Looking ahead to the long, hot summer your new subject teachers were concerned that you may be rather bored over the next two months. They have compiled suggested reading and some possible tasks you can do to get ahead in September and the months after. You’re A Levels start today! It is not too early to get in training cerebrally, for the most intense period of study in your lives… Enjoy the summer!
TASTER DAY BOOKLET
ART AND DESIGN
Task One: Set up a Pinterest Board
Visit www.pinterest.com and set up an account.
Make boards for the following topics and start to collect Pins that inspire you.
· Mono Printing
· Lino cuts/prints
· Etchings
· Life Drawing / Photography
· Dark Room Photography
· Digital SLR Photography
Task Two: Gallery Research
Visit a gallery. It can be any accessible gallery, for example it could be one near you like Pallant House (Chichester), Cass Sculpture Park, (Goodwood), Aspex Gallery (GunWharf, Portsmouth) or a chance gallery that you happen to stumble across while on holiday!
Find ONE piece of Artwork that you LIKE and that relates to ‘Man-Made objects’ in some way.
· Make a note of the Artist and research them
· Take a photo or sketch of their work
· Make a drawing/re-production of their work (Minimum A4 size)
· Present this work with a piece of research about the artist
Task Three: Website Research
Go to www.studentartguide.com and have a look at the wealth of different resources there to inspire and prepare you for A-Level study. There are SO MANY useful articles and example sketchbooks to really get you fired up ready for September. Enjoy!
(Images courtesy of studentartguide.com)
BIOLOGY
To widen your horizons in Biology
Watch/listen/read the news on a regular basis, and look out for biology related items. A particularly useful source is BBC News website http://news.bbc.co.uk in the Health, Science & Environment and Technology sections. Over the course of the summer, choose 3 biology-related news stories, particularly ones that interest you, that have some degree of controversy about them. Write down each issue, and record how the science or biology explains it, and the different arguments for and against aspects of the controversy. Use linked websites to help with the explanations and controversies. Howstuffworks.com and senseaboutscience.org.uk may help with some issues. Bring what you have found to your first A-level Biology lesson. To prepare for A-Level course material and standards, watch some YouTube videos using the link below:- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv8TzddkhvX_OC8U5SgU0yg/playlists?flow=grid&view=1&sort=lad
Great books for summer reading (all available on Kindle)
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
13 Things That Don’t Make Sense by Michael Brooks
Creation or Evolution: Do We Have To Choose? By Denis Alexander
What Has Nature Ever Done For Us? by Tony Juniper
Do No Harm by Henry Marsh (brain surgeon)
Get Up! by James A Levine (healthy lifestyle expert)
Do something different
* Put bird food in your garden to see which species are the most aggressive (you don’t have to only feed them in the winter).
* Volunteer to help out at Marwell Zoo.
BUSINESS STUDIES
Tasks
During the summer holidays, undertake as much background reading as possible. Perhaps try and obtain some of the books listed below from the library and access some of the websites mentioned. Furthermore, broaden your understanding of current business affairs by regularly reading the business sections of a broadsheet newspaper (The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Telegraph etc), watching appropriate television programmes (The Apprentice, Dragons Den etc) and listening to business related programmes on the radio.
Text Books
* AQA Business Studies for AS (3rd rev Ed)- Marcouse I, Surridge M, Watson N, Swift I, Hammond A (Hodder Education)
*This will be provided as your set text for AS
AQA AS Business Studies: Student's Book - Stimpson P, Foden S, Mansell (Nelson Thornes Ltd)
Books to Read:
How They Started: Global brands - Lester D (Crimson Publishing)
The Real Deal: My Story from Brick Lane to "Dragons' Den" - Caan, J (Virgin Books)
How I Made It: 40 Successful Entrepreneurs Reveal How They Made Millions - Bridge, R (Kogan Page; 2nd Ed)
Useful Websites
Bized: http://www.bized.co.uk/
BBC Business website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/
Robert Peston’s Blog: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/robertpeston/
Tutor2u (revision site) http://www.tutor2u.net/
CHEMISTRY
Books
Head Start to AS Chemistry (New), CGP, ISBN 978-1782942801
A-Level Chemistry: Essential Maths Skills (New), CGP, ISBN 978-1782944720
What is Chemistry? – Peter Atkins, OUP, ISBN 978-0199683987
Why Chemical Reactions Happen – James Keeler and Peter Wothers, OUP, ISBN 978-0199249732
The Laws of Thermodynamics, A Very Short Introduction – Peter Atkins, OUP, ISBN 978-0199572199
Molecules at an Exhibition (The Science of Everyday Life) – John Emsley, OUP, ISBN 978-0-19-286206-8
Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements, Hugh Aldersey-Williams, Penguin, ISBN 978-0141041452
Fun Science:
A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson, Black Swan, ISBN 978-0-55-299704-1
How to Fossilise Your Hamster (and other amazing experiments for the armchair scientist) – Mick O’Hare, Profile Books, ISBN: 978-1-84668-044-1
Deeper Reading:
13 Things That Don’t Make Sense – Michael Brooks, Profile Books 2009, ISBN 978-1861978172
The Periodic Table – Primo Levi, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-029661-7
Things to do:
REVISE all GCSE Chemistry topics. Learn the formulae, charges and names for all common ions.
Download APPS: Khan Academy, Organic Chemistry Essentials, Periodic Table (Royal Society of Chemistry).
Subscribe to the RSC Chemnet for current developments in Chemistry and Science, as well as loads of university information and seminars. http://www.rsc.org/Membership/Networking/ChemNet/
Go spend a day at the Science Museum – it’s free! Keep an eye out for special exhibitions. www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
ECONOMICS
During the summer holidays, undertake as much background reading as possible. Perhaps try and obtain some of the books listed below from the library and access some of the websites mentioned. Furthermore, broaden your understanding of current affairs by regularly reading a broadsheet newspaper (The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Telegraph etc), watching appropriate television programmes (Newsnight, Question Time, Channel4 News etc) and listening to the Radio4 Today Programme.
Text Books
* AQA AS Economics - Ray Powell - (Philip Allan Updates 2008)
*This will be provided as your set text for AS
AQA AS Economics: Student's Book - Jim Lawrence, Alasdair Copp, Steve Stoddard (Nelson Thornes Ltd 2009 )
Books to Read:
The Truth about Markets: John Kay, Allen Lane the Penguin Press, 2003 - looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the market system.
Free lunch: Easily digestible Economics, David Smith, Profile Books, 2003 - a light hearted look at some serious ideas.
Globalization and its discontents, Joseph Stiglitz, Penguin, 2002 - best-selling controversial critique of globalization in general and of the World Bank and IMF policies in particular.
Freakonomics, S.D.Levitt and S.J.Dubner, William Morrow (HarperCollins), 2005 - subtitle, A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. The author uses big datasets to draw conclusions about many aspects of everyday life. He pays a lot of attention to the role of incentives.
The Undercover Economist, Tim Harford, Little, Brown, 2006 - the author of the ‘Dear Economist’ and ‘Undercover Economist’ columns in the FT looks at the economics of everyday life and explains a lot of things that puzzle people but don’t appear in the textbooks.
Useful websites
Economics Online: - http://www.economicsonline.co.uk/
BBC Economy website: -http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/economy/
Stephanie Flanders Economics Blog: - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/stephanieflanders/
Paul Mason – Economics Blog: - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/paulmason/
The Economist - http://www.economist.com/
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Task One: Collect Interesting Articles or Texts
· Download and use free news apps like BBC News, The Guardian and The Telegraph on your smartphone or tablet (or just visit their websites) in order to keep up to date with current news issues and what’s going on in the world, as well as read articles that interest you in terms of their content or the way that they are written – the students who earn top grades in this course are able to understand the world around them in deeper ways and are also able to write competently and in a range of highly effective styles and genres.
· In particular, look out for articles on topics such as how people communicate, how people are represented differently (this might be how female athletes are represented in comparison to male athletes, for example), and how writers try to influence their readers. Articles under “Comment”, or “Opinion” sections may be most useful.
· You could then save examples of these articles to your device’s storage, or use the Office 365 app to store it online. Or save paper copies that you may read in newspapers or magazines.
· You could do similar to the above but with adverts on TV, radio or posted on advertising boards in order create a portfolio of a range of texts that link to the topics you’ll be studying.
Task Two: Learn Key Terms
· Learn key terms – these will help you enormously with your study of the course.
· Go on to the following website. This has most of the terms that will help you on the course and will help you learn them by testing you: https://quizlet.com/97623/english-language-as-level-terms-flash-cards/
Task Three: Visit Some Websites! Watch Some Videos!
· Visit/watch/read some of the following:
- A Level English Language http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/contents.htm#langa
- Investigating the origins of language and how language differs around the world http://www.worldwidewords.org/
- Search for David Crystal on YouTube and watch any videos that interest you.
- Watch any of Stephen Fry’s ‘Planet Word’ series available on: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqa1zt_frys-planet-word-1_shortfilms This is a really good documentary series which is well explained, informative and entertaining and will give you an excellent basis for the course.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
(Joint English)
English Language and Literature (Joint English) is course for students who enjoy a fully integrated approach to the subject – exploring a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts, linguistic analysis and creative writing. The perfect student for this course should enjoy reading a wide range of texts, lively class discussion and have a passion for analysing language choices in detail. Showing a clear and confident understanding of how language is used for specific texts, purpose and audience is key to the assessments of this course – to assist with this, we would recommend that prospective students begin to think about the reading lists below before September 2016.
Potential set texts and recommended reads:
· The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
· Poetry by Robert Browning and William Blake
· Dracula by Bram Stoker
· The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
· Othello by William Shakespeare
· The History Boys by Alan Bennett
Key skills used on the course:
· Exploring point of view and genre in prose fiction
· Voice and identity in poetry
· Interaction and conflict in drama
· Studying the representation of place in an anthology of non-literary texts (including spoken language, media texts and new technologies)
· Students’ own creative writing through textual intervention work
Don’t just restrict yourself to reading fiction, poetry and drama. Try reading a newspaper at least twice a week - a broadsheet or quality paper. This will help give you a richer, broader vocabulary and offer good models for concise writing styles.
As with the English Literature course, any reading is better than no reading – keep up your private reading but try to start thinking more about the reasons why some types of books appeal to you more than others... an open, enquiring mind will be your best weapon on this course.
ENGLISH LITERATURE
AQA English Literature B A Level
This qualification is linear. Linear means that students will sit all the A-level exams at the end of their A-level course. Genre study is at the heart of the AQA Specification B and the four broad genres available for study are tragedy, comedy, crime writing and political writing.
This is a course for students who are curious, independent readers. Our students enjoy reading a wide range of texts; they also love discussing their opinions about anything and everything. Conveying judgements in clear, focused writing is at the heart of the assessment method – to assist with this, we would like our prospective students to begin thinking about their texts well before studies begin in September. Strong thinkers write interesting essays.
Tragedy
This is the new dramatic genre we have chosen for paper 1. We will be studying Othello, The Great Gatsby, Richard II and Tess of the D’Urbervilles. At the core of all the set texts is a tragic hero or heroine who is flawed in some way, who suffers and causes suffering to others and in all texts there is an interplay between what might be seen as villains and victims. You could prepare for this by pre-reading the two novels mentioned above or any other novels by Thomas Hardy and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Crime Writing
In the case of Elements of Crime Writing paper 2, many of the texts pre-date the Crime Fiction genre that
emerged as a recognisable literary genre in the mid-19th century. However, in all the texts a significant crime drives the narrative and the execution and consequences of the crime are fundamentally important to the way the text is structured. All set texts are narratives which focus on transgressions against established order and the specific breaking of either national, social, religious or moral laws. We will study Kate Atkinson’s novel When Will There Be Good News? The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge and possibly an Agatha Christie classic Poirot novel. Immersing yourself in a healthy slice of this genre will be invaluable preparation for the course.
NEA
This specification has kept an element of Course Work essays – now known as non-examined assessment. Here you will be free to choose two different texts and interpret them from a critical perspective –an opportunity to build a section of the course around your own tastes in reading.