Flying Start - Chapter Two AS/A LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATURE

Welcome to Chapter Two of Flying Start, your suite of pre-enrolment learning content designed to help you make the best possible start to learning with Exeter College from September. With Chapter Two's learning content, our subject leaders have set more brainteasers and activities designed to get you thinking about your subject(s) at the next level.

To take you a bit further than Flying Start Chapter One…

Task 1: Design a book cover that shows us who you are. Your personal and creative ideas are valued by us and are awarded highly by the exam board in AS and A Level English Literature; the highest grades are awarded to students who have developed their own personal opinions about the texts. When designing your book cover consider what makes you you: what are your personal values, strengths, and traits? Don’t worry about creating something perfect, just bring something along to share with your peers in our first lesson together. Task 2: Complete the three terminology checklists. You will already be familiar with some essential terminology for prose from Chapter One of your Flying Start to AS/A English Literature. We have selected the most frequently used terms for each three mode of literature: poetry, prose and drama. As extension tasks we have also included a blank terminology grid for you to add any other terms that you have come across in your research, and an extend terminology list for poetry for you to research.

Now, watch this video

Task 3: Read the poem and annotate with your ideas. Much of the course will involve you jotting your ideas down onto the text as you go as this helps you formulate your ideas about why a writer has made a creative decision in the text. Task 4: Write a paragraph: select one technique used by the poet and use it to explore and interpret the poem. Each of the assessments on the AS and A Level English Literature course are essay responses; academic writing and clear written expression are skills which we will develop on the course together. Try to write no more than one A4 page.

For those who want a bit more for over the summer…

We have included a couple of extension tasks in the pack below. You don’t need to complete these, but we feel you would be putting your best foot forward if you do! Our Exam board, Edexcel, have published a poetry workbook which explores approaches to unseen poetry: https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/A%20Level/English%20Literature/2015/teaching-and-learning-materials/Unseen_poetry_preparation_anthology.pdf

This video was made by a student who studied the Edexcel English Literature course that you will soon be starting with us. She is very well organised and has some great tips to help you stay organised and succeed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNTNXkPIUzI Also, on the final page of this document are the text choices and editions for our AS English Literature course, as well as suggested study guides, which you may wish to purchase before you start the course.

Link to the specification for this qualification

https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-a-levels/english-literature-2015.html

FAQs Q: How long should I spend on the tasks? A: We have included quite a few activities below for you to work through, and we estimate that it will take no longer than a few hours to complete the activities given here if you did all of the extension activities too! Q: Is it okay if I produce the work by hand? A: Yes, that’s absolutely fine. You can either type your answers into a word document and print it or you can hand write your answers. Q: Do I have to do it? A: Flying Start isn’t compulsory, but many students find it useful for getting them used to thinking about subjects at the next level. Early classroom sessions will also reflect on some of the Flying Start activities. Q: Will this work be marked and when is it due? A: We are really keen to see your responses to the below tasks, but we won’t be ‘marking’ them. Your teacher will be referring to activities in this Flying Start over the first couple of lessons of the course; you will have an opportunity to share your book cover as you meet your teacher and peers, we will mark your terminology sheets together as a class, and the poem ‘Eat Me’ will be the first poem that we study together from the prescribed post-2002 collection of poetry. Q: I am not sure if I have got the answers right, what should I do? A: Don’t worry, just have a go at getting something down and bring it along to the lesson where we can talk it through. There is no need to get anxious about the tasks, we are not expecting you to know everything before you arrive but are interested in your ideas and what you have found easy or difficult as it helps us support you right from the beginning

Task 1: Design this book cover in a way that shows who you are. You can be as creative as you like, as long as the cover reflects you.

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Task 2: Complete the three terminology checklists below for each form: poetry, prose, and drama

Useful Prose Terminology

Term Definition Example

frame narrative

linear plot structure

fractured narrative

narrative perspective

protagonist

antagonist

complication

epistolary form

Useful Drama Terminology

Term Definition Example

dramatic irony

tragedy

foreshadow

tragic flaw

catharsis

monologue

plastic theatre

closet Drama

expressionist theatre

exposition

stage direction

climax

denouement

Useful Poetry Terminology

Extension task: Use this space to record terminology you have come across before

Term Definition Example

Term Definition Example

metaphor

simile

oxymoron

juxtaposition

anaphora

caesura

enjambment

alliteration

assonance

slant rhyme

imagery

Extension task: This help sheet is what w

e use in class for analysing poetry in both Year 1 and Year 2. Read through the term

and any which are new

to you, please research and familiarise yourself w

ith them.

If you have any questions which you are still not too sure about after you have researched, rem

ember to leave

yourself a note so you can ask your English Literature teacher once you start.

Task 3: Read the poem and annotate with your ideas

Task 4: Write 150 words: select one technique and use it to explore and interpret the poem.

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EXT: Watch this YouTube video which analyses the presentation of women in Agbabi’s poem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bekjCZQhQE0&t=21s

Text choices for AS English Literature

Your £25 resources fee will pay for the ‘exam copy’ of each of the texts for you AS year. This is a brand-new copy of the books which are to be kept note-free so that you can use them in your open book exams.

Many of our learners prefer to buy a second copy to use in class to record notes. The second copy can be second-hand and doesn’t need to be kept pristine. It isn’t essential that you purchase a second copy but we do advise that, if you are able to, getting hold of a second copy can be really useful to you as it will help you navigate the texts better and keep your notes in order. This is key, as you will be tested on the texts that you study in your first year in your final A Level exams.

We advise that you buy the same editions of the texts as you will have in the exam, which are listed below with pictures (right) to help you find the correct copy.

The text choices for AS English Literature 2020-21 are:

• Poems of the Decade (2011) Forward Poetry • Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (2005) Faber and Faber • Shelley, Frankenstein (1831) Wordsworth • Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) Penguin Modern Classics

Revision guides

We also suggest that you get hold of a copy of each of the below revision guides for the texts. These are the best books we have come across so far to help aid your self-study of some of texts. We have yet to come across a good study guide for Never Let Me Go. You do not need to bring these to class.

• Study and Revise Literature Guide for AS/A level: Pearson Edexcel Poems of the Decade (2019) Faber and Faber

• AS/A Level Study Guide: Frankenstein (2012) York Notes • AS/A Level Study Guide: A Streetcar Named Desire (2015) York Notes • Study and Revise Literature Guide for AS/A level: a Streetcar Named Desire Workbook (2018)

Faber and Faber