Co-teaching guide: aspects of tragedy and comedy
Our AS and A-level English Literature courses provide strong stand-alone qualifications that are fully co-teachable, so you can choose the approach that best suits your and your students’ needs.
The features that make them so co-teachable include:
- the same Assessment objectives (AOs) across AS and A-level
- a common mark scheme across all components of AS and A-level
- A-level texts available to students at AS
- AS content mirrors that of A-level Paper 1.
Aspects of tragedy and comedy
Below, we outline how to co-teach the 'Aspects of tragedy' and 'Aspects of comedy' content for both AS and A-level English Literature B.
| AS paper/ section | AS assessment | A-level paper/ section | A-level assessment | Additional guidance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 Section A | Study of one Shakespeare play. Tragedy – choice of:
OR Comedy – choice of:
Students are required to write about a passage from the play (passage printed in paper), and open out to wider play. | Paper 1 Section A | In Section A students are required to write about a passage from the play (passage printed in paper), and open out to wider play. | The same Shakespeare play can be taught to both AS and A-level students. Both AS/A-level assessments include a question which focuses on a passage and which invites links to the wider play so all students can be prepared in the same way. The necessary difference in demand in the assessment between AS/A-level lies in the provision of bullet point prompts at AS only. The AS questions with bullet point prompts can also be used as a starting point for A-level students before they move onto questions without this scaffolding. |
| Paper 1 Section B | In Section B students respond to one question on a Shakespeare play. | A-level students may respond on the same Shakespeare as in Section A thereby studying the same text as the AS students. | ||
| Paper 1 Section B | Students respond to one question on a set drama text. | Paper 1 Section C | In Section C, students respond to one question on two texts (one drama and one further text). | AS and A-level students can prepare on the same drama text for AS Paper 1, Section B or A-level Paper 1 Section C. AS and A-level students can prepare on the same poetry text for AS Paper 2 Section A or A-level Paper 1 Section C. AS and A-level students can prepare on the same prose text for AS Paper 2 Section B or A-level Paper 1 Section C. The additional text required at AS can be used as wider reading for A-level students and provides them with choice of further text for comparison on Paper 1, Section C. Study of a prose text by A-level students, although not compulsory for Paper 1, will help them when writing about prose in Paper 2 and for NEA. The poetry anthology can be studied by AS students for Paper 2, Section A and can be used to introduce A-level students to the ways in which different ‘aspects’ of tragedy or comedy work in different texts. A-level students can study either the additional poetry text or the additional prose text ,which appear on the AS set text list only, for use in NEA. |
| Paper 2 Section A | Students respond to one question on a set poetry text. | |||
| Paper 2 Section B | Students respond to one question on a set prose text. |