In a recent article submitted to English In Education (NATE), it is argued that the discrete knowledge within the curriculum is often implicit, masked by the identity of the assessment objectives. As Basil Bernstein argues, the domains of learning, evaluation and pedagogy are distinct, but we often teach as if the evaluative assessment objectives are indistinct from the knowledge of the learning objectives.
English curriculum often fails to make explicit the actual packets of knowledge; the discrete (that is, closed, defined and with a measurable end point) knowledge forms to be taught. DisciplineofEnglish.co.uk is dedicated to building a learning curriculum that is distinct from the assessment objectives.
Because out learning objectives are closed, defined and contain measurable ends, we can very easily produce workbooks based around each objective. This has not been put into place for the conceptual knowledge of literature. Two are available, one which includes model answers and one with blank model space for students to complete.
Another benefit to these discrete learning objectives is that they are much easier to mark. Why not highlight the key ingredients on the page in red, amber or green to indicate the degree of success? Alternatively, now the knowledge is so clear, why not turn the marking activity into peer-assessment?
The workbooks can be found on the literature curriculum page under resources.