1. What is AO4?
AO4: relate texts to their social, cultural and historical contexts; explain how texts have been influential and significant to self and to other readers in different contexts and at different times

2. So what is ‘context’? ‘Context’ = exploring the SETTING of a text
How is the setting significant in the narrative of the text?
How does the setting relate to the ‘real world’?
How do these things influence the way we respond to the text?

3. SETTING and THE NARRATIVE In the text, to what extent:
because of when/where the story takes place?
do things happen as they do
are characters like they are
Consider (eg):
In a ‘different cultures’ text, any or all of these may be unfamiliar to the reader
Time / Period
Place
Culture / Community
You couldn’t teach a Different Cultures text without addressing this unfamiliarity: the ‘context’.

4. Setting and the ‘real world’
Setting becomes ‘context’:
when we link the setting in the text and a setting in the ‘real’ world
when we start to explore the relationship between them.
To do this, we need some knowledge from outside the text:
the social cultural historical . . .
CONTEXT of the text

5. ? Exploring setting How does exploring / understanding ‘context’:
the characters
their relationships
what happens
…etc
help us to understand
make us think more carefully about
alter our view of
… etc
These are the areas A663 tasks will tackle.

6. The context of the reader
. . . explain how texts have been influential and significant to self and to other readers in different contexts and at different times
For example -
how/why a text may influence views/ attitudes/ circumstances
how/why responses to a text may change over time
how/why a text may provoke different reactions in different readers
Any relevant response to these aspects WILL be credited
If there is no reference to these aspects, the whole mark range will still be accessible – for example, they may not have been relevant to the extract or question set

7. Linking text and context
You need to learn how to:
select from your contextual knowledge what is relevant
explain how the contextual material helps to shape the text itself
explore how the contextual material helps to shape the way we respond to the text
integrate all this into a response to the task set
‘Bolt-on background’ is not what examiners are looking for. Never begin with an introduction about the cultural context of the text – your understanding of this element must be fully integrated into your response.