English Literature

Years 10 and 11

Course Content

Paper 1: Shakespeare and the 19th - century novel

Section A Shakespeare:

Students will answer one question on Macbeth by William Shakespeare.

They will be required to write in detail about an extract from the play and then to write about the play as a whole. They will be awarded a mark out of 30 and an additional mark out of 4 for SPaG.

Section B The 19th-century novel:

Students will answer one question on The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. They will be awarded a mark out of 30 for their response.

They will be required to write in detail about an extract from the novel and then to write about the novel as a whole.

Paper 2: Modern Texts and poetry

Section A Modern texts:

Students will answer one essay question from a choice of two based on An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestey. They will be awarded a mark out of 30 with an additional mark out of 4 for SPaG.

Section B Power and Conflict Poetry:

Students will answer one comparative question on one named poem printed on the paper and one other poem from the Power and conflict cluster. They will be awarded up to 30 marks for this question.

Section C Unseen poetry:

Students will answer one question on one unseen poem and one question comparing this poem with a second unseen poem. They should be able to analyse and compare key features such as their content, theme, structure and use of language. They will be awarded up to 24 marks for the response on the first poem and 8 marks for the comparison.

How are we assessed?

Two written exam papers at the end of Year 11:

Paper 1: Shakespeare and the 19th - century novel (40% of GCSE, 1 hour 45 minute exam)

Paper 2: Modern texts and poetry (60% of GCSE, 2 hours 15 minute exam)

Assessment Objectives

Assessment objectives (AOs) are set by Ofqual and are the same across all GCSE English Literature specifications and all exam boards.

The exams will measure how students have achieved the following assessment objectives:

AO1: Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to:

maintain a critical style and develop an informed personal response

use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate interpretations.

AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.

AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written.

AO4: Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

How are we grouped?

As at Key Stage 3, students are taught in banded groups as opposed to finely set classes. For example, instead of a class only containing students with GCSE targets of a 5 or 6, a typical class will have a slightly wider range of targets, from grades 5 to 7 or from grades 4 to 6. Groups are not  identified numerically (e.g. sets 1, 2, 3 etc.) but are instead named after some of the literary characters  e.g. Jekyll and Inspector Goole.

What home learning am I expected to do?

Home learning is given once a week and we would normally expect this to take between 45 minutes to 2 hours. Homework tasks are directly linked to the content of the lessons and may include:

Educake tasks

Massolit lectures to watch and take notes

Research

Pre-reading for in class study

Aim Higher booklets

Practice exam questions

Annotations of key chapters and poems

Appropriate revision for in class tests

SCITTLES activities (poetry only)

Quotation learning

As well as this, we would expect students to be working independently to read through their notes from lessons; learn key words; improve literacy issues identified in their work and work on targets given in class.

Students are also expected to read outside of lessons; we suggest for three to four hours a week. At this stage students should be aware of the world around them and we encourage the reading of good quality newspapers and non-fiction as well as fiction texts.

What can parents do to help?

Your help is very much appreciated and here are a few ideas about how you can support your children with their home learning:

Talk to your child about how to approach the task set.

Discuss his or her reading and encourage your child to offer evidence and explain it when discussing characters/themes (there are many reasonably priced study guides on the set texts that you can find in any high street bookshop or online).

Help your child to look up unfamiliar vocabulary and to learn it.

Proofread work with your child (please advise us of the help you have given).

Test on key words, etc.

Encourage the meeting of deadlines and/or communication with teachers to clear up any misunderstandings.

Encourage your child to take an active interest in current affairs/politics and to feel comfortable discussing their opinions.

Please note:

Although this is a separate qualification to GCSE Language, students must be entered for GCSE Language to be awarded GCSE Literature.

This is a single tiered qualification where all students, regardless of varying abilities, sit the same exam papers. This is the same for all GCSE Language and Literature specifications and across all exam boards.