Some Notes on Question 3 GCSE English Language, Paper 1

Question three of the first GCSE English Language paper requires students to write about the structure of the literary source they’re provided with:

Although this task seems fairly straight-forward – how has the writer structured the text? – I’ve always found the concept of structure hard to teach because I’ve never been entirely clear on what counts as a structural feature and what doesn’t.  The upshot of this is that I think I’ve tended to over complicate things.  I’ve never really felt that I’ve taught structure well.  Anyway, enough preamble…  Recently, I went to examiner training provided by AQA and I took some of the notes on question three.  Here they are…  There’s nothing surprising or transformative,  but hope they’re useful.

What is structure?

• ‘Shifts, movements and progressions through the text.’

What are some common structural features?

• Zooming in from something big to something much smaller (or vice versa).
• Shifting between different times or places.
• A sudden or gradual introduction of new characters or significant points.
• Moving from the inside to the wider outside world (or vice versa).
• Combining external actions with internal thoughts.
• Switching between different points of view.
• Developing and reiterating: focusing on a point of view by expanding and repeating it.
• Circular structure – returning at the end to what happened at the beginning.
• Positioning of key sentences and their impact on the whole.

A few bits on marking:

• To achieve a level two mark, students need to be able to recognise structural shifts and then say something relevant about their significance.
• To move further up the mark scheme, students should explore the source as a whole – not just isolated extracts.
• When marking responses, column one of the mark scheme should always be the starting point – make a broad judgement on a level before deciding upon a specific mark.
• Students do not have to fulfil all descriptors in a level before they can progress – meaning that students can enter the mark scheme at, say, level three.

A few bits on teaching:

• ‘At this point’ is useful starter phrase that should help lower-ability students write about narrative progression.
• At a very basic level, students should be able to make a distinction between the beginning, middle and end of the source.
• Overview sentences can help to signal a broad understanding of the source as a whole e.g. ‘This helps to create a sense of foreboding.’ However, having used them, it’s important that students then go into more depth.
• Concise responses will be rewarded. Students should avoid over complicating their answers (the key word for level three is ‘clear’).
• Literary terminology should enhance written responses. Students should avoid feature-spotting.

Thanks for reading –

Doug

hello@douglaswise.co.uk