Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan is currently taught on the Edexcel GCSE/IGCSE English Language Paper 1 curriculum. It is one of the 10 non-fiction texts which students answer on in Section A. This guide to teaching the extract includes activity ideas and teaching tips. The Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan resources pack contains editable Google Slides, detailed annotations, practice exam questions with a mark scheme and quiz questions with an answer key. All resources are available as downloadable PDFs and as editable Google documents so that you can alter them to suit your students.
Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A journey into Bhutan is Jamie Zeppa’s personal account of travelling to Bhutan to take up a teaching role there. The Edexcel IGCSE extract is the section whereby the writer describes her first experiences in Bhutan. As the reader, we are privy to her trepidation, cultural shock, wonder, awe and respect for this completely new place. Zeppa writes in present tense, increasing the intensity and first-hand experience for the reader.
Zeppa experiences a range of reactions to the setting and people she encounters; but how can we support students to capture that in their exam essays? How can we break it down to consider not only the message from a critical stance, but how Jamie Zeppa portrays the complex history and culture of Bhutan?
As a GCSE examiner of more than a decade, I aim to create resources to help students improve their exam scores. So, I’ve created a scheme of work for busy teachers to take you step-by-step through the text from the angle of exam performance. It contains everything from an engaging, thought-provoking starter, to language techniques, to analysing and annotating the text. There are also practice Edexcel GCSE style questions on the text. This includes a comparison to another GCSE text, ‘Explorers or Boys Messing About? Either way, the taxpayer gets the rescue bill’.
This resource contains editable Google slides, quizzes with answer keys, exam questions, a model paragraph and close textual annotations of the whole GCSE extract. Furthermore, all activities are ready to download and print in PDF form or there are links for you to personalise them if you wish.
The 2 hour 15 minutes Edexcel IGCSE English Language Paper 1 exam is split into Section A and Section B. Section A is the reading assessment and candidates are presented with one of the 10 non-fiction Anthology texts and one thematically linked unseen text. The texts are between 1.5 and 2.5 pages long. They have 5 questions to answer in Section A:
Section B is a writing assessment. Candidates choose between two options, which are normally loosely based on the Section A texts. The text types include a letter, article, speech or leaflet. Both Section A and Section B are equally weighted, worth 45 marks each.
To start teaching this extract, I introduce students to Bhutan through images. The text contains detailed description of the landscape of Bhutan. To enable students to visualise this, I provide images related to the text.
Next, I ask them to write some words, phrases and notes about the images. If it’s helpful, they can have a quick discussion with a partner or others on their table. When eliciting feedback, I encourage students to describe specific details, and explain whether it is somewhere they would like to visit.
In summary, this activity helps give a tangible perception of Bhutan, giving students a framework to approach and understand the extract. The Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan resources pack includes these activities as a handout and on the Google slides.
Before diving into the text, I quickly review key language techniques in the extract so that they are fresh in students’ minds as they read. This Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan resources pack includes a matching activity as a PDF worksheet and on the Google slides. Students match the definition and technique, which they can either copy, cut and paste or simply number. As an extension, students can write their own examples of the techniques. This is also a useful revision tool for Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan and any of the other texts assessed at GCSE.
Prior to close textual analysis, I often ask students to do an initial reading with two different coloured highlighters. They highlight language which portrays a negative view of Bhutan and the writer’s experience in one colour and language depicting a positive experience and perception in another colour. It is a fairly straightforward extract for students to understand on a surface level. A young woman takes a teaching position in Bhutan and describes her first impressions of the landscape, people and culture. The more challenging skill comes in unpacking how Zeppa’s descriptions reveal a range of emotions, feelings and experiences.
When it comes to closely analysing the text of the extract, there are a few ways of approaching the activity. You can read and annotate together with students completing the annotations in real time. Alternatively, you can split students into groups and ask each group to focus on a certain paragraph before feeding back to the class. Or you could read and discuss, then ask students to complete the annotations for homework.
There are many ways of approaching close textual analysis. I find that varying the method for different texts keeps students interested through the unit. This Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan resources pack contains detailed line-by-line annotations for you to share with students.
After analysing the text, I do a quick assessment for learning quiz with students to assess their understanding of the language and structure of the text. Then, I introduce exam practice questions. Quiz questions for a straightforward low stakes true and false quiz with answers are available on the slides and in PDF form with this resource. This can be done as a whole class activity on the interactive whiteboard. Or, you could hand out the worksheet to students to do in pairs or individually, depending on your time and the nature of your class.
Questions 1, 2 and 3 on the Edexcel IGCSE English Language Paper 1 exam test students’ understanding of the unseen text. However, question 4 assesses analysis and evaluation of the previously studied anthology text. When you teach the 10 non-fiction texts, it’s useful to focus on one or two of the questions per text. That way, you can teach the structure and rubric for each of the questions and help students to plan and write quality responses. You have time for self and peer assessment as well as model answers. Over the span of studying all 10 texts, students will cover all question types from the language exam.
In this Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan IGCSE resources pack, there is a prompt in the style of each of the English Language Paper 1 reading questions. For the 2-mark question 1 example, explain how students gain full marks, ask them to answer the question available on the slides, then self or peer assess straight away. That way, they get immediate feedback and can achieve a low stakes question before moving on to the more challenging 12-mark question 4 and 22-mark question 5. All the notes, prompt and mark scheme are available on the Google Slides and as a worksheet.
Also, there is a practice question 2 in the resource pack. Question 2 involves students summarising part of the unseen text in their own words. However, in order to get to know Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan well and get used to exam-style questions, they can answer on the studied text. There is a mark scheme available, and I find that students can self-or-peer assess this question without problems. Ensure students use their own words and write 4 clear and distinct points to gain full marks for this question.
Furthermore, I have included question 3 practice in the resource pack. Question 3 is worth 5 marks and involves writing concise points and supporting with brief quotations. It does not require students to evaluate or analyse in detail. The examiner will be looking for 5 clear, distinct and relevant points which answer the question. The acronym I use for question 5 is ‘SQUID’, standing for ‘state your point’, use a ‘quotation’, make an ‘inference’ and be ‘direct’. Everything you need to teach this question and enable students to practice is included in the resource pack.
