This resource will provide you with a way of introducing students to the transition from GCSE to A-Level. The lesson plan makes space to value every student’s contribution, giving them a taste of A-Level study and a new piece of micro-fiction to take away.
This lesson plan is designed to promote:
- The importance of talk
- Personal response
- Big ideas (as opposed to a focus on the small details of style)
- Paired and groupwork
The suggested activities will also provide an introduction to theory and thinking comparatively. No extra preparation is needed to deliver this lesson, but we’ve designed this lesson plan so that you can tailor it to your students if you wish. We’ve suggested four very short stories that you can use for this lesson, all of which are freely available online.
Activity 1
10 minutes
Designed to set up the students’ personal response.
We suggest that you let the student choose their partner so they’re comfortable with what can be a deep discussion. You can circulate and listen throughout.
Work with a partner and share two things that are significant in your life personally, that you’re happy to share.
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Designed to encourage the students to see the big picture.
With your partner, come up with a suggestion of what literature is. What would everyone in this room agree is a work of literature? Feed back into the whole group for discussion.
You can make a ‘controversial’ suggestion if needed, e.g. song lyrics. You might want to record these ideas to return to at the end.
OR
Do stories need to have a ‘point’?
You can try creating a list on the board of the minimum ingredients of a short story. You can extend this into a discussion of how a narrative can work over such a short space.
Activity 2
10 minutes
We suggest you reassure the students that they don’t need to understand the short story – they can just let it work on their imagination. You can read it aloud, or students can read it in pairs.
Designed to build on the students’ personal response.
Choose a moment in the story that you find particularly interesting or significant – this could be the beginning or ending or somewhere in between.
Every student feeds back to the whole group for this straightforward activity; you might decide to turn this into a wider discussion. You can probe a little further: “Why did you choose that particular moment? Why does it resonate with you? How does it make you feel?” And then the big question: “Do you think this story has a “point”, and if so, what is it?”
Designed to give a brief introduction to theory.
What sorts of people might be reading this story?
We suggest that you create a big list on the board. Students might respond with groups like teachers, women, footballers, working people…
Choose two of those groups in your pair and think about how they might read this story: what would their response be and why?
At this point you can tell the students that A-Level study is different to GCSE study in that you will experiment with theory, which is exciting! If it feels right, you could introduce more formally a feminist/queer/post-colonial approach.
Activity 3
10 minutes
Designed to introduce comparative thinking.
In a larger group of 3-4 outside your original pairing, compare this short story with one of your GCSE set texts. Each person in your group should think of one way that the texts are similar, and one way that the texts are different.
This exercise makes space for simpler and more sophisticated responses. You could start a class discussion here; it would be interesting to see what patterns emerge from the students’ responses.Or, you could ask a more specific question: are very short stories similar to poems? What are the differences? Can students see any commonalities with other forms, e.g. jokes (which hold things back, and then release them, often with a punchline)?
If you’ve got time, you could add a plenary activity here, which would enable the students to sum up the session. Ask the students to write on a post-it note their ‘so what’ moment: why does what we’ve talked about matter? What is the point of literature? How does this approach feel different to the GCSE?
At the end, we suggest that you conclude with a reminder of the ways in which A-Level study is different to the GCSE: working collaboratively, class discussions, applying personal perspectives, inhabiting perspectives of others, and comparative thinking.
Suggested texts
Here are four very short stories which would work well, all of which are freely available online:
- ‘The Oval Portrait’, Edgar Allen Poe
- ‘The Story of an Hour’, Kate Chopin
- ‘Before the Law’, Franz Kafka
- ‘The Mice’, Lydia Davis
You might also want to look at anthologies of very short fiction (sometimes called micro fiction or flash fiction, typically 300 words or less), e.g.
- Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Fifty Really Short Stories, ed. Jerome Stern (1996)
- New Micro – Exceptionally Short Fiction, ed. James Thomas and Robert Scotellaro (2018)
- 75 Short Masterpieces: Stories from the World’s Literature, ed. Roger B. Goodman (2009)
With thanks to
Sophie Appleqvist, Zoe Ellis, and Sheri Smith (The Ladies’ College, Guernsey)
Dr Rebecca Fisher (CEO, English Association)
Chris Green (The Perse School, Cambridge)
Louise Lamb
Feel free to use this resource however you see fit. We’d love to hear your feedback: get in touch with us on hello@englishassociation.ac.uk
