Paper One, Section A

AO: Distinguish between fact and opinion.
AO: Read with insight and engagement

Task: Make Poverty History.

Read the article and complete the following tasks:
1. Identify the purpose of the website
2. Select 3 facts and opinions from the text (table available)
3. Identify the writer’s purpose in using facts/opinions in each of paragraphs 2, 3 & 7. (Separate answers required)
4. Using the same techniques, write a short article to promote a meeting in St Peter’s to discuss a campaign to make school uniform history.

In section B you will be expected to respond to a task such as this:
Present an article that promotes a strong point of view and highlight uses of fact and opinion within the text.

Look for models:
Online
Comment section of newspapers
Editorials.

Paper One, Section B

Use an A4 page to present your tips for good persuasive writing as required in the exam. Present them neatly.

Write a letter to your headteacher to persuade him/ her of the need to improve school dinners.

Choose two of the poems from different cultures. Explain how in each case, the poet chooses language carefully to achieve specific effects.

Think about language and effect. Begin by 'describing' the poems succinctly.

Go on to 'appreciate'. You will need to quote and comment precisely; you will need to reach a clear conclusion, which will include some 'interpretation'.

Paper Two, Section B

Describe a shopping centre when it is closed and describe it when it is open.

Task: Gun Control: read the article and answer the questions.

AO: To understand and evaluate how writers present their argument.
AO: read with insight and engagement.

Read the article and complete the following tasks:
1. Select the points ‘For’ and ‘Against’ gun ownership in the text. (Table available).

2. Identify the writer’s purpose in using each of the following phrases:

a.) ‘No one can dispute that…’
b.) ‘…they are the tools of crime and terror.’
c.) ‘No civilised society…’
d.) ‘ …a ‘right to…’’
e.) ‘… owners put their faith in…’
f.) ‘… this is unrealistic and dangerous…’
g.) ‘… an opinion supported by medical and psychiatric experts.’
h.) ‘… innocent victims.’
i.) ‘… should not be permitted…’

3. Present arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ compulsory schooling and present them in a table.

Write a letter to former students of your school in which you try to persuade them to return to your school for a special occasion.

It might be:
• an anniversary;
• the headteacher retiring;
• a new library or teaching block;
• a reunion.

Some help on this task is available here.

Poems from Different Cultures

Show how the poet's sense of cultural identity is explored in each of two of the poems you have studied.

Beginnings and endings

You will need to print off the sheet and glue it into your books.

We are going to use questions from a past paper. You are going to write two different opening sentences. One should be 'conventional' and the second 'unorthodox'.

Here is an example.

The first question was "Describe a shopping centre when it is closed and describe it when it is open."

A conventional response might begin: It was dark in the shopping centre. A conventional response is not very interesting because it's what everyone is expecting.

An unorthodox response might begin: Bob loved spending the night in the shopping centre. An unorthodox response helps you to write in a more interesting and individual way. This is the sort an examiner will want to read!

Ask yourself, which one is easier and more enjoyable to continue?

This is your title: You are asked to recommend a holiday place to a friend. Describe the place closely and explain why you would recommend it.

First, write your two opening sentences. Then use your 'unorthodox' sentence to begin an essay-length piece. About two sides of normal handwriting should be enough!) 

Superman and Paula Brown's New Snowsuit by Sylvia Plath

You have read this story in class with your teacher and you have some understanding of the narrative, themes, style and language. Now you have to re-read the story, concentrating on key sections and writing about how the writer establishes mood and atmosphere. You need to focus on style and language techniques such as imagery. Write a paragraph for each section.

1. Read lines 1-20. How does Sylvia Plath introduce the setting and mood at the beginning of the story? You should identify the ways she does this. For example: The sense that childhood is a time of imagination and experience is captured immediately with references to 'changing colours' and the comparison to a 'kaleidoscope'.

2. Read lines 65-74. How does the writer imply that the narrator's life may be changing dramatically?

3. Read lines 138-149. What is significant and interesting about this section and its location?

4. Read line 165 to the end. Compare these closing lines with the opening section. What do you notice about the choice of language?

Comparing 'Your Shoes' by Michele Roberts and 'Growing Up' by Joyce Cary

1. Spend the first thirty minutes reading through the stories.

2. Compare the stories by setting & location, mood & atmosphere, characterisation, themes, style and language, form and structure.

This is to be done in your exercise book by dividing pages into two columns and heading them with the titles of the stories.

3. Finally, write a paragraph on what you think the writers of these stories were implying about the relationships between parents and their children.

Writing a comparative essay

You should spend the first 45 minutes reading the stories and planning your answer and 45 minutes writing the essay.

Question:

Look again at 'Snowdrops' and one other story in the selection. Compare how the writers use detail in the openings of their stories to prepare the reader for what comes later.

Task 1 (45 minutes)

Complete a chart to compare 'Stealing' and 'Hitcher.'

OR

Complete a chart to compare 'Havisham' and 'Hitcher.'

OR

Complete a chart to compare 'Digging' and 'Catrin.'

Task 2 (45 minutes)

Write three paragraphs comparing your two poems.

Focus on:
i) the authors' purposes;
ii) the way the author conveys the voice of each persona (consider language and tone);
iii) the structure of each poem and its impact on the reader.

Remember to use point, quotation and comment.

Task 1 (45 minutes)

Complete the Venn diagram looking at similarities and differences between three poems you have studied in class ('Havisham,' 'Kid' and 'The Laboratory' OR 'Storm on the Island, 'Cold Knap Lake' and 'Patrolling Barnegat.')

Task 2 (45 minutes)

Compare and contrast the three poems. Write five paragraphs, one on each of the following areas:
i) the main ideas in each poem;
ii) the feelings and attitudes conveyed by the poets;
iii) the structure or shape of the poems;
iv) the use of interesting poetic techniques and their effectiveness;
v) a concluding paragraph including your own response to the poems.

Remember to comment on similarities and differences and to use point, quotation and comment.

Task 1 (30 minutes)

Re-read the poems from the Literature section of the anthology.

Task 2 (1 hour)

Answer one of the following questions.

If you have studied Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage, answer the following question:

Compare how strong emotions are conveyed in 'On my first Sonne' by Ben Jonson and three
other poems, one more from the Pre-1914 Poetry Bank and any two of the post-1914 poems one
by Carol Ann Duffy and one by Simon Armitage.

Remember to compare:
the emotions in the poems
how the emotions are conveyed.

If you have studied Seamus Heaney and Gillian Clarke, answer the following question:

Answer both parts (a) and (b)

(a) Compare the ways relationships between parents and children are shown in 'The Affliction
of Margaret' by William Wordsworth and 'On my first Sonne' by Ben Jonson.
and then
(b) Compare the ways relationships between parents and children are shown in any two post-
1914 poems. Choose one by Seamus Heaney and one by Gillian Clarke.

Foundation tier question

Compare how death is shown in four poems in the selection.
Choose two poems from List A and two poems from List B.

List A
Salome (Duffy)
Education for Leisure (Duffy)
November (Armitage)

List B

On my first Sonne (Jonson)
The Man He Killed (Hardy)
The Laboratory (Browning)

Remember to compare:
• how the poets show the deaths by the ways they write about them
• how you respond to the different deaths in the poems.

Your school is holding a fund-raising event for a national charity.

Choose a famous person and write a letter to persuade him or her to take part in that event.

Spend at least five minutes planning and sequencing your material.
Try to write at least two sides.
Spend five minutes checking: your punctuation, your paragraphing, your spelling.

Use forty-five minutes to complete this past paper question. Use a clock!

Many families have their own particular traditions. These may be to do with how they celebrate holidays, religious festivals, or particular times of the year. Write about your family traditions and explain their importance to you.

By the way, which of these opening sentences is going to help you to keep your reader's attention?

For a Christmas like ours you will need a jumper no-one will ever wear, a tantrum and an Aunt who drinks too much and snores.

Every year we go to our nan's and we have turkey and all the trimmings.