks:
• Highlight any key words that you
are unsure of. Make a note of
them and do some research to
help you come up with a
definition.
• What is ‘globalisation’? Come up
with your own definition.
• Explain why the world has
become more globalised in
recent years.
Challenge
• How global are you?
We are linked to real people all over
the world through the things we buy.
Clothing is a good example. Most of
the clothes we buy are made in
other countries. Look at the labels
inside 10 items of clothing that you
own. Where were they made?
Make a list of the items and where
they were produced.
Do you notice any patterns? Where
are these countries?
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Maths: Why is geometry so important in your life anyway?
Geometry is a branch of mathematics that studies the sizes, shapes, positions angles and
dimensions of things. The earliest recorded beginnings of geometry can be traced to early
peoples, who discovered obtuse triangles in the ancient Indus Valley, and
ancient Babylonia from around 3000 BC. Early geometry was a collection of empirically
discovered principles concerning lengths, angles, areas, and volumes, which were
developed to meet some practical need in surveying, construction, astronomy, and
various crafts.
Its application began long back during Egyptian civilization. They used geometry in
different fields such as art, measurement, and architecture. Glorious temples, palaces,
dams, and bridges are the result of these. In addition to construction and measurements,
it has influenced many more fields of engineering, biochemical modeling, designing,
computer graphics, and typography.
Some of such applications of Geometry in daily life in different fields are described below-
Art
Mathematics and art are related in a variety of ways. For instance, the theory
of perspective (a graphical representation of on a flat surface of an image as seen by
eyes) showed that there is more to geometry than just the metric properties of figures:
and this perspective is the basis of the origin of projective geometry.
Technical
The concept of geometry is also applied in the fields of robotics, computer, and video
games. The geometry provides handy concepts both for computer and video game
programmers. The way & the design of the characters that move through their virtual
worlds requires geometric computations to create paths around the obstacles
concentrating around the virtual world. Video game engines typically put to use ray
casting, which is a technique that simulates a 3-D world using a 2-D map. Using this form
of geometry helps speed up processing because calculations are only done for the
vertical lines on the screen.
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Architecture
Just like other forms of arts, architects use mathematics for several reasons. Apart from the
mathematics needed when engineering buildings, architects use geometry: to define the
spatial form of a building i.e. to create the design of the building its shape, height,
structure basically the construction blueprint. Apart from this the Pythagoreans of the sixth
century BC onwards used geometry to create forms considered harmonious, and thus to
lay outbuildings and their surroundings according to mathematical, aesthetic, and
sometimes religious principles and also to decorate buildings with mathematical objects
such as tessellations, and even mitigate the hazard arising from wind speeds around the
bases of tall buildings.
Geographic Information Systems
Geometry concepts are used in satellites in GPS systems, it calculates the position of the
satellite and location of GPS gauged by the latitudes and longitudes.
Task: List 5 different examples where you have seen geometry used in real life.
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Design and Technology: Inspiring women in Design
Stella Jean Stella Jean was raised in Rome by a Haitian mother and Italian father at "a
time when the country was completely unprepared for multicultural families
like mine...people constantly stopped in the streets to point at us.” But Jean
credits her mixed background for her later success: Jean took her father's
basic button-down shirts and mixed them with bright fabrics.
This led to her main source of design inspiration: combining different
cultures. Jean won Vogue Italy's "Who Is On Next?" competition in 2011. In
2014, Giorgio Armani showcased Stella Jean's collection at the Armani
theatre in Milan, and she was the first womenswear designer to present in
the iconic space.
That same year, Jean collaborated with Christian Louboutin on a shoe
collection. With high-profile collaborations under her belt, Jean was invited
by the UN International Development Organization to join an ethical fashion
program. Jean has also garnered an impressive list of celebrity clientele,
including Beyonce and Rihanna. Even with all her global attention, Jean
believes fashion shouldn't be exclusive. By inviting craftsmen and artisans to
sit front row at her shows, she honours the people who made it all possible.
Zaha Hadid
The Iraqi-British Zaha Hadid became famous for her intensely futuristic
architecture characterized by curving façades, sharp angles, and severe
materials such as concrete and steel.
The structures she designed successfully accomplished what mystifies so
many when they observe great architecture: She took the strongest
materials in the world and manipulated them to form objects that appear soft and
sturdy at the same time.
Over the last two decades, her work has been honoured by a long list of awards: In
2004 she was the first woman to be awarded the Pritzker Prize; in 2010 and 2011 she
received the Stirling Prize, a British decoration for excellence in architecture; in 2014.
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Science: How do we see colour?
How do you know if a banana is raw, ripe or rotten? Well, you could obviously take a bite
and tell, but most of the times, you can tell just by looking. Especially if we’re talking about
rotten bananas. A raw banana would look green, a ripe one would be yellow and a
rotten one is most likely blackened. Have you wondered how we know the difference
between these different colours? Let’s find out.
What are Colours?
All the colours we perceive are an effect of light. The seemingly colourless sunlight
contains all the colours we can see, but at different wavelengths. In fact, colour itself, is
light of a particular wavelength, reflected.
When sunlight falls on an object, the surface of the object absorbs some of the light and
reflects the rest of it. Which wavelengths of light are reflected or absorbed depends on
the properties of the object.
Say the object is a ripe banana, it would absorb all the wavelengths of light except the
ones that correspond to the colour yellow. And we would thus see that a banana is
yellow. This property of the object changes as the object changes, which is why a raw
banana would look green, and a rotting banana would appear blackish.
Why do we see different Colours?
How do we know which colour is which, i.e. how does our brain know the difference
between these colours? We have a tiny area all the way at the back of our eyes that is
responsible for us seeing colour. This area has millions of light receptors called cones and
rods which react to light and tell our brains what colours we see. The cones in our eyes are
active in light-rich environments and respond most strongly to the colours red, green and
blue, in that order. So, when we see the banana, the light from the banana hits the
cones, stimulating them. They send the message across to our brain via our optic nerves,
which processes the information and tells us what colour we’re looking at. And we then
know whether the banana is raw, ripe, or rotting.
The rods in our eyes are active in low-light environments, where cones fail to perform, but
they perceive black and white, which is why it becomes difficult to determine the colour
of objects at night, or in very dim lighting.
How are Colours and Wavelengths related?
You now know that different colours have different wavelengths. The human brain can
only recognise colours that have wavelengths within the visible spectrum. Colours that
have wavelengths that are either less or more than this visible spectrum are invisible to us.
Here’s where it gets interesting. The visible spectrum is different for different organisms. In
fact, for some insects/ birds and fish, the visible spectrum is much wider, because they
have more types of cones in their retina. Some organisms can even see ultraviolet light.
This means that while we can see that a banana is yellow, with some black lines, a bee
might see many more patterns, or maybe even more colours on the same banana.
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Task: Write a summary paragraph on the text in your self-quizzing
book.
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Computing: Representing data
Representing data
All data inside a computer is transmitted as a series of electrical signals that are
either on or off. Therefore, for a computer to be able to process any kind of data,
including text, images and sound, they must be converted into binary form. If the data is
not converted into binary – a series of 1s and 0s – the computer will simply not understand
it or be able to process it.
Representing text
When any key on a keyboard is pressed, it needs to be converted into a binary number so
that it can be processed by the computer and the typed character can appear on the
screen.
A code where each number represents a character can be used to convert text into
binary. One code we can use for this is called ASCII. The ASCII code takes each
character on the keyboard and assigns it a binary number. For example:
• the letter ‘a’ has the binary number 0110 0001 (this is the denary number 97)
• the letter ‘b’ has the binary number 0110 0010 (this is the denary number 98)
• the letter ‘c’ has the binary number 0110 0011 (this is the denary number 99)
Task What form must data be in for a computer to be able to process it?
What code can be used to convert text into binary?
What is the denary number for letter ‘d’?
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History Pre-Reading: What Is Slavery?
“Slavery is forced labour (work) where people become the property of others.
Enslaved people are held against their will in a relationship in which other people
have absolute power over them. They are not allowed to leave, to refuse to work,
to own property or receive wages.
Evidence of slavery pre-dates (comes before) written records and has existed in
almost all ages, cultures and continents. In some societies, slavery existed legally,
but today it is outlawed in nearly all countries around the world. Nevertheless,
slavery continues and millions still suffer.”
- A definition of slavery from the guidebook to the International Slavery Museum
in Liverpool
When we think about slavery now, we normally turn our minds to the slavery in America
between the 1500s – 1800s because it impacted so many people, but slavery has existed
as far back in history as we can trace.
Ancient civilisations such as the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks used slave labour to build
some of the great monuments that are still standing today. Meanwhile, some historians
believe that as many as 1 in 5 people living in the Roman Empire were slaves.
By the 11th century, a form of slavery had become common in England’s rural communities
through the Feudal System, which saw peasants or ‘serfs’ being forced to work for wealthy
landowners.
Today, freedom from slavery is a recognised human right. However, The International
Labour Organisation estimates that nearly 21 million people alive today are victims of
slavery.
Tasks:
1. Based on what you have just read, write your own definition of the term
‘slavery’
2. Summarise the reading in no more 100 words
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1. Make a list of 10 sounds
that you hear
around school e.g. the
school bell. Put these
sounds in order from what
you consider to be
the quietest to the loudest.
2. If pp means very quiet,
what do you
think ppp means? What
about fff?
3. What sounds can you think
of that may approach our
‘threshold of pain’ –
around 120 dB?
Music can be loud or quiet, or somewhere in between. The
volume of a piece of music can change gradually
or suddenly. Another word for volume is DYNAMICS which is one
of our musical elements.
Dynamic markings
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when music printing
became established, Italian composers were generally regarded
as the leaders of European music. For that reason, it became
natural for composers to use Italian when writing down directions
to performers and this practice still continues. This is why we
use the Italian words forte (f) (loud) and piano (p) (quiet). These
words tell you what dynamics to use when playing a particular
piece. Contrasts in dynamics are often used to help set the
mood of the piece and add expression.
Here are some of the dynamic directions and their
abbreviations:
Italian key word Abbreviation Meaning
pianissimo pp very quiet
piano p quiet
mezzo piano mp moderately quiet
mezzo forte mf moderately loud
forte f loud
fortissimo ff very loud
crescendo cresc. gradually getting louder
diminuendo dim. gradually getting quieter
This sign is also used to show
a CRESCENDO
This sign is also used to show
a DIMINUENDO
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Art & Design - Picasso Pablo Picasso, born in a poor family in southern Spain in 1881,
he was a child prodigy and ended as the greatest painter of
his century. After some early training with his father, a drawing
teacher, Picasso showed that he had thoroughly grasped
naturalistic conventions–the ways that artists make a picture
look "realistic"–at a very young age. After some sessions of art
school in Barcelona and Madrid, Picasso spent his
adolescence associating with a group of artists in Barcelona.
From there he moved to Paris, where he quickly found like-
minded poets and painters. His work began to attract serious
critical attention and praise by the time he was twenty.
The time around 1901, is classified as his Blue Period. He painted
anecdotal scenes of clowns, vagrants, and women, all in tones of blue.
Important early works include his "Self- Portrait" (1901) seen above and
‘The Old Guitarist’ (1903-4) left. As Picasso spent more time in Paris, as his
painting developed, and as he began to meet the right people, his
mood lifted. His subject matter remained much the same, but his tones
were warmer, or rosier, and the atmosphere of his paintings was more
positive. This is sometimes called Picasso's Rose Period, but really there
was no marked technical change between this and the Blue Period.
During this time, Picasso soaked in all the experimental energy of
the Parisian art scene and, inspired by other French painters–
especially Paul Cézanne, and the art of Africa and the Pacific–
Picasso began to create for himself a radically new style, Cubism,
a movement Picasso developed in collaboration with another
painter, Georges Braque.
Demolishing the traditional conception of 2D space, Picasso and
Braque painted objects as pieces and fragments, rather than as
unified objects; they wanted to paint as they thought, not as they
saw. As time went on, their paintings took on more and more new
viewpoints, and appeared more fragmented and distorted. Picasso and Braque had
found a way to change a realistic subject into an abstracted painting.
Picasso made valuable contributions to art throughout his entire life, but it was the
invention of Cubism that secured his immortality. His later work, in many different styles
shows that his artistic vitality transcends any one style.
Write a short summary paragraph about Pablo Picasso and his artwork
Think: How would you describe this work to someone who had never seen it before?
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French
School Life in France
There are differences between school life in France and the UK. A fundamental difference is that you don’t wear a uniform to school in France. They can wear jeans and trainers! In France, the school day may run from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. However, often children have no school or only half a day on a Wednesday.
Many schools also have a lunch break of 2 hours. A standard school lunch will consist of a salad followed by a main course, with a side of vegetables, then a cheese course and a dessert which will often be fruit, and occasionally a pastry. As you would expect in France, fresh bread is offered daily. However, if children do not wish to eat in the canteen, a packed lunch is not usually an option. Instead, children go home for lunch and with many schools having a two-hour lunch break this is easy to do if it fits around the parents’ schedule.
Extra-curricular activities are usually done outside of school in France. French schools do not tend to offer after school sports or creative clubs, as is often the option in the UK. Schools in France are secular. Aside from the private Catholic schools, schools do not tend to study religious education or celebrate religious festivals.
Schools in France place a lot less weight on creativity compared to the UK. In France, more emphasis is placed on learning and reproducing facts and figures. Learning is very specific with more traditional academic styles and a lot less value placed on self-expression and exploration.
Answer the questions below:
1. Do children wear uniform in France? What can they wear instead?
________________________________________________________________
2. How long (in hours) is the school day in France?
________________________________________________________________
3. What do they have for lunch?
________________________________________________________________
4. When do extra-curricular activities take place?
________________________________________________________________
5. What is the difference in learning?
________________________________________________________________
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Physical Education
Next term we will begin to look at effective cool downs and recovery from intense activity.
Why it is important to cool down after physical activity.
After exercising it is important to cool down properly. Especially if you have been doing
intense activity. This is to allow any bi products produced in the body during exercise to leave
the muscles, so we do not feel sore or have muscle fatigue. If our muscles do feel this way, it
means there is a build-up of lactic acid and the muscle will be stiff and cause discomfort. An
effect of not cooling down properly is Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (also known as
DOMS). If this occurs, then athletes need to rest for a period after activity to allow the muscle
to work efficiently and thus reducing the likelihood of injury. An example of when DOMS
occurs is after someone has run the London Marathon. Often runners experience aches, pain
and soreness after completing the 26.2-mile run.
Effective cool down example
An effective cool down would consist of activities that reduce gradually in intensity, provide
deep stretching and an opportunity to rehydrate and refuel. An example of an effective cool
down is;
Reduce heart rate- Jogging, side stepping then walking
Stretch- Static (hold the position) stretching held for at least 30 seconds at a point of tension
Hydrate and Refuel- Drink water and eat high protein food such as a banana
EPOC
Many athletes use cold conditions to help them recover quickly from intense activity and
training. This is because the cold conditions encourage blood flow to get to deep tissue in the
body. This helps to get rid of waste products in the muscles to prevent muscle soreness and
fatigue. This process is known as EPOC.
Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption
TASK: Using the above information, make 2 revision cards. If you do not have revision cards at
home, you can make some using paper. There are some examples of revision cards below.
Card 1- Why it is important to cool
down.
Card 2- Cool down examples and
EPOC.
Only add key information. Use
bullet points or spider webs/
images to display the information.
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EBC
Why do religions exist?
Religion has been an important part of history, from pre-historic to
modern times. Most religions claim their teachings have existed
since the beginning of the world or since the first humans walked
on earth. Although not everyone believes in a religion or are religious it plays an important
part of many people’s lives.
The main six religions of the world are Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism and
Buddhism. Within these religions there are many different types. For example, in Christianity
some may Catholic, and some might be Protestant.
What are the Abrahamic religions?
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all Abrahamic religions this means that they all share
the same Prophet (a person who very important and influential) of Abraham. Abrahamic
religions only believe in one God. When a religion believes in one God it is called a
Monotheist religion. Mono meaning one.
The Abrahamic religions came from roughly the same area of the world, in the Middle East
around the countries of Palestine, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Although Judaism, Christianity and Islam have many similarities, they also have many
differences.
What are the other religions of the world?
The other three main religions are Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism.
Hinduism came from India and is one of the oldest religions in the world, nearly 5,000 years
ago. It is one of the most popular religions in the world and unlike the Abrahamic religions
they worship many gods. This makes Hinduism a polytheist religion. Poly meaning many.
Buddhism came from India 2,500 years ago. Nowadays it is a very important religion in
many different Asian countries.
Sikhism is one of the world youngest religions and was founded nearly 500 years ago. The
Sikh religion also came from India and has a following 20 million people. Sikhism believes
in one god, making it a monotheist religion.
Activities
Answer these question in full sentences.
1. What are the main six religions?
2. Name the Abrahamic religions. Where do they come from?
3. What is difference between Monotheist religions and Polytheist religions?
4. What is the oldest religion in the world?
Think: What religious buildings can you see in your local area? What religion do they
belong to?
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Drama: Mask and Mime
MASK
It is vital to remember not to speak when wearing a mask. This is the case because mask is
intended to be a visual form of theatre, communication is made through the physicality
of the body, over that of spoken words. Mask is intended to be a universal form of
communication
In working with mask, everything is to be expressed externally, rather than internally. To
share your actions with the audience, brings and invites them on the journey with you. The
audience are the reason you are performing in the first place, to exclude them would
take away the purpose of everything that is being done.
References: Lecoq’s Technique and Mime. Oliver J Harris. Word Press.
Lecoq, Jacques (1997). The Moving Body. London: Methuen
MIME
Mime is a form of silent art that involves acting or communicating using only movements,
gestures and facial expressions. Non-verbal communication dates all the way back to the
first human beings. Before there was spoken language, gestures and facial expressions
were used to communicate. As spoken language developed, these gestures and facial
expressions were retained as a form of simple entertainment.
Many people associate mime with French culture. However, mime is an ancient art that
dates back to the early Greeks and Romans. It was in France, though, where mime
flourished. It became so popular that mime schools were established throughout France,
and a great tradition of French mimes soon followed. One of the most famous French
mimes was Marcel Marceau. His character, Bip, wore a short coat and a top hat with a
flower…Marceau’s work was also influenced by early silent film stars, such as Charlie
Chaplin.
References: Wonderopolis: National Center for Families Learning (2014-2021)