ASA2 Language and Literature

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AS/A2 Language and Literature

• Strategies and Ideas for Raising Achievement
• Ruth Ling
• Workshop Session 1B

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Overview

• Intake
• Induction
• Syllabus Choices
• Teaching of Individual Units
• Timetables, strategies, approaches
• Importance of two teacher approach
• Differentiation
• Student Support
• Exam Skills
• Supporting Curriculum Activities

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Intake

• We try for 2 Bs minimum but do take students with
  Cs. The course (AQA spec B) seems to be designed
  in such a way that you can almost start teaching
  key skills from scratch, enabling those C
  students to catch up easily.
• Increasingly we are trying to inform students in
  year 10/11 about this particular English course,
  targeting particularly creative/analytical
  students liaising with other teachers/presentatio
  ns as early as year 10.
• Not an easier option than Lit, although
  traditionally weaker students may take it. Just
  as it seems to cater to some weaker students by
  being more didactic, prescribed, structured and
  concrete than Lit, equally, the level of analysis
  required can stretch more able students,
  particularly in A2. The course lends itself more
  readily to differentiation. With the emphasis on
  doing as opposed to thinking/talking in this
  course, weaker students find themselves more
  anchored and able to perform better. (This may be
  a point to consider in ones teaching of straight
  Lit courses!)

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Induction

• Year 11 Induction session before summer vacation.
  In addition to some taster activities, we hand
  out reading lists, requiring at least one
  classic and one contemporary novel to be read
  by September. Particularly with the new changes
  limiting the actual breadth of the syllabus (we
  will have fewer texts to teach), this wider
  reading will be essential in preparation for
  testing of analytical skills. Try for challenging
  texts.

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Syllabus Choices

• Language Change (unit 2) colleague has chosen
  the childrens lit option but didnt seem to do
  any better than in the Hawthorne/Walker. The
  childrens lit can nevertheless inspire them for
  coursework.
• Only ever chosen the Shakespeare in unit 5 (Talk)
  (university stretching them for synoptic) but
  what do others think? Can we teach Eng A level
  without Shakespeare?
• In general, easier texts do not necessarily
  help students in a course that is cumulative and
  ultimately synoptic. Board is keen, it seems,
  even with the new specs, to keep the standards of
  Lit texts high, e.g. they will be prescribing
  suitable choices for text transformation
  coursework, as indeed it believes that less
  rigorous texts have in the past disadvantaged
  students.

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NTB1 - Anthology

• Teacher 1 spends several weeks working on
  grammar purpose and audience generic
  expectations syntactical analysis lexis. Back
  to basics really works and constant consolidation
  helps throughout year(s). This work is essential
  ground work for everything, particularly Frost in
  the AS, and then most notably, for NTB5
  (declaratives interrogatives etc)
• Teacher 2 starts work on the second section of
  anthology. Sit exam in January.
• Poetry teaching can be challenging (see resource)
  What do we do about the more difficult poems? Is
  there an order in which we teach them? I have
  made them prepare interpretations based upon a
  structured list of language criteria (helpful or
  hindering?)
• Leave plenty of time for revision, particularly
  of difficult poems/passages. Teachers can swap
  which may iron out any challenging texts.

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NTB 2 Text Production

• With whole class, study examples of each
  important genre to start with. Again, this builds
  for later on. Small gobbets work, too.
• Strict deadlines. Finishing coursework quickly is
  a great advantage with weaker students enables
  more lengthy focus on the more difficult of the
  language novels.
• Commentary writing alongside each piece not
  afterwards. Weaker students should include
  improvements and difficulties encountered.
• Style models (could be anthology pieces) looking
  at exemplar material - particularly commentaries
  help in structuring the more advanced language
  analysis section of the commentary for weaker
  students.
• Steer weaker students away from imaginative
  pieces magazine articles and things with which
  they are familiar generally more comfortably
  produced and commented on.

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NTB3 Language Change

• Two teachers involved if possible, depending
  upon how quickly coursework can be completed.
  Comparison not as important as language analysis
  and so two teachers can work independently on two
  novels.
• Presentations on chapters need to be steered very
  carefully towards analysis rather than plot/theme
  templates helpful.
• Teaching them to find points on characterization,
  imagery, lexis, syntax etc. much better than
  general discussion.
• Important (or not?) to read every word of these
  set texts in class due to nature of the exam
  question.

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NTB4 Text Transformation (Course work)

• Careful with choice of texts. Easier texts do not
  help as the transformations end up being too
  close to the original! (Nor does it benefit them
  when it comes to the synoptic). Teaching of the
  main text rather didactic but board recommends
  it and it seems to work.
• See NTB3 for differentiation.

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NTB5 Talk in Life and Literature

• Teach theory (section 2) straight after AS exams
  (hand-outs and excellent textbook, The Language
  of Conversation (Francesca Pridham, Intertext
  series) and then teach section until Autumn
  half-term.
• Immediate hand-out of course rubric, to which I
  refer throughout teaching of course. Equally, I
  show them the exam paper on day 1, and after
  several weeks teaching some of the main theories
  of discourse analysis, I get onto past exam
  papers (easy to download or call up).
• Majority of teaching is done though past papers.
  Excellent text book supplement papers (extension
  work) continual reminding of discourse features
  and exam paper bullet points. Throughout course,
  students should make checklists of criteria.
  (Photocopy best ones for whole class and keep
  referring to them.)
• Play line by line analysis with criteria in
  mind identifying material for each bullet point
  of exam question in every lesson features of
  each characters speech student power-points on
  important extracts of their choice leave plenty
  of time for revision and exam practice as time is
  particularly tight in this exam.

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NTB6 Synoptic Paper

• Introduction to unit in period after AS exams via
  Titanic unit in Texts and Contexts (Adrian Beard,
  Intertext).
• Teacher not teaching unit 5 carries on after
  coursework in Autumn term. Other teacher
  completes play around February and then works on
  Synoptic too.
• Taught through past exams papers.
• Lots of close class work and essays annotating
  of material by students before class helps
  teacher modelling of paragraphs gentle
  introduction to theories for second question
  (they do not have to cover them all
  differentiate) and model answers on each
  students compile their own synoptic papers
  photcopying of good student essays for class to
  highlight and mark.

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Further areas for discussion

• Staffing
• Make up of classes
• New Specifications