Here’s the beginning. I hope you like it. The Face I don’t think you understand, do you? I mean, how could you, how could you possibly? I suppose, when you look at me, when you truly look at me, you don’t really see what’s there. That’s the point. My eye, how it fixes you with an open stare, how it dares you to look away. You’re not used to that, are you? You remember me. Everyone remembers me. England’s queen of starts, going on the B of Bang. The gold medals, always the gold medals, the impossible comebacks. 2020, 2024. I’m a legend, a national treasure, an inspiration. And of course the honours – Sports Personality of the Year, twice, Dame: Kathy Stringer, invincible, indomitable, incredible me.

This resource includes a sample text, with a key for difficult vocabulary. It has a sample question and answers. It dovetails with the specimin paper you may have used as a mock, with different questions. The best way to use this is as part of the bundle on Paper 2, Questions 1-4! Here is the beginning. Question 1 Remember, you will get a 20th or 21st century text to go with your 19th century text in the exam. However, for copyright reasons, I will avoid a modern text. This does have the added benefit for you of getting familiar with the kind of convoluted sentences older texts use, so that you will be better prepared for the exam. Here is an example of a text from Dickens that is used in the specimen papers: Greenwich Fair: Where Dickens let his hair down Charles Dickens is writing in 1839 about a fair in London which was a popular annual event he enjoyed. The road to Greenwich during the whole of Easter Monday is in a state of perpetual bustle and noise. Cabs, hackney-coaches1, ‘shay’ carts2, coal-waggons, stages, omnibuses3, donkey- chaises2 - all crammed with people, roll along at their utmost speed. The dust flies in clouds, ginger-beer corks go off in volleys, the balcony of every public-house is crowded with people smoking and drinking, half the private houses are turned into tea-shops, fiddles are in great request, every little fruit-shop displays its stall of gilt gingerbread and penny toys; horses won’t go on, and wheels will come off. Ladies scream with fright at every fresh concussion and servants, who have got a holiday for the day, make the most of their time. Everybody is anxious to get on and to be at the fair, or in the park, as soon as possible. The chief place of resort in the daytime, after the public-houses, is the park, in which the principal amusement is to drag young ladies up the steep hill which leads to the Observatory4, and then drag them down again at the very top of their speed, greatly to the derangement of their curls and bonnet-caps, and much to the edification of lookers-on from below. ‘Kiss in the Ring5,’ and ‘Threading my Grandmother’s Needle5,’ too, are sports which receive their full share of patronage.

This resource has numerous examples of language features for you to teach your students how to both recognise the writer’s craft, and use them in their own writing. Here is a sample: Juxtaposition: two things that are put close together in order to emphasise the difference between them. • “Give us a pound, mister,” said the beggar, scrolling through the internet on his phone. • The mother, tortured with pain, now smiled beatifically, while the baby, newly released, screamed incessantly. • While the battle raged, the generals sat behind the front lines, drinking beers and stuffing three course meals. Repetition: repeating a word, phrase, or idea. This can be done to emphasise, to create a rhythm or tone, or to reveal a contrast or comparison. Register: In linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular setting. What words give this the register of colloquial, American teenage language? “(Candace runs out to the backyard, she stares in shock upon seeing the rollercoaster, along with horror music) Candace: Phineas, what is this?! Phineas: Do you like it? Candace: Ooh, I’m gonna tell Mom, and when she sees what you’re doing, you are going down. (runs off) Down! Down! Down! D-O-W-N, down!” Which words deal with the idea of writing a novel? “In my mind, I continually entertain myself with fragments of narrative, dialogue and plot twists but as soon as I’m in front of a blank page, they evaporate. I feel stuck. Sometimes I think I should give up, but I have convinced myself that if I can find a way to write more freely and suppress my inner critic, I could finally finish that first draft.”

16 pages of incredible detail made relevant to the play. Obviously, socialism and capitalism are defined. But it includes some amazing parallels between the 1940s and the present day, where the figures for the richest and poorest in society are nearly identical. Explore the extraordinary similarity between the Inspector’s words, and those of the Labour party manifesto of 1945. See how the great unrest, including strikes and killing of workers influened Priestley and his play. Discover the literary tradition Priestley’s play was responding to, and the impulse not to write about WW1. Find out why Priestley chose the cotton mills as his manufacturing business, and why this was so important in 1945. All these facts are explicitly matched to the play, so students can see how to use them in their essays.

Sheila Birling as you have probably never thought about her before, and in more detail than your students have thought about before. Here’s a sample from the beginning:

“He must be deformed somewhere”. This is part of a series of 5 short extracts on Hyde. They will enable your students to answer any essay on Hyde. Each extract is explicitly linked to the following 5 themes. Understanding any two of these fully ought to be enough to gain a grade 7. Referencing more than 2 is likely to propel students into grade 8. Key words and phrases are analysed in each slide and linked to each of the 5 themes. I’m pricing this as cheaply as TES will allow! If you really want a bargain, buy all 5 extracts in the bundle! If you want any help on how to teach them, follow the links to thee videos. Christian Morality Tale Fear of Scientific Progress Repressed Homosexuality Love of the Gothic and Detective Genres Hypocrisy of Middle Class Men

This beautiful presentation will help your students remember the 14 most important quotations to think and write about Macbeth’s character. They are also presented in the order you would use them in an essay on Macbeth. Print them off as revision cards. Get your students to write paragraphs on the back, incorporating the quotation. Put them together to construct the essay. Use the best essays to teach the rest of your class how to succeed.

AQA likes to test the novel by asking students to compare Pip to another character. This is my top tip for 2018. Students often struggle to find interesting comparisons and fail to write about Dickens’ purpose. This resource introduces four big ideas which will allow your students to write confidently about Dickens’ purpose. It also provides 20 ideas and 20 quotations for them to use in their essay. Most quotations, as you can see, are detailed, so that you can give your students practice in selecting judiciously, and so that they learn to embed quotations in their sentences. Below is a sample of the first 4 ideas:

“With ape-like fury”. This is part of a series of 5 short extracts on Hyde. They will enable your students to answer any essay on Hyde. Each extract is explicitly linked to the following 5 themes. Understanding any two of these fully ought to be enough to gain a grade 7. Referencing more than 2 is likely to propel students into grade 8. Key words and phrases are analysed in each slide and linked to each of the 5 themes. I’m pricing this as cheaply as TES will allow! If you really want a bargain, buy all 5 extracts in the bundle! If you want any help on how to teach them, follow the links to thee videos. Christian Morality Tale Fear of Scientific Progress Repressed Homosexuality Love of the Gothic and Detective Genres Hypocrisy of Middle Class Men

We all know rhyme and music aid memory. What if you could get your students to learn their quotations this way? Here is a rap, based on Eminem’s Slim Shady, to help your students remember 50 quotations! Most struggle to reach 10, because they don’t challenge their memory. Students will also love the challenge of setting their own quotations to a song they love - the rap need only be a way in to their own creativity. Students learn what they think hard about, and showing them how to adapt quotations to their own favourite songs is a tried and tested way to do this. You’ll find my video to help you - students will like this, as I am unable to rap, and feel they can do much better. There is also another video, by Spitting Ink, a real rapper, showing how to adapt the quotations to a song of their own. Here is a sample of the lyrics:

AQA typically asks students to write about two characters, Pip and another. This can lead to very superficial comparisons, or uneven essays. The attached resource gives students 20 ideas, and 20 quotations they could include in their essay. It also shows students the three big ideas connected to Dickens’ purpose, which will lead to grades 7, 8 and 9. Quotations are deliberately long, so that your students learn to select telling detail. Here is a sample of the first 3 ideas:

AQA likes to test the novel by asking students to compare Pip to another character. This is my top tip for 2018. Students often struggle to find interesting comparisons and fail to write about Dickens’ purpose. This resource introduces four big ideas which will allow your students to write confidently about Dickens’ purpose. It also provides 20 ideas and 20 quotations for them to use in their essay. Most quotations, as you can see, are detailed, so that you can give your students practice in selecting judiciously, and so that they learn to embed quotations in their sentences. Below is a sample of the first 4 ideas:

This resource teaches students how to use Here is an extract to show you what this resource teaches. What does the AQA mark scheme say? Convincing Critical analysis Conceptualised Exploration of context to author’s and contemporary readers’ perspectives Give interpretation(s) Response to the whole text Analyse it as a play, and deal with the structure Precise references Analysis of writer’s methods Subject terminology used judiciously Exploration of effects of writer’s methods on reader They basically mean this: What you must do Give more than one interpretation of the characters or events. Make sure you write about Priestley’s viewpoint and ideas about his society at the time, in 1945 Write about how the society of 1945 would respond to these ideas, characters and events. Write about the ending of the play, to show how characters have or haven’t changed Write about the ending to show Priestley’s viewpoint. When you do it, make sure you Embed quotations all the time Only use terminology if it helps explain an idea Better still, go back and look at the words in bold in the short essay. This is subject terminology. What does “subject terminology” mean? The words a student of literature at university would use in nearly every literature essay. You could argue that connectives fall under this category as well, if you want. How do you integrate context? All the italics in the short essay is context. Sometimes this is the context of the world inside the play, at other times it is Priestley’s viewpoint and history, and at others it is the shared experience or viewpoints of his contemporary audience. You should notice that it is impossible to write about any author’s purpose or viewpoint without delving into context, which makes it very easy to integrate as part of the evidence for your interpretation. Now we’ve read the key criteria from Edexcel, you can see that “what you must do”, and “make sure you” work perfectly for this exam board as well. There’s a reason for that, whichever exam board you study: literature essays always demand the same skills.

Eric is analysed in more depth than you’ve ever read before. You’ll know him better than you’ve ever done before, and your students will be able to excel. Here is a small sample so you can see what I mean:

“I read Satan’s signature upon a face”. This is part of a series of 5 short extracts on Hyde. They will enable your students to answer any essay on Hyde. Each extract is explicitly linked to the following 5 themes. Understanding any two of these fully ought to be enough to gain a grade 7. Referencing more than 2 is likely to propel students into grade 8. Key words and phrases are analysed in each slide and linked to each of the 5 themes. I’m pricing this as cheaply as TES will allow! If you really want a bargain, buy all 5 extracts in the bundle! If you want any help on how to teach them, follow the links to thee videos. Christian Morality Tale Fear of Scientific Progress Repressed Homosexuality Love of the Gothic and Detective Genres Hypocrisy of Middle Class Men

What does the examiner’s report teach us about getting top grades when answering questions on Macbeth? Show students how to consider alternative interpretations. How themes and characters develop over time in the play. How to link context to each interpretation, so that it scores highly, and doesn’t just get added in as an irrelevant paragraph. How to come up with interpretations which go beyond what most students will write. The danger of getting subject terminology, and why naming words as parts of speech is likely to lead to lower grades, and will probably preclude a grade 8 or 9. Consider how Macbeth might actually have a deep love for his wife. Or how Macduff deliberately sacrifices his family. Or how Banquo needs Macbeth to become a tyrant king in order to fulfil the prophecy of Fleance’s kingship Or how the supernatural element might not just pander to King James, but actually undermine his belief in the power of witchcraft. The attached video will also teach you this in much more depth, so that you can share it with your students.

AQA likes to test the novel by asking students to compare Pip to another character. This is my top tip for 2018. Students often struggle to find interesting comparisons and fail to write about Dickens’ purpose. This resource introduces four big ideas which will allow your students to write confidently about Dickens’ purpose. It also provides 20 ideas and 20 quotations for them to use in their essay. Most quotations, as you can see, are detailed, so that you can give your students practice in selecting judiciously, and so that they learn to embed quotations in their sentences. Below is a sample of the first 4 ideas: Comparison of Pip and Miss Havisham The Big Ideas, which should feature as your argument, and in your conclusion. These points and longer quotations are to help you practise finding the right quotation to embed into your sentences. They are also the key quotations to use when comparing Pip to Miss Havisham. How Dickens uses the relationship to explore the corrupting power of wealth on those who no longer have a moral purpose in life, which is strongly connected to having proper work. ‘“And you live abroad still?” “Still.” “And do well, I am sure?” “I work pretty hard for a sufficient living, and therefore–yes, I do well.”’ How Dickens hints that the is a problem of the patriarchy, where a woman can only be defined by marriage, and is not able to forge an identity of her own through proper employment – which he contrasts to Pip and Herbert. “I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose had shrunk to skin and bone.” ‘“If you knew all my story,” she pleaded, “you would have some compassion for me and a better understanding of me.”’ 3. How her insanity at lost love is only possible in a patriarchal society – Pip does not experience the same level of madness because he can still live a useful and partly fulfilled life without marriage. How she symbolises the proper role of the wealthy, like Scrooge, learning to use her wealth to help others at the end. “‘leaving a cool four thousand to Mr. Matthew Pocket. And why, do you suppose, Pip, she left that cool four thousand unto him? 'Because of Pip’s account of the said Matthew.’”