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Manchester Communication Academy Subject: GCSE English Literature Exam Board: AQA Written Exam: 75% of overall mark Paper 1: Exploring Modern Texts – 1 hour 30 minutes – Monday 18th May (am) Section A: Students answer 1 question on The Woman in Black by Susan Hill Section B: Students answer part a and part b of a question on Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Marks are awarded for: Exploring the writers’ ideas and attitudes Analysing the writers’ use language and structure Exploring how the text is affected by its social, historical and cultural context Paper 2: Poetry Across Time – 1 hour 15 minutes – Friday 22nd May (am) Section A: Students answer 1 question on a cluster of poems they have studied on the topic of Conflict. They must compare how the poems present a certain theme. Section B: Students answer 1 question which asks them to analyse a poem which they will not have studied previously. Any other information you feel may be relevant… Our Support Package Support for English Literature students is as follows: all revision guides are available in the workshop with literature specialist teachers present on Mondays and Tuesdays pupils will be given MCA prepared revision guides for all texts which include sample answers to all past paper questions in January nearer to the exam, extra classes will be available on Saturdays and within the Easter holidays to prepare pupils thoroughly any practice essays completed at home can be handed into teachers to mark and provide feedback What students should be doing at home? Students should be: re-reading their set texts: Of Mice and Men and The Woman in Black using their MCA revision guides to plan answers to past paper questions learning quotations from Of Mice and Men and The Woman in Black completing timed practice questions learning key bits of sample answers to use in their own responses revising the poems from the Conflict poetry cluster using their MCA revision guide learning key bits of sample answers for poetry questions making revision cards to learn key bits of terminology for the poetry techniques: juxtaposition, tone, rhythm, caesura, sibilance, light imagery, repetition, end stopping, climax.
Revision Schedule During January and February, students should concentrate their revision on the Paper 1 exam. They should be re-reading both the Woman in Black and Of Mice and Men as well as making plans on how
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they would answer practice paper questions and learning quotations. Although the pupils get a copy of the novel in the exam, they will not have enough time to be searching for quotations, therefore they need to have memorised most of the quotations they will need. Students should practice answering questions on each theme, character and chapter of the novels. Examples of past questions can be found in their MCA revision guides which will be given to them in January. After this, students should focus on Paper 2, ensuring that they understand the messages of each of the 15 poems in their Conflict anthology as well as preparing answers to all the past paper questions which will be provided in their MCA revision guide. This will be given to them in February. Useful websites: For Of Mice and Men: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/ For The Woman in Black: http://www.shmoop.com/woman-in-black/summary.html www.philipallan.co.uk/literatureguidesonline (Click ‘Student’ then ‘Register Here’ and the passcode, if needed, is ‘afternoon’. For Poetry (Conflict): http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetryconflict/ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB4E33A4FE0567933 (video tutorials)
How parents can support their child…. Your child may find it useful to have their own copies of the published revision guides (which are available for them to study in The Workshop at school). These can be purchased from most book shops and second hand copies are always available through Amazon. These are the ones we recommend:
Philip Allan Literature Guide: The Woman in Black ISBN: 978-1-4441-1026-5 York Notes: Of Mice and Men ISBN: 978-1408248805 York Notes : AQA Anthology Conflict ISBN: 978-1408248751 CGP AQA Anthology Conflict ISBN: 978-1847624871
Quizzing your child on their recall of quotations will also be useful. You could give them one of the following topics and get them to recall as many quotations as they can about that topic: The Woman in Black: Arthur Kipps’ development The supernatural Samuel Daily The presentation of children Monk’s Piece Eel Marsh House Isolation Of Mice and Men: Friendship Lennie George Loneliness Power Curley’s Wife Slim
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The American Dream and Hope It would also be useful to set your child time limits for completing practice papers as many students find the time limits in English Literature exams very gruelling. Getting used to producing top quality answers in the short time limit will be extremely beneficial practice.
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