GCSE English/English Language

Transcription

1 REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION GCSE English Literature G GCSE English/English Language 97102F Poetry across time Report on the Examination G Version: of 10

2 INTRODUCTION The entry for the Unit 2 Foundation paper remained stable this summer at just below 45,000. Overall performance showed a slight improvement with an increase of 0.5 in the mean mark to just below 23. Additionally, it is extremely gratifying to report that there was clear evidence of enhanced ability to deal with the unseen poem, of which, more later. The Relationships and Conflict clusters of poems continue to be overwhelmingly popular, with 11,500 candidates opting for Q7, closely followed by Q5 at just under 11,000. Ironically, the highest marks on Section A were achieved on Q4 from the Place cluster, which was the least popular question. AO1 A steady improvement in the ability to respond to poems has been seen since the inception of this specification. A wide range of thoughtful, sometimes considered or deeply personal responses has been seen this series, with students obviously moved by considering the waste of young lives or the unhappiness of difficult relationships. This suggests a burgeoning confidence in exploring ideas and offering individual interpretations, which indicates a pleasing willingness on the part of teachers to let their students off the leash and allow them to have their own ideas about poems, at least as a first step in approaching a poem. Strand.4 of the mark scheme refers to ideas/themes/feelings/attitudes. Candidates at this tier are often very good at recognising feelings and attitudes, moving with relative ease into Band 4 (awareness). Scrutiny of the mark scheme will show that feelings/attitudes do not appear in Bands 5 and 6 so to access these higher marks requires an understanding of the more abstract themes and ideas. It was evident that where questions focused on a more abstract concept, such as fear in Q6, candidates were less able to deal with strand.4, so this is clearly an area for development. A fruitful area of study in the classroom would be to group poems in terms of themes and ideas which would also help to develop the comparison strand. Further copies of this Report are available from aqa.org.uk Copyright 2014 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material from this booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to schools/colleges to photocopy any material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within the centre. 2 of 10

3 A note of caution needs to be sounded, however, in that too many candidates concentrate on their own feelings and attitudes. Whilst this may gain some credit in the response strand, it is not the focus of the meaning strand. There is also a danger in adopting the kind of formulaic response which advises students to cite a detail, make a valid comment on it in terms of meaning then offer a second comment of the This makes me feel ilk. One senior examiner commented that this second comment was pointless (literally) as it tended to stem from a view of the characters as real e.g. Sister Maude shall get no sleep This makes me feel the speaker is mean as her sister did the right thing as she should not of (sic) gone behind her parents back. AO2 Last year s report urged teachers to train their students to focus on language and try to comment on the effect of particular words. This series showed clear evidence of many centres acting on that advice to the benefit of their students in terms of achievement in strand.3 the writer. Where candidates did this well, it was relatively easy to get into Band 4, thus: In the poem Brothers a ridiculous tank top. The poet uses the word ridiculous to suggest that the brother is ashamed of his younger brother s childish and immature behaviour. This achieves 4.3 identification of an effect of a writer s choice of language owing to the comment on a fruitful word and an awareness of the writer having chosen that word specifically to portray an element of feeling/meaning. Sadly, there was also considerable evidence this series of an approach to this strand which was not successful, and this revolved around the use of the phrase key word. The approach of focusing on a key word should be helpful, of course, but too many students seemed to have been taught a formulaic structure whereby they presented a detail from the poem, made a generally valid comment on it then went on to write another paragraph beginning The key word in this quotation is/the key word for me is. Sadly, what generally followed was another comment on meaning or, more frequently, a repetition of what had already been said, with no sense of the writer. The strategy of focusing on a particular word is, of course, what we want candidates to do but the word(s) need to be carefully chosen and often they were not; in fact, sometimes the choice seemed almost random and in those circumstances, even the most able would struggle to say anything of value. Students need to practise looking for and selecting words which offer something to say. It is essential that students are taught to show the examiner their understanding that poems have been constructed by someone with deliberate intent and that words and devices have been chosen for a reason (3.3). Identifying then explaining the effect of that choice will move a candidate very swiftly up the mark scheme ladder, thus: In the first stanza, a terrorist is described as lurking in the shadows. Imtiaz uses this as shadows are easy to hide in and you do not know what could be there which strikes fear into the reader (4.3) and the word lurking suggests that the terrorist is waiting for the right moment to target the person or people. This presents fear because they do not know when something tragic may happen. (5.3) The real tragedy is that performance in the unseen poem suggested the vast majority of candidates clearly do know about particular devices and words and are able to say something valid 3 of 10

4 about the reasons behind these choices, but many seemed unable to reproduce this performance in Section A. The following extracts from the same candidate exemplify this: Q8: A word that stands out to me is My because it shows a bad relationship between the narrator and her sister. If they had a good relationship, she would have written our. Q9: The poet uses the word moulded to describe how the speaker feels about what the bullies did to him. This makes it sound like they took hold of him and pushed him into the shape they wanted and it was painful but now his shape is good as he is happy and successful so he thanks the bullies for making him like this. moulded might also sound unpleasant like mouldy. The comment on Q8 is a valiant attempt but cannot be rewarded for the.3 strand as there is no awareness of the writer and the comment itself lacks any real validity. This student however, clearly has the ability to focus on the effect of a particular word as seen in the Q9 extract. Despite the debatable final comment, the focus on the word moulded here would be awarded 5.3. Many students have clearly been taught to spot devices and exemplify them correctly to gain 3.3. A valid, sensible explanation of the effect of the device is another way of moving up into the higher bands. Here is an excellent example of how the AO2 ladder can be climbed in a couple of sentences: In Mametz Wood, the writer frequently uses metaphors (2.3) the china plate of a shoulder blade (3.3). This could suggest how precious life is and that we should cherish it (4.3). As china is easily broken, it may also suggest that life itself is fragile and can be taken away very easily (5.3) Having gone to the bother of selecting words from the poem, students should be taught to stay with those words, dwell on them and do as much as possible with them: say a lot about a little, of course. Thankfully, there have been considerably fewer unhelpful comments on structure of the kind which were detailed in the last report. Unfortunately, some are still appearing and even new ones emerging. Once again, the advice has to be to steer completely clear of these dubious ideas on which candidates are wasting precious time when they could be saying something much more valuable. Examples of this issue include: River God is shaped like a river flowing. Horse Whisperer structure is set out as if an actual horse is kicking off needing to be calmed. In Paris With You the stanza of the poem is set as a bed to show they re on a bed. Mametz Wood is set out like half a rib cage to show the broken bones of the soldiers. The stanzas in Mametz Wood are set out like bullets. If you turn Falling Leaves on its side, the lines look like leaves falling. Of course, these may well represent individual candidates desperate attempts to say something about structure but there is clear, worrying evidence this series of a widespread, taught idea relating to the structure of Give being in the shape of an outstretched hand to represent begging. Given the baseless interpretations this has produced, teachers may wish to remove this idea from schemes of work. 4 of 10

5 Other areas of structure where candidates struggle relate to stanza and line lengths, and rhyme. In the words of one senior examiner: There was much counting of stanzas, lines and syllables and much recounting of rhyme schemes. Many candidates appeared to have been taught to access strand 3 via rhyme schemes, and were able to achieve 3.3 by identifying, for example, an abab scheme and giving an example, but were then unable to proceed because they could not ascribe any recognisable effect to this phenomenon. At various times, I was told that the rhyme scheme has the effect of: making the reader want to read on; making the poem flow; giving the poem rhythm; getting the reader more involved. Again, according to candidates, just about every poem was written using iambic pentameter.' This approach to the poems also had an adverse effect on Strand 5, where candidates attempted comparison by structure, telling me that one poem had five stanzas while another had three, and comparing by meaningless generalities about, once again, rhyme schemes and length of stanzas, e.g. 'In the poem 'Brendan Gallacher' the poet uses irregular rhyme schemes whereas 'Give' also uses an irregular rhyme scheme. This could show that in both of these poems the poets aren't trying to rhyme because they are instead trying to portray the themes of isolation and loneliness.' Centres are reminded once again that the writer strand comprises three elements: language/structure/form and the greatest of these is language. If students do not have anything meaningful to say about structure, it is better to say nothing. This is not to say that structure should not be considered in the classroom. Last summer s report gave helpful suggestions on how this might be done and would be worth revisiting. Interestingly, there were many more valid and effective comments on structure made in Section B, which will be exemplified later. A fundamental point to help students is to ensure that even the least able know the difference between the meaning of a poem and the writer doing something to convey that meaning. In Band 1 of the mark scheme, examiners are guided to look for comments along the lines of the poet says, which indicates an understanding of a writer, whereas the poem says is a comment on meaning. Students should be taught to use the terms poet and writer as basic components of their answer. Finally, although the heavy reliance on acronyms which was seen initially has thankfully diminished considerably, there is still evidence of these appearing, most often SMILE. The use of these should be minimised and kept only for the least confident students. Alarmingly, however, the acronym AFOREST was also seen this series and since this refers to persuasive non-fiction language devices, it is anything but helpful in a Literature exam. Please treat these aids with great caution. AO3 Regrettably, there is very little new to say about this assessment objective: performance on comparison remains at a much lower level than other areas of the assessment. Previous reports contain a wealth of advice and guidance on how to approach comparison in the examination which will not be repeated here. Suffice to say that students need to understand very clearly that comparison represents a third of the marks on Section A, and failure to do any or to make only a couple of simple links is analogous to sailing through three-point turns and reversing but refusing to parallel park at the end of the driving test. Competence in all elements of the assessment needs to be demonstrated for overall success. Far too many candidates undermine their own potential by choosing a second poem which is difficult to compare, sometimes as a result of embarking on the 5 of 10

6 exam determined to write about a particular poem whatever the thrust of the question. This is not a recipe for success. There were a few shining lights who devised thematic comparisons which were thoughtful, engaging and a delight to read. In Mametz Wood, the earth itself was affected by war. As they tended the land back into itself suggest that the earth will always end up recovering from the war and that the soldiers should not fight and waste their lives. It could suggest that although the earth recovers, the soldiers will not. In contrast, Belfast Confetti tells us about the asterisk on the map and that the place will not recover as it will forever remember what the terrorists did. Sadly, such comparisons were in the minority but do show what is possible on this tier. SECTION A Character and voice Question 1 Candidates were asked to focus on strong feelings in The Horse Whisperer and one other poem. There seems to be some considerable misunderstanding of the named poem here, with few candidates recognising the central ideas of dislocation/alienation or being a victim of the march of technology. However, feelings of bitterness, anger, betrayal and the desire for revenge were clearly noted, often leading to fruitful comparisons with Medusa. Other links rested on the use of repetition and it is worth reminding students that comparison of techniques is a relatively straightforward way to at least get started on comparison. Many candidates also made valid structural comments relating to the diminishing number of lines in Horse Whisperer. Question 2 This was marginally less popular in the Character and voice cluster. Give was most often paired with The Clown Punk on the basis of characters being outsiders, and with Hunchback in the Park on the same basis but also as both characters were perceived as homeless. Comments here tended to operate at a fairly low level of commentary about wanting to be treated better. A good number of responses were seen suggesting that the character in Give had a personal relationship with the woman in whose doorway he was encamped and this prompted comparisons with Medusa and wanting to regain the affections of a lost love. The question wording of characters wanting something was designed to aid candidates in selecting their second poem but, for many, this was not effective, so that comparisons were often much more generalised. However, most impressive responses were seen comparing Give with Ozymandias on the theme of power, and with Alison: Case History on the idea of change. Place Very few responses were seen on the Place cluster so it is difficult to comment on particular patterns or issues. Sadly, Cold Knap Lake (Q3) and Storm in the Black Forest (Q4) were not well understood by the majority of candidates. One centre had a large number of candidates who chose to compare the two named poems which would clearly not have facilitated much in the way 6 of 10

7 of comparison. The notion of memories which Q3 demanded should have been accessible at a literal level even if the central more abstract ideas were not. Conflict Question 5 This was the second most popular question on the paper and candidates clearly enjoyed dealing with Mametz Wood. A wide range of poems for comparison was offered, some more successful than others. One senior examiner commented: Perhaps the simplest way to start responding to AO3 would have been to choose as the second poem one that was obviously concerned with war. The simplest of contrasts such as both poems are concerned with the death and suffering war causes or both poems deal with the events of World War 1 seemed to be beyond some candidates. Candidates generally engage well with Sheers use of figurative language and there were some lovely explorations of the imagery of the china plate (as above), broken bird s egg and nesting machine guns. Comparisons with Charge of the Light Brigade, Futility and Bayonet Charge predominated, and, although Out of the Blue and Belfast Confetti were popular choices, productive comparisons were much less common using these texts. A note of caution needs to be sounded here though: this is not a history exam. One senior examiner warned There were too many answers where candidates simply offloaded lots of background knowledge about the First World War. Question 6 This was much less popular than Q5, yet the mean mark was actually slightly higher. The abstract concept of fear proved too much of a challenge for many, but when the central idea was grasped (as in one centre where the students seemed to have been particularly well taught) candidates wrote with great insight into the writer s struggle with the ideas of stereotyping, judging, labelling and the genesis of fear. Comparison was not generally well done here as candidates largely failed to think about different types of fear in the other poems, but there was some success with Out of the Blue (terrorism/unseen and unknown threats) while abstract fear was sometimes contrasted with the more palpable fear of Bayonet Charge and Belfast Confetti. Some candidates also drew comparisons with the use of rhetorical questions in Flag. One candidate, however, wrote You can see that Imtiaz Dharkar is struggling to write this because he (sic) kept on re-starting each stanza! Relationships Question 7 Unsurprisingly, this was the most popular question with the second highest mean mark. As the specification has progressed, so has the understanding of In Paris With You. However, a good number of candidates misread the question and wrote about strong feelings of love rather than about love a significant difference in emphasis: it is debatable whether there is any love in the named poem. There was also some considerable confusion around the idea that the persona was with his/her ex, trying to patch things up, and different opinions as to whether the persona is male or female not that it matters, of course. The vast majority, however, were able to identify the themes of past hurt, weariness and sexual desire and almost without exception, understood the metaphorical use of in Paris. There were also frequent insightful comments eg about the crack 7 of 10

8 across the ceiling and one senior examiner commented on the good teaching which produced the following response, focusing on the significance of the connective in the last line of stanza 1: When the poet says But I m in Paris with you this implies that he wants to be there with her even though he has been hurt by love in the past. Hour was a popular choice for comparison, with candidates noting the passion of the lover against the much less serious tone and a degree of ambivalence in Fenton s poem, while others drew links with the overt sexuality and desire in To His Coy Mistress. The Farmer s Bride and Ghazal were also employed, though less successfully. The other popular choice was Quickdraw, on the basis of being hurt and disillusioned by relationships or, as one candidate succinctly put it, both writers believe that love gives you a pain in the ear! Question 8 This question on family relationships in Sister Maude gained the highest mean mark, though this was still just at the top of Band 3, reinforcing the earlier comments on the problems caused by relatively poor performance in AO3. Candidates generally demonstrated a sound understanding of the named poem, though a significant number seem to think that Sister Maude had a secret relationship with her sister s lover and/or that she had killed him. Whilst these ideas may be plausible to a degree, there is no evidence in the poem to substantiate them. Good choices for comparison were Nettles and Praise Song on the basis of contrasting positive family experiences, while Brothers frequently provided scope for similar fractured sibling relationships. SECTION B It is extremely gratifying to be able to end this report on a positive note relating to significant improvement in candidates approach to, and engagement with this year s unseen poem. The subject matter of Building Blocks clearly resonated with the vast majority of the candidature and while almost 50,000 students indicating experience of such an unpleasant phenomenon as bullying is a cause for sadness, that experience also gave them the insight and motivation to engage very positively and successfully with the writer s ideas and presentation of bullying and bullies. There were some heartfelt personal accounts which occasionally detracted from the task and a few candidates who found themselves diverted into a general essay on the evils of bullying. Overall, however, the question was very well handled. This year s students seemed much more adept at dealing with the two parts of the question so that due consideration was given to part (b) writer s language and techniques meaning AO2 was particularly well done. In fact, a significant number of candidates performed much better on AO2 in Section B than Section A. There was almost universal understanding of the metaphors of the confident concrete tower, house of books and the power of the pen, while more able candidates were able to comment on the extended metaphor of construction and/or comment on the associated lexical field. Most were able to identify the sarcastic tone of the Thank you bullies that built me and the alliteration of the letter b. The following comment was particularly effective: The poet uses alliteration to show his bitterness towards bullies bully boys that built me. The words start with b which is a hard letter so it shows hatred and bitterness towards the bullies. The poet also uses alliteration when describing what girls like filled up with feeling. In this quote, the f sound is much softer, which shows that he is one of the nice boys and he will eventually beat the bullies. 8 of 10

9 It is heartwarming to read such appreciation of a poetic technique expressed so well. Many other thoughtful and sensitive comments were seen, together with sound observations about structure, for instance: he used the phrase pen is a mighty power to show that knowledge is more powerful in changing people compared to bullies. the words old and cold have been rhymed deliberately so it makes us have negative feelings towards the concept of bullying. out of this mess, came a success. The caesura here emphasises that bad can become good in the long term. What was most impressive was the way in which so many candidates offered several comments as more ideas occurred to them as they were writing, indicating a depth of thought and engagement with the poem s themes and ideas beyond what we have often seen: The writer uses irony at the end of the poem so thank you bullies that built me. Peters proves here that the bullies were seen as motivation to become more intelligent and better human beings than those bullies will ever become. Peters uses this poem to laugh in the faces of not only his bullies, but bullies everywhere as he is living proof that he is the one who benefited from the bullying, not the bullies. The poem has been written so that we understand that bullying is wrong and that this idea is given to us by a bully victim himself. This kind of thoughtful exploration exemplifies the kind of sustained or considered response which characterises Bands 5 and 6 and many such examples of layering comments were seen. The poem, for several reasons, offered an excellent vehicle for success and large numbers of candidates grabbed the opportunity with both hands. One assistant examiner commented this was the best unseen poem ever : it was also the best candidate performance ever and for that, teachers are to be commended for preparing their students to tackle the potential pitfall of the unseen so very well. GENERAL COMMENTS Overall then, the slow but steady upward trend in performance has been maintained this series, although considerable room for improvement remains, particularly on comparison. The Principal Examiner would like to congratulate the students whose work has been seen on this paper in 2014, much of which was a delight to read, and thank the teachers for their unstinting efforts on behalf of their students. 9 of 10

10 Mark Ranges and Award of Grades Grade boundaries and cumulative percentage grades are available on the Results Statistics page of the AQA Website. Converting Marks into UMS marks Convert raw marks into Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) marks by using the link below. UMS conversion calculator 10 of 10