Eng. Lit. or Media Studies for GCSE?

There was an here article about "soft" subjects at A level earlier on this month. Basically it echoes what everyone else on here has said. I realise you were asking about GCSEs, but I suspect that universities, especially the Russell group ones, would take the same view over them as well.

Definitely do English Lit. Rightly or wrongly, media studies is really looked down upon by our society and she will have to put up with lots of derogatory comments about it.

Danebury, the board is WJEC. If it's any compensation to get GCSE English Language there appears to be a million and one CA's

I teach English - and it's not dumbed down! What it is is skills based, compared to the majority of us on here who can recite whole texts back to front because that's how we were taught, but might not have been able to transfer these reading skills to other texts.

Shakespeare is government directed - he is one of our 'heritage' authors - so he'll be in there - never fear! I'm confident in saying that I think this applies to all boards.

And whoever said they'd read about two two hour exams and one controlled assessment - I'd love to know which board that is! I'm two Controlled Assessments down with my Y10s with one more to complete by the end of this term - on Shakespeare!

I think the CAs are hard - we expect them to be much more independent than we ever were.

We did the Media option for a couple of years, but nobody enjoyed teaching it and the parents were a bit horrified.

Just typed all this and read back and see that my points have all already been made. Ah well.

I hated Silas Marner at first, but grew to like it after a while. Sometimes when I'm trying to remember other things, random quotes from it pop into my head. "the demon opium to whom she was enslaved", for example. I think there must be a part of my brain that just stores quotes from GCSE texts and refuses to let them go. I just want to forget them!

English Language has a section on Media, and I'd say both English courses are more interesting than Media Studies. I reckon most people just choose it because it's a new subject to them and seems easy. In actual fact it's quite uninspiring.

Herbietea - DD1's friends now think I am a controlling cow because she told them I wouldn't let her do Media Studies. She didn't mention that she had no intention of doing it anyway!

Shakespeare is part of the NC and students have to study him for GCSE: they do this through the English Lang (or English) GCSE which is still compulsory - so don't worry - the bard will still be studied! Your daughter should still opt to do Lit though.

I might as well say it. Re GCSE choices she should take

English Lit AND Lang (if available)
Maths
as many of the 3 sciences as poss
at least one language
a humanity
free choice of whatever's left - art/music/drama etc.

Honestly - unis and employers are getting MASSIVELY judgemental about GCSE choices. Traditional subjects are considered to be better than 'new' subjects like Media Studies and Health.

A levels are the same - Cambridge has put up a list of subjects it prefers. It's not just Cambridge who feel this way - other good unis are the same.

Its things like this (making "core" subjects optional) that is one of the major reasons why too many children from non selective schools fail to get into the good unis

My son struggles and he is doing literature (he is dyslexic and finds reading hard). He is studying MacBeth, An Inspector Calls, A Christmas Carol and some poetry. Your daughter should definitely be doing literature.

I wanted to add that, even if she says that she wants to do academic film studies at university (and this can be an entirely serious part of many arts and humanities degrees), English Lit will still give her a better training in analysis and will be better regarded.

Is she doing Englisg Language as well? There is a media section in that.
I would try to get her to choose Eng Lit.

I did Silas Marner too, Snap. I hated it, and still do. If only we could have done Middlemarch instead. Or even The Mill on the Floss.

Uh Silas Marner. That book made an everlasting impression on me though...

Your DD really must do Eng Lit. Trust all the good advice you have had on here. I'm a Head of English - LadyGlencora has summed up the specs very clearly.

I think in a couple of years time less and less schools will be be offering Media. The Russel Group unis don't rate it at all and you don't need it for a career in the Media either.

Agree with LadyGP's posting. Lit is the only way to go if tertiary eductaion is on the agenda for your DC.

Just to clear up - English Lit is not compulsory. English is - you can either do English Lang or the new English spec which combines lang and lit and is just called English. Most schools offer Lang and Lit and some like the OP's school offer the Lang and Media to the weaker students. Or they might offer the new spec English plus media or digital communication. What they won't offer is the new spec English plus Lit because they overlap too much.
OP, assuming the offer is English Lang with a choice of either Lit or Media, I would say she really needs to do Literature if she is university material. The Literature module is not dumbed down if delivered well and it is definitely worth more than Media.

Another one here who thought it was compulsory. I thought the standard GCSE pack of 10 was maths, 2 science, 2 english and a compulsory like RE or ICT, leaving 4 choices.

english lit. My guess is that her teacher will be only to willing for your dd to read the book for herself and process her own ideas.

Weird that she even got a choice! At my school everyone did English lit.

In any case, English is definitely the better choice. It's a lot more respected, a lot more fun, and a lot more interesting.
Also, it's the absence of an ENglish Literature GCSE that will seem suspicious on an application form rather than the presence of Media, iyswim.

And at my school English Lit was not dumbed down as far as I could see. We had to study Silas Marner and Romeo and Juliet for the exam. Both were quite heavy texts to remember quotes from and analyse. Then for coursework we read A View From The Bridge, Doris Lessing's short stories, and various other poetry. There was an unseen poem in the exam too.
ALthough this was evidently a different exam board, I do not think it would be significantly easier on other boards. If it's presented as 'dumbed-down', that's your school's approach, rather than the actual course content.

No contest - English Lit.
My non academic DS took Media Studies GCSE in Y9, whilst still aged 13. Classes were for a double period a week after school over two terms only and the teacher had a chronic health condition so missed some lessons. He got a D. OK that's not a real pass, but I think it demonstrates something.

magnetadreamer DS(year 9) did a mock CA on Macbeth last week as well.

I wouldn't view English Lit as dumbed down either, my DD's had their own copies of the set book (Jane Eyre and Great Expectations) and they were expected to read all of it even if they only looked at sections in class.

It seems odd to make English Lit a choice as most schools only let those who are struggling at English not take it. I would be quite shocked if DS had been given this choice.