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Resources for GCSE English Language 9-1. I also publish resources for the BTEC Level 2 in IT course.
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Resources for GCSE English Language 9-1. I also publish resources for the BTEC Level 2 in IT course.
English
GCSE English Language Grade 9-1 Course: Synthesis and Summary
Aimed at all levels of ability but particularly at those students who might achieve Grade 5 upwards.
If you are teachinmg the GCSE English Language Grade 9-1 Course then you know your students will have to know how to do a summary. In fact they will have to know how to bring elements of two texts together – to synthesise them in to a new form – the summary – which may ask them to highlight the similarities or differences of aspects of two sources. This video serves as a foray in to that by showing you how to summarise two source texts according to the skills descriptors for GCSE English Language Grade 9-1 course (AQA),
The Lesson Plan contains the two texts (which are also the video) and the way that I delivered it to my groups - how you choose to do it is, of course, up to you!
Parts of Speech Poem - FREE POSTER
Here’s the old “parts of speech” poem you may already know (author impossible to find so I am assuming it is very old and in the public domain).
It is in A3 and A4 size (however only the A3 one is editable - the other is a JPG of the A3 one).
Anyway, cool as a poster in a quiet corner…
Structure Quiz for GCSE English - "The Unbroken Bond"
This quiz is based on a very short story of just 386 words called “The Unbroken Bond”. It is followed by 19 multiple choice questions and 3 order questions. For those who finish early there is an extension task at the end. This resource was originally created as there don’t seem to be many “structure” resources out there that are good quality and teach the learners anything except the terminology! I believe this quiz provoked some thought about how to respond to the question in an exam scenario.
This is ideal for a cover lesson, too, as it produces no marking, as long as the answers are given out once the quiz is complete (learners can mark their own or can exchange their papers with others).
I would advise reading the story out loud at the start to ensure that all the learners have read it and do not (as is sometimes the case) attempt the “pot luck”” strategy of answering the question.
The story is very PG. It focuses on a dog whose “boy” has gone missing and his frantic search for his friend. It is resolved when “boy” returns, simply having been to school for the day. It is based on the June 2023 P1Q5 – “Write a story about a human meeting an animal”. As such, it can also be used as an exemplar for that question.
There is also a comprehensive answer booklet with explanations so that the teacher who is doing the lesson can respond to learner questions about why the right answer was… the right answer!
The order questions are a student responses (done in the PEE manner). Learners have to put them in the right order. The point and evidence are presented in the first sentence. The two explanatory sentences can be separated in terms of order because the final point has a linking word or phrase indicating summation is in process.
Although this quiz is “low stakes” in nature, it covers a large amount of subject terminology which can be discussed at the time when the answers are given. The aim is to embed this terminology as well as exposing students to ways in which it could be incorporated into their own attempts at P1Q3.
The text is also provided separately as there are always learners who ask for this so they do not have to keep flicking back and forth.
PDF and Word formats for the documents are included.
This quiz would easily be adaptable into an online version if you wanted to do the quiz as homework, The questions and answers could be quickly copied and pasted into MS Forms or a Moodle interface – and the explanations given in the answer booklet could also be used to enable online automated feedback.
Enjoy!
Approaching GCSE English Paper 1 Question 3 - STRUCTURE
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.
20 GCSE English Language Paper 1 Q5 Style Narrative Writing Questions with Pictures
This pack of 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. This pack of questions covers narrative responses. There are 20 options (which look great laminated!) and each picture has at least two story suggestions on it.
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.
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.
There is a tie in with the (FREE) As Told By Teachers anthology here, in as much as some of the story suggestions have the same title as some in the anthology. As such, you can use the ones in the anthology as exemplars, if you should so wish. They are:
Lost (slide 2)
Story on a winter’s evening (slide 7)
Breakfast had been well and truly interrupted (slide 8)
The girl who came back (slide 16)
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.
Bundle
GCSE English 9-1 - Descriptive and Narrative Writing Questions (Bundle)
There are 3 main resources in this bundle.
A set of 20 pictures to be used as stimuli for narrative responses to GCSE English Paper 1 Question 5 - general pictures of people and places.
A set of 20 pictures to be used as stimuli for narrative AND descriptive responses to GCSE English Paper 1 Question 5 - general pictures of people and places.
A set of 20 pictures to be used as stimuli for narrative AND descriptive responses to GCSE English Paper 1 Question 5 - science fiction and fantasy genre.
A set of 30 pictures around the theme of Christmas - for Paper 1 Question 5
I have also included my “First World War” set of pictures - although it is free, I thought I would pop it in just in case you missed it!
Have fun!
Approaching GCSE English Paper 1 Question 3 STRUCTURE: a “bottom up” approach
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.
Functional Skills English Speaking and Listening Lesson Plan with Resources
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!
20 GCSE English Paper 1 Q5 Descriptive & Narrative Writing Questions (Sci-Fi/Fantasy Themed)
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!).
Functional Skills English - Writing an Email of Complaint (Activity and Lesson Plan)
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.
GCSE English: 5 MORE Vocabulary Learning Homework Tasks & Tests (Low Stakes, No Marking!)
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.
6 Flashback Writing Exercises for GCSE English Language 9-1
Flashbacks can be overlooked when teaching creative writing. Often the emphasis is on openings and closings, building a chronological narrative. Yet for GCSE English flashbacks are an important structural device which students should be able to use in their creative and descriptive writing.
These can be used as starters, fillers or a whole lesson.
This set of 6 flashback exercises gives students the first part of a story leading up to the point where a flashback could take place. It is then a case of ‘over to them’ where they use their imagination to create a flashback suitable for the particular scenario they have been presented with. You could almost call this a ‘semi-scaffolded’ lesson but a flashback is essentially a story within a story.
These exercises could be used as short activities or as part of a whole lesson where each student attempts a few of the flashbacks (the lesson plan reflects the latter). Although the stimulus provided by the short starts may be enough for most students it could be an idea to open a short discussion about what could happen in the flashback.
Here’s an example of one of the exercises - the students read them and then create their flashback:
Hot, sticky, crowded; the subway in summertime is never pleasant. It’s made bearable by the fact everyone minds their own business. I long ago fell in to line, stopped making small-talk, smiling little greetings at strangers, helping people with large cases.
Best to mind my own business. Read my news, message a few friends, scan through my email. The trill little slither of music tells me another one has come in. I read the name of the sender and my eyebrows swing upwards in some surprise, a smile starts to from on my face. Can it be, after such a long time?
I read the email breathlessly, the carriage is now a vacuum – no air is needed with the sudden burst of adrenaline I am experiencing. I reach the end of an email. It’s short – a hello, a question, an invitation. My mind tumbles back through the years.
I have included 2 formats for the exercises. The first is where the students write their response next to the picture. The second is where they have a larger example of the picture and they create their response in their exercise books.
There is a ‘cheat sheet’ included to let students know what a flashback is!
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.
GCSE English Language 9-1 Scaffolded Speech Writing - Whole Text Exercise ("Fast Food")
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.
Deadly - Stretch and Challenge lesson for GCSE English Language (focused on P2Q5)
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).
10 Paintings with GCSE English Lang P1Q5 Cultural Capital Descriptive & Narrative Writing Questions
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.
GCSE English Creative Writing "Past Papers" - Suitable for Classroom, Cover or Online Delivery
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.
GCSE English - P1Q5 - Creative Writing Using TWO Pictures (Stretch & Challenge)
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!
Home Learning Resource – Collaborative Story Chain for GCSE English Language
This is something which will keep a class busy - or even a circle of friends if you are a parent looking for a resource to use with your child and their friends.
It enables learners to work on a single task together with each building on the work done by the previous. There aren’t many resources around which enable a class to work in this way. The ones I have done it with have enjoyed it immensely.
It’s not a new concept but perhaps presented in a slightly more modern way – it’s certainly designed for the times in which we currently live.
Each “Story Chain” task consists of a picture and the task – “Write a story as suggested by this picture”.
You email the file to “Student A” who completes the first part of the story – they are called Storyteller 1. They return it to you to check and forward to Storyteller 2. The process is repeated until you get to Storyteller 6, who is the only one allowed to end the story!
Students do not know who the other storytellers are in their group – to avoid classroom bias! However, there is an element of competition. There are probably more than six learners in your class, so you will split your students into groups. The first group to finish, following the rules, is the winner. You may have to ask one or more students to do help out if your class number is not divisible by six.
You can then reveal the name of the storytellers to their groups. So as well as there being an element of competition, I also hope that there is fun involved too.
The process can be done in a number of ways. You could send each group of storytellers a different picture stimulus – there are ten. Alternatively, you could email them the same one, to see how many different stories can evolve from a single piece of stimulus. In that way, you have nine more story chains to create.
There is quite a lot of emailing involved on your part – and so I have created two tracking sheets as well so you can list who is in each group and how long each took to get to the point where storyteller 6 finishes and emails you the complete story.
There is also an exemplar in this bundle of files which can be used to give yourself an idea of what a finished piece might look like or indeed to send out to your students as an example (although this would mean you were down to 9 pictures).
30 Christmas GCSE English Language Paper 1 Q5 Style Descriptive & Narrative Writing Questions + Pics
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 naughty 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.
Bundle
GCSE English Grade 9-1 Paper 1 Resources
This bundle consists of 3 separate resources
Paper 1 Question 5 Descriptive & Narrative Writing Questions
This pack of 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 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.
Structural Features Game
This was created for learners doing GCSE English Language - the new Grade 9-1 Course. It can be used as a revision but more particularly as an introduction to structural features. Paper 1 Question 3 is the structure questions where learners must comment on structure (see example question below from the June 2018 examination). A student response can easily become muddled if they are not confident with the terminology used to do that.
The game is designed to be naturally differentiated - the quality of the responses will depend on the ability of the students but all can participate. Learners are given individual structural features to investigate and must report back on it to the class, including an easy-to-understand definition and hopefully examples of where it is used in one of a variety of forms. If there are no opportunities to use internet enabled devices in class, this could be easily changed to be a homework activity. It is also perfect for a cover class!
Scaffolded Descriptive Writing
This set of prompts is designed to introduce students to descriptive writing in a number of ways…
The resource is designed as a 10-15 minute section of any class and it focuses on an opening paragraph for a description of a picture. Students can build their confidence here before then progressing to longer pieces. It could also be used as a ‘snap’ revision session, a cover class (where more than one is attempted) or as a prompt for a longer response which the students must do once they finish their first paragraph. In fact it’s a highly adaptable (and editable!) resource which you can turn to many things.