Help with Eng Lit controlled assesment next week

[IdontknowwhyIcare]

Oh dear, in the fluster of moving house and DS going on a school trip, it certainly slipped my mind that the controlled assessment for Eng Lit Shakespeare and Literary heritage module is next week. Its worth 25% of the total marks. gulp. DS has some learning difficulties and Eng is his worse subject which maybe why he hasnt mentioned it?

Please does anyone have any top tips or sites to assist with research about the theme of love using romeo and Juliet and one significant other text. I have ordered the notes etc from Amazon but they wont be here til next week (we live abroad and a friend is bringing them on Sunday).

Any ideas, awfully gratefully received. TIA.

Don't know if this will help
www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/romeojuliet/themes.html

here?

What's your other text?

Ds tells me it is Much Ado about Nothing. Thanks for the other tips. It appears that is what the class have been taught but they can use any well know text?

Do you know what exam board it is? 'Cos i'm not sure about the texts both being Shakespeare - most ask students to compare one Sh play with, say, a significant novel or some poetry. I'm fairly sure the kids can't just pick one, either, but he should have the specific question?

For AQA the controlled assessment is 4 hours in total, but schools can split it into two.

It may be that they are doing 2 hours on R&J next week, but will do the 2 hrs on 'a novel from the literary heritage' later on in the term.

Its AQA and apparently its 4 hours next week. He seems def sure they are comparing the theme of love between R&J and Much Ado. Seems odd to me, as when I read the exam board spec I was under the impression it was to compare with another significant literary text (and no I didnt think that meant more shakespeare, the example given was Pride and Predujice).

DS currently sleeping as has tonsilitis. I think he has worked himself into a right state over this and the GCSE science module on Wednesday. Oh dear, poor thing.

The controlled assessment is a bit scary, isn't it, mainly because it's new. It might help to remember it's not an exam, it's a replacement for coursework. This means that your DS doesn't have to "swot up" for it like you would an exam. The main preparation would have happened in lessons. Pupils can take notes in to the assessment but not notes they've done at home.
If he would feel better doing some prep for it during half term he could plan out some points about love in both texts and find some quotes to go with the points, but he won't be able to take these notes into the assessment.
It might be worth checking with a school friend whether he's right about both texts being Shakespeare.
Finally the AQA site is quite helpful.

Sparklyjewlz My DD has been allowed to take in notes from home into the exam. What they can not do is take whole chunks of work in ie a rough draft. My DD was allowed one side of A4 notes. DD made a note of where quotes were in the play with a note saying shows so and so. She also did a flow chart of her essay and because her spelling is rubbish she added the correct spelling for several key words. DD has done several CA's which are split over two days, what she wasn't allowed to do was bring further notes for the second session.

My DD (in Yr 10) has just done a CA in comparing love in R&J and Pride & Prejudice. I got her the York notes revision books and she went through highlighting anything relating to the question. They are allowed to take in a small piece of paper with notes so she noted pages for relevant quotes to save time in the exam. She did write a rough essay in advance and tried to memorise it with key words in her notes to remind her what each paragraph was about. Most of her friends did the same sort of thing so when they went in they knew what they were going to write more or less. Her exam was divided into one lot of 2 hours and 2 one hours on three subsequent days, so she only had to focus on first half the essay, then the 3rd quarter, then the last. I think she'd have panicked if she hadn't done the preparation but I'm not sure if this is in the spirit of the exam?