Paper 1 Question 5 can be a challenge, particularly as it is 25% of the entire GCSE. As such it is vital that students do well on this question. Reading short stories from across the years does help in teaching creative writing but these were not written with assessment objectives and skills descriptors in mind. 43 teachers came together to produce this anthology of stories written with this exam in mind. The aim of this project was to help stretch and challenge learners by showing them what a good one looks like. It is hoped that by providing a set of exemplars specifically written for this qualification that learners will gain an insight in to the form of a great GCSE short story and how that may differ from their original expectations. This anthology provides students with a stimulus to improve their own responses, particularly in the context of the terminal examination. Your feedback is greatly appreciated! KAHOOT QUIZZES FOR THE ANTHOLOGY AVAILABLE HERE: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/2-kahoot-quizzes-for-as-told-by-teachers-11978295

AQA EXAM ONLY. This is a spreadsheet for individual students who might want to keep a record of their marks per question - particularly useful if they are going to resit. All you have to do is to type in the marks for each question and the spreadsheet will do the rest. It calculates the final individual paper grade based on their separate bands. It gives a percentage for each question (I find that easier to get my head around as I forget how many marks are available for each question and this means I don’t have to bother looking). Of course it gives the final overall grade too!

Students may be asked to write a story for AQA GCSE English Language Paper 1 Question 5. This is also known (mostly by teachers) as narrative writing. So how do you write a story in 45 minutes? This video shows you two examples of work done by real GCSE English students in exam conditions. It also has comments by a marker on the responses. The method the students have used represents just one way to approach this question.

Pie charts for GCSE English Language? But why? We hope these charts help to visualise how much the questions are worth, plan and re-evaluate revision and to work out just how much time should be spent on each question in the exams. Plus it’s a bit of fun - enjoy!

Based on the accompanying video, this is a set of two A3 posters for GCSE English Language focusing on analytical verbs. Many students use “show” and “suggest” well but struggle to come up with alternatives. Here are 10 which can be used in a number of contexts - examples are given on the posters in a “before and after” format. As they are based on the video you can see here too - it could be used as a lesson starter to reinforce the poster content - or as a standalone 3.5 minute warm up to exam practice (or whatever takes your fancy of course!) Enjoy!

What is PEE? It’s a really good way to explain your ideas in both essay form and in exams. This video explains what PEE is and how you can use it with two texts to use to accompany it. It is an introduction to PEE aimed at students of GCSE English Language (AQA). However, this video can be used for other exam boards as well as serving as a good introduction to PEE in general. The main hope is that it will help your students pass their GCSE exam!

GCSE English Language Paper 2 Question 1 can be overlooked in the rush to equip students with the technique to address the ‘big hitter’ questions. However, this question can be used as a traditional warmup activity or even something a little more exciting if you are Kahoot-savvy! This document contains: Each text with the questions to the right Both texts without the questions (if you want to play on Kahoot or do it some other way without revealing the questions straight away).

Two extracts - one Dickens and one Orwell, accompanied by sample questions. The video explains the question, showing how to do it but also how NOT to do it! The Dickens extract is used as the first example and students can be guided through how to create their response. The Orwell example is for students to attempt on their own, without guidance. Possible answers for both texts are included (for question 1).

Here is an exam “past paper” I created for my students who are doing the AQA board. The source text was written especially for this mock as a best fit for candidate responses. The 9-1 course does not have a huge amount of specimen papers so I hope that this will help!

The text is challenging (on purpose!) but is also one which we hope you will find enjoyable. This extract is from the opening of The Hole in the Wall, a novel by Arthur Morrison. Set in the East End of London, it was published in 1902 and it is set then. In this section the narrator’s mother has died in giving birth to a baby boy, born dead.

A letter from 1850 from a young man stationed in India to his sister in Sussex. A fag-packet lesson plan with the letter that young Walter must have written with the new GCSE spec in mind. Lots of language to convince his sister that she should write back to him. Two videos to accompany the lesson plan plus the letter itself and an exemplar answer.... lots of fun to inflict here. Fits very well with AQA Paper 2 Question 3 and can probably be adapted to other exam boards. Please note: the file marked VI is simply the same resource but enlarged for students with Visual Impairments.

This was created for learners doing GCSE English Language - the new Grade 9-1 Course. It can be used as a revision or even an introduction to language features. I’ve described how I did it with a set of learners but the simple PowerPoint slide could be used in any number of ways. The general aim is to improve a story which starts ‘The student was late’ using the power of language features. The slides are created in such a way that it forces learners to find very straightforward explanations for the language feature that they have been given. Although this does not directly help with the exam question where they have to find, analyse and explain language features it serves as an introduction. The resource also works towards paper 1 question 5 (AQA board at least!) when learners must incorporate language features in to their own creative writing, either descriptive or narrative. You can find my structural features game here - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/gcse-english-language-9-1-structural-features-game-with-lesson-plan-11988220

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!

This is an adaptation of the tried and tested ‘lifeboat game’. It can be used for Functional Skills English or most other English qualification. We can’t put URLs in descriptions anymore but do a search for “lifeboat game set in space” on YouTube and you will find it! “Starcorp is in trouble. Their Spaceship the SS Hartnell left Earth two weeks ago. It has been hit by a meteor and only ten people have made it in to the life-vessel. However, it will take a week for the rescue ship to arrive and there is only enough oxygen and food for five people to survive that length of time. Five people must be sacrificed so that the others can live. Which five will you choose?” The survivors featured are a diverse group of people and this lesson asks learners to consider questions around prejudice, tolerance, bias (conscious or otherwise) and diversity. Does their choice of who will survive depend on unconscious bias? Does age, gender, ethnicity, religion or sexuality play a part in their choice and if so, why?