This meeting will be recorded - Agenda - GCSE English Literature Lessons from the first series (June 2017) - Autumn 2017

Oct 20, 2026

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GCSE English Literature training material for Autumn 2017, covering a recorded meeting and agenda items for unseen poetry tasks. It explains what makes a good unseen response, emphasizing personal engagement, attention to the poem’s ideas, and awareness of how and why techniques affect readers. The session breaks down Question 27.1 with AO1 and AO2 integration, provides planning approaches using anthology poetry, and outlines strategies for Question 27.2 focusing on writers’ methods, language, effects, and context (AO3).

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPPTX

Pages31

Reading Time1 h 18 min

AccessFree to download

Agenda

Introductions

Poetry: unseen and comparison

Focus on AO3: context

Text choices

Poetry: unseen and comparison

What makes a good unseen response?

Question 27.1

Question 27.1 elements (AO1 and AO2)

Integrating AO1 and AO2

Linking technique and effect

Planning for Question 27.1

Choosing starter poems

Thinking about Question 27.2

Responding to 27.2

Teaching ways of responding to 27.2

Focus on AO3: context

What is context?

Two main ways students deal with context

Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. GCSE English Literature Lessons from the first series (June 2017) 1 Autumn 2017 This meeting will be recorded Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. Exam boards have an Ofqual requirement to make audio recordings of events. Recordings are kept for one year and not shared as an accompaniment to session resources. The recording will begin now. 2 Agenda Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. Introductions Poetry: unseen and comparison Focus on AO3: context Text choices 3 Poetry: unseen and comparison Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. 4 What makes a good unseen response? Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. The best responses are: genuinely personal engaged with the poem’s ideas on some level supported by an awareness of how and why the poet’s techniques have an effect on the reader. 5 Question 27.1 Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. Question 27.1 has essentially two elements: the writer’s methods – AO1 (ie understanding/ explaining/exploring the poem’s ideas the treatment of ideas/theme – AO2 (how…?). 6 Question 27.1 Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. AO1 and AO2 should not be thought of as separate, but rather students should aim to integrate them. Talking point Identify the single biggest difficulty for students in integrating these elements. What are your preferred teaching methods for this question? 7 Question 27.1 Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. Always link writing about technique to writing about effect. Talking point Look at the poem ‘Autumn’ from this year’s paper. With the person next to you, find and discuss three elements of the poem that could be useful in this regard. 8 Question 27.1 Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. Technique and method are perhaps better seen as tools for students to use which can support their own thinking about the poem. Students must try to engage with the poet and his/her ideas. 9 Planning for Question 27.1 Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. Your teaching of anthology poetry is an obvious place to start when it comes to preparing for the Unseen section of the paper. 10 Planning for Question 27.1 (contd.) Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. If you give students a simple framework and ask them to write down examples and then comment on their effects, you are empowering students straight away to make decisions and trust their own judgement. 11 Planning for Question 27.1 (contd.) Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. Talking point Which poems would you choose from your cluster as these starter-poems and why? 12 Thinking about Question 27.2 Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. This is a different type of task. Talking point In your handout, highlight what you think are the key words in this mark scheme. 13 Responding to 27.2 Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. See the mark scheme extract. Students are being judged solely on their comparison of the writers’ use of language and the effects of those methods on the reader. 14 Responding to 27.2 Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. See the question wording. ‘What are the similarities and/or differences between the ways the poets present these attitudes?’ The words in bold above are the focus for this question. 15 Teaching ways of responding to 27.2 Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. This question is also ‘only’ worth a maximum 8 marks, but this can still make a huge difference to both an individual student’s, and your centre’s, results. So… 16 Teaching ways of responding to 27.2 Copyright © AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. The ideal is for students to have a very efficient way of answering this question so they must know exactly what is required of them. Talking point How else you could help s

FAQs

How are AO1 and AO2 supposed to work together in Question 27.1?

AO1 and AO2 should not be treated as separate. Students should aim to integrate them so technique and treatment of ideas/ theme are handled together.

What characterizes a strong unseen poetry response?

A strong response is genuinely personal, engages with the poem’s ideas, and shows awareness of how and why the poet’s techniques affect the reader.

How can students deal with context in the exam (AO3)?

The material describes two main ways: using specific knowledge from the course, and responding directly to the context implicit in the question, with the best answers integrating both.

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by ahduag