Revision for level 1 functional skills with some progression towards GCSE. It has extension activities, a planning sheet and a self assessment table - the lesson has been designed to last about an hour and a half and encourages the students to write a target at the end. I’m using it for some final prep for a level 1 group where some are about to sit their writing and others their reading.

I made a question 4 paper 2 resource on two very different viewpoints on MMA. The texts are small with a lot of different techniques to write about. There is also a tick box of all the necessary things that I believe you must have in a question 5 answer. We are always told ‘quality over quantity’ so I produced five things that students can mark themselves against as they write. Either use it as self assessment or as a planning tool. There is also a sheet on identifying the specific effect of language techniques. All three took my class over an hour to complete I have used it for revision or last minuet practice before exams. Photo by Davide Cantelli on Unsplash

These are some mini texts I wrote along with a few comprehension questions I’ve used it for E3-L1 functional skills lessons. The texts are about credit score (to give an idea of the things a student needs to know about the future) and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (there’s a lot of videos online about conflict avoidance this) and one jokey text about bad ways to break up with someone.

A functional skills lesson based on using information to write a letter, its based on a zombie apocolypse to keep students interested, it was designed so that students go into an appropriate amount of detail when explaining their reasons. This is a lesson to prepeare students to take the level one functional skills writing exam. I had to remove video links and pictures but the resouces are adaptable for these to be included.

A series of slides with really small sample paragraphs that have particular techniques in them for the students to spot. The resource has been designed to show students how to answer question 4 of paper 1 of AQA GCSE English language paper 1. Students read only a few lines on the powerpoint and are given five mins to spot the techniques, they are then asked if they agree, partially agree or disagree, they are then asked to explain themselves in relation to the question making reference to the text and basing their answers on the technique they have found. I did this because it is very very simple and it shows just how easy question four can be. This has been designed for students new to this question who need to practice finding the techniques and knowing how to actually answer this question. I used it for a thirty minuet revision session before my students sat a mock and for individual tutorial sessions.

A quick revision of paper 1 for AQA GCSE English language aimed at lower ability students, can be adapted to be part of a entire lesson, original mini texts have been written so students can attempt to write one PEE paragragh on each. For question 5 there is no picture due to copywrite concerns, so you can add a pictuure that is relevent to your group. One sample answer is included for question 2, detailing how to write a PEEZL paragrapgh and for question three some of the strtuctual techniques have been annotated. This has been used as a quick revision activity and has lasted a group about an hour and a half, if they only write one PEE paragraph per question. The texts are of my own creation and have been deliberatly written to include the techniques the students need to know for this exam. For the question 5 there is a planning sheet with some words that are aimed towards using more sophisticated vocabulary but the students do not need to use these words it is only a suggestion and will not apply to each example that they need to provide of the GOMASSIVE techniques. This is means as a quick recap and revision.