Exam board takes cue from Richard and Judy· Book club should inspire choice of A-level set texts· Change aimed at raising enthusiasm in classrooms Polly Curtis, education editorWednesday February 6, 2008The Guardian
Examiners have culled TS Eliot, EM Forster and Joseph Conrad from the A-level curriculum and are offering schools the chance to pick their own set texts. Teachers should take inspiration from Richard and Judy's book club, they say.
The Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR) is challenging traditionalists in the literary world by producing a new English A-level that is light on many classics which have been taught for decades.
The exam board's director of qualifications, Clara Kenyon, suggested that schools should follow the example of the popular Channel 4 book club run by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan.
"The public has a real enthusiasm for literature, as shown by the popularity of initiatives such as Richard and Judy's book club which have been hugely successful. What they have achieved is to break down the perception that literature is dull or boring," Kenyon said. "But getting some of that enthusiasm into the classroom can sometimes be a challenge."
Richard and Judy have been credited with enthusing a nation about novels such as William Boyd's Restless and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun. They have also endorsed a range of celebrity autobiographies including Sharon Osbourne's and Gordon Ramsay's.
The new, four-part A-level, to be taught from September, includes a slimmed down list of set and recommended texts with books for half the units now up to schools to select. Students will still have to sit modules on Shakespeare and pre-1800 poetry and prose including Marlowe, Chaucer and Donne. But they must also include at least one post-1990 text and pupils could also consider studying satire and travel writing.
The board said students would have freedom to pick any three works, including prose and poetry, suitable for study for the "texts in time" module. This will be worth 20% of the final A-level marks and will be assessed by a coursework essay.
A second A-level module, literature post-1900, will also give classes the freedom to pick three texts, one of which must have been published since 1990.
Ian McNeilly, director of the National Association for the Teaching of English, said: "That's just what I need. Richard Madeley telling me what to teach.
"Conrad happens to be one of my favourite authors but I don't think giving teachers more flexibility over what they teach will harm the curriculum. Most teachers do the job because they love their subject and good English teachers will provide their students with a hearty choice of books."
At a glance
OCR's current A-level English includes Robert Browning, T S Eliot and pre-1900 texts such as those by Chaucer and William Blake. Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm and Ian McEwan's Atonement are also on the syllabus as are Alice Walker and Zadie Smith. Richard and Judy's bookclub choices include A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and autobiographies of Billie Piper and Sharon Osbourne
The Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR) is challenging traditionalists in the literary world by producing a new English A-level that is light on many classics which have been taught for decades.
The exam board's director of qualifications, Clara Kenyon, suggested that schools should follow the example of the popular Channel 4 book club run by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan.
"The public has a real enthusiasm for literature, as shown by the popularity of initiatives such as Richard and Judy's book club which have been hugely successful. What they have achieved is to break down the perception that literature is dull or boring," Kenyon said. "But getting some of that enthusiasm into the classroom can sometimes be a challenge."
Richard and Judy have been credited with enthusing a nation about novels such as William Boyd's Restless and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun. They have also endorsed a range of celebrity autobiographies including Sharon Osbourne's and Gordon Ramsay's.
The new, four-part A-level, to be taught from September, includes a slimmed down list of set and recommended texts with books for half the units now up to schools to select. Students will still have to sit modules on Shakespeare and pre-1800 poetry and prose including Marlowe, Chaucer and Donne. But they must also include at least one post-1990 text and pupils could also consider studying satire and travel writing.
The board said students would have freedom to pick any three works, including prose and poetry, suitable for study for the "texts in time" module. This will be worth 20% of the final A-level marks and will be assessed by a coursework essay.
A second A-level module, literature post-1900, will also give classes the freedom to pick three texts, one of which must have been published since 1990.
Ian McNeilly, director of the National Association for the Teaching of English, said: "That's just what I need. Richard Madeley telling me what to teach.
"Conrad happens to be one of my favourite authors but I don't think giving teachers more flexibility over what they teach will harm the curriculum. Most teachers do the job because they love their subject and good English teachers will provide their students with a hearty choice of books."
At a glance
OCR's current A-level English includes Robert Browning, T S Eliot and pre-1900 texts such as those by Chaucer and William Blake. Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm and Ian McEwan's Atonement are also on the syllabus as are Alice Walker and Zadie Smith. Richard and Judy's bookclub choices include A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and autobiographies of Billie Piper and Sharon Osbourne
This article is saying that the new English curriculum should include or take inspiration from Richard and Judy's book club. i think this is a good idea because they have some really good books discussed on their show, for example Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns which are both meant to be very successful and i have bought them because of their recommendations. They also recommended a WW1 novel which i shall buy. This shows that they do have good books on their shows and maybe the new curriculum should consider this.
