GCSE English Paper 2 Question 1 Resources - Quizzes!

 

GCSE English Paper 2 Question 1 presents students with a text and they then have to select which four (out of eight) statements about it are true (or false, depending!). This may sound quite straightforward but as many English teachers will tell you, they have a number of students each year who do not get all of them correct – and then go on to miss a grade four by a single mark. So, although it is easy to underestimate the impact that a poor performance on this question may make to some learners.

As it is only worth four marks, however, it is often overlooked in the pursuit of the “big hitters”. By that I mean the questions that are worth more marks. Our VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) aims to put that right with a series of quizzes that can be attempted a number of times. We have tried to make the subject matter as interesting as possible – so while learners can practice their skills on this question, they will also pick up a few thought-provoking history lessons too.

History? What on earth does that have to do with GCSE English? Well, the texts that the students are examined on can date back as far as 1801. Overwhelmingly, the older texts have appeared on Paper 2. So, our aim is to provide some stimulating quizzes that offer a little cultural capital to boot. They give an insight in to how people lived and died in days gone by – and what they did between those two major events too! It also, by default, helps to develop reading skills by exposing learners to texts from a different day and age which they may have to focus on a little more than usual in order to understand their meaning.

The quizzes (and the associated exam question) cover part of AO1 (Assessment Objective 1), specifically the ability to “identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas”. You can sign up for the VLE using the one of the tabs above – depending on whether you are a student, teacher or private tutor.

Authors!

 We have added works by a few more authors to the VLE.

External Links to Blogs about How to Pass GCSE English

In order to do well on GCSE English Language, why rely on the skills and knowledge of a single teacher? On first inspection, that statement may seem a little disparaging to your current English teacher. However, there are plenty of English teachers out there who often write about their own methods using a blog as a teaching and learning platform. Some of them are very, very good. So, each section of the VLE has an ‘external links’ section. This are hand-picked blog posts which we feel will be of great use to you as you progress towards your GCSE English exams. Most of them are written by teachers for teachers. However, we only choose the ones that will make sense to learners, too. They can be a challenging read, but you will find that each one has something valuable to pass on to you.

If you do a search for “advice on Paper 1, Question 4” for example, you will get a bewildering amount of search results that may take you an awfully long time to sift through. So, we have done the hard work for you, selecting just the ones that we feel are most appropriate for people (young and older) who are sitting the GCSE English Language exam in the near future. One small “however”: remember that the VLE is based around the AQA curriculum. That means that the advice given is for those exams only.

Earn Badges for GCSE English Language

Badges. They seem rather old fashioned, something of a throwback to Blyton times with class monitors and head girls replete with hockey sticks and a few shillings for the tuck shop. However, they are an excellent way to reward online students for activities they have completed on a GCSE English Language VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). Badges are a great way of celebrating achievement and showing learner progress. There are plenty of things to learn when you study GCSE English so they can also act as a reminder of the ground you have covered so far – and where you need to get to in the future. Badges may be awarded based on a variety of chosen criteria and are displayed on a user's profile so that they can keep track of their successes while doing the online course.

Structural features for GCSE English Language

The structure question is one which can cause all sorts of problems for students approaching GCSE English.  So, there are a number of lessons on our VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) which cover what might come up in the exam – and the approach we take to it may surprise you.  

However, of course, just like the language question, Paper 1 Question 3 (of the AQA exam) demands that you know some terminology so that you can describe the structure of a text while responding to the question.

So, here are some of the structural features that you will see in action on the VLE.  Knowing what to look forward is straightforward enough, so as you can see from the list below, there are a number of important structural features to look at.

Knowing how to take this terminology and put them together to make an exam response is, of course, something altogether different.  We will leave those lessons on the Virtual Learning Environment!

In the meantime, take a look at the structural features below.  They come with a set of graphics that may blind you!

Structural features for GCSE English Language

TIME

This is where the time that the story takes place is established (year or month or season etc).  It often sets out where the story is set at the same time and is useful exposition.  Often mentioned “in passing”.

GCSE English Language: How to get High Marks on Paper 1 Question 2

If you are working towards your GCSE English Language (AQA paper) you will already know that Paper 1 Question 2 is the one where you are asked to read a tiny extract of a text (sometimes just six or seven lines) and then you have to comment on the writer’s use of language.  Often, reading through those lines, a student can feel a little like Oliver Twist begging for food in the Poor House – “Please Sir, can I have some more?”

Paraphrasing one of Dickens’ most popular characters probably isn’t going to do any good here – but if you got the inference that I just made then you are well on you way to doing very well on this questions.

Over on our VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) our section on this question is becoming more extensive.  As well as a number of lessons where we take you through the steps you need to take in order to answer this question successfully (left is a graphic from one of the lessons – you can see an answer in progress), we have quizzes, videos – and of course, the opportunity to earn a badge by being successful in your learning.

It’s easy to write this question off – it’s only worth 8 marks.  However, you must remember that there is another language question worth 12 marks in Paper 2.  That means altogether your knowledge of how to describe how language is used is worth 20/160 marks – in other words 1/8 of the entire exam  As this is easily the difference between one grade and another, the language questions must not be ignored.

William Wells Brown extract on our VLE

One of the great things about running a VLE like ours is that we aren’t restricted, as the GCSE English curriculum is, to UK authors. That means that the wealth of literature (both fiction and non-fiction) written in the English language by those who were not born in the UK (or there naturalized) can be used.

One author that we can now add to our list is William Wells Brown. You can see a short biography of him in the graphic above. This is just a snapshot of his life – but this man was remarkable. As well as making a living as a writer – hard enough under any circumstances – he overcame huge obstacles in order to realise his potential.  Plus his novel Clotelle has many elements that make it perfect for those studying GCSE English.  I have chosen an amazing extract for inclusion and will be using it in the Paper 1 Question 3 section - that's the one about how writers structure their texts.

Most of us, fortunately, cannot imagine being born into a life of slavery as Wells Brown was. Yet added to this there was betrayal. His father, George W Higgins was the cousin of his owner – a Dr John Young of Kentucky. Higgins acknowledged Wells Brown as his son and exacted a promise from Dr Young that he would never sell William. However, Young broke his promise and William Wells Brown was sold several times before his eventual escape.

Ironically, Higgins was a descendant of Stephen Hopkins, a passenger on the Mayflower, the English ship that transported the first English Puritans, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. Yet this new world of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness did not apply to Wells Brown despite his descent on his father’s side to the first pilgrims.

GCSE English Paper 2 Question 1

You may already know what this question looks like. You may not take it too seriously – and you certainly shouldn’t take more than about five or six minutes to complete it.  We have loads of practice texts on the VLE, of course.

However, in their almighty rush to get on to the questions with more marks, many candidates can get a question or two wrong on Paper 2 Question 1.

Now, you may not think that losing a mark or two makes much of a difference.  After all, there are 160 on the two papers.

However, at the risk of sounding Dickensian, that way lies the potential for great tragedy.  Every year since the new curriculum started I have had students (invariably boys, sorry lads…) who have missed out on a higher grade by one mark.

When we look at the grade breakdown we always seem to find that they got three out of four on this question.  I guess that there is no need for a nervous breakdown if you missed out on a grade 7 and had to settle for a six.

However, each and every time this has happened, it has been the difference between a 4 and a 3.  We all know what happens when candidates get a 3 – they have to do the exam all over again the following year.  Well, that is tragic and not in any Dickensian way either, melodrama it is not. 

Their friends sometimes find it hilarious.  The swine.

Like any other GCSE question, there are strategies here.

All the advice we can think of is on our VLE. 

Ottobah Cugoano extracts now on our VLE

One of the great things about running your own VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) is that you are not stuck with a set list of authors on a curriculum.  Although we do restrict our authors to those who are out of copyright it also means that we can stretch these boundaries a little, too.  So the GCSE syllabus dictates that texts are taken from 1800 to the present day.  Well, so be it.  However, for us is something amazing from 1787 comes up, 23 years is not going to make a difference to us.

Perhaps overshadowed by his more famour peer, Olaudah Equiano, Ottobah Cugoano is somewhat neglected.  However, having read his autobiography recently (yes, the "something amazing" from 1787) I felt that his experiences had to be shared with students subscribed to the Pass GCSE English VLE.  As such he will feature as one of our "Paper 2" authors.

If you have not heard of him, Ottobah Cugoano was born in what is present-day Ghana around 1757.  As a youth he was kidnapped, sold into slavery, and taken to Grenada.  Here he was worked on a plantation but was bought by an English merchant a year later and taken to the UK.  He was taught to read and write and given his freedom at the age of fifteen. He worked for the artists Richard and Maria Cosway who introduced him to British cultural and political figures.  He joined “The Sons of Africa” – a group of London-based African abolitionists (those committed to ending slavery). Cugoano published his autobiography – “Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species” in 1787.  In this extract he and some friends are kidnapped by traffickers.

How Playing Games Can Help You Pass GCSE English

“You’ll never pass GCSE English if you keep playing games,” is something that many a student has heard. It’s spoken by parents, teachers, and a variety of adults with varying levels of responsibility for the well-being of young people.

So, we’re happy to announce today that, yes, playing games can help you pass GCSE English. Why would we say something that… moronic? It’s because we have just introduced the first game on to our VLE. It’s based on the old favourite space invaders arcade game and it is, we hope, the first of many to make an appearance on Pass GCSE English.

The first game is about language features. As the spaceships descend, they are labelled with them – simile, metaphor, rule of three – you get the idea.

A sentence at the top contains the language feature and you have to shoot down the spaceship that matches it before they get you. The game gets faster as it goes along. It’s fun. It’s also quite addictive.

Will it help you get that grade 9? We’re not going to pretend that it will, but it will certainly sharpen up your ability to quickly recognize one language feature from another.

Plus, if you do well on the game you will earn yourself the Indifferent Lemon badge (left, among some of the other badges learners can gain on the course for finishing various activities). Indifferent Lemon may be unimpressed with your achievement but gives you an adjective you don’t use that often to chew over.

In case you are a responsible adult reading this, the games are being incorporated in to the VLE to – firstly – add an element of fun to the subject. However, there is a Wikipedia entry you may like to look at about gamification - Gamification is the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts – in this case education.

So, there is a serious side to it, too..!

O Douglas extracts now on our VLE

We’ve recently developed a number of materials using extracts from the works of O. Douglas. “Who he?” you might ask. Well, to begin with this author, very popular in the 1920s and 30s is a she… You can see above her entry in the “Authors” section of the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment).

O. Douglas (aka Anna Buchan) was very popular during her lifetime but is now a very underrated author; writing predominantly between the wars, during a time of great political and social upheaval, Douglas determinedly kept what we would call “issues” out of her novels, instead focusing on the domestic mores of the white middle classes. I have heard her described as Enid Blyton for grownups which is grossly unfair. Her imagined world may be cosy but it’s never cruel, as Blyton’s often was. However, I think it is probably the lack of issues in her stories that have contributed to her disappearance from our bookshelves – and any curriculum too!

That’s a great shame. Dialogue is something that many writers will tell you is difficult to pull off successfully – sometimes it can be a writer’s greatest challenge. Douglas is wonderful with her dialogue – using it to both further the action and enable us to learn more about her characters – and with some lovely humour in there too. I think in life she must have been as much of a people-listener as a watcher.

Here’s a line from her obituary in The Scotsman newspaper: “It has been objected that the people of her books are too "pleasant," but, at a time when fiction was passing through an ultra-realistic phase, this pleasantness was a relief to many readers.”