Preparing for GCSE Eng Lang/Lit

Editor's Notes

• #10: In recognition of the need for students, of different reading abilities, to be able to approach the unseen nature of the assessment in a fair and transparent way, we have incorporated notional reading time of up to 15 minutes within the time allocation – Note: this is purely guidance and students will be able to begin writing, if they so wish, from the start of the examination.
• #11: As a lead in to the first paper, this question seeks to reassure students at the start of the examination with a low tariff, short response question. It requires students to list 4 points from the text, and refers them to numbered lines that will be from the start of the extract. The layout of the student answer booklet supports this response by setting out four lines (a,b,c,d) for students to complete. Students can quote directly from the source, paraphrase in their own words or use a mixture of both. The mark scheme enumerates the possible answers which the examiner then correlates with the student’s list. There will be one mark for each relevant response in the list to a total of 4 marks. The designated lines will always contain more than 4 aspects of information or ideas for students to be able to identify and gain full marks.
• #12: This takes the student forward in their reading to the next segment of text. It provides them with a specific example of text to analyse. We feel that by providing students with an example, they can more successfully concentrate on a small section of text to analyse in detail - Question 3 on Paper 2, provides students with more scope to select their own examples for a similar type of analytical response. The question wording and use of supporting bullet points as a scaffold is designed to ensure that the main strand of the AO is addressed - that students should analyse how writers use language to achieve effects and influence them as a reader. It is now the case that “language” as a focus for analysis is more broadly defined to allow students to include a number of aspects from words through to sentence forms.    
• #13: This question is covered in detail in the sample examiner’s commentary available for download on our website. The question requires the student to consider the whole source. The opening provides a relevant context for the student, in this case informing them that the extract is from the opening of a novel. The bullet points provide a helpful guide and prompt the student to concentrate on how the writer leads the reader through the text. The final bullet point intentionally prompts students to go beyond the guide in the previous two, and bring in any features that they feel are relevant to the task. We have looked to build on the analysis in Q2 in order to now look at structure as a sequence of paragraphs and the writer’s influence on the reader as part of a reading experience.   Possible areas for students to develop understanding in could include:   sequence through a passage movement from big to small – ideas or perspectives taking an outside to inward perspective, or vice versa introductions and developments reiterations repetitions, threads, patterns or motifs summaries and conclusions shifts of focus narrative perspective connections and links across paragraphs internal cohesion and topic sentences.
• #14: This question requires students to critically evaluate the extent to which the writer has been successful in creating a specified effect on the reader within a particular section of the text. It requires a judgement to be made by the student as a reader and requires them to support their ideas through textual references. The statement prompts the reader to take a view about the writer’s intended impact and influence on them, and in doing so requires consideration of form and purpose – in particular, the extent to which the writer successfully draws the reader into the world of the text. As the final reading question on the first paper, this requires the student to make an extended response. It seeks to help the student in two ways – by focusing on a specific section of text towards the end of the extract, and by providing a statement for them to consider. We feel that by providing a statement for them to make a judgement about, and to what extent they may agree, partially agree, or not agree at all, that we are more helpfully pointing them towards critical evaluation in a way that goes beyond just analysis. The bullet points provide further clarity, reminding students to consider their own impression, evaluate the statement and how it relates to the effect the descriptions have on them, whilst also reminding them about the importance of making their judgement evidence based.
• #15: As a task, either the description or narrative task provides scope for the student to develop content and organisation into their writing in a way that will create impact on the specified audience – in this case, a judging panel and the spur of a competition entry. In addition, as set out in the Section B rubric, students are instructed to ‘write in full sentences’. This points students towards writing in Standard English and the importance of maintaining control of their writing. We appreciate that producing an extended piece of writing under examination conditions can be challenging and needs a degree of stimulus for each student to have enough content and ideas to write about. We didn’t want to introduce more reading material to do this and instead, have designed the paper so that the reading source that has to be studied, acts as a bridge or stimulus for the writing task. We believe that this follows good writing practice - as part of our stakeholder engagement, NFER, on reviewing the specification state: “The AQA specification for English Language is innovative, combining reading and writing in each of the two papers. This is effective as the reading texts serve a double purpose: as the basis for comprehension questions and as supporting text for the writing tasks. Those set in the AQA English Language papers are in line with the assessment of writing in the high performing jurisdictions studied.”  
• #17: As a lead in to the second paper, this question seeks to build on the first question on Paper 1 - this time using true/false statements to provide a thinking scaffold for students. Crucially, the auto-marked nature of this question has been designed to help students to manage their time appropriately for a low tariff question. The layout of the student answer booklet supports this response by setting out eight statements, only four of which are true based on a reading of the text. Should a student shade in more than 4 boxes, then the first 4 in sequence will be rewarded as appropriate. Again, numbered lines at the start of the extract provide a helpful way for the student to break the reading up into manageable chunks.
• #18: This question builds on the previous assessment of AO1 in question 1, requiring students to synthesise information and ideas – both explicit and implicit. In addition, the summarising task looks to act as a forward pointer to Paper 2 Q4. It is designed to help students prepare skills for comparison, but in a more straightforward and defined way at this stage in the paper. A student might prepare for this by marking differences (or similarities on other occasions), or listing them for themselves: Things I learn about Eddie Things I learn about Henry   Then, in writing the summary, the student has the flexibility to intertwine differences, or more simply begin with Eddie, and saying, through a connecting statement (for example: On the other hand, or In contrast) how Henry is different.    
• #19: In that this question again assesses language and structure, we have looked to develop reading progression through AO2 in the way previous to this, Paper 1 Q2 provides a specific example for analysis, so that here on Paper 2 Q3 students are required to self-select examples of their own to analyse. The assessment strategy for this question will always target language, though we may vary the choice of source in order to select students with the one that has most merit from a language point of view.
• #20: This extended-form answer will enable students to compare the different attitudes or viewpoints, perspectives and ideas as an umbrella term to capture what a writer is writing about and how they present it to the reader – either their intended reader in the time period in which it is written or the candidate as reader of the source. The scope of the question will always provide the candidate, at all levels of ability, to consider in their comparison how the writers use form, structure and language – referenced in the bullet point as ‘methods’. As the final reading question on this paper, it signals the end of the assessment journey and as such requires the student to be synoptic in bringing together their learning.
• #22: As with Paper 1, Question 5, the reading sources act as potential support for students to write about their own viewpoint. There are two components to the task: a provocative statement followed by a requirement to write in a form, for an audience, and with a purpose. The nature of this form, audience and purpose will differ from that set on Paper 1 in order that students can show ability to write to a range of provided contexts.