PAPER 1 – QUESTION 1 The mean mark was 3.75 out of 4 - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

PAPER 1 – QUESTION 1

The mean mark was 3.75 out of 4

Encourage students to write in sentences as it may make points more relevantKeep information basic – no need to interpret the information

Those who simply retrieved information sometimes did better than those who tried to interpret it.

No requirement for students to write in sentences but those who did tended to produce more relevant and credit worthy answers

Incorrect points came from wrong lines or misinterpretation

KEY SKILL – FINDING INFORMATION

Q1Slide2

PAPER 1 – QUESTION 2

Students found the bullet point useful but use of the ‘could’ refer to, should be emphasised; there is no requirement to cover all of them.

Students who narrowed their choice and then explored the effects of their selected examples in depth, were frequently more successful.Some students selected words and phrases that they didn’t understand

and therefore were unable to say anything meaningful.

‘fairy palaces’ metaphor for jewellers shopsLevel 2 students – image created a shiny and sparkling effect.Level 3 students – explained clearly that it suggested a magical, fairy tale world outside of the bus.Level 4 students – perceptively explored the contrast between the language used to describe

Rosabel’s stuffy, claustrophobic reality inside the bus, and the ‘other-worldliness’ of the ‘fairy-palaces’ outside, and how it symbolised her fantasy of the unobtainable dream.

KEY SKILL – LANGUAGE ANALYSIS

Students who did less well:identified and labelled language features, but didn’t comment on the effect, or give reason

Made basic

generic comments,

e.g

‘it creates a picture in our head’.

Q2Slide3

PAPER 1 – QUESTION 2

Some students looked for the connotations of the word, without consideration of context.e.g. –

Rosabel’s petticoat being ‘coated in black, greasy mud’ associated with death, darkness or disease.e.g. – the sibilance of the bus passengers, ‘sitting so still staring in front of them’ sounded like a snake hissing, so there must be evil on the bus.Comments need to be precise and contextualised to achieve a level 3 or more.Students need to understand that it is what the subject terminology does that is credited, rather than the mention of an obscure term that the student does not understand and does nothing with.

Many students were armed with complex terminology and determined to do something with it,

whether it existed or not – often used incorrectly e.g The writer has used adjectives and this creates synaesthesia’ – no examples or mention or Rosabel or the bus journey.

There were however, students who used subject terminology accurately and effectively to aid response.

KEY SKILL – LANGUAGE ANALYSIS

A significant number of students wrote at great length, which is neither recommended nor necessary.

Q2Slide4

PAPER 1 – QUESTION 2

Not

everything in the bullet points needs to be used.Subject terminology should enhance a response and not be reliant upon it.The analysis must be precise and contextualised.

No introductions. Work backwards – the EFFECT is what gains marks.Write

about: the effect/tone and then support with the technique that did that; the bigger ideas suggested by the metaphor/simile/word choice; think about the feelings of the character AND the reader. Do not: write about sentence structure; write more than the two pages given

; write about techniques without saying what effect is made; use the phrase ‘a good effect/big effect’.Make 3 points

maximum.

KEY SKILL – LANGUAGE ANALYSIS

Q2Slide5

PAPER 1 – QUESTION 3

This question wants students to consider, what happens, where and why and consider the question,

‘How does reading about this at this point add to my understanding of the text as a whole?’This was the lest well handled of the reading questions often because students overcomplicated the question.Terminology may enhance the response, but

effects must come from students

There was an over-reliance on subject terminology, but also higher level narrative theory e.g Freytag’s Pyramid, literary theorists - many students understood but could not apply.

KEY SKILL – STRUCTURE

Those who concentrated on the reasons, structural shifts and movement, on the whole produced more thoughtful responses.

Q3

Some students found

the bullet points effective

as a framework.

A

lthough students used phrases such as ‘at the beginning’, ‘at the middle’, ‘at the end’ sometimes they just discussed content, or analysed language features instead

Some identified features such as tone, setting, narrative perspective and dialogue,

without explaining any shifts or changes.Slide6

PAPER 1 – QUESTION 3

Most successful students understood that the story was a construct. They offered an overview of the structure of the whole source before breaking it down and analysing the shifts in perspectivee.g. – first half, where reader journeys with

Rosabel is largely descriptive, whereas her recollection of the earlier part of the day, which comes later in the text, was predominately dialogue and focused on this lack of chronology and why the writer had chosen to do thise.g. explored the cyclical nature of the source through the motif of food e.g. Rosabel’s simple meal and hunger at beginning compared to the casual lunch mentioned in the final line.KEY SKILL – STRUCTURE

Students must focus on WHY the writer has chosen to structure the text in this way

Students should see the text as a construct and look at the overview before breaking it down and analysing the shifts

Keep subject terminology simple, equilibrium, narrative shifts, shifts in focus, analepsis, prolepsisStudents should consider the movement through the text and explain why the shifts happened

Introductions are unlikely to gain marksStudents should write

about: link between beginning and end, symbolism, first person/third person perspective, use of flashback/setting shifts.Students should not: write about punctuation, dialogue (unless

they

have a really pertinent point) say ‘this makes the reader want to read on.

Make 3 points maximum.

Q3Slide7

PAPER 1 – QUESTION 4

There is more freedom to interpret in a personal way than Qs 2 and 3.

Most agreed that the girl had many advantages in life, but opinions varied as to whether Rosabel was right to be angryStudents of all abilities responded in a lively and engaging manner

All evaluations and interpretations were valid as long as they were rooted in the text.

KEY SKILL – EVALUATION

The biggest error made by students was that many of them failed to address methods

, they dealt with the ‘what’ but not the ‘how’, which limited their level.

Q4

The

bullet points guided students

on the focus of their evaluation, but there was no right or wrong answer

Those who did consider methods tended to focus on language,

often at the expense of narrative voice or form

or use of contrast within the given lines

Those who led with methods, which then naturally and seamlessly became evaluation of ideas, were

able to access the full range of marks

Some basic misconceptions

e.g

Harry was the butler. Some interpreted the girl’s behaviour as being deliberately patronising and vindictive, although there is no evidence in the text to suggest that she was anything but politeSlide8

PAPER 1 – QUESTION 4

KEY SKILL – EVALUATION

Students must understand it is imperative to evaluate the ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’.All evaluations and interpretations are valid as long as they are rooted in the text.

Students should decided if they are agreeing/not agreeing, and then read the text again before

they answer with the statement in mind. As

they read they should highlight the points that link to the statement and then consider three to write about in their answer. Things to look out for: motivations of characters, symbolism, the deeper meaning of words and what they reveal about the characters. Speak generally about the characters/situation as a whole and make a judgement.

The best answers consider how a student came to that conclusion.

Q4Slide9

PAPER 1 – QUESTION 5

Both writing tasks were accessible to students

The first option, describing a journey by bus, as suggested by the picture was a slightly more popular choice, possibly because there was a physical image there to aid imaginations, or maybe because travelling on a bus is in the realm of students’ experience. KEY SKILL – WRITING

The journeys themselves varied between the literal and the metaphorical: a purgatory bus where passengers were dead but forever trapped; a prison bus; a bus ride through the countryside for an author with writer’s block looking for inspiration; and an elderly gentleman’s journey to heaven, using the bus metaphorically to reconnect him to his wife. Many, however, consisted of a drive through a rainy city centre at night, where students took their cue from Source A and described the reflection of the lights on the window panes.

Q5

There were many

inventive viewpoints adopted: of the bus itself; of the stop button on the bus; of a bus ticket; of a lamp post or a bridge that the bus passed; usually, though, it was written from the perspective of a passenger, or sometimes of a driver.Slide10

PAPER 1 – QUESTION 5

The addition of a reading question focusing on structure had obviously encouraged some students to consider the shape of their own writing.

KEY SKILL – WRITINGStudents who opted for the narrative, a story about two people from very different backgrounds, also covered wide ranging topics. Many focused on rich and poor; different religions or races; enemy soldiers; star-crossed lovers; although others were more inventive: human and elf; modern man encounters caveman through time travel; 1950’s detective meets an enigmatic femme fatal; feuding families at the court of Versailles; and an angel sacrificing her immortality to save a human friend.

Q5

The most able students wrote beautifully crafted imaginative responses, both descriptive and narrative, that were stunning in their accomplishment; original, engaging and delightful to read.

Some students adopted a

circular structure or an extended metaphor that ran throughout their narrative, often with convincing and compelling results. Slide11

PAPER 1 – QUESTION 5

There was considerable evidence of a lack of planning. Occasionally, spider diagrams were used, which may generate ideas but do not help with

organisation or cohesion, whilst other ‘plans’ consisted of mnemonics, usually linguistic techniques the student intended to include regardless, which may aid some of the less able students but tends to stifle the creativity of the most able. A lack of planning also resulted in unnecessarily lengthy responses, where the more a student wrote, the greater the deterioration in ideas, structure and accuracy. Many studentswould have benefitted from a quality rather than quantity approach: having the confidence to take

time to plan, and then craft a shaped and structured response in two or three sides, with time at the end to revise and improve. This would certainly have helped those who started ambitiousnarratives but managed to get no further than establishing the two characters because they set out to achieve the impossible in the time given.

KEY SKILL – WRITING

There was a tendency to produce formulaic responses

with a contrived use of senses: I can see/I can hear/I can smell, usually with reference to nostrils

Q5

T

he inclusion of

over-ambitious vocabulary that sounded sophisticated but was frequently misused and obscured meaning

: lugubrious, jocular or bellicose buses driving past sycophantic streetlights, or crossing out the word ‘phone’ and replacing it with ‘brick of technology’, does not make for a fluent and engaging piece of writing.Slide12

PAPER 1 – QUESTION 5

It was obvious that centres were mindful of the increased technical accuracy mark

and had emphasised the importance of varying sentence forms and encouraged students to use a wide range of punctuation.The majority of students were able to write with generally accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar. Some struggled when attempting to vary their sentences, most notably in the descriptive piece, where participle phrases were frequently used, at times to good effect but more often creating a sense of merely writing in note form. Others experimented with the placing of subordinate clauses and used fragments or minor sentences, as well as compound and complex sentences, very successfully.

KEY SKILL – WRITING

Many, of all abilities, who were unable to punctuate dialogue correctly or use apostrophes properly.

Q5

There were students who, even when sentence demarcation was fairly accurate, were

guilty of comma splicing,

However, the most able students used an impressive array of punctuation – colons, semi-colons, brackets and dashes – and integrated them seamlessly into their responses to enhance meaning.

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PAPER 1 – QUESTION 5

KEY SKILL – WRITING

Q5Students should think of inventive ideas, and different ways of looking at things. The more original the idea, the more likely it is to be engaging.

Students should be encouraged to use what they have learnt about the structure of an extract in Q3 to structure their own writing.

Students should plan their answer to help with organization and cohesion. They should also leave time for editing at the end.Responses should not be too lengthy and instead students should work on creating a shaped and structured response in 2-3 sides.

A contrived use of senses is limiting e.g. – ‘I can see’, ‘I can hear’ etc.

Although ambitious vocab should be encouraged, it is important that students understand the words that they are using.

Students should practice using a variety of sentence forms

Students should understand comma splicing and how to correct.

Students should be aware how to punctuate dialogue correctly

How and where to use apostrophes should be a key skill

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