Checking Out Me History and The Emigree

AQA GCSE English Literature Power and Conflict Poetry – Exam Preparation - A Comparative Answer on John Agard’s ‘Checking Out Me History’ and Carol Rumens’ ‘The Emigrée’.

This resource is designed to help you prepare your class to answer a GCSE English Literature question on AQA Power and Conflict Poetry. It is NOT intended to teach students the poems themselves – it is designed for you to use later in the school year when the poetry has been fully covered and the students need to learn how to use this knowledge to write the best possible exam answers.

There are six elements included:

1. Answering AQA Power and Conflict Poetry Questions: this 32-slide PDF presentation is the core of this group of resources and has been carefully designed and created to help you guide your class through each part of the essay writing process. It examines each of the following elements: the AOs and the Mark Scheme, exam timing and weighting, essay structure, how to write an introduction, using ‘rough notes’ for planning, contents of the main body and how to write a conclusion. Most importantly, it features many extracts from the sample exam answer which are annotated to show the importance of using subject terminology, precise and judicious quotes and comparative links.

2. Power and Conflict Sample Answers – this 1000-word sample answer to the question is presented in two formats for your convenience. The first is a one-page A4 handout of the essay itself. The second is a two-page A4 handout with wider margins and more generous spacing – this allows ample space for annotation and highlighting, allowing students to completely break down the elements of the essay. I would suggest copying this onto an A3 sheet – I’ve used it very effectively with pairs of students using different colour markers to highlight the various AOs, the subject terminology, comparative terms, precise quotes etc.

3. Power and Conflict Sample Planning Grid – one-page A4 handout which shows the students how to use ‘rough notes’ to plan and structure their essay.

4. Planning Grid Template – one-page A4 handout featuring a blank Planning Grid which students can use to plan their own essays for any part of the GCSE English course.

5. Power and Conflict AOs – one-page A4 handout which explains the AOs to students in a manner that is accessible and easy to understand.
6. Teacher's Instructions.


Alternatively, you can buy the presentation here or the worksheets here.