Bury Church of England High School GCSE English Language OCR Revision Guide Section A – Reading Foundation Tier Mrs Brannon-Barnett 2015  Select an article (from a suitably challenging source – not a tabloid newspaper) and summarise it. Remember to use your own words and draw similar points together.  Go through your mock papers and any feedback on exam questions, and use the skills audit sheet to help you target your revision on the right questions. Your RAG analysis should help with this too.  Look carefully at the sample answers to the Grizzly Bears exam paper. Compare them to your answers in the mock exams.  Annotate a magazine advert, exploring the use of presentational devices to help sell the product.  Look carefully at the past papers you have been provided with. Use them as revision aids.  Collect together all the information you have on question 1d and create a single flash card of advice/ top tips to revise how to tackle it.  Look carefully at all the examples of qu2a you can find from your mock and classwork you have been doing. Create a single flash card.  Repeat for question 2b.  Select two texts which share a common theme and see if you can create your own exam paper – we tried this in class back in November however you will be much better at this now that you are more familiar with the style of exam questions. Use this sheet to audit your skills for the reading section of the Information and Ideas paper. 1d 2a 2b In the reading section of the exam you will need to write your answers in the boxes and spaces provided. You need to read the questions very carefully to make sure you get the answers from the correct paragraph. Ways to revise for question 1d: 1. Look at your December mock exam paper. Once you have read through the above advice, read the text and your response again. Look at the advice your teacher gave you for this question (your EBI) and then have a go at the question again. Have you responded to your EBI this time? 2. Repeat the previous activity using the March mock exam paper. Did your mark go up or down this time? Why? 3. Write for yourself what you did that worked for you and also note any classic mistakes you need to avoid – compare the WWW and EBI for question 1d on BOTH mock papers. If you have the same EBI on both mocks for this question then you really must do something about it. 4. Try writing your own question 1d based on a leaflet, news or magazine article. 5. Practise writing summaries using the past papers you have or the one included in this pack or just by summarising texts in general. Have a go at this past paper to try out your Question 1 skills. Look at this past question and the text that goes with it. Although this question doesn’t seem like it is worth lots of marks it can make a difference of a grade if you through these marks away. . . . so sneak a peek at question 2b to get a clue! Use words from this question to form your opening sentence in your answer to question 2a. One of the key things is knowing what the effect of the text is. . . . Eg. This newspaper conveys the power of the tropical storm through the use of its headings and images. Eg. This newspaper conveys the power of the tropical storm through the use of its headings and images. Why do you think they have included this image of a street on the edge of the background? It is powerful enough to wipe out part of the American flag. What does this verb suggest about the storm? What does this word mean? Times Square is one of the most famous places in New York. These teenagers – usually rebellious figures in society – are here as they “defy” the storm. It suggests that the storm should have authority over them and should be respected because of how powerful it is. Why do you think they have used a photograph of a taxi cab? Look at howhigh the watch is compared to the wheels – how does this show us that the storm was powerful? Why have they used the word “stranded” – what emotions do we attach to this word usually? Now you have read the notes, attempt the question. How = PEEL chain! Have a read of the text and see if you can identify three quotations you can use which show the storm as powerful. Use these are the basis for your PEEL chains in your answer to this question. “Mercifully” “Knocking out” “dumped” “dodged a missile” Detailed statistics show the huge numbers of people affected. Only o “handful” of people weren’t worried. Metaphor and this works as the antithesis to the figures and facts used in the article. Quotation Ideas to write about “Mercifully” Personification – makes it sound like it has taken pity on the people/ it could have been much worse/ almost God-like in its power. “knocking out” Metaphor – sounds violent/ as if the storm was fighting/ triumphant “dumped” Again – metaphorical. Suggests the rain was very sudden/ in control/ idea that the people were powerless to stop it. Lots of statistics – large numbers Why use facts and figures? What do all these big numbers do for our understanding of how big (and powerful) this storm was? “handful” of rebels! Antithesis to the large numbers? Complete this table before writing your answer to the question. Can you add any additional quotes of your own finding?