GCSE English Language - Years 10 and 11

AQA Examination Board

Unit 1 - Understanding and producing non-fiction texts. (60% of final grade)

Designed to develop analytical reading and writing skills. This unit asks students to show their understanding of a range of non-fiction texts, including articles, webpages and leaflets. Students are asked to identify the linguistic and presentational techniques that writers use to present their ideas and then demonstrate that they too can use them. This exam will be taken in the November series of year 11.

Unit 3 - Understanding spoken and written texts and writing creatively. (40% of final grade)

This unit consists of four controlled assessment tasks:

1. Extended reading. Students are asked to write an essay response to a text they have studied, demonstrating that they understand the key ideas and techniques used to present them.
2. Creative writing. Students will be given two writing tasks to complete. Previous tasks have included writing newspaper articles, short stories and autobiographical pieces.
3. Spoken Language Study. Students are asked to analyse examples of spoken language and identify verbal and non-verbal techniques used to convey meaning.

UNIT 2 (SPEAKING AND LISTENING) - HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THE SYLLABUS

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize has some really useful revision quizzes and videos
http://www.aqa.org.uk for past papers and mark schemes

There are many revision guides on sale for the texts we study.

Students will be set a minimum of one piece of homework per week. Tasks include questions from past papers, revision activities and independent writing tasks.