An idea for a beginning of Y12 or Y13 icebreaker. Largely about speaking but can be used to do a grammar diagnostic. Based on Radio 4's desert island discs. Great fun to try and a good way to get to know the group and their confidence levels, is also music is a topic that has come up on Edexcel AS papers every year. Do let me know if you have tried something like this before and or if you try this one.

SOS salud is short agony aunt letters related to diet with giving advice. El tabaquismo- you might think this is more AS but sometimes able GCSE students are surprised by how much they understand particularly as this is a topic they know about and the language is taken and adapted from a newspaper article on the net so is full of cognates. The questions also clear up some of what they might not understand.

Previously I just posted an explanation of the activity and how to use it. I have now added the instructions/prompt sheet I give to my students and a vocabulary task sheet on music which is based on Edexcel AS past papers

Not particularly original but emphasis on developing listening skills so you might want to take a look. I have added the assessment that we do at the end of the unit so you can see what the listenings are leading up to. Not a brilliant test but you might find it useful and or infinitely adaptable. The peer listening activity where students adapt dialogue and then read it out to another pair for speaking and listening practice works well if set up right.

A series of tasks I have put together for my Y10 Spanish group on topic of food and diet in order to make the start of Y11 less hectic because I never quite cover as much of curriculum as I would like to in Y10. It includes key vocabulary for listening and reading on food topic, some verb tense revision but actually key sentences for how to talk about diet, then a writing task. They will be doing CA on health in autumn.

I shared a lesson plan on giving advice with accompanying documents and then received a comment which made me have another look. This is in fact the full lesson plan ppt that goes with those resources, sorry about the mistake.

Don't we often underestimate how difficult they find it to use a dictionary and isn&'t it always annoying when they say they can&';t find the word and they are in the wrong half of the dictionary. We use Petit Nicolas in Y7 so this is why he appears in this ppt but also we always do teach classroom objects. So to have fun and teach how to look up nouns the task requires them to look up words like conker and marbles because that is just what Nicolas would have in his bag apart from his ruler and so on. I then thought they could look up what teenage Nicolas would have.

F/H or higher reading tasks on smoking and alcohol Non verbal response

Alternative to Semana Santa History of chocolate-reading comp-I do it as a team competition-so they all get first question and then dont get 2nd one until show me answer to first. Expressing opinions about chocolate with blind chocolate tasting if you are feeling generous Jessie Y joy sing in Spanish-really easy to understand-all about love and chocolate-good you tube clip

We do a lot of work on metalanguage in Y7 and this one is all about verbs so includes what is a verb/ what is an infinitive and then focusses on present tense so they understand regular and irregular. Mine build up a mind map as we go along in books and then create games/verb posters- it is taught in conjunction with saying what do at weekend.this ppt takes at least 3 lessons to go through with lots of repetition, white board work, competitions, making notes etc

Taken from an article published by Reuters and edited. Higher reading task but with vocabulary for support and questions in English

Los jovenes pasan demasiado tiempo frente a una pantalla- taken from several articles on net. Idea that it is not just a conventional reading resource but shows and trains them in how to tackle a higher reading. Used in preparation for CA on weekend activities that is why there are some questions for adapting at the end

PPt and accompanying resources to help embed rules for mon,ma, mes in context of family with Y7 I have used Thierry Henry's family and then some actors just to add cultural relevance. Not particularly original but you might like to use some of the practice activities So quite a few of the slides on the ppt are actually printable activities- quite a lot of differentiation which you might find useful. Alain le lait- on you tube, quite fun and could be improved and turned in to a rap. I have included lesson plan as done for an interview.

I teach the whole of Y9 but only once a week so I have to get through a lot very quickly, and they have only started Spanish this year. This is then how I have approached familiarisation with the present tense using the model teenager and the teenager from hell. The vocab inserts get stuck in their books for reference at the start of term.

KS3 or KS4- vocabulary for personality- use anyway you like Divided in to cognates and non cognates

I've got a big class for GCSE Spanish in September and this is my attempt to get them to revise the basics before the start of the autumn term so we can hit the ground running. If you were thinking of giving Y9 some Summer work in preparation for GCSE you might find this useful to use and or adapt.

This is the right version to look at. I shared the wrong ppt last time so it would not have made sense. It was used to prepare students for a Controlled assessment on giving advice and health issues Worked really well and generated some lively discussion

I have a challenging Y9 Spanish group made up of all boys. I took them to the computer room and told them they were investigative reporters who were interested in the supernatural and the unexplained. They were then given this task sheet and I have never seen them so focussed. They all decided it was alien in origin and won't be persuaded otherwise, even when I told them about the severed heads.

I have just put together display for sprucing up classroom at start of term- have had them laminated A3- For years I have been putting up classroom language signs and then failing to sustain insistence that they use the phrases so I have distilled it down to absolute minimum on one poster and have decided to challenge them to keep it going all year. Meetings and greetings- not all that clever really but again just to see if I can get them to say hi in Spanish spontaneously if the constant reminder is on display

Speaks for itself really. He seems to be hugely popular at the moment. This is a challenging reading but because they know something about him already it appeals to boys in particular. Alternative easier version also included that I use with weaker GCSE students and KS3