Following the post from Chris Cooper, the Chair of Examiners for the GCE 2008 in English, here is a message from Richard Hoyes, the Chief Examiner for English Literature.

Dear Head of English

Like you, I am a Head of English. I have taught  in one all boys and one all girls school (one private and one state), a mixed comprehensive school and a Vl Form College. For many years I have written examination questions and marked or moderated candidates’ work.  I am writing to you as Chief of the new Edexcel English Literature A level specification, for which teaching begins in September 2008.

I would like to tell you what attracts me, as a practising teacher, to the specification and why I think it will be so exciting to teach.

First, considerable thought has gone into the transition from GCSE to AS by building on good practice and at the same time leading students into thinking differently. For example those who have studied Literature at GCSE may have experienced a great deal of poetry. They are good at writing about what the poet (or, for the more sophisticated, the poem) says.  But they are less confident at writing about how it is said. The shorter response answers in the AS unseen (there is a choice of poetry or prose) bridge the GCSE -  AS gap. While offering a short and accessible poetry or prose passage, and questions on topics that are clearly stated in advance (such as imagery in poetry or the crafting of sentences in prose), the aim is to lead students away from what is written into how it is written and to develop their awareness of form and structure. This short unseen question occurs in Unit 1, Explorations in Prose and Poetry. The rest of the unit has questions on a poetry collection (you choose one from three well known collections – Motion’s Here to Eternity, The Oxford Anthology Vol II, or Heaney’s and Hughes’s The RattleBag) and a question on two set novels. One of these novels is a core text and will be a familiar feature of the literary landscape to most English teachers (Jane Eyre, Brighton Rock, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights and Howards End); however it can be matched with texts that may present more surprises, or give a new perspective on the familiar (Carter’s The Magic Toyshop, Walker’s The Color Purple, for example.)

I like the AS coursework unit, Explorations in Drama, because it requires students to study some Shakespeare. Apart from the fact that I like teaching Shakespeare, and appreciate having a total free choice of play, I think it is good that those students who are not necessarily going to progress to A2 have the Shakespeare experience. Three texts are studied (though in the folder only two may be written about directly; the third might be, for example, the reading of criticism or reviews of performances or film versions) at least one of which is a play by the Bard himself. The rest can be other drama written between 1300 and 1800.  There is also a creative element, where students are required to write creatively and critically about their texts, using as a starting point such wide ranging material as blogs, theatre reviews, directors’ notes, arts websites and tv /radio discussions.

The third unit, Interpretations of Prose and Poetry, marks a significant progression from its AS sister paper, Explorations in Prose and Poetry, by presenting students with a longer unseen without the structure supplied by the shorter response format. In addition the set text section (books are grouped by theme) requires students to study three texts, not two as at AS. However, there is no requirement that the three are explored in equal depth; for example the third text might be chosen to illuminate an aspect of the other two and students might not even refer to it directly in their examination answers. In this unit they must answer on a text published after 1990 and I think this makes the set book list particularly fascinating, with some texts being new to examination work at this level. The list includes Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and the poet Billy Collins’ Taking off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes as well as more familiar examination texts such as de Berniere’s Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale and Michael Frayn’s Spies. QCA’s requirement for all the new English Literature GCE specifications was that they should include the study of a post 1990 text; a glance at our set book list will show that this injunction has not simply been obeyed but turned into a major feature of the unit, combining the chance for teachers to explore something radical and new with opportunities to study the familiar. There is something for everyone here.

The freedom offered by the A2 coursework unit – in which three texts of any period and any genre are studied – is exhilarating, and I am already looking forward to reading the first folders that make their way to me in 2010. The title is Reflections in Literary Studies and students are required to do just that – reflect on what they read and write about a aspect of literary study that interests them. Again, the three texts need not be studied in equal depth: the third, for example, may have only a passing reference or even no direct reference at all in the final folder. There are several possible approaches. Students might start with a question: is literature an attack on what is held sacred? Or a proposition: there is no real distinction between journalism and literature.  They may want to explore a literary movement or a particular author. They may want to explore across literary movements: just as Donne and Marvell were compelled by the discoveries of their time, so the poets of today are responding to or reflecting the surprises of ours. They may explore texts in the light of changing ideologies: looking at feminist or new historicist approaches. So much is possible. They can also build on something studied earlier in the course, looking at other works by the same author for example. Folders do not have to contain just one single essay; there may be two shorter studies, and a creative approach to literature that includes research reading and an original piece of work explored in a commentary,  building on the creative element in Unit 2.
I look forward to working with you.

With best wishes,

Richard Hoyes