Standard Grade English Course Content

S Grade English continues to develop the skills of Reading, Writing and Talking.  In practice these skills are interlinked, but the following brief notes give information about each separate area of English.

Reading: Close Reading

Close Reading (interpretation) skills are developed through whole class, group and individual activities: these allow pupils to read different kinds of text and examine these carefully for meaning, structure and language.  Close Reading practice will increase in difficulty and each pupil will sit two papers in the final exam: all sit General plus either Credit or Foundation.

Reading: Critical Essays

Responses to literature are developed through whole class, group and individual activities: these allow pupils to engage with and reflect on a range of literary texts of different genres.  Pupils’ critical and analytical skills are developed over the two year course, during which they will write a number of Critical Essays for the S Grade Folio.  The best folio pieces will be sent to SQA for assessment at the end of S4.

Writing

Pupils will develop their writing skills by engaging in a variety of both short and extended writing tasks.  They will complete different types of writing pieces for the S Grade Folio e.g. personal, creative, informative and discursive: two pieces are included in the final folio, which will be sent to SQA for assessment at the end of S4.  All pupils sit the same Writing paper in the final exam, a grade being awarded depending on the quality of the piece.

In addition pupils will continue to develop and revise technical aspects of writing e.g. punctuation, spelling etc.

Talking

Pupils have opportunities to study and develop for themselves the skills of group discussion and individual talk.  Whole class and group discussion will often link to literature being studied.  Individual talk will often link to writing or reading.  Pupils’ improved performance in both group and individual talk is assessed by the class teacher.

How Can Parents Help?

Be aware of what your child is learning for each block of the course, especially homework tasks.  Folio pieces must be the pupil’s own work, but we encourage you to support your child’s learning by discussing homework tasks.

You can help with WRITING homework by:

• discussing all aspects of the homework task – ideas, structure, language etc
• encouraging your child to proofread work before handing it in
• encouraging your child to follow the targets on the folio tags for redrafting Writing folio pieces
• encouraging your child to focus attention on any individual area(s) of difficulty – punctuation, spelling etc
• checking that the homework task has been completed satisfactorily

You can help with READING homework by:

• reading together with your child
• discussing books you have both read
• encouraging your child to read a variety of different texts – different genres  of fiction (novels, thrillers, fantasy, science fiction etc) and non-fiction (biography, travel writing etc)
• choosing books/stories using the PHS S3-S6 Reading List
• using the reading website links on the English pages
• encouraging your child to read newspaper articles regularly and discuss these (newspaper website links also this website)
• encouraging your child to follow the targets on the folio tags for redrafting Reading folio pieces
• checking and signing your child’s monthly reading homework sheet

You can help with TALKING homework by:

• being an audience for your child’s individual talk
• encouraging your child to look up, be confident, smile etc
• checking that your child has completed prompt cards
• discussing relevant topics for group discussion
• watching good examples of discussion on tv