Specifications that use this resource:

Route map: two-year linear A-level

This resource is a suggested programme of study for a two-year linear A-level course. It assumes that students will not sit the AS exam but that all students will sit the A-level exam at the end of a two-year course.

A range of different factors, for example timetabling structures, may affect a teacher’s ability to follow this programme of study without some adaptation.

For example, if two teachers are sharing one class, each teacher could take a half-term’s text focus and spread that over a whole term. In the Autumn term of Year one, teacher one could take the 'bridging unit', the 'introduction to genre' and the 'unseen text study' and teacher two the 'prose study'.

Year one

Autumn term 1

Text and skills focus Activities focus Notes

Bridging Unit – development of skills from GCSE to A-level

Paper 2: Elements of crime writing OR Elements of political and social protest writing

  • Introduction to the genre
  • Section A: unseen text.
  • Work on a key focus to refresh skills of analysis and interpretation and to consider how to respond critically and creatively to literature eg a short unit which looks at narrative voice and point of view.
  • Introduce the idea of approaching the study of literature through the lens of genre.
  • Introduce relevant literary terms which may be unfamiliar to students, particularly the term ‘significance’ which is central to Literature B.
  • Group work to research and present visually the key elements of Crime/Political and Social Protest writing. Students create a working wall display which can be added to during the course.
  • Students explore how these key elements (and others) are represented in a range of unseen extracts and the significances which arise.
  • Students begin to consider the contexts which arise from the inclusion of particular elements of crime/political and social protest eg moral, power etc. They explore how the text sets up contexts and how contexts are best understood from starting with the text and going outwards.
  • The Paper 2, Section A unseen extract could be either poetry, prose or drama and so students should be given examples from each of these major genres during the course.
  • The specification lists possible broad elements of crime writing and political and social protest writing for study. This is not an exhaustive list and students will find other interesting elements through the study of their set texts and from wider reading around the genre.

Autumn term 2

Text and skills focus Activities focus Notes

Paper 2: Elements of crime writing OR Elements of political and social protest writing

  • Prose study
  • Continue analysis of unseen extracts at key points of the set prose text study to exemplify relevant elements of crime/political and social protest writing and to consider the broad contexts which arise from them.
  • Ensure students are familiar with the conventions of prose fiction and with narrative methods, and how their set prose text reflects these or otherwise.
  • Students analyse their set prose text for the narrative structure, use of time and place, characterisation, point of view, voices etc. and how these contribute to the elements of crime/political and social protest writing.
  • Students consider the representation of key elements of their chosen genre in their set prose text and how this is connected with the representation of these elements in other reading from crime/political and social protest writing (including the unseen extracts).
  • Students might consider TV/film adaptations and/or critical views of their set prose text to engage with possible alternative interpretations.
  • Across Sections B and C of Paper 2, students need to have studied one post-2000 prose text plus one poetry and one further text, one of which must have been written pre-1900.
  • The texts on the set text list for the relevant genre provide a good starting point for unseen extracts.
  • As students may use the prose text in Section B of the exam, they should practise responses to single text exam questions on their prose text.
  • Although reference to critical views is not an explicit requirement in exam responses, it is good practice for students to study relevant extracts from the critical anthology alongside their set exam texts to enhance their understanding of the set texts and to begin their preparation for the NEA, where reference to the critical anthology is a requirement.

Spring term 1

Text and skills focus Activities focus Notes

Paper 2: Elements of crime writing OR Elements of political and social protest writing

  • Poetry study
  • Continue analysis of unseen extracts at key points of the set poetry text study to exemplify relevant elements of crime/political and social protest writing and to consider the broad contexts which arise from them.
  • Ensure students are familiar with the conventions of poetry and how their set poetry text reflects these or otherwise. Students need to understand, however, that poetry here is studied through the lens of genre so that focus on poetic devices alone will seldom lead to a clear understanding of the genre.
  • Students analyse their set poetry text for subject matter; voice, attitudes and ideas; poetic structure; imagery, sound effects etc. only in terms of how these contribute to the elements of crime/political and social protest writing.
  • Students consider the representation of key elements of their chosen genre in their set poetry text and how this connects with the representation of these elements in other reading around crime/political and social protest (including the set prose text and the unseen extracts).
  • Students might consider critical views of their set poetry text to engage with possible alternative interpretations.
  • As students may use the poetry text in Section B of the exam, students should practise response to single text exam questions on their poetry text.
  • As students may connect the poetry text to the prose text in Section C of the exam, students should be noting links and differences (the elements of their chosen genre; authorial methods; contextual factors; different interpretations) between the poetry and prose text as they are studying it.

Spring term 2

Text and skills focus Activities focus Notes

Paper 2: Elements of crime Writing OR Elements of political and social protest writing

  • Further text study
  • Continue analysis of unseen extracts at key points of the further set text study to exemplify relevant elements of crime/political and social protest writing and to consider the broad contexts which arise from them.
  • Ensure students are familiar with the conventions of their further text genre (poetry/prose/drama) and how their further set text reflects these or otherwise.
  • Students analyse their further set text for the relevant authorial methods and how these contribute to the elements of crime/political and social protest writing.
  • Students consider the representation of key elements of their chosen genre in their further set text and how this connects with the representation of these elements in other reading around crime/political and social protest (including the set prose and poetry texts and the unseen extracts).
  • Students might consider TV/film or stage adaptations (where applicable) and/or critical views of their further set text to engage with possible alternative interpretations.
  • As students may use the further set text in Section B of the exam, students should practise response to single text exam questions on their further set text.
  • As students may connect the further set text to the prose text or to the poetry text in Section C of the exam, students should be noting links and differences (the elements of their chosen genre; authorial methods; contextual factors; different interpretations) between the further set text and the prose/poetry text(s) as they are studying it.

Summer term 1

Text and skills focus Activities focus Notes

Paper 2: Elements of crime writing OR Elements of political and social protest writing

Revision and essay writing focus

  • Unseen text
  • Single text
  • Connection of two texts.
  • Students revise their set texts.
  • Students produce maps to show links and differences between the texts which (potentially) will be connected in Section C for: the elements of their chosen genre; authorial methods; contextual factors; different interpretations. Students should note that they do not need to write about these in an explicit way in the exam.
  • Students revise key passages from their set texts for close analysis in the open-book exam. Students need to learn how to select appropriately from their set texts and make relevant independent choices.
  • Students work with a copy of the assessment objectives, sample exam questions and specimen question commentaries which model how questions are set to enable students to address all the AOs. Activities might include: writing their own exam questions; annotation of exemplar scripts; pair planning and writing of exam responses before individual exam responses are written.
  • Across Sections B and C of Paper 2, students need to have studied one post-2000 prose text plus one poetry and one further text, one of which must have been written pre-1900.
  • Students should be prepared for making choices in the exam. Their combination of texts will inform which pair would best answer the chosen connective question in Section C and therefore which single text will be used in Section B.
  • AQA resource packages are available for all question types for Paper 2. These will help students and teachers with understanding the subtly different approaches required for the different question types and with setting their own practice exam questions.
A-level mock exams

Paper 2, Texts and genres: Elements of crime writing or Elements of political and social protest writing

Summer term 2

Text and skills focus Activities focus Notes

NEA Text 1 (Poetry/Prose)

Critical anthology

  • Students study their first NEA text and consider the areas of interest arising from their study.
  • Students explore relevant extracts from the critical anthology.
  • Students learn the skills of extended essay writing and the application and evaluation of critical views.
  • Different centres will have different approaches to the NEA study depending upon a centre’s particular context. AQA considers all approaches to be equally valid providing a degree of independence is expected from, and demonstrated by, students. This can be achieved through text choice, choice of theoretical material from the critical anthology and task choice.
  • Students may have completely individual choice of the poetry and the prose texts for study, the areas of the critical anthology to which the texts will be linked and of task (with appropriate teacher guidance).
  • Students may all study one common text with choice of tasks and then have individual choice of the second text, of theoretical material and of tasks.

Summer holidays

Text and skills focus Activities focus Notes

NEA Text 2 (Poetry/Prose)

Critical anthology

Students to study second NEA text and research appropriate extracts from the critical anthology. Students should aim to start year two with an outline plan of their second NEA response for consultation with their teacher.

Year two

Autumn term 1

Text and skills focus Activities focus Notes

Paper 1: Aspects of tragedy OR Aspects of comedy

  • Introduction to genre
  • Shakespeare
  • Students explore possible broad aspects of tragedy/comedy.
  • Students explore the common features of traditional tragic or comedic drama and how knowledge of these shapes expectations for readers.
  • Students are introduced to the representation of aspects of tragedy/comedy in poems from the AQA anthology, which each offer different aspects of the genre.
  • Students begin to consider the tragic/comedic contexts which arise from the inclusion of particular aspects of tragedy/comedy eg social, gender etc.
  • Students begin analysis of their Shakespeare text for dramatic structure, stagecraft, dramatic characterisation and dramatic speech and language and how these contribute to the tragedy/comedy of the Shakespeare play.
  • Students will be negotiating their second NEA task with their teacher and drafting their second NEA response. It may be appropriate to factor in one-to-one NEA tutorials this half-term.
  • The specification lists possible broad aspects of tragedy or comedy for study. This is not an exhaustive list and students will find other interesting aspects through the study of their set texts and wider reading around the genre.
  • For possible learning activities for the introduction of tragedy/comedy and for the study of Shakespeare see the Autumn term teaching plan (Co-teaching programme of study).

Autumn term 2

Text and skills focus Activities focus Notes

Paper 1: Aspects of tragedy OR Aspects of comedy

  • Shakespeare
  • Students continue analysis of their Shakespeare text for dramatic structure, stagecraft, dramatic characterisation and dramatic speech and language and how these contribute to the tragedy/comedy of the Shakespeare play.
  • Students consider the representation of aspects of tragedy/comedy in their Shakespeare play, how this reflects the time in which the play was written and how this connects with the representation of these aspects in other reading from the tragic/comedic genre (including poems from the AQA anthology which can continue to be studied alongside the play to exemplify different aspects and to consider the broad contexts which arise from them).
  • Students might consider TV, film or stage adaptations and/or critical views of their Shakespeare play to engage with possible alternative interpretations and how these reflect contexts of reception.
  • Students should practise analysis of key passages from the play, each for the representation of aspects of tragedy/comedy, and the significance of the passage to the tragedy/comedy of the play as a whole.
  • Students will be responding to a passage-based question in Section A and to a conventional essay question in Section B of the exam on their Shakespeare text. They will therefore need to know their play very well and be prepared to respond to each of these question types. The tragedy/comedy resource packages will help students and teachers with understanding the subtly different approaches required for the different question types.

Spring term 1

Text and skills focus Activities focus Notes

Paper 1: Aspects of tragedy OR Aspects of comedy

  • Drama text
  • Students analyse their drama text for dramatic structure, stagecraft, dramatic characterisation and dramatic speech and language and how these contribute to the tragedy/comedy of the drama text.
  • Where appropriate, students will consider how a more modern drama text conforms to/differs from the conventions of traditional dramatic tragedy and comedy seen in their Shakespeare play.
  • Students consider the representation of aspects of tragedy/comedy in their play and how this connects with the representation of these aspects in other reading from the tragic/comedic genre (including poems from the AQA anthology and the Shakespeare play).
  • Students might consider TV, film or stage adaptations and/or critical views of their drama text to engage with possible alternative interpretations and how these reflect contexts of reception.
  • For possible learning activities for the study of the drama text see the Autumn term teaching plan (Co-teaching programme of study).
  • Paper 1, Section C requires students to connect their drama text with their further text.

Spring term 2

Text and skills focus Activities focus Notes

Paper 1: Aspects of tragedy OR Aspects of comedy

  • Further text
  • Ensure students are familiar with the conventions of the genre of their further set text (poetry/prose/drama) and how their further set text reflects these or otherwise.
  • Students analyse their further set text for the relevant authorial methods and how these contribute to the tragedy/comedy of the further text.
  • Students consider the representation of key aspects of their chosen genre in their further set text and how this connects with the representation of these aspects in other reading around tragedy/comedy (including the poems from the AQA anthology, the Shakespeare text and the drama text).
  • Students might consider TV/film or stage adaptations (where applicable) and/or critical views of their further set text to engage with possible alternative interpretations.
  • Students produce maps to show links and differences between the drama text and the further text for: the broad aspects of tragedy/comedy; authorial methods; contextual factors; different interpretations.
  • Students should practise connective analysis of their drama and further text for the representation of a range of aspects of tragedy/comedy.

Summer term 1

Text and skills focus Activities focus Notes

Revision and exam essay writing skills

Paper 1:

  • Shakespeare
  • Connection of drama and further text

Paper 2:

  • Unseen text
  • Single text
  • Connection of two texts
  • Students revise their set texts.
  • Students revise key quotations for Paper 1 closed-book exam and learn how to use close references and quotations.
  • Students revise key passages from their set texts for close analysis in Paper 2 open-book exam.
  • Students practise analysis of unseen poetry, prose and drama extracts for Paper 2.
  • Students revise the connections between the set texts to be used for connective responses in Paper 1, Section C and Paper 2, Section C.
  • Students respond to practice exam questions, including: writing of their own exam questions; annotation of exemplar scripts; pair planning and writing of exam responses before individual exam responses are written.
  • AQA resource packages are available for all question types on all exam papers. These will help students and teachers with understanding the subtly different approaches required for the different question types and with setting their own practice exam questions.
A-level mock exams

Paper 1, Literary genres: Aspects of tragedy or Aspects of comedy

Paper 2, Texts and genres: Elements of crime writing or Elements of political and social protest writing