Eduqas A Level English Literature - Year 1 Course Outline and Good Study Practices

A-Level Literature tasks for Independent Study: Year 1

Eduqas Set texts Year 1 course

Drama: A Streetcar Named Desire by  Tennessee Williams and  The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster

Poetry: The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin and  Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy

Penguin Selected poems of Christina Rossetti

Prose fiction: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Unseen component: Unseen Prose extracts from 1880-1910 and 1918 to 1939 and Unseen Poetry

 

Generic study tasks for Literature A-level

 Compile a glossary of literary terms and key concepts to accompany your study of each text    

 Research genre terms and definitions linked to the study of poetry, prose and drama.

·         Carry out background reading on each writer and research their biography.

·         Identify the specific era of each text and carry out research on the contextual factors linked to the influences on the writer. Examine social, historica, cultural, political and religious influences. 

·         Research essay writing guidance for Literature essays.

·         Review the assessment objectives for the course and re-write them as specific targets.

·         Refer to the wider reading list in the appendix and read an additional text(s) by each writer. 

Drama tasks

·         Write a scene summary for each scene/act

·         Create a timeline of events in the play

·         Write a character analysis for each main character

·         Create a mind map of the central themes in the drama

·         Research gender roles in each era: Post WW2 America (Streetcar) and

Jacobean era (Malfi)

·         Select key quotations linked to character/theme etc. and collate quotation cards with a quotation on one side and analysis of meaning and literary techniques on the other.

·         Make notes on Aristotle’s theory of tragedy

·         Use the internet to research critical views and essays, articles on the play – keep a note of the web address, writer’s name and title of article etc.

·         Read theatre reviews of the play in performance

·         Watch clips on You Tube of the text in performance

·         Aim to learn key quotations by setting yourself regular tests or work with a partner to create quotations with a missing word that you can then complete.

·         Read an additional play by Tennessee Williams or another American playwright of the same era and another drama from the Jacobean/Shakespearean era

 

Poetry: Set texts and preparation for Unseen Component

·         Research the different poetic forms such as ballad, sonnet, free verse, dramatic monologue, ode etc.

·         Learn the range of terms for poetic verse structures such as tercet, quatrain, octet etc.

·         Add to a genre specific glossary for poetic techniques and methods.

·          Review key movements or eras in poetry such as the Age of Reason, Romanticism, Victorian poetry, Modernism etc.

·         Work on the list of selected poems for study and annotate each poem

       Apply a mnemonic/acronym strategy such as STRIDE:- examine Structure, Tone and Techniques, Rhyme and Rhythm, Imagery, Diction, Effect etc.

·         Use a chart/table to track the themes in the poems of Rossetti, Larkin and Duffy

·         For the Larkin and Duffy collection aim to group poems in pairs (one by Larkin/one by Duffy) or groups of FOUR by topic, theme or poetic methods

·         Practise writing exam response using a list of past exam essay tasks

·         Using a booklet of unseen poems work on a poem in timed conditions to shape an exam response to the unseen task