WJEC Unit 1: Studying written language Read the blog The Boy Who Cried Tsunami by Colin Espiner (Item 1). 1. According to the article, how does the news and government react to the possibility of a tsunami? 2. How does Colin Espiner engage the reader? Think about: the vocabulary he uses the structure of the text Now read the article Preparing for Tsunamis in California by Laurie J Schmidt (Item 2). 3. What is the difference between local and distant source tsunamis and what are their possible effects? The next question requires you to look at both of the texts. 4. Compare and contrast the attitudes conveyed by the two authors on the subject of tsunami warnings. Item 1: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/blogs/on-the-house/3389257/The-boy-who-cried-tsunami Item 2: http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-04/preparing-tsunamis-california WJEC Unit 2: Using written language Answer Question 1 and Question 2. This question will assess your writing skills which includes the presentation of your work so be aware of clear handwriting and accurate spelling and punctuation. You must also be aware of purpose, audience and format. 1. Your school newsletter has introduced a new section called Review It in which each month pupils review a film, TV programme, play, etc. that they have seen recently. This month it is your turn. Write a review for a film you have seen recently. 2. You must prepare an assembly for children in Year 8 with the title School Dinners: To Eat or Not to Eat? Write your speech for the assembly. The quality of your writing is more important than quantity but for each question you should aim to write between one and two pages. GCSE English Language Support Pack Page 36 of 76 © ZigZag Education, 2012 Mark Scheme for Non-Fiction Reading To get a grade C you need to demonstrate: an understanding of how meaning and information are expressed in a range of texts the ability to make personal and critical responses the appropriate use of certain aspects of language, grammar, structure and presentational devices to support your views To get a grade A you need to demonstrate: the ability to respond personally and persuasively to a range of texts the development of interpretations and evaluations of how the details of language, grammar, structure and presentation engage and affect the reader skills of identifying and discussing the views of the writers in narrative, argument, explanation and analysis Mark Scheme for Non-Fiction Writing To get a grade C you need to demonstrate: that you can effectively adapt the form and style of your writing for different tasks and purposes the use of a variety of sentence structures and vocabulary in order to create effect and engage the readers interest effective use of paragraphing to make the development of events and ideas clear and coherent to the reader accurate use of punctuation and spelling To get a grade A you need to demonstrate: confident control of a range of forms and styles in your writing that are appropriate to the task and purpose required the ability to engage and maintain the readers interest through rational argument, persuasive force and creative joy the skilful use of structural and linguistic features in order to achieve consistency and coherence a wide range of accurate sentence structures to ensure clarity and ambitious and correct choices of vocabulary, punctuation and spelling GCSE English Language Support Pack Page 37 of 76 © ZigZag Education, 2012 Introduction to Extended Reading For this section of the exam, you will be required to make a sustained response to an extended text which may be a Shakespeare play, a selection of poems or short stories, a non-fiction text, a novel or a different cultures prose depending on which examination board you are studying. The question is likely to expect you to respond to the text as a whole so it is a good idea to really know the text you are studying inside out. This part of the course is a controlled assessment (except for Edexcel which examines this section externally) so there is no limit to how many times you can read the text and get a feel for the themes, ideas, characterisation and voice portrayed within the text. You cannot, however, bring an annotated text with you to help with the controlled assessment, so all the more reason for you to know the text like the back of your hand! Below is a reading list for each specification so you can see which text you may be studying for the assessment. AQA Modern prose or drama 1. Short Stories from the AQA Anthology Sunlight on the Grass 2. Lord of the Flies by William Golding 3. Martyn Pig by Kevin Brooks 4. Touching the Void by Joe Simpson 5. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill 6. Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas 7. The Crucible by Arthur Miller 8. Kindertransport by Diane Samuels 9. An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley 10. Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) by Dennis Kelly (AQA recommended edition) Exploring cultures 1. Of Mice and Men (America) by John Steinbeck 2. Mister Pip (Papua New Guinea) by Lloyd Jones 3. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi (Nigeria) Adichie 4. To Kill a Mockingbird (America) by Harper Leeto 5. Follow the Rabbit-proof Fence (Australia) by Doris Pilkington d OCR Literary non-fiction 1. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson 2. The Kindness of Strangers by Kate Adie Prose 1. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck 2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 3. Tsotsi by Athol Fugard 4. The Withered Arm and other Wessex Tales by Thomas Hardy Poetry: selected poems 1. Simon Armitage 2. Carol Ann Duffy 3. Benjamin Zephaniah 4. Wilfred Owen Drama: William Shakespeare 1. Romeo and Juliet 2. Julius Caesar Or centre may choose own text Poetry AQA poetry Anthology Moon on the Tides Shakespeare 1. Macbeth 2. Romeo and Juliet 3. Much Ado About Nothing 4. Twelfth Night 5. Julius Caesar Edexcel Non-fiction 1. Touching the Void by Joe Simpson Different cultures and traditions 1. Anita and Me by Meera Syal 2. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie 3. Heroes by Robert Cormier 4. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck 5. Rani and Sukh by Bali Rai 6. Riding the Black Cockatoo by John Danalis 7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee WJEC Any Shakespeare play Different cultures prose 1. Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck) 2. Anita and Me (Syal) 3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) 4. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Angelou) 5. Chandas Secrets (Stratton) Contemporary prose 1. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (Doyle) 2. Heroes (Cormier) 3. Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro) 4. About a Boy (Hornby) 5. Resistance (Sheers) Contemporary drama 1. The History Boys (Bennett) 2. Blood Brothers (Russell) 3. A View from the Bridge (Miller) 4. Be My Baby (Whittington) 5. My Mother Said I Never Should (Keatley) Prose from the English Literary Heritage 1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë 3. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 4. The Withered Arm and other Wessex Tales by Thomas Hardy 5. Animal Farm by George Orwell GCSE English Language Support Pack Page 38 of 76 © ZigZag Education, 2012 Although the requirements and texts of each board vary slightly, each will basically require the same kinds of responses from you. Because of this, the following tasks should provide you with a good notion of what to look out for in the text you are asked to study. Reading and understanding extended written texts is somewhat different to the analysis of non-fiction texts that you were doing in the first section of this work book. Of course there will be some features of language that can be identified in both types of texts but there will be a number of new aspects you will need to look out for. Rather than focusing on the surface features of a text such as genre, purpose, layout etc. as you did with non-fiction texts, you will need to concentrate more on the perspectives and ideas of the writer. This will include looking at how the writer uses language to create characterisation, voice and themes within the text. You will need to look beyond the words on the page and try to interpret how the writer intended to portray the characters and the relationships between them and what techniques they used to achieve this. The task below should help you to identify some of the important terms you will need to be familiar with in order to answer an extended reading question effectively (the list is by no means exhaustive but it does include some of the terms that you will find most useful when answering the question). GCSE English Language Support Pack Page 39 of 76 © ZigZag Education, 2012 Characterisation Characterisation is a key concept to be aware of when studying an extended text as it is essentially the characters that bring a book to life and engage the readers interest. It is also through the presentation of the characters and the relationships between them that themes and ideas within the text are conveyed. You need to be able to identify why the writer has chosen to represent a character in a certain way and how they manage to achieve this. GCSE English Language Support Pack Page 40 of 76 © ZigZag Education, 2012
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