GCSE Parents: English Lit Concerns?

[AK888]

Just curious for GCSE Parents with kids doing English Lit GCSE, what are the main concerns you/ your kids have? What should you look out for?

Thank you in advance!

English teacher with 30 years experience here. Also 3 kids of my own through GCSE. What exactly do you want to know? It’s not clear from your OP.

Hi @AK888 I agree it’s not clear what you want to know. If I can help I will. MFL is my main subject but I have done a lot of Eng lit support too plus 2 of my DC took the current spec exam so I am fairly well up on it (know most about AQA).

Read The Question!!!

It’s a bit of a vague question tho! What should you look out for?

Does the OP mean what kind of questions might come up? What sort of things should the student should focus on in their answer? What concerns you should have about the texts? About the exam? About your child? Just a bit general I guess.

FWIW I didn’t have any concerns re dd or ds2, except that ds2 did less revision than he might have; and it’s important, in general, to tick the AOs in your answer and make sure you keep to the time. But that’s probably not much help.

We don't have any concerns. Are we meant to have any??

Sorry-I was being facetious. But in my experience most of the problems kids encounter come down to not reading the rubric or the question properly.

Ah I get you. Yes very true (and pretty much what I said too haha).

Also – answer for the right book and just one from each section. I heard tell of a student who answered (or tried to!) every Shakespeare question on the paper. The examiner would mark the first one as well, even if the student hadn't studied Macbeth and wrote a better answer on R&J.

No concerns. What is your reason for wanting to know?

Journalist? We're 6 years on from a DC taking GCSEs- is there a brewing controversy on the Eng.Lit front currently?

I don’t understand your question - concerns relating to what?

My daughter didn't do GCSE English Lit and I did it 34 years ago so my ideas might be as vague as this question.
My concerns would be -
Do they enjoy the books or find then dull?
Do they understand them?
(repeat this for plays and poetry)
Do they understand how to write essays and how to do exam papers?
That's it.....🤔

Well I bookmarked this, as my daughter is going into Year 7.

Thought it would be full of tips and advice to help her do her best.

My advice having 4 kids who did it including 2 lazy boys is read the books/ poems yourself. Then discuss the themes which they do in class with them. I take things very literally so even though I got a B I found it intriguing what they were actually about!
When sons were it's really boring I could say well look how X relates to Y that's not boring etc.

Hi — I work with some Year 11s and wondering how other young people are revising Eng Lit quotes at the moment? Are schools providing adequate support/resources?

Some of the teachers I work with said it's variable how much is available and/or actually helping, so we trialed a new tool in a school & at a local youth centre - seems to be working well so far...

Is this something other teachers/parents need help with? I'm thinking especially if young people are feeling overwhelmed... Love to hear what's working well for everyone else as there seems to be an awful lot for them to remember!! (I don't remember there being this much 20+yr ago!)