English at GCSE/Key Stage 4

The following suggestions match sample activities against specific objectives in the National Framework for English. They can easily be adapted to the objectives of other national curricula.

• Speaking and listening objectives
• Reading objectives
• Writing objectives (Breadth of study)

Speaking and listening objectives

Speaking

1b Use illustrations, evidence and anecdote to enrich and explain their ideas.

1d Use visual aids and images to enhance communication.

Sample activity

Students design a poster/website for the film from Real Shorts which most impressed them. Focus should be on target audience and visual impact. Research work could allow students to find effective examples of film and TV publicity. Their design could then be presented to the class.

1e Vary word choices, including technical vocabulary, and sentence structure for different audiences.

Sample activity

Students create a 'director's commentary' on a sequence which impresses them from Real Shorts. This should use appropriate analytical film language (shot selection, mise-en-scène, editing techniques), justifying decisions made.

Listening

2a Concentrate on and recall the main features of a talk, reading, radio or television programme.

Sample activity

Screen the film to be studied at the end of the preceding lesson. Homework task to make notes predicting the key theme and issues to be discussed in class, citing visual/audio evidence from the film.

2b Identify the major elements of what is being said both explicitly and implicitly.

Sample activity

Group discussion of some of the more political films could promote deeper reading skills. For example, nowhere in Hidden is the film-maker's view on immigration policy made explicit - but how can we infer what they may be, with reference to specific evidence from the film? A selection of pertinent stills from a selection of films can be used to develop understanding of semiotics: for example, what are the connotations of the Exorcist poster which is exposed in the demolished house in Blight?

2f Ask questions and give relevant and helpful comments.

Sample activity

Look at how youth is represented in the older films from the compilation. In pairs, create questions for some of the young people represented in the films by Mitchell and Kenyon and Holiday to get information and understand what their lives were like. What questions might they have about the modern world?

Group discussion and interaction

3b Take different views into account and modify their own views in the light of what others say.

Sample activity

The film selections in Real Shorts provide excellent scope for contentious class debates, in which students could be assigned argumentative positions in groups, and need to consider the counter arguments which could be used. Examples could include 'The lives of ordinary people are too boring to make films about', 'Films need dialogue in order to be interesting', 'The Urban Savannah gives a realistic presentation of modern youth', 'Housing Problems and Holiday show how much things have improved for working-class people in modern Britain.'

3e Help the group to complete its tasks by varying contributions appropriately, clarifying and synthesising others' ideas, taking them forward and building on them to reach conclusions, negotiating consensus or agreeing to differ.

Sample activity

Linked to research work and screening of Housing Problems and Tomorrow's Saturday, in small groups discuss what problems and issues they would want to highlight if making a short film about inner-city life for economically deprived people. Issues to consider might include: Are call centres the new mills and factories? Are tower blocks and estates an advance on slums or the new slums? Are we living in an ASBO/binge-drinking culture? What is poverty today? Students should consider the form they want their film to make (the didactic style of Housing Problems or the verité visuals and more abstract use of sound in Tomorrow's Saturday). Within the group, pairs could be assigned areas to focus on, and each group should have a chair to lead feedback to the whole class.

Drama

4a Use a variety of dramatic techniques to explore ideas, issues, texts and meanings.

4b Use different ways to convey action, character, atmosphere and tension when they are scripting and performing in plays (for example, through dialogue, movement, pace).

Sample activity 1

Inspired by Ferment, create group tableaux which show the 'story of a moment' in a particular place.

Sample activity 2

Hot-seat Tana's aunt and uncle in Silence about their treatment of Tana and her mother.

Sample activity 3

Play the soundtrack from Blight, or a section of it, without the visuals and ask groups to create a piece of improvised drama inspired by its mood; this could include dialogue or be purely physical.

Reading objectives

1a Extract meaning beyond the literal, explaining how the choice of language and style affects implied and explicit meanings.

1b Analyse and discuss alternative interpretations, ambiguity and allusion.

Sample activity

What is Blight about, apart from building motorways? Screen the film without comment and let students make initial notes - which they could then compare with others in small groups. A range of interpretations will appear. Students should back-up their readings with evidence from the film. If John Smith had included a voice-over explaining his feelings about the demolition, what would he say? Would anything be lost from the film? What are the effects of ambiguity in texts?

1c How ideas, values and emotions are explored and portrayed.

Sample activity

I Love My Nails and I Expect Joan Feels the Same seem on the surface to represent very contrasting views of Britain. What values seem to be encoded in the films? Do they represent generation differences? What similarities can you find between the women in the two films?

1e Consider how meanings are changed when texts are adapted to different media.

Sample activity

Students could take the 'mocumentary' approach of The Urban Savannah and 're-cast' one of the other films in the same form. For example, inspired by Holiday students could write a script for a satirical mocumentary about modern holidays. This could be part of wider study of satire and its purposes.

1j How techniques, structure, forms and styles vary.

1k Compare texts, looking at style, theme and language, and identifying connections and contrasts.

Sample activity

Appropriate films could be grouped, and a frame devised to aide comparison. Possible groupings might be 'new' technology (the films by Mitchell and Kenyon, Ferment); representation of youth (Bush Bikes, The Urban Savannah); animation in documentary (Silence and Hidden). These frames could become the basis of an extended coursework essay on non-fiction/media texts.

Texts from different cultures and traditions

3a Understand the values and assumptions in texts from other cultures and traditions.

3b The significance of the subject matter and the language.

Sample activity

The film-maker of Hidden doesn't use voice-over to state her views on immigration policy. Can we infer what her views might be, using evidence from the film? Students could compare the film with an article about immigration from a right-wing newspaper such as the Daily Mail. Do the texts use any similar techniques to make very different points about the same subject? Focus on appeals to viewer's/reader's emotions and fears. Which do students find most persuasive? Again, this could be the focus of a comparative coursework essay.

Media and moving image texts

5c How the nature and purpose of media products influence content and meaning.

Sample activity

Having seen most/all of the Real Shorts films, give students a two-column table in which to identify possible purposes of each film, and in the second column specific elements within the form/structure/style of the film which help to realise its purpose. For example, a purpose of Hidden and Silence might be to introduce a younger audience to sensitive/disturbing material, and the use of animation helps to pull in a younger audience. In I Expect Joan Feels the Same and I Love My Nails the focus is very much on giving a vivid snapshot of the lives of the subjects, rather than reflecting the views of the film-makers; as such it is unsurprising that the questioners behind the camera in both films remind unseen and unheard. This linking of form and content leads to higher level reading skills needed for the highest GCSE grades.

Writing objectives (Breadth of study)

9a Imagine, explore and entertain, focusing on creative, aesthetic and literary uses of language. Many of the films could be stimulus material for creative writing.

Sample activity 1

Writing a secret diary in which Tana in Silence records all the feelings she is forbidden to articulate would be an excellent method of engaging with the text.

Sample activity 2

The robotic din of the factory in Tomorrow's Saturday, the vibrancy of the colour and design in I Love My Nails, and the experimentation with time in Ferment could all be stimulus for writing poetry.

Sample activity 3

Having studied The Urban Savannah, students could invent a screenplay for a satirical mocumentary on a subject of their choice, including appropriate screenplay formatting.

Sample activity 4

The experience of being one of the first people filmed in Britain, as seen in Mitchell and Kenyon films could be rich material for a short story.

9b Inform, explain and describe, focusing on conveying information and ideas clearly.

Sample activity 1

Using I Love My Nails as stimulus, students produce a website/leaflet about their favourite hobbies and why they are passionate about them.

Sample activity 2

With The Urban Savannah as the focus film, students produce a brochure for potential adult 'tourists' to the 'Urban Savannah', pointing out the sights of interest they might expect to see; students could broaden the range of 'animals' from those seen in the film.

Sample activity 3

In role as director of one of the films, students produce a series of notes explaining the filmic choices they made in a key sequence, focusing on the effects they hoped to achieve.

9c Persuade, argue and advise, focusing on presenting a case and influencing the reader.

Sample activity 1

Having studied all/most of the Real Shorts films, write a letter to the head of the BBC arguing for more documentary and non-fiction programmes on television. Students should use specific examples from the films to justify their arguments.

Sample activity 2

Using Blight as the focus film, write a speech arguing against continued motorway expansion.

Sample activity 3

Design a new advertising campaign, including copy text, to attract tourists to Blackpool. Draw on some of the iconography and style of Holiday, while trying to appeal to a modern audience.

Sample activity 4

Combining study of Hidden with research work, write an information leaflet for young people on how best to help immigrants new to their school to settle in.

9d Analyse, review and comment, focusing on considered and evaluative views of ideas, texts and issues.

Sample activity 1

Write reviews of the films studied for a variety of audiences (for example, tabloid, Sight and Sound, teen magazine).

Sample activity 2

Analyse the representation of a particular group across a selection of films (for example, outsiders, the working classes, children).

Sample activity 3

Compare the treatment of the same theme/issue in different forms and media: what different strengths do different media have?

Fruitful comparisons:

• the treatment of working class experience in Housing Problems and Tomorrow's Saturday with extracts from Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier and Billy Bragg's song ' To Have and Have Not'.
• the presentation of memory in I Expect Joan Feels the Same and Blight with Dali's The Persistence of Memory and extracts from Pinter's The Caretaker. To download teaching notes on The Caretaker.