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Pupils are entered
for English GCSE (3702) and English Literature GCSE (3712), AQA Specification
A. The address of the AQA website is: www.aqa.org.uk
English
Under the provisions of the National Curriculum for Key Stage 4, English
is made up of the following ‘Assessment Objectives’:
AO1 Speaking and Listening
AO2 Reading
AO3 Writing
AO1
Students are required to demonstrate their ability to:
i. communicate clearly and imaginatively, structuring and sustaining
their talk and adapting it to different situations;
ii. participate in discussion by both speaking and listening, judging
the nature and purposes of contributions and the roles of participants;
iii. adopt roles and communicate with audiences using a range of techniques.
AO2
Students are required to demonstrate their ability to:
i. read, with insight and engagement, making appropriate references to
texts and developing and sustaining interpretations of them;
ii. distinguish between fact and opinion and evaluate how information
is presented;
iii. follow an argument, identifying implications and recognising inconsistencies;
iv. select material appropriate to their purpose, collate material from
different sources, and make cross references;
v. understand and evaluate how writers use linguistic, structural and
presentational devices to achieve their effects and comment on ways language
varies and changes.
AO3
Students are required to demonstrate their ability to:
i. communicate clearly and imaginatively, using and adapting forms for
different readers and purposes;
ii. organise ideas into sentences, paragraphs and whole texts using a
variety of linguistic and structural features;
iii. use a range of sentence structures effectively with accurate punctuation
and spelling.
Assessment is by means of four major coursework tasks and two final
examination papers.
The coursework pieces are:
1. Shakespeare
2. Prose Study
3. Media
4. Original Writing
These pieces account for 20% of the final English GCSE. Two (Shakespeare
and the Prose Study) are ‘crossover’ pieces, which can also
be used for GCSE English Literature.
There are also a number of oral assessments, which make up another 20%
of the overall assessment. Students are entered for an English Speaking
Board exam which complements their GCSW studies.
The two final examinations are:
Paper One
A. Reading response to non-fiction/media tasks
B. Choice of one from three or more questions testing writing which seeks
to argue, persuade or advise.
Paper Two
A. Reading response to poetry from different cultures and traditions.
B. Choice of one from three or more questions testing writing that seeks
to inform, explain or describe.
English Literature
For English Literature GCSE students are required to:
AO1 Respond to texts critically, sensitively and in detail, selecting
appropriate ways to convey their response, using textual evidence as
appropriate;
AO2 Explore how language, structure and forms contribute to the meanings
of texts, considering different approaches to texts and alternative interpretations;
AO3 Explore relationships and comparisons between texts, selecting and
evaluating relevant material;
AO4 Relate texts to the social, cultural and historical contexts and
literary traditions.
Three pieces of coursework must be presented. There are Shakespeare,
Prose Study and post-1914 Drama. The coursework amounts to 30% of the
final assessment; the exam, taken at the end of the fifth form, accounts
for the other 70%. In the exam, students write two essays, one on a novel
and the other – a comparative piece - on selected poems. There
is no unseen material in the exam
Mrs L. Lloyd-Jukes
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