Why take this course?

The main purpose of the course is to provide learners with the opportunity to develop the skills of listening, talking, reading and writing in order to understand and use language.

Course Structure:

The course is made up of two internally-assessed mandatory Units and provides all learners with the opportunity to develop their listening, talking, reading and writing skills in order to understand and use language. The two units include the four language skills of listening, talking, reading and writing.

English, Unit 1: Analysis and Evaluation (Higher)

The purpose of this unit is to provide learners with the opportunity to develop listening and reading skills in the contexts of literature, language and media. Learners develop the skills needed to understand, analyse and evaluate detailed and complex texts.

English, Unit 2: Creation and Production (Higher) 

The purpose of this unit is to provide pupils with the opportunity to develop talking and writing skills in a wide range of contexts. Learners develop the skills needed to create and produce detailed and complex texts in both written and oral forms.

How will I be assessed?

Learners will provide evidence of their reading and writing skills and their ability to understand and use English Language.  The course assessment will take the form of a Writing Portfolio, compromising two pieces of learners’ best work from different genres, through the day which they will demonstrate their writing skills; a question paper through which learners will demonstrate their reading skills and a critical essay paper, in which learners will require to answer two questions, at least one of which must be on a Scottish text.

The award of Higher English will be based on completion of the internally-assessed Units, and the pupil’s performance in an external examination: Paper 1: Close Reading (1 hour 30 minutes) and Paper 2: Critical Reading (1 hour 30 minutes), comprising one Critical Essay and the analysis of a Scottish text from the SQA prescribed list. Pupils’ final attainment is completed with the addition of a Writing Portfolio, comprising two essays, one Creative and one Discursive.

What homework will I be expected to do?

Homework and independent study tasks with strict completion deadlines will be set throughout the course.  English courses at all levels make demands of each learner as an active reader.  In addition to prescribed homework, each learner should be reading quality newspapers, complex fiction and challenging non-fiction texts which will provide short-term and long-term benefits in terms of vocabulary acquisition, enhanced genre/stylistic awareness and a growing stock of models for writing in a variety of forms which will inform the learner’s own writing and reading.  The purchase and use of both a dictionary and thesaurus will prove of immediate and continuing benefit to the student of English.