When students think about analysis, nine times out of ten, they will think about language. This is because, from year 7, they have been drilled to consider individual words and techniques such as metaphors and similes.
There is a certain bias in secondary school teaching. Perhaps language analysis is seen as easier than structure, or more tangible, and so more suitable for KS3 students.
The trouble with that is, suddenly, in Year 10, they are asked to analyze STRUCTURE! Here’s a Paper 1 exam question from AQA.
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And another from Edexcel.
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This generally sends your average GCSE student into a tail-spin.
‘What is structure?’ they ask.
In response, I begin to familiarise them with some of these terms.
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Once they understand these they can start to try to use them when answering questions.
Typically, when they do this, they forget to actually use quotations to support their point.
They tend to do this because structural terms can apply to quite broad sections of text, and they have been told to keep quotations short. So, part of the skill when writing about structure is to be able to carefully select small sections of text which illustrate your structural point.
Students can’t just do this spontaneously. They need examples, and this is why I model how I analyse structure quite a lot.
Here’s an example.
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Another common pitfall is that students can’t manage to ‘take a bird’s eye view’ of the text’s structure. They have real trouble analysing the structure of the text as a whole as well as zooming in on individual techniques. It’s a really tricky thing to do.
The best way to teach it, again, is through example. Like this.
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In my Advance your English Language course, I spend quite a lot of time teaching students how to analyze structure. There are a series of written tasks and then at the end of the module there is a test. This gives me ample information to diagnose my tutees’ strengths and weaknesses and to work on them in feedback in between lessons, and in the live lesson itself. Students complete the modules having made real progress in structural analysis. For example: here’s a current student’s question 4 response, which incorporates her understanding of both language and structure. It’s a huge improvement on her original attempt.
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P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are 2 ways I can help your child to succeed in their English GCSEs.
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p.s. if you’re wondering how the ‘Advance your English language programme works, check out this video where I share the structure I use: CLICK HERE >> Advance your English language programme
