GCSE English Language – AQA – specification code 8700
GCSE English Literature – AQA – specification code 8702
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English Language and Literature – Year 10 and 11
Students have eight lessons a fortnight of English in both Year 10 and Year 11. During these lessons, students will study for two GCSEs – English Language and English Literature. Key skills in reading comprehension and inference are covered as well as the creative use of language for a variety of purposes and audiences. Alongside the functional aspect of English, students are encouraged to embrace literature and will study a wide range of texts from Shakespeare and 19th century literature through to modern poetry, drama and prose.
Year 10
Students will begin Year 10 with persuasive and descriptive writing to assess their current attainment and to familiarise them with the demands of the language exam. They will then go on to study the 19th century text ’A Christmas Carol’ and the Shakespeare play ‘Macbeth’ which will form part of their literature GCSE at the end of Year 11. Throughout the year, students will also study a collection of 15 poems. In the final term, students will return to language skills when they begin preparations for an end-of-year assessment on language paper 1; Creative Reading and Writing.
Year 11
In Year 11, students will build on their knowledge and experience of both English literature and English language skills. Students will start the year by studying a modern piece of prose or drama such as ‘Lord of the Flies’, ‘An Inspector Calls’, ‘Animal Farm’ or ‘Blood Brothers’. Following this, students will tackle the challenging language paper 2; Writers’ Viewpoints and Perspectives, which involves comprehension of non-fiction texts and persuasive writing. In the new year, students will return to revision of their Year 10 literature texts.
Recommended text books:
GCSE English Language AQA Revision Guide – for the Grade 9-1 Course ISBN: 9781782943693
New GCSE English AQA Poetry Guide – Power & Conflict Anthology ISBN: 9781782943617
New GCSE English Text Guide – A Christmas Carol ISBN: 9781782943099
New GCSE English Shakespeare Text Guide – Macbeth ISBN: 9781841461168
New GCSE English Text Guide – An Inspector Calls ISBN: 9781841461151