Modern Text
Serving as an introduction to the course, the focus is placed on the writer’s perspective, the voice of the writer, and text as a conscious construct, influenced by the context surrounding the work of fiction.
Class based assessment using a choice of exam-style questions and an ‘open book’ approach to ease pupils into mode of assessment.
Later in the year the modern text section is offered in the trial exam, as it would appear in the final exam with a choice of question, without access to the text; pupils are expected to learn quotations and textual references.
Poetry Anthology
Development of critical analysis skills to explore an anthology of poetry chosen by the examination board, from across a breadth of time; students will gain an understanding of how the writer’s methods impact upon the reader; whilst exploring themes, pupils will begin to use comparative skills in conjunction with the study of mini-clusters of these poems. Class based assessment, using an exam-style question featuring two given poems which require comparison within the student’s response.
Shakespeare Text
Students deepen their analytical skills by actively exploring one of Shakespeare’s texts in class, through reading aloud, watching a variety of interpretations in performance, and by close textual study. Other than in-class mini assessments, there is no assessment of Shakespeare in Year 10.
Unseen Poetry
Pupils are given the opportunity to develop skills to explore ‘unseen’ poetry through engagement with new poems in their poetry cluster. In the trial examinations at the end of the year, pupils are given the opportunity to respond two unseen poems in an introduction to this style of exam assessment.