Context: This lesson is designed to stretch and challenge a group of students who are aiming for a grade 6 or above. It introduces the idea of writing a polemic; as opposed to supporting one’s own views with relevant argument, the idea is to win the ‘argument’ through contentious rhetoric. The aim is to be introduced to writing strong verbal attacks on someone or something as a method to support a specific opposing position. Students will be encouraged to use the word in writing, in conjunction with Pandora’s Box. The concept of The Seven Deadly Sins in Christianity will be introduced and students will be exposed to a number of artworks associated with these ‘evils’ by a number of famous artists. They will be able to debate these sins and then write a polemic aimed at convincing their audience that their allotted sin is deadlier than the others. The session finishes off with an abridged version of Swift’s The Lady’s Dressing Room. Although timings are given in the time plan this lesson can go many places – it may have to be continued in the next session. Assessment Objective A05 and A06 for writing, with particular emphasis on writing highly engaging texts with a range of complex ideas. Also featured Assessment Objective: AO2: Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language and structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support their views. AO4: Evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references (poem).

This pack of picture questions is designed for AQA GCSE English Language 9-1. As the June 2019 exam included a painting for the first time, this set is aimed to increase the cultural capital of your English classes (CC being is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a person can tap into to demonstrate one’s cultural competence and social status). The pack includes ten paintings – five by male and five by female artists. The pages are designed to be printed on two sides. On the first side, they simulate Paper 1 Question 5 where students are given a picture and are presented with two options (it’s hard, almost to call them questions!). The tasks can be for a descriptive or a narrative response (although both tasks can be descriptive or narrative and this pack reflects that). The second side gives a small biography of the painter with information about the painting. Also included are prompts about what to write about as well as the skills the examiners are looking for in Content and Organisation as well as Technical Accuracy. I hope that you will be able to use this pack to help you increase the story-telling powers of your learners as well as their descriptive prowess! The pack gives teachers the opportunity to have a selection of ready-made questions for Paper 1 Question 5. These can be used to ensure that there are always writing tasks at hand. They might be used to stimulate class or small group discussion or can be used as interchangeable exercises to be done during a session. I hope that there is a sufficient variety of superb art in this pack to pique the interest of even the most reluctant of writers. By giving your learners a choice of task (while the assessment objectives - A05 and A06 remain the same) these sample questions might help to ensure both differentiation and an element of choice. Each is formatted to include the question on a single A4 sheet. The originals are also included on their own if you would like to use them without the question stimulus. Plus, if it’s easier for you - PDFs are also included of both files. They would probably also be very useful if you are covering a class - the skills that students develop with these questions are vital for success in GCSE English as this question alone represents 25% of the entire exam. All of the wonderful paintings have been ethically sourced and are available under a Creative Commons license which means you do not have to worry about copyright with them at all. Each originator is credited by use of a link to the original.

These response sheets have been designed to be sent out to learners via email (or placed on a VLE or Google Classroom – etc!). It is assumed that the they have already been exposed to all the Assessment Objectives associated with GCSE English Paper 1 Question 5 (AQA). It suits a ‘distance’ mode of learning where students can respond to input about each question and these can be evidenced. The four response sheets build up in to a full “Paper 1 Picture” which, while it does not have the rigour of a mock exam, could give you an overview of the skills your learners have acquired in terms of the quality of their responses. Once completed by learners they can be emailed back or submitted on your VLE (or any other method of your choosing!). There are four response sheets in total which can be sent out separately. They cover: • Paper 1 Question 1 and 2 • Paper 1 Question 3 • Paper 1 Question 4 • Paper 1 Question 5 Although the sheets are as generic as possible you may have to slightly adapt them for your purposes. The extract is from the beginning of “Sons and Lovers” by DH Lawrence published in 1913. It is the late 1880s and Mrs Morel, the heavily pregnant wife of a miner, awaits the return of her husband from the pub. Her two children are in bed and she reflects on her life. In many ways it is about isolation – fairly appropriate for these times, perhaps. There is an extensive mark scheme included in this pack for Questions 1-4. There is a complete mark scheme plus three files if you wish to send them out to students one by one, after they have finished each associated task. There is no mark scheme for Question 5 – please refer to any standard mark scheme AQA releases for this question. There is also a tracking sheet included in this pack. The mark scheme is based on November 18. Once you put the marks in for each students the spreadsheet will automatically generate a grade for you.

This is an editable resource (if you feel the need to tweak!) but a PDF is included too. Ever tried to teach speech writing and been met with a sea of faces staring back blankly? However, when the terminal exam promises the distinct possibility of a speech writing task (Paper 2 Question 5) then students must be prepared for this eventuality. This is one way to encourage students to write good speeches. This set of prompts is designed to introduce students to speech writing in a number of ways. It resource is designed as a 60 minute section of any class and it focuses on a FULL RESPONSE for a speech about whether or not students should be made to do homework. If you want to use exercise books, there is an ‘instruction only’ set here too. Each paragraph the students must write is accompanied by a number of prompts to the left. The prompts indicate what they should write. So, the first (major) prompts, for example, are: Para 1 Describe fast food using the Rule of Three Then, make a short statement stating your opinion. Para 2 Overview Give a brief overview of the points you will make in your speech (use the ones you jotted down on the first page). Use a list to do this. Don’t make this too long! Para 3 Make your statement. This is your message – your side of the argument. Tell your audience what your message is. • Start with: “Personally, I believe…” or similar. • Use a compound sentence • Finish your last sentence with an ellipsis. …and so on! The prompts then progress, enabling the students to create a complete response which includes all of the skills descriptors for Paper 1 Question 5. Your students should end up with a piece containing a minimum of 9 paragraphs of varying language with structural features and language devices used throughout. This lesson could also be used as a ‘snap’ revision session or a cover class. In fact it’s a highly adaptable (and editable!) resource which you can turn to many things. These exercises cover the following Assessment Objectives: AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

Context: Paper 1 Question 5 is the creative writing questions where learners may be asked to write a description or narrative suggested by a picture. This lesson makes a great ‘stretch and challenge’ activity. This lesson will work for classes of up to 30 students (more if you make two copies of the pictures). However, once you have printed off the two sets of pictures, this can be used again and again. As there are 30 pictures in each set, there are 900 possible responses to this creative writing task! Students know by now that this question ordinarily has a ‘picture option’. They have used pictures as stimulus for creative writing before but this is in danger of becoming a little humdrum. This lesson aims to put a little excitement back in to this by giving students a choice of 30 pictures – this is known as “Picture A”. These are all pictures of people. They then get to choose between numbers 1-30 for “Picture B” which is an object (and animal, occasionally). The students must then create a response to both pictures – following these instructions. You will be given (or you will choose) TWO pictures, labelled A and B – each has a number up to 30. All the ‘A’ pictures are of people. All the ‘B’ pictures are of objects (and the occasional animal!) Your job is to come up with an inventive and interesting narrative that connects the images: • from the beginning Or • in exactly six moves Good luck! I have also included a spreadsheet in to which you can type your students’ names. This will make it much easier for you to track who has chosen which picture - and so on! Aims To stretch and challenge the learners’ ability to create a descriptive text which covers a number of the skills descriptors needed for a high-level response. Revisit a number of structural and language features of texts, when and how they are used. To promote discussion about structural and language features and the effects that they can achieve in a text. To increase the confidence of the learners when specifically using this subject terminology. **Assessment Objective: ** AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation. All pictures used are ethically sourced using a Creative Commons license. No copyright worries for you!

The second set of WORD GYM homework and tests. You can buy these as a bundle HERE. I don’t know about you but a lot of my students don’t read – much, at all, ever (unless in the classroom and that sometimes takes some coercion!). That means that the development of their vocabulary is essentially restricted to what they hear rather than what they read. This is a worry, considering that both of the written texts that they have to produce in the GCSE English exams are marked on the use of sophisticated vocabulary (amongst many other things). However, my students do respond to a little gentle competition. I wanted to create a resource that would give them something to do for homework (the dreaded word!) but which wouldn’t take a huge amount of time. Not only that, I didn’t want to give the words VOCABULARY or SPELLING too much prominence either – the students would run for the hills (metaphorically at least). Finally I did not want to increase my workload (in terms of marking) in any way, shape or form. So I came up with WORD GYM. The idea is that each week ten words will be given out to students. This is called the warm up – where they have to go away and discover for themselves the definition and word class of the week’s chosen words (all KS4) plus write a sentence for each word. The follow up is the work out – the ten minute (or so) test in class where they are presented with a variety of questions. This resource consists of: 5 warm ups (this is the homework) containing ten words each 5** work outs** (this is the test for the classroom and comes as as single file). The questions and answers for the 5 work outs, again all the questions are in a single file. The short tests work very well and it is hoped that you will start to see some of the words being used in other texts your students create. These resources are all editable so if you don’t want to use a word or two you can adapt them to suit yourself. These exercises cover the following Assessment Objectives: AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

AO2: Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support their views. Paper 1 Question 3 is the structure questions where learners are asked how a writer has structured a text to interest them as a reader. The class is designed to build concepts from the students’ level of understanding. As such, this lesson teaches structure by building up complexity gradually. The first part of the lesson will simply be reading a very short story, making short notes where structural features are spotted and discussing what was good (or not) about it. The story is deliberately very short and has been written specifically with this question in mind. It covers temporal features, shifts of focus, exposition, paragraph lengths, flashbacks and has a cyclical ending. The next step will be to continue with an activity that draws on the notes made – or perhaps even prior knowledge of structure. The list of structural devices is not exhaustive – they may well spot additional ones – but there are two (dialogue and twist ending) which do not appear in the story. The aim is to match up straightforward textual structural features with those that happened in the text. This can then, finally, be turned in to an exam-style response. First, though, there will be a short discussion about how to write an exam response. There are plenty of hints given here – but again there are elements of the example sentences used which are of no great use in this example (this is deliberate, to see whether the correct ones are chosen and can be adapted). Finally, the students will attempt an “exam style” response All files are reproduced as PDFs to ensure that compatability is not an issue.

It can be difficult to engage learners when it comes to Speaking and Listening. Students must make relevant and extended contributions to a discussion and so it is important to choose a subject which will engage them. So I created this lesson plan where they more or less talk about themselves - or teenagers at least - and what they should do before they turn twenty. The scenario gives students the chance to allow for and respond to others’ input, make different kinds of contributions to discussions and to present information/points of view clearly and in appropriate language This can easily be adapted for an adult class where they reflect on what they would have liked to have done… All documents are editable. They are: Lesson plan for the session Formal discussion - handout explaining the scenario and with space for the students to make notes A reflection sheet for students to fill out once the discussion is over An additional task in which students can write the article they have discussed A couple of pages of possible comments that can go on the assessment record sheet for individual students Plus there is a video to give the students some visual stimulation when they are gathering their ideas for the discussion. I have done this many time with classes - and it works very well! Hope you find it useful!

This pack of HALLOWEEN picture questions is designed for AQA GCSE English Language 9-1. They simulate Paper 1 Question 5 where students are given a picture and are presented with two options (it’s hard, almost to call them questions!). The tasks can be for a descriptive or a narrative response (although both tasks can be descriptive or narrative and this pack reflects that). I hope that you will be able to use this pack to help you increase the story-telling powers of your learners as well as their descriptive prowess! The pack gives teachers the opportunity to have a selection of ready-made questions for Paper 1 Question 5. These can be used to ensure that there are always writing tasks at hand. They might be used to stimulate class or small group discussion or can be used as interchangeable exercises to be done during a session. I hope that there is a sufficient variety of Halloween style images in this pack to pique the interest of even the most reluctant of writers. By giving your learners a choice of task (while the assessment objectives - A05 and A06 remain the same) these sample questions might help to ensure both differentiation and an element of choice. Each is formatted to include the question on a single A4 sheet. The originals are also included on their own if you would like to use them without the question stimulus. Plus if it’s easier for you - PDFs are also included of both files. They would probably also be very useful if you are covering a class - the skills that students develop with these questions are vital for success in GCSE English as this question alone represents 25% of the entire exam. All of the wonderful pictures have been ethically sourced and are available under a Creative Commons license which means you do not have to worry about copyright with them at all. Each originator is credited by use of a link to the original.

This pack of picture questions is designed for (AQA) GCSE English Language 9-1. They simulate Paper 1 Question 5. Often this can become a little boring for the students as they are given picture after picture to write about. This tries to be a little different. In this case the pictures are of child prisoners from the Victorian era with a small bio of each (age, crime, punishment). Altogether, ten prisoners are pictured (all ten are 100% real-life cases) - five girls and five boys. There is also some background history about the kind of places underage Victorian lawbreakers ending up - altogether not very pleasant - with some discussion suggestions. It may well tie in with things that your students have studied in their history classes. I hope that you will be able to use this pack to help you increase the story-telling powers of your learners as well as their descriptive prowess - and to bring these children who have been “hidden from history” back to life. The pack gives teachers the opportunity to have a selection of ready-made questions for Paper 1 Question 5. These can be used to ensure that there are always writing tasks at hand. They might be used to stimulate class or small group discussion or can be used as interchangeable exercises to be done during a session. I hope that there is a sufficient variety of images in this pack to pique the interest of even the most reluctant of writers. By giving your learners a choice of task (while the assessment objectives - A05 and A06 remain the same) these sample questions might help to ensure both differentiation and an element of choice. Each is formatted to include the question on a single A4 sheet. The originals are also included on their own if you would like to edit them. Plus if it’s easier for you - PDFs are also included of all files. They would probably also be very useful if you are covering a class - the skills that students develop with these questions are vital for success in GCSE English as this question alone represents 25% of the entire exam. All of the wonderful pictures have been ethically sourced and are available under a Creative Commons license which means you do not have to worry about copyright with them at all. Each originator is credited by use of a link to the original.

Please note: the original short story in this resource contains references to drugs and knives. The short story also contains “arse” and “f—”. Please do not purchase this if you have students or parents super-easily offended by this kind of thing. I would rate the story at certificate 12A but you may wish to err on the side of caution and assume 15. AO2: Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support their views. Paper 1 Question 3 is the structure questions where learners are asked how a writer has structured a text to interest them as a reader. The class is designed to build concepts from the students’ level of understanding. As such, this lesson teaches structure by building up complexity gradually. The first part of the lesson will simply be reading a very short story for pleasure and discussing what was good (or not) about it. The story is set in an FE college so includes people of students’ own age bracket. The next step is to continue with an activity that does not reflect exam content but draws on the students’ own media savviness. The assumption is that they watch TV and films – and so can make comments about how these are “shot”. So their second task will be to show how the story could be visually represented on screen. This will involve discussion and other collaborative activities. The third task will be to match up straightforward textual structural features with those that happened in the text and describe them briefly. This is then turned in to an exam-style response. There is also an additional language task which follows the layout of a P1Q2 exam question. This resource contains 4 files as Word documents. These are reproduced as PDFs to ensure that compatability is not an issue.

This pack of picture questions is designed for AQA GCSE English Language 9-1, but focusing on images from the the sci-fi and fantasy genre. I created them “on demand” for my students who wanted some stimulus material that was a little more bloodthirsty than usual! Having said that, I think I have managed to keep them below what might scare your average Year 10 or 11 student. The responses you get may well make your hair stand on end, though, if “my lot” are anything to go by…! They simulate Paper 1 Question 5 where students are given a picture and are presented with two options (it’s hard, almost to call them questions!). The tasks can be for a descriptive or a narrative response. I hope that you will be able to use this pack to help you increase the story-telling powers of your learners as well as their descriptive prowess. The pack is editable although I have included PDFs if you don’t need to… However, it looks lovely printed in colour and laminated (for use in multiple classes without them getting too battered!). The pack gives teachers the opportunity to have a selection of ready-made questions for Paper 1 Question 5. These can be used to ensure that there are always writing tasks at hand. They might be used to stimulate class or small group discussion or can be used as interchangeable exercises to be done during a session. I hope that there is a sufficient variety of images in this pack to pique the interest of even the most reluctant of writers. By giving your learners a choice of task (while the assessment objectives - A05 and A06 remain the same) these sample questions might help to ensure both differentiation and an element of choice. Each is formatted to include the question on a single A4 sheet. The originals are also included on their own if you would like to use them without the question stimulus. These exercises cover the following Assessment Objectives: AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation. The pack is fairly diverse - however I am restricted to sourcing images that are modifiable and can be used for commercial purposes. There is a link to the creator of the image on each of them if you do want to check the Creative Commons license (and to give the creators the credit they deserve too, of course!).

This pack of “past paper” picture questions is designed for AQA GCSE English Language 9-1. They simulate Paper 1 Question 5 where students are given a picture and are presented with two options (it’s hard, almost to call them questions!). The tasks can be for a descriptive or a narrative response. I hope that you will be able to use this pack to help you increase the story-telling powers of your learners as well as their descriptive prowess! The resources included here are suitable for use in a number of ways: Classroom delivery or progress tests - why reinvent the wheel when these questions are prepared for you? Cover classes - an ideal way to give a class a task which will engage them and last an hour! Online delivery - the five question sets have been saved in a format which will allow students to complete them online by typing their response below the questions (MS Word needed). The papers will familiarise learners with the way that the questions are presented in the exam as well as giving you a little time off from preparing “past paper” questions. All resources are editable if you want to tweak them a little. The “classroom” delivery resources are also saved in PDF format (in case that’s how you need them). A set of grade boundaries in included which can be adapted/edited to make the papers more challenging (they use the most generous grade boundaries AQA have ever used). These resources can be used to ensure that there are always writing tasks at hand. All of the wonderful pictures have been ethically sourced and are available under a Creative Commons license which means you do not have to worry about copyright with them at all. Each originator is credited by use of a link to the original. **Assessment Objective: ** AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

This pack of CHRISTMAS picture questions is designed for AQA GCSE English Language 9-1. They simulate Paper 1 Question 5 where students are given a picture and are presented with two options (it’s hard, almost to call them questions!). The tasks can be for a descriptive or a narrative response (although both tasks can be descriptive or narrative and this pack reflects that). I hope that you will be able to use this pack to help you increase the story-telling powers of your learners as well as their descriptive prowess! The pack gives teachers the opportunity to have a selection of ready-made questions for Paper 1 Question 5. These can be used to ensure that there are always writing tasks at hand. They might be used to stimulate class or small group discussion or can be used as interchangeable exercises to be done during a session. I hope that there is a sufficient variety of Christmassy mages in this pack to pique the interest of even the most reluctant of writers. By giving your learners a choice of task (while the assessment objectives - A05 and A06 remain the same) these sample questions might help to ensure both differentiation and an element of choice. There are also a few naughtier suggestions… Each is formatted to include the question on a single A4 sheet. The originals are also included on their own if you would like to use them without the question stimulus. Plus if it’s easier for you - PDFs are also included of both files. They would probably also be very useful if you are covering a class - the skills that students develop with these questions are vital for success in GCSE English as this question alone represents 25% of the entire exam. All of the wonderful pictures have been ethically sourced and are available under a Creative Commons license which means you do not have to worry about copyright with them at all. Each originator is credited by use of a link to the original.

The first set of this revision resource proved so popular among my learners that I had to make some more! So here they are… These “Do It Now” activity sheets are designed for the BTEC Fist in Information and Creative Technology – Unit 1: The Online World externally set exam. You have probably heard of “Do Nows” – brief warm-up activities that are usually at the beginning of a lesson to help students to start thinking. They are rooted in Dewey’s constructivist theory as well as Hinton, Fischer & Glennon’s active learning theories of student-centred learning. These can take place in the usual “Online World” session but can also be used at the beginning of any IT classes when the Online World exam is coming up. I know how difficult it is to squeeze in mock exams so you could think of these as mini-mocks! They are designed to be quick (five minutes for the questions, five for the answers) and to provide a different revision and recall route for your learners. However, they could just as easily be given out as homework or used by individual students for short revision bursts. Each activity sheet contains two multiple choice, one or two “explain” questions and two or three “true or false” statements. The latter does not exist in the exam as a question type but is intended here, to give students quick and easy definitions for course elements that regularly appear in the exams. Elements from all Learning Aims are included on each sheet wherever possible, but Learning Aims A & B are at the forefront. Answers are included, of course! This time round I have included a few network diagrams for learners to label, too. As they are time-constrained they reproduce an exam-style atmosphere where students must spend five minutes silently working on the questions. The answers can then be delivered in a way that you choose, to best suit your learners. I tend to ask individuals the answers and choose them according to ability. This part of the activity can often provoke discussion which will help students recall the information again. The activity sheets are formatted in PowerPoint – you can edit as you wish. These activities have proven highly popular with my learners and I hope will with yours too!

This is an editable resource but a PDF is included too. I really enjoyed creating this and it has gone down very well with my students. Ever tried to teach story writing and been met with a sea of faces staring back blankly? However, when the terminal exam promises the distinct possibility of a story writing task (Paper 1 Question 5) then students must be prepared for this eventuality. This is one way to encourage students to write good stories which are suitable for GCSE English. This set of prompts is designed to introduce students to descriptive writing in a number of ways… The resource is designed as a 60-90 minute class and it focuses on a FULL RESPONSE for a story featuring a different structural feature for each paragraph. If you want to use exercise books, there is an ‘instruction only’ set here too. Each paragraph the students must write is accompanied by a number of prompts - both picture-based and written. The prompts indicate what they should write. There is also plenty of time for sharing and class discussions between each paragraph. So, the first (major) prompts, for example, are: The opening - a picture of a young woman leaning out of the window of a train’s door. Students are asked to write about her, including time and place for their first paragraph. Shift of focus - a picture of he railway station where she is starting her journey. The story shifts to a description of the platform. …and so on. The story is then further developed with pictures - a “power paragaraph” (one sentence), a shift to describe her thoughts and feelings, a flashforward where she anticipates her future, a shift to a description of the countryside outside the train as it whizzes by and then a climax where she discovers she has lost her train ticket! It’s a very simple st The prompts then progress, enabling the students to create a complete response which includes all of the skills descriptors for Paper 1 Question 5. Your students should end up with a piece containing a minimum of 8 paragraphs of varying language with structural features and language devices used throughout. There is also an extension task which asks the students to create a word-processed second draft for homework. This lesson could also be used as a ‘snap’ creative writing session or a cover class. In fact it’s a highly adaptable (and editable!) resource which you can turn to many things. There is also a ‘five senses’ prompt on the lesson handout, to encourage students to use one or more of these in their writing. These exercises cover the following Assessment Objectives: AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

This lesson introduces students to the skills descriptors for A05 and A06 (Content and Organisation together with Technical Accuracy) of the AQA GCSE English exam – in other words what they have to do in Paper 1 Question 5 to make the marker happy. This can bore students silly, so it is all about active engagement throughout. It is designed for learners at the beginning of their creative writing careers, with possibly just a few classes before this. They are not expected to mark a whole text (or award marks) – neither are they expected to write a whole one either. This lesson focuses on paragraphs so that they can focus on short extracts which also gives them the opportunity to add on it to later. Here is a precis of the class. The students are given the beginning of a short story and a picture to go with it. They are also given two attempts at the next paragraph, written by students. There are plenty of things to talk about in the examples given! Before they go on to mark these paragraphs, they are introduced to the skills descriptors in a mix-and-match scenario which will promote discussion in the classroom. They have to work out which explanation goes with each skill. This readies for them to return to the paragraphs written by the students and be able to make comments about how each student did well and how they could improve their work. I have always found that one of the things students love is being critical about the work of other learners. There is plenty of opportunity to do that here – although the focus should of course be on positive rather than negative criticism. The students must put this into action once this discussion is over – by rewriting the paragraphs (or parts of them) to show how they could have been improved. Moving on, the students must then write the next paragraph of the story. What they must do is explicitly stated so that they each have the opportunity to shift focus from the outside of a café (in this case) to the exterior. It will also enable them to have a bash at some expository writing about a busy street (which is something that could easily come up in this question in the exam). Finally, some students will be expected to read out their paragraphs with the rest of the class giving some positive feedback about what they have written. The class is designed for 60 minutes for top set learners but could easily be stretched out to 90 minutes. All the pages in the lesson are in a single Word document. The PDF version is also attached.

These “Do It Now” activity sheets are designed for the BTEC Fist in Information and Creative Technology – Unit 1: The Online World externally set exam. You have probably heard of “Do Nows” – brief warm-up activities that are usually at the beginning of a lesson to help students to start thinking. They are rooted in Dewey’s constructivist theory as well as Hinton, Fischer & Glennon’s active learning theories of student-centred learning. These can take place in the usual “Online World” session but can also be used at the beginning of any IT classes when the Online World exam is coming up. They are designed to be quick (five minutes for the questions, five for the answers) and to provide a different revision and recall route for your learners. However, they could just as easily be given out as homework or used by individual students for short revision bursts. Each activity sheet contains two multiple choice, two “explain” questions and three “true or false” statements. The latter does not exist in the exam as a question type but is intended here, to give students quick and easy definitions for course elements that regularly appear in the exams. Elements from all Learning Aims are included on each sheet wherever possible, but Learning Aims A & B are at the forefront. Answers are included, of course! As they are time-constrained they reproduce an exam-style atmosphere where students must spend five minutes silently working on the questions. The answers can then be delivered in a way that you choose, to best suit your learners. I tend to ask individuals the answers and choose them according to ability. This part of the activity can often provoke discussion which will help students recall the information again. The activity sheets are formatted in PowerPoint – you can edit as you wish. These activities have proven highly popular with my learners and I hope will with yours too!

This writing exercise is for students working towards L1 although E3 students should also be able to cope. It is based on writing an email of complaint when a leather jackets turns out to be the 'wrong one". Full lesson plan and activity sheet with scenario included.

Context: Paper 1 Question 5 is the creative writing question where learners may be asked to write a description suggested by a picture or a story given its title. This lesson is designed to support building the skills needed for this question in a “low stakes” way by returning to nouns and adjectives. This lesson recaps nouns and adjectives and how the latter modify the former. A well-placed adjective can change the way that a character in a piece of creative writing is perceived by the reader. This is the first step in that “discovery” – and one which will hopefully provide a little fun and discussion along the way. Students begin by recognising nouns and adjectives and progress throughout the session to using them in a “story in a paragraph” – effectively the creation of some flash fiction! This is very much aimed at learners using adjectives and nouns creatively, rather than spotting them in a text and explaining them. It is not hight stakes (and has a specially made Kahoot to go with it) so could be delivered as a cover class or at the beginning of an academic year while things are still “settling in”. PDF of the files are included as well as editable versions.