The English department at Carrickfergus College offers a very successful A-Level course, which follows a CCEA programme of study. This exciting two year course consists of four modules, offering students the opportunity to study a wide range of literature from 17th century plays right up to modern novels and poetry, as outlined below:
| Year 1: Advanced Subsidiary (AS) Level | ||
|---|---|---|
| Unit | Content | Texts |
| 1a | The Study of Shakespeare | W. Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ |
| 1b | The Study of a 20th Century Dramatist | A. Miller’s ‘A View from a Bridge’ &‘All My Sons’ |
| 2a | The Study of post 1800 Poetry | C-A. Duffy’s ‘Selected Poems’ &L. Lochhead’s ‘The Colour of Black and White’ |
| The Study of Prose from 1800 – 1945 | F.S. Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ | |
| Year 2: Advanced (A2) Level | ||
| Unit | Content | Texts |
| 1a | The Study of Poetry from 1300 – 1800 | A. Pope’s ‘The Rape of the Lock’ |
| 1b | The Study of Satirical Drama | B. Jonson’s ‘Volpone’ &R.B. Sheridan’s ‘The School For Scandal’ |
| 2a | The Study of War Prose | T. O’Brien’s ‘The Things They Carried’ |
| 2b | E. Hemingway’s ‘A Farewell to Arms’ &Crane’s ‘The Red Badge of Courage’ | |
The subject is taught by two teachers, over nine periods per week, and students, benefiting from quite small class sizes, have maintained the 100% pass rate each year. Indeed the vast majority of our students go on to university, to pursue a diverse range of courses, including Teaching, Nursing, Criminology, and of course English Literature.
