by the Super Baby Project

This teaching guide for students of higher ability is designed as a self-contained unit which can be used to produce the AQA A GCSE Pre-1914 Prose coursework. It can also be used as a springboard for Original Writing.

A Modest Proposal is an excellent alternative for the more able students to the rather well-worn (though useful) Pre-1914 Prose path of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Great Expectations and Pride and Prejudice. Its blistering satire allows students to produce some quite subtle and impressive analyses.

• The AQA A Pre-1914 coursework...

A Pre C20th GCSE Assignment on Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Speaking & Listening and/or Written Response

I often get asked how to make Pre-Twentieth Century texts more accessible. This assignment has been used with a number of classes with children with statements of SEN and the students have enjoyed it. I hope you can make use of it too.

It can be used in conjunction with the full novel, the full chapters and/or the film version of the novel. The full chapters are available as a separate download and can be used on a whiteboard or...

Points to consider when assessing Chapter One of “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens.

Some ideas to get you started…

• What makes this opening chapter a good read? It might be useful to colour code your sheets with a highlighter pen!
• Narrative technique – first person narrative. What effect does this have on you, the reader? What does first person have that third person misses and vice versa?
• Setting (Where is the story set?)

The setting is very important in Great Expectations in a number of key scenes. The varied settings...

A Scaffolded Essay Guide to Lord of the Flies

At the beginning of the novel, Ralph stands on his head and celebrates the fact that there are no adult survivors.

This is a dream come true. How does this dream turn into a nightmare?

It is true that at the beginning of the novel that in conversation with Piggy that Ralph celebrates the fact that there are no adults on the island. I think he…

Within hours of celebrating the lack of adult supervision. Ralph assumes the role of…

The dream really turns into a night mare when…

Another key...

Associated Resources

DARTs Literary Analysis and Wuthering Heights.doc

I teach some students with special needs and I found one particular technique really useful when tackling Pre-Twentieth Century Literature recently.

To put the lesson in context, I try to enter my autistic students for GCSE English examination as soon as possible.

This gets them used to the system and the particular demands of the syllabus, particularly in coursework and the examination itself.

Some students thus take the examination as early as Year 8 or Year 9 in the...

By following this guide, students will be able to construct an argument based on Lockwood, the narrator of Wuthering Heights.

Lockwood, the narrator of Wuthering Heights is often dismissed as mere writing device. What do you think of him?

What do we know about Lockwood? His role as the ostensible narrator allows Bronte to include a Germanic “Rahmenerzahlung” approach to the piece. Simply stated, the novel Wuthering Heights is a “frame story”. One tale sits inside another like a picture sits in a frame. This type of narration was very...

The Task

The boys on the island busy themselves looking for a beast or demon. We are painfully aware of the irony here. There is indeed a devil on the island… or rather several and they are openly on view.

Looking closely at the action in Golding’s novel, who do you consider could be described as a demon?

Beelzebub (Hebrew בעל זבוב, with several variants) appears as the name of a god worshipped by the Philistines. In ancient contexts, there appears to have been little, if any, meaningful distinction between Beelzebub and Baal....

The Monkey’s Paw - Version B

W.W. Jacobs

Two versions of the same story…

• One was written for children who find reading difficult.
• What has changed?
• Why?

The Monkey’s Paw

W.W. Jacobs (Version B)

The year was 1876. A fire burned brightly in the front room of Laburnum Villa. Outside, the weather was cold and wet. It was night time and Mr and Mrs White had drawn the curtains to try and keep out the draught.

“Just listen to that wind,” said Mr White to his son opposite. Father and son were enjoying a game of chess.

“I’m listening,”...

The Monkey’s Paw - Version A

W.W. Jacobs

Two versions of the same story…

• One was written for children who find reading difficult.
• What has changed?
• Why?

The Monkey’s Paw

W. W. Jacobs (Version A)

Without, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Laburnum Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly. Father and son were at chess; the former, who possessed ideas about the game involving radical changes, putting his king into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment from the white-haired old...