English Literature GSCE and DS (15) who doesn't read

[longtermsinglemummy]

Does anyone have any advice on how I can try and improve my son's English results? He's not a big reader, in fact he would probably choose to do anything but read a book. I've tried different types of books, he tolerates an autobiography, generally sports related.

He's got over a year until he sits his GCSE. He's very bright, albeit lazy and doesn't apply himself. But he really needs English to get anywhere and is currently working at a level 3-4, which I think is D-E.

I cannot think of ways I can encourage him. We always fall out over homework and tests anyway so I'm conscious of not starting another row! Is it as simple as just reading more, or are there other things I can do?

Thanks!

[longtermsinglemummy]

Thanks mishmash1979, I ordered that one yesterday

BareGrylls - I'm hoping that will be the case with him, but I'm just concerned that these exams are unknown.

[Cinderford]

longterm the best version of The Merchant of Venice is, in my opinion, the film where Al Pacino plays Shylock. If you watch it with the subtitles on then quite a lot of the language should seep in, too.

Redsrule made some very wise comments, especially regarding the difficulty of the new specs.

[TeaCakeLiterature]

Completely agree with a couple of posters above - the new GCSEs are a whole new world and ball game!
Tips like audio books / watching are fine...but to be successful you need to analyse quotes from memory, use and analyse subject terminology with precision etc etc.

Mr Bruff YouTube videos are fab.
CGP guides are good.

Teacher's advice of openings is fine...but the extracts don't have to be openings so I'm not sure why they've limited to that. Extracts given in the exam can be from anywhere in the text so be careful about that.

Revision of subject terminology is key.
Give extracts and find terminology and consider the effect (fiction and non fiction).
Writing own pieces (fiction and non fiction).

[ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged]

As a head of English can I just say how lovely it to read this thread? I'm so glad that parents care enough to buy revision guides, book tickets to the theatre, read the books themselves, etc. It sounds like you're doing all the right things OP.

[Curioushorse]

Hi OP. I'm also a Head of English (funny we're all on now. Taking a break from marking mock exams?). TeaCake has given the main advice I'd give.

But are you sure English Language isn't the issue? It's probably worth investigating as it's likely to be that which is a requirement for his next step. Erm......I have no clue how I'm going to get my weaker students through!

[ShootingQuadrantids]

I suggest CGP revision guides to my students. Additionally BBC bitesize, Sparknotes and Mr Bruff.
My own DS got an A* in 2015 and he now admits that he didn't read the whole text , just used all the revision materials!

[longtermsinglemummy]

Thank you all for the very welcome advice!

I have found an English tutor who is close by and also Head of English at a local school. He's also male which I think will be a bonus for my son, and he starts next week .

I've also booked tickets to An Inspector Calls and every possible English (and Maths but that's a whole other thread...) revision guide and support book has turned up courtesy of Amazon.

So onwards and upwards...now I have the battle of encouraging him to work. I never had that issue with my daughter!

[longtermsinglemummy]

And the Mr Bruff site is fab! I have never come across it before.

[ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged]

I did A-Level Literature without ever finishing Wuthering Heights.

I don't tell my pupils that until AFTER they get their results.

[Sadik]

Truth.

Mind you, at least you didn't have to read Nostromo!

[IPokeBadgers]

It is a 20 year hold hurt but can I please get some sympathy for the fact that one of my English Literature texts was, wait for it, MIDDLEMARCH!!!

I mean, WTF? The year group before us got to do some lovely Dickens/Great Expectations and we got Middlemarch, a tome thicker than my fist and drier than week old toast.

"But it is so rare that it comes up on the syllabus, we just had to grasp the opportunity to teach it"

That was the line that came from one of my teachers justifying why it was being inflicted on us. For an open book exam. Can you imagine the time some of my classmates wasted during the exam trying to find the relevant passages to support their "critical thinking and analysis".

I spent my two year English Lit class complaining vociferously at the injustice of being forced to study it for A-Level, and I know that at least half my class were simply unable to finish it.

[KindDogsTail]

I am sorry you did not like it, Ipoke so sympathise with you for that reason. But was it for A level? George Eliot is one of the greatest novelists ever, so definitely worth reading in a school setting especially because her books are more difficult. I experienced it with no book to use for the A level exam, so everyone just had to know it well, though perhaps that is easier in the end. People used to have a little more experience with reading long texts then though.

There are recordings for almost all the well known books now, so that may be a help for any one like the OPs dc.

[TeaCakeLiterature]

I know people are trying to help but please, OP, be aware as a few of us heads of department have said, that the GCSEs are a whole world away from what was in place.

Saying past experience is ok to a certain extent, but these are the most rigorous qualifications most of us have ever seen and are much more difficult, in many people's opinions, than A Level and degree to some extent.

[IPokeBadgers]

Kinddogs - I coped with it OK and over time i can look at it through rose tinted lenses but I also, at the time, was probably the top of my class....I loved English and was up for the challenge but the sheer volume of that novel was beyond so many of my classmates and when you compared it to the A-level year groups before and after us who got to study Dickens texts a third of the size we all felt aggrieved....as only teenagers can be!

[portico]

I have a Y9 and Y7. Have the same problem with reading. Right now, I get them to ready anything. Any article on the Guardian is great. Always use novel words. Using an iPad one can right click the word and obtain the dictionary meaning.

Y9 will start AQA EngLang and EngLit in September. To address the paucity of his literacy purchased the Cambridge Press AQA GCSE9-1 EngLang Progress and Progress Plus books. They are comprehensive and fantastic. The publishers have also uploaded a teacher's guide, which contains answers to exercises. Bonus!

He should finish the first book about November, and he will address the Plus book thereafter. For vocab, I have sourced fantastic IGCSE vocab books, along the style used in his 11plus grammar school exams.

[KindDogsTail]

Ipoke, yes, it was certainly not easy to get through!

Portico's idea sounds useful for the OP's dc. Might the Guardian be a little difficult to start with though? It might be more encouraging to start with something which feels easier just to get more of a reading habit, then move on to that.

[longtermsinglemummy]

Thank you all, I'm a little bit terrified at the prospect if it's as tricky as TeaCake is saying it is. But at least they're all in the same boat!

Thanks for the suggestion portico, I've ordered those now.

[portico]

Hi KiindDogsTail

Guardian works best, as even the football articles, which boys will relate to, are wonderfully written, structured and layered with with a few challenging vocab words. Also, one article read once or twice for a total of 15 minutes is more than enough. I will bever inculcate an interest in reading, but anything is better than nothing.

Longtermsinglemummy - did you check out the sample chapter on the Cambridge website. TBH, my younger Y7 made a start on the Progress Book. But, in order to address some functional weaknesses, he is reading the stretching texts that he should have read (but did not read) at Primary School. The Hodder Close Reading 11-14 has helped to address the weaknesses. I had to use these books to compensate for the woefully bad English teaching at their school. The GCSE results, sadly, demonstrate this.

[languagelearner]

People don't seem to like to read these days, much unlike me who was an avid reader as soon as I had started school at age 6 (mostly horse related books). Anyway why not get him Zlatan Ibrahimovic's book "I am Zlatan", just for reading practice, and it's said to be a good book (albeit narrowly focusing on football and the player Zlatan Ibrahimovic). Here's the book: <a class="break-all" href="//www.amazon.com/Am-Zlatan-Story-Off-Field/dp/081298692X/?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">//www.amazon.com/Am-Zlatan-Story-Off-Field/dp/081298692X/?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

I understand he's not thrilled over "An inspector calls", written in 1945 by Priestly and first performed in the Soviet Union (not everybody these days know even what that is...union what?). Reminds me of when I, back in school, had to read a couple books by a famous author but I had no inclination to spend all that time on those books, and I went to the library and borrowed a biography with excerpts and summaries and read that rather dry treatise instead, and wrote up a summary of the summary. There! Confession after 35 years! I have never read those stipulated books! I'm never going to either! And I'm an avid reader, read a lot. But I will probably never read "An inspector calls" anyway, and it doesn't matter how pivotal it might be....

What is important here? The ability to read (at all), preferably to read at ease, and not to make too many grammar and spelling mistakes. To pass with the least acceptable grade, at a minimum. He's obviously not going to have a career teaching English literature whatever happens, so the focus is just on passing it. Have him read the Wikipedia page about the book, and see if someone has analysed it on YouTube already. Focus on the other subjects which will form the basis of his future career (science maybe, or wherever he has his strongest sides).

For the French (I don't know his current level of course but can make a guess from having had French in school myself) you might want to get for example the film "Anthony Zimmer", it's a thriller. If he doesn't like it, you might like it yourself! :)

[languagelearner]

For math (I saw you mentioned this too) you might take a peek at the web page of Jim Fowler from Ohio state university. But it might be a bit too advanced, though, I don't recall what exactly one does learn at age 15. www.youtube.com/user/kisonecat
I wish I had had a math teacher like that. There are some related channels popping up as suggestions, on the right. One is Khan academy. It is known for publishing lots of useful stuff, so you might want to take a look at that too.

[sashh]

For general reading and to expand vocab it doesn't really matter what he is reading, if he doesn't read for pleasure then non fiction might be his 'thing'.

Does he have a hobby? An interest? Books about things can be just as good as 'literature' to expand vocab and to generally get a child reading.

[portico]

Just an update, DS has now completed the first 4 chapters of the AQA Eng Lang Progress Book. I thoroughly recommend it. DS is thinking along the lines of what will be requested in the exam for reading comprehension.

AQA Eng Lit is another scary matter, which I have yet to grapple with!!!!

[marylennoxwasanaspie]

Middlemarch I agree takes quite some getting into, but nothing - nothing at all - tops Clarissa. Even at undergraduate level, that book is the Mount Everest of English literature. Long, long, long, and its epistolary style makes it fiendishly difficult to follow. Makes Chaucer's trip to Canterbury look like a stagger down the local pub.

[RhodaBull]

Another here who winged it through A Level English on Brodies Notes. I really should have done English at university, but the set texts at A Level put me off reading for years. They were awful. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. Pages and pages of droning on about alcoholism and Catholicism. Just the thing for a 17-year-old who was neither an alcoholic nor a Catholic. I'm not saying that every book should have relevance to its reader, but that really did take the biscuit for Zero Interest.

Regarding OP's ds, I think reading anything is useful. A hobby magazine, for example, positioned by the loo! If the ds likes football, a wordier football magazine might be of interest. Or even the sports section of a broadsheet.

[HardcoreLadyType]

I know someone who applied to Oxford to do English, who doesn't read. He got an interview, but didn't get in. I assume he has other offers from very good universities, though.

(Apparently, he was asked, by a teacher at school, if he had read a particular book, and said, "I'm familiar with it." When probed a bit more, it transpired that he had heard of it. You can get a fair way with bluffing it, but only so far.)