A-level English Literature B LITB2: UNIT 2: Dramatic Genres Report on the Examination 2745 June 2015 Version: 1.0
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REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION A-level English Literature B 2745 June 2105 Summer 2015 marked the last full submission of LITB2 work. It is therefore an appropriate time to reflect on what has been achieved in this unit, and to consider some pointers for the future. This report will focus on three areas: The strengths and weaknesses of this year s LITB2 submission Implications for future coursework assessments The study of the literary genres of tragedy and comedy The best work was done when schools and colleges understood that this unit requires a focus on both drama and comedy, and that an exploration of aspects of genre can be used both to debate different readings of a text and to consider aspects of dramatic method. There were problems when the responses to the tasks did not clearly treat the plays as plays, or had little to say about them as dramatic comedies. Some responses, for instance, briefly identified the play as a comedy and then proceeded to explore areas of the text that had no direct relation to the genres of either comedy or drama. The Genre of Dramatic Comedy The title of LITB2 is Dramatic Genres. The central focus of this unit is on how playwrights construct their stories using the dramatic methods at their disposal. The sub-genre of comedy allows for focused study on certain aspects of the plays alongside an understanding of genre as a social and cultural construct that eludes fixed definition and inevitably shifts its boundaries over time. The study of genre can also itself assist debate: the ways in which an individual text explores or responds to an element of genre can provide an opportunity to consider different interpretations of that text. Schools and colleges who focused their teaching and learning around this understanding of genre produced much impressive work and at the same time effectively prepared themselves for genre study, whether of tragedy or comedy, in the new A-level English Literature B. Texts and Tasks Text choices were most productive when they had clearly been selected with the needs of this unit in mind. Such choices of text enabled close consideration of a range of features of dramatic 3 of 10
comedy. Choices were less successful when the main points of interest in the texts were characters and themes. The most popular Shakespeare plays again seemed to be Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night. A lot of work was also seen on A Midsummer Night s Dream and The Taming of the Shrew. A smaller number of candidates selected As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love s Labour s Lost. Some interesting work was also offered on those plays which might be seen as problem plays or tragicomedies. These worked well when there was sustained focus on the comedic elements of the plays. A very wide range of other dramatists was offered this summer. Oscar Wilde was again the most popular choice, and The Importance of Being Earnest the most popular play. Some very impressive essays were submitted on Wilde s comic methods, and again some remarkably effective re-creative responses. The other most popular popular texts were The History Boys and Educating Rita. Many plays attracted productive interest from a small number of centres. Moderators reported interesting and productive work on: Abigail s Party, Bouncers, Loot, Who s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Real Inspector Hound, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, A Slight Ache, Lysistrata, Jerusalem, Top Girls, The Country Wife, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Way of The World, The Rover, Pygmalion, The School for Scandal, The Playboy of the Western World, Translations, Waiting for Godot, The Birthday Party, Cosi, The Caretaker and The Bald Prima Donna. It is very important that schools and colleges choose texts that will suit the interests and abilities of their students. Responses to texts that had clearly been carefully selected by the produced work that was fresh, engaged and engaging. Tasks and Task Setting The appropriateness of a text cannot be judged apart from the accompanying task. Tasks worked best when they a) offered opportunities to address all four of the AOs and b) responded to the precise requirements of this unit. In terms of AO1, it is important to stress that in both externally examined papers and in coursework candidates need to keep their eye on the task. There were many examples of essays where any focus on the purported task largely vanished after the 4 of 10
opening paragraphs, and the essay drifted into general description of a succession of scenes from the play. Successful tasks addressed both parts of the unit title. The focus, whether conventional or recreative, needs to be on the ways that an individual play can be seen to explore an element of dramatic comedy. Tasks which offered the chance to talk about the tragic elements of the plays tended either to encourage simplistic use of the term or to steer the discussion into generic areas that are not now the subject of this unit. Some interesting tasks seen this year included: A discussion of the meta-theatrical elements of The Real Inspector Hound in relation to the comedy Writing about the Pinteresque comedy of menace in A Slight Ache A study of the black comedy in The Playboy of the Western World A debate about the degree to which women need to be disguised to exercise power in the comic world of Twelfth Night An examination of the significance of Hector s classroom as a green world in The History Boys An argument that it is the lovers rather than the mechanicals who are the main comic target in A Midsummer Night s Dream Some general points about this year s task setting that should also be of future relevance: Tasks need to provide the opportunity for a genuinely independent reading of the text. There were again some submissions in which every candidate responded to the same task, made the same assertions about the text, repeatedly used the same or very similar expressions, and utilised identical textual references. This form of excessive scaffolding is against the whole spirit of coursework and makes it impossible to give credit to the students for any kind of independent judgement. The task must invite a response that is deliverable in 1500 words. That will not be the case if the subject is impossibly broad, eg In what ways can Twelfth Night be seen as a comedy? 5 of 10
There is no guarantee that a task which has worked well for one cohort of candidates will always be successful. Schools and colleges are encouraged to continually review their task setting. Tasks which appear in standardising materials are not necessarily to be seen as exemplars. Schools and colleges must make their own judgements as to whether they will suit the needs of their candidates. A question that teachers should ask themselves is How has my teaching of the text offered the opportunity for my students to deliver a genuinely individual reading of that text? A similar question has to be asked of the range of tasks set. The evidence from this summer s submission was again that where problems with a centre s tasks emerged, they were often due to two factors. The first was that no real debate was offered and the second was that the focus of the task was not clearly on an aspect of dramatic comedy. There were several types of task which failed to generate genuine debate: Tasks which essentially invited description, eg How is disguise used in As You Like It?, or How does Frank s study create comedy in Educating Rita? A better debate might be offered here by considering the different readings that Russell s use of the study opens up within the comic world of the play. Tasks which are really non-debates, eg The theme of mistaken identity is central to Twelfth Night. Discuss. The debate where it is almost impossible to disagree with the central proposition, eg Is it possible to see Loot as a mockery of society? The use of the inappropriate formula (very common), eg To what extent is love important in As You Like It? Here to what extent does not work; there is no way of estimating the degree of importance. A better approach might have been to debate whether love is presented as admirable or ridiculous within the comic world of the play. The impossible judgement, eg How successfully does Shakespeare use x to create comedy in Act I scene iii? Understandably, students at AS level tend to say that he does it rather successfully, and then go on to describe what happens in the play. 6 of 10
Re-creative Tasks The re-creative option continues to be popular with many schools and colleges, and some moderators reported seeing many examples of good practice this year. The re-creative response has to perform the same general function as the conventional response: to deliver a genuinely exploratory reading of the play as a dramatic comedy. At times the wording of the task gave little or no indication of how this was to be achieved. Tasks such as Rita s Monologue or even Eliza Dolittle do not give the moderator much to go on. It is not altogether helpful if the moderator has to wait for the commentary to find out what the point of the whole exercise was meant to be. If an extra scene is provided, it is important that it is located precisely within the original play. Tasks which offered a post-wedding scene where Lady Bracknell writes to Gwendolen or Cecily records her feelings provided the opportunity to consider elements of dramatic structure. One re-creative response to The Accidental Death of an Anarchist had the Maniac addressing the audience in an alternative opening to the play. This response revealed a detailed understanding of the Arlecchino role in farce and political satire. One way of developing a re-creative task is to begin with a proposition that might form the basis of a conventional task (eg In Pygmalion, Higgins sees himself as a heroic figure, but is largely revealed as a comic fool ) and then shape a re-creative response to explore that proposition (perhaps by offering an additional scene involving a discussion about Higgins by Eliza and Mrs Pearce). The material of the re-creative response must be made possible by the base text. When candidates departed in significant ways from the original play, adding events which altered the whole nature of the plot or introducing new characters, then the focus of the whole response inevitably became the candidate s own creative writing, rather than the craft of the playwright. As with a conventional response, the dramatic methods of the playwright need to be a central focus of the candidate s interest. An understanding of these methods can emerge implicitly in the re-creative piece and explicitly in the commentary. Such an understanding is unlikely to emerge if, in the commentary, the only treatment of form, structure and language is in relation to the candidate s own writing rather than in relation to the base text. The commentary needs to establish 7 of 10
a clear connection between the re-creative piece and the base text, and illustrate the significant choices that have been made in the creation of that re-creative piece. In this context, AO1 should be seen as relating to the candidate s own writing. AO2, especially at the higher levels, relates to the form, structure and language of the base text. The re-creative approach has to illuminate a reading of the primary text, to show what has been learned through this approach about the text as a dramatic comedy. Schools and colleges should consider carefully what form of response is in the best interests of their candidates. It is expected that re-creative responses will be genuinely individual. It was again disappointing to find a few submissions where every candidate chose the same narrative voice, situated the speech in the same place in the play, and seemed to have exactly the same view of the selected character. It should be emphasised that the combined length of both re-creative piece and commentary needs to be within the 1500 word limit. It should also be emphasised that annotation is as important in the re-creative response as in the conventional response and should not be confined to the commentary. It is also just as important to submit bibliographies as in the conventional response. The creative response will continue to be an option for non-exam assessment (NEA) work in the new specification, and many of the above points may offer useful guidance about ways of approaching texts in the future. As always, centres are encouraged to make appropriate use of their coursework adviser when revising their chosen tasks. Annotation and Administration Some important points made in earlier reports are repeated here: Annotation Many moderators commented on the correlation between effective annotation and accurate application of the assessment criteria. Annotation which assists the moderation process will: Occur throughout the two pieces of work 8 of 10
Include detailed summative comments on each piece of work Address both strengths and weaknesses within the work. Too often candidates work contained significant flaws that were nowhere acknowledged in the centre comment. Show awareness that the final audience for the work is the moderator and shape comments accordingly. Indicate the degree to which and in what ways the Assessment Objectives have been addressed. To merely identify different Assessment Objectives is of very limited value. Simply putting AO2 in the margin, for instance, could justify a mark of anything from 1 to 30. Ensure that the summative comment makes sense in terms of the final mark awarded. In some cases this summer it was difficult to see the connection between the two. Be relatively consistent within the centre. There were occasions when the two pieces within a candidate s folder had been annotated in very different ways and with very different degrees of thoroughness. Administration The presentation of scripts matters, as does adherence to deadlines. Moderators work will be made much easier if schools and colleges: Secure scripts with treasury tags rather than paper clips or plastic wallets. Scripts often pass through many hands and even staples tend to unfasten. Ensure that bibliographies, including the edition of the play, and accurate word counts are included. The inclusion of bibliographies and careful teaching of the use of quotation and citation may help to reduce the incidence of plagiarism. Moderators again reported examples this summer of candidates including material in their essays which was clearly not their own. Present the folders in the sample in descending rank order. Arrange the two pieces in the same order as on the cover sheet (i.e. Shakespeare first). Adhere to deadline dates. The coursework submission deadline is 15 th May. Word Counts The vast majority of schools and colleges had no difficulty in submitting work within the word count limits and the candidates work benefited as a result. There were, however, a number of assignments that were submitted this summer which were well over 1500 words in length. It cannot 9 of 10
be over-stressed that candidates who go over the word counts do themselves no favours whatsoever. Credit cannot be given for breadth of response if that breadth has only been achieved by flouting the word limits. AO1 requires a degree of structured argument. The criteria for Bands 5 and 6 include the phrase well structured. It is hard to see how work which clearly exceeds the given limits can be seen as well structured within the terms of this unit. Conclusion In general the process of moderation went very smoothly, reflecting some impressive work on the part of schools and colleges. Many moderators said how much they had admired the range and quality of the folders they had seen. Schools and colleges have demonstrated some excellent practice in terms of teaching coursework and exploring aspects of tragedy and comedy. These skills should continue to be of great value in the new specification. 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