How to revise English Language

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Revising:

We looked a lot in the last Slides at WAYS of revising. Let’s discuss in a bit more detail how to STRUCTURE our revision, before looking at PRACTISING English Language…

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Structuring revision

I’m going to show you a couple of ‘case studies’…Your job is to tell me which of the students had the most successful plan for revision, and why you think this is…

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Example 1

Terry had three core assessments coming up in a few weeks in Maths, English and Science. He had his class notes on all the topics he needed to revise: Shapes, Writing non-fiction articles and Cells. Terry’s plan was as follows. Next Monday he would revise Shapes for half an hour, writing out the formulae from memory and doing one of each practice question. He would circle any he couldn’t do in his notes. Friday, same thing for Cells – check what he needed to know, then to brain-dump everything he knew about each section of the topic. Circle anything he couldn’t remember. The next Monday, all of Shapes again. Same approach. Friday, Nonfiction then all of Cells…

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Example 2

Mya had created a detailed spreadsheet of all the topic areas she needed to revise for next week’s three core assessments in Maths, English and Science. She had detailed questions on each of the key topics, such as ‘What is a nucleus?’ and ‘What is the formula for finding the area of a parallelogram?’ On Monday, she began with English, on Wednesday she revised Science, and on Friday evening she revised Maths – this she left closest to the exam, as it was the subject she struggled with the most. She worked through all of the questions in each topic, marking which ones she got wrong. She then re-read the answers and re-tested herself on the questions she got wrong before moving on, making careful notes of the questions she couldn't complete successfully…

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Spacing revision:

Spacing means spreading revision over time. Research (for over a hundred years) has suggested that doing something over weeks rather than days results in better performance, especially in tests that involve a delay between last revision and sitting the exam. So in your GCSEs, when you might have several exams back to back, this is a strong tactic. In the example, Terry’s approach might seem as bit less focussed, but could pay off. If you’ve only got days, spread your revision of subjects out as best as you can!

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Interleaving revision:

This means studying one thing, then another, then the first again, then something else, then the first, etc. It means spreading out and going back to things, doing them in a different order! Terry does this, perhaps without really meaning to; Mya doesn’t. Why is this a better way to revise? No 100% scientific answer yet, though evidence is that it works. It could be that it helps you choose which strategy you need to answers a question / write about a topic, which is more like real life, or even a real exam, than studying something over and over again. This tactic is a good idea, but takes planning!

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Elaborating:

By answering very specific questions one by one, Mya might actually be making committing things to long term memory harder; by writing more broadly about a topic or idea, Terry will probably be struggling more at first, but making long term success more likely. Another example on this one: you could be studying, in English, the Japanese attacking Pearl Harbour in WWII. Instead of having a series of questions like ‘Which simile in Stave 1 emphasises Scrooge’s meanness?’ you could have some prompts, such as ‘How is Scrooge presented in the first Stave of the novella? Why?’ ’ Responding to these in full would be more difficult, but would help you in the long run…

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English Language

Just as for English Literature, you can learn the PROCESSES for tackling questions. But the content is unseen and so unknown. Therefore, English Language is much more about PRACTICE than revision as such. A couple of tips, though, before we move on to practising…

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Success criteria

You can definitely learn success criteria for questions; knowing what you need to do will help you succeed (but only if you CAN actually do it!)

See the list below:

Paper 1 Question 5:

-Demonstrate that you can write a sensory description using descriptive methods.

-Demonstrate that you can organise your work using paragraphs.

- Enhance your description or narrative using powerful punctuation and sophisticated vocabulary. ; : , ? ! ( ) - - “ ”

Annotating examples of good answers

Two o’clock. Saturday, the Twentieth of October.

Imagine: hearing the sweet sasseration of incoming sea; a lonely occupant on a soggy, bowing bench; the taste of the bitterness of loss. Cutlery clincked against empty plates and the heady scent of salt and vinegar hung in the air, tickling the taste buds of passers by- what a perfect day to be at a windswept beach! The whistling wind brushed up against the cracked, heavy leather of his bleached jacket and the sun burned down upon the blistered nape of the eldery woman’s exposed neck. She didn’t seem to notice. If she could remember the scent of his aftershave, if she could only repair the flaking paint on his bike by winding back time, if she could travel back to when her glasses did not burden her nose, then she would be transported to happier times. Down on the sand, young families’ hands were caked in crystalline castle mortar but her own trembled in the sunset of a lifetime of beachtrips. The sun was no longer a friend. It blazed and the glare stabbed at her watery eyes.

Can you pick out examples of varied sentences, advanced punctuation and ambitious vocabulary in the above?

Practising writing the 40 mark question is ideal…

But time consuming to do multiple times. Let’s focus on practising planning. On the Slides following are some example pictures used as a stimulus for Paper 1 Question 5. For each, using the narrative plan sheet on the next Slide, construct a PLAN of what you would write.

Practice sheet (duplicate on your copy)

One word sentence (time and place, dialogue)

Describe setting:

Flashback - why is your main character here?

Something happens - a problem

Build up tension and climax

Resolution - link back to your opening in cyclical structure?

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Question 4: Time to do some practice.

Question 4: A student said, “Conan Doyle creates suspense very well in this extract. I was worried that Holmes and Watson might lose their lives!”

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From lines 21 to the end, how far do you agree?

20 marks

Read the source. Where should you look in the source for your evidence?

Highlight it/ Draw a box around it if you have printed the source.

Find both points in the student’s statement to look for.

Use a key to find evidence for both.

Do you agree somewhat or completely with the student?

Find evidence from the extract before you decide. Draw the planning table, if you need to.

Source: The Adventure of the Speckled Band

There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness.

“My God!” I whispered; “did you see it?”

Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low laugh and put his lips to my ear.

“It is a nice household,” he murmured. “That is the baboon.”

I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, after following Holmes’ example and slipping off my shoes, I found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to distinguish the words:

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5

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10

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15

This extract is taken from the middle of a short story written in 1892 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes and Watson are private investigators on a stakeout to find a murderer who has killed his victims in locked bedrooms.

“The least sound would be fatal to our plans.” I nodded to show that I had heard.

“We must sit without light. He would see it through the ventilator.” I nodded again.

“Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of the bed, and you in that chair.”

I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table.

Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left in darkness.

How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for whatever might befall.

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20

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25

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30

Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern.I heard a gentle sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. Then suddenly another sound became audible—a very gentle, soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with his cane at the bellpull.

“You see it, Watson?” he yelled. “You see it?”

But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it had died away into the silence from which it rose.

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35

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40

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45

Question 4: A student said, “Conan Doyle creates suspense very well in this extract. I was worried that Holmes and Watson might lose their lives!” From lines 21 to the end, how far do you agree?

Question 4: Time to do some practice.

Question 4: A student said, “Conan Doyle creates suspense very well in this extract. I was worried that Holmes and Watson might lose their lives!”

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From lines 21 to the end, how far do you agree?

20 marks

Write up your answer!

What to do going forward after the mock exams

-complete all work in class and seek advice from your teacher

-continue homework (Tassomai)

-revise Blood Brothers plot / themes / characters / quotations in the manner suggested

-revise anthology poems structure / language / what the poems are criticising plus contextual details.

- write about an unseen poem. Read and make notes on several.

-complete a practice Language Paper 2 in full, including the writing question.

-mix this all up - do it in bits, spaced and interleaved, except the big question. REPEAT whether or not you have been unsuccessful. Share your progress with your teacher.

Exit ticket: summarise three key things you have learnt about revising English today.