A-level English Literature A

1. A-level English Literature A AS Examination Preparation Spring 2012

2. Objectives Consider the key aspects of LTA1 Understand the requirements for both examination questions: the unseen / Wider Reading question and the poetry question Understand how the Assessment Objectives are interpreted in this unit Explore the ways coursework can help students prepare for the examination

3. Contact Details • Administrative issues • GCE English Subject Department: • 01483 556169 / english-gce@aqa.org.uk • Coursework matters and other subject-specific queries - Your Coursework Advisor

4. Unit 1 Overview Unit 1- LTA1 Texts in Context 60% of AS, 30% of A Level 2 hour written examination (open book) 90 marks Either LTA1A Victorian Literature Or LTA1B World War One Literature Or LTA1C The Struggle for Identity in Modern Literature Available January and June

5. Unit 2 Overview Unit 2 – LITA2 Creative Study 40% of AS, 20% of A level Coursework 60 marks Two tasks: one on prose text and one on drama text. 2000-2500 words in total Available January and June If relevant, coursework texts can be used as Wider Reading when answering Question 1

6. The Assessment Objectives • AO1: Articulate creative, informed and relevant responses to literary texts, using appropriate terminology and concepts, and coherent, accurate written expression • Communicate relevant knowledge and understanding • Use appropriate terminology to support interpretation • Structure and organise the response • Communicate through expressive and accurate writing

7. The Assessment Objectives • AO2: Demonstrate detailed critical understanding in analysing the ways in which form, structure and language shape meanings in literary texts • Identify relevant aspects of form, structure and language • Explore how writers shape meaning and create effects • Use specific references to texts to support the response

8. The Assessment Objectives • AO3: Explore connections and comparisons between different literary texts, informed by interpretations of other readers. • Explore links and connections between literary texts • Communicate understanding of the views expressed in different interpretations or readings

9. The Assessment Objectives • AO4: Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received • Communicate understanding of the relationships between literary texts and their contexts • Comment appropriately on the influence of culture, text type, literary genre or historical period on the ways in which literary texts were written and are received

10. Applying the Assessment Objectives • For each question in this Unit, in addition to the Assessment Objectives common to all questions (AOs1 and 2), there is a dominant Assessment Objective which is used in the first stage of assessing the answer • For Question 1, this is AO4: constructing relevant links between the passage and Wider Reading texts from all three genres • For the set poetry questions, this is AO3: constructing a balanced debate

11. Applying the Assessment Objectives • The whole specification is designed to encourage the development of the autonomous reader • Question 1 invites students to answer a question which includes unprepared material and requires reference to individualised Wider Reading • Section B offers a choice of open questions which invite students to make their own selection of the relevant poems they wish to write about • It is therefore the students who set the agenda and choose the relevant material with which to answer the question. The examiner will be judging the relevance and accuracy of those choices

12. Tackling the contextual linking question • Students should ensure that they give sufficient attention to the given extract • The weightings carried by the Assessment Objectives in this question mean that at least a third and up to a half of the response should be devoted to an analysis of the passage

13. Tackling the contextual linking question • Students should ensure that their response includes relevant links to all three genres covered by their Wider Reading • Missing out a genre, merely mentioning a title without any supporting detail, or writing about a text with no obvious connection to the given extract can have a serious impact on the overall mark awarded for the response

14. Tackling the contextual linking question • Students should try to move beyond the story when establishing links to their Wider Reading • Plot-based links may take students into Band 2 for Assessment Objectives 3 and 4, but to access the higher bands of the mark scheme they will need to use relevant quotations and explore the ways writers use form, structure and language to create effects in the wider reading texts

15. Tackling the contextual linking question • More successful students: • engage with mood and tone, as well as thoughts and feelings • keep returning to the extract rather than leaving it behind • refer to all three genres of their Wider Reading • make secure links via similarity and difference and explore them in detail • make relevant analytical comments about form, structure and language • understand that, despite its brevity, the extract has variety and layers of meaning

16. Tackling the contextual linking question • More successful students: • refer to contexts (literary, historical, social, cultural) where appropriate and use this knowledge to illuminate their response to the extract • plan their answers and shape them accordingly • write clearly, fluently and precisely • select from a range of texts (including set poetry and coursework texts - and beyond) as evidence of informed and secure wider reading • select appropriate and relevant prose, poetry and drama cross-references

17. Tackling the contextual linking question • Less successful students: • adopt a narrow, label-driven approach and want to pigeon-hole the whole extract • make extensive use of use vague, unhelpful terms such as ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ • assert and misread because they have not developed a clear grasp of the extract before beginning to write • fail to make relevant links to their Wider Reading - by asserting links, unloading general pre-learned material, or making no attempt to link at all

18. Tackling the contextual linking question • Less successful students: • repeat information from the introduction to the extract • fail to cover poetry, even though they could use the text they have in the examination • fail to mention prose or drama when they have studied these genres for coursework and should know these texts very well • cover too many Wider Reading texts in too little detail and to little effect

19. Tackling the poetry question • A successful answer to the poetry question should construct a balanced debate around the given view • The student’s choice of poetry should indicate poems that support the view given in the question and poems that reveal contrasting aspects of poetry • A student who reads closely may well evaluate the complex effects created in ambiguous poems containing elements that support the view as well as elements which could be used as part of a counter-argument

20. Tackling the poetry question • It is worth remembering that contextual knowledge (Assessment Objective 4) is not assessed via the poetry text and that, while integrated biographical details can be useful, excessive biographical speculation cannot be credited by the examiner when deciding on the answer’s final mark

21. Tackling the named poetry question • Candidates are expected to have read all the poems in their set poetry text

22. Tackling the named poetry question • A successful answer to this question should produce a balanced debate which includes: • an analysis of the named poem, featuring relevant comment on subject matter, as well as form, structure and language • links to other poems with similar subject matter or with similar style to the named poem • a counter-argument based on those elements of the poet’s writing not present in the named poem

23. Tackling the poetry question • More successful students: • keep keywords clearly in focus and keep making reference to them • engage with poems in detail including close reading of form, structure and language • use terminology relevant to poetry and explore poetic features such as diction, imagery and verse form • plan an answer centred on identifying, exploring and balancing the debate • pay full and considered attention to the named poem, where there is one, in the light of the question set • use clear expression and a cogent argument which is signalled to the reader throughout

24. Tackling the poetry question • Less successful students: • neglect the key words of the question • simply agree with the given view • hastily attempt to balance the debate at the end of the answer • waste time on context when this is not rewarded in the mark scheme • take a simplistic approach, trying to force the poems they know to fit a particular view • label AO2 features without explaining their relevance to the argument • fail to plan a clear, shaped response

25. Course Planning and Coursework • The skills required to meet Assessment Objectives 1 and 2 are developed through both coursework units • The skills required to meet Assessment Objectives 3 are developed through the Drama coursework unit • Contextual knowledge (Assessment Objective 4) should inform students’ approaches to both coursework units

26. Course Planning and Coursework • Coursework texts can provide the starting point for students’ Wider Reading and can be referred to when answering Question1 in the examination

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