1. Network events – GCSE English
Autumn 2017

2. Session Agenda Sharing ideas and discussion of: Summer 2017
Possible activities for teaching 19th Century texts in year 9
Possible future topics for networks
GCSE English Networks Autumn 2017

3. Summer 2017

4. Summer Feedback
Feedback to candidates – English Language paper 1:
On question 3, try to cover points on both language and structure within the space you have been given and with a time allocation that is appropriate to the six marks the question offers. There is no need for an introduction or conclusion on this question.
When you are writing, always think about your reader, what you want them to understand and how you want them to react at different parts of your writing; then choose the best words, phrases or techniques available to you to achieve those effects.
Think carefully about how you will begin to write so that it is imaginative and engaging for your reader from the very start.
As you begin to write, know where you will end. This will help you to write in a manner that is cohesive and coherent for your reader.
Take care throughout with accuracy: spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Q3 – go straight in to the response, don’t repeat the question.
Make sure you make one Language point, one Structure point and one other point.
GCSE English Networks Autumn 2017

5. Summer Feedback
Feedback to candidates – English Language Paper 2:
For the AO2 questions, make sure you are offering ideas about how language is used.
For Question 3, consider the way Text 1 has tried to engage you as the reader. You could pay particular attention to the opening and closing of the text as these are important points for any writer.
For your evaluations, make sure you are thinking about which elements from SITE are useful for the text you have read, and use evaluative vocabulary when you are commenting. You do not need to comment on language and structure here unless this supports your evaluation.
For question 7a, always comment on similarities. You can comment on differences in 7b. There are only 6 marks for 7a so be brief and succinct here. In 7b, link comparisons back to ideas of the writers and their perspectives.
GCSE English Networks Autumn 2017

6. Summer Feedback
Feedback to candidates- English Literature Paper 1
Section A (Shakespeare)
remember to discuss language, form and structure for part (a) and use relevant subject terminology where appropriate
discuss the extract only for part (a) and other area/s of the text when answering part (b) of the question
remember that AO3 (social, cultural and historical context) is only assessed in part (b)
keep textual references for part (a) succinct. One or two-word examples are often much more successful than longer quotations.
Section B (Post 1914)
integrate and illustrate the social, cultural and historical context and consider how they are presented through the examples within the text. Often AO3 is naturally illustrated through the actions, events, themes and characters
consider the benefits of making a short plan before embarking on writing the essay, but avoid spending too long on it
allow a few minutes to proof read your work to check for any errors particularly in relation to AO4.
GCSE English Networks Autumn 2017

7. Summer Feedback
Feedback to candidates- English Literature Paper 2
Section A (19th century novel):
Remember that for both parts of the question, context is not assessed in this part of the paper.
Part (b), candidates should draw on their knowledge of the text that they have studied and give examples from elsewhere in the novel. You may, depending on the question, explore one area in detail or cover a range of examples
Part (b), examples can be particular references to other parts of the novel such as events, episodes, character action, and so on. You can paraphrase quotations from memory, but exact quotations are not mandatory, particularly as this is closed book examination.
Section B (Poetry):
Part 1, Anthology – you need to consider language, form, structure and context. Poems need to be compared and relevant terminology employed where appropriate you should label your answers clearly (particularly Section A) and use the correct space in the answer booklet.
GCSE English Networks Autumn 2017

8. Discussion Now the first results are in and in light of the information in the examiner’s report, is there anything you would adapt or change in the way you are covering the course and preparing your students for the examinations?

9. 19th Century Texts in Year 9

10. 19th Century Texts
The main difference between these and other texts is the obvious one – they are just older. Candidates will not be required to discuss the “19th centuriness” – just how they work as texts.
Passages chosen for any exam are required to be accessible for the whole entry. Any words likely to be inaccessible to the majority will be glossed.
Familiarity with a wide range of short extracts from 19C texts should be the aim for Y 7-9 rather than the reading of whole novels: there is no AO for stamina.
We need to avoid “watered down GCSE analysis” being the only teaching technique. Creative and engaging approaches should be the norm.
GCSE English Networks Autumn 2017

11. 19th Century Texts Extract from A Tale of Two Cities
There is terror in the carriage, there is weeping, there is the heavy breathing of the insensible traveller.
"Are we not going too slowly? Can they not be induced to go faster?" asks Lucie, clinging to the old man.
"It would seem like flight, my darling. I must not urge them too much; it would rouse suspicion."
"Look back, look back, and see if we are pursued!"
"The road is clear, my dearest. So far, we are not pursued..."
Out of the open country, in again among ruinous buildings, solitary farms, dye-works, tanneries, and the like, cottages in twos and threes, avenues of leafless trees. Have these men deceived us, and taken us back by another road? Is not this the same place twice over? Thank Heaven, no. A village. Look back, look back, and see if we are pursued! Hush! the posting-house.
GCSE English Networks Autumn 2017

12. Possible teaching ideas
Performing the text - Students work in groups to prepare a performance of the text which captures the nature of the story.
Transforming the text - Choose a short section of any of the stories and design a storyboard showing how they would film it.
Working with punctuation - Conventions of punctuation have changed over time. In particular, the writers in this collection often use many more semi-colons than would be the case now. (See Anthology for teaching suggestions )
GCSE English Networks Autumn 2017

13. Discussion How do you engage students with 19th century texts in year 9?

14. Any other questions? Ideas for the next networks…
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15. There’s so much more to learn
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English Subject Adviser: Clare Haviland