May
English@AQA
Issue 12
Title
Subject
The joy of spoken
language
Studying spoken
language at GCSE
and A-level
Page
Raising the profile of GCSE English/English
speaking and listening Language Unit 2
speaking and listening
4
Substantial
performance
GCSE English/English
Language Unit 2
speaking and listening
6
Characterisation
and voice
The study of voice
in GCSE English
Literature
8
GCSE: from modular
to linear
Changes to GCSE
English, English
Language and
English Literature
11
A-level English
I transcribed, I
analysed, I impressed Language and A-level
Language and
the examiner
Literature – analysis
of spoken language
The Power of DNA – See page 16
2
12
Spoken language
study – how’s it
going?
GCSE English
Language Unit 3
spoken language study
14
The power of DNA
The GCSE English
Literature text DNA
16
Training for teachers
Teacher support events
18
Noticeboard
Updates and news for
teachers of GCSE
and A-level
20
Welcome to the summer edition of our English magazine.
In the January issue we heard some of our writers suggest that spoken
language is often marginalised in English study in favour of reading and
writing. The theme for this issue, therefore, is spoken language. There
are articles aimed at teachers of A-level and GCSE, as well as some
that should be of interest to both.
Ulrike Strelow
Senior Subject
Manager A-level
English
Jean Hudson
Senior Subject
Manager GCSE
English
Many of you have told us that you would like a table of contents to help
you find your way through our magazine and so we have mapped out
the issue above. Please let us know what you would/wouldn’t like to see
in future issues by contacting the editor, Ruth Johnson, at
[email protected]
Contact us: [email protected] or [email protected]
1
The joy
of spoken
language
Gary Ives, Assistant
Principal Moderator
and Examiner for
English Language
A-Level, discusses
how to engage
students in the study
of spoken language at
GCSE and A-level.
respond to. When analysing the spoken data,
students need to learn a wider range of terminology in
comparison to GCSE. Whilst the study of key features
such as dialect, idiolect, fillers and turn-taking are all
still relevant, students will build on this at AS level.
They will look in more detail at the common
grammatical structures of speech, considering
variations such as ellipsis as well as shifts in verb and
pronoun use, often influenced by dialect. They will
develop their analysis of phonology, identifying and
commenting on elision and various prosodic features.
Furthermore, they will develop their analysis of the
spontaneous features of speech such as voiced
pauses and false starts.
Putting it in context
However, it’s not all about learning terminology. The
true joy in learning about and teaching spoken
language is putting it into context. Building on this
aspect from GCSE, students are encouraged to think
about language in use, about:
• their own language
• the language of those around them
• their own experiences with speech.
Studying spoken language at AS level leads to some
great discussions.
When the study of spoken language
was introduced at GCSE, I’m sure
there were some mixed feelings
amongst English teachers. Some
were worried – concerned, perhaps,
at having to learn a range of new
terminology they were not totally
confident with. Others were excited
that the detailed study of speech was no longer
sacrosanct to those studying post-16. Of course, there
were many of us whose feelings were a mixture of the
two.
Now that the unit is embedded in our programmes of
study and schemes of work, I’m sure we all realise and
appreciate how stimulating and exciting the study of
spoken language can be.
Building for the future
The GCSE course has allowed students to develop a
number of important skills in preparation for the
transition to AS level. If a student decides to study
English Language post-16, they will find that studying
spoken language is a significant focus of the course,
allowing them to build on their knowledge from GCSE.
At AS level, the examined unit contains a mix of
unseen spoken and written texts for the students to
2
Take for example the ‘telephone voice’. This is
something they can all identify, as so many of us have
heard it and know who uses it! They all tend to have
views on swearing – the words they see as more and
less acceptable and their attitudes to those they hear.
Students can certainly be quite judgemental! They can
all comment on how they change their own speech
depending on who they are talking to, even if they’ve
previously never thought about it before. Discussions
on their attitude to various accents can also be very
illuminating. Who doesn’t have a favourite or one
which causes a reaction similar to nails down a
blackboard? Considering features of their own accent
May
and sharing your own experience can also be very
enlightening. As a native of Newcastle teaching in
Yorkshire, conversations about accent and dialect are
great fun. Telling students how I regularly receive
notes from parents addressed to ‘Mr Hives’ (they tend
to drop the initial /h/ phoneme in Yorkshire) and
sharing how I initially didn’t understand why some
younger students mix up ‘as’ and ‘has’, lets them
reflect on how they speak. Telling them that ‘aye am
gannin gan hyem the morra like’ is greeted with
confused faces whilst they help me develop my
Yorkshire vocabulary beyond ‘ginnel’, ‘snicket’ and
‘spice’ (ask a Geordie or someone born and bred in
Yorkshire for translations!).
The language of entertainment
As spoken language is part of us all, everyone can
join in and everyone has an opinion. However, it’s not
just about the language we use when we talk, it’s
about considering what is going on around us.
Discussions of what students hear on television can
further develop their thoughts, linking to a key area of
AS study eg power. With programmes such as ‘The X
Factor’ attracting millions of viewers, this can be an
excellent starting point in looking at how power is
established through speech. They can all identify with
the oft-heard ‘you smashed it’, ‘you owned that stage’,
‘I didn’t like it … I loved it’ and the tension-inducing
‘that wasn’t the best performance of the night (pause
for dramatic effect) it was the best performance of the
series’. Let’s also not forget this ‘unpredictable’ series
of comments: Judge 1: ‘It’s 100% yes from me’; Judge
2: ‘It’s 1000% yes from me’; Judge 3: ’It’s a million
percent yes from me’. By discussing such language,
students can consider how language is used in such
situations as a powerful, motivational tool. In contrast,
the famous put-downs can be analysed in terms of
how we try and excerpt power, status and authority
over others. The study of such spoken language can
also lead to students considering the purpose of
language on television. Is it about giving an honest
opinion or about entertaining the audience?
This entertaining aspect of speech can be developed
at AS level when students consider represented
speech in genres such as novels and television
dramas. Once again, this builds on their GCSE
knowledge and allows students to consider how
stereotypes are met or challenged by writers. By
doing this, it allows students to link their experiences
of real life speech to what they see or read.
Blurring the boundaries
Another fascinating aspect of AS study – which is
certainly part of their own experience – is how the
boundaries between speech and writing are becoming
blurred. Ask a group of students to look back through
their text messages, their comments on Facebook,
their tweets on Twitter or whichever aspect of
technology is currently in vogue and they will find how
often we use features associated with speech in
writing. As ‘Language and Technology’ is a key unit at
AS level, the wealth of personal data they have is
invaluable. Once again, discussions which evolve
from this are informative, interesting and enlightening.
Getting students to think about why they
use certain features certainly gets them
thinking and prepares them well for their
exam. Their own research, discussions
and findings are just as valid as any
published findings.
The study of spoken language at AS level is a
fascinating area for both students and teachers. It
makes us all think about our own language and leads
to some great, fun discussions. It is something we can
all identify with and now that it is embedded at GCSE,
can be enjoyed by more and more students.
3
Raising the profile of speaking and listening
Subject manager Ruth Johnson writes about how one Manchester school is shining the
spotlight on spoken skills
In our January issue, the creators of the ‘All Talk’
resource referred to speaking and listening as a
‘Cinderella’ topic. Certainly, in many schools and
colleges in the past, speaking and listening
assessments have been slotted in and bolted on.
Where this happens, however, a valuable opportunity
is being missed to develop these skills which are key
to successfully navigating life.
Head of English
Emma Lashley is
keen to develop
speaking and
listening in
Whalley Range
High School
At Whalley Range High School for
Girls in Manchester, Head of English
Emma Lashley sees speaking and
listening as equal in importance to
reading and writing. She is keen to
raise its profile in the school. This
comes partly, says Emma, from the
emphasis on good quality oral work
in Excellence in English (Ofsted
2011) and it is proving to impact
positively on students’ progress
across the school.
As a multicultural school, Whalley
Range has many students who learn
English as an additional language, including those
who only arrive at the school in Year 10. ‘All EAL
students have a speaking and listening buddy,’
explains Emma. ‘This is someone who speaks the
same home language and who works with them in
speaking and listening activities.’ Emma also appoints
high profile English leaders. Students have to apply
for this prestigious job and are interviewed. If
successful, they choose reading, writing or speaking
and listening as their area of expertise and spend time
each week working with younger children to develop
that skill.
Emma has embedded speaking and listening within all
English schemes of work from Year 7 to Year 11. She
has placed the focus on developing skills, not just
ticking assessment boxes. While studying a literature
text for the English Language extended reading
controlled assessment, for example, GCSE students
perform a role play. While focusing on writing to argue
and persuade in preparation for the Unit 1 exam,
students also prepare and perform a persuasive
speech.
The biggest change, however, has been in the way
teachers and pupils approach and prepare for GCSE
4
assessments. ‘We’ve taken the idea of drafting and
improving written work and applied it to speaking and
listening,’ explains Emma. In preparing for a speaking
and listening assessment, students work in groups of
four or five. Each group has a flip camera – a small,
hand-held video camera – and a laptop. The students
take turns to film each other and then watch each
performance together on the laptop. They then use
self- and peer-assessment to ‘mark’ their work, using
the mark scheme to identify:
• skills they have clearly demonstrated
• areas across the three mark scheme columns
where they need to improve.
‘The students are much more confident now about
their speaking and listening,’ says Emma. ‘They can
see where their weaknesses are and can correct
them on their next ‘draft’.’ And this practice doesn’t
come as a surprise when they start GCSE. The
students start recording and assessing their own and
each other’s speaking and listening in Year 7, using
the APP grids.
The beauty of the flip camera, says Emma, is its
simplicity. The camera itself plugs into a USB port
and the video files open automatically. Some
members of the English department were a little
worried about the cameras at first, thinking their use
might demand advanced IT skills, but now everybody
is really confident with them. And, Emma says, she is
May
more confident in the marks of the department, as the
flip cameras make it a lot easier to internally
standardise speaking and listening.
What’s more, the benefits of the focus on speaking
and listening don’t begin and end with Unit 2. The
skills students gain in their spoken work are being
transferred into their written work. The school is
developing a culture of debating, which is leading to
more effectively structured writing to argue and
persuade. They have signed up to take part in Debate
Mate and students from across the school are
debating in the Urban Debate League. Older students
are passing on their debating skills and expertise to
younger students, right down to visiting students in
feeder primary schools. On transition days there is
going to be a debate competition for the upcoming
Year 6 students. In this way, the enthusiasm for
speech and debate, as well as the associated skills, is
being passed on from generation to generation.
For information about Debate Mate and the
Urban Debate League see
www.debatemate.com
5
Substantial performance
Adrian Beard, Principal Moderator for GCSE English/English Language Unit 2, writes about
good practice in speaking and listening.
On a recent speaking and listening visit to a school in
North London, the head of English gathered together
his eight students and gave them a pep talk before we
began. ‘Remember’, he said, ‘this exercise is not
about showing off. It is about having substance, it is
about having something worth saying and worth
saying well.’
The student spoke with confidence and assurance for
five minutes. She focused, in particular, on events in
Libya where, it emerged through further questioning,
her family came from. The teacher made sure he
asked a couple of questions about why the events are
important for us all, and the student began to be both
impressive and sophisticated in the way she judged
the depth and detail needed in her replies.
At the end of her presentation we had no problems
agreeing a mark of 13, with all band 4 criteria fulfilled
and some progress into band 5.
This, though, was in stark contrast to a similar
Yorkshire school I had visited the previous day. Here a
group had been given the task ‘Discuss the role of
women in Of Mice and Men’. Not surprisingly, there
was not a great deal to say and certainly not a great
deal to discuss. Although the school considered the
students to be an able group, it was impossible, when
looking at the criteria, to give any of them more than a
low band 3 mark of 7. The reason? Their talk lacked
substance.
The ingredients of talk
Anyone who has taught Language/Linguistics will
know how difficult it can be to explain specific parts of
a linguistic process while, at the same time, needing
to stress that all the parts operate together. But it is
worth exploring here just what is required for effective
speaking (and listening) in the classroom: speech
which, ultimately, can be assessed.
Content and ideas
I have started with the notion of content/ideas because
6
© Thinkstock
This sounded promising and when the first student, a
girl in Year 10, began her presenting task with ‘I’m
going to talk to you today about some of the origins of
the Arab Spring and why the events in the Middle East
are important for us all’, I knew I was going to see
some excellent work.
they form the bedrock of what is to follow. They give
the talk its substance. They provide, at best, the
required depth. The metaphors I have used to describe
content are worth noting: bedrock, substance, depth –
all suggesting the underpinning of a structure.
It should now go without saying that any old topic
won’t do, that leaving the choice of topic to the student
won’t necessarily work, that piggy-backing talk on to
literature does not inevitably lead to good talk for this
unit. This last point, in particular, may seem to go
against the received orthodoxy, but it needs saying.
‘Of Mice and Men’ is a pared down parable, a novella
of broad brushstrokes. Nothing wrong with that, but its
complexity is implied, not stated. And what exactly can
a group discussion do with a piece that either (a) they
don’t really understand or (b) they have already
studied?
I am all for group work and for thinking about your
reading in a group context but, when it comes to
assessed work in Unit 2, the advisory team rarely see
it working at the upper bands.
So what is needed in terms of content? The content
needs to:
• allow a degree of complexity, enabling the student
to reach their potential
• have some relevance and importance to the
student
May
•
•
have a sharp focus
have been researched beforehand.
In this unit, at least, data and evidence can be
authentic and relevant. Ideally, it needs an element of
controversy, so that debate and ideas can emerge. It
does not have to be deadly serious (the very
successful ‘don’t get me started’ writing task shows
that) but it does have to lend itself to an extended
range of language use.
Language repertoire
This then takes us on to the next part of the process.
To express ideas effectively you need a vocabulary
and speech ‘grammar’ that allows meaning to be clear
and arguments to have some force.
departments of rhetoric. Indeed, teaching rhetorical
skills in schools is seen as part of the democratic
process. In England though (I say England, because
in Northern Ireland the picture is rather different) we
tend to be much more wary of teaching formal
rhetorical skills.
These should not, though, be seen as archaic tropes
from a distant age. They are, in fact, at the heart of
much public discourse.
Encourage students to consider such things as:
• terms of address
• the use of pronouns and how they reference
• intertextual references
• metaphor
• sound patterning
• pace and pitch
• information structure
• narrative sequence
• audience involvement.
Assessed classroom talk is not the same as informal
chat; it requires, by definition, more formality. All talk
serves its purposes, but assessed classroom talk has
to communicate ideas to a range of peers and at least
one adult. This is why role playing in which students
are merely ‘themselves’ can be so limiting. However
energetic the acting may be, the language itself is so
limited. It is much better to have students role playing
adults, authority figures, people having to make
complex decisions which they then have to
communicate.
All of these can be modelled as part of the ongoing
processes of teaching speaking, listening, reading and
writing.
To do this, though, they need to have been
taught/shown how such adult talk actually works. TV
drama or news reporting is one possible way of
looking at this; close observation of the language of
power in your own institution is another. All of these
have potential links to the study of spoken language
in Unit 3.
Assessing the talk
As Principal Moderator for speaking and listening it is
my job, with colleagues at AQA, to ensure:
• there is parity across schools/colleges in Unit 2
• that the criteria, as exemplified in DVDs, are being
applied by all.
BBC radio recently gave air-time to the latest
‘business leader’ denouncing young people and their
skills. His claim was that children are now speaking in
text language which, if remotely possible, would be a
triumph of linguistic ingenuity. I am not here arguing
for some sort of faux business-speak (a ghastly
thought) but for a degree of depth (that word again)
and formality that allows assessment to be made.
This is not easy, because firm evidence can be hard
to come by, but that does not mean anything goes.
Annie gets 15, because that’s what you need to do to
get 15!
Interactivity
The third part of the process involves engaging with
your audience, both through making them interested
and through listening and responding to what they
have to say. For some students, the ability to project
their personalities comes easily, for others it is more
of a challenge, but there are linguistic strategies
which can help.
When the bulk of Unit 2 assessments are made in
May, we will be looking closely at a number of factors
to help us deliver parity:
• We can match marks in Unit 2 with school/college
scores in other components. After all, speaking
and listening is part of the literacy process and no
easier than any other part
• We can ask to see records to check the tasks and
descriptions match the criteria
• We will continue our visits to monitor how
schools/colleges are awarding marks.
A significant difference between studying English in
this country and the USA is in the attitude to teaching
rhetoric. In the USA there are vast university
Ultimately, for band 3 and beyond, we are looking for
substance: talk which has something to say and which
says it with enthusiasm.
7
Characterisation and voice
Peter Thomas describes how an exploration of voice for GCSE English Literature can enrich the
teaching of English Language – and vice versa.
The current AQA GCSE English, English Language
and Literature specifications all feature reading tasks
under the category of characterisation and voice. This
is a deliberate attempt to focus teaching and learning
on the writer’s craft of characterisation and to steer
students away from naïve descriptions of characters
as real people. It is the skill of turning imaginative
fiction into plausibly realistic characters that should be
the focus of study if students are to be awarded marks
in the upper bands. The second bullet in the Literature
mark scheme deals with AO2 and authorial craft in
language, form and structure. This makes a very clear
skills linkage with study for English Language:
AO2 and the Literature mark scheme
• sophisticated analysis of aspects of language
and structure
• analysis of aspects of language and structure
in convincing detail
• clear/consistent understanding of features of
language and structure supported by relevant
and appropriate quotation
• some familiarity with obvious features of
language and structure supported by some
relevant textual detail
• limited awareness of obvious features of
language and structure
5
4
3
2
1
There are various ways in which writers may build up
characters who seem to be as believable as real
people, such as:
• showing what they do
• contrasting what they do with what others do
• reporting what others think of them
• explicit narrative telling.
But the most powerful and immediate way of creating a
believable character in fiction is to give them a distinctive
voice – one as individual as that on a telephone, telling
us instantly who is speaking. Some of that individuality is
to do with the vocal mechanics. These make sounds
guttural, nasal, high-pitched or low-pitched, but vocal
mechanics do not represent the whole complexity of
vocal identity. This is a matter of the linguistic features of
voice – a mixture of the inherited, acquired, habitual or
cultivated speech behaviour that is, literally,
characteristic of an individual speaker. The inherited
features may be regional, the acquired occupational, the
8
habitual non-conscious and the cultivated a result of
conscious choice. So, writers of fiction draw on speech
characteristics which may be – in other areas of study,
described as dialect, sociolect and idiolect.
To illustrate, draw on the largest archive of written
speech conveying instantly recognisable characters in
the language: the 37 (or 38 or 39, depending on your
persuasion) plays of Shakespeare. In Henry V he
wants to create a believable Welshman, Fluellen, with
some of the features we may associate with that Celtic
culture – passion, pride and loquacity. The main way of
conveying an authentic regionalism is in Fluellen’s
pronunciation, idiom and mangling of English
grammatical conventions:
FLUELLEN
To the mines! tell you the duke, it is not so good
to come to the mines; for, look you, the mines is
not according to the disciplines of the war: the
concavities of it is not sufficient; for, look you,
the athversary, you may discuss unto the duke, look
you, is digt himself four yard under the
countermines: by Cheshu, I think a' will plough up
all, if there is not better direction.
Apart from typical regional tags like ‘look you’, this
shows Shakespeare’s ability to pick up and reproduce
regionally distinctive features of pronunciation. In
‘athversary’, he shows Fluellen making a
pronunciation error based on the fact that Welsh has
two sounds in the alphabet indicated by the letter “d”.
A single “d” is pronounced as in English, but a ‘dd’ is
pronounced as ‘th’.
At the start of Antony & Cleopatra, Shakespeare
wants to begin with a typical Roman soldier’s attitude
to the way the great warrior Antony has thrown away
his glorious past to become enslaved to a voluptuous
wanton:
May
PHILO
Nay, but this dotage of our general’s
O’erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes,
That o’er the files and musters of the war
Have glow’d like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,
The office and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny front: his captain’s heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy’s lust.
Here Shakespeare wants to convey the disapproval of a
man who lives by military values and has a soldier’s
outlook on life. This is conveyed by the use of words
derived from warfare, ‘files and musters’, uniform
‘plated’ and ‘buckles’ and battlefield behaviour ‘reneges’
as well as reference to Mars – the Roman god of war.
In Hamlet, Polonius is a figure of fun for his inability to
speak concisely, and to indulge his preference for
ornament and elaboration:
Given the scope for skills transfer across different
parts of the GCSE assessed curriculum, it is worth
making a strong feature of speech study wherever
possible in reading and in Literature. If the English
Literary Heritage text is a novel, there may be
excellent opportunities for drawing attention to dialect:
Hardy- the Maltster’s from Far from the Madding
Crowd
‘And here’s a mouthful of bread and bacon this
mis’ess have sent, shepherd. The cider will go
down better with a bit of victuals. Don’t ye chaw
quite close, shepherd, for I let the bacon fall in the
road outside as I was bringing it along, and may be
‘tis rather gritty. There, ‘tis clane dirt; and we all
know what that is, as you say, and you bain’t a
particular man we see, shepherd. Don’t let your
teeth quite meet, and you won’t feel the sandiness
at all. Ah! ‘Tis wonderful what can be done by
contrivance!’
LORD POLONIUS
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief: your noble son is mad:
Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
What is’t but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go.
QUEEN GERTRUDE More matter, with less art.
LORD POLONIUS Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
That he is mad, ’tis true: ’tis true ’tis pity;
And pity ’tis ’tis true: a foolish figure;
But farewell it, for I will use no art.
Links to other parts of the English and
Literature curriculum
This focus on the study of Shakespeare’s ability to
create character through speech goes beyond
reading and Literature. It is part of what students
need to be successful in when preparing for their
Spoken Language Study, where they may be writing
about dialect, sociolect and idiolect in relation to their
own speech and that of others.
There is also a useful link to be established with
speaking and listening, where role play may benefit
from choice of vocabulary, idiom and grammatical
patterns as part of the performance repertoire.
9
A novelist working with speech to create a sense of
social and cultural difference between characters
provides rich pickings for study of sociolect. For
example, Swindells’ use of two narrators in Daz 4 Zoe:
‘We nearly didn't make it. I mean, everything could
have ended for the four of us right there in the Blue
Moon that night, and it'd all have been Larry's fault.
What happened was, he saw this girl. Chippy girl.
She was with another girl and two guys and they
might have been married for all we knew but it
made no difference to old Larry. She was pretty
and he was smashed and he caught her eye and
smiled and started making signs for her to leave
the others and come on over. I felt quite
apprehensive about it in spite of the drink, and so
did Ned. ‘
‘So this crash com and Cal’s away i open the door
a crack and luck owt and its wot i fought. Subbys. i
knew ther be trubble tonite wiv them in.
Stanstareeson dunnit.
i luck and i fink, sod em. They blew it 4 me. Let em
get topped. Then i seen the girl. The 1 bin
watching. She luck scairt. 2 hunnerd peeple want
me ded, i luck scairt. i seen her and i cant let em
do it. The uvvers i dont give a monkeys abowt but i
cant let em top her.’
Sometimes the cultural is enough to create the
personal and the personal the cultural. Most novelists
use a different voice for their narrative and for the
voices of characters in dialogue. Here the skill is in
choosing speech patterns and characteristics that
become associated uniquely with the character
portrayed. Dickens is excellent at this, particularly when
he wants to show a contrast between two characters. In
Great Expectations, he characterises Mrs Joe Gargery
as a fierce, impatient, unloving guardian by making her
speech a succession of single-syllable, short-vowelled
words which convey her rapid delivery:
‘Tell me what you’ve been doing to wear me away
with fret and fright and worrit’,
Joe Gargery, by contrast, is slow-moving and slowthinking, warm and protective. His speech is made up
of long-vowelled words and repetitions of words he is
fond of:
‘Ram-page, Pip, that’s what she did. She went on
the Ram-Page, she did.’
10
In poetry, writers may most frequently use voices
which express their own sense of fear, regret, delight
or amusement, but some poems are written as if a
character is speaking. In these cases (often
monologues) the persona is made believable by
various habits or manners of speech, which become
voice identifiers, for example:
Browning My Last Duchess
She thanked men – good! But thanked
Somehow – I know not how – as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame
This sort of trifling. Even had you skill
In speech – (which I have not) – to make your will
Quite clear to such a one, and say “Just this
Or that in you disgusts me”
Duffy Salome
Never again!
I needed to clean up my act,
Get fitter,
Cut out the booze and the fags and the sex.
Yes. And as for the latter,
It was time to turn out the blighter,
The beater or biter,
Who’d come like a lamb to the slaughter
To Salome’s bed.
The possibility of mutual reinforcement across some of
the sometimes separated parts of the curriculum
seems like an asset to teaching and learning. We now
have, in English Language, a 10% component in
Spoken Language Study which can be enriched by
Literature study, and Literature study which can be
enriched by study for Spoken Language. Add to that
the scope for using the skills developed in these areas
for Commissions and Recreations creative writing and
there is high reward for what students have learned to
analyse and do themselves.
Coherent planning is helped by emphasis on
transferable skills and by making Language and
Literature an option for all rather than for the more
able. The most potent sign of erosion of what we do as
English teachers is when the pressure of league table
statistics results in a reduction of Literature in the daily
experience of all youngsters.
May
GCSE: from modular to linear
From June 2014 all GCSE exams in England will be
linear rather than modular. This means 100% of
assessment – units 1, 2 and 3 in English, for example –
must take place in one exam series at the end of the
course.
What this means for GCSE English is that the pattern of
assessment looks very similar to the way it looked before
the new specification was introduced. There will be:
• one opportunity to sit GCSE English Literature (4710)
each year – in June
• two opportunities to sit English (4700) and English
Language (4705) – in November and June.
There won’t be any GCSE exams in January.
This grid shows the assessments available in the
different series from January 2013:
Jan
4700/ All units available and marks from
4705 previous series can be used
towards certification, subject to
terminal 40% rule.
2013
4710 All units available and marks from
previous series can be used
towards certification, subject to
terminal 40% rule.
June 4700/ All units available and marks from
4705 previous series can be used
towards certification, subject to
terminal 40% rule.
4710 All units available and marks from
previous series can be used
towards certification, subject to
terminal 40% rule.
Nov
4700/ All units available and marks from
4705 previous series can be used
towards certification, subject to
terminal 40% rule. All students
must certificate in this series.
4710 There will be no November series
for 4710 English Literature.
2014 and onwards
Jan
There will be no GCSE exams in
the January series.
June 4700/ All units must be taken in this
4705 series to gain certification.
4710 All units must be taken in this
series to gain certification.
Nov
4700/ All units must be taken in this
4705 series to gain certification.
4710 There will be no November series
for 4710 English Literature.
Frequently asked questions
If a student re-sits a qualification, can they carry
forward controlled assessment marks?
Yes, providing they have previously been moderated
and aggregated as part of an award. Unit results for
controlled assessment can be carried forward for the
life of a specification. So for English, for example, that
could include Unit 2 (speaking and listening) and Unit 3
(written controlled assessment).
Can students re-do controlled assessments if they
re-sit?
Yes, but tasks need to be from the correct task bank for
that series.
If a student has taken (and certificated) the unitised
GCSE and wants to re-sit once the specification
has become linear, can they carry forward
controlled assessment unit results?
Yes.
Can a student who starts in September 2012 take a
GCSE in one year and therefore take the unitised
exam in June 2013?
Yes, there are no rules or restrictions about the age or
year of study for students for GCSE exams.
Is the November series just for re-sits?
No, the November series can either be used as a re-sit
opportunity or as a first sitting.
Which is the right task bank to use in the
November series?
The task banks will be valid for an academic year. Task
banks for English and English Language in November
2013, therefore, will be the same as for June 2014. The
task bank for November 2014 will be the same as for
June 2015.
Please note: if a student entering for a re-sit doesn’t
need to complete new controlled assessment tasks,
their moderated and aggregated controlled assessment
marks can be carried forward, if they have previously
been used for certification. It doesn’t matter that their
tasks are from a previous task bank because they have
already been moderated. It is only the unit results that
are carried forward, not the folder of work.
If you have any queries about the change to
linear, please call the GCSE English subject
team on 0161 953 7504
11
I transcribed, I analysed, I impressed the
examiner
by Felicity Titjen, English teacher and Principal Examiner for A-Level English Language
specification B
Having just finished marking
January’s ENGB3 paper, I am
reminded how judgmental students
can be about young children
breaking the ‘rules’ of turn taking and
how critical they are of parents not
picking up on this ‘bad’ verbal
behaviour. I freely admit that I
interrupt and overlap with other
speakers and change topics rather randomly. This
might make you think you’d rather not be in a
conversation with me, but what strikes me is how
students change in their attitudes to spoken discourse
analysis between AS and A2.
So, what am I suggesting? Well, with spoken language
acquisition, students need to use discourse analysis as
a tool for analysing interactions between children and
parents – but they need to be more open-minded. What
they can’t tell from exam data is how brief the
interaction is that they are deconstructing. Although
they should be applying their skills and knowledge to
mining the data for as much as they can extract, they
need to understand it may represent only a minute’s
worth of spontaneous speech. Looking at this extract
from the January 2012 paper, you can see how
exploring different interpretations can enrich analysis
and allow students to show their understanding.
Mum: would you like a robot Ruth
Ruth: I’ll have
Jack: I’ll have a robot and I would dress up as a robot
Mum: okay
Jack: and when I flick the switches
Ruth: I want to
Jack: mummy mummy
Mum: what kind of
Jack: mummy when I when I dress up inside a robot
I will flick the switches
Mum: and turn you off
Jack: inside yeah and my head would go up and
down and I would and the box at the bottom
would (2.0) my legs would kneel when it goes
[makes an exploding noise]
Here, the mother is sharing an interactive book, You
Choose, with her children, Jack (aged 4 years 3
months) and Ruth (aged 2 years 9 months). Clearly the
focus should be on discourse analysis and it’s the
12
interruptions that appear significant in this section of
their interaction. Conclusions can be drawn: Jack
interrupts most. Is this new evidence for the student’s
favourite 1970s gender theory, Zimmerman & West?
Before students assertively state this as fact, there are
multiple readings that allow students to be tentative, but
not overly speculative. Evidently gender could be a
factor, but equally so could power in terms of the sibling
competition for their mother’s attention. And what about
age? Children’s ‘power’ is often understood by them to
be based on their position in the family and Jack is the
eldest. Another factor is that he is more linguistically
developed and therefore might have more to say, as
well as the more advanced ability to express his
thoughts. It’s also important to consider the activity
they’re enjoying – the book’s name implies that it wants
you to be imaginative and Jack certainly is. So, the
interpretative list goes on…
Perhaps one way to achieve this open-mindedness to
possibilities is to make children’s speech more ‘real’ to
them and avoid another dry lesson of data analysis! In
a multi-modal and technological world, engaging them
by using online and visual sources seems a good
approach. It’s amazing how many parents seem to post
May
clips of their children on YouTube. The ‘Talking Twin
Babies’ babbling and arguing, without saying a single
understandable word, is a fantastic representation of
pragmatics in action and the significance of contextual
factors. It can also lead to some creative fun with
students writing the ‘words’ they think they said, simply
from their body language and prosody. Teachit’s Spike
and Evie resources, as well as the English and Media
Centre’s ‘Mathilda Speaking’ resource, have the
advantage for us in that they show the actual spoken
interaction, in addition to providing helpful transcripts
and lesson activities.
It’s not only in ENGB3 that students need to explore
spoken discourse; it could also form their data for
investigation in ENGB4. Here, the creation of their own
transcripts of speech poses practical, ethical and
methodological questions. The practical challenges of
transcription range:
• from obtaining and storing the audio
• to the action and time-consuming nature of
transcribing the speech into a usable, written form
to analyse.
Students need to be aware of the ethics of recording
others and the importance of informed consent. The
methodological questions are, perhaps, beyond the
requirements of A-level English Language, but there
are many debates between linguists about the
neutrality of transcriptions and the representations
transcribers impose on them. However, students do
have to make transcription choices and we have to
advise. I know when students look at political speeches
(given that these are performed and not written by the
politicians) it can be the delivery that matters and so
prosodic features are useful to note and explore.
We mustn’t forget the importance of spoken analysis to
the study of combined English. I also teach English
Language and Literature A and, with this, there seem to
be different challenges for the understanding of spoken
data. For ELLA3, this challenge is the students’ ability
to explore spontaneous speech alongside
fictional/represented speech in a comparative task. I’ve
tried to present this below, although the real task is to
find connections between features with different
content and contexts.
Fiction
‘I hate analysing
speech,’
she said
disapprovingly
Spontaneous
S: I HATE
analysing
speech
Key:
capitals =
increased
volume
Non-fiction
One thing that I
hate most in
English is
analysing
speech. And
hate it I do!
Interpreting this requires Language/Literature students:
• to use their literary and linguistic understanding
• not simply to conduct discourse analysis like
Language students.
From a combined English perspective, lexical and
grammatical considerations inform their analysis, as
well as context – a focus common to all English
specifications. A model for analysis could be to
approach it through the following features:
Fiction
• Adverbs to describe
manner
• Direct speech
• Indirect/reported
speech
• Reporting clauses/
free speech
• Formality/lexical
choices within the
represented speech
• Accent/dialect
features
Non-fiction
• Graphology
• Non-standard
grammar
• Sentence types
(minor, simple etc)
• Sentence functions
(imperatives,
interrogatives etc)
• Informality/informality
• Colloquial/slang/
taboo lexis
• Contractions
Looking at particular features within the contexts of
genre, audience, purpose and broader contextual
factors, focuses students on the varying ways speech
is represented. Getting them to engage in activities
such as retelling a conversation they’ve had or telling a
narrative-style joke is a good way for them to think
about how they themselves regularly represent speech
to others. So, however artificial the comparative task
may appear, it can produce enjoyable lessons
engaging with an array of prose and poetic texts, as
well as autobiographies, travel guides and many
interesting spontaneous ‘speakers’. And, if this has
inspired you to explore the stylistic aspects of speech
presentation, I’d encourage you to read Leech and
Short (1981) and Wynne, Short and Semino (1998),
who offer a framework for interpreting speech and
thought presentation in literary and non-literary texts.
References
YouTube: Talking Twin Babies (Part 1 and 2)
AQA exam paper January 2012: ENGB3
Leech, Geoffrey N. and Short, Michael H. 1981. Style in
fiction. London: Longman
Wynne, Martin, Short, Mick and Semino, Elena. 1998. A
corpus-based investigation of speech, thought and writing
presentation in English narrative texts. In A. Renouf (ed.).
Explorations in corpus linguistics, 231–45. Amsterdam:
Rodopi.
13
Spoken language study: how’s it going?
by GCSE Principal Moderator Lindsay McNab
In my role as Subject Adviser, I have
received many questions about the
spoken language study over the last
18 months. There have been fewer
questions recently. That suggests
teachers are becoming more familiar
with the requirements for the spoken
language study and more confident in
setting suitable tasks. Schools/
colleges have submitted work for moderation in the last
three series, giving the moderating team the opportunity
to see how effectively the study has been implemented.
The feedback they provide shows how successfully
students are meeting the challenge of what is, for most
of them, a new topic.
Familiar skills
Although the topic – spoken language – is new to many
students, the skills needed for the task are very similar
to those needed elsewhere in the specifications. In the
highest band, the assessment criteria include terms like
‘analysis and evaluation … sustained and sophisticated
interpretations … sophisticated analysis’. Lower down
the bands, we find ‘explanation …exploration
…awareness …description’. These are the same terms
used in:
• the extended reading part of English Language
Unit 3
• literary reading in English controlled assessment
• Units 3 and 5 of the English Literature specification.
A similar breadth of analysis skills is also prominent in
Unit 1 English/English Language and Units 1, 2 and 4
of English Literature.
Tight focus
One of the most important skills is the ability to select
relevant textual detail. The best responses to literary
texts in controlled assessment are based on close
reading of well selected sections of texts. The focus on
small parts of texts provides the opportunity to properly
analyse: to move beyond simple explanation and to
develop rather than simply state an idea. The same is
true of the spoken language study. The best responses
have been based on small amounts of well-chosen
data, rather than pages of transcripts. Where there has
been a lot of data, the highest performing students have
chosen to focus on particular parts. Lower down the
bands, students tend to write about too much – a little
about a lot – rather than having a tighter focus.
14
Feature spotting
In responses that are marked in band 2 or at the lower
end of band 3, students often take on too many aspects
of a spoken language text. This is sometimes related to
the acquisition of new technical terms. Feature spotting
can be as much of a problem in spoken language study
as it is in responses to poetry.
Just as some base their responses to poems on
a series of technical terms:
• alliteration
• rhyme
• similes
• metaphors etc
so some base responses to spoken language on
a list of terms:
• phatic talk
• turn-taking
• neologism and so on.
What is data?
There may have been some misunderstandings of what
‘data’ might be. In many cases, data is a transcript.
Transcripts certainly provide lots of opportunities to
explore aspects of spoken language but they can be
difficult to produce. The best are very short. They can
be produced by the school/college: if students are
exploring aspects of talk in an occupation, for example,
it is probably sensible for them to share centrally
produced data. In the case of responses based on
idiolect, however, the best responses have emerged
from the exploration of data unique to the student: there
is a greater sense of ownership of the material.
Data does not, however, have to be a transcript. One of
the best ways of engaging with the social attitudes
strand of the assessment criteria is to provide students
with examples of opinion about aspects of spoken
language. It is quite easy to find examples of people like
public figures, journalists and educationalists
commenting about aspects of young people’s spoken
language and such articles would be considered ‘data’.
The social attitudes strand is probably the one most
often noted by its absence. Including some form of
opinion for students to respond to is a way of ensuring it
doesn’t get missed.
Three strands
There are only three strands to the mark scheme for
spoken language study so it is important to shape tasks
May
which enable students to respond to all three:
• analysis of issues arising from social attitudes
• analysis of data
• analysis of how people adapt spoken language for
different purposes.
One way of ensuring students address all three is to
attach bullet points to the task. Three bullet points could
each be focused on one assessment criterion or a task
could be broken down into three parts with each one
addressing a specific criterion.
There has been some hesitation in taking on the multimodal tasks but this is an area in which students have
considerable expertise and for which they have a lot of
enthusiasm. A recent example seen by moderators
illustrates how effectively a student can engage with
details in data:
The response is based on a single text:
Oiii Kate,,you SLAG! ;P you itttee? :B…jw,,do ya
wanna come &watch tht film at the cinema con me,
Olive & Frannel?? Ooo & how bout food at Frankie
& Bs after? Lemme know soon,,yeahh? :D you
better be able to come doe bitch:] hehe :B ‘tis
gunna be jokes :P i love you xxxxx
59 words 281 characters
Part of the student’s response is, ‘Capitalising the word
‘SLAG’ and also using the emoticon “ ;P” emphasises
the word and reassures the receiver it is to be taken as
a joke.
Amy then finally says “you itttee ? :B” which in standard
English would be asking ‘are you alright?’ or ‘how are
you?’ Again this is how Amy would ask this in a verbal
conversation. She has added in the extra letters to
stress how the word would be said aloud. The word ‘ite’
is elliptical, the joining of the words ‘all’ and ‘right’ to
make ‘alright’ but is then shortened due to accent. This
is an example of the brevity and linguistic economy of
texting.
It concerns a mother trying to get some information
from her 14-year-old son about when his football match
will finish.
The student writes:
The first text sent between them is sent at twelve
o’clock and as there is no immediate reply the mother
sends a somewhat more demanding message
‘Sweetie, need to know.’ This is showing that by using
the pet-name ‘Sweetie’ she is trying to coax a reply out
of him, but also the use of a full stop is showing her
sternness, making the immediate reply she wants,
clear. Though by saying ‘Txt back xx’ she is still being
stern but she uses initialism to make it more friendly
and personable.’
The student uses a technical term, ‘initialism’, but the
starting point for the exploration is the detail in the text.
The technical term is only used to help the student
explore an idea about the ‘friendliness’ of the text. The
fact that it is the wrong technical term – it is an example
of abbreviation or ellipsis, not initialism – would not
necessarily lead to loss of marks as there is no
assessment objective concerning technical terms. It is a
simple slip, but one which illustrates the potential pitfalls
of overuse of the language of technical features.
These responses exemplify the most common and
effective approach to spoken language study. Some of
the most engaging responses have come from
schools/colleges with students from a very wide range
of social and ethnic backgrounds. There has been
some wonderful exploration of idiolect by bi-lingual
students who have, very appropriately, been
encouraged by their teachers to explore a variety of
issues and experiences. The variety of task – six are
available – will remain, but the evidence of the first
three series of the new specification is that the most
engaged and interesting work has been generated by
those exploring aspects of their own spoken language
and the way others respond to it.
This is a very good example of a student writing a lot
about a little, of analysis. It explores how the context,
two close teenage friends sorting out their social life,
affects the meaning of the words used. It is based on a
close reading of the data and the comments about
‘SLAG’ recognise the potential public attitude that might
be taken to such a word. The response is written largely
without the need for technical terminology: the starting
point is the text, not the technical feature.
A different student also shows an effective approach to
the analysis of data. The part of the data set which is
being explored is:
13.00 Mother: Sweetie, need to know. Txt back xx
15
The Power of DNA
The Hull Truck production of Dennis Kelly’s DNA opened last month to glowing reviews. Here,
Sarah Darragh, Principal Examiner for GCSE English Literature Unit 2H, considers the merits of
using DNA as part of a GCSE English Literature course.
How did DNA come to AQA?
DNA started life a few years ago as a play for the
National Theatre Connections series. During
specification development, theatre director Anthony
Banks, commissioner of the Connections plays, was
asked to suggest some fresh new texts which might be
included in the proposals for the English Literature
GCSE course. DNA immediately struck all those
involved as the kind of text which had significance,
relevance and massive scope in the English classroom.
According to The Sunday Times, ‘it’s no surprise that
Dennis Kelly’s cruel teaser of a play has become a
GCSE set text: there’s more than a touch of Lord of the
Flies to this tale of adolescent pack pressure’.
What is DNA about?
In essence, the play is a rite of passage story. A
disparate group of teenagers, drawn together by their
dissociation from others, are plunged – as is the
audience – into a situation which has the potential to
destroy them all. Their relentless bullying of another
character, Adam, has (they think) caused his death.
This is how the play opens: the single line question
‘Dead?’ sets the tone and course of the whole chain of
events.
To cover up their involvement in the death of Adam, one
of the characters named Phil constructs an elaborate
plot to focus attention elsewhere and deflect it from the
group. However, the plot goes terribly wrong when they
inadvertently ‘frame’ an innocent postman who is then
charged with abduction and murder. Next, Adam is
discovered in the woods; not ‘dead’ at all, but very
confused and damaged. Their dilemma now is how to
conceivably extricate themselves from implication in the
plot to cover their own tracks. Once again, Phil takes
charge; this time his decision plunges the group much
further into the dark reaches of humanity – the only way
to protect themselves is to kill Adam.
DNA in production
Anthony Banks’ production ‘uses projections to create
something buzzy and jazzy, but also has the simplicity
and clarity of a Greek tragedy filtered through an
episode of Skins’, (Lyn Gardner, The Guardian). The
dialogue is fast-paced and compelling, with the
transition between ‘street’, ‘field’ and ‘wood’ marked
with minimalistic ease. Backdrop projections not only
work on a tonal level but are also used to provide
askance, peripheral hints to the world that is existing
beyond the claustrophobic life of the group.
As Banks says, ‘one of the things that interests me is
the play between what is real and what is imagined.
This is reflected in my design concept. There are many
opposites to tease the eye: monochrome sits next to full
colour; realistic sounds of the outdoors sit next to
sounds made by a symphony orchestra; photographs
sit next to drawings; synthetic next to real. The entire
set is made of plastic. As the story unfolds, you’ll
discover the conspirators rely on plastic at every beat of
the plot.’ Banks’ decision to subsume the choral
function of Jan and Mark into the roles of Richard and
Cathy, although primarily for practical touring reasons,
enables the latter to become more rounded and
developed as characters.
Director Anthony Banks on DNA
Why did you want to direct DNA?
‘I love the play. It’s important to love the script you’re
going to direct, as it requires a great deal of time,
patience, thought and energy to get to opening night.
It’s also important to have a hunch about why you like it,
as then you’ll have the beginning of an idea of what you
think the play is about.
There are many things about Dennis Kelly’s play which
led to me to want to create a touring production of it.
The story is irresistible – a crime and a cover-up – and
the events hurtle their way towards you thick and fast.
The juxtaposition of its two types of scenes gives you,
in one moment, the rush of a compelling thriller and the
next, the opportunity for deep contemplation. The
characters and locations are very recognisable, which I
16
May
think is a factor in the play’s wide appeal. This
production is touring over 20 English towns: DNA could
be set in any one of them – that school, those woods,
they could be your school, your woods. I’ve deliberately
chosen actors with a wide variety of regional accents to
add a layer of strangeness to the group of friends: the
pack shares a chemistry which unites them, yet their
collection of voices suggests this group could come
from any corner of the land.’
In what ways is DNA relevant to young people in 2012?
‘Well, the relentless ache of adolescence is very present
onstage during the performance. Hamlet talked about
holding up the mirror: I think the mirror Dennis Kelly
uses for this group of characters is warped and tilted in
a way which is very illuminating. Another thing, in DNA,
Dennis Kelly presents a bunch of people learning to be
responsible for their actions. The circumstances the
group find themselves in lead them to make decisions
based on intuition and instinct rather than advice or
guidance: the outcomes are both tragic and comic.
Danger, doom and hilarity are next door neighbours in
this play, as they often are in everyday life.’
Why does DNA work successfully as part of
an English Literature course?
There are several reasons why it might be worth
exploring DNA for Literature Unit 1 Section A: Exploring
Modern Texts. Some of these reasons extend to
benefits for GCSE English Language.
Accessibility
DNA can be read very quickly. The characters speak
with the voices of modern teenagers; Kelly’s school
edition in no way compromises the validity of the tone
and rhythm of real spoken dialogue. The action and
narrative of the plot are immediately engaging and
prompt powerful discussion on some very deep issues
in a way that is instantly gripping for a GCSE student.
Even the most reluctant reader can engage with the
concepts and themes being explored in the text.
Level of challenge
Kelly’s writing is textually very dense. He presents fullyrounded characters, with all motivation and rationale for
behaviour laid bare. To fully appreciate this, however,
students have to dig deep and infer a good deal. For a
student aiming towards the higher attainment bands,
this means they are being required by the text to do
exactly the kind of language analysis which will help
them to access higher attainment for AO2. Kelly doesn’t
patronise: his characters tell us a great deal about
themselves and each other, but the brevity of style and
level of implied meaning necessitates some unpicking
of the text.
The use of form and structure is also intrinsic to the
themes and ideas and enables students to engage with
how AO2 links to AO1: a vital link for them to make. For
example, the structure of each act: ‘street’, ‘field’,
‘wood’, is broken in the final act: could Kelly be
subverting the structure to demonstrate the effect of the
action on the once tight group dynamic? Why is all main
action reported rather than viewed? What is the effect
of Kelly’s use of chorus?
Anecdotal feedback on student performance on this text
seems to suggest it is working very powerfully in the
classroom. Senior examiners have already reported
that the level of engagement with and analysis of DNA
is of a high level, which is very encouraging. Not only
are students enjoying and engaging with the text, but it
enables them to write with confidence and articulacy
about how Kelly has scripted the play.
Why study DNA?
In a recent Ofqual statement, Glenys Stacey said:
‘We want our young people to have the best possible
educational experience, with qualifications that prepare
them for the future.’
At a time when English teachers and awarding bodies
are, once again, poised for the outcome of a curriculum
review, it might be worth considering that ‘teaching in
the round’ is what the majority of us came into the
profession to do. Someone said once that the best
teachers are ‘teachers of children first, teachers of their
subject second’. I think there is a strong argument for
DNA having a very powerful part to play in this. At one
point in the play, Leah says to Phil: ‘You understand the
precious beauty and fragility of reality’. The characters,
as Banks says, ‘are beginning to accommodate
enormous and heavy facts about the precariousness of
life and the beginning and the end of it’. It is a play full
of fundamental ideas about humanity, presented in a
way which is compelling and instantly meaningful to our
students.
New resources to support the teaching of DNA will
soon be available at aqa.org.uk.
17
Training for teachers: summer/autumn 2012
A range of AQA Excellence courses is available to
teachers across the suite of AQA English
specifications, covering:
• GCSE English/English Language/English
Literature
• A-level English Language, Literature and
Language & Literature.
Getting started for one year centres
For teachers new to delivering the
English/Language/Literature specifications over a one
year course, this is a great opportunity to meet other
teachers with similar delivery issues.
We also offer AQA Professional courses to English
teachers and other educational professionals.
This course will:
• demonstrate the powerful features of the digital
anthology and allow delegates time to explore them
• show how the digital anthology can stimulate
student engagement and response
• illustrate how the digital anthology can be used to
foster departmental resource sharing and
organisation
• give delegates access to a range of techniques for
making their own creative resources.
Summer term 2012
GCSE English
Focus on Unit 1
These courses offer feedback on the recent
English/English Language Unit 1 exams and guidance
to teachers on developing strategies for raising
achievement.
Getting started for two year centres
For teachers new to delivering the English/Language/
Literature specifications over a two year course, this is
an introductory guide to specification requirements
and will help new teachers to plan and deliver the
course.
18
GCSE English and English Literature:
getting the most from the digital anthology
A-level English
English Literature B – teaching comedy
This course:
• looks at the move from the tragedy to comedy in
Unit 2 (LITB2) coursework from September 2012
• provides help and guidance on teaching
• offers useful resources.
May
A-level English Literature B – getting started
For teachers new to delivering the specification, this
course offers an overview of the AS and A2 units and
will help new teachers plan and deliver the course.
English Language B – getting started
For teachers new to delivering the specification, this
course offers an overview of the AS and A2 units and
will help new teachers plan and deliver the course.
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A-level English: approaches to poetry
This course will:
• provide ways of teaching poetry that both you and
your students will enjoy
• provide you with learning and teaching strategies
to maximise student success
• suggest ways you can develop schemes of work
for Unit 2
• enable you to consider responses from past exams
which exemplify good practice
• inspire confidence in approaching poetry for you,
your students and your department.
•
A-level English Literature B: teaching
re-creative writing for LITB2
This course will:
• place re-creative writing within the wider context of
the specification
• show you some examples of successful student
writing from past exams
• offer practical activities with drama texts
• look at the implications for teaching and learning
for you and your department
• give you follow up activities to use in your
department.
•
Key Stage 3 and 4 English: NQTs in English
– a flying start
This course will:
• prepare NQTs for their first year of teaching
English with an effective toolkit of strategies to
improve efficiency, confidence and impact
• provide opportunities to share best practice on
‘outstanding’ lessons, skills and practices.
Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 English: Shakespeare
– inspiration and impact: residential
Delegates will:
• take part in two days of workshops focused on key
themes and ideas at the Shakespeare Birthplace
Trust in Stratford-Upon-Avon
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•
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attend an RSC production of the Tempest and take
part in pre- and post- production activities to
inspire planning of effective theatre visits
have the rare opportunity to discuss the
performance of the Tempest with an RSC actor
be amongst the first to learn about a resource
developed by AQA and the Birthplace Trust
designed to revolutionise teachers’ planning for,
and delivery of, Shakespeare
use and take away activities drawn from Birthplace
Trust archives including directors’ notes from
previous RSC performances – a rare opportunity to
give students an understanding of how
Shakespeare has been interpreted by scholars and
artists in recent times
visit Shakespeare’s birthplace to learn more about
his early life and times
build relationships and share best practice during a
stay at a guesthouse in Stratford-upon-Avon and
pre–production dinner at the RSC
find out more about the Birthplace Trust and the
work it does directly with students
leave with unrivalled resources and ideas which
will inspire you, your team and your students.
Autumn term 2012
GCSE English
Feedback courses
We will offer a range of face-to-face training courses
or online sessions, focussing on feedback for the
recent exams.
Further training
Other courses will be available throughout 2012/13.
A-level English
Language and Literature A and B
For the A-level English suite, we will offer a range of
face-to-face or online training courses, providing
teachers with feedback from recent exams as well as
resources and guidance on helping students reach
their potential.
Further training
Other courses will be available throughout 2012/13.
For further information, visit:
coursesandevents.aqa.org.uk or speak to
Liz Hey or Charlotte Lock on 0161 957 3646
19
May
Noticeboard
Reminder: changes to A-level specifications
for 2013 exams
There are changes to the set texts for both 2013
English Literature A-level exams. Full details can be
found on the specification update pages of our
website. New specifications will soon be available to
download.
For guidance on text choices for the new comedy
genre (LITB2), go to the teacher resource bank.
Coming soon – DNA resources
New resources to support the teaching of the GCSE
English Literature text DNA by Dennis Kelly will soon
be available in the English Literature area of our
website.
Website updates
New information about our GCSE specifications is
published in the ‘Updates’ section of our website.
Please visit it regularly to keep up-to-date.
AQA launch new A-level in Creative Writing
We’ll be launching a brand new A-level in Creative
Writing, for first teaching in September 2013. Watch
this space for more information or visit our website to
find out more and register interest.
New controlled assessment task bank
The new controlled assessment task bank for GCSE
English, English Language and English Literature is
now available in the Secure Key Materials area of
e-AQA. These tasks are for submission in November
2013 and June 2014.
Your thoughts
What would you like to see in future editions of our newsletter?
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Please e-mail your suggestions to: [email protected] or cut out and post this completed slip to:
Ruth Johnson, AQA, Devas Street, Manchester M15 6EX
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