Literary Texts Practice for GCSE AQA Reading

Available for French, German Spanish and Italian

Tackle the challenging literary text aspect of the 2016 specs with our bespoke pack based on 20 carefully chosen literary extracts. Engaging comprehension activities with varying levels of support build students’ skills and confidence.

Once again ZigZag have thought of everything and come to the teachers' rescue!

S Pearson, HoD and Customer

For each tier, there are: ❶ 2 introductory texts with full work-throughs and a step-by-step guide to approaching literary texts ❷ 3 supported texts to build and develop students’ reading skills ❸ 5 exam-practice texts, each followed by a task based on AQA Paper 3.

  • Built-in differentiation – text length, grammar and exam questions are fully matched to AQA Sample Assessment Material for Foundation and Higher reading papers
  • A wide range of genres, literary periods and authors prepares students for the exam

Student confidence in reading longer texts has gone up significantly in our classes where this resource is used

A Kimberly, HoD and Customer
  • Background information on the authors and their works – awaken students’ interest in the fascinating world of literature
  • Comprehensive answers to all tasks for easy self, peer and teacher marking and full translations of all extracts – challenge the brightest by setting them a passage to translate!
  • Extension writing tasks – use the texts as a springboard for creative-writing practice

What do teachers say about this resource? (6681)

Once again ZigZag have thought of everything and come to the teachers' rescue! There are no other resources like this one to help us prepare our students to the demands of the new GCSE exam. Thank you! This has saved me hours and hours of research and work!

S Pearson, HoD and Customer

I was extremely impressed by the amount of knowledge/research which has gone into producing this resource. Few teachers would have the breadth of knowledge of literary texts to put together materials for GCSE level, particularly at Foundation level. This is a very specific area and places huge demands on teachers. I can imagine sighs of relief from teachers trying to find authentic materials which match the requirements of the new syllabus.

J Ireland, Teacher and Peer Reviewer

I absolutely loved this resource! (…)I am genuinely impressed by its quality. Please pass on my congratulations to the author.

E Bermard, HoD and Peer Reviewer

Students and teachers alike may feel daunted by this new section of the reading paper. This guide will reassure them and give them multiple strategies to approach literary texts. The extracts are extremely well chosen. They are varied and fit in very well with the new topics of the AQA specification. Coping strategies are clear and useful.

S Fleet, Teacher and Peer Reviewer

This resource contains a wealth of authentic French texts and clearly structured activities, both reading and writing, to help students to access those texts. The texts are clearly labelled Foundation and Higher to help differentiate for students and the questions are well thought out and help students to really engage with and access texts that some students would have given up on at the mere sight of them.

A Kimberly, HoD and Customer

This is a very good resource which is tackling an area that many teachers may find intimidating given that we have not had to teach literary texts in French at GCSE level for at least the last 13 years (probably longer). There is a good mix of styles of texts and I really like the choice of text such as 'Le Petit Prince' and 'Le Petit Nicolas'. The structure of introductory, practice and exam style questions makes the resource accessible for pupils and teachers.

V Pick, HoD and Peer Reviewer

Very good teaching resource for this newly examined skill. Saves hours searching for suitable practice extracts

D Marks, Teacher and Customer

What do teachers say about this resource? (6592)

An excellent resource that every teacher and student should have! The texts are interesting and cover a wide range of contexts and skills to help lead to success in the GCSE reading paper at both higher and foundation tiers. (...) I am fully confident that this resource meets fully the demands set out by the AQA specification.

N Booth, HoD and Peer Reviewer

This is a top-notch resource. Not only is it perfect to tackle the work on authentic literary texts, but the author of the pack has also chosen extracts which have a cultural element! There are scaffolding strategies in place to ease the students into tasks, helping them build in confidence. It improves students’ exam techniques through activities which tackle an extract step by step. It guides both the students and the teacher through this new GCSE element using a variety of activities. It also provides ideas for writing tasks! Some grammar points are also illustrated throughout.

S Pearson, HoD and Customer

Our Year 10 students have responded really well to these texts both in the classroom and, more recently, as home learning tasks. It Is clearly laid out for both students and teachers and has been a much needed source of support to our teachers as we help students prepare for the new GCSE. Students enjoy the structure of being told explicitly what to do by the worksheets and find them easy to follow. Student confidence in reading longer texts has gone up significantly in our classes where this resource is used.

A Kimberly, HoD and Customer

The approach the author has used is excellent (...) This resource provides pupils with invaluable information, hints and tips on how to tackle a literary text. Pupils are encouraged to use their thinking skills in order to understand the gist of the texts. The tasks make the idea of literary texts a little less daunting for pupils and encourage the development of skills they can use in an exams.

S Peterson, HoD and Peer Reviewer

I think the aim of this resource is very positive as it [uses] extracts of important and relevant authors while working in concrete aspects of grammar. I really believe this resource could be very valuable since it will mix culture and language knowledge.

P Parra Lopez, Teacher and Peer Reviewer

Provides wide variety of literary texts with interesting ideas for their explanation. It saves time searching for texts to practice this skill. Text books barely deal with this skill.

D Marks, Teacher and Customer

Many relevant activities so that students can gain confidence at the GCSE Spanish exams. Plus it is great as it follows rather well the new specification requirements for AQA in regards to literary texts.

J Ermina, Teacher and Peer Reviewer

It supports students of both tiers (Foundation and Higher). I really like how each literary text has been linked to a GCSE topic (relationships, food & drink, etc). There is a clear focus on tenses and grammar, which is useful. I particularly like the translation tasks (both ways) and the gap fill tasks.

R Bravo, Teacher and Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (8570)

I really like this resource. I think there is a really good range of texts, and I think teachers really need something like this to help them prepare students for the literature questions in the exam. It requires exposure to a different kind of language and also different kinds of questions, and realistically teachers just don't have the time to do all of this themselves. These exercises give staff a range of resources to draw on, rather that just using past paper questions.

I like the dual focus on the actual comprehension of the texts, alongside the acquisition of skills and language. There is a good focus on vocab revision and also skills for reading and understanding a text.

I think this text helps prepare students for the reading paper but it also provides a creative and more interesting way to revise vocab. It will support staff who just don't have time to prep these kind of materials themselves and also staff who are not sure which texts would be suitable. I think they have been judiciously chosen.

I think it matches [the spec] well. The texts in the exam are quite short, but they can be really varied, so I think this resource is really helpful as a way of exposing students to a range of texts and styles. Most of the question types are also in line with the questions in the exam papers.

I think Italian teachers will appreciate this resource as there are so few available and it is really helpful and really targeted at an area of the course that it is v time consuming to prep for.



E Kilburn, Deputy Head Teacher & Peer Reviewer

A very challenging collection of texts with increasing level of difficulty. The exercises on grammar are very useful and help to revise specific structures met in the passage. I particularly liked the writing tasks as they offer the student the opportunity to recall words and structures passively learned in the activities and deploy them in a longer piece of writing (active vs passive vocabulary).

A Moraca, Teacher and Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (6593)

An excellent introduction to authentic German literature and a fantastic resource for the new GCSE. The tasks link nicely to the new GCSE specs and encourage wider reading and use of 'unseen' vocabulary. It's crucial that this new part of the course is covered and [ this guide] offers students an exciting, new challenge.

S Cummins, HoD and Customer

It is a very useful resource that targets an area of the GCSE exam that is notoriously difficult for our students.

I particularly like this resource because it builds up confidence in tackling literary text by a small step approach

It gives students greater exposure of living texts and familiarises them with GCSE type tasks associated with them.

It is better than other resources because it targets a very specific area of the GCSE that is new to students. It is divided into Foundation and High Level. Students can self-assess.

K Copus, Teacher and Customer

This is a resource which demonstrates what an enhancement the whole turn to authentic texts at GCSE level can be. None of the chosen texts are in any way facile, indeed they offer challenge from the very outset, however, the author guides the teacher and pupil renders the texts accessible and dispels the notion that every word needs to be understood. There are many things to like about this resource, its great variety of styles of literary texts, its excellent tips and advice on how to deduce meaning without having to understand every word, its wide range of questioning techniques... The progression through help and support into practice and exam-style questions, plus the provision of regular tips and advice on navigating through, ensures that the student gains in confidence (...) I am most impressed!

J Turner, Teacher and Peer Reviewer

There are a lot of reading materials and the supplementary activities really help the students to engage with each text – thanks!

R Chapman, HoD and Customer