Year 11 went in for their Literature exam on Modern Texts today: a fraught day for any teacher! I prayed they would have a positive experience and I'm glad to say that the exam board did not disappoint this year.
We were extremely fortunate that one of the areas in "Of Mice and Men" that we have paid close attention to came up. In the other section of the paper, pupils seemed happy enough, but we'll keep our fingers crossed.
If you have a child who has taken this exam today you may be wondering what we'll be up to next. Well, immediately, we will be delving into poetry. The next exam is in June and between now and then we will be studying a collection of 15 poems. In the exam itself they are asked to compare different poems that they have studied with me and discuss an analytical question in one section of the paper, in the second section they will be required to respond analytically to a poem that they haven't seen in lessons. In this section of the paper their ability to identify poetic features and illustrate their ability to respond originally is being assessed.
My class will be deciding which area of poetry they study as there are 60 poems grouped under four headings: Relationship, Conflict, Place, Character and voice. The group will be breaking up into smaller groups and looking at a selection before they argue for or against the different headings. Your involvement as parents/carers would be really appreciated if you like poetry. If you don't you can still help by filling in some of the context gaps that may crop up, some of the poetry refers to the Vietnam war for instance, or the two World Wars which you may have a better understanding of than your child.
The other thing I'd like you to be aware of is that should your child's result not meet their target, they have the opportunity to retake in June. This simply means they will have an additional exam. This may sound like unwarranted pressure, however last year one of my year 11s moved from 56/80 in January to 79/80 in her retake and, overall, ended up coming third in the year. She is now proving to be an exceedingly talented Literature student.
We were extremely fortunate that one of the areas in "Of Mice and Men" that we have paid close attention to came up. In the other section of the paper, pupils seemed happy enough, but we'll keep our fingers crossed.
If you have a child who has taken this exam today you may be wondering what we'll be up to next. Well, immediately, we will be delving into poetry. The next exam is in June and between now and then we will be studying a collection of 15 poems. In the exam itself they are asked to compare different poems that they have studied with me and discuss an analytical question in one section of the paper, in the second section they will be required to respond analytically to a poem that they haven't seen in lessons. In this section of the paper their ability to identify poetic features and illustrate their ability to respond originally is being assessed.
My class will be deciding which area of poetry they study as there are 60 poems grouped under four headings: Relationship, Conflict, Place, Character and voice. The group will be breaking up into smaller groups and looking at a selection before they argue for or against the different headings. Your involvement as parents/carers would be really appreciated if you like poetry. If you don't you can still help by filling in some of the context gaps that may crop up, some of the poetry refers to the Vietnam war for instance, or the two World Wars which you may have a better understanding of than your child.The other thing I'd like you to be aware of is that should your child's result not meet their target, they have the opportunity to retake in June. This simply means they will have an additional exam. This may sound like unwarranted pressure, however last year one of my year 11s moved from 56/80 in January to 79/80 in her retake and, overall, ended up coming third in the year. She is now proving to be an exceedingly talented Literature student.
