GCSE English Literature Revise Right Year 10

Paul Briscoe Introduction

What do the exams consist of? Exam board – AQA. There are no different tiers. GCSE English Literature – 2 exams. 100% exam.

When are the GCSE English Literature exams? GCSE English Literature. Paper 1 – 22nd May am. Paper 2 – 26th May am. There will be a half hour revision session immediately prior to the start of the exam.

GCSE English Literature Paper 1 – Shakespeare and the 19th century novel. 1 hour 45 minutes. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare– 1 essay question. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – 1 essay question. Both questions are “extract to whole”.

GCSE English Literature Paper 2 – Modern texts and poetry. 2 hour 15 minutes. An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley. Choice of 2 essay questions. No extract. Poetry Anthology – Power and Conflict group of poems. Essay comparing 2 poems from this set. Unseen Poetry – 1 essay question on an unseen poem and 1 question comparing this poem to another unseen poem.

How can students revise for the exams? Know the basics. Targets. Reading. Practising. Focus. Not what you know.

How can students revise for the exams? Groupings. Associations. Make a story. Mnemonics. Tests/feedback. Flashcards. Read. Ask.

Enrichment: Wednesday in SB1 and E4 at 3 until 3. 45 Enrichment: Wednesday in SB1 and E4 at 3 until 3.45. Thursday in E4 at 3 until 3.45.

Be wary of adaptations!

Links. Mr. Bruff. https://www.youtube.com/user/mrbruff

Anna Paulson Paper 1

HOW TO APPROACH THE EXAMS. Paper One – 1 hour 45 minutes Romeo and Juliet A Christmas Carol For each question 10 minutes reading the extract and planning your answer. 35 minutes Writing your response 5 minutes to check your answer Use any extra time at the end to double check.

The Importance of Planning Read the following from Act 3 Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet and then answer the question that follows. At this point in the play Juliet is waiting for the nurse to come back from meeting Romeo. PICK OUT THE KEY INFORMATION

EXPLORE THE QUESTION Starting with this speech, explore how Shakespeare presents attitudes to love in Romeo and Juliet. Write about: How Shakespeare presents attitudes towards love in this speech. How Shakespeare presents attitudes towards love in the play as a whole. Highlight the key words in the question. Start to annotate around the question your initial ideas.

Looking at the extract. THINK ABOUT: Where about in the play is it from? What is happening? Who is involved? Why is it important? READ THROUGH AND ANNOTATE ANY LINKS TO THE QUESTION, ANY LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES THAT YOU MIGHT WANT TO WRITE ABOUT.

Looking at the extract.

PLAN Points you can make about the question How can this be linked to the techniques used by the author? What can you say about the play as a whole? LIST SPIDER DIAGRAM MIND MAP

The Importance of checking Spelling, punctuation and grammar are worth 4 marks on the Romeo and Juliet question so double check: Capital letters Full stops Characters’ names Places Author’s name Apostrophes Etc

A Christmas Carol Follow the same process.

Double check everything at the end.

How you can practice this at home. Planning practice questions Take an extract of text and annotate it under timed conditions Practice timed responses Try out alternative ways of planning

Theresa Dolan Paper 2

The Basics The paper is 2 hours and 15 minutes long. There are 3 sections Section A – An Inspector Calls Section B – Poetry (Anthology) Section C – Poetry (Unseen) You should spend 45 minutes per question.

An Inspector Calls There are 2 questions to choose from – You MUST answer only 1. The question is worth 30 marks. There are 4 marks for written accuracy (the quality of the writing) Unlike Paper 1, there is no extract so you must have quotes remembered for each Character and Theme. You must use terminology and context in your answer. The questions could cover A specific character A specific theme The beginning/end of the play.

Anthology Poetry There are 2 questions in this section. You must answer on the POWER AND CONFLICT section. The question is worth 30 marks. You will be given 1 poem and a specific question to answer. You must compare the poem given to 1 other poem from the anthology. You must identify specific techniques and context for the poems you write about. You must talk about The title The specific language The structure The techniques used The context of the poem.

Unseen Poetry There are 2 questions in this section. The section is worth 32 marks in total. The first part is worth 24 marks. The second part is worth 8 marks. In the first part, you will be given 1 poem (that has not been studied previously) and a specific question. (this is likely to be how the poem shows a specific theme/idea) You must identify techniques used and use terminology. You must talk about The title The specific language The structure The techniques used In the second part, you will be given a second poem and a second question. You will need to compare how the 2 poems. (this is likely to be how the poems look at a theme/idea in different/similar ways)

Key Points You must answer all 3 sections. Stick to 45 minutes per question – move on and come back later if you have time. Leave space after each question to go back and add to or edit your answer. Put quote marks around words copied from the text. Spend 5 minutes planning the answer. 30 minutes writing the answer. 10 minutes proofreading your answer.

Julie Harvey Revision – Flashcards

Flashcards These can be done for all sorts of topics and can be quite small. The idea here is to put key words/ideas on the cards. At the end you can shuffle them and then turn them over quickly one at a time explaining each key word or idea quickly out loud to someone else.

One way of creating revision cards is to do a simple prompt image One way of creating revision cards is to do a simple prompt image. To make them even more memorable you could add colour to the images.

Revision cards Revision cards are slightly more detailed than flashcards. They tend to have a few key points or ideas on each card rather than just a word or definition. They act as a summary of a topic or condense a lot of information in to just a few sentences.

Organising revision cards Keeping your revision cards together will help you to organise ideas. You could do this by text, e.g. An Inspector Calls on one set of cards, A Christmas Carol on another set, and so on. Within that you could also colour code sections e.g. themes in one colour, characters in another.

Poetry Anthology two-sided example: Side one has the main information

Side two contains key quotation explosions

You can add post-its or small diagrams if you are a visual learner. You can add a little colour by putting key words or terms in a different colour to the one you use for the majority of the information. You can add post-its or small diagrams if you are a visual learner. The act of condensing the information to have on your cards is the first step to revising the information, the second step is then learning the cards, the final step is testing yourself on what is on the cards.

Adding colour helps you to quickly identify themes and make links in your notes.

Another variation Using post-its around a key word or image can be a good revision tool. Like flashcards and revision cards, it ensures you condense your information in to small bite- sized pieces that are easier to learn.

Megan Claytor Revision – Posters

Revision Posters Revision posters are incredibly useful for covering large amounts of information in a single resource. You could cover the entire plot of Romeo and Juliet, for example, on one large A3 poster. However, you can also do more detailed and in-depth revision, for example you could cover one poem or one character on an A4/A3 page.

Possible approaches to revision posters Use timelines or relationship maps to structure your poster. This example is on Romeo and Juliet and uses relationship maps to show who belongs to which family and how they interact with other characters.

Possible approaches to revision posters Use SCITTLES or PEEKCAW to structure your poster. This example is on the poem “Kamikaze” and covers themes, language, techniques, context, writer’s intention, effect on the reader and structure.

Possible approaches to revision posters Use a character to structure your poster. This example is on the character Gerald from An Inspector Calls and looks at key quotes and his relationships with other characters.

Possible approaches to revision posters Use colour on your poster. This will really help you in remembering your notes and them being engaging to look at. If you colour code, e.g. always write quotes in purple, this can also help you in the exam.

Possible approaches to revision posters Use drawings to structure your poster. This example is on A Christmas Carol. Using little sketches and pictures can really help aid memory retention in the exam.

How to use revision posters Put them up around the house. In the exam, you might end up remembering that your notes on Romeo were on the fridge! This can help with remembering key information. Get family or friends to test you on the information. Try and give them as much detail as possible from the poster, or get them to ask you questions. Transfer information. Copy key bits of information over to smaller flashcards, or take some information from your Gerald poster over to your poster on the theme of class. Self-assess. Read over your notes and then try to recite them back, or write down all the information you can remember from looking at the poster. Use the poster to attempt exam questions. Try a practice exam using your revision poster. Maybe you could write one paragraph with the poster, and then try one paragraph writing only from memory.

An opportunity to talk to your child’s teacher in the canteen.