Jeremy Bennett · Attika English
@att1ka.bsky.social
GCSE & IGCSE English tutoring. Team Leader Examiner. Lead Practitioner. 27 years in the classroom. I show how marks are really won: the small moves that lift a grade. From the margins.
From the margins... Ask a Y11 class to write a full essay for homework and the real task quietly becomes typing the question into ChatGPT. Set homework at the level of a specific move; there's nothing to hand over. How are you developing your approach to homework next year? #TeamEnglish
"What have the immigrants ever done for us?" Well. There's the English language, for a start. Half the writers we set for exams would have needed a visa: Conrad, Ishiguro, Achebe, Soyinka, Agard, Dharker. And the child at the back who put their hand up and stopped the room. From the margins.
Burnham's vocational-GCSE push has English teachers defending English as academic. Wrong defence. English is foundational, underpinning academic AND vocational work alike. Five ways that shows up, whichever path a student takes: 👇
One habit caps more GCSE English answers than any lack of ability: feature-spotting. Naming a device is where analysis begins; connection is what lifts the answer: what it does and how it builds one idea across the whole text. Five moves to get there (below). #TeamEnglish
Malvolio: one flattering letter, yellow stockings, public fool. Three signs a lead's a bit phishy: 1. You're the chosen one 2. Flattering but vague 3. You bite before they ask what you want What's nearly reeled you in?
From the margins. Every summer I read about four hundred pounding hearts. Shivers running up spines come a close second. Five ways to show a character is nervous, without ever mentioning a heartbeat. Use / bin / adapt. #TeamEnglish
From the margins. Look at this England side. Every corner of the country, every kind of background, greater than the sum of its parts. Behind them tonight whatever the score, because they are ours. Come on England.
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retrievalpractice.org
When your child is told to "analyse the language" more, it can point the wrong way. The real key is understanding the whole text well enough to have something to say. I have written about why, using Macbeth. jezben.substack.com/p/is-analysi...
Is analysing language a coherence problem?
What the top band really rewards in GCSE Literature. And why it starts long before Year 11.
jezben.substack.com
Verbs to set up more precise explanations. In GCSE English, "shows" and "describes" tend to flatten analysis. A verb that names the actual authorial move more precisely sharpens the whole sentence. Here are a few that students can experiment with. #GCSE #EnglishTeacher
