English GCSE
Parents’
Information
Evening, 2016.
How to support your
child with their GCSE
revision.
Contents
1. How is my child examined for GCSE
English Language and Literature?
2. A timeline for revision homework and key
dates.
3. Recommended revision guides.
4. Tips on how to support English Language
revision.
5. Glossary of terminology and features to
identify in texts.
6. Common literacy errors.
7. Literature revision: examples and templates
for detailed revision.
8. Checklist of areas to cover during revision.
1. How is my child examined for English
GCSE Language and Literature?
What is the course structure and how is my child assessed?
GCSE English Language
GCSE English Literature
Paper 1: Explorations in creative reading and writing
(reading & writing fiction texts)
Paper 1: Shakespeare and the
Section A: Reading (one literature fiction text)
Section A: Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Section B: Writing (descriptive or narrative writing)
• written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes
Section B: Stevenson’s ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr
Hyde’
• 50% of GCSE
• written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes
19th-century novel
• 40% of GCSE Literature
Paper 2: Writers’ Viewpoints and perspectives (reading
and writing non-fiction texts)
Paper 2: Modern texts and poetry
Section A: Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers
Section A: Reading (one non-fiction text and one literary
non-fiction text)
Section B: AQA Poetry Anthology; Power and Conflict Poetry
Section C: Unseen poetry
Section B: Writing (writing to present a viewpoint)
• written exam: 2 hour 15 minutes
• written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes
• 60% of GCSE
• 50% of GCSE
Grade 8
Reading Skills
Writing Skills
AO1
AO2
AO3
AO4
AO5: content &
organisation
AO6: technical aspects
Identify and
interpret
explicit and
implicit
information,
meaning and
ideas with
perceptive
understanding.
Critically evaluates
the effects of
language, grammar
and structural
features.
Make
perceptive
links and
comparison
within and
between
texts.
Develop an
informed personal
response.
Tone and register are
confidently matched to
purpose, form and
audience.
Sentence demarcation
is accurate and
purposeful. A wide
range of punctuation is
used with faultless
accuracy and for
deliberate effect.
A judicious
range of
quotations are
selected from
both texts if
synthesising
from two texts.
Critically evaluate
the text in a
detailed and
perceptive way.
Substantiate ideas
and opinions with
supportive quotes Perceptive
Substantiate their
and examples from exploration of
opinions with
texts.
a range of
illuminating
contextual
Analyse how
references to texts
factors and
methods are used
and contexts.
interpretato convey ideas
Analyses and
tions.
and perspectives.
evaluates, with
Uses sophisticated
insight, aspects of
subject
language, grammar
terminology
and structure.
accurately.
Linguistic devices are
used purposefully used
and demonstrate
originality and flair.
Ambitious and
accomplished
structuring of texts.
Use a wide range of
well-selected sentence
types.
Use precise, ambitious
vocabulary to enhance
impact.
A full range of
appropriate sentence
forms are used
skilfully.
Standard English is
used and grammar is
virtually error-free.
Spelling is virtually
error-free, including
ambitious vocabulary.
What does a really strong response look like?
Language Q: How does Dickens use language to make you, the reader, feel part of the fair?
Extract from an exemplar response:
Dickens uses a series of intentional language features, such as lists and sensory imagery, to convey his
excitement at being at Greenwich Fair. His purpose is to show what a unique and lively experience it was.
Dickens creates a nostalgic visual scene involving “gingerbread” and “toys”, and stalls that are “gaily
lighted up.” The reader may engage with such warm, cosy sights and tastes associated with their own
childhood memories. Later in the text, the “stage…brightly illuminated with lamps, and pots of burning fat”
enhance this magical nighttime scene of light and warmth. The “real spice nuts” also play on our sense of
taste, as do the “pickled salmon… oysters, with shells as large as cheese-plates, and several specimens of a
species of snail floating in a somewhat bilious-looking green liquid.” The a syndetic listing of foods here, and
throughout the text, helps to convey Dickens’ awe at the variety of choice. The sentence has a kind of
breathless, rushed quality which may encourage us to ‘catch’ Dickens’ own excitement and become
engaged in his experience.
These descriptions are also interesting because of the figurative devices used. Dickens uses simile to
describe the oyster shells being “as big as cheese plates” so that we can picture this and he then repulses
us with the “bilious-looking green liquid” surrounding the edible snails. The connotations of a slimy green
liquid help to further engage the readers’ senses in a way that we may not have wished for, but find
engrossingly disgusting and fascinating in turn.
Dickens’ also describes the many sounds and lively action of the fair to make us feel as though we are
physically present. The syndetic list that describes the disorientating “dense crowd” that “swings you to and
fro, and in and out, and every way but the right one…” almost causes us to feel dizzy and is made all the
more confusing by the pairing of juxtaposed ideas “in” and “out”. The chaotic sounds of the fair are also
listed in a rushed multi-clause sentence that contains many onomatopoeic verbs, such as “clanging,
squeaking, halloaing and roar[ing].” Towards the end of the text, Dickens also uses some direct speech to
add realism to his piece in the words of the countryman: “Pray come for’erd, come for’erd.” This use of eyedialect emphasizes the authenticity of Dickens’ anecdote and helps him to show us how memorable the
event was.
Thus, Dickens ensures that all of our senses are employed when we read the text so that we can feel as
though we are in the thick of the fair and that it is a feast for our ears, as well as our eyes.
Literature Q: Starting with this speech, explain how far you think Shakespeare presents Lady
Macbeth as a powerful woman.
Extract from an exemplar response:
Lady Macbeth describes Duncan’s entrance as ‘fatal’ straight after hearing he will be coming to her
castle, which shows power because she is capable of making instant decisions6. Lady Macbeth’s language
in this extract suggests that she is calling for power from evil spirits to help give her strength to carry out the
murder of Duncan. She wants to get rid of her feminine side: ‘unsex me here’ – which suggests that she sees
being a woman as weak, also shown with ‘come to my woman’s breasts and take my milk for gall’. It is as if
she thinks that she will only be able to carry out the act if her female side is replaced with ‘gall’ (poison). On
the one hand Shakespeare might be showing her to be a powerful woman, capable of selling her soul to the
‘dunnest smoke of hell’ in order to get what she wants. However it could also suggest that she isn’t powerful
at all and knows that her female weakness has to be destroyed in order to give her the strength to do what
needs to be done.
The fact that Lady Macbeth is destroyed by guilt and remorse shows that this second interpretation of
this speech is closer to the truth. Straight after the murder she is nervous and jumpy: ‘hark/peace’, and has to
drink the wine meant for the guards to keep herself strong. She gets angry with Macbeth when he is too
shocked and frightened to act, and takes the daggers back to Duncan’s room herself. However, she also
says that she couldn’t murder Duncan herself because he reminded her of her father, which might suggest
that she isn’t cruel and heartless.
4. Tips on how to support English Language revision.
English Language is difficult to prepare for because, unlike Literature, there aren’t set texts
that you can revise in advance of the exam…but this doesn’t mean students shouldn’t try!
Success in English Language relies on being able to show an understanding of never before
seen text(s), and being able to analyse writers’ methods in these texts. In other words, it’s a
case of practising the skills involved in answering certain types of questions. We will lots of
this in class but you can support your child in the following ways:
1. Use the ‘SNAP’ Revision Reading (for papers 1 and 2) book for revising the reading
skills. Practise the sample exam papers and use the mark schemes provided.
Review answers against exemplar ones. These little guides are £2.00 each and the
ISBN number is 978-0-00-821808-9. Go to www.collins.co.uk.
To revise for the writing sections:
2. Paper 1 – look at good examples of short fictional extracts and identify how they
achieve certain effects (be it to create tension; humour; atmosphere; empathy). Seek
to find certain literary features (see glossary handout) and determine how the writer
structures a piece or develops their ideas. Use this knowledge for own writing.
3. Paper 2 - read quality real-world examples of texts that strongly assert an opinion.
These could include: broadsheet articles, strongly written letters or essays to editors
or online professional blogs, such as charity websites. They could practise
annotating these for common persuasive features (see glossary handout) and
recognising how they convey a viewpoint. They should also see these as models for
their own writing.
4. Ask your child to ask their teachers for their particular literacy weaknesses and
‘google’ tips on how to put these right. Get them to do some writing for you in which
you ring technical details only, such as common homophone errors, missing
punctuation and capital letters, missing apostrophes etc. (see handout for common
errors).
5. Glossary of key terminology:
Terms for writing about language: (fiction texts, non-fiction texts, poetry, drama, prose):
Ambiguity
Juxtaposition
Oxymoron
Sensory imagery
Mood/ tone/ atmosphere
Empathy
Emotive vocabulary
Tension
Suspense
Engaging
Omniscient perspective
Characterisation
Allegory/ allegorical
Microcosm/ microcosmic example
First person/ third person
Authorial attitude/ viewpoint/ perspective
Theme
Grammar Terminology:
Vocabulary/ lexis/ diction
Verb
Adverb
Preposition
Pronouns
Fronted adverbials
Demonstrative pronouns (this, these, that, those)
Indefinite pronouns (someone, something, anybody)
Adjectives/ modifiers/ quantifiers
Contracted forms (apostrophes)
Articles (a/ an/ the)
Nouns (concrete, abstract, proper)
Conjunctions (subordinating/ co-ordinating)
Figurative devices:
Metaphor
Simile
Personification
Phonic devices:
Onomatopoeia Alliteration
Assonance
Symbol/ motif
Consonance
Extended metaphor
Cacophony
Sibilance
Pathetic fallacy
Eye-dialect
Terms for writing about non-fiction texts:
Subjective
Bias
Objective
Detached tone
Discursive tone
Pun
Anecdote
Statement of fact
Emotive language
Persuasive impact
Didactic/ assertive
Generalisation
Hyperbole(ic)
Register (colloquial/ formal)
Standard English
Cliché
Rhetorical question/ device
Imperative verbs
Modal verbs
Superlative
Direct address/ appeal
Sarcasm/ Satire/ ridicule
Bathos
Bombastic
Triplets
Statistical evidence
Expert opinion
Repetition
Counter-argument
Analogy Familiar reference
Stereotype
Collective pronouns
Terms for writing about structure:
Form
Syntax
Compound sentence
Multi-clause sentence
Simple sentence
Syndetic listing
A syndetic listing
Flashback
Switched perspectives
Development
Sentence types – exclamatory, imperative, interrogative, declarative.
Relative clauses/ subordinate clauses
Parenthesis/ parenthetic commas
Repetition
Syntactical patterns
Pace
Terms for writing about poetry:
Metre/ syllables
Sonnet form
End-stop
Rhyme (irregular/ regular)
Ballad form
Envoi
Rhythm/ beat
Persona/ poetic voice
Euphony/ euphonic
Stanza
Dramatic monologue
Internal rhyme
Half-rhyme
Refrain
Rhyming couplets
Enjambment
Caesura
Volta
Terms for writing about drama texts:
Prologue
Exposition
Crisis
Tableau
Dramatic climax
Dialogue
Dialogue pace/ structure
Stage direction
Character interaction
Dramatic irony
Sociolect
Prop
Melodrama
Action
Stage set
Social drama
Audience
Parallel character
Circular plot
Dramatic conflict/ tension
Entrances/ exits
Act
Scene
Episode
Overture
Playwright
Script/ lines/ lyrics
Musical
Blank verse
Tragedy Terms:
Hubris
Chorus
Catharsis (cathartic)
Catastrophe/ spectacle
Anagnorisis
Inevitable fate
Stichomythia
Reversal of fortune
External factors
Tragic hero/ heroine
Pathos/ pity
Hamartia
Faustian theatre
6. Common Literacy Errors:
Comma splicing: A comma splice is an error in which two independent
clauses are joined by a comma, e.g.
Homophones:
There, their, they’re
Were, we’re, where
To & too
Practise, practice
Affect, effect
Your, you’re
Our, are
Allowed, aloud
It’s & its
S
V
S
V
Dan struggled with his homework, his father helped him.
To put it right:
1. Insert a conjunction between the two independent clauses.
2. Put a full stop and start a new sentence.
3. Put a semi-colon between the two independent clauses if the
independent clauses are closely related in topic.
Apostrophes for ownership and missing letters… (nothing else!):
Ownership: Jane’s book, James’ pen, the film’s crew, the boy’s ball (singular), the boys’ balls (plural).
Missing Letters: You’re going to the cinema tonight, aren’t you?
A Common error: Should of (x) should be Should’ve (should + have)
Also ~ would’ve, could’ve, might’ve, may’ve.
Problem spellings:
Definite/ definitely
Separate
Outrageous
Argument
Believe
Beginning
Disappear, disappoint
Necessary
Desperate
Embarrass
Explanation
Permanent
Unfortunately
Sincerely
Vocabulary is massively important ~ Try to encourage your son/ daughter to use a thesaurus frequently
to acquire a varied and ambitious vocabulary. Below is a list of good words for writing their opinion:
Words to praise/ support
Tremendous Superior
Delectable
Worthwhile
Absorbing
Admirable
Scintillating
Defining
Awesome
Compelling
Unique
Innovative
Spectacular
Unrivalled
Unsurpassable
Words to complain/ show alarm/ disgust
Despicable
Incompetent
Immoral
Unjustifiable
Excessive
Unethical
Insensitive
Disgraceful
Inappropriate
Degrading
Barbaric
Substandard
Laughable
Incredible
Outrageous.
Sentence Range~ try to use simple, compound and complex sentences. Here are 3 formulas to
follow for demonstrating complex or multi-clause sentences:
Examples:
DC (‘ing’ verb) + comma +
MC
Running for the door, we decided to go to the movies.
DC (connective)
+
comma
+
MC
Although eating greens is the main way to stay healthy, many promote fruit as the most important part
of our diet.
MC
+ DC (parenthetic commas)
+ MC
The man, who wore red, parked his car outside the food market.
7. Literature revision: examples and templates
for detailed revision.
When revising any set text, students should include details on:
• Context
• Plot synopsis/ timeline
• Character details and quotes
• Theme details and quotes
• Areas of language interest
• And towards the end, potential essay plans.
Students usually either comb their way through their set texts looking at their
highlighting/ notes and then convert these to their revisions maps/ notes, or use
a revision guide/ the internet to find key ideas to put into revision maps or notes.
Use the poetry revision template to revise the 15 poems in the
Anthology ~ it appears on the next page in this handout!
Follow the link below to access this power point and all the resources from tonight’s
session…
Notes: