Preparing for the new

GCSE English
specifications
How Let’s Think in English
can help
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Laurie Smith April 2014
 Summary
All GCSE specifications are to be made more
demanding to improve education in England, improve
our international competitiveness and raise our
position in international comparisons such as PISA.

The new GCSE English Language and English

Literature (and Maths) specifications will be taught
from September 2015 and examined from June 2017.

For historical reasons, the total increase in demand

will be greater in GCSE English than in other
subjects. Teaching methods will therefore need to
change if grades are to be maintained.
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 GCSE changes already implemented

• Modular examinations ended in 2013

• Ofqual with power to direct Examining Boards to
change grade boundaries
• Grade from only first sitting of GCSE to count towards
schools’ results (to deter early and multiple entries)
• In GCSE English, Speaking and Listening not to
count towards final grade from June 2014
• Grade therefore to be based on 60 per cent
examination answers (instead of 40% as at present)
• The combined effect of these changes is likely to lead
to lower GCSE English grade rates from 2014.

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 GCSE English ‘overgraded’
Ofqual considers that GCSE English has historically
been more generously graded than other subjects
through a combination of three factors:
• greater use of modular specifications than other
subjects
• coursework and controlled conditions assessments
• inclusion of Speaking & Listening with insufficient
checks on validity of assessments.
With the discontinuation of two of these, national
grade rates are likely to be lower in 2014 and
subsequently than in previous years, despite Ofqual’s
commitment to ‘comparable outcomes’ to allow for
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the separation of Speaking & Listening.
 The new specifications
The new specifications in all subjects are to be:
• comparable in demand to other high-achieving
jurisdictions
• more demanding especially at grade C
• less predictable in content and with less scaffolding
• externally assessed only so no controlled conditions
assessments
• examined at the end of the course only

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 Timescale
New English Language, English Literature and
Mathematics specifications to be taught from
September 2015 (other subjects from 2016)

June 2014 - Awarding Bodies publish draft

specifications in these three subjects for consultation

September 2014 – Ofqual approves new

specifications

Schools have a year to prepare for teaching the new

specifications
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 Schools to be judged on GCSE results only
From 2015, schools will no longer be required to report end-
of-KS3 assessments to DfE, so there will be no centrally
held data between Y6 and Y11; Ofsted inspections based on
whatever pupil tracking data schools choose to keep
In 2017, GCSE grades change to numerical - 9 highest, 1
lowest, then U (ungraded)
From 2016, 11 – 16 education assessed only on GCSE
results by two measures:
• point score totals of students’ GCSE score in 8 subjects –
Eng Lang (double weighted if taken with Eng Lit and vice
versa), Maths (double weighted), 3 other E Bacc subjects
and 3 best others from permitted list (Attainment 8)
• value-added from KS2 scores (Progress 8)
• Schools’ Attainment 8 and Progress 8 scores to be
published year by year on their websites and in league
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tables
 Additional note on Progress 8
Reforming assessment and accountability for primary
schools (DfE, 27 March 2014) states that:
• from 2016, Y6 pupils will continue to sit externally set
and marked tests in Reading, SPAG and Maths
• their results will be presented as a scaled score
where 100 is the expected standard for the end of
KS2
• they will continue to be teacher assessed in Reading,
Writing, Maths and Science
• BUT only the tests will count for school performance
measures , so Progress 8 will be based on KS2 test
scores only.
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 Key features of GCSE English
• English Language and English Literature (no English).
• Literature not compulsory BUT Eng Lang is double
weighted in Attainment 8 if Eng Lit taken at the same time
and vice versa. Provided Eng Lit is included in the 8
subjects, the student’s higher score of Eng Lang or Eng Lit
is counted.
• So English = 30% of each student’s’ (and school’s)
attainment score if both Eng Lang and Eng Lit are taken
[Maths = 20%, other subjects 10% each]
• End-of-course examinations only, taken in June. November
resits for English Language only [but this may change to
allow English Literature also].
• Assessed by untiered, external exam only.
• IGCSE to be brought into line with GCSE for centres in
England.
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 Position of English Literature
• The decision to double-weight English Language if English
Literature is taken at the same time has secured the
position of Eng Lit as some schools have been considering
discontinuing Eng Lit to concentrate on Eng Lang.
• The decision that schools will be able to double-weight the
student’s higher point score of Eng Lang and Eng Lit
means that schools will seek the highest possible grade in
both, not just enter students for Eng Lit as a default
position to secure double weighting in Eng Lang.
Publication of average point scores for each subject on
schools’ websites year by year will also raise questions if
Eng Lit scores are much lower than Eng Lang.
• The fact that English will count for 30 per cent of students’
point scores gives English Departments a strong case for
arguing for maximum teaching time in Key Stage 4.

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 GCSE English Language
• No set texts - students expected to read ‘a wide range of
texts’ – 19th, 20th and 21st century
• Reading (50%): critical reading and comprehension;
summary and synthesis; evaluation of a writer’s choice of
vocabulary, form and structural features.
• Reading assessment based on unseen texts from all three
centuries – fiction & non-fiction including literary non-
fiction
• Writing (50%): producing clear and coherent text; writing for
impact.
• 20% of Writing marks for range of vocabulary and sentence
structures, spelling and punctuation.
• Spoken language : presenting information and ideas;
responding to spoken language; spoken standard English.
• Speaking assessment reported separately.
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 GCSE English Literature
• Emphasis on ‘classic literature’ and ‘substantial whole texts
in detail’. Shakespeare; 19th century novel; selection of
poetry since 1789, including Romantic poetry; fiction or
drama from the British Isles from 1914 onwards.
• Exam must include unseen texts including texts for
comparison. Comparison questions = 20 – 25% of marks
• Reading : literal and inferential comprehension; critical
reading; evaluation of the writer’s choice of vocabulary,
grammatical and structural features; comparing texts.
• Writing about literature : ‘writing effectively about literature
for a range of purposes’.
• Students to ‘maintain a critical style’ so creative responses
not possible.
• 5% of marks for vocabulary, sentence structures, spelling
and punctuation.
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 Increased demand of new specifications

The new specifications will be more demanding in

four ways:
• content – texts from 19th, 20th & 21st centuries (Eng
Lang); Romantic poetry, 19th century novel,
substantial whole texts - no short stories (Eng Lit)
• examination – end of course only; no controlled
conditions assessments
• assessment – less scaffolding; comparison of unseen
passages
• grading – mid grade of new 9 to 1 scale (grade 5) to
be a half to two-thirds of a grade higher than that
required for a current grade C [Ofqual proposal under
consultation]
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 Increased demand in Reading, not Writing

The first three of these increased demands all relate

to Reading response, not to Writing.
In Eng Lang, there will continue to be alternative
Writing tasks, related to the Reading passages ,
worth 50 per cent and marked similarly to now, as
also in Eng Lit.
The Reading tasks will be significantly more
demanding in the ways outlined. Writing will be
affected only insofar as students will be responding to
more difficult content and questions.
The rest of this presentation therefore focusses on
response to Reading.
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 Structure of new GCSE English papers
• Two papers each for Eng Lang and Eng Lit
• Papers no longer than 2 hours each – possibly 1 hour
30 minutes plus 15 minutes reading time
• Eng Lang – 19th, 20th and 21st century passages each
year
- fiction, literary non-fiction and other non-fiction
- some short comprehension questions ; most marks
on summary, evaluation and comparison questions
• Eng Lit – Shakespeare, 19th century novel, poetry
including Romantics, British fiction /drama since 1914
- critical analysis and evaluation including comparison
of two ‘unseen’ passages from studied texts
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 Consequences for teaching and learning

The new specifications will require students to

respond confidently to unknown 19th, 20th and 21st
century texts (Eng Lang) and passages from full-
length works (Eng Lit) – deducing and inferring
meaning quickly and explaining their ideas accurately
in writing in timed conditions.

They will therefore need practice in developing the

skills of inference and deduction, reflected in higher
level thinking and fluent explanatory writing.

This is more successfully achieved by a regular

programme of lessons which develop the necessary
16 skills beginning in Key Stage 3.
 A different way of teaching
The greater difficulty and sheer range of texts in the
new specifications mean that close-focus sentence-
level teaching will be insufficient. Students will need
to be able to:
• infer or deduce reasonable meanings when faced
with unfamiliar words
• recognise the layered effects of figurative language
• perceive tonal effects like irony, exaggeration,
innuendo, humour
• in the light of these, speculate persuasively about the
writer’s intentions
• write confidently using evidence from the texts
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 For example…

When teaching two poems by the same poet, one can

introduce the poet, give some biographical
background and work through the poems with the
students, identifying meaning and similarities or
differences between the poems.

Or one can give students the two poems saying

nothing about their authorship; ask each half of the
class to work out what is happening to explain to the
other half; then ask the class to work out whether the
two poems are written by the same poet, with
evidence.
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 Or…
Teaching a short story one can work through the
story, drawing out meaning paragraph by paragraph
and then considering how storyline, setting and
characterisation work to make the story successful.

Or one can read the story without the first two

paragraphs; ask the students to speculate on the
significance of one or two selected incidents in the
story; then reveal the missing paragraphs and ask the
students to decide whether they should come at the
beginning or end of the story – which would be better
and how would each position affect our
understanding of the story?
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 Not one or other, but both

Students will need both kinds of teaching if they are

to succeed with the new GCSE specifications -
detailed study of text s for English Literature and a
carefully structured approach to building their
awareness of the principles of literary understanding
of unknown texts for English Language and ‘unseen’
passages for English Literature.
This approach should be embedded in KS3 schemes
of work for maximum effect. Let’s Think in English
(LTE) provides such an approach.
[The examples on the previous two slides are LTE lessons –
Decisions and When the Wasps Drowned in the current
AQA GCSE anthology. These are available on our website –
20 www.letsthinkinenglish.org ]
 How Let’s Think in English can help
Let’s Think in English (LTE) consists of 30+ fully
trialled lessons which:
• are designed to be used fortnightly
• use fiction, poetry, non-fiction, drama and film
• stimulate students’ reasoning powers, including
inference and deduction, in a systematic way
• build awareness of the underlying principles of
literary understanding
• have very high interest for students
• are discussion-based, leading to written work when
the teacher wishes
•21 are designed for regular use in KS3 and KS4
Let’s Think in English and less able students
Let’s Think in English lessons work particularly well with
less able and EAL students. This is partly because there is
almost no writing which is often a cause of anxiety and
frustration. When less able and EAL students realise it’s
the development of their ideas rather than their writing
skills that is important, they begin to gain confidence and
flourish.
Teachers in our pilot schools repeatedly tell us how less
able and EAL students make significant progress. And
when we teach demonstration lessons in schools, the
class’s teacher is often amazed at the quality of answers
and comments by students with learning difficulties.
It is also becoming clear that writing improves as students
gain confidence in discussion, showing significant gains in
range of language and grammatical structure as students’
oral ability develops.
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 More about Let’s Think in English
• Let’s Think in English lessons have been initially
designed to be used in KS3. More GCSE-related
lessons will; become available when the new
specifications are published.
• Ofsted has repeatedly judged LTE lessons
outstanding or good with outstanding features.
• LTE has the same basis as Cognitive Acceleration in
Science Education (CASE) which has been
repeatedly proven to raise attainment by between one
and two GCSE grades.
• Training is necessary and a full training and support
programme is available.
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 The London trial
Let’s Think in English is now being used by 120+
schools across England. These include 21 London
schools which are formally trialling the programme –
we have received £130k from the London Schools
Excellence Fund for this.

Evidence is growing that LTE improves students’

written work as well as their cognitive skills and
reading. We want to prove this.

We will need another 20 London schools for Year 2 of

the trial from September 2014 and welcome
expressions of interest.
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 The next steps
For further information, please go to
www.letsthinkinenglish.org
Any queries to Laurie Smith at [email protected]
Our next introductory training days are Tuesday 17
June, repeated on Thursday 3 July, 9.30 – 3.30, at
King’s College London. Training and support
elsewhere is available by arrangement.

Let’s Think in English

Department of Education & Professional Studies
King’s College London
Franklin-Wilkins Building (Waterloo Bridge Wing)
Waterloo Road
London SE1 9NH
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