KS4 Prep - Lit Lectures

Prep - Lit Lectures at KS4

Following on from my previous blog about Morning Reading at KAA, this post covers the KS4 element, with a particular focus on the English lectures. The ideas underpin lots of our approaches to teaching literature at GCSE - something I will try to blog more about later! 

Y10 Macbeth Lecture

In Y11, students have 3 lectures per week in the theatre during prep (English, maths and science) and rotate around their options subjects on the following two days. Y10  have an English and maths lecture. 

In English, we use this as an opportunity to interleave the set texts, teach 'grade 9' points to all students and revise and revisit our VIQs (very important quotations). In Y10, the lectures more often focus on plot and analysis and run in parallel with students reading the set texts in lessons. I'll expand on each of these below.

I must admit, some content and styling has been borrowed (with full credit to amazing Amy Hanna - @Hanna_English) from the fantastic Miss Hanna Loves Grammar Youtube channel. These videos are excellent and our students love them! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRJpbVL9N-FPXzF_d8S-e7Q/playlists  

The main focus of the lectures is to:

- Remind students of 'the points no one else is making'. We spend a lot of time drilling minor moments and minor characters and avoid obvious quotations such as 'solitary as an oyster'. For example, in A Christmas Carol, we might instead focus on the miners and how they 'live in the 'bowels of the earth' but 'are dressed gaily in their Christmas attire' or Caroline's response to so Scrooge's death at the end of the novel.

We focus on Lady Macduff as the 'poor wren' and why her death is shown on stage in contrast to Lady Macbeth. In An Inspector Calls, we might pick apart the stage directions, Alderman Meggarty's actions and other minor moments that are ripe for analysis. 

- Revisit higher level points.

This is a great opportunity to focus on key ideas and patterns within texts and revise them on a weekly basis. For example, as well as minor characters, we often repeat structural ideas such as Scrooge revisiting the charity workers at the end ('Lord bless us!') and what Dickens' message was here. We might focus on the contrast in similes to describe Scrooge at the beginning and the end. Or, how Scrooge's laughter is 'the father to a long, long line of laughs' and how this mirrors Fred's 'hearty' laughter. In Macbeth, we might consider key turning points and how we can use them in a range of essays. E.g. 'give the edge of the sword to his wife babes and all unfortunate souls'. Does this show Macbeth was evil from the start? Does this show he is acting alone and the witches are not actually that powerful? What is Lady Macbeth's influence here? Why does she refer back to 'The Thane of Fife Had a wife, where is she now?' when she wasn't actually consulted on the death? Many students included A.C Bradley's

idea that Macbeth is 'committed to the course of evil' when he seeks out the witches for a second time in their mock exams. In An Inspector Calls, we consider how Sheila's change mirrors women's growing freedoms and independence in society between 1912-1945 by focusing on her stage directions 'flaring up' and 'cutting in' and her rejection of Gerald's offer for the ring at the end. We also get chance to probe Birling's character in detail and consider minor lines such as his dismissive ‘Tell cook from me’ and how he 'laughs complacently'. We might then consider the fact he can’t remember Mrs Croft’s name as if women’s names are not worth knowing - ‘It's a pity Sir George and – er– Lady Croft can't be with us’ and the revelation that Alderman Meggarty ‘wedged her (Eva) into a corner’ and Birling’s shock and bemusement that he’d ever do such a thing! Of course, students somehow still write about the Titanic being 'unsinkable' (even though we have never taught them!) but overall, the majority focus on these rarer, juicer moments.

Students also are able to revise the phrases as well as the quotations. For example, a number of students of all abilities, noted that the Inspector's interruption of Birling's speech 'is enacting in miniature the clash between two ideological positions that unfolds throughout the rest of the play' - a line often repeated in the lectures!

-Revise the VIQs.

Our 'Very Important Quotations' are a key revision material at KS4. As a department, we have thought about each one in detail and they form the basis of our teaching and model examples. For us, they are the stand out quotations. These are constantly revised in the lectures and, over time, it has become clear that some can be used and manipulated into a whole range of essays. For example, the Birling quote in the image seems to have become a 'super VIQ' that appears in a range of essays (Birling, inequality, guilt, unfairness, younger older generation, class, responsibility). If anything, it has taught us that they need to be slimmed down! 

Our VIQs for Macbeth, AIC, and ACC can be found here: 
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JXqfq8w_ZnvXSdC8j7W2yuMD81Enj0YK?usp=sharing

-  Learn key points. I try to end all lectures in the same way. Each lecture ends with a 'summary' of the key points but also on the ending quotations. For example, in A Christmas Carol, we always finish

with the quotation, 'To Tiny Tim, who did not die, he became a second father'. For me, this quotation can summarise any message in ACC: kindness, Scrooge's transformation, family, poverty, happiness and many more. Equally, for Macbeth, 'dead butcher and fiend like queen' is a great one to tie up an essay on a range of topics. Also, the cyclical structure of when the 'telephone rings sharply' at the end VS 'a sharp ring of the doorbell' at the start and how they 'all stare guiltily and dumbfounded' can help students to construct a thoughtful conclusion to most themes in An Inspector Calls. 

-Develop contextual understanding. We have had a huge push on 'writer's intentions' and 'intention verbs' (The writer uses, exposes, forces, criticses, celebrates, constructs praises, etc.) over the past two years. These lectures allow all students to be exposed to, and reminded of, these higher level ideas. We are also adding in ideas about modern contexts that help students to appear 'thoughtful' in essays. For example, how Dickens and Priestely's messages on inequality are still relevant today with food banks and homelessness on the rise.

-Develop teacher subject knowledge. These lectures are not only a useful revision tool for students, but also offer an excellent opportunity for teachers to develop their knowledge of the set texts. Often, I will add these slides to the end of a lesson on a theme or character for teacher's reference. This means we are all on the same page and lessons can follow on from the content students are learning in the lectures. 

We have also now extended the lectures to Y13 to cover our key A Level texts (Othello, Dr Faustus, Frankenstein and Never Let Me Go, Larkin and Poems of the Decade).

Overall, these have had a demonstrable impact on students' knowledge of the set texts and poems, as well as improving their writing and phrasing. Students use them as a revision tool and, perhaps most pleasingly, when reading over returned scrips from last year's exams, many students had used many of the phrases and ideas in their work. 

In preparation for Y10 returning at some point, I asked teachers what top 3 strategies they think worked best for Y11 this year while fresh in their mind. Every teacher mentioned the lit lectures and commented on how these boosted students' retention of key ideas.

I've added a link to a sample of the Lit Lectures for Macbeth, AIC, ACC and P&C poetry here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1y1L4iiGV9VUp7nSkMKAAl-q43CGKHM0v?usp=sharing

I hope they are useful!
James