Aspects of Tragedy: Literary Genre Companions for AS/A Level AQA B

Complement your set-text teaching for Papers 1 and 2 with these innovative genre-based resources. Notes, quotes and activities help students situate their studied text within the genre of tragedy.

A great revision resource to summarise and clarify pupil learning...

...It’s broken into very straightforward sections and allows pupils to improve any areas of weakness they may have...

...The activities are varied, offering pupils opportunities to create mind maps, discuss key questions or try an exam-style essay

S Owen, HoD & Peer Reviewer (on King Lear booklet)
  1. Set the scene with introductory notes for both genre and text
  2. Concentrate attention on relevant features with focused, student-friendly analysis of tragic aspects in the text
    • Explore characters, language, structure, form, setting, critical reception and themes
    • Quotation analysis pinpoints key ideas
    • Literary and dramatic terms defined in context and in a comprehensive glossary
  3. Build analytical skills and consolidate genre-based tragedy knowledge with varied, creative activities – suggested answers included!
  4. Practise close reading for Section A with important tragic annotated extracts and accompanying activities

Presented as an A5 booklet for easy use – a perfect companion to ZigZag Education’s Comprehensive Guides.

Aspects of Tragedy AQA B English Literature Texts

AS Paper 1A Section A: Shakespeare
Othello or King Lear

AS Paper 1A Section B: Drama
Death of a Salesman, Richard II or A Streetcar Named Desire

AS Paper 2A Section A: Poetry
John Keats’s ‘Lamia’, ‘Isabella or the Pot of Basil’, ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ and ‘The Eve of St Agnes’, Thomas Hardy’s Selected Poems or Poetry Anthology: Tragedy

AS Paper 2A Section B: Prose
The Great Gatsby, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, or The Remains of the Day

A Level Paper 1A Sections A and B: Shakespeare
Othello or King Lear

A Level Paper 1A Section C: Prose, Drama or Poetry
The Great Gatsby, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, John Keats’s ‘Lamia’, ‘Isabella or the Pot of Basil’, ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ and ‘The Eve of St Agnes’, Death of a Salesman, Richard II, or Poetry Anthology: Tragedy

What do teachers say about this resource? (7364)

This is an excellent resource which will be invaluable to students who are revising for their exams, as well as for teachers who want to prepare to teach this text. I really love the idea that I could give students this booklet and be safe knowing that they have everything they need to tackle the exam.

I like the constant references and links from analysis to tragedy, glossaries, range of activities, in-depth and high-quality content and constant use of quotations to support analysis is useful.

This is particularly useful to provide students with a comprehensive set of notes on tragedy within the text – nothing needs to be added to it for it to cover everything needed on Gatsby. I think this also has flipped learning potential – spending lots of time as a teacher explaining this content isn’t productive, so this booklet is excellent.

An excellent resource. I would definitely purchase this.

T Hollins, Head of English Enrichment & Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (7088)

A great revision resource to summarise and clarify pupil learning... I like the introductory notes; they explain the purpose and structure of the resource clearly. A5 format – what a good idea! A lot of info into a little bit of space. The layout for each section (information, key terms, activity, further reading, extension task) is excellent. The activities are designed with specific purpose and audience. Character summaries are good, threaded through with appropriate quotation, and linking the characters to the key themes. I also like the Language and Structure sections. They are divided into segments that will really benefit pupil learning. Context is usefully woven through other sections to show its relevance.
Critical comment is nicely summarised, and covers both obvious and less-well-known critics... The advantage for pupils is the clarity of the resource. It’s broken into very straightforward sections and allows pupils to improve any areas of weakness they may have. The activities are varied, offering pupils opportunities to create mind maps, discuss key questions or try an exam-style essay. The marked-up extracts are extremely useful to pupils. They are shown how to analyse key quotations, and what might be considered important/relevant to include in their answers.

S Owen, HoD & Peer Reviewer (on King Lear booklet)

High quality and suitable for target audience. The writer obviously knows the play very well and adopts an appropriate register which is both clear and challenging... Excellent activities.

L Wilford, Peer Reviewer (on King Lear booklet)