OCR GCSE English Literature Delivery Guide - General Guidance for Using the Scaffold

Using Unseen Modern Texts

Generic guidance for using the scaffold

(Sample extract pairings)

Below is an outline of how learners can use the scaffold to answer a question comparing a set text extract and a thematically linked, same genre unseen extract. It uses an extract from Animal Farm with an extract from The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro as an example. The same method can be applied to all the sample extract pairings in this Delivery Guide.

Animal Farm by George Orwell and The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

Compare how communities are presented by the writers in the two extracts. You should consider:

· The situations and experiences faced by the characters (AO3)

· The reactions of the characters (AO1)

· How the writers’ use of language and techniques create effects. (AO2)

Extract 1 from: Animal Farm by George Orwell

Here Squealer tells the animals that Snowball was Jones’s secret agent at the Battle of the Cowshed.

‘…Do you not remember how, just at the moment when Jones and his men had got inside the yard, Snowball suddenly turned and fled, and many animals followed him? And do you remember, too, that it was just at that moment, when panic was spreading and all seemed lost, that Comrade Napoleon sprang forward with a cry of “Death to Humanity!” and sank his teeth in Jones’s leg? Surely you remember that, comrades?’ exclaimed Squealer, frisking from side to side.

Now when Squealer described the scene so graphically, it seemed to the animals that they did remember it. At any rate, they remembered that at the critical moment of the battle Snowball had turned to flee. But Boxer was still a little uneasy.

‘I do not believe that Snowball was a traitor at the beginning,’ he said finally. ‘What he has done since is different. But I believe at the Battle of the Cowshed he was a good comrade.’

‘Our Leader, Comrade Napoleon,’ announced Squealer, speaking very slowly and firmly, ‘has stated categorically – categorically comrade – that Snowball was Jones’s agent from the very beginning – yes, and from long before the Rebellion was ever thought of.’

‘Ah, that is different!’ said Boxer. ‘If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right.’

Version 1 2 © OCR 2016

Using Unsee Modern Texts

Extract 2 from: The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

The story is set in imaginary, ancient times in Britain. In this extract, Axl, who lives in a village in the countryside, is having difficulty remembering parts of his past.

You may wonder why Axl did not turn to his fellow villagers for assistance in recalling the past, but this was not as easy as you might suppose. For in this community the past was rarely discussed. I do not mean that it was taboo. I mean that it had somehow faded into a mist as dense as that which hung over the marshes. It simply did not occur to these villagers to think about the past – even the recent one.

To take an instance, one that had bothered Axl for some time: He was sure that not so long ago, there had been in their midst a woman with long red hair – a woman regarded as crucial to their village. Whenever anyone injured themselves or fell sick, it had been this red-haired woman, so skilled at healing, who was immediately sent for. Yet now this same woman was no longer to be found anywhere, and no one seemed to wonder what had occurred, or even to express regret at her absence. When one morning Axl had mentioned the matter to three neighbours while working with them to break up the frosted field, their response told him that they genuinely had no idea what he was talking about. One of them had even paused in his work in an effort to remember, but had ended by shaking his head. ‘Must have been a long time ago,’ he had said.

Version 1 2 © OCR 2016

Using Unsee Modern Texts

Scaffold

Learners can use the scaffold below to help them construct an answer to the comparison question on Animal Farm and The Buried Giant.

Assessment objectives / Animal Farm / Quotation / What is Orwell saying about community? / The Buried Giant / Quotation / What is Ishiguro saying about community? / Contrasts and Comparisons /
The situations /experiences faced by the characters (AO3) /
The reactions of the characters (AO1) /
How the writers’ use of language and techniques creates effects (AO2) /

1) Learners summarise what happens in each extract in the 2nd (Animal Farm) and 5th (The Buried Giant) columns.

· For instance, for ‘The situations/experiences faced by the characters’ in the Animal Farm column, learners might write: The animals are presented with a new version of their history by Squealer

· For ‘The reactions of the characters’, learners might write: Boxer is uncertain at first but is then convinced

· For ‘How the writers’ use of language and techniques creates effects’, they might write: Squealer uses rhetorical questions to persuade the animals of his version of their history.

2) Learners can then find quotations to back up their points and put them in columns 3 and 6.

3) Finally, in the ‘What is Orwell/Ishiguro saying about community?’ columns learners capture what is being conveyed by the writers about community via the points they have identified. For instance, based on the above points for Animal Farm, learners might write: Orwell is saying that communities can be controlled and manipulated (Row 1), especially if their rulers know how to exploit their subjects’ weaknesses (Row 2) and are willing to take advantage of these weaknesses (Row 3). By filling in this column, students are learning how to develop their answers.

4) Similarities and differences

In the final column, learners write about any contrasts and comparisons they notice. For example, Orwell suggests that a community can be controlled if its history can be controlled; however, Ishiguro suggests that if a community has no memory of its history it is unsettling.

5) Learners can use the comments in the final column to write a conclusion where they synthesise their points. For instance, In both extracts, we see that sharing memories is somehow vital for communities.

Using Unsee Modern Texts

Delivery Guide Titl