Effective GCSE Teaching 2 Progression Examples of how to move pupils on: Pets: In Year 7 the focus could be mainly lexical. Add a few useful adjectives - my dog is lazy; my hamster is greedy. In Year 9 and above this could be extended to more detailed descriptions of their appearance and habits. Daily routine: In Year 7/8 the focus could be on a short set of simple statements and times. In Years 10/11, aim for more detail - where, why, opinions. Develop the statements using the past, present and future. Do lots of work on contrastive structures: Normally I get up at 7.00 but yesterday I got up at 12.00. This helps to reinforce grammatical rules. I get up at 12.00 on Sundays but my grandpa gets up at 8.00 Illness & Injury: At KS3, the emphasis is generally on generating the phrases. J'ai mal à la tête, Je suis enrhumé. Plenty of mime and visuals help to reinforce the word-sound patterns. At KS4, extend the focus to give reasons and to use the phrases with other tenses. I drank too much yesterday. Now I have a headache. I've got a cold because I went swimming in a lake. The present-participle can be usefully introduced in French in the context of injury. Je me suis cassé le bras en jouant au foot. Most pupils should be taught ths for recognition purposes only. The more able can be trained to produce it. Weather expressions: Years 7 and 8 normally learn sets of expressions - try to tie it in to everyday questioning - it can be part of a routine set of regular questions. I sometimes begin a piece of written work with a brief 'weather report' under the date and title. Years 10 & 11 will need to recognise and sometimes use weather expressions in the past tense. Link the expressions to relevant activities. The sun was shining so we went for a walk. It was raining so we stayed in and watched a video.
Characteristics of Grades C & A Listening Grade C Extract specific detail Specific vocabulary Largely familiar contexts Identify and note main points Some accuracy (60%+) Speaking develop conversations and simple discussions, involving the use of different tenses. personal opinions show an ability to deal with some unpredictable elements. Although some errors, they convey a clear message, and their pronunciation and intonation are generally accurate. Some accuracy (60%+) Grade A As for grade C, plus: Understand longer items; gist Deal with synonyms Recognise opinions Infer meaning & nuance Deal with some unfamiliar elements and more complex, longer pieces Past present future Draw conclusions Answers highly accurate with relevant detail (85%+) initiate and develop conversations and discussions, and narrate events. express and justify ideas and points of view, produce longer sequences of speech using a variety of vocabulary, structures and verb tenses. confident, good pronunciation and intonation. message clear although some errors, especially when candidates use more complex structures. (85%+) Reading Extract specific detail Specific vocabulary Largely familiar contexts Identify and note main points Some accuracy (60%+) As for grade C, plus: Understand longer items, gist Recognise opinions; deal with synonyms Infer meaning & nuance Deal with some unfamiliar elements and more complex, longer pieces Past present future Draw conclusions Answers highly accurate with relevant detail (85%+) Writing Lists, labelling Short messages/post card/ e-mail based on stimulus Gap fill Opinions Longer replies, accounts and descriptions with opportunities for using past present and future Marks for covering the answers (content as much as communication) Fair grasp of grammar Some accuracy (60%+) Basic style but conveys the message Some accuracy (60%+) As for Grade C, plus: More extended writing tasks Simple narratives Opportunities to express ideas and justify opinions Marks for communication and accuracy as well as content More ambitious good grasp of grammar spelling & grammar generally accurate Longer sentences, subordinate clauses, connectives Range of vocab, structures and tenses (avant de/ après avoir) Answers highly accurate, clear and unambiguous with relevant detail (85%+)
Tips for the Effective Teaching of GCSE Listening Skills 1) Initially short chunks do a short extract from a paper then go through it 2) Choose extracts which fit in with a particular topic area (text-book tie-in) 3) Do it once then do it again in the lesson or the following lesson (assessment for learning) then ideally again a few weeks later 4) Identify key vocab first before listening 5) Do plenty of framework-type work on sound-spelling links e.g. numbers: deux, douze cinq, quinze, cinquante six, seize, soixante Draw their attention to si(x) and di(x) but six chats, dix poissons Rhyme: pain, vin, copain, vingt, Related words: copain/copine; magasin/ magazine Related sounds: Écoute, ca coute; chambre/ jambes cuisine/ cousine Chevaux/ cheveux ; jeux/yeux Importance of context : lis/ lit porte/ porte Solution? More reading lists of words: as above Phrases: Elle m a dit: Bonne nuit. Va au lit et lis avant de dormir. un bon vin blanc 6) Identify which items are consistently proving hard for pupils and why pupils are not understanding them play an extract and ask what think they heard this can be quite revealing: la météo lamé téo l avantage la vantage ma lade 7) Short mini-dictée can help listening skills 8) Do a spot the diference dictation: a. Pupils have a short text in front them- alt lines b. Stage 1 you read a version, with some details changed; pupils simply underline the details changed c. Stage 2 you read it again and pupils write in the changed details d. Optional stage 3 e. Then issue same text with gaps. Pupils fill in the gaps from memory f. Stage 4 issue a skeleton version of the text with just a few keywords; pupils reconstruct it from memory (could be done in groups) 9) Avoid the free-for-all where the class shout out the answers as they are doing it this is disasterous and counter-productive. Similarly, even when going through the answers, target individuals to give answers without shouting out. In this way, you can gauge the success rate of the group as a whole and identify those who are struggling. 10) Do formal listening assessments 3 or 4 times a year with targets and strategies for improvement next time
Tips for the Effective Teaching of GCSE Reading Skills 1) Shorter then longer extracts. Use real exam questions. 2) Exam reading exercises on OHP/ whiteboard do answers jointly 3) Target accuracy and detail: group collaboration and competition 4) Topic based to begin with then general exam questions. 5) Int/higher: Synonyms (see below) 6) Identify key vocab first 7) Pupils should practise generating word substitution paradigms 8) Higher: pupils should practise generating word relations 9) Vary the activity: simple translation, multiple choice, vrai-faux/ spot your translation error, then move on to full scale comprehension in Eng & target lang 10) Instant feedback; re-do the task soon after then some time later 11) Manage feedback from pupils in order to gain a real sense of the group s strengths and weaknesses. 12) Practice reducing news type articles to who/ when/ what happened/ where/ why (the same could be done with listening) 13) Occasionally use authentic material from the internet (French: a good source of amusing, bizarre material is Yahoo.fr actualités insolite). Adverts, tourist info, museum opening times, maps are also really good. OFSTED like this too. ************ Synonyms higher levels (grade B / A/ A*) global understanding is more important than individual lexis) Work with pupils on identifying phrases of similar or opposite meaning Use the FLA to help develop a worksheet e.g. 1. Je vais très rarement au A. Je ne vais jamais au cinéma cinéma B.Je vais au cinéma environ une fois par an 2. Je n ai pas de sœurs et pas A. Je suis solitaire de frères B. Je suis fils unqiue 3. Mon père est au chômage A. Mon père est paresseux B Mon père ne travaille pas en ce moment 4. Je préfère habiter à la A. La campagne est traquille et agréable campagne parce que c est B La campagne est ennuyeuse calme 5. la plupart de mes profs sont gentils A. En général mes profs sont sympathiques B. Tous mes profs sont nuls
Tips for the Effective Teaching of GCSE Speaking Skills Probably the most difficult skill of all to practise effectively, given the agegroup and size of classes 1) Divide them into small groups and target a few pupils at a time 2) Use the FLA. Ensure the FLA does what you want and doesn t just do the question answer thing (see below) 3) Pupils should have opportunities to question and teach and mark each other 4) Show them marking criteria and get them to evaluate each other s performance 5) Plenty of listening and modelling you and the FLA. Record/ video them 6) Use BBC site: holiday/ business contexts 7) Pupils should keep neat, detailed file of oral answers but the challenge is not to make it tedious 8) Pupils should have plenty of tasters of the GCSE oral exam: role plays and general conversation 9) Mini presentations groups, pairs, individuals. E.g. 2 mins on Ma maison 10) Give them plenty of time phrases and tense triggers ( attached) 11) To gain B or above: At every point stress: OPINIONS 3 TENSES and possibly: 3 RD PERSON A mon avis, c est / c était Normalement; le dimanche samedi dernier/ l été dernier le weekend prochain / l été prochain Moi j aime. Mais (alors que) mon père/ mon copain/ mon grand-père 12) Higher level: they also need to practise some Pour/ contre
Speaking How to vary the GCSE question & answer routine (some ideas for you, your colleagues and the FLA). Ask the FLA to make some resources. a. Question and answer chain cards: do sets of cards with a question of one side and a different answer on the back. Give each pupil a card. Any pupil asks their question and the others have to listen out for their answer. The pupil who has the answer reads it and then reads their question on the card. Make sure all the questions have answers to go with them b. Menteur! FLA gives an answer which is factually slightly wrong. Pupils have to guess the correct answer. c. Game board devise a snakes and ladders type grid Other game formats can be used such as Millionaire, Blockbusters, 4 in a row. d. Musical mobiles. 2 (old or fake) mobile phones are passed round the room as music is played. When the music stops, the two pupils with the phones have to ask and answer a question from a list. Also good for the role play practice. Written versions should be available for support. You could keep one phone whilst one other circulates round the room. Then you play one part examiner/questioner Variation: I sometimes have a pupil with a phone at the front who operates the music with their back to the class. When he/she stops the music, he/she starts the conversation. The person with the phone is allowed to disguise their voice and the pupil at the front has to guess who they are. e. Get the pupils to ask you the questions once in a while. f. Model correct answers Round the class: pupils repeat the model sentence but they have to change at least one detail each time. See if you can do about 5 variations for each answer. g. Celebrity Interviews. Let the pupils choose a celebrity (real or fictional). They should then answer the oral questions as though they we that person. Variation: The teacher or FLA is a celebrity don t tell the pupils who you are. They ask you the GCSE questions and have to work out who you are.
normally present tense LE DIMANCHE aujourd hui maintenant une fois par semaine deux fois par semaine une fois par mois une fois par an chaque semaine chaque mois tous les mois phrases ON SUNDAYS today now once a week twice a week once month once a year every week every month every month Past Tense dimanche dimanche dernier hier hier soir après-midi hier matin avant-hier le weekend dernier le mois dernier l an dernier l été dernier la semaine dernière l année dernière on Sunday last Sunday yesterday yesterday evening/ yesterday afternoon yesterday morning day before yesterday last weekend last month last year last summer last week last year chaque été à Noël / Pâcques every summer at Christmas/ Easter il y a quelques jours il y a deux jours il y a trois semaines il y a quatre ans a few days ago 2 days ago 3 weeks ago 4 years ago pendant les vacances during the holidays autrefois, avant formerly, in the past Grammar index GCSE Topic index Practise this item Future DIMANCHE demain après-demain ce soir plus tard demain matin demain après-midi demain soir samedi prochain dans deux semaines le mois prochain l été prochain l an prochain / l année prochaine la semaine prochaine dans trois ans dans l avenir ON SUNDAY tomorrow the day after tomorrow this evening later on tomorrow morning tomorrow afternoon tomorrow evening next Saturday in two weeks next month next summer next year next week in three years in the future General time phrases toujours souvent régulièrement normalement généralement d habitude de temps en temps parfois,quelquefois rarement peu souvent presque jamais jamais chaque jour tous les jours toute la journée always often regularly normally generally usually from time to time sometimes rarely, not often hardly ever never every day every day all day From www.langweb.co.uk
Tips for the Effective Teaching of GCSE Writing Skills The real challenge is to get pupils to produce extended, largely accurate and unambiguous pieces of writing on a range of topics. 1) Gap fill and word-substitution tasks are a good starting point Writing frames - Gradual withdrawal of support. E.g. gap-fill with words in a help box to choose from, gap fill with extra words (distractors) gap-fill with no words given 2) skeleton piece of info as a stimulus to tell a story e.g. a programme for a school day: lessons + a trip out in the afternoon an exchange programme for the week diary extracts in note form 3) importance of tense trigger phrases see attached sheet. Cut it down and drip feed gradually for middle to lower ability groups. 4) practise converting present to past tense; 5) Lots of work on past tense start with passive differentiation tasks, presenting pupils with sets of sentences to be classified into past or present. Higher level requires mastery of past tense, conditional, simple future in French (j irai, je ferai etc) and imperfect 6) Practise converting a third person narrative into the first person what prerequisites are needed here? What sort of access would pupils need to grammar information to do this task successfully? Do the same the other way round: first person to third person narrative 7) Familiarise yourself with the requirements of your GCSE exam board e.g. Edexcel: grades E/D: lists of items for a picnic or subjects and opinions D/C Verb gap fill (present or past including reflexives) D/C: postcard; short answer (70-80 words) based closely on a stimulus C/B: (overlap question which is common to foundation and higher paper) short e-mail answer on a specific topic area involving some past tense and future tense response B/A/A*: more extended piece (120 words): opinion about something e.g. your town, plans to build a motorway nearby, advice a friend who wants to leave school and become a rock star, favourite forms of transport- pros and cons a narrative aspect a trip with an incident, work experience with something that went wrong, restaurant visit that went wrong, an accident 8) Do lots of collective writing, matched against a GCSE question; get pupils to contribute answers as a class. You write it up on the board. They copy, adapt and learn.
9) Issue mark schemes and success criteria to pupils. Match your marking to the critieria. Set targets for the next piece of work. Get pupils to self-mark and peer mark. Pupils should also set their own targets, identifying areas of weakness and strategies for improvement. In this piece of work the following aspects were very good: good: quite good: I need to improve the following: I will do this by Looking at my grammar book Checking spelling Learning genders Checking my adjective endings Looking carefully at verb forms (especially plural ent) Looking carefully at tenses (especially past tense)
10) Idea for a group writing task: there is no need to always set individual writing tasks. Pupils can work collaboratively on a piece of writing. In theory, they learn best from each other. Procede as follows: a) Divide a class into 5 groups b) Give them a GCSE writing exercise on a topic e.g. loisirs, ma ville, mes vacances (include gen questions + questions that elicit past and future answers) c) Give everyone in the class a piece of paper d) They all write the names of all the members of their group at the top e) Clearly instruct them to do this f) Clearly instruct them that every member of the group has to write the answer but they are allowed to talk and collaborate within the group effectively copying their answers from each other g) They are NOT allowed to communicate with other groups. h) The exercise is a competition to see which group produces the best collective answer i)tell them that after 20 mins you will take in one piece of paper from each group at random (you will select blindly from a pile face down) j) Pupils work collaboratively within groups and competitively against other groups. It is essential that every pupil writes an answer as their piece of paper may be chosen for marking by the teacher. They must be clear about this. k) After 20 mins, ask each group to put their answers face down in a pile. You then pick up one from each group at random. In the last 10 minutes of the lesson you can then mark the five pieces of work and decide on the best. Whilst you are marking, pupils should be engaged on another task, silently and individually.
11) Try the following gradeboosting task below for pupils that you are grooming for a grade A or A* Pupils rewrite a basic text adding more complex aspects: subordinate clauses, connectives, adjective qualifiers/intensifiers Ma ville J aime ma ville. Elle est grande et animée. Je n aime pas la circulation. On ne peut pas respirer. Il y a beacoup de pollution. Il n y a pas de cinéma. Nous avons une piscine. Elle est assez vieille et sale. Les magasins sont petits. Pour les grands magasins je vais à Londres. On peut jouer au tennis dans le parc. Samedi dernier je suis allé au magasin de sport. Je suis allé avec deux amis. Dans le magasin j ai acheté un maillot de foot. Nous avons mangé au Macdo. Nous avons fait du lèche-vitrine. J ai vu des chaussures. Elles étaient trop cher. Je n ai pas acheté les chaussures Je suis rentré à la maison à six heures J ai mangé. J ai fait mes devoirs. J ai regardé la télévision. J ai lu et j ai parlé sur MSN. J ai joué à un jeu vidéo. Je me suis couché à dix heures. Your answer should include as many of the following as possible Puis, ensuite, après Le matin L après-midi Le soir Donc Aussi, et, également (Mal) Heureusement Mais, pourtant Parce que / car Qui - relative clause Après avoir / après être + pp Avant de + inf Il faut + inf On s est bien amusé and other reflexive verbs C est / c était Preceding object pronoun: je les ai acheté(e) (s)