I’ve recently had something of a revelation in the great mystery of pushing GCSE students at Grade 3 or 4 up into the 5s and 6s. Or rather, something I’ve always known has swum into focus.
I’ve been doing quite a lot of tutoring over the last few months – mainly for the build-up to GCSEs. And a pattern has begun to emerge in both critical response and writing skills. Those students who are in the 7-9 region need to sharpen their analytical skills – delving into connotation, alternative interpretations, identifying structural or linguistic patterns. No surprises there.
But what I’ve begun to realise is that, for students in the lower mid-range, there are two things holding them back:
- firstly, vocabulary – the value of which has become increasingly clear in recent years
- and secondly (and I think equally importantly) the confidence and ability to construct a range of sentence types – something which has not received the attention it deserves and desperately needs.
Compare these two responses to the character of Lady Macbeth:
One of these would surely be judged a stronger response from a stronger student by the vast majority of examiners and teachers. So what makes the difference?
Both show awareness of character and plot: each student recognises the significance of Lady Macbeth’s intention. Both show a similar level of analysis: neither says anything that the other doesn’t.
But compare the vocabulary:
| Student A | Student B |
|---|---|
| manipulates | make him feel |
| accusing | calls |
| mock | stupid |
| undermine | weak |
| determination to prove himself | a real man |
Now compare the sentence structures:
Student A’s response features two multiclause sentences. In one, the student develops the main clause with a non-finite clause and adverbial, and in the other with a non-finite clause, a coordinated clause (featuring two non-finite clauses) and an adverbial. Student B’s response is one very long sentence featuring one non-finite clause, one subordinating conjunction but (more significantly) a comma splice and repeated use of the coordinating conjunction ‘and’.
Which makes me think… If Student B’s vocabulary were wider, and their grasp of a variety of sentence structures stronger, could they achieve the same grade as Student A?
Vocabulary is a vast and unruly beast. The vocabulary needed for effective description depends on genre, intention, setting… and for critical response a similar multitude of text-dependent possibilities. However, sentence structure is universal: it applies across the range of disciplines needed in language and literature.
So in the coming weeks and months, I’m going to be working on a range of resources to support students in developing their awareness and understanding of sentence construction, and in building vocabulary for specific regions of the curriculum.
Come back and visit in a couple of weeks to see more.
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