Summative written IO preparation

• Engels
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)
• GCSE

Lesson objectives 

Groups of 3 

 One group member will read aloud their quote. 

Through conversation the group will explore the passage. The 'owner' of the quote will fill out their form during the conversation.  It does not need to be completed in order. Note down all important insights and ideas. 

• Identify the Keywords from the passage. What words stand out for you?
• What is Significant or important about this passage? How do you understand it?
• What Questions, Wonders, or Quandaries does this passage raise for you?
•  What are the Implications of this passage for the novel or play.  What actions or changes does it suggest for the characters? 

4 square conversation 

1. Join with another group of 3 to make a group of 6. Each group has quotes from The Handmaid's Tale and A Doll's House. 
   
2. Share your findings and put the quotes together to make one consecutive extract. 
   
3. Construct a Global Issue that you feel is addressed in both extracts. 
4. This is a previous summative. We will look at the GI constructed for these extracts. 

4 square conversation 

1. Join with another group of 3 to make a group of 6. Each group has quotes from The Handmaid's Tale and A Doll's House. 
   
2. Share your findings and put the quotes together to make one consecutive extract. 
   
3. Construct a Global Issue that you feel is addressed in both extracts. 
4. This is a previous summative. We will look at the GI constructed for these extracts. 

4 square conversation 

Lesson objectives 

Formative preparation for the summative 

we will work on producing  a focused analytical body paragraph responding to the global issue using one extract.

Then we will focus on a comparative paragraph 

Global Issue: Women struggle for autonomy in patriarchal or totalitarian societies which control or oppress their desire for liberation and self-determination. 

Essay prompt: Analyse how the extracts from The Handmaid's Tale and A Doll's House explore the theme of women's oppression and the struggle for autonomy. Consider the literary techniques used by the authors in these extracts and in the works as a whole to convey the experiences of the protagonists and the societal contexts in which they are situated. 

Summative global issue and essay prompt 

1. Clear argument linked to the GI (topic sentence) 

2. Specific authorial choices (form, language, structure)

3. Explanation of how these choices convey oppression/autonomy and why the author wants to highlight that point. 

4. Brief reference beyond the extract (work as a whole)

A strong body paragraph must: 

SEE

Key details (quotes, stage directions, narrative choices)

THINK

What these choices suggest about women’s lack of autonomy

How power is exercised (who controls, how, and why)

WONDER

How this moment reflects the work as a whole

What comparison might emerge with the other text

Discuss the answers to these questions in your groups for your complete extract

1. Sit in a group of two where each of you has analysed a different extract - either The Handmaid's Tale or A Doll's House. 

1. Both of you take notes in your exercise book. 

2. One student explains: 

Claim: one arguable point about the GI in their extract

Evidence: 1–2 well‑chosen quotations

Reasoning: how the authorial choice constructs and comments on oppression and/or autonomy

3. The other student challenges the claims by checking these points: 

Is this analytical rather than descriptive?

Is the GI explicit?

4. The same sequence with the other student. 

In groups of two - two rounds

Topic sentence clearly tied to the GI

Contextual framing (brief, relevant)

Quotation

Technique identified

Analytical explanation (“This suggests… which reinforces…”)

Link to the work as a whole

You have at least three different techniques that show different aspects of the GI

Write a bullet point plan for a single response paragraph 

Atwood illustrates that control and oppression of women happened in subtle ways long before the totalitarian, theocracy of Gilead was established. She is investigating, in this passage, how control and oppression can take inconspicuous forms,  yet still restrain women's autonomy.  At this point in the novel Atwood uses analepsis (flashback)  and  non-linear narrative construction to illustrates to the reader that the narrator has experience of and can communicate with the reader about a society that is not totalitarian. Nevertheless the control of women prior to Gilead meant that they were not free although they felt that they were. The metaphors "in a gradually heating bathtub", "We lived in the blank white spaces" suggests that women were unaware of the oppression and control that the state was enforcing upon them and, although they had an illusion of freedom, this was not self-determination. Furthermore, the adverbial phrase "as usual" is repeated four times to  indicate how the normalcy of control permeates society and is accepted without protest. Furthermore the repetitive use of the adjective "Ignoring"and the related noun "ignorance"  suggests that disregarding control and oppression allows the narrator to pretend that the situation is "usual". Subsequently, the simile "newspaper stories were like dreams" which compares facts to delusion  supports the idea that ignoring and pretending that the situation is "usual" is a survival response to insidious oppression.  Diction choice, such as  "corpses", "bludgeoned to death", "mutilated", "interfered with" and "boiled to death" produces a semantic field related to the idea of violent death or rape. Atwood illustrates how emotive and shocking news reports were used prior to Gilead to control and oppress women. In addition Atwood uses the inclusive pronouns; "We" and "us", to include the narrator, with all other women in the pre-Gilead period who experienced this control. and the exclusive pronoun; "they"; to refer to the shocking newspaper articles that were used to control yet were felt as irrelevant to the women's own experiences. In this extract, Atwood criticises and reveals how women can be oppressed in democratic societies, such as the USA in the 1980s,  through subtle and insidious means. 

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Global Issue: Women struggle for autonomy in patriarchal or totalitarian societies which control or oppress their desire for liberation and self-determination. 

Purpose = Atwood illustrates that control and oppression of women happened in subtle ways long before the totalitarian regime of Gilead. 

Flashback (analepsis or non-linear narrative= illustrates to the reader that the narrator is aware of and can communicate with the reader about a society that is not totalitarian. However, the control of women prior to Gilead meant that they were not free although they felt that they were. 

Author's choices 

Metaphor/analogy= " in a gradually heating bathtub", "We lived in the blank white spaces". Women were unaware of the oppression and control that the state was enforcing upon them and, although they had an illusion of "freedom",  this was not self-determination. 

Repetition = The adverbial phrase "as usual" is repeated to indicate how control is exerted on women in society. Atwood highlights how people accept the existing conditions in order to protect themselves from being targeted. 

Author's choices 

Repetition = The adjective "Ignoring" is repeated to signify how disregarding control and oppression allows the narrator to pretend that the situation is "usual". "Dreams" and "dreamt" is repeated to further signify that the women's reaction to this control is a delusion and results in a failure to become aware of the control and oppression that is being exerted by the patriarchy. 

Simile= "newspaper stories were like dreams". This comparison supports the idea of ignoring and pretending that the situation is "usual". 

Author's choices 

Semantic field = "corpses", "bludgeoned to death", "mutilated", "interfered with", "boiled to death".  A semantic field related to the idea of violent death or rape is present. Atwood illustrates how emotive and shocking news reports were used prior to Gilead to control and oppress women. 

Inclusive and exclusive pronouns = "We" and "us", both inclusive personal pronouns, are used to include Offred, the narrator, with all other women in the pre-Gilead period who were struggling for liberation. "They", an exclusive personal pronoun, is used to refer to the shocking newspaper articles that were not relevant to the women's own experiences. 

Author's choices 

Hyperbolic language = exaggerated and emotive language is used to reflect the melodrama of the newspaper reporting, "melodramatic", "boiled to death", "bludgeoned to death". 

Parallel sentence structures = "but they were about other women, and the men who do such things were other men" reflects a parallel world in which these horrors were not occurring, yet the fear engendered was used to oppress and control women. 

Inner narrative/ point of view/narrative voice/past tense = Atwood uses the point of view of the narrator to consider the context of composition. 

What makes a comparative paragraph different from two single analyses?

Single analyses:

Paragraph 1 = claim about Text A

Paragraph 2 = claim about Text B

Comparative paragraph:

One conceptual claim about the global issue

Both texts are used together to develop that claim

A comparative paragraph uses two texts to make one deeper argument about the global issue that neither text could fully reveal on its own.

One controlling idea, not two separate arguments

You are answering this question: 

What becomes clearer about the global issue when these texts are read together?

This often happens through:

Similarity (both restrict autonomy, but through different mechanisms)

Contrast (private patriarchy vs institutional totalitarianism)

Development (one text anticipates or elaborates the other)

A comparative paragraph answers:

• Use comparative language - Similarly / In contrast / Whereas / Unlike / Both…however… etc. 
  
• Author's choices evaluated against each other .. Atwood uses .. whereas Ibsen employs ... (often in one sentence) 
• Questions to answer: Why does Atwood’s narrative voice produce a different experience of oppression than Ibsen’s dramatic dialogue?
• What does this difference suggest about forms of female autonomy?
• The comparison evaluates effect and implication, not just technique.
• Final sentence is a conceptual conclusion, not a textual summary
• Something that could only be stated because both texts were compared

Construction and ideas 

Connect

One similarity in how autonomy is restricted (methods of control)

Extend

One difference (personal vs systemic, explicit vs internalised)

Challenge

One assumption about “liberation” that the texts make more complex or nuanced. 

Connect - extend - challenge - individually 

In your groups put your ideas into a shared comparison chart:

Make a shared comparison chart

	A Doll's House	The Handmaid's Tale
Methods of control
Female response
Role of society vs individual
Ending (illusion vs removal)

Plan out your comparative paragraph.

Then, in the same document or on the same page, write a comparative paragraph for these two extracts. 

Put your comparative paragraph in Teams class notebook in the tab for The Handmaid's Tale 

Homework for 7th May 4th lesson. 

Plan and write 

Lesson objectives 

Homework check 

Areas of interest in ADH extract 

Allusion and use of fragmented narrative structures in THT

Creating tension through dialogue 

Rate the word 1 to 4

1. I do not know the word, and I have never seen it before. 

2. I've heard or seen the word before, but I'm not sure what it means. 

3. I know the word and can recognise and understand it while reading, but I probably wouldn't feel comfortable using it in writing or speech. 

4. I know the word well and can use it correctly in writing or speech. 

Opportune

Word of the day

Opportune (adj)- suitable or at a time that is suitable or advantageous especially for a particular purpose

You couldn’t have arrived at a more opportune time.

A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen

Punctuation = em dash to show the actors that a long pause is needed. Nora pauses to allow herself to think through her words and come to a conclusion about her actions, "I--how am I fitted", "educate myself--you are not the man", "little while ago--that you dare not trust". Nora takes control of the dramatic dialogue and is forming her decision whilst she considers what has happened to her. She is freeing herself from control and trying to gain the capacity for self-determination. 

Author's choices

Diction choices = in comparison with the Act 1, Nora's diction is straightforward, restrained and focused, "I must do that for myself". Ibsen reveals that Nora is resisting the control and oppression that was exerted upon her by the patriarchal society in which she lived. 

Modality/commands = Ibsen shows Nora's certainty through her use of modals that reflect her lack of insecurity, "I will", "I must". Torvald attempts to regain control "I won't allow it"; however, Nora's reaction, "I will take", which is repeated, underlines that her decision is final. Ibsen illustrates how Nora wishes to find liberation and self-determination. 

Author's choices

Personal pronoun usage = Ibsen's repetitive usage of the first person personal pronoun in Nora's dramatic dialogue highlights her need to become her own person. 

Stage/actor direction = There is only one in this excerpt, [springing up]. This demonstrates to the audience Helmer's shock at hearing that Nora wants to leave her husband and children. This reflects the same shock that the audience would have felt at this revelation. 

Author's choices

Infantilisation = "Both yours and the children's, my darling Nora." Torvald considers Nora to be like a child that needs to be taught by her husband how to behave and what to believe. Control from the patriarchal society. 

Dramatic dialogue/character development