Re: Required subjects - Redux

"the Omrud" <usenet.omrud@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:MPG.1d72542ea1979e1f989e71@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Tony Cooper spake thusly:
> > There was a recent thread about a teacher's latitude in picking the
> > course material. I mentioned that, in my experience, the teacher
> > pretty much had to stick to the syllabus. Some disagreed.
> >
> > I was watching an episode of "Teachers" tonight. ("Teachers" is a
> > Tiger Aspect production aired on BBC America) (1) about teachers in an
> > English "high school". (In quotes because that's what BBCA says, but
> > I thought the Brits don't use the term)

Many British secondary schools are called Such-and-Such High School.

> > Simon is told that he must have his marks in my Friday next. He's
> > distressed because he hasn't even covered the sonnets yet, and asks
> > the department head if there isn't an alternate since no one is
> > interested. "What? For Shakespeare?" is the reply.
> >
> > In class, the students complain about having to cover the sonnets when
> > there's no reason to know about that old stuff. Simon replies
> > something like "We have to. It's in the syllabus."
> >
> > Fiction, yes, but this seems to indicate that the choices aren't
> > there.
>
> There is a National Curriculum with some flexibility, as DC says, but
> this may not be related to the "required" syllabus, but possibly to
> the exam syllabus. In general, GCSE English Literature (age 16
> public exam) contains questions about some Shakespeare, some poetry
> and a novel. Obviously the teachers need to know which of each to
> teach, and there are usually two years to cover the nominated works.
>
> All the UK folk here will have studied a Shakespeare play in detail
> (mine was Twelfth Night, from which the others can tell my age).

40?

> So the teacher has to cover Shakespeare's sonnets because they're
> going to be on the exam. However, the syllabus often has
> alternatives in each category, so if this is the Shakespeare part, it
> may be possible to cover Romeo and Juliet instead. Or if this is the
> poetry part, it may be possible to study Robert Frost instead.

Uh-huh. GCSE syllabuses include a wide range of options. (And for each
subject there are different exam boards, each offering a choice of
syllabuses in each subject.) From these the department decides what to
teach. These options are then reflected on the examination paper, there
being a whole raft of questions on different topics - the student looks
through the paper to find the questions on the topics s/he has studied.

So, there are choices, but they are generally the school's, not the
student's. I think that most, if not all, GCSE syllabuses do force students
to study a Shakespeare play, but there is a choice as to which. I find it
hard to believe that there would be no way round studying the sonnets,
though.

> Some
> of GCSE English is now marked as "coursework" which means that the
> teacher marks it rather than the exam board.
>
> However, the fiction has cut in here - it's not conceivable that a
> subject which is to be examined won't even have been touched on a
> week before the marks have to be in. That would get the teacher in
> serious trouble.

Hmm. Although my memories are fading, I know that in some of the subjects I
studied for GCE we didn't finish covering the the part of the syllabus on
which we were to be examined. (This didn't matter too much because it only
had the effect of restricting our choice among the questions on the paper.)
And there were some items that we only covered shortly before the exams.

And although exams are organised somewhat differently these days, most heads
of department are still somewhat hands-off in their supervision of
colleagues, and events like that in the programme are far from unheard-of.
Having said that, the programme as a whole is hyperbole.

> > (1) See...I've learned not to say something is a BBC show. I don't
> > know if Tiger Aspects production people get a paycheck (or direct
> > deposit) from BBC or ITV, but I'm closer than I was.
>
> I think it's a Channel 4 programme, (but after seeing the trailers, I
> have never wanted to watch it).

Channel 4, yes.

Adrian


.

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