Year 10
Title
Overview of
the unit
Lessons
Assessment
objectives
Assessment
Task
Modern Drama – Blood Brothers (Sets ½)
This unit will enable students to develop their skills in analysing how the language,
form, structure and context of the play can help to create meanings and effects. It
will also enable students to develop their skills to write in a critical style using an
informed personal response.
37 lessons. Assessment to be completed by lesson 22.
AO1 – Read, understand and respond to texts.
Students should be able to:
 Maintain a critical style and develop an informed personal response
 Use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate
interpretations (16%)
AO3 – Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in
which they were written (16%)
AO4 – Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and
effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation (8%)
 Students should answer one essay question from a choice of two.
 Each question will be preceded by a short quotation from the text, to provide a
stimulus for the response.
 Questions will focus on one of more of the following areas: plot, setting(s),
character(s) and theme(s) and will require students to explore the question in
relation to the context
 Marks will also be given for accurate use of spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Assessment question (taken from exemplar material supplied by Edexcel):
Mickey (looking at him): You don’t understand anythin’, do ye? I don’t wear a hat
that I can tilt at the world.
Explore the significance of the relationship between Mickey and Eddie.
You must refer to the context of the play in your answer.
Assessment
criteria for
Task 1
Level 5
27-32
(AO1+AO3)
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Level 4
20-26
(AO1+AO3)
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There is an assured personal response, showing a
high level of engagement with the text and discerning
choice of references to the text
A critical style is developed with maturity, perceptive
understanding and interpretation with discerning
choice of references to the text
The understanding of relevant contexts is excellent
Understanding of the relationship between text and
context is integrated convincingly into the response
The response has a developed personal response
and thorough engagement, fully related to the text with
well-chosen references to the text
The critical style is sustained and there is welldeveloped interpretation with well-chosen references
to the text
Sustained comment is offered on relevant contexts
There is detailed awareness of the relationship
between text and context
Level 3 (AO4)
6-8
High performance in the context of the Level of
Demand of the question. Learners spell and punctuate
with consistent accuracy, and consistently use
vocabulary and sentence structures to achieve
effective control of meaning.
Knowledge
Embedded skills
 Character: Mrs Johnstone, Mrs Lyons,
 Constructing a personal response
Mickey, Eddie, Linda
 Constructing a developed personal response
 Settings: 1960s-1970s, Liverpool
to the text that is soundly related to the text
 Plot overview: Separation of twins who
 The language of personal response
reunite and become friends, unaware of their  Use of quotes to back personal response up
relation each other or the consequences
 Well-chosen quotes
their relationship will bring about
 Embedding quotes succinctlyUsing multiple
 Social and historical context: Willy
quotes to back up a personal response
Russell, political climate and the effect on
 Analysing quotations to offer interpretations
Liverpool, references to Marilyn Monroe,
 Developing a critical voice
Pop culture
 What does context mean?
 Sound comment of relevant contexts
 Ability to link context to the text
Key Vocabulary:
(To be completed upon reading of the text)
Blood Brothers mark scheme
The indicative content is not prescriptive. Reward responses that consider the significance of the
relationship between Mickey and Eddie.
Responses may include:
Interpretation of text (AO1):
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They relate to each other immediately as children: ‘blood brothers’
Eddie’s feelings concerning Mickey: he was in awe as a young boy, but this changes,
particularly when Linda comes between them. Does Eddie us or abuse his status?
The situation of Eddie and Mickey – twins but with contrasting backgrounds
In early adulthood, Mickey struggles with no work, marriage and a child on the way,
‘because while no one was looking I grew up. An’ you didn’t because you didn’t need to;
an’ I don’t blame y’ for it, Eddie.’
The idea of ‘blood brothers’ has a tragic outcome as they die violent deaths on the same
day.
Relationship between text and context (AO3):
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Jealousy and rising tension act as a spur to violence, leading to tragedy – this arises from
the difference in their upbringing and social class
The play shows a divided society, set in 1980s Britain (the decade of Thatcherism and the
miners’ strike) – Mickey cannot get on and it is Eddie’s adoptive father who ‘lays people off’/
Eddie also has a university education; despite the expansion of higher education in the
1980s, this was still far less common (especially among those of lower social class) than it
is now – and was seen as bringing clear-cut socio-economic advantages.
Reward all valid points
Candidates will be rewarded if they make relevant textual references or use short quotations from
the text. This includes relevant paraphrasing.