After achieving an A* in 2017, I am sharing my quality revision notes, essays, templates and tactics to help ambitious students reach their goals. These resources have proven a hit across the globe with students and teachers alike - download yourself to see why!
Chat with me on twitter @astarlevels or just drop me an email... happy revising!
After achieving an A* in 2017, I am sharing my quality revision notes, essays, templates and tactics to help ambitious students reach their goals. These resources have proven a hit across the globe with students and teachers alike - download yourself to see why!
Chat with me on twitter @astarlevels or just drop me an email... happy revising!
Complete revision for Paper 2. I give you the NOTES so you can revise the theory and then an example student ESSAY so you can see how to tackle the exam. Plus a bank of practice questions. Produced by a student who achieved an A* in 2017.
Paper 2 Section A
Question 1:
gender complete revision notes
accent and dialect complete revision notes
sociolect complete revision notes
occupation complete revision notes
world english complete revision notes
language change complete revision notes
gender A* essay answer
accent and dialect A* essay answer
sociolect A* essay answer
occupation A* essay answer
world english A* essay answer
language change A* essay answer
big bank of practice questions
Paper 2 Section B
Question 3:
language discourses example essay answer
Question 4:
opinion article examples
opinion article example exploring Text A & B
opinion article revision on how to create engaging openings
Total revision for Paper 1 AND 2
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Activity based on jargon where students decide what occupation uses that language. Get students talking about jargon!
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Enjoy!
Top band, student written model answer for A Level English Language.
This essay demonstrates how to convey understanding of linguistic ideas by evaluating and challenging the views presented in the question and by other linguists. Students of all abilities will benefit from an example of effective essay writing which they can emulate in their own work. There is also a marking activity at the end & opportunity for students to plan their own answer to the question.
Why it works:
Shows how to select, arrange & argue the most important ideas in essays
Produced by a student who achieved an A* in 2017
Includes examiner commentary & overall mark with feedback
Can be reworked as a template for your future (brilliant!) essays
Follow my twitter to stay updated with more essential free resources and news - @astarlevels
Check out my shop for more essays and revision resources: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/astarlevels
Top band, student written model opinion article for A Level English Language. Produced by a student who achieved an A* in 2017.
This model article demonstrates how to convey understanding of linguistic ideas by evaluating and challenging the views presented in the text and by other linguists. Students of all abilities will benefit from an example of effective article writing which they can emulate in their own work.
Why it works:
Shows how to assess ideas from the texts within your own article
Demonstrates how to balance engaging writing with linguistic content
Produced by a student who achieved an A* in 2017
Can be reworked as a template for your future (brilliant!) articles
Easily turned into an assessment because text A & B are included. The model article can be used for reflection afterwards
I have also included a powerpoint that encourages students to look at each text in detail, make meaningful comments on it & then use these ideas to plan an opinion article answer. Would work well as the premise of a lesson but is not a full lesson powerpoint.
Model essays for all topics in A Level English Language
Write an opinion article about language diversity and variation in which you assess the ideas and issues raised in Text A and Text B and argue your own views.
Checklist to guide revision for A Level English Language. Guides students to revise & plan an essay question for every topic & question.
Please see my shop for all my resources to help revise and practice for A Level English Language!
Top band, student written model answer for A Level English Language. I have a model essay for every topic (17 in total).
This essay demonstrates how to convey understanding of linguistic ideas by evaluating and challenging the views presented in the question and by other linguists. Students of all abilities will benefit from an example of effective essay writing which they can emulate in their own work. There is also a marking activity at the end & opportunity for students to plan their own answer to the question.
Why it works:
Shows how to select, arrange & argue the most important ideas in essays
Includes marker annotations, mark for each AO2 and overall comments - extremely useful!
Produced by a student who achieved an A* in 2017
Can be reworked as a template for your future (brilliant!) essays
Follow my twitter to stay updated with more essential free resources and news - @astarlevels
Check out my shop for more essays and revision resources
Written, tried and tested by me, an A* student from 2017. Downloaded, used and loved by teachers & students across the country!
Top band, student written model answer for A Level English Language.
This essay demonstrates how to convey understanding of linguistic ideas by evaluating and challenging the views presented in the question and by other linguists. Students of all abilities will benefit from an example of effective essay writing which they can emulate in their own work. There is also a marking activity at the end & opportunity for students to plan their own answer to the question.
Why it works:
Shows how to select, arrange & argue the most important ideas in essays
Produced by a student who achieved an A* in 2017
Can be reworked as a template for your future (brilliant!) essays
Follow my twitter to stay updated with more essential free resources and news - @astarlevels
Check out my shop for more essays and revision resources: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/astarlevels
I’ve created a comprehensive set of notes for every topic in A Level English Language. There are 9 pages here full of theorists, linguists, facts, stats, examples, real world application and more. I used these notes only alongside practice questions & achieved an A* in 2017.
Why they work:
Easy to learn, concise, bullet point revision notes
Omitted endless details on methodology and results
Replaced these with meaningful comments on each study to form the basis of your argument in the exam (crucial to enter top bands!)
Summary sheet includes:
theories and models of change i.e. S curve, semantic reclamation, descriptivism/ prescriptivism, damp spoon/ crumbling castle/ infectious disease, substratum theory, wave model, functional theory
metaphors for change and language discourses
a table of linguists and their studies, findings, opinions (really useful to refer to)
detailed breakdown of debate over whether language change is a process of evolution or decay
texting and change
how new words cause change
politcal corrrectness and change
technology and language change
outline of answer to essay question ‘discuss how new words enter the language’
Notes for all six topics in A Level English Language
Model essays for all topics in A Level English Language
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This blew up on twitter! Download the simple but incredibly useful template today. Tried and tested by an A* student.
Over 100 resources now uploaded to help you revise A Level English Language, check it out: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/astarlevels
This resource: “blank canvas” revision - a wacky font on a blank canvas for every topic. Encourage students to try out different ways of filling each poster. Experimenting with a variety of techniques will keep them interested and starting to think about the topics in different ways.
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Examples of the stages of children’s writing.
Starter idea: ask students to note:
progression in the writing
any mistakes they notice
can they apply nay theories
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“It is a widely held belief that women have larger colour vocabularies than do men. For example, Robin Lakoff (1975) states this as a fact and suggests as an explanation the observation that in this society women spend much more of their time on colour-related activities such as choosing clothes than men do”
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Put this statement to the test with your class! Fun little activity where students try and name as many as the colours as they can, then check them off and see if on average boys or girls have larger colour vocabularies.
Links to Lakoffs findings
Opportunity to counter argue with the diversity approach
Potential NEA investigation
Top band, student written model answer for A Level English Language.
This essay demonstrates how to convey understanding of linguistic ideas by evaluating and challenging the views presented in the question and by other linguists. Students of all abilities will benefit from an example of effective essay writing which they can emulate in their own work. There is also a marking activity at the end & opportunity for students to plan their own answer to the question.
Why it works:
Shows how to select, arrange & argue the most important ideas in essays
Produced by a student who achieved an A* in 2017
Can be reworked as a template for your future (brilliant!) essays
Follow my twitter to stay updated with more essential free resources and news - @astarlevels
Check out my shop for more essays and revision resources: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/astarlevels
Complete revision for Child Language Acquisition. Revision notes to consolidate knowledge, transcript analysis activity for exam practice & a model essay to see a top band essay response.
Why they work:
Easy to learn, concise, bullet point revision notes
Model essay shows how to structure a top band response
Worksheet guides students through analysing a transcript and combining with linguistic theory
Produced by a student who achieved an A* in 2017
Feel confident for your exam
Chat with me on Twitter @astarlevels
I’ve created a comprehensive set of notes for every topic in A Level English Language. They are full of theorists, linguists, facts, stats, examples, real world application and more. I used these notes only alongside practice questions & achieved an A* in 2017.
Why they work:
Easy to learn, concise, bullet point revision notes
Omitted endless details on methodology and results
Replaced these with meaningful comments on each study to form the basis of your argument in the exam (crucial to enter top bands!)
Summary sheet includes:
Fairclough on bosses
Covert power
Small talk (Holmes, Levine)
Face theory
Swales on discourse communities
Nelson, business language
Kim & Elder
Doctor slang!
Leidner on styling
Examples of jargon i.e. paramedics
Notes for all six topics in A Level English Language
Model essays for all topics in A Level English Language
Top band, student written model answer for A Level English Language. Evaluate the idea that children’s linguistic development is the result of an innate capacity to learn language.
This essay demonstrates how to convey understanding of linguistic ideas by evaluating and challenging the views presented in the question and by other linguists. The model answer shows how to approach an essay question requiring data analysis and application of theory. Students of all abilities will benefit from an example of effective essay writing which they can emulate in their own work.
Why it works:
Shows how to select, arrange & argue the most important ideas in essays
Demonstrates how to balance data analysis with theory application
Produced by a student who achieved an A* in 2017
Can be reworked as a template for your future (brilliant!) essays
ALL my child language acquisition resources
This essay plus the transcript it is based on and an activity sheet guiding students through writing their own paragraph
Check out my shop for more essays and revision resources
REVIEW on the bundle: A great set of resources in an area of study that is limited for materials. I particularly like the model CLD lesson and essay about Jess. If you have any more materials like this such as good CLD model essays and questions I’d certainly be interested. Thanks for your hard work and excellent value! - EnglishThings
What is on each A Level English Language exam and when are they?
Answer these FAQs with this handy poster. Used as an informative (or taunting!) countdown to the exam.
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4 top band model answers for A Level English Language.
* Shows how to select, arrange & argue the most important ideas in essays
* Produced by a student who achieved an A* in 2017
* Can be reworked as a template for *your* future (brilliant!) essays
You may also be interested in 17 model answers for £22.99 https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/english-language-exemplar-responses-aqa-a-level-new-spec-11874400
Two transcripts of conversations between mother and 3 y/o daughter with an accompanying activity sheet.
Activity sheet will guide students through the initially daunting task of analysing large chunks of data.
Beginning with labeling and searching for features, then, later, getting students to combine what is in front of them with the theory they have been taught.
Throughout the tasks, students are encouraged to think about theories, how to explain these, and the importance of labeling features to score AO1.
By the end of the sheet, students will have written one paragraph to an essay question. Since you have access to the essay question and transcript, you could set it as a mock question after.
Model essay based on the data used in this activity sold separately
17/09/18: thanks to the teacher who suggested I add an answer sheet… now included for free!
Hope it helps and check out my shop for more! Follow me @astarlevels on twitter :-)
Top band, student written model answer for A Level English Language Paper 2 Question 3 on Language Discourses. Includes full essay & marker annotations with overall feedback.
This essay demonstrates how to analyse the way two texts use language to present ideas, attitudes and opinions in similar and different ways. Students of all abilities will benefit from an example of effective essay writing which they can emulate in their own work.
Why it works:
Shows how to structure an answer to this question that addresses all 3 AOs
Examiner commentary highlights successful elements
Produced by a student who achieved an A* in 2017
This particular response was awarded 34/40
Can be reworked as a template for your future (brilliant!) essays
To find the texts used to write this essay download my free mock exam