A2 Independent Learning - Part 1 (What I Tried)

The post-exam period is very difficult for Y12. They are exhausted after AS exams and largely in holiday mode, some are also leaving the subject (or planning to!). However perhaps as I know the demands of the A2 and want to get it started, or maybe because I am mean, we get back to work.

The slightly individual situation we currently have is that we teach the AS between three teachers, however the A2 is taught by just two teachers. As such there four lessons per fortnight post-exam where work needs to be set. 

My colleague and I who both teach the A2 decided on a topic each, and then set a variety of tasks. I simply emailed the students this video:

I provided some background reading, pointed them in the direction of the course textbook as well as the extensive resources stored on our Edmodo and via my student blog (see <here>).

I then scheduled ten lessons of independent study, supervised by our other colleague, which totalled 8hrs and 20mins. Plus homework.

I picked the section on 'Atheism and Critiques of Religious Belief' and the only advice I gave the students was: "Marx, Durkheim, Freud, Jung and Dawkins" (as seen in the masks at the top of this post!). This makes up the core of scholars covered in the EdExcel textbook, which I freely admit I use as a guide.

This section is important as it feeds into both papers we do 'Developments' and 'Implications' but equally is the least likely section to appear on the 'Developments' exam.

Deep down I knew I could recover if it was a disaster, but I was optimistic!

In my scheduled lesson time, I began 'Religious Experience' answering questions related to 'Atheism...' but trying to keep things to a minimum and trying to make all responses "Have you read...", "Have you looked in...".

Part 2 (What I found) is <here>.
Part 3 (What students said) is <here>.