Comparing poems - getting ready for the AQA English Literature Unit 2 exam (Section A - Relationships Cluster)

Here's a method that I've suggested to several students on how they could approach the task of comparing two poems. It's not the be all and end all - it's merely aimed at encouraging students to build a structure of some sort in their essay writing. Most students don't know where to start from. This can help. (<click)

Quote Hunt update!

The lesson went smoothly. Students, in my foundation class, loved the process of hunting for quotes and they enjoyed choosing relevant quotes from a wide range of quotes (from across the novel).

The only alternative changes I would like to make would be to have a pre-lesson! A lesson before the quote hunt where students are set out in groups to identify quotes from a particular chapter for a particular theme. That way it will help them memorise their quotes even more so. The pre-lesson would also focus on language techniques, examples and their definitions.

Quote hunt!

Year 11 revision can be quite repetitive. In the spirit of making revision fun...I'm going to give my Foundation Year 11 class a chance to hunt around for relevant quotes (hidden around the classroom). I'm going to hide relevant historical information around the class too. Different past exam questions will also be placed around the room. Students will be told to choose an exam question and start their hunting for at least four relevant quotes and two pieces of relevant historical information!

In respect of the Learning Objective, the table below will encourage them to consider how relevant their quotes are to their essay questions as most students choose irrelevant quotes just to follow the P.E.E. method.

Don't be put off by the need to collect lots of quotes before the lesson. I downloaded some fantastic resources from @TeachitEnglish for OMM quotes instead of spending an eternity typing up lots of relevant quotes for every character and theme. @TeachitEnglish to the rescue!

I'll keep you posted on how it goes. :)

Filter your quotes - not your coffee!

Some of my students seem to ignore the importance of dissecting a quote to reveal its connotations and language craftwork. As a result, I've created this little gem to see if I could guide students on how to search for meanings independently.

Filter your quotes can be downloaded here!

 

Parent Meet - parents meet, discuss and share!

I want to share with you a successful Parent Meet event that I organised on the behalf of our English department. I invited a selected number of students and their parents to the event based on KS3 English data and teacher feedback.

It's not parents evening as parents were encouraged to discuss with other parents their own strategies for developing their child's learning. The parents also completed English writing and reading games alongside their children to send the message that learning English is fun!

Takeaway:
Parents were given a question and answer booklet, that I created, in order to teach their children key terms for English. You can download a copy for yourself here! The booklet has a series of subject based questions (alongside their answers) for parents to ask their children on a weekly basis. After a term, I can already see the positive impact it is having on our selected KS3 students' progress in English.

Go for it! Set up a parent meet event at your school and see how it goes!

 

AQA English Language and Literature B PLCs for questions 1 and 2

PLCs (also known as personal learning checklists) have proven to be an essential tool in improving my KS5 students' understanding of their own targets and areas of strength. The PLCs below strive to give each student an idea of which band they're on whilst clearly signposting their next D.I.R.T targets.

Question 1 Students simply highlight what they forgot to do by looking at the band above the one they achieved.

Question 2 PLC Students tick each skill according to the band they feel it is at. This enables students to oversee their overall band and to identify which skills they need to develop in order to achieve their highest band potential.

Literacy peer-assessment checklist

Here's an example of a literacy peer-assessment sheet I developed in order to increase my students' consideration of their literacy skills. I will improve this sheet by linking it to our department's literacy marking codes and by providing a literacy 'cheat sheet' (a literacy map at the back of the sheet) in order to assist the peer assessor with the assessment of their classmate's literacy skills.