(20 May 2014, 11:57 am)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Is Mice and Men still part of the curriculum?
Been left school a long time and we did that!

For English Literature Unit 1 (today's exam), the texts are as follows:


For English Literature Unit 4 (Thursday's exam), the texts are as follows:


It seems I was conned into studying Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" for the Unit 1 exam. We were told that "Of Mice & Men" is a foundation tier text and should be chosen by the candidates who struggle with more difficult texts. Being a higher tier candidate, there was only one option for me (and that applied to everyone who did "decide" to study TKAM at my school).

I've no idea why our teachers thought it would be appropriate to make us study Macbeth for Unit 4 either - especially when we had studied Romeo & Juliet in Year 8..!

(20 May 2014, 1:01 pm)AdamY wrote I think we did 'Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry' as our main literature piece when I was at school doing GCSE's. We also did 'An Inspector Calls' at some point - I remember watching the film in class.

I believe Roll of Thunder is now taught in the Year 9 syllabus (or at least it is in my school - they tend to do what they like anyway). I unfortunately didn't have the opportunity to study that text as the Year 9 English teacher who teaches it didn't actually take us for English that year - another teacher did. I've sat through most of the book in Year 9 lessons when I've had additional Media Studies lessons though. Paired with the movie, "Time to Kill", Roll of Thunder seems like it would have been a great book to prepare us for To Kill a Mockingbird at GCSE.


As a side note:
What really irritates me is the fact students can no longer enjoy literature, if they are studying it at GCSE or A-Level. I don't really enjoy reading as I find it's awfully time-consuming and I prefer to watch a movie for entertainment as I can actually see it (rather than having to imagine it), but I like English lessons when we are getting read to. Being read to is often one of those things you grow up with at bed time, and I personally think that's when it is more enjoyable.
When studying English Literature at GCSE or A-Level; students are forced to rip the text they're studying apart, analysing language and commenting on features that the author arguably mightn't have intended at the time of writing it. I went with the year group below mine to "Poetry Live", an event which was hosted in Newcastle. At the event, poets read out some of their poems on stage as well as reading a few of their favourite poems. One poet said that the poem she wrote meant something to her at the time of writing to it, but now that it's reached the public domain, it's the reader's poem to interpret and find meaning significant to them. I feel a lot of writers do perhaps have this in mind when constructing a piece of writing, and they don't want their writing being pulled apart.
I had this discussion last year with one of my old English teachers who teaches English to Year 7 and 8 students (and taught me in Year 9 also), when she was asking me how I was finding GCSE English... She agreed completely, and said it's sad that students can't enjoy the literature - she said an author's main intention is to write to entertain, and she said that she couldn't imagine an author writing for the sole purpose of the text being taught to GCSE and A-Level students fifty years in the future.