Eduqas A level English Literature Component 4 NEA

Eduqas A level English Literature Component 4: NEA Prose Study CPD Autumn 2017

Key Messages: Overview Important Factors in Success • • Text selection and pairing Teaching approaches Task setting and wording of titles Assessment procedures

Key Messages: Teaching Approaches Reviewing Departmental Decisions: • When and how to start • How much independence to allow • How to instil study skills • How to support planning, drafting and redrafting

Key Messages: Text Selection Best Practice • Choose texts for literary merit rather than accessibility or single linking theme or idea • Avoid pairing texts which are too similar or too different • Ensure combination allows for wide range of topics from which candidates can select • Keep possible pitfalls in mind in generic pairings: dystopian; gothic; reportage

Key Messages: Teaching Approaches Free choice of both texts Teach one core text Teach both texts • • Can candidates deal with level of independence? Which texts to offer? How to advise on topic and precise wording of title? How to support study skills: re-reading; prose technique; research and productive use of internet • • Pre- or post-2000 text? How many texts to offer for pairing? Ensuring sufficient range of topics for independence How to help candidates avoid favouring ‘taught’ text • Ensuring chosen texts allow for range of topics and titles • Avoiding reductive ‘single focus’ approach • How to inject opportunities for independence

Teaching one text: ensuring range of topics Alien Outsider Unreliable narrator Patriarchy Unheroic hero Wide Sargasso Sea Entrapment Slavery Race Importance of place/setting Female Repression Sexuality

Teaching one text: selecting range of Post-2000 texts The Little The Line of Beauty Snowdrops White Tiger Stranger White Teeth The Road Home The Blind Assassin A Temporary Gentleman Brick Lane Wide Sargasso Sea The Sense of an Ending The Long Song Property Small Island Brooklyn The Secret Scripture On Chesil Beach

Teaching both texts: ensuring range of topics to inject opportunities for independence Importance of place/setting Home Alien world Contrasts “Only connect”: Barriers Social; racial; gender; communication; religious Comic minor characters Serious intention/importance Satire The role of the suitor Suitable? Unsuitable? Sympathetic Female protagonists Biddable? Repressed? Rebellious? Sympathetic? Pre-2000: A Room with a View Journeys Literal Metaphorical Coming of age Post-2000: Brooklyn Church Influence Clerics and buildings

Supporting the drafting process (1) Draft wording of task • Teacher advises on wording (2) A 4 page plan/outline • Teacher advises on structure/content (3) Opening/sample paragraph(s) • Teacher advises on expression/style (4) First draft Self/Peer assessment (5) Draft for teacher’s constructive guidance

Unsuccessful task: × Overly complex with surface ‘sophistication’ × Focus too wide-ranging × Vague and open-ended × No clear literary focus × No case to argue × Foregrounding context rather than literary appreciation Successful task: ü Clear and accessible to candidate ü Manageable and precisely defined focus ü Emphasises literary response ü Helps candidate structure an argument ü Keeps context in proper place

Key Messages: Task Setting Analyse how the context of the societies in which the novels are set affects the characters in Dracula and Fingersmith. Compare and contrast the ways in which the writers present the characters as defined by the world in which they live in Dracula and Fingersmith. ‘In exposing the thin line between good and evil, the writers present characters mired in a dense and murky world of corruption. ’ With this view in mind, compare and contrast the ways in Stoker and Waters use setting and characterisation to explore the nature of evil in Dracula and Fingersmith.

Key Messages: Assessment Best Practice • Discuss as team and ensure clear understanding of criteria and key descriptors: clear v sound v sophisticated • Annotate in detail noting strengths and weaknesses • Assess and indicate level achieved at key points: AO marker + descriptor e. g. AO 2 sound • Fine-tune mark within the band rather than ‘pushing to the top’ • Make internal standardisation process as robust as possible: dual marking; dialogue between markers Fine-tuning for accuracy AO 3: Band 4 High • 16 marks • All criteria safely met. • Pushing Band 5 Mid • 14 - 15 marks • Most criteria met. • Safely within Band 4 Low • 13 marks • Some criteria met. • Just exceeding Band 3

Key Messages: Assessment Fine-tuning within the band: AO 3 Forster suggests that class boundaries ensure outsiders can never fully escape the ‘abyss’ of poverty. In a novel in which three classes clash (the moneyed Imperialists, the intellectual middle class and the brow-beaten lower middle class), aspiring bank clerk Leonard Bast represents the clearest ‘outsider’ in the English class hierarchy. Forster uses Bast as a symbol of the aspirations of the lower classes, reflecting the clear but problematic barriers between the classes. Leonard’s devotion to be perceived as an insider is illustrated by his belief in and desire for culture. He attends the ‘Music and Meaning’ Beethoven concert and reads Stones of Venice by Ruskin, a Victorian art critic who hoped that working men would be empowered through education and who also wrote Fors Clavigera, letters to working men encouraging self improvement reflecting Leonard’s hope of bettering himself. Low, Mid or High Band 4? • • • What should candidate do to move into Band 5? Sound, secure appreciation and understanding of the significance and influence of contexts Sound, secure analysis of the contexts in which the texts are written and received Sound, secure understanding of the connections between texts and contexts.

Key Messages: Summary of Advice • Review approaches to text-selection and task-setting, using available advice (see CPD materials on the EDUQAS secure website). • Consider appropriate level of independence for candidates and how best to support their study of prose technique. • Candidates should start reading and preparing for this component as soon as possible in Year 12 • Emphasis should be placed on reading and studying the texts in some detail rather than over-reliance on web-based study sites. • Primary markers should consult all available guidance on standardising before assessing candidates’ work. • Review internal moderation procedures to ensure that the centre’s standards are accurate and consistent.

Any Questions? Contact our specialist Subject Officers and administrative team for your subject with any queries. gceenglish@eduqas. co. uk @eduqas. co. uk