Writing Unseen Commentaries: A Student Help Book (Student Edition)

This 209-page resource is designed to support senior students and their teachers working towards a final written examination in which (as in most GCE A Level Literature courses) there is a close textual analysis component. In effect it is a full two-year course in reading, dissecting and commenting on poems and short prose extracts candidates may not have seen before. It includes some passages from past A Level (and IB and AP) exams. The main body of the resource works by offering students a set of short writing tasks on each passage. The Student Edition (this one) has suggested responses in a separate Answers Booklet (included in the purchase) which teachers can withhold from students if they wish, or dispense on an ongoing basis so that students can follow a process of self-assessment; the Teaching Copy (available separately) has the suggested responses built into the resource. It is possible to deliver the course ‘straight from the book’; but students can safely be allowed to work through the resource by themselves, in whole or in part, and there is much opportunity within it for paired, group and whole-class discussion.