1. English Department PARENTS AS LEARNERS EVENING MAY 2016

2. Welcome! Thank you for attending. All information from this evening will be placed on our website for you to access at home. Tonight, we aim to give you an insight into your son or daughter’s English curriculum. We will provide you with guidance as to: ◦The content of the curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4 ◦Where to access support for additional resources ◦The content of examinations and top tips for success.

3. English examinations The last few years have been a time of immense change within the English curriculum and assessment processes. Speaking and listening was removed as an examination component in September 2013. The new KS3 curriculum came into force last September. New KS4 specifications taught from September 2015.

4. New KS4 Students in our current years 7,8 and 9 will be the first groups to sit the new specifications from September 2015 onwards. The government roll-out of the new specifications for GCSE mean that in some subjects students are working under the old system and in others under the new.

5. GCSE reform

7. This in effect means that students now need to secure a low grade B instead of C.

8. GCSE reforms From Sept 2015 (exams 2017) From Sept 2016 (exams 2018) From Sept 2017 (exams 2018) English LiteratureArt, drama, cateringDesign technology English LanguageThe sciencesMedia MathsComputer scienceEngineering MFL, PEBusiness studies RE, Geography & History

9. What this means for KS3 As we have now converted to the new GCSE in KS4 it makes most sense to begin preparing students for this new ‘more demanding’ examination as soon as they arrive. KS3 levelling has gone and schools have been permitted to design their own assessment measures. These have to be in place for September 2016. Settle College English department has piloted a system using the new 1- 9 GCSE grades.

10. KS3 1-9 grades We have redesigned all our assessments to cover different units of the new GCSE Language and Literature specifications. This means that students are working towards their GCSE exams from the moment they arrive. Each half term students complete one formal, summative assessment of the work they have completed each half term. The assessments and markschemes have been aligned with the markschemes and exam questions demanded at GCSE.

11. Old versus new Old GCSE: How does the writer show their views on Fair Trade products? The writer begins by stating that ‘it has made the biggest impact’ suggesting that their view is positive. They go onto to include statistics ‘5% higher profits’ and quotes from farmers ‘we have a sense of hope’ to give weight to their points…

12. New GCSE Evaluate how successfully the writer presents their views on Fair Trade farming. Refer to language and structure to support your evaluation. ‘The writer opens with a superlative ‘biggest impact’ to firmly establish that this movement has been of utmost importance in improving the famer’s lives. They successfully support this with the inclusion of statistics ‘5% higher profits’ and the use of a quote ‘a sense of hope’ this emotive vocabulary effectively creates an impact in the reader as we see the impact of this movement not just financially but psychologically for the farmers. Throughout the text, the writer confidently builds on this first impression by repeated referrals to the ‘hope’ given by the Fair Trade movement. The inclusion of three different perspectives in the form of anecdotes from farmers…

13. Example assessments GCSE unitYr 7 unitYr 8 unit Romeo and Juliet (literature exam) – analysis of language, structure and theme of an extract PLUS essay question on theme or character. Midsummer Night’s Dream – analysis of language, structure and theme of an extract. The Tempest - analysis of language, structure and theme of an extract. Non-fiction reading - 20 th C & 21 st C (language exam) – analysis of two texts. Questions test analysis of effect of language and evaluation of writer’s methods.

14. Example markscheme

15. As students in KS3 English are now preparing for the more demanding specifications and indeed assessed under the new system, you may find that students are currently working at a lower level in English than other subjects. The level of content and challenge of the question types has been made more demanding in line with government changes to GCSE. What is reassuring is that although students found this challenging at first, we are starting to see real progress as they move through the first year of this new specification.

16. How you can help Each session will explain different ways in which you can help students focus on their specific examination and give top tips to avoid common pitfalls. The key message from us though is the importance of reading to students. Reading improves students’: ◦Vocabulary ◦Sentence structure ◦Spelling ◦Punctuation

17. Useful sites: Our current Moodle site contains lots of helpful resources to help students progress further within English. In addition to this, you may find the following websites helpful: ◦BBC Bitesize ◦http://www.englishbiz.co.ukhttp://www.englishbiz.co.uk ◦http://www.s-cool.co.uk ◦http://www.revisioncentre.co.uk/gcse/english

18. English Language Students will sit two papers: Each paper will test both reading and writing Students must respond to both fiction and non-fiction texts from the 19 th, 20 th and 21 st centuries. 20% of the total marks must be awarded for spelling, punctuation, grammar and sentence structure.

19. Edexcel Draft specifications were approved by Ofqual last term and exam boards have produced specimen papers and are currently beginning training courses and providing resources. As a department, we spent a lot of time dissecting the specimen papers in terms of their approach and choices of text. Edexcel has chosen to set their 19 th century text as fiction and 20 th and 21 st centuries texts as non-fiction. We feel that this will be potentially the most challenging part of their reading and that students will tackle following a narrative of 19 th century writing much more successfully than an argument or informative piece.

20. Students must study a 19 th century novel as part of their literature examination and we also felt that this cross-over of study would benefit them in the Language examination. In addition, the Edexcel paper breaks down their questions into smaller ‘chunks’ allowing students a greater access to marks. However – as students are the people sitting the examination, I prepared some comparison activities for them to take part in over the last summer term to allow them to offer their input into this most important decision.

21. English Literature Students will sit two examinations for this subject. Students will study: ◦A full Shakespeare play (Romeo and Juliet) ◦A post 1914 British play or novel (An Inspector Calls or Blood Brothers) ◦A full 19 th Century novel (A Christmas Carol or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) ◦An anthology of poems. ◦They will also have a question on two unseen poems in the examination.

22. Now over to you! There are various activities around the room. An extract from 1984 (year 8 assessment) A vocabulary exercise to test your knowledge! An analysis exercise of the techniques used in the extract from Midsummer Night’s Dream

23. Being dedicated to a purpose being very gloomy Being very dirty consecration

24. Reversible cotton, linen or silk with a pattern in it Wooden and patterned Light and see-through cotton damask

25. Paper belonging to swimmers A collection of letters Lots of swimming equipment Divers parchments

26. Being very great or impressive Being very unfriendly Being very unhappy grandeur

27. Looked at Looked beyond Trembled quailed

28. Thought about something made somebody or something be or become something Understood something Rendered

29. to recognize the wrong in something you have done and be sorry about it To remember something clearly To feel afraid Repent

30. Being unhappy Thinking of the past Thinking of the present time retrospective

31. hidden uncovered Protective covering shrouded

32. stateliest Looks like another countryugliest Grand and impressive in appearance