A Week Of Revision Tasks Paper 1 Language

GCSE English Language Paper 1

A Week of Revision Activities

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 A Week Of Revision Tasks Paper 1 Language

A User’s Guide and Glossary

The purpose of this revision booklet is to help students work though a complete GCSE
English Language Paper in bitesize sections with a small and specific focus each day.
The tasks also tend to build up in time and difficulty to finish with a longer activity on
days 4, 5 and 7. If students work through in the order suggested they will have
completed the whole exam paper, practising the skills required in the exams
themselves.
Parents/carers can help support their child by encouraging them to complete each
task, setting aside a quiet space for them to work. You could also help with reading
through the text and supporting with difficult vocabulary if required. Students should
also consider the reading strategies developed in lessons such as building up tricky
words, working out the context of the whole sentence and replacing the difficult
word with one which they think makes sense.
Glossary: Subject Terminology
Alliteration - the repetition of the same consonant sound, especially at the beginning
of several consecutive words in the same line e.g. ‘Five miles meandering in a mazy
motion’

Connotation – an association attached to a word or phrase in addition to its dictionary

definition

Direct speech – the words that are actually spoken

Dialogue – a spoken interaction between two or more characters

Dramatic Irony – a situation in a play, the irony of which is clear to the audience but
not to the characters

Imagery – the use of words to create a picture or image in the reader’s mind

Imperatives – commands

Irony – the conveyance of a meaning that is opposite to the literal meaning of the

words, e.g ‘This is a fine time to tell me’, (when it is actually an inappropriate time);

Metaphor – figure of speech in which a person or thing is describes as being the thing

it resembles, e.g ‘she’s a tiger’ to describe a ferocious person

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Mood - the atmosphere created by a piece of writing

Narration, first person – the telling of a story through the voice of a character, in

their own words, e.g “I went to the fair, even though I hated it”

Narration, third person – the telling of a story through the voice of the author,

describing the actions of the characters, e.g ‘He went to the fair, even though he hated

it’

Narrative Structure – the way that a piece of story writing has been put together, for

example, in a novel, the development of the plot through the arrangement of chapters

and who is telling the story

Narrator – the person telling the story

Onomatopoeia – when a word sounds like the noise it describes e.g ‘pop’ or ‘the

murmuring of innumerable bees’

Personification – the attribution of human qualities or feelings to inanimate objects;

a kind of metaphor where human qualities are given to things or abstract ideas

Plot – the main story or scheme of connected events running through a play or novel

Rhetorical Question – question raised in speech that does not require an answer

(used for eff Simile – figure of speech in which a person or thing is describes as being

like another, usually preceded by ‘as’ or ‘like’, e.g ‘she’s like a tiger’ to describe a

ferocious person ect)

Snapshots – separate descriptions of the stages in a sequence

Symbolism – similar to imagery: symbols are things that represent something else

e.g red roses are given to loved ones because they symbolise love

Theme – a central idea that the writer explores through a text, e.g love, loss, revenge

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 A Week Of Revision Tasks Paper 1 Language

Day 1 Task 1 Read the text through: Spend about 15

minutes here
Once just for a general
understanding of what is
happening.
The second time with a pen to
actively identify and label
interesting features.

Note:

 Interesting vocabulary
choices
 Language techniques used
 Changes of focus

Day 2 Task 2 Look back at question 1 and Spend 5/10 minutes

respond. You can lift phrases from here
the text here. Can you identify
more than four features?

Day 3 Task 3 Read question 2 and highlight the Spend up to 20

key paragraph in the text. minutes here

Re-read, identify and label:

 Powerful words and phrases

 Language
techniques/sentence patterns
Write your answer making sure you
have covered 4 or more key
quotations and a range of
techniques. Aim to follow the SQI
format and remember to zoom in
on details

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Day 4 Task 4 Read question 3 and look back at Spend up to 20

the whole text. minutes here

Identify the focus at the beginning,

middle point and ending. Look for
places where the narrative changes
somehow and identify how the
writer has changed focus.

Write 2-3 paragraphs covering the

beginning, middle and end of the
extract using SQI again

Day 5 Task 5 Read question 4 and identify the Spend 20-30

section of text you must use. minutes here

Find 3-4 ways the writer has

created tension and drama in this
section, tracking through the text
from top to bottom.
Start with a statement to say
whether you agree or disagree with
the comment. Then write 3-4
paragraphs explaining how the
writer has created drama. Follow
the SQI formula and include the
impact on the reader.

Day 6 Task 6 Look at the questions on Section B Spend 15 mins here

and choose one. Create a plan for a
piece of writing with a clear
beginning, middle, climax and
resolution. Write down your ideas
(you might want to borrow some
ideas from the text in Section A

Day 7 Task 7 Using your planning for Section B Spend 30-40

write up your response. Aim to minutes here
complete 1 ½ to 2 sides of A4

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Thanks for the Knife

An excerpt from The Hunger Games.

Sixty seconds. That's how long we're required to stand on our metal circles before the
sound of a gong releases us. Step off before the minute is up, and land mines blow
your legs off. Sixty seconds to take in the ring of tributes all equidistant from the
Cornucopia, a giant golden horn shaped like a cone with a curved tail, the mouth of
which is at least twenty feet high, spilling over with the things that will give us life
here in the arena. Food, containers of water, weapons, medicine, garments, fire
starters. Strewn around the Cornucopia are other supplies, their value decreasing the
farther they are from the horn. For instance, only a few steps from my feet lies a three-
foot square of plastic. Certainly it could be of some use in a downpour. But there in
the mouth, I can see a tent pack that would protect from almost any sort of weather. If
I had the guts to go in and fight for it against the other twenty-three tributes. Which I
have been instructed not to do.

We're on a flat, open stretch of ground. A plain of hard-packed dirt. Behind the
tributes across from me, I can see nothing, indicating either a steep downward slope or
even a cliff. To my right lies a lake. To my left and back, sparse piney woods. This is
where Haymitch would want me to go. Immediately.

I hear his instructions in my head. "Just clear out, put as much distance as you can
between yourselves and the others, and find a source of water."

But it's tempting, so tempting, when I see the bounty waiting there before me. And I
know that if I don't get it, someone else will. That the Career Tributes who survive the
bloodbath will divide up most of these life-sustaining spoils. Something catches my
eye. There, resting on a mound of blanket rolls, is a silver sheath of arrows and a bow,
already strung, just waiting to be engaged. That's mine, I think. It's meant for me.
I'm fast. I can sprint faster than any of the girls in our school, although a couple can
beat me in distance races. But this forty-yard length, this is what I am built for. I know
I can get it, I know I can reach it first, but then the question is how quickly can I get
out of there? By the time I've scrambled up the packs and grabbed the weapons, others
will have reached the horn, and one or two I might be able to pick off, but say there's a
dozen, at that close range, they could take me down with the spears and the clubs. Or
their own powerful fists. Still, I won't be the only target. I'm betting many of the other
tributes would pass up a smaller girl, even one who scored an eleven in training, to
take out their more fierce adversaries.

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Haymitch has never seen me run. Maybe if he had he'd tell me to go for it. Get the
weapon. Since that's the very weapon that might be my salvation. And I only see one
bow in that whole pile. I know the minute must be almost up and will have to decide
what my strategy will be and I find myself positioning my feet to run, not away into
the surrounding forests but toward the pile, toward the bow. When suddenly I notice
Peeta, he's about five tributes to my right, quite a fair distance, still I can tell he's
looking at me and I think he might be shaking his head. But the sun's in my eyes, and
while I'm puzzling over it the gong rings out.

And I've missed it! I've missed my chance! Because those extra couple of seconds I've
lost by not being ready are enough to change my mind about going in. My feet shuffle
for a moment, confused at the direction my brain wants to take and then I lunge
forward, scoop up the sheet of plastic and a loaf of bread. The pickings are so small
and I'm so angry with Peeta for distracting me that I sprint in twenty yards to retrieve a
bright orange backpack that could hold anything because I can't stand leaving with
virtually nothing.

A boy, I think from District 9, reaches the pack at the same time I do and for a brief
time we grapple for it and then he coughs, splattering my face with blood. I stagger
back, repulsed by the warm, sticky spray. Then the boy slips to the ground. That's
when I see the knife in his back. Already other tributes have reached the Cornucopia
and are spreading out to attack. Yes, the girl from District 2, ten yards away, running
toward me, one hand clutching a half-dozen knives. I've seen her throw in training.
She never misses. And I'm her next target.

All the general fear I've been feeling condenses into an immediate fear of this girl, this
predator who might kill me in seconds. Adrenaline shoots through me and I sling the
pack over one shoulder and run full-speed for the woods. I can hear the blade
whistling toward me and reflexively hike the pack up to protect my head. The blade
lodges in the pack. Both straps on my shoulders now, I make for the trees. Somehow I
know the girl will not pursue me. That she'll be drawn back into the Cornucopia before
all the good stuff is gone. A grin crosses my face. Thanks for the knife, I think.

Excerpt from The Hunger Games © 2008 by Suzanne Collins. Used with permission
from Scholastic Press.

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Section B
Question 5) Look at the image below and write a description of what is happening
(you could focus on just before and after the event)

Or Question 6) Write a section of a story based on a journey into the unknown

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