Student Workshops

The Nuts and Bolts of Textual Analysis for English Language A Level

Getting used to the demands of textual analysis at A Level is often a major hurdle for students. With English Language A Level, there’s a new technical vocabulary that needs to be learnt, and there’s often a degree of rustiness over the basics of grammar.

Aim

• To introduce new students (and perhaps new teachers) of A Level English Language to key frameworks and linguistic methods, using a range of written and spoken texts as a starting point
• To equip...

This collection of tried and tested classroom ideas is intended to help add variety, particularly to the A Level classroom. 

There are things that need to be practised, in order for students to develop the requisite skills, but it’s still important to ring the changes, for our own sake at least as much as for the students’!

The idea is for this collection to provide ways of meeting those constantly repeating needs with as much variety as possible.  All ideas also indicate where and how differentiation can be planned in, or how the ideas...

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Click on the link below to download Alan Thomas’s AQA A ENGA3 / ENGA4 Language Change within Language Explorations Guide.

Language Change within Language Explorations Guide.docx

This 121-page editable guide, written by a very experienced A Level English Language teacher, should prove helpful. It’s in Word (.docx) format, if you can only open Word (.doc) format files use the link below to convert it.

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats

We’ve also included a PDF version to help with printing.

• Aspens.ppt

Binary Opposition

The way a text creates and shapes its reader’s interpretation to develop both meaning and feeling can be fruitfully and subtly analysed by means of binary opposition. Despite its apparent complexity, this method can easily be understood by students of varying levels and ability from GCSE upwards. It can allow them to create subtle analyses of texts of the kind that can fulfil the requirements of the highest grade bands.

The theory works from the premise that many words and phrases have, as Steve Campsall terms it, their...

Love and Conflict

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare explores several themes but perhaps the twin themes of love and conflict were uppermost in his mind when he conceived and wrote the play. At GCSE, the play is often used as part of a controlled assessment task in which students explore the presentation of one of these themes and compare it with...

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein subtitled ‘The Modern Prometheus’ is one of the most famous novels of the Gothic genre.  Frankenstein was an offshoot of a ghost-story writing project proposed by Byron in 1816. Mary Shelley’s explanation of how she came to write this novel is used in the introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein: ‘I busied myself to think of a story… One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror.’

Shelley’s decision to ‘awaken thrilling horror’ can be seen,...

1984 Film Artwork by Shepard Fairey

Love and Relationships in 1984

1984 is commonly studied at A Level and is often cited as a fine modern example of dystopian fiction. At the heart of the narrative lies a relationship between two characters: the protagonist, Winston Smith and his girlfriend and accomplice, known simply as Julia: this has both thematic and symbolic significance. In addition, Winston’s relationship with his mother, his colleagues, and O’Brien, and the relationship between the present and the past, are important, as well as...

This guide has been written to help teachers in their reading, preparation and teaching of the play. Julius Caesar can be taught as a part of several exam board English Literature units:

• AQA GCSE English Literature 4710 | Unit 4: Approaching Shakespeare & the English Literary Heritage
• AQA GCSE English 4700 | Unit 3 Understanding and producing creative texts
• OCR GCSE English Literature | 2.1 Unit A661: Literary Heritage Linked Texts
• OCR GCSE English | Unit A641 Reading literary texts
• Edexcel GCSE English Literature | Unit 3: Shakespeare and...

The Language of Radio DJs

• AQA GCSE Spoken English CA SOW 2013.zip

This AQA GCSE Spoken English Scheme on The Language of Radio DJs contains the following resources:

Week 1

• EnglishEdu - AQA Unit 3c Spoken Language Study SOW Week 1.doc
• Introduction to Unit.doc
• Studying Spoken Language Intro.ppt
• A Glossary of Spoken Language Features - Teacher Copy.doc
• A Glossary of Spoken Language Features - Student Copy.doc
• Conventions.ppt
• Info on DJs.doc
• Key.doc
• Medium.ppt
• Radio Stations.doc
• Spoken vs Written Cards.doc
• Terminology.ppt
• Thought Bubble.doc

This anthology is used for the following courses:

GCSE English Spec Code 4700
GCSE English Language Spec Code 4705
GCSE English Literature Spec Code 4710

The Anthology can also be used for Controlled Assessments in the following:

GCSE English Literature Unit 5: Exploring poetry
GCSE English Unit 3: Understanding and producing creative texts
GCSE English Language Unit 3: Understanding spoken and written texts and writing creatively

Associated Resources

• Moon on the Tides: Character & Voice PPTs
• Moon on the Tides: Place PPTs
• Moon on the...

AQA A Literature | Unit LITA4: ‘Literary Connections’

This novel can be chosen as a coursework text for this A2 unit.

Below is a summary of the AQA Assessment Objectives. The guide focuses on the techniques Fowles used when writing his novel, including what are called his ‘postmodern’ techniques. There are also two worked essay examples to show how you might achieve high marks in this unit.

The Assessment Objectives

It’s important thing to be aware of the assessment objectives for your piece of work or exam paper. If you know...

The topic of interaction could be huge, including concepts which are important in a range of sub-topics in linguistic study, including speech, general textual analysis and power.  Many A Level specifications do not require students to have considerable knowledge of studies into conversational behaviour, but only to use the terminology which arose out of that research (e.g. three-part exchange or initiation/response/feedback). This guide therefore covers a selection of broad and conceptual theories relating to speech and interaction, which...

This topic is concerned with how language stands for things in the real world and how language is able to affect our impressions of things in the real world.  There is therefore some overlap here with concepts such as language and thought and some power issues in language (NB: theories relating to the effect of power/status on interaction will be found in the guide to discourse, speech and pragmatics).  This whole topic is highly conceptual, requiring considerable engagement with theory.  Although some of this theory is not explicitly tested...

This topic is concerned with the study of differences between male speech and female speech. The guide to Language and Power will cover theories relating to the representation of gender in language and concerns about sexist language. Some specifications put these together under the topic of ‘gender’ whilst others treat them separately. Specifications including Variation as a topic of study often include gender as one possible variable. The topic has been treated separately here since there has been so much work carried out in this area,...

Editsense & Filmsense

What is Editsense?

‘Editsense is a new approach to learning about film language and film-making’.

This is an interactive DVD with excellent, practical examples of film - perfect for teachers of moving image, be it English, Creative and Digital Media or Film Studies.

It has over fifty video examples and includes materials for the introduction and revision of film. 

What does it include?

It includes video examples of film language including camerawork, mise-en-scene, editing techniques, sound and even advanced...

Win £5000 for your school!

Be ©reative is a unique and exciting production competition for young people aged 11-19, offering recognition for UK creative talent plus great prizes for individual winners and their schools. This year’s competition brief, provided by a real-life industry body, asks students to create an original ad campaign that encourages young people to respect the UK film and TV industries and make the positive decision to choose official film and TV.

Winning entrants in each of the 11-14 and 15-19 age categories get to...

This topic is concerned with changes to the English Language over time.  In different specifications, students are asked to compare and analyse texts from different periods, to trace the usage of a word or phrase, and/or to discuss how and why language changes, and how people react to those changes.

Studying change is therefore concerned with three main questions:

• How has the English language changed over its history?

This is largely an AO1 concern, dealing with the particulars of usage in terms of lexis, semantics, grammar and (possibly)...

The following guide would be useful for AQA LITB1, Aspects of Narrative but also for many other A level (and GCSE) units, where Hardy’s poems might be studied.

• Neutral Tones
• The Darkling Thrush
• ­At Castle Boterel
• ­The Voice
• ­Drummer Hodge
• ­In Church
• ­The Oxen

To many, Hardy is a genius, worthy of the highest respect as a technician in his poetry: a poet able to move his readers deeply often by his portrayal of ordinary people and events, both rendered special by the manner of his telling; to others, his technical ability is never...

Associated Resources

• Blake - Innocent Sweep.ppt
• Blake - Experience Sweep.ppt
• Blake - Holy Thursday.ppt

Introducing William Blake

Abstract

The course discussed in these notes is designed as a short course of enrichment and development of skills of poetry analysis based in a personal response to pairs of poems from the Songs of Innocence and Experience.

It is not designed to cover too many of the poems, but rather to spark interest and enthusiasm.

It can be used as part of a cross-curricular activity and benefits from a high level of...

1. Specifications & Assessment Objectives

2. An Introduction

3. The Stolen Child

4. September 1913

5. The Cold Heaven

6. The Wild Swans at Coole

7. An Irishman Foresees His Death

8. The Fisherman

9. Easter 1916

10. The Second Coming

11. Sailing to Byzantium

12. Leda and the Swan

13. Among School Children

14. In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz

15. The Man and the Echo

This guide explores the key theoretical positions, and some useful case studies and research findings needed for the study of how children develop language.  It is not exhaustive – there are further case studies and sets of research findings which are useful to students in studying acquisition – but there are enough here to be able to discuss theories with sensible reference to evidence.  At the same time, different specifications will have different expectations in terms of students’ familiarity with research and theory, so some of the...

Cineclub have offered Edusites’ subscribers some excellent offers (see Cineclub Promotion below).

About Cineclub

Cineclub Membership is an annual subscription fee that enables schools to provide a sustainable approach to using film both within school curriculum time or as an after school activity. Schools are encouraged to sign up to its 3 year model, which helps schools embed film within the learning culture.

Membership allows teachers and students to watch and appreciate specialist films (with resources), make low budget films, share...

1. ­Overview of Specifications & Assessment Objectives

2. Context

3. Form

4. Characters

5. Themes

6. Setting

7. Language

8. Writing about Jane Eyre

Edusites are currently working on a new site for Film Studies which will be called FilmEdu. It will provide detailed schemes of works, case studies and additional supporting resources for GCSE and A Level Film Studies.

FilmEdu (http://film.edusites.co.uk) will launch in September 2011.

If you would like further information about FilmEdu please get in touch.

[e] admin@edusites.co.uk
[t] 01604 847689
[f] 01604 843220

This topic is concerned with dialect, in terms of regional and social variations which impact people’s use of phonology, lexis, semantics and grammar.  These social variations include aspects such as class, age, race and occupation, all of which can affect people’s language use (note that gender and interaction has its own guide as so much work has been done in this area, and some English Language specifications treat it as a separate topic to Variation).

Studying variation is concerned with three main questions:

• How does one variety...

This series is written to outline the principal conceptual aspects needed for the study of English Language at A Level.  These guides are not exhaustive – no such guide could be.

Each guide seeks to cluster and organise the relevant ideas and theories, and to explain the most important (or most commonly-taught) research studies and case studies for that topic.

Some of the ideas here and even some of the topics in the series may not be relevant to your specification, as they are all quite different.  We recommend checking against...

Revision is something which is increasingly begun in the classroom, or is requested by students, often in the form of “can we go over x again?”.  Revision is, of course, a largely personal activity but students frequently lack the skills or confidence to just get on with it, particularly since they tend to see English as a subject that you ‘can’t really revise for’.

Revising in the classroom is therefore useful to both actively revisit the necessary knowledge and skills for the exams, and also to demonstrate revision activities that...

Group working can be a highly useful tool, but it can also be an amorphous beast that eats lesson time with little clear benefit.  In this guide, there are some tips for avoiding some of the classic pitfalls and some ideas for ringing the changes, without increasing preparation time exponentially.  Often, organising groups in a different way can create enough of a difference for students to carry out a very similar task to last lesson but have a quite different experience.

Group Work Woes

• The top problem with group work: It is unclear exactly...

• March.ppt
• Old Man.ppt
• Tears.ppt
• The Glory.ppt
• Words.ppt
• As The Teams Head Brass.ppt
• But These Things Also.ppt
• Gone, Gone Again.ppt
• Lights Out.ppt
• Melancholy.ppt
• The Sun Used To Shine.ppt

This is just a little taster of Jonathan Peel’s frankly suberb guide to Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel ‘Never Let Me Go’. At over 40 pages, it should provide you with more than enough material to engage with in and out of class.

• NLMG Guide.pdf

We might start this document by considering the genre of the writing. Is it science-fiction? Or dystopian literature in which a parallel world is developed which focuses on negative stereotyping (the opposite of a Utopia - look them up, it’s part of learning!). Or is it something else again?

I argue that...

Why teach ‘Measure for Measure’?

Measure for Measure is certainly not the easiest of Shakespeare’s dramas nor is it probably one of the most popular choices when teachers are thinking about AS and A2 level specifications; however, the degree of challenge involved in teaching it is easily matched by the degree of satisfaction in teaching it when you have got to grips with this intriguing play. Students really do enjoy reading this play!

Currently, the play is a choice for teaching on several AS specifications and as a choice for...

We are constantly hearing that students need to be more active in their learning; that they need to do more thinking; that more of the work needs to be done by them.  While this is clearly desirable, it’s one of the many things in teaching that is easier to say than to do: even pausing long enough after asking a question rarely comes naturally.

So this guide focuses on ways to build in thinking time and how to develop students’ ability to think and learn for themselves in lessons, rather than simply showing up and expecting knowledge to...

Click on one of the links below to download Steve Campsall’s PowerPoint on An Inspector Calls.

• An Inspector Calls.ppt
• An Inspector Calls.pptx

Close analysis of extracts – whether of known or previously unseen texts – is a key part of the assessment of English Literature (and the combined Language and Literature courses).  It is also a difficult skill to master and therefore needs considerable classroom practice.  Sometimes the task is to engage in ‘practical criticism’, selecting a range of interesting features of the text to arrive at an interpretation, while at other times, textual analysis needs to be focused more specifically: on the text’s relation to context; or on...

Contextual knowledge is needed in certain types of task in studying both Literature and Language.  In Literature, for example, contextual knowledge might arise in terms of social, historical or political background, or an overview of a particular writer, movement or genre, while in Language, this might be similarly socio-historical, but could also focus on the history of print and/or literacy.

Both kinds of English study also require students to apply theoretical knowledge to texts in some exam and coursework questions.  In Literature, this...

Anyone who’s taught a Language or combined Language and Literature course will be familiar with the catalogue of complaints about terminology, including “How am I supposed to know all this?” and, much more alarmingly, “I don’t really get frameworks, so I just do the other stuff.”

Understanding what terms mean, being able to apply them to texts and being able to use them in sustained analytical writing are interdependent skills which do need careful practice and development – both separately and together. 

There is overlap for...

Hamlet: tragic hero?

Hamlet is usually regarded as the finest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and one of the greatest tragedies ever written; however, it is frequently defined as ‘tragedy’ with little or no reference to tragic tropes, either Greek, Renaissance or later theories of tragedy, or with insufficient consideration of other useful theoretical approaches.

The aim of this teaching guide is to trace Shakespeare’s development of his eponymous hero through the play looking at aspects of language, form and structure as well as genre,...

For teachers coming into Language as Literature specialists, teaching linguistic theory is perhaps the most alien aspect of the course.  It is often seen as the most factual aspect within English teaching at A Level, and is sometimes (frustratingly) viewed by students as the only thing they can revise, as they see it as more explicitly ‘content’ than other elements of the course.

This is a collection of suggestions for different ways of introducing theoretical and research-based content to students, as well as ways of developing...

All Literature and combined Language and Literature specifications require students to work with full-length texts for exam units – both open- and closed-book – and/or for coursework.  Students may be required to undertake extract analysis demonstrating knowledge of a whole work; they may need to produce ‘overview’ essays on a theme, concept or character, or they may need to seek connections between the known text and an unseen piece.

The challenges of working with longer texts in class start with the issue of reading.  Clearly, it is...

Associated Resources

• Language Interventions Student Guide Part 1 English Language AQA A ENGA4
• ENGA4 Language Intervention Guide Part 1.doc
• ENGA4 Language Intervention Guide Part 2.doc

Part Two

Developing Form and Style

Once you’ve settled on your argument and established what you’re going to say, you need to work out how you’re going to say it, where you’re going to say it and what order to put it all in. Most of these areas are interlinked, so the style you write in will have quite a lot to do with the form you are adopting.

• If...

Associated Resources

• Language Interventions Student Guide Part 2 English Language AQA A ENGA4
• ENGA4 Language Intervention Guide Part 1.doc
• ENGA4 Language Intervention Guide Part 2.doc

This is a student guide to the AQA A spec coursework element, the ‘Language Intervention’. This is one part of your A2 coursework and makes up half of the total marks for the ENGA4 unit (i.e. 20% of your total marks at A2 or 10% of you’re A level).

The AQA specification describes the unit as follows:

“The ‘Language Intervention’ coursework task is...

Associated Resources

• A Student’s Guide to ’Much Ado About Nothing’ by Mandy Lloyd
• Much Ado Guide.doc

‘Much Ado about Nothing’ in context: ‘Comedy’ vs. ‘Tragedy’

Much Ado About Nothing is technically considered to be a Shakespearean ‘comedy’ of the classical kind; indeed, it’s even frequently taught at KS3 owing to its frequent comic tone. The witty and entertaining exchanges between the main protagonists Beatrice and Benedick have been the subject of much literary criticism and are often considered to be the most...

Click on the link below to download the resource.

Hamlet Scheme of Work LITB2.doc

Several specifications require comparison: of known texts, of known with unseen texts, or of all unseen texts.  These may be literary or linguistic comparisons, or there may be a requirement to combine both techniques.  The activities here include ways of developing comparative skills that will benefit all of these kinds of exam and coursework tasks.  Each activity has a short introduction in italics to indicate the kind of task that it is most suited as preparation and practice for.  The majority of these activities are about allowing...

Many specifications require students to work with poetry, whether that’s developing familiarity with particular works of poetry, responding effectively to unseen poems, or (often) both.  Simply ‘going through’ a poem in class is not possible for every text students will need to work with during the course.  Sometimes a particular approach is the obvious one to take because of the demands of the specification, but often a poem simply needs to be read and its meaning discussed.  This collection includes ways of introducing a poem that...

Steph Jackson and Alice O’Connor’s ELLB Text Grids

ELLB1 Text 1 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 2 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 3 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 4 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 5 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 6 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 7 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 8 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 9 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 10 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 11 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 12 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 13 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 14 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 15 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 16 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 17 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 18 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 19 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 20 2011.doc

ELLB1 Text 21 2011.doc

This anthology is used for the following courses:

GCSE English Spec Code 4700
GCSE English Language Spec Code 4705
GCSE English Literature Spec Code 4710

The Anthology can also be used for Controlled Assessments in the following:

GCSE English Literature Unit 5: Exploring poetry
GCSE English Unit 3: Understanding and producing creative texts
GCSE English Language Unit 3: Understanding spoken and written texts and writing creatively

Associated Resources

• Moon on the Tides: Character & Voice PPTs
• Moon on the Tides: Place PPTs
• Moon on the...

Associated Resources

• Part 1 - AWONI Teaching Guide.doc
• Part 2 - AWONI Annotated Guide.doc
• Part 3 - AWONI Teaching Guide.doc

Why you might like to teach this text!

A Woman of No Importance is a wonderful text to teach and your students will enjoy studying it.

It is short, it has an absorbing and convincing plot and its themes are easily recognised, interestingly explored and persuasively presented.

On top of this, Wilde is a fine and witty dramatist who uses his chosen form in fascinating ways not only, at the level of plot, to entertain but...