Jekyll and Hyde: Aiming High - Grade 8/9 English Literature Exam Preparation

If you have a top set or set 2 who have aspirational grades - 8/9 - like I did then you need to support them with their vocabulary when writing about the Literature texts. Essentially (as I understand it), according to the exam report students need to be able to write like A level students - their crafting of their ideas into an answer is as important if not more important than the knowledge they have about the text/context/and so on.

From my research I produced booklets on each of the texts which I provided to my set. The booklet was used as a whole lesson - a ‘read through’ with short activities within the booklet for them to complete in silence. Students were encouraged to offer me critique of the booklet sharing their ideas about what would have improved it for them, this is a great bit of reflective responsible learning and consolidating of what they have actually taken away from having read it, as well as this, it helped them identify gaps in their knowledge.

Their homework and following lessons consisted of essay writing practice in groups of 4, in pairs and independently as well as timed essays, peer assessing and self assessment.

My students remarked that these resources were “helpful” and “challenging”. They used them as a reference point when planning and writing essays. As well as this they really liked the extracts from the examiner report and exemplars.