This document provides guidance on key concepts and skills for English literature assessments, including analyzing prose texts, poetry, and unseen texts. It discusses objectives focused on critical thinking, understanding how language and structure convey meaning, and considering social/historical contexts. Key terms are defined, such as denotation vs. connotation, signs and signifiers, and language techniques. Higher-level responses are said to discuss the author-reader relationship, contextual awareness, and implicit meanings rather than single "right answers."

1. English workshop
LO: To explore and apply skills for
higher level responses:
Connotation and denotation; signs
and signifiers.

2. WJEC English Literature Unit 1, Section A:
Prose (different cultures)
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
O Assessment Objectives
O AO1: Respond to texts critically and imaginatively;
select and evaluate relevant textual detail to illustrate
and support interpretations
O AO2: Explain how language, structure and form
contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes and
settings
O AO4: Relate texts to their social, cultural and historical
contexts; explain how texts have been influential and
significant to self and other readers in different contexts
and at different times

3. Unit 1, Section B: Unseen
Poetry
AO1: Respond to texts critically and imaginatively;
select and evaluate relevant textual detail to
illustrate and support interpretations
AO2: Explain how language, structure and form
contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes
and settings
AO3: Make comparisons and explain links between
texts, evaluating writers’ different ways of
expressing meaning and achieving effects

4. AO1
OIdeas – relate to Thinking and
Understanding – usually expressed by
abstract nouns (identity, loneliness)
OFeelings – relate to personal and
emotional states, expressed as nouns or
adjectives (fear/afraid, pleasure/pleased)
OAttitudes – relates to consistent
behavioural approaches to ideas, events or
situations.

5. AO2
O Structure
O Form
O Language
First explore what these
terms mean:

6. Structure: whole text or
extract
ODramatic structure: sequence of events
building up to a powerful conclusion/climax
OLogical structure: series of events
sequenced by time
OOpposition structures: problem/solution
Question/answer - Cause/effect

7. Structure: syntax
OSentence types – simple/complex /
compound/minor
OSentence function -
declarative/interrogative/exclamative/
imperative
OSyntax – how individual sentences are
structured.

8. Form:
OCharacterisation
OSetting
ONarrative technique
OPlot/Events

9. Characterisation
Characterisation should be the
focus, not characters.
Remember that the characters
have been created by the
authors to represent aspects of
human behaviour and to arouse
specific attitudes in the reader
or audience.

10. Language:
OFormal/Informal
OImagery -
simile/metaphor/personification/symbolism
ODenotation/connotation
OAural impact - alliteration/assonance
OWord classes – Noun types, pre-
modifiers…

11. AO4
OSocial – how did other texts
influence the writer?
OCultural – Comparing and
contrasting values and attitudes of
different readers/audiences.
OHistorical – What impacted on the
language and content of the text?

12. Higher level answers
discuss:
O relationship of author with reader or audience
O contextual awareness
O sub textual meaning/purpose
O Don't offer one `right answer` but rather
discuss the given texts within their contexts.

13. Writing Skills
OThe way you express your response
is important – sophisticated
writing.
OIt is vital to keep developing your
writing skills.
OTo achieve an A and A* grade,
students must have sophisticated
writing skills. (Don't neglect this
area)

14. Key A-A*
Specific Skills
Frequent use of short quotation,
supported by explanation
Written `Voice`
Sophisticated Connectives
Specialist Language
Complex comparisons
Sentence Structures – simple and
complex
Complex Punctuation - .,;:

15. ‘A’ grade students should
understand...
OSemantics: the relationship between symbol
and sign
O Words: and the things they denote, connote
OPragmatics: the study of factors which
govern our choices of language – such as social
awareness, our culture and our sense of
etiquette

16. Denotation and
connotation
O Words in texts can work on more than one
level.
O This is described by the terms denotation
and connotation.
O They are important terms for you to
understand.

17. Guess
O I think denotation is…..
O I think connotation is…..

18. DENOTATION is the straight forward or
common- sense meaning of a sign
O Literally what is actually shown in an
image or through language.
O A red rose is a flower
O An apple is a fruit we eat
O A lamb is a young sheep

19. CONNOTATION is the extra, linked
meaning that goes with any sign.
O The connotations of a sign will be much
more personal than the straight forward
denotation because they are to do with
personal ideas and feelings about it.
O The connotations will not be the same for
everybody.

21. O For romantics a red rose can be a
symbol of love.
O In Lancashire it is a symbol for the
county.
O It has even been a symbol for a political
party.
O These are all connotations or extra
layers of meaning that the image carries
with it.

23. Think about the apple…
It can be a symbol of health.
It can have associated meanings of New York -“The Big Apple”.
It can even stand for sin.
These are all connotations or extra layers of meaning that the image
carries with it.

24. Signs and signifiers:
O Signs – work like denotation – it’s what
you see
O Signifiers work like connotation – it’s what
the sign signifies!

25. What is this?

26. What if I am a mathematician?

27. Now what is it?

28. Now what is it?

29. What is it now?

30. Now what have these lines
become?

31. What does this symbol
signify?

32. Now what does it signify?

33. What is this telling you to do?

34. How do you know?

35. Signs are there to signify things
but they have a cultural reference
• In other words, they only “make sense”
if we understand what they mean.
• We only understand what they mean
because we have a shared knowledge
– I know a red light means stop, so do
you, so do all other drivers so we all
stop at red traffic lights.

36. What is this?

37. Actually…
O It is a Norwegian Pine tree, covered in snow and
with a red ribbon on (denotation)
O But it signifies: (connotation)
O Christmas
O Presents
O Families
O And this is because we share a cultural
knowledge about the use of Norwegian Pine
trees (thanks to Queen Victoria’s husband,
Prince Albert, who brought this German cultural
tradition to England in the 1840s!)

38. Putting it all together:
O On the following page, you will see an
advert.
O This time, you will read the images to look
at the denotation and the connotations of
it.
O You need to talk about the use of signs
and signifiers in this advert.

39. This advert depicts toddlers in roller skates
and this is the denotation of it.
However, what are the connotations of it?
What are the key signs and signifiers?

40. Now apply this to a text
O Read the description below:
A tall man stood in the doorway. He held a crushed Stetson hat
under his arm while he combed his long, black, damp hair straight
back. Like the others he wore blue jeans and a short denim jacket.
When he had finished combing his hair he moved into the room,
and he moved with a majesty achieved only by royalty and master
craftsmen. He was a jerkline skinner, the prince of the ranch,
capable of driving ten, sixteen, even twenty mules with a single line
to the leaders. He was capable of killing a fly on the wheeler’s butt
with a bull whip without touching the mule. There was a gravity in
his manner and a quiet so profound that all talk stopped when he
spoke. His authority was so great that his word was taken on any
subject, be it politics or love.
What is the denotation of this description (What does it mean)?
What is the connotation? What does it tell us about Steinbeck’s
opinion of Slim and his position in the ranch? Focus on the
language used and write an analytical paragraph using the
terminology from this lesson.