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10-lesson GCSE English Language revision crash-course.

Each lesson targets key skills and exam strategies. The course is broadly relevant to all major GCSE English Language exam boards, including AQA, Edexcel, OCR, and WJEC Eduqas, as they assess similar core skills. However, there are slight differences in question formats and mark schemes between exam boards (the marks listed in the table below are based on AQA).

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Skills Covered:

These universal skills span across all boards:

  1. Reading comprehension (retrieval, inference).

  2. Language analysis (writers’ use of language and techniques).

  3. Structural analysis (writers’ use of structure and techniques).

  4. Evaluation of texts.

  5. Writing (descriptive, narrative, persuasive).

 

Lesson Content:

The below table informs you of what will be covered in each lesson.  This framework is a guide only - should the group benefit from more focus in one particular area of study than another, we will cater to those needs.​​

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01

Introduction to Key Skills & Assessing Confidence

​Objective: Recap of the Assessment Objectives (AOs) and assess areas of strength or weakness within the group.

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  • Overview of the Assessment Objectives.

  • Key skills: reading comprehension, analysis, evaluation, and writing for purpose/audience.

  • Activities to gauge confidence in: word class, literary devices, AFOREST, language vs structure, tone & audience, explicit vs implicit information, inference.

  • Discuss the importance of structuring exam answers and discover what structure you are familiar with (PEED, PETAL etc).

  • Gauge confidence with planning and structuring answers.

Week Beginning 24.02.2025

02

Reading for Meaning & Language Analysis (Paper 1: Question 1 [4 marks] & 2[8 marks])

Objective: Develop confidence in identifying and understanding explicit and implicit information and assess strength of analysis skills - how writers use language to create effects.

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  • Overview of strategies to read extracts efficiently.

  • Practice: Use short extracts and answer straightforward retrieval and inference questions.

  • Activity to recap key language terms.

  • Focus on identifying techniques (e.g., similes, metaphors, word choices, sentence structure).

  • Introduce how to plan a response plan (e.g., spider diagram, PEED etc)
    and plan first paragraph of an exam-style answer.

Week Beginning 03.03.2025

03

Re-visit Language Analysis (P1: Q2[8 marks]) and compare with Structural Analysis (Paper 1: Question 3 [8 marks])

Objective: Recall and practice structured language analysis answer.  Assess understanding of structural techniques - understand and evaluate how writers structure texts to engage readers.

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  • Recap last lesson - planning & structuring an answer. Take one more point and write a paragraph together as a group.

  • Activity to recap key structural terms.

  • Annotate & identify structural techniques within the extract.

  • Structuring and planning an answer (e.g., "The writer begins by focusing on...").
    Practice: Annotate an extract and write one paragraph of an exam-style answer.

Week Beginning 10.03.2025

04

Evaluation Skills (Paper 1: Question 4 [20 marks])

Objective: Develop critical evaluation skills to assess a writer's choices.
 

  • Explore evaluative vocabulary.

  • Discuss expressions of different levels of agreement and practice forming opinions based on a given statement.

  • Use evidence effectively to justify arguments.
    Practice: Answer a ‘to what extent’ question.

Week Beginning 17.03.2025

05

Writing Descriptively and Creatively (Paper 1: Question 5 [40 marks])

Week Beginning 24.03.2025

Objective: Learn how to craft engaging and imaginative narratives or descriptions.
 

  • Activity to stretch creative vocabulary - upgrade extracts with high level verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

  • Teach planning techniques (e.g., mind maps, 5 Ws for descriptive writing).

  • Focus on sensory language, zoom, figurative techniques, and varying sentence structure.
    Practice: Write a description based on a visual or text prompt - a group piece and an individual piece.

06

Comparing Texts (Paper 2: Question 2 [8 marks])

Week Beginning 31.03.2025

Objective: Practice summarising and comparing ideas across two texts.
 

  • Starter activity: implicit vs explicit information (P1 Q1 [4marks])

  • How to identify similarities and differences in viewpoints and methods - implicit and explicit differences.

  • Explore vocabulary for comparative answers: (e.g., however, similarly, in contrast).
    Practice: Compare two short texts on a shared theme - annotate and plan a structured answer.

07

Analysing Writers’ Methods (Paper 2: Question 3 [12 marks])

Week Beginning 07.04.2025

Objective: Examine how writers convey viewpoints and perspectives through language.
 

  • Starter activity AFOREST

  • Focus on persuasive techniques (e.g., rhetorical questions, emotive language).

  • Analyse an opinion piece or speech extract.

  • Structure a response: PEED
    Practice: detailed PEED plan of full answer. Writing of the first paragraph.

08

Comparing Attitudes and Perspectives (Paper 2: Question 4 [16 marks])

Week Beginning 14.04.2025

Objective: To compare texts in general terms and in detail, identifying writers’ methods clearly and confidently.
 

  • Activity / quiz to recap on definitions (tone / register, implicit / explicit, language / structure).

  • Detailed analysis of two contrasting pieces of writing.  Discussion of similarities and differences.

09

Writing to Persuade and Argue (Paper 2: Question 5 [40 marks - 24 for content & organisation, 16 for technical accuracy])

Week Beginning 21.04.2025

Objective: Develop skills in crafting compelling arguments and persuasive writing.
 

  • AFOREST competition.

  • Dissecting the question - audience, tone, point.

  • How to plan / structure your piece: link points to question, choose which AFOREST technique in which paragraph.
    Practice: Students pair up to write differing opinions as a response to their choice of statement.

  • FEEDBACK - final lesson discussion. Feedback on confidence levels in all areas.

10

**this lesson content will be created based on the previous 9 weeks of classes.

Week Beginning
28.04.2025

Suggested topics:

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  • Recap lesson on areas of identified weaknesses from lessons 1 - 9

  • Confidence with 19th Century texts

  • Group marking of exam answers

  • Quizzing

  • Structuring an answer

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