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GCSE English Literature
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In Years 11 and 12 English Literature is an option for pupils from the A1 and A2 classes
The Exam Board we use for GCSE English Literature is CCEA. Click here to go to the CCEA English Literaturesite. Click here for the GCSE English Literature Specification.
English Literature is a means by which pupils can explore and discover their cultural heritage, history and society. It is an opportunity to study plays, poems and novels allowing pupils to develop powers of reasoning and helping them form personal opinions and feelings. This subject will open their minds to many different worlds and could lead to careers in journalism and other aspects of media, marketing, advertising, the legal profession, librarianship, managing information and many others.
Aims
This specification aims to encourage pupils to:
• understand that texts from the English, Welsh or Irish literary heritage have been influential and significant over time, and explore their meaning today;
• explore how texts from different cultures and traditions may reflect or influence values, assumptions and sense of identity;
• connect ideas, themes and issues, drawing on a range of texts;
• become critical readers of fiction and non-fiction prose, poetry and drama; and experience different times, cultures, viewpoints and situations as found in literary texts.
Key features
The key features of the specification:
• This is now a unitised specification, allowing pupils flexibility in preparing for assessment. Pupils can enter for a unit when they are ready to be assessed and can resit each unit individually.
• From summer 2012, students will be able to take any of the three units in the first year of teaching. (There will be one unit available in 2011.)
• This course offers opportunities to build on the skills and capabilities developed through the delivery of the Key Stage 3 curriculum.
• It helps facilitate the study of English Literature and related subjects at a more advanced level, for example A and AS English Literature, English Language, English Language and Literature, and advanced courses in Communication.
This course allows pupils the opportunity to develop the following skills:
− developing and sustaining independent interpretations of whole texts, supporting them with detailed textual references;
− analysing connections between texts, comparing and contrasting features and qualities that connect and contrast the presentation of themes, characters and settings;
− analysing the impact of style, language, structure and form;
− relating texts to their social and historical contexts, and to the literary traditions of which they are a part; and
− understanding how texts from the literary heritage have been influential and significant over time.
Pupils can use texts that they are studying for GCSE English Literature as the stimulus for GCSE English Language controlled assessment tasks.
The table below summarises the structure of this GCSE course:
| Content | Assessment | Weighting | Availability |
Unit 1:
The Study of Prose | External examination
Foundation and Higher
Tiers
1 hour |
25% |
Every Summer
(beginning in 2011) |
Unit 2:
The Study of
Drama and Poetry | External examination
Foundation and Higher
Tiers
2 hours |
50% |
Every Summer
(beginning in 2012) |
Unit 3:
The Study of
Linked Texts |
Controlled assessment
CCEA sets the task each year. |
25% |
Every Summer
(beginning in 2012) |
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