1. BBA English Overview of IGCSE Language, Edexcel Literature, and Year 11 Summer Focus Revision Techniques and Activities

2. Poetry: Will be studied in September / October of year 11 Overview of Course Structure

3. Overview of Year 11

4. How Do I revise English? Bad Strategies: Rereading, highlighting and summarising your notes or classwork are bad ways to revise. This is because they are very easy and don’t require much thought. Better revision strategies involve more thinking which means making it more difficult. So instead of simply re-reading information, try to change that information into another form, or learning it off by heart. Top 5 Revision Activities for English: 1. Working from memory Forcing yourself to remember things builds stronger connections in the brain than just rereading notes. You can test your memory with flash cards. For example: - If you’re studying a book, make flashcards for each key character with key moments for that character and key quotes. Then, you can test yourself how well you can remember this without looking at your cards. - If you’re studying poetry, make flashcards for each poem to help you remember important quotes. The goal is to learn them off by heart. 2. Asking ‘why’ This can be done on your own, or with help from a friend or family member. If you have made flashcards, asking why helps you question your learning further and explore deeper meanings. For example: - You know this is an important quote. Why is it important? What does it show? - You know that the war is an important theme in this poem. Why is it important? 3. Making Mind maps These can be great for organising knowledge and ideas in different ways. After completing a mind map, you can test yourself on it from memory, use it to write an essay, or try to organise the information onto flashcards to help you memorise it. Mind Maps might be about key ideas, characters, or themes from a story. For example: - Create a mind map about the character of Macbeth, including key quotes and key scenes from the play. - Create a mind map for the theme of loneliness in Of Mice and Men, including key characters and quotes. 4. Making Essay Plans It’s important to be prepared and practise making essay plans. This is especially important for exams and end of year assessments. You could get a list of possible essay title off your teacher and be prepared for any assessment. For example: - Adapt your flashcards on the character ‘Napoleon’ to answer a question on his significance. - Adapt your mind-map on the theme of social class into a clear essay plan if asked about this theme. 5. Past Paper Questions There is no substitute for trying out past paper questions, but here’s a few tips: - Try to improve and redo papers you’ve already attempted. - Focus your efforts on the questions you find most difficult. - Do a mixture of timed and untimed responses. - Complete a question with notes and then a few weeks later without notes and see how you do.

5. What makes an effective mind map?

6. What are effective flash cards and how should they be used?

7. Revision: Which books and websites might be useful? IGCSE English Language: Refer to the Knowledge Organisers (included in this booklet) for all the information you will need to know about IGCSE English Language. Regularly check the BBA English website for revision videos, past papers, and step-by-step guides for each question on the IGCSE reading paper. There is also lots of information about how to check and redraft your coursework. Literature Refer to the Knowledge Organisers (included in this booklet) for all the information you will need to know Animal Farm and Of Mice and Men. Revision Guides: Of Mice and Men: An search online will give you many useful revision sites – from GCSE Bitesize to Schmoop and Sparknotes, but if you would like to buy a study guide, this CGP Text Guide contains many examples of how to structure and write exam essays about Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. It contains clear, thorough notes on the novel's context, plot, characters, themes and the writer's techniques – with quick questions, in-depth questions and exam-style questions included at the end of every section. There's also detailed exam advice to help you improve grades, plus a cartoon-strip summary to remind you of all the important plot points. Animal Farm: There are clear notes on the plot, characters, themes and historical background, plus practice questions to make sure you understand the main points. There’s also a section of exam advice to help you improve your grades - plus a comic-strip summary at the end to remind you of the plot. Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar: Both the study guide and the workbook are available online and would help with useful SPAG revision over the summer holidays. Packed with useful Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG) practice for GCSE students - perfect for helping them score the full SPaG marks in GCSE English Literature, Language, Geography, History and Religious Studies. There’s a range of question types for each skill, plus a section of mixed practice to help bring everything together. Answers are printed in a separate book (search for ISBN 9781782942207).

8. What is a “Knowledge Organiser”? A knowledge organiser specifies, in detail, the facts, dates, events, characters, concepts and precise definitions that all pupils are expected to master in long-term memory, ready for their exams. Knowledge organisers collate and arrange all the most vital, useful and powerful knowledge that you need on a single page. These documents clarify for everyone – from the principal and teachers to the students – exactly what needs to be learnt. When a student starts a new topic in a subject, one of the first questions they have is “what do I need to learn?” At a single glance, knowledge organisers answer that. Everything our students need to know for each area of study is set out clearly in advance. Knowledge organisers are included for the students in this booklet (they are also accessible online at bbaenglish.wordpress.com) to help them remember what they’re learning. No longer out of sight, out of mind: instead of leaving behind previous units’ content, teachers can recap quickly and easily in lessons. Instead of forgetting all about it, students continually revisit and retrieve prior learning from their memories. Lastly, knowledge organisers are brilliant for revision. The sheer volume of retrieval practice required for students to master all their subject knowledge in long-term memory cannot be underestimated. Specifying the exact knowledge is just a starting point. Sequencing it, explaining it, checking it, quizzing on it, practising combining it, testing it, and revising it for years are vital if students are to remember it for their exams in 2016.

9. Knowledge Organsers x 4 here…

10. Checklist: Writing to Describe  To write a strong descriptive piece of coursework, you will need to use a wide range of vocabulary and even use imagery to engage reader interest. Unless the readers can see the picture, they will not be able to relate to the experience.  You will need to use a variety of sentence structures. All forms of repetition should be avoided – unless  you are deliberately using it carefully for effect.  You will need to evoke all five senses to create an environment and atmosphere, as well as details of size, shape and colour. Make colour precise, e.g. ‘scarlet’, ‘azure’, ‘off-white’, ‘bluish-grey’.  Try to avoid common, overused, vague, short and childish vocabulary, such as ‘nice’, ‘big’, ‘little’, ‘a lot of’, ‘good’, and ‘bad’.  Each noun probably needs one or more adjectives in front of it to give sufficient detail.  Don’t let your description become static – give structure and progression to your description e.g. moving towards or through something, such as a street market or busy shopping mall, or going through a period of time, an hour or a day for instance, and recording the changes.  Descriptive compositions must not become a narrative, which means character and event should not take over or be dominant. (You can have lots of description in a story but you should have as little “story” in a description as possible.) What should the IGCSE coursework look like? Ideas for editing and redrafting over the summer. Checklist: Writing to Inform  To write a strong informative piece of coursework, you will need to make sure you have a clear opening introduction that gives general information about the topic.  Further paragraphs will include more specific information about your topic.  Make sure you have included a summarising conclusion at the end of your article.  Information compositions are interesting to your target audience, and have an easy to read layout.  Language features are important, too. Informative articles are written in the present tense.  They use the first person or the third person (it depends on the topic – experiment with what works best for you).  Your writing should use discourse markers and connectives to make it clear and coherent.  Inform pieces contain mostly facts (but can contain opinion if it’s a personal text).  Consider using rhetorical questions to engage your reader’s interest.  Inform writing uses specific examples and bullet point summaries.  Is your writing appropriate for a public, teenage audience? This is your target reader.

11. Checklist: Writing to Argue Your introduction should:  Set the tone of the piece. Who is your audience? How do we know?  Briefly explain the situation in America.  Explain points of view of Martin’s death.  Explain your overall argument in a clear and concise way.  Focus on why the law needs to change in America. The main body (4-5 paragraphs) should:  Explain the ‘Stand your Ground’ law.  Explore a range of ideas from the text.  Provide an analysis of a range of points of view. How far can we agree with each point made by the celebrities / Obama / Zimmerman / Trayvon, etc…?  Have a clear structure of ideas, considering the benefits and drawbacks of each point made.  Summarise in 1-2 sentences your overall argument at the end of each paragraph. Link back to your main argument.  Avoid being biased. Remember to explore the ideas for each party involved, but ALWAYS link back to the ‘Stand your Ground’ law and why you believe it should be changed.  Include writing techniques (rhetorical questions, repetition, evidence from the text, etc…).  Use connectives and discourse markers to link ideas (try to avoid repeating the same discourse markers, such as “however”. Try to make these more sophisticated.) Your conclusion should:  Briefly summarise your overall argument.  Avoid bringing in new evidence / ideas. Be sure to summarise using the ones that you have already analysed.  Give a final point of view.  Leave the reader thinking and questioning the law itself.  Finish with a sophisticated tone. What should the IGCSE coursework look like? Ideas for editing and redrafting over the summer.

12. Get a headstart to poetry! Here’s the link: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/literature-and-creative- writing/literature/approaching-poetry/content-section-3#http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/literature-and-creative- writing/literature/approaching-poetry/content-section-3# You can also search: “Open Learn approaching poetry” and you will be able to find the website. You will learn about rhythm, alliteration, rhyme, poetic inversion, voice and line lengths and endings. You will examine poems that do not rhyme and learn how to compare and contrast poetry. By the end of this unit you should be able to: have an awareness of the role of analysis to inform appreciation and understanding of poetry; be able to identify and discuss the main analytical concepts used in analysing poetry. Relationships Collection Valentine – Carol Ann Duffy Rubbish at Adultery – Sophie Hannah Sonnet 116 – William Shakespeare Our Love Now – Martyn Lowery Even Tho – Grace Nichols Kissing – Fleur Adcock One Flesh – Elizabeth Jennings Song for Last Year’s Wife – Brian Patten My Last Duchess –Robert Browning Pity Me Not Because of the Light of Day – Edna St. Vincent Millay The Habit of Light – Gillian Clarke Nettles – Vernon Scannell At the Border, 1979 – Choman Hardi Lines to my Grandfathers – Tony Harrison 04/01/07 – Ian McMillan Clashes and Collisions Collection Half-caste – John Agard Parade’s End – Daljit Nagra Belfast Confetti – Ciaran Carson Our Sharpville – Ingrid de Kok Exposure – Wilfred Owen Catrin – Gillian Clarke Your Dad Did What? – Sophie Hannah The Class Game – Mary Casey Cousin Kate – Christina Rossetti Hitcher – Simon Armitage The Drum – John Scott O What is that Sound – W.H. Auden Conscientious Objector – Edna St. Vincent Millay August 6, 1945 – Alison Fell Invasion – Choman Hardi Do you want to get more out of your reading of poetry? Do you want to get a head start to your poetry studies in year 11? The Open University has a free, online study unit called Approaching Poetry. This unit is designed to develop the analytical skills you need for a more in-depth study of literary texts. This unit can be studied over the summer holidays at your own pace. “Which poems do we study in year 11?” There are two poetry collections available and you will study ONE of them (either the Relationships collection OR the Clashes and Collisions collection. You can find all these poems online. Ask your English teacher which collection you will be studying next year.

13. https://bbaenglish.wordpress.com/ ENGLISH LANGUAGE Everything you need to know: Knowledge Organisers Coursework: Tips for Descriptive Writing Response to the Zimmerman Article Editing your Coursework – W5 and Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG) Exam: IGCSE Past Papers IGCSE Revision Videos – in one place! Exam Revision Question Flow Charts ENGLISH LITERATURE Everything you need to know: Knowledge Organisers Exam: Past Papers Prose (Animal Farm and Of Mice and Men); Past Papers Poetry; Poetry PowerPoints: Relationships Cluster; Poetry Powerpoints: Clashes and Collisions Cluster. Your BBA English Website is: