To think Michael Gove has actually got something right for once?

[privitandpetunias]

Article in the guardian saying that Mr Gove wants to remove the American literature from the GCSE curriculum and replace it with English literature (sorry can't do links). This is something I have often thought that there are so many great novels out there that are part of our cultural heritage that it would be great for our children to study.

[ravenAK]

Bugger, you're quite right!

I'd forgotten The Crucible goes in the Modern prose or drama slot, not Exploring Cultures. D'oh. All 405 of my Modern prose essays seem to be 'An Inspector Calls' (as per bloody usual...)

Modern texts paper = two texts.

One is Modern prose or drama (eg. LOTF, The Crucible, An Inspector Calls).

T'other is Exploring Cultures (eg. OM&M or TKAMB).

Instead, it'll be a C19th novel & a British work from 1914 onwards, which is somewhat more prescriptive, & obviously KOs The Crucible, OM&M, TKAMB.

[TillyTellTale]

Do we still have controlled assessments? They're in force for other subjects, but I haven't checked the system for GCSE Eng Lit.

If so, yes, I suppose an exam board could decide to design a specification that includes six controlled assessment pieces- four for the compulsory forms and text, and one each for OMAM and TKAM. But if they did, schools would surely vote with their feet, if they have sense. And they generally do.

Deadlines for CAs clashing between subjects is bad enough as it is, when pupils are taking a full complement of subjects!

[TillyTellTale]

*forms of text. Sorry.

Still ill!

[ravenAK]

No, CAs are going.

Untiered closed book terminal exams are the future, apparently.

[TillyTellTale]

Ooh, that'll be fun. Is the idea to bring down the pass-rate, under the guise of academic 'rigor', do you think?

Your scripts for marking will contain a much higher percentage of dangling stick men, and pleas for a C.

[ravenAK]

Indeed Tilly.

It's lucky I've started testing 9yo ds on his memorised key quotes from The English Literary Heritage.

Never be it said we aren't 2020-ready in this family...

[TillyTellTale]

Oh dear. I'd somehow forgotten that one day my children would have to go through UK exams.

I wish I hadn't realised now!

[Toadinthehole]

I studied OMAM in 2nd year at Bash Street Comp, back in 1988. I can see why Gove is worried if it is now considered GCSE material.

BTW he has gone on record as saying he's got nothing against the book.

[ravenAK]

I played netball in 2nd year in 1983. Bizarrely, it seems also to be a recognised Olympic sport; what are they thinking?

Or - just bear with me on this one - just possibly netball is something that a 12yo can have a worthwhile crack at, but that could also be approached at a higher level?

[LeBearPolar]

Raven - how I wish I could 'like' - indeed 'love' - your post. The perfect riposte to all the "Ooooh, Of Mice and men was the book I had tied to my buggy, can't believe all these lazy English teachers who think it's suitable at GCSE" inanities.

FFS, it's not like we're making the case for teaching them Captain Underpants!

"I can see why Gove is worried if it is now considered GCSE material." Really, Toadinthehole? Can you explain why?

Or perhaps you'll realise the idiocy of the comment if I phrase it like this:

"DS has studied Twelfth Night in Year 6. I can see why Gove is worried if Shakespeare is now considered GCSE material."

[TillyTellTale]

At the risk of being a bit repetive, I want to join in!

I read Jane Eyre when I was nine, so at primary school age. I am horrified to hear that people study that at degree level.



Or maybe, literature undergraduates are capable of more sophisticated analysis and of reaching more sophisticated conclusions than my nine-year-old conclusions of 'Aunt Eyre is horrid...This man in charge of the school is a nasty idiot...oh poor Helen... St John is a prat'

Both Charlotte Bronte and John Steinbeck wrote for adults, in case that's not clear.

[susannahmoodie]

I would expect that at degree level Jane Eyre would be studied in terms of feminist literary theory and post colonial literary theory (someone has already linked with Wide Sargasso Sea).

That might go over the heads of some 9 year olds, perhaps.

[TillyTellTale]

How absurd!

Next you'll say there's more to Romeo and Juliet than 'what a sad story- I shouldn't be so controlling of my teenage children's relationships'!

[Goblinchild]

When the school day is extended to run 8-8, there will be lots of time for reading and prep.

[MyrtleDove]

I did OMAM, Macbeth, Death of a Salesman and Carol Ann Duffy at GCSE. Higher set. OMAM definitely provided as much scope for analysis as P&P would.

[echt]

Absolutely Myrtle about OMAM; so much depends on the questions asked.

For the past seven years I've worked in a system where the year 12 count only as Pass or Fail, and the year 13 get the grades. No-one is sweating this shit at 16. More and more I can see the UK obsession with the GCSE is fatuous and irrelevant. Where I work you can't get into uni without a grade in English at year 12 UK equivalent.

[freerangeeggs]

hackmum

"freerange:

"And next term, in addition to my usual work, I can spend evenings and weekends learning a new text and planning a scheme of work entirely from scratch. Hours upon hours of extra work. I'm just being lazy though."

Also, freerange, do you really want to teach exactly the same text year after year after year? Wouldn't it be more interesting and intellectually stimulating to have a bit of variety? If you are overworked - as I am sure you are - wouldn't you prefer the government to come up with a solution such as reducing the hours you have to spend in front of a class or doing admin?"

Yes! I would 100% prefer the government to make my working conditions better. I taught a lot of new texts this year, including The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter at A-level which I LOVED studying - it was one of the best and most interesting things I've done all year. However, the planning for those (and even just familiarising myself with the texts and reading round them) took a very, very long time and there are no signs that I'm going to have to do less admin or have a lighter timetable at any point in the near future. I'll just have to squeeze in planning for an entirely new course somewhere - probably in the evenings and at weekends. At least it's something I can get done in the holidays, which is not the case with a lot of my other tasks.