Spanish Support DayA2 Paper 3

7 March 2018

Belfast

A2 Areas to focus on

• ARGUMENTS

• OPINIONS AND JUSTIFICATIONS

• CRITICAL ANALYSIS

• COMPARISON CHARACTERS

• THEMES

• LITERARY STYLES

Think about the marking scheme

• AO2 Understanding worth 35

• AO4 Knowledge worth 20

• Knowledge is LINKED to AO2, ‘able to focus appropriately on key aspects of the question’, so gratuitous knowledge will get minimum reward

• So keeping essay focused on the question at all times is key

• This will encourage generosity in AO3, as candidate might struggle to say what question demands, as opposed to writing what they have pre-learned

LENGTH

No word limitTendency for essays to be

overlong

AS 300 limit? A2 350-400?

Planning vs rambling/scatter-

gun

Factor in time to

• plan 10 mins

• write 40 mins

• revise 10 mins

Step-up from AS to A2: Knowledge to Analysis and Evaluation

• AS

• Knowledge

• A2

• Critical analysis

• evaluation

AS and A2 questions

• AS:

• ¿Cómo es? Describe. ¿Por qué hace eso? Explica …

• A2:

• Analiza la situación de,

• ¿Cómo evaluarías el comportamiento de…

• ¿Qué importancia tiene…

CRITICAL EVALUATION AND OPINION

Avoid: creo que, en mi opinión, es

importante tener en cuenta que…

All statements, as objective as possible, will be those of the

candidate

‘Bernarda es una tirana’ = Yo creo que

…

More important to tell us what makes

you say she’s a tyrant, the JUSTIFICATION

CRIT… = judge, decide

Critical evaluation involves weighing up different perspectives

and opting for one

Encourage close reading of the text-

film

• Play

• Dialogue, wording, images, double-meanings, symbolism, poetic language

• Lighting, staging, acotaciones/stage-directions

• Structure of the acts, dramatic tension, prefiguring

• Contrasts and comparisons

• Bernarda y sus hijas

• Martirio y Adela

• Angustias y las demás

• Poncia y Bernarda

• Bernarda, Poncia, Criada, Mendiga –jerarquía, diferencias de clase

• Bernarda y Prudencia: diferencias de personalidad

Film

• Dialogue

• Characters

• Cinematography, lighting, camera angles/planos, music

• A level Spanish should not require detailed film analysis

• Literary texts do not demand literary analysis

• Educated response to a text

¡IR AL GRANO!

• INTRODUCTION should dealwith the question. Analyse it, break it down for subsequenttreatment in the BODY, identifyPARTS, try to avoid REPEATING question

• Assume substantial knowledgeon the part of the examiner

• This allows you to allude todetails without spelling themout in detail.

Analiza la actitud de Bernarda hacia sus hijas

En este ensayo propongo

analizar la actitud de

Bernarda hacia sus

hijas…

Analiza la actitud de Bernarda hacia sus hijas

Bernarda es una

madre dominanta

que trata a sus cinco

hijas con mucha

severidad…

“quotations”• Wonderfully useful, mnemonic aids, BUT use sparingly and carefully

• Can enhance but can also detract

• Quotation-led essay v ideas-led essay

• Avoid QUOTATION as substitute for COMMENT or without context:• “Hilo y aguja para las hembras, látigo y mula para el varón”• Or the quotation that repeats the idea and just takes up space: • La obra hace una crítica de cómo los hombres se cansan pronto del matrimonio: “A

vosotras, que sois solteras, os conviene saber de todos modos que el hombre a los quince días de boda deja la cama por la mesa, y luego la mesa por la tabernilla”

• Paraphrase or weaving snippets can be more effective:• ‘Bernarda se muestra como una dominanta cuando impone el silencio a sus hijas y dice que

en la casa se hace lo que ella manda’.• La obra hace una crítica de cómo el hombre se cansa pronto del matrimonio. La Poncia

avisa que “a los quince días de boda deja la cama por la mesa, y luego la mesa por la tabernilla”

Avoid pre-learning and

padding

• Good introductions will immediately get to gripswith the question

• Rather than give a general introduction to thetext (who the author is, when it was published, where it is set, etc.)

• Analyse the question without just repeating it

• ‘En este ensayo propongo analizar la actitud de Bernarda hacia sus hijas…’

• Avoid set, learned off sentences (Collins dictionary) and universal statements

Text and resources

• Wealth of excellent resources

• Inspire confidence to engage with original text

• No need for lit crit

• No expectation of film expertise

• Lots of good resources that encourage working with detail of the text

• encourage attention to detail

• Texts can be ambiguous, different interpretations

• There are no CORRECT answers just COHERENT answers based on reasonable evidence

Mario Camus film, 1987

• Caution

• Close, respectful but not exactly same as thetext

Resources

• García Lorca, Federico, La casa de Bernarda Alba, ed. H. Ramsden (series Hispanic Texts) Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1983

• García Lorca, Federico, La casa de Bernarda Alba, ed. Miguel García Posada, Madrid: Castalia, 1984.

• García Lorca, Federico, La casa de Bernarda Alba, ed. Allen Josephs and Juan Caballero, Madrid: Cátedra, 1980 (newer 2005 edition in Cátedra, ed. Ma Francisca Vilches de Frutos)

• García Lorca, F Four Major Plays, trans. John Edmunds, great introduction by Nick Round, Oxford World Classic, 1997

• Serrano Carrasco, Cristina, “García Lorca, Federico, La casa de Bernarda Alba”, Apuntes Cúpula, Barcelona: CEAC, 1989.

• Bianchi Sebastian and M Thacker Modern Languages Study Guides: La casa de Bernarda Alba, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2017

• Bond, M and Moya Morallón, Oxford Literature Companions: La casa de Bernarda Alba: study guide for AS/A Level Spanish, OUP, 2018

• Getting to know …La casa de Bernarda Alba, Zigzag, https://zigzageducation.co.uk/synopses/7450-getting-to-know-la-casa-de-bernarda-alba