English Literature

Revision Tips.

Overview of examinations – Literature

Paper 1 (2hrs 15 min)

Modern Novel – Animal Farm (45 min)

Poetry Anthology Comparison (45 min)

Unseen Poetry Comparison (45 min)

Paper 2 (1 hr 45 min)

Shakespeare, Macbeth – 50 min

Pre 19 Hundred Novel, Sign of the Four - 50 min

Mind mapping:

characters, themes, events.

Write key quotations from

each text and stick them around a room at home-this might aid learning them.

Draw a timeline of events in the novel and /or a tension graph to plot key events and the development of

characters/themes.

Draw key images from each text that represent key

words/phrases from the text to help remember key

quotations.

‘I remember my hands in those high-heeled red shoes, relics…’

‘…icebergs of white feather, paused before returning againlike boats righting in rough weather…’

Create tables or Venn diagrams to revise and compare our poetry collection.

‘Love’s Philosophy’ ‘When we Two Parted’

Use of natural imagery

Use of death imagery

Sense of unrequited love

Sense of unrequited love

Positive tone Negative tone‘Love’s Philosophy’ ‘When we Two Parted’

Use of natural imagery

Use of death imagery

Sense of unrequited love.

Create a bank of possible exam questions on a given text / collection of poems.

Write a summary of the key idea /

meaning behind the poem/chapter.

Reduce it to five words and then one

word.

Identify two or three key quotations from the poem. Brainstorm ideas around each one.

If you could only keep one line from the poem that best sums up its essence, which would it be?

A parent remembers the first time their child grew in independence, eighteen years ago, during a game of football. The child is ‘like a satellite’ and is ‘drifting away’. The speaker in the poem finds the experience difficult and goes on to describe how the child, like a ‘half-fledged thing’, began to find his or her own feet.Images from nature, referring to birds leaving the nest and ‘a winged seed loosened from its parent stem’ show how this separation of child from parent happens in other species too. Still, the speaker seems perplexed by it and cannot ‘quite grasp’ the need for ‘nature’s give-and-take’.In the final stanza the parent speaks of the pain of parting from his child which ‘gnaws at my mind’. In the end he concludes that ‘love is proved in the letting go’ showing that he accepts that separation is an inevitable part of a loving relationship with his child.

Annotation - take a blank copy of the poem and annotate it again as a way of testing knowledge

and understanding. Refine annotations- are they brief and useful?

Annotations should not be ‘translations’ of meaning but comments on ideas or effects but

they can be pictures and images as well as words.

English Language

Revision Tips.

Overview of English Language Examinations

Paper 1 – Responding to unseen fiction

Reading extract – 15 min

Section A, Reading – 45 min

Section B, Writing (Descriptive/Narrative) – 45 min

Paper 2 – Responding to unseen non-fiction

Reading extract – 15 min

Section A, Reading 45 min

Section B, Writing

(Writing a non-fiction text for audience/purpose) - 45 min

Look-up the rule for using commas, dashes, semi-colons, colons and exclamation marks, then write a paragraph that includes each type of punctuation.

Find an image of a train station during commuter time/street lamp in the snow with nothing and no

one around/beech with someone bouncing a ball/a lighthouse about the be engulfed by a huge

wave- write the story of what happens next OR describe the image. In the exam, this would take

45 minutes.

Write a series of openings to a story attempting to hook the reader. Students could begin in the middle of

the action or conversation, reflecting back on past events, etc. They should tease the reader by dropping

hints and suggestions. Afterwards, students could annotate their opening to show the devices they have

used and the intended impact on the reader.

Produce a bank of useful and different phrases to start sentences e.g. verb + ing, verb + ed

(Laughing, she… or Startled, he…), prepositional phrases (At the end of the lane…), a subordinate

clause (Although she was tired, …), adverbs (Carefully she…), similes (Like a train, she ran…).

Write an opening or closing paragraph to a story and try to vary the length of the sentences. Balance the

rhythm of short/long sentences. Use simple sentences for clarity and impact. Use compound for flow. Use

complex to add extra layers of meaning

Read one non-fiction text per day then list key points about what the text was about.

Practise skimming and scanning passages the first time they are read in order to get the gist of what is going on. A highlighter could be used when close reading a second time to help identify the main points.

• Select a piece of non-fiction writing and annotate it to show the techniques used by the writer at word, sentence and text level.

•Write a PEE paragraph to explain the writer’s viewpoint in the chosen text.

• Select a piece of non-fiction writing and devise a sub-heading that sums up what each paragraph is about.

Create a flow diagram with these to show how the writing is structured.

• Devise questions based on a chosen non-fiction text. Model questions on the ones used in past papers. Then, answer them.

Build a key list of features to identify which could include: setting, narrative voice, characterisation and speech, imagery

and descriptive detail, structure, techniques used in the building of tension e.g. repetition, syntax, vocabulary.

Identify these on the passage using different colours or symbols.

Then annotate with a few brief notes on what the effect is on the reader.

Online resources: Literature-BBC GCSE Bitesize-

Online resources: Language-BBC GCSE Bitesize-

Study Guides: Literature.

• York Notes-

• Animal Farm (Grades 9–1): York Notes for GCSE Study Guide

• Animal Farm Workbook (Grades 9–1): York Notes for GCSE Workbook

• AQA Anthology: Love and Relationships (Grades 9–1): York Notes for GCSE Study Guide

• Macbeth (Grades 9–1): York Notes for GCSE Study Guide

• Macbeth Workbook (Grades 9–1): York Notes for GCSE Workbook

• The Sign of the Four (Grades 9–1): York Notes for GCSE Study Guide

Study Guides: Literature and Language-

• CGP-

• New GCSE English Language AQA Complete Revision & Practice - Grade 9-1 Course (with Online Edition)

• New GCSE English Language AQA Workbook - for the Grade 9-1 Course (includes Answers)

• New GCSE English Literature AQA Complete Revision & Practice - for the Grade 9-1 Course

• New GCSE English Literature AQA Poetry Guide: Love & Relationships Anthology - the Grade 9-1 Course