New A Level Dr Faustus resources

Launched this week at Crossref-it.info is the long anticipated guide on one of the texts being examined this summer, Dr Faustus.

By its very subject matter (a man selling his soul to the devil in return for 24 years of unlimited wealth and power) Dr Faustus is a text steeped in religious language, which can be daunting to the uninitiated. Where many resources fear to tread, Crossref-it.info jumps right in and provides clear, easy to understand explanations of these terms and ideas. If you chose it can take you to the background refs without you having to turn a page!

Whether you are exploring the A Text or B Text, the new guide tells you everything you need to know about the demonic Doctor, such as:

• The development of the Faust legend through the centuries
• Scene synopses and commentary
• Characterisation
• Theatrical, social and religious background
• Themes, imagery and symbolism
• Critical interpretations of the text

As usual with Crossref-it.info materials, this is backed up by:

• An interactive timeline
• Guidance on how to do well with essays and exams
• Zillions of pop-ups providing literary and cultural definitions, including classical and biblical references.

Coming soon – something for the teachers

To help classes explore key topics (before exams swamp the timetable), there are free, downloadable, teachers' ideas sheets. Look out for them in May!

Time to get serious

Ready for action

The summer term has started, and hopefully all the long AS /A2 Lit. assignments are safely handed in and out of the way. The weather has cheered up and everyone should be refreshed by the Easter break and ready for the intensity of the coming weeks.

For A Level English Lit. students now is the season of going back over texts studied earlier in the year. It is the time when you start to look at your notes and get a sight of how all the pieces fit together into a bigger picture…

Let down by your notes?

Unless, of course, you find yourself faced with pages of skimpy headings, half caught sentences or missing conclusions (but amazing doodles!) and you can’t actually make head nor tail of what they are referring to. We all have days when brain function isn’t sharp (obviously nothing to do with an active social life..) but now is not the time to panic.

Solutions

Ask nicely

Generally teachers really go the extra mile at this time of the year to help students. If you ask very nicely they are often willing to run additional revision sessions based on tricky texts or areas of concern. They know what the syllabus is asking for and are your first port of call.

Check out the web

Revision resources on the web are another useful tool, but do check that they actually cover the kind of areas that will be expected in your exam answers. Many sites (e.g. Sparknotes) are written for the American market, which covers a broader range of literature but in much less depth. Chapter synopses and one paragraph per character can only get you so far..

In greater depth are e-notes and York notes Advanced online – but you have to pay to access most of the material. The S-cool revision site asks some really helpful questions, and is free, but doesn’t provide detail on the texts.

Free, detailed, with helpful questions

Examiners know what students need to address as they get ready for external assessment, so there is logic in looking at a free access site they have had a hand in developing. Many of you already know that Crossref-it.info material is peppered with ‘Investigate’ boxes. If you are now needing to go back and plug the gaps in you’re A Level notes, why not use the questions posed as ‘prompts’ about what you need to cover?

Teaching Blake and pushed for time?

Happy holidays!

I hope the current Easter holidays are providing a great break for you (and not just ‘time for illness’)! Wonderful weather would be a real bonus, but this year it seems too much to hope for…

Time to assess

Within the Easter holidays there is always that scary point as an A Level English teacher when you review the work you have covered so far and realise just how much there is still to fit in. This past term has doubtless had its fair share of staff illness and school closure, which may have thrown your carefully structured lesson plan off course.

So now an element of (controlled) panic may start to assail you. Perhaps a text still isn’t properly covered - and then there are all the revision sessions to fit it, particularly on those texts which you weren’t confident the class really ‘got’ first time around.

Ready made and reliable

Whether you are getting your students ready for AS levels or A2s, you don’t want anxiety to rob you of the remaining days of your holiday. Yes, time is now of the essence, but there are some easy shortcuts you can use.

The recently launched Crossref-it.info guide on Songs of Innocence and Experience is full of information you can send your students to for research. It has the usual interactive timeline, contextual info and clear textual analyses.

Even better, it is now accompanied by a variety of teachers’ worksheets. Devised by the English HOD of a successful state school, each provides three to five lessons’ worth of different approaches to the poems, so that you can make them accessible for the weakest to the brightest of your students.

Check them out on Crossref-it.info then you have got one less thing to worry about…

Songs of Innocence and Experience - new text guide!

Sorry for a delay in the usual missives. It has been ‘heads down’ time as we get as much ready as possible, to help you do as well as possible, in the forthcoming unmentionables (duh.. exams!).

Poetry help

If you are trying to get to grips with how to identify different styles of poetry – a skill you need for any unseen lit. paper – try checking out the expanding range of articles at www.crossref-it.info > Aspects of literature > Recognising poetic form. In around 300 words each they provide a helpful introduction to some of the standard styles poets have worked within, or adapted to suit their needs.

Songs of Innocence and Experience

Many students will be answering on Blake this summer. Deceptively simple in tone and diction, they actually encompass a range of quite complex themes and ideas. Blake was idiosyncratic in his take on contemporary society, what made humans tick and his understanding of God and faith.

Conventional allusions

It’s not always easy getting to grips with the way poets have drawn on texts like the Bible to convey meaning to their readers. However, over the centuries, and in the face of conventional church teaching, a standard interpretation has arisen. This means that if a writer refers to a shepherd for example, you can be confident that s/he is expecting readers to think of:

• Caring leadership
• Practical concern
• Wise guidance
• Sacrificial love
• The call for sheep to follow

All of the above, linked to the person of Jesus, whom the Bible portrays as a ‘good shepherd’.

An unconventional understanding

Grappling with allusions like these gets trickier when the poet doesn’t use such images conventionally. This is often the case with Blake:

• The Shepherd represents a leader who is alongside, but does not rule his flock
• His care does not repress or direct the sheep but enables them to live fully as sheep
• He is full of praise for them rather than demanding obedience from them
• In fact Blake saw any idea of religious authority as the opposite to his understanding of God, even though it was a consistent theme in the Bible.

The new Crossref-it.info text guide on Songs of Innocence and Experience unpacks each poem without assuming that students know all the background that Blake was referring to. It helps readers see where Blake was in line with his society and where he developed his own unique vision.

If you are starting to revise there are lots of handy questions to focus your notes on, as well as sample essay questions and a worked example.

Meanwhile, best of luck as you get down to the serious stuff!