Download Sociology Advanced GCE

Sociology Department Student Handbook
Student name:
Sociology Advanced Subsidiary GCE
(H181)
Sociology Advanced GCE (H581)
Course handbook with
Assessment Evidence Requirements.
Contents:
Page
Two year programme …………………………………………………………… 1
Student conduct policy ………………………………………………………… 2
Homework and assessment policy …………………………………………… 4
Student reading list and learning resources ………………………………... 5
Writing a sociology essay ………………………………………………………. 7
Essay feedback front sheet ………………………………………………….. 11
Essay feedback Assessment objective sheet …………………………….. 12
OCR Sociology GCE
Smithdon Sixth Form Centre, Hunstanton, Norfolk
GCE SOCIOLOGY
YEAR 12 AS AWARD
Assessor
Unit
Title
Assessment
Delivery
Final
Assessment
HWr
G671
Socialisation,
culture and
Identity.
Written
exam
(1 ½ hours)
Sept-May
May/June
SWa
G672
Sociology of
Youth
Written
exam
(1 ½ hours)
Sept-May
May/June
Year 13 A2 Award
Assessor
Unit
Title
Assessment
Delivery
Final
Assessment
HWr
G673
Power and
control:
Power and
politics.
Written
exam
(1 ½ hours)
Sept-May
May/June
SWa
G674
Exploring
social
inequality
and
difference.
Written
exam
(2 hours)
Sept-May
May/June
OCR Sociology GCE
Smithdon Sixth Form Centre, Hunstanton, Norfolk
1
In order to ensure that all students are helped and assisted consistently,
the department has very clear guidelines about those matters which
we think are crucial to your educational success. We attach very
great importance to the fulfilment of your potential and consequently
we have very clear policies on student conduct.
We expect you to put in sustained effort.
Sociology is a demanding subject. You must be prepared to put in the
same amount of hours outside of class in independent study as within
class, and more during assessment/examination time. This means
about 5 hours a week!
 Keep up with work and make sure you hand in written
assignments on time. Any student failing to meet a deadline
without adequate explanation will be sent a cause for concern
referral slip and notification to parents. This may affect your EMA.

Absence is not an excuse for missing a deadline. If you know you
are going to be absent, you must hand the work in prior to this. If
you have trouble meeting a deadline for a legitimate reason,
you must discuss this in advance with your teacher.
We expect you to be well-organised.
From the start, get a file and keep all your study guides, notes and
assignments in it. You must bring all relevant work with you to all
lessons, otherwise you will not be prepared for the class and
consequently unable to do the work planned for that session.
 It is extremely important that you realise that sociology is a
reading subject. It is of utmost importance that if you are given
study guides or articles that they are read before the next lesson.

Always bring a pen, paper and other equipment to class.

If you have missed a class, you must see your teacher at the
earliest opportunity to explain your absence and to arrange to
catch up any work missed. This is your responsibility and not that
of the teacher. If you do not do this, you may well find questions
appearing in your exams which cover work done in class when
you were absent!
You must attend regularly.
You are required to attend all classes.
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Smithdon Sixth Form Centre, Hunstanton, Norfolk
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

If you know you are to be absent, you must let your teacher
know beforehand.
Persistent or unexplained absence will result in a telephone
call/letter home and possibly an interview with the director of the
Sixth-Form.
You must be punctual.
Please arrive at lessons on time. Being late for a lesson is disruptive to
the learning of others. It also means that you miss the important re-cap
of the previous lesson and the introduction to the day’s learning
objectives.
 Persistent lateness will obviously, again, set into effect the cause
for concern procedure.
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Smithdon Sixth Form Centre, Hunstanton, Norfolk
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Assessment:
You will be formally assessed throughout the year in the following ways:
1. ‘objective’ tests
2. Past examination paper questions
3. Mock examinations
Objective tests
These tests will aim to ensure that you have understood and
remembered work covered during the topic focus. They also provide
good evidence of basic conceptual understanding and application of
effort. If you are absent for any of these tests, you must sit it after
catching up any missed work.
Essays based on past exam questions.
Essays are designed to test your understanding of the key sociological
debates and will be set once per half-term.
Mock examinations
These will be held under timed conditions in order to assess your
examination strengths and weaknesses. They will aid you in your own
personal target setting and progression towards the final exams to be
sat during the summer.
Homework policy.
You are required to undertake homework each week. Failure to
complete homework to an acceptable standard will result in the cause
for concern procedure being implemented.
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Smithdon Sixth Form Centre, Hunstanton, Norfolk
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Sociology is a subject that involves extensive reading. You will be
provided with study guides and readers containing contemporary
articles about the sociological problems you will be studying. However,
in order to maximise your grade, you are encouraged to undertake
wider reading. This is because unlike some other A-level courses,
sociology is an open-ended subject – there is always something new
being written about any topic area within the subject. Students are
expected to keep up with current events which have a sociological
angle e.g. educational policy changes, or debates on debt in the
developing world or crime in the UK. Students who keep up with
recent current events are able to impress the examiners and gain those
crucial extra marks.
Standard texts:
SOCIOLOGY: THEMES AND PERSPECTIVES BY HARALAMBOS & HOLBORN.
You will have access to a copy of this book within the department and
the school learning resources centre for use during your additional 5
hours private study.
(isbn: 978-0-00-724595-6)
OCR AS SOCIOLOGY BY CAROLE WAUGH ET AL.
Published by Heinemann
Each student is required to own a copy of this book. It accompanies
the course and is referred to throughout your AS studies. It contains
valuable advice from the examiners, and extension task suggestions to
complement your understandings.
(isbn: 978-0-435467-38-8)
OCR A2 SOCIOLOGY BY CAROLE WAUGH ET AL.
Published by Heinemann
Each student is required to own a copy of this book. It accompanies
the course and is referred to throughout your A2 studies. It contains
valuable advice from the examiners, and extension task suggestions to
complement your understandings.
(isbn: 978-0-435806-94-1)
Further reading
Further reading of the resources contained within the library and D37
must be carried out if you hope to gain that extra advantage over the
thousands of other Sociology students throughout Britain.
You will each be issued with a ‘reading pack’ that has been
generated by the department. It contains contemporary articles from
various academic journals and provides you with a wider
understanding of the concepts being studied.
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Smithdon Sixth Form Centre, Hunstanton, Norfolk
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The internet
This is now an invaluable tool for sociology students although sites
should be accesses cautiously. Make sure if you use a site that you
always record its address so that your teacher can access it and assess
its worth. Links to good and useful sociology websites will be included
at the back of this handbook.
Sociology magazine
The Sociology Review Magazine is a quarterly magazine aimed at A
Level Sociology students and contains invaluable advice and
guidance. This is available as reference only from the library and the
Sociology department.
OCR Sociology GCE
Smithdon Sixth Form Centre, Hunstanton, Norfolk
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During your Sociology A level studies you will be required to write
essays, as well as part of your examinations. The examination board
expects your responses to the essay questions to include appropriate
theories, perspectives, studies (i.e. names) and evidence which will
support and inform your answer. In other words, if you are to achieve a
good grade in AS Sociology, it is crucial that you develop the ability to
write what are essentially coherent and well-structured essays.
It is important to remember from the outset that although there may be
‘wrong’ answers, there are no ‘right’ answers to sociology essay
questions: all sociology essays are discussions that involve presenting a
range of sociological arguments, supplying evidence to support or
refute them, and evaluating them. The following skills are being
assessed in sociology essays:
 Knowledge: You will need to have enough relevant knowledge
of sociological material that you can use to answer the question.
This can only come with extensive revision.

Understanding: You will need to understand the question in
order to answer it, and to locate it in the appropriate theoretical
context. You will also need to understand any material that you
are going to use to answer the question.

Identification and Interpretation: You will need to be able to
identify the right sort of material to use to answer the question,
i.e. what is absolutely essential, what is relevant and very
importantly, what is not relevant. You will be expected to
support arguments with key names and studies, i.e. evidence.

Application: You will need to successfully apply the evidence
you have revised and accumulated in the most appropriate
place in the essay structure, i.e. does it support or refute the
arguments you have outlined?

Evaluation: You will need to have critical awareness to evaluate
the arguments and evidence you have presented.
Such
awareness needs to be balanced and to weigh up both
strengths and weaknesses of particular approaches, studies etc.
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Smithdon Sixth Form Centre, Hunstanton, Norfolk
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Essay writing does not come easy to most of us. However, if you follow
the following rules of thumb, your skills in this technique will improve:
 Before you start writing the main body of the essay, put together
an essay plan so you know from the beginning what main points
you intend to use. Don’t write off the top of your head. Get
organised from the very beginning.

Decode the question – work out what the examiners are looking
for from the key words in the question. Remember, examiners
are not setting out to fool you – the question includes distinct
clues as to the direction you should take. The main skill is
thinking. What are the key words in the question? What
viewpoint, if any, is being expressed? What sort of sociologist
would support/oppose this view?

Your introduction should show the examiner that you have
succeeded in decoding the question. It should therefore ‘set the
scene’ of the essay by telling the examiner what perspective or
position the essay title is coming from and what sociologists
support or challenge that position. If any sociological concepts
or technical terms are used in the essay title, e.g. ‘the extended
family’, ‘the hidden curriculum’ etc define these in the
introduction.

The main body of your essay should focus on answering the
question set rather than the question you hoped would be set.
Remember no question is ever going to demand that you write
everything you know about a particular topic. You must respond
to the specific demands of the question. Many candidates fail to
achieve marks because they have not kept to the focus of the
question. Six key words come to mind here which should help
you keep that focus:

Discussion and Development-you should summarise the main
points of any theory or argument you think supports the point of
view in the essay title. This may take one or two paragraphs.
Perhaps begin this section with the essay title showing how the
theory you are going to discuss supports it, e.g ‘the functionalist
theory of the family strongly supports the view that…’
Development is quite simply the detail, e.g. the names of
particular sociologists, for example, you might explain how two or
OCR Sociology GCE
Smithdon Sixth Form Centre, Hunstanton, Norfolk
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three sociologists are linked to the theoretical position you have
earlier outlined.

Illustration – this is the material that shows that the theory and
argument is supported by empirical studies or statistical data.
Where possible, you should try and bring in examples of recent or
current events or social policies to illustrate the points you are
making.

Thread – make sure that your content has coherence – an
argument should be seen running through the essay from
beginning to end. The best way to ensure this is to refer to the
essay title reasonably often, usually at the start of a paragraph
introducing a theory showing how it fits into the overall
argument.

Evaluation – this is very much part of the development of the
essay too because it generally focuses on those theories,
arguments, studies etc that don’t fit into the argument contained
in the essay title. Evaluation generally takes three forms:
o It can focus on specific weaknesses, criticisms etc of
particular theories, for example you might be critical of its
methodology.
o It can take the format of summarizing alternative theories,
arguments and studies. If this is the approach you take,
you must not forget to clearly state why the alternative is a
critique of the argument in the essay title.
o However, don’t forget that a balanced evaluation is
always going to focus on some strengths of the main
argument. Whatever form your evaluation takes, make
clear to the examiner that this is precisely what you are
doing by using evaluative linking words and phrases such
as ‘however’, ‘nevertheless’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘by
comparison’, ‘in contrast to this’ etc.

Conclusion – many students forget to include this important part
of an essay. Don’t just repeat what you’ve already said. Using
the essay title again as your opening line, attempt to draw all the
strands of your argument together so that you come to a
conclusion that is supported by your content. If you prefer to sit
OCR Sociology GCE
Smithdon Sixth Form Centre, Hunstanton, Norfolk
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on the fence and point out that the evidence is inconclusive,
you must explain why it is so.
When you have finished, read over your essay again. You will usually find at least
one sentence that makes no sense and needs amending.
If you follow these rules, whether in an examination long answer context or a termtime essay, your essay skills should develop very positively.
OCR Sociology GCE
Smithdon Sixth Form Centre, Hunstanton, Norfolk
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Name:
Form:
Date:
Essay title:
Assessment Objective 1 (AO1)
Knowledge and Understanding.
 What you are doing really well:

What is required for improvement:
Assessment Objective 2 (AO2)
Identification, Analysis, Interpretation and Evaluation.
 What you are doing really well:

What is required for improvement:
Teacher comments:
Student comments:
OCR Sociology GCE
Smithdon Sixth Form Centre, Hunstanton, Norfolk
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Introduction: Have you included a clear introduction which explains
the debate?
Bands
20-23
13-19
Knowledge & Understanding (AO1)
You showed a detailed knowledge & understanding of a wide range of relevant
concepts, evidence and/or theories and methods. Material is balanced, logical
and coherent, and directly addresses the question. Few errors of grammar,
punctuation and spelling.
You showed knowledge & understanding of a range of concepts, evidence
and/or theories and methods. Your essay was too narrow, though detailed, or
your essay was wide-ranging but lacked detail. Your answer was balanced,
logical and coherent, and generally answered the question. Occasional errors of
grammar, punctuation and spelling.
5-12
You demonstrated a basic knowledge & understanding of some aspects of the
concepts, evidence and/or theories and methods. Your essay was balanced,
logical and coherent in places, and partly addressed the question. Some errors
of grammar, punctuation and spelling may be a problem.
1-4
You demonstrated a limited knowledge & understanding of at least one aspect
of the concepts, evidence and/or theories and methods. Material is balanced,
logical and coherent in a limited way, and was partially relevant. Errors of
grammar, punctuation and spelling may be a problem.
Bands
15-17
9-14
4-8
1-4
Bands
9-10
6-8
3-5
1-2
Mark
Interpretation & Analysis (AO2a)
You selected and organised different types of relevant data to provide a clear
analysis, and related this evidence to theories.
You selected and interpreted different types of data. You provided an
appropriate analysis, and showed some ability to relate evidence to theory. Your
answer was too narrowly focussed on one issue or one theory, or you wrote a less
developed analysis on a range of issues.
You selected some relevant material to provide a basic analysis. You made
relevant points, but did not link these to sociological theory, or your link was
confused. Little use of supporting studies.
You referred to and made limited interpretation of at least one appropriate point.
You included irrelevant analysis, and accuracy was limited.
Mark
Evaluation (AO2b)
You showed you could balance evaluation of evidence and appropriate
theories in a reasoned and coherent argument. You stayed relevant and
engaged with the issue. You may have referred to contrasting theories, but the
best answers will stay focussed on the specific question.
You showed a balanced evaluation of some evidence and appropriate theories,
or you formed detailed, but one-sided judgements based on the evidence.
You gave a basic, balanced summary of evidence and theories, but evaluation
may have been implicit, or just a list of for and against statements.
You showed a simple and limited grasp of at least one point of evaluation.
Possibly too anecdotal or based on common-sense.
Mark
Conclusion: Have you included a conclusion which readdresses the
question?
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Smithdon Sixth Form Centre, Hunstanton, Norfolk
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