Students working towards their AQA GCSE English exam this June will have received a ‘Pre-release booklet’ containing an anthology of media texts and poetry in January this year. The GCSE exam will include questions based on these texts, and students will receive another copy of the booklet, together with their exam paper, at the start of their exam. Having read and annotated their own copy of the texts, students now need to plan their revision to make sure that they are well prepared for the exam.
At Oxford Open Learning we aim to give our students plenty of support at this busy time. This week we are sending all our English GCSE students a full set of Guidance Notes including worksheets on each of the anthology texts. There is no extra cost to the student, as these are sent free of charge.
While providing overviews of each text, the revision worksheets encourage students to focus on details of language and style, and to look closely at what images are saying and how they contribute to the meaning of the article in which they appear.
For the 8 media texts, the worksheets focus on presentation, different registers, audience, tone, language, style, and the impact of any images on the text. The texts are united by a common theme – this year the media texts focus on sport and fitness.
The 8 poems are considered in terms of language, style and content, and exam-style questions encourage students to explore thematic links between poems. The poems explore ideas and feelings of belonging to a place or community from the point of view of an insider or an outsider. The places and communities differ in location and culture, but the voices in the poems express similar feelings.
If you are studying with us for your AQA GCSE English exam we hope you enjoy exploring these texts and images using Oxford Open Learning’s Revision Notes. If anyone else would like a copy, just click here: PRB Revision Notes 2011. Good luck with your exam!