Timothy Langer

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Now that GCSE exams are over… well, thanks to COVID-19, no exams had to be sat, I’ve been going through my work for the past three years and salvaging as much of it as I can to make it accessible for future GCSE students. On this page I’ve uploaded as much of my English Language and Literature work as I can find.

Annotated Literature

I make notes right on the text; below are scans of some of my reading, annotated.

Year 9

Year 9 has a very vague topic syllabus and teachers teach what they love teaching, rather than what is demanded by a rigorous specification. Work is more relaxed and the aim is to teach a skill set rather than set material.

Julius Caesar: Oxford School Shakespeare

Julius Caesar: Oxford School Shakespeare

We started Year 9 by reading Julius Caesar for a term and completed two essays.

30/09/2017: Julius Caesar Act 1 Scene 2 Essay

30/11/2017: Julius Caesar Act 3 Essay

In January we read Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in the original, Chaucerian English. (with explanatory notes, naturally) I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. We wrote no essays, so I have nothing to share here, but we did create PowerPoint presentations in groups of four about a specific tale.

Short Stories: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Short Stories: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

In the spring term we moved onto Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and read The Man I Killed.

18/03/2018: Tim O’Brien - The Man I Killed - Essay

We spent the summer term preparing for the end-of-year exam, which consisted of an unseen and composition.

16/05/2018: Descriptive Writing Task - Describe a holiday resort when everyone has left

Year 10

With Year 10 we commence the Cambridge iGCSE syllabus. This included:

Stories of Ourselves

We started the year by reading The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe from the short stories collection.

20/09/2018: The work of Edgar Allan Poe - listened to a podcast for homework and made notes on it

30/09/2018: Edgar Allan Poe - The Fall of the House of Usher - Essay

I loved reading Ray Bradbury’s There Will Come Soft Rains! Probably my favourite of the whole collection.

20/11/2018: Ray Bradbury - There Will Come Soft Rains - Essay

In the spring term we moved onto a selection of Carol Ann Duffy’s poems. We went through a half or so and left it at that so that we could spend the summer term preparing for the end-of-year exam, which consisted of a directed writing task and composition.

24/01/2019: Carol Ann Duffy - In Mrs Tilscher’s Class - Essay

27/02/2019: Carol Ann Duffy - Originally Essay

Year 11

Oxford School Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet

Oxford School Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet

The GCSE syllabus provided a choice: Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet. The general consensus was to read Romeo and Juliet, because most students had already read Macbeth in their previous schools.

15/09/2019: Romeo and Juliet Act 1 Scene 1 Essay

04/10/2019: Romeo and Juliet Act 2 Scene 2 Essay

22/11/2019: Romeo and Juliet Act 4 Scene 3 Essay

In the spring term we returned to the short story collection and the poems collection and finished off what we had not completed. Our short stories were mixed in with some directed writing and composition revision. Our last lesson together (before school shut due to COVID-19) was spent hastily finishing reading Secrets by Bernard MacLaverty!

28/01/2020: Carol Ann Duffy - Valentine Essay

03/03/2020: Descriptive Writing Task - Describe the scene from your position on the bank of a river