How to help your son/daughter prepare for the GCSEs in 2007 (updated Mar 07)

Time is running very short:

  • holiday time in Year 11 must be used for revision - keep nagging! A revision session should be 20-30 mins, then a short break. NB pupils are allowed notes in their 'working school copies' of the anthology and novel but will receive 'clean' copies only to use in the examination
  • pupils must revise poems by Clarke and Heaney OR Armitage and Duffy for Literature, together with some pre-1914 poems, and Poems from Different Cultures for Language
  • recommended key poems for Literature (2007): Follower, Digging, Storm on the Island, Death of a Naturalist, At a Potato Digging, Cold Knap Lake, Catrin, The Field Mouse, Sonnet, Patrolling Barnegat, The Affliction of Margaret, A Difficult Birth, On My First Sonne
  • note that the key Literature poems are worth a staggering 40% of the final GCSE grade; candidates have only one hour in the examination in which to achieve this
  • if you wish to purchase printed revision notes, I recommend the York notes for Mockingbird and the York Notes (in one volume, at £4.99) on Poetry by Clarke and Heaney, plus pre-1914 selection
  • Literature candidates MUST reread and learn the set novel, To Kill a Mockingbird (2007) chapter by chapter
  • for excellent free notes online, go to Andrew Moore's site
  • all pupils should use our 'basics' booklet to revise grammar, and must make personal spelling lists based on their own errors
  • ALL outstanding coursework must be finished on time; end of autumn term is the last chance to complete missing pieces

    Revision sessions should follow the pattern: recap (WITHOUT looking at the text or notes)-revise (looking at the text and notes)-recall(shutting the text and notes and going over in the mind to 'fix'); timing: 3 mins, 14 mins, 3 mins.

    Parents can

    · help with the recap: ask, 'Tell me all you can remember about the first two chapters of your novel/ the poems by Gillian Clarke.'
    · open up the Anthology to the set poems, read out part of a poem and ask, 'Where is this from? What does it mean? Explain the meaning to me.'
    · challenge sons to go beyond the surface meaning; ask, 'What is the subtle meaning or the hidden message?
    · do the same with the novel (the one exam essay, for which 45 minutes are allowed, is worth 30%, so a VERY thorough knowledge is vital for that high grade); ask about character and theme
    · encourage the use of revision notes
    · encourage the use of the Internet
    · encourage ACTIVE revision with a friend round, each asking the other the 'recap' and 'recall' questions.
    . help with spellings; for advice, click here

    More help for parents and pupils - click here

     

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