Welcome. I’m Anna Hunt I’m a teacher at a sixth form college in inner city Leicester. I’ve worked for AQA for 13 years in various roles : mostly within the examining team and as an advocate supporting curriculum work in English.
The Inside Assessment series will help to bridge the gap between teaching and assessment, especially for teachers who aren’t involved in examining. The purpose of this video is to take a closer look inside the world of assessment for English Literature, for both GCSE and A-level. Hopefully, you’ve already seen our short videos on the general principles of assessment and if so, you'll already be familiar with key terms like validity, reliability, and comparability.
During this presentation, I will take some of these concepts further by looking at how they apply to English Literature. Together we will explore: what is being assessed in this subject, as defined by the Assessment Objectives. How students’ ability in English Literature is assessed - looking at the construction of exam questions and the design of the mark schemes and why deepening your assessment literacy will benefit your teaching.
Let’s start by establishing what it is that we are aiming to assess in English Literature qualifications. All specifications are developed from the DfE subject content criteria. These Assessment Objectives are not unique to AQA – they are set by Ofqual and they’re shared by all awarding organisations.
Now for a ‘how well do you know your Assessment Objectives’ activity. You will recognise that each of the statements on-screen correspond to Assessment Objectives from GCSE and A-level English Literature. For each of the 9 boxes, can you correctly identify whether they link to GSCE or A-level Assessment Objectives? Can you sequence the Assessment Objectives in numerical order for both levels of study? And thirdly, can you recall the weighting of each AO? By ‘weighting’, I’m referring to the proportion each AO contributes towards the qualification as a whole. Pause the video now to have a go at the activity.
On-screen you can see the Assessment Objectives are now numerically sorted with GCSE Assessment Objectives on the left and A-level Assessment Objectives on the right - well done if you correctly sorted and sequenced them. There are distinct Assessment Objectives for GCSE and A-level but if we remove the number labelling and take a more holistic view you will notice considerable continuity as illustrated by the highlighted text on-screen. To make this even more explicit, take a look at the red text boxes: You’ll notice how AO1 and AO4 at GCSE are merged into one Assessment Objective at A-level.
AO2 for both GCSE and A-level is essentially analysis of writer’s craft with the words ‘analyse’ and ‘meanings’ remaining consistent at both levels. And here, AO3 at GCSE is divided into two strands at A-level, with A-Level AO3 containing the key words ‘understanding’ and ‘contexts’ whereas the necessity to understand relationships between texts becomes a single objective at A-level, assessing connections across literary texts. This exercise serves to illustrate that a course in English Literature should prepare students to be assessed on their ability to:
Write informed, personal responses to literary texts, express their own ideas and interpretations, analyse meaning in texts, show understanding of contexts and write with accuracy and use terminology. Students are also required to handle multiple texts – the GCSE AOs refer to ‘relationships between texts’ whereas A-level talks about ‘exploring connections’. Of course, the study of English Literature at GCSE and A-level differs in the scope of subject content to be studied which is presented on-screen. Remember, this is stipulated by the DfE and shared by all awarding organisations. One obvious difference is the number of texts students are required to study - 4 whole texts at GCSE, compared to 8 texts at A-level. Though, even here, you can also see some cross-over.
When developing these specifications we tried, as far as possible, to avoid duplication, and ensure that the texts selected for study were appropriate for the age and level of demand. For GCSE we selected the more popular and accessible of Shakespeare plays and reserved those perceived to be more challenging for A-level. Though it must be stressed that the level of demand mostly derives from the way in which a text is approached and what a student is expected to do with it, rather than exclusively from the text itself. Putting these specifics to one side, essentially the skills being assessed are the same – it’s just that students are operating at different levels. To enable different awarding organisations to design comparable specifications, the assessment of English Literature is articulated in 4 or 5 discrete strands. However, when studying and teaching literature these strands are not separate - instead they work together. The image of a piece of rope is helpful in illustrating this idea. These individual strands represent the AOs which are entwined and interwoven to form the rope. If we extend this metaphor further still, some of the strands are weightier than others.
For GCSE Assessment Objectives 1 and 2 are dominant and similarly weighted, together they account for 80% of the qualification. This reflects our belief that these skills are fundamental and intrinsically-linked. To put it more plainly, students cannot write an informed, personal response to a text (AO1) without also commenting on the writer’s craft and methods (AO2).
For A-level, AOs 1, 2 and 3 are similarly weighted and together amount to 76% of the qualification. Therefore, like GCSE, but with slightly more emphasis on the ability to demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of contexts. However, it should be stressed that the study of context should inform and not dominate a student’s reading of and response to a text - which is why it carries less weighting than AO1 for both GCSE and A-level. We’ll return to this when we look at the mark schemes later. For now, putting these nuances aside, a fundamental underlying principle of our specifications in English Literature is that the AOs are best viewed together and applied in a holistic way. This is a mantra that underpins both the design of the assessment and our mark schemes. In the next section we will look at how the design of the assessment enables students to respond to the texts they study in a holistic way.
So, how is English Literature assessed? We’ve established that English Literature is a discipline that by its very nature is holistic and therefore demands a holistic approach to its method of assessment. But, what does holistic assessment look like? We’re now going to look at aspects of how the assessment is designed and how the assessment is marked.
In the exam, students are presented with questions or tasks that demand what we technically refer to as ‘an extended response’, but this is perhaps more commonly referred to as an essay. You’ll be familiar with the different types of questions we use: extract-based questions, questions that include a view statement and comparative tasks to name a few. The structure of the exam paper and the way the questions are framed is different between GCSE and A-level but many of the underlying principles of assessment design remain the same. One of these principles is that all Assessment Objectives are assessed within every question, with the caveat of a couple of exceptions for GCSE English Literature –and these are displayed on-screen for reference.
AO4, or what is commonly referred to as SPaG, is only assessed on Section A of Paper 1 and Paper 2. Section C of Paper 2 only assesses AO1 and AO2. Context (AO3) is not assessed on the unseen poetry questions. Those exceptions aside, this principle reflects our belief that regardless of the type of literary text, whether its poetry, prose or drama, the skills required by students are the same and the approach to their written responses in the exam will be broadly similar. This is why we decided, at the outset, that all AOs would be assessed in all questions. This means that the questions must be carefully constructed to elicit all relevant Assessment Objectives. To illustrate this, let’s look at a few example exam questions - these are all genuine questions from previous series.
The first example is a GCSE exam question and the other two are both A-level exam questions. Choose one of the exam questions on-screen and consider how the Assessment Objectives are embedded in the wording of the task. You might want to jot the question down in order to annotate it, or simply think it through in your head. Pause the video now to have a go at the activity.
Let’s unpick the GCSE example first. The command word in this question is ‘explore’ – this reminds students that there is no definitive answer to the question; they are arguing to what extent they think Macbeth is presented as a violent character in the play. The phrase ‘how far’ emphasises that the description of Macbeth as a violent character is up for debate. This links to AO1. AO3 (context) is grounded in the word ‘violent’ – students will draw on their understanding and ideas about violence, in order to form a judgement on the extent to which they consider Macbeth to be a violent character. This is what we mean when we talk about literature exploring big ideas and themes. Reference to the writer ‘Shakespeare’ and the word ‘presents’ reminds students that there’s a writer at work, and the play and its characters are a creation of the writer – this links to AO2 and is a signal to students to comment on the writer’s methods. The instruction to ‘write’ and the reminder of the rubric to reference both the ‘extract’ and the ‘play as whole’ links to AO1 as students must illustrate their views with evidence from the play, whether that’s a direct quotation or a paraphrase in their own words.
Now let’s apply this to the A-level questions. This question is similar in style to the GCSE example in that it is also an extract-based question, but it’s framed a little differently. Here students are presented with a view about the text and are asked to decide to what extent they agree with that interpretation. You can pause the video here to trace the process I previously modelled with the GCSE example, or you can move on to have a look at a different question style.
Let’s take a look at the second A-level example: this is a conventional essay style question as there is no extract. AO1 is implicit in the requirement to construct an answer in the form of an argument and the command word ‘explore’. AO5 is signalled by the word ‘significance’ – this invites students to critically consider the ways that in this case, the military world, operates within the play and the genre. The term ‘significance’ differentiates A-level from GCSE – it embraces all the AOs and in its simplest terms invites students to critically evaluate the different ways the text might be interpreted in the light of the focus of the question. For a fuller explanation of what is meant by ‘significance’ please refer to the definition the specification. AO3 is signalled by the focus on the military backdrop of the play as well as the reference to the broader literary context of its genre - ‘tragedy’. Students will apply their knowledge and understanding of the conventions of this genre (which also addresses AO4). Finally, AO2 is explicitly signalled by the requirement to refer to dramatic methods.
By deconstructing these questions I hope it illustrates why we repeatedly assert the importance of answering the question. If students focus their answer specifically on the question set responding to all its details and requirements then they will organically address the Assessment Objectives in their answer and will be rewarded accordingly. ‘Answer the question’, as simple as it sounds, has always been our mantra. This applies to all students regardless of their level of achievement.
Although the separation of skills into Assessment Objectives exists for the purposes of assessment criteria, and it can be useful to understand what the different Assessment Objectives mean, it is the integration of these skills that informs a fluent response to literature. To make this overly mechanistic or formulaic can be counter-productive as students’ responses could become restricted by too rigid scaffolding. The extract from the 2023 examiners report, on screen to my right, is testament to this advice. We don’t have time here today to dive deeper into this, but you will find detailed feedback and insight regarding students’ exam performance in our Examiners reports. These are published alongside previous series’ question papers and mark schemes and we strongly encourage you to read them.
So far we’ve covered how the assessment is designed to measure skills as defined by the Assessment Objectives, but we know that, in practice, students apply these skills in an integrated or holistic way, in the form of an essay. Next, we need to consider what we see as the most appropriate or valid approach to assessing English Literature responses. We use what is called a ‘Levels of Response’ mark scheme. Levels of Response mark schemes are used when there's multiple equally-valid ways a student could approach a question. This is therefore appropriate for subjects like English Literature where there isn’t a single, fixed, ‘right’ answer to a question. The GCSE and A-level mark schemes share the same format with some subtle, marked differences – as noted on-screen. We do use different terms on our GCSE and A-level mark schemes – but the terms ‘level’ and ‘band’ are interchangeable here. Generally speaking, the mark scheme is formed of two parts: a generic grid and indicative content. The generic grid is constructed using levels of attainment that span the whole range of ability at GCSE and A-level respectively. To illustrate, we’ve displayed a section of the GCSE generic marking grid on-screen; it’s formed of 4 columns. The first column identifies the level or band of achievement and the mark range. The second column references the Assessment Objective. The third column describes the typical features of a response that would merit a mark in that level – these descriptors reference the Assessment Objectives. The fourth column provides further guidance to assist examiners in fine-tuning their decision regarding which mark to award. For in-depth training on how to mark, you can access our ‘marking guidance and application’ e-learning courses which drill down into the mechanics of mark schemes.
The generic level grid is supported with indicative content for each question. Its intention is to indicate to examiners the typical content students are likely to write about. It must be stressed that this is not to be treated as a check-list – students are not expected to cover all the points. Although assessment writing teams try to consider many possible answers, it’s impossible to gauge exactly how a question will be received by students. For this reason, examiners are guided to reward any valid interpretations - even ones they may not have arrived at themselves!
Whilst there are some technical differences in the mark scheme design at GCSE and A-level, they are unified on two fundamental principles. Firstly, aside from the exception in GCSE English Literature noted earlier, the mark scheme is consistent across all components of the assessment. This is because we believe the way a student should approach a literature text is the same regardless of the text type. Using a common mark scheme also supports marking reliability. By this, I mean that it helps to maintain a consistent standard of marking between questions, between papers, between examiners, and from one exam series to the next. This is critical for subjects like English Literature, where there is considerable optionality. Using a common Levels of Response mark scheme helps to ensure comparability between the questions across the wide range of available texts. Secondly, the mark scheme is designed to support the holistic marking of students’ responses. This essentially means that examiners are making a judgement on the quality of the student’s answer as a whole.
Remember our analogy of the rope? Although the Assessment Objectives have to be referenced in the mark scheme, examiners are not awarding separate marks for each individual Assessment Objective – instead they are taking a holistic view and determine the level that best-fits the overall response. Because it’s rare for a response to neatly match a level descriptor in all aspects, examiners must allow good performance in some aspects to compensate for shortcomings in other respects. This is where the 4th column on the marking grid comes into play.
You might be asking, so what? This is all very interesting, but why does understanding holistic marking matter and how will it make a difference to my teaching of the subject? They key messages we hope you take away with you are:
- Don’t get bogged down with Assessment Objectives – remember the primary purpose of Assessment Objectives is to guide awarding organisations like AQA with the business of designing specifications and assessment materials.
- The key words that describe each band or level in the mark scheme, such as ‘convincing’ or ‘critical analysis’, are likely to be more useful to you in the classroom as they define performance in a recognisable way.
- The assessment is designed to enable students to respond to texts in a holistic way. That means that if the student answers the question in all its parts, then they will be hitting the Assessment Objectives and this will be recognised and rewarded.
Moving away from formulaic essay structures will liberate students to genuinely engage with the task and write more authentic, independent responses. Examiner Reports always comment on the pleasure of reading writing that has a clear personal voice and a view about the text. This is something that you will no doubt recognise from both classroom discussion and students essays and this independence should certainly be actively encouraged and embraced.
I hope this session has given you an insight into the assessment design process at AQA and if you have any further questions then please do email english@aqa.org.uk. Thank you for your time.
