Get exam ready for GCSE English Literature: Part 3 – choosing another moment or poem
12 April 2024
Lydia Ridding, English Subject Advisor
This blog was originally published in 2017, and has been updated with current resources.
This is the third of four blogs to support you with last minute exam practice for our GCSE English Literature exams – a recap of key skills and tips to remember when you’re in the exam hall. It follows on from the two earlier ones which focused on:
The focus for this one is:
- Part 3: Choosing another moment or a poem
to be closely followed by:
Familiarity with the studied texts
Self-selection of material from the studied texts is a key skill for the GCSE English Literature qualification. While it is one that can be practised and prepared for in the classroom, it reinforces the importance of students feeling confident and familiar with their studied texts, so that when it comes to the exam they can readily bring to mind a ‘mental back catalogue’ of relevant key moments, incidents, poems etc.
Let’s first take a look at the Paper 2 Poetry task by way of example. The second part of the task will ask candidates to select a poem of their choice, from their studied cluster, to explore. The part b) question will pick up on the theme discussed in part a) of the poetry task. For example: Explore in detail one other poem from your anthology that presents hostile emotions.
The focus of the question here will relate to ideas that are central to the cluster studied. It is really worth reminding students that there will be a range of poems from the cluster that they can choose from, and they shouldn’t think that the examiner has one or two in mind that they are expecting candidates to write about. But how should your students go about making their choice? A simple method is as follows:
- Jot down the titles of any poems that come into your head that seem to fit the theme given in the question.
- From these which poems would you feel most confident about writing about?
- Think about which of these poems you particularly like.
- Choose one of these and having made this choice, be confident and stick with it!
Let’s take a moment
In both of the GCSE English Literature exams, Section B gives a choice of questions and candidates will answer one of the two options: a question based on an extract from their 19th century novel (Paper 1) or Shakespeare play (Paper 2) which will be printed in the exam paper, or an essay-style question on a theme, character, relationship etc.
The extract question will ask candidates to explore the given issue in the extract and elsewhere in the text, while the second option will ask candidates to explore at least two moments from the text to support your ideas. So whichever option is taken it will be necessary for candidates to consider at least two different moments in the text in some detail.
There is no particular advantage for students in which choice they make from the two options. The extract question does however give them some text in the exam room to focus on, and this may be helpful in terms of AO2 writer’s use of language for effect. If, however, the particular extract is one that a student might feel less confident in discussing it could be a good idea to select the essay question.
So it’s really important that students have some ‘go to’ episodes from their studied text that they know well and are able to discuss in some detail. We’ll discuss some ideas for how such episodes can be selected and recalled.
Suggested activities
To support your students in developing their familiarity with and appreciation of different moments, you could use the ideas below:
- Make a scattergram of obvious moments from the text and develop your own interpretation of one of these moments.
- Compare your interpretation with a partner’s and decide which one is more perceptive and engaging. Justify your choice in some detail.
- Open the text at any page and see if you can create a ‘moment’ from this and interpret it in your own way.
- Write an exam style question to accompany a moment you have chosen, thinking about it from the point of view of theme, character, plot development or setting.
- Write an email to the exam board suggesting that a particular moment is used as an extract in the exam. Explain why it would be a thought-provoking extract and how it might inspire students to explore other parts of the text.
What happens where?
As they will have to write about at least two different episodes from the text they’ve studied it’s obviously important that students have a good knowledge of what happens where. Here’s a suggested approach based on a Shakespeare play that can be adapted for different texts.
- Ask the students to work in pairs to produce a list of the ten most important events in the text they’ve studied.
- Describe each event in just one sentence.
- Cut up the list into ten pieces and swap with another pair.
- Sequence the ten items you’ve been given into the right order.
- Check in your copy of the text that you’ve got them in the right order.
- What do you think of their list of events as compared to yours? Do you agree that these are the most important events in the text?
- Fill in a grid like the one below. The examples here are from Much Ado About Nothing, one of the set Shakespeare plays.
- Next, stay in your pair and decide which you think are the five really key moments in your list of ten events. Try choosing one extract of about 25-35 lines from each act of the play. What makes a key moment? You could think about:
- how and why the moment progresses the plot in a significant wait
- why it is dramatic
- what new things we learn about the characters and their relationships
- the memorable words and phrases that are used.
Key moment. What happens? Which Act is it in?
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What happens immediately before and immediately after this episode?
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What new things does the audience learn about characters and their relationships here?
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Why is it dramatic?
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Memorable phrases
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Act 1. Scene 1
Lines 100 to 135
Benedick and Beatrice argue for the first time.
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Don Pedro and men arrive in Messina from the wars.
Claudio declares his love for Hero.
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Benedick and Beatrice are very well matched in their verbal sparring. They seem to have history in this kind of conflict.
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This sets up the Benedick and Beatrice relationship. They dominate the stage physically and verbally with their pretend conflict. We learn that Beatrice is feisty, and not going to easily submit to marriage.
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Beatrice: ‘Is it possible disdain should die when she has hath such food to feed it as Signor Benedick?’
‘You always end with a jade’s trick; I know you of old’
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Act 2. Scene 3
Lines 213 - 240
Benedick is tricked into declaring his love for Beatrice
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Before: Don P, Claudio and Leonato have talked about Beatrice’s love for Benedick whilst he hides.
After: Hero and Margaret similarly trick Beatrice
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What we have long suspected about Benedick is proved true: he does love Beatrice. What he said previously was all an act – he will be ‘horribly’ in love with her.
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A joyful scene in the comedy where Benedick’s true feelings are finally revealed. This is a play of tricks being played – with good intentions here; and bad intentions when Don John tricks Claudio.
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Benedick: ‘Love me? Why, it must be requited.’
‘I will be horribly in love with her’
‘No, the world must be peopled’
‘I do spy some marks of love in her.’
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Revisiting for revision
Hopefully there’s some ideas here that you could adapt or incorporate into your teaching of the texts throughout the course, so that students can re-visit their activity notes and make good use of them for effective exam preparation.
Look out for the fourth and final blog in this series – focussing on developing a personal, critical voice.
Stay connected
Let us know if you’re finding this series of blogs helpful, and do get in touch if you have any questions. You can leave comments below, email us at English@ocr.org.uk or message us on X (formerly Twitter) @OCR_English. You can also sign up to receive email updates to keep up-to-date with the latest news, updates and resources.
About the author
Prior to joining OCR in June 2023, Lydia spent 20 years working in a range of sixth form colleges across the country, teaching A Level and GCSE qualifications in English. She was a coursework moderator with OCR for a number of years and has an MA in Victorian Studies from Birkbeck University.
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