Sunday, 5 November 2017

Structuring a response to Question 2 and 3 in the AQA language exam

This is going to be an incredibly short blog. I am going through the preparations for the mock exam and one thing has transformed how students are writing about the text. Oh, and it introduces students to some Daft Punk - not a bad thing! 

SPOT it 
QUOTE it 
EFFECT it 
EXPLAIN it 

The students know that the first three get you a band 2 (ish); however they are needed to link to the explanation so that students can progress higher. 

SPOT it  - The writer uses the adjective...  
QUOTE it  - ...'dark'...
EFFECT it  - ... to create a sense of ....  a feeling of ..... an atmosphere .... a mood .... 
EXPLAIN it  - [explanation of how the reader feels and how it links to the meaning and plot]

Once we go through the SPOT / QUOTE / EFFECT we were able to get to the explaining: the key for doing well on this question. We were able to pin down the explanation - 

An explanation of a plot point in relationship to the mood - the character feels this because of X and Y 

An explanation of the reader's feelings and perspective towards the character - the reader sympathises / connects / scared for

An explanation of the readers feelings towards the text - the reader trusts the writer / the reader will expect X because this a thriller / the reader expects

An explanation of a change in effect - the reader at first feels Y but now they feel Z

An explanation of the writer's purpose - the writer wants the reader to be ... so that... 


Students had to write three decent sentences after the SPOT/QUOTE/EXPLAIN sentence and it produced some really interesting discussions. The explanation wasn't structured so much, because students needed the space to explain. 

Now to the tune of Daft Punk's 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger' ...... SPOT it, QUOTE it, EFFECT it, EXPLAIN it 

Thanks for reading, 
Xris 

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1 comment:

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