GCSE English An Overview
What will my child study? All pupils will now study both English Language and English Literature. Pupils will study a range of fiction and non-fiction as well as continuous and non-continuous texts for English Language. For English Literature, pupils will study poetry, Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet), two novels (Of Mice and Men and Heroes) and a play (An Inspector Calls).
What is different? The WJEC have made changes to both the English Language and the English Literature courses. The changes to English Literature are relatively minor and affect the wording of certain questions and the controlled assessments. There are major changes to English Language.
GCSE English Literature Assessment 25% of the course is assessed through non examination assessment. 75% of the course is assessed in 2 examinations, taken in Year 11.
Non Examination Assessment 25% Pupils will study a Shakespeare play in its entirety and write an essay on a theme specified by the WJEC, analysing the text and providing a personal response. They will also study a selection of poems before writing an essay analysing them, comparing and contrasting and providing a personal response.
Examinations Pupils will sit 2 examinations: Unit 1 Different Cultures Prose and Contemporary Poetry. 2 hours 35% Pupils will study a different cultures novel and answer 2 questions: an extract question, which requires close reading of a short section of the text, and an essay question, which tests their understanding of the whole text. Pupils will also be asked to write about an unseen poem. Unit 2 Drama and Prose. 2 hours 40% Pupils will study a play and a novel for this examination. They will answer an extract question and an essay question on each of these texts. Pupils are not permitted to take copies of the texts into the examinations.
GCSE English Language Assessment 20% of the course is assessed through non-examination assessment. 80% of the course is assessed in the final examinations, taken at the end of Year 11.
Non-Examination Assessment Oracy (Speaking and Listening Unit 1) Pupils will be required to complete two Speaking and Listening tasks through the exploration of ideas, texts, problems and/or issues. The tasks will cover the following areas: individual, researched presentation or talk, answering questions and responding to feedback, based on WJEC set themes (10%); group discussion responding to written or visual material provided by the WJEC (10%).
External Statement Pupils will sit two written examinations in June of Year 11: Unit 2-2 hours. Section A: Reading: pupils will be presented with a range of different texts, whole texts and extracts, both fiction and non-fiction, and tested on their understanding of them through a number of questions. Some of these questions will be multiple choice and only worth one mark, whereas some will require extended responses. A total of forty marks will be available. Section B: Writing: pupils will be given one proofreading activity which will be worth five marks and will test a pupil s ability to spot spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors. They will also be given an extended writing task; they will be given a choice of two and will choose just one. Both tasks will link to the reading material offered in the reading section.
External Statement continued Unit 3-2 hours. Section A: Reading: this will be similar to the reading section in Unit 2, but pupils may only be presented with non-fiction texts. Section B: Writing: pupils will be given two transactional writing tasks, for example a speech and a letter. Both must be completed and each one is worth 20 marks. Each task will be linked to material available in the reading section.
GCSE English Language: Other Changes The English Language course is now untiered. All pupils sit exactly the same paper there is no Higher tier and there is no Foundation tier. There are no written controlled assessments. The non-examination unit is made up entirely of speaking and listening. The speaking and listening assessments must now be recorded. It is not possible to take any of the examinations in Year 10; all English examinations will take place in Year 11.
When will the assessments take place? Non-Examination Assessment English Literature Poetry: pupils will study a range of poetry from October half term onwards. They will sit the poetry assessment just before Christmas. Shakespeare: pupils will study Romeo and Juliet and prepare for the assessment from January onwards. They will sit the assessment just before Easter. Non-Examination Assessment English Language Pupils will complete one assessment at the end of Year 10 and the second, early in Year 11. Exact dates will be confirmed later in the year. Examinations English Literature, Unit 1 January of Year 11 English Literature Unit 2 and both English Language examinations May/June of Year 11
Grades The WJEC will be awarding the full range of grades from A*-G. The English Literature papers are still tiered; therefore, pupils will sit either the Higher paper or the Foundation paper depending on their ability. Pupils sitting the Higher paper can achieve A*-D; those sitting the Foundation paper can achieve C-G. The English Language papers are untiered so all pupils have the opportunity to achieve a grade from A*-G. The WJEC have not provided us with any information about grade boundaries or about the specific skills pupils will need to exhibit to achieve each grade. Until such information is available, our conversations about pupil attainment will be based on estimates.
Setting in English The English Department no longer sets pupils according to ability. The rationale behind this is as follows: The new GCSE English Language qualification is untiered all pupils will sit the same examination; we no longer have Higher or Foundation papers. We have been able to group pupils into ten classes per year group rather than eight. This means that class size is smaller which will allow us to ensure that all pupils receive more individual attention. Additionally, we have ensured that pupils will have the opportunity to work with other pupils of a similar ability, as well as pupils of a higher ability than themselves so that they are continuously supported and challenged. Research has proven that mixed ability grouping is the most effective way of ensuring all pupils achieve and of improving attainment, as pupils will be encouraged to develop and improve their skills by the teacher and their peers. This is a decision that has been made following a great deal of consideration, discussion and research and we firmly believe that it is in the best interests of our pupils as they continue to develop their literacy skills in order to meet the demands of the new GCSE Language qualification.
What can be done at home to support the development of skills? Encourage your child to pay attention to the accuracy of his/her work in all subjects not just when completing work for English; encourage your child to set aside 5-10 minutes after completing a written task to proofread his/her work in order to check for accuracy in spelling, punctuation and expression; provide your child with a range of material to read both fiction and nonfiction and spend some time every week reading with your child and asking him/her about what you have read; encourage your child to begin revising for each English examination at least 4-6 weeks before the examination;
ask your child about the texts that he/she is studying in school talk to him/her about characters and themes and how they are developed; help your child to access other forms of the text, for example, the film version, a theatre production or web-based information BBC Bitesize, etc.; encourage your child to examine and analyse the ways in which language is used in the world around us how we are persuaded/informed/entertained, for example; ensure that your child completes the homework that has been set to a good standard and on time if no formal written homework has been set, then pupils should be reading the texts studied in class and making notes in their revision books; and, look out for resources that we will be sending out to pupils and parents electronically and encourage your child to access them and use them at home.
Sample Material TEXT A shows information from the Australian Tourism Board Visitor profile to Australia in 2012 47% repeat visitors 68% of total arrivals are for leisure 45-59 years largest demographic $7,036 average spend 47 nights average stay Oct-Jan and May-Jun peak booking period Dec-Feb and Jul-Aug peak travel period
Questions on Text A A1. What percentage of visitors have been to Australia before?. [1] A2. The information refers to demographic. Select one definition from the list below that best defines a demographic? [1] a) a graph showing changes b) time spent away from home c) a way of grouping people d) period spent travelling A3. Explain what is meant by peak booking period and peak travel period. [2]
Sample Material TEXT B is an extract taken from Bill Bryson s travel writing about his experiences in the different states in America, a book called The Lost Continent. Here he describes the scene of a recent forest fire in Nevada. The road was steep and slow and it took me much of the afternoon to drive the hundred or so miles to the Nevada border. Near Woodfords I entered the Toiyabe National Forest, or at least what once had been the Toiyabe National Forest. For miles and miles there was nothing but charred land, mountainsides of dead earth and stumps of trees. Occasionally I passed an undamaged house around which a firebreak had been dug. It was an odd sight, a house with swings and a paddling pool in the middle of an ocean of blackened stumps. A year or so before the owners must have thought they were the luckiest people on the planet, to live in the woods and mountains, amid the cool and fragrant pines. And now they lived on the surface of the moon. Soon the forest would be replanted and for the rest of their lives they could watch it grow again inch by annual inch. I had never seen such devastation miles and miles of it and yet I had no recollection of having read about it. That s the thing about America. It s so big that it just absorbs disasters, muffles them with its vastness. Time and again on this trip I had seen news stories that would elsewhere have been treated as colossal tragedies a dozen people killed by floods in the South, ten crushed when a store roof collapsed in Texas, twenty-two dead in a snowstorm in the east and each of them treated as a brief and not terribly important diversion between ads for soap powder and cottage cheese. Partly it is a consequence of that inane breeziness common to local TV newsreaders in America, but mostly it is just the scale of the country.
Questions on Text B A4. What is meant when Bryson writes that the owners lived on the surface of the moon since the forest fire? [1]... A5. What does Bill Bryson say about American attitudes to disasters? [5] Refer to the language he uses in your response....
Thank you for listening.