There are plenty of very useful sites available to students looking
for concise and effective summaries of the plays' acts and key scenes,
as well as notes on the poets and comparative texts. Here are some of
the best:
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/macbeth/
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/
This
is an excellent resource that provides detailed summaries of the
scenes, analysis of the characters, key quotes, themes, symbols, and
includes a useful video summary also. This site also provides the link
to 'No Fear Shakespeare' which offers a modern translation alongside the original text to clarify any problems with the Shakespearean language.
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/macbeth/
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/hamlet/
Sparknotes
also has a poetry section which includes notes on some of this year's
Leaving Cert poets;. While it may not cover all
the poems your class has covered, there should be a lot of relevant and
helpful information here.
http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/yeats/
Shmoop
is similar in its approach and also is a great resource for students,
with many of the same options and categories as Sparknotes:
http://www.shmoop.com/macbeth/
http://www.shmoop.com/hamlet/
Shmoop
also includes poetry notes, just type the name of the poem into the
search option on the homepage to check if there are notes available on
that particular poem. For example, if you type in 'Sailing to
Byzantium', a number of search results will come up, choose the one
titled 'Sailing to Byzantium - Learning Guide', again an insightful
summary, discussion of the poem's themes and key quotes etc are
available, again, a lot of Yeats's, Plath's and Bishop's poems are covered.
http://www.shmoop.com/filling-station-bishop/
An
important note with regard to Shmoop: the approach here is student
friendly, informal and often humorous. While this adds to the site,
make sure not to adopt the same approach in your exam answers! For
example, if you look at the first line of the summary of 'Sailing to
Byzantium', the writer claims, 'William Butler Yeats was an odd duck',
clearly this is not the appropriate tone or language to use in an exam
answer. Though the site is very useful, take note of this issue.
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/m/macbeth has more of the same; summaries, analysis of characters, themes etc.
http://leavingcertenglish.net/
has great advice on all of the different sections of the Leaving Cert
exam, with particularly good focus on the exam question trends over
recent years. http://leavingcertenglish.net/2011/11/macbeth-questions/
offers very clear and useful advice on the topics that questions will
most likely be drawn from, as well as lots of analysis and viewpoints on
themes, characters and the main aspects of the play. For Hamlet: http://leavingcertenglish.net/2011/04/hamlet-typical-questions/
There are lots of other useful opinions, notes and resources on the plays from this site. While the site is no longer updated, the information is all still valid and really helpful.
http://www.aoifesnotes.com/ is also full of useful material to help with revision of all sections of both papers. Notes on the plays are available here:
http://www.aoifesnotes.com/leaving-cert/ordinary-level/Paper-Two/single-text.php
Notes on prescribed poetry here:
http://www.aoifesnotes.com/leaving-cert/ordinary-level/Paper-Two/prescribed-poetry.php
There are a number of links to interesting interviews and pieces related to Foster and Claire Keegan here: http://www.juliecullen.com/senior-english-hl/category/foster
If
you wish to take a break from reading, but continue your study of the
poets and other sections of the papers, then listen to the interesting
lectures available on a number of the LC poets, the Essay and the Comparative at http://www.connemarafm.com/education-programmes/
A radio programme in which Colm Tóibín discusses his book on Elizabeth Bishop can be heard here: http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=9%3A10406588%3A415%3A18-04-2015%3A
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