1. A Student Guide to Drama Unit 3: The Study of Shakespeare

2. What will I need to do?
Unit 3 of the GCSE English Literature qualification is a controlled assessment Unit based on the study of a play by William Shakespeare.

3. You will complete one extended writing task
(2 hours) on a question linked to a theme. E.g.:
Theme 1: Conflict or
Theme 2: Love

4. Stages of the Controlled Assessment Unit
You will study the chosen play in detail in class.
Your teacher will tell you the theme and your task title so that you can carry out relevant research and preparation.
This can include research on the internet, at home and in groups in school.

5. During the preparation and planning stage your teacher will give general feedback to your class but cannot assist you individually or look at any draft of your response.
For the formal timed assessment, you may use a clean, unannotated copy of the play.
You have a maximum of 2 hours to complete the task working on your own.

6. What is being assessed in this unit?
You should demonstrate that you:
can respond critically and imaginatively to the play
can select and evaluate relevant textual material
can use details to illustrate your interpretations
can explain and evaluate dramatic techniques, language, structure and form
can relate the play to its context

7. List of Tasks Examine the way Shakespeare presents
the theme of conflict in your chosen play. or
Examine the way Shakespeare presents conflict between characters in your chosen play.
Examine the way Shakespeare presents the theme of love in your chosen play.
Examine the way Shakespeare presents love between characters in your chosen play.

8. Key word:
PRESENTS

9. No matter which task you are undertaking you need to:
communicate your understanding of the meanings and features identified in the play;
identify dramatic methods and show your understanding of them and comment on them; and
provide contextual information to enhance your understanding of the play.

10. There is no substitute for having read and understood the play
There is no substitute for having read and understood the play. Knowing what happens – the plot - is your starting point.
You then need to understand HOW Shakespeare crafted his play – the dramatic devices, methods and techniques he employed and his use of language.

11. You need to develop your argument, explaining your own opinions and interpretations and using relevant evidence from the text to support what you are saying.
You need to provide some contextual information. This should be relevant and appropriate to what you are writing and not just random information e.g. a list of all the plays Shakespeare wrote.

12. CONTEXTUAL DETAIL HISTORICAL SOCIAL/CULTURAL/POLITICAL BIOGRAPHICAL
You need to make sure that the details you include in your work are relevant to the question you are answering.

13. Your controlled assessment response should be clearly and accurately written.
You have time to plan and prepare so there is no excuse for a response which jumps about from idea to idea rather than being logically structured.

14. Do not just tell WHAT is written But HOW it is written
And WHY this is effective.
You need to analyse and evaluate Shakespeare’s use of dramatic methods and language.

15. SOME DRAMATIC METHODS staging costume setting sound characterisation
aside
monologues
soliloquy
dramatic irony
juxtaposition
costume
sound
symbols
motifs
humour
contrast
special effects
foreshadowing

16. SHAKESEPARE’S USE OF LANGUAGE
blank verse
prose
imagery
simile
personification
alliteration
assonance
metaphor
onomatopoeia
word play
puns
slang
hyperbole
oxymoron
anaphora
chiasmus
biblical references
classical references