**Assessment Objectives Tracking Grids: GCSE and Step Up to English qualifications ** A set of tracking grids for the English Language 9-1 qualification which convert the legacy A-G grades into the new 9-1 grades. Included are tracking grids for both staff and student use. Ideal for converting the legacy grades into the new 9-1 numbering system and for sticking into student exercise books in order to track their progress. I developed them for use at my school and I use them constantly to track the progress of my students. This resource includes: AO Tracking ladder STAFF tracker: GCSE, Gold Step Up and Silver Step Up combined. AO Tracking ladder STAFF tracker: GCSE AO Tracking ladder STAFF tracker: Gold Step Up AO Tracking ladder STAFF tracker: Silver Step Up AO Tracking ladder STUDENT tracker: GCSE, Gold Step Up and Silver Step Up combined. AO Tracking ladder STUDENT tracker: GCSE AO Tracking ladder STUDENT tracker: Gold Step Up AO Tracking ladder STUDENT tracker: Silver Step Up Why choose me? I am in constant use, liked by staff and students alike. I’m ideal for reporting student progress to SLT - what’s not to love?

Strategies for Teaching Students with Low Literacy and Increasing Classroom Engagement - FREE I believe passionately in shaping a creative and inclusive English curriculum which nurtures young people emotionally so that they all can experience success. As part of this, I enjoy creating and promoting blended, differentiated and creative curricula. I have put together a few of my ideas for teaching literacy to low ability and disaffected students for sharing as a free download. I do hope that you will find some of my ideas useful; I will continue to add and update them.

This English language baseline assessment has been designed to work flexibly across both KS3 and KS4. I developed it for my own school in order decide upon the best qualification pathway to place our students on: GCSE English lanaguage or Step Up to English. I created the assessment grid to match the GCSE 9-1 course. Files included: English Language Baseline Assessment for KS3 and KS4. English Language Baseline Assessment Mark Scheme. Assessment Marking Grid. Lesson duration: 1 hour and 45 minutes. Why purchase me? I am being used successfully in a pupil referral unit as I am highly engaging. I have been broken down into accessible steps whilst maintaining a high level of challenge. I am especially useful for informing decisions regarding the placement of students onto suitable English qualification pathways. Suggested general guide to pathways: less than or equal to 1, consider Step Up to English Silver pathway in order to build graduated steps to achievement. greater than 1 but less than 2, consider Step Up to English Gold pathway in order to build graduated steps to achievement and prepare for the demands at GCSE level. greater than 2, consider direct entry onto the GCSE English Language pathway.

GCSE Spoken Language Guidlelines | Planning Frame | Cue Cards. This resource has been developed to support the spoken language component of the reformed GCSE in English Language. This free resource includes: spoken language guidelines for student use; a marking grid is incorporated which details the criteria required to achieve: pass, merit or distinction grade. a planning frame for student use cue card templates for printing out onto card; my students find these especially helpful. Why download these? A tried and trusted resource. I developed these resources in order to support and prepare my own students for their spoken language presentation. They have proved extremely popular and are in regular use at my school. Attribution of images: Pixabay Shutterstock

This is a single page overview of the allocation of marks for the new English Language GCSE (Paper 1). I created it to stick into student exercise books and both myself and the students find it very useful to use as part of exam revision.

Ideal for Valentine’s Day. A quirky, fun resource. The sweets provide the stimulus for discussion and the generation of ideas; it is a novel way to introduce a simple poetry writing exercise. Items needed: Several packs of Swizzels* love heart sweets or cardboard cut outs of the sweets if you prefer the healthier option; glue, sellotape or blu-tak. Instructions for creating the poems: • Request the students to empty the packets of ‘love heart’ sweets or cut outs onto their desks. • Students are then required to make a selection of the sweets that they wish to use. • Request the students to carefully stick the sweets onto a piece of paper, this can be in random order. • For each sweet students are to work alone or in pairs to create an ambitious sentence. • The teacher is to model linking these sentences together to create a simple poem. Duration: a starter activity or short lesson lasting approximately 20-30 minutes. Why download me? I am a tried and tested fun resource. I work well with tutor groups and English classes. I have also been known to make an appearance at staff CPD and development days in the guise of an ice-breaker activity. *other brands are available!

GCSE English Language Quiz with Differentiated Activities An ideal KS4 activity for the start of a term. The individual activities work well as a starter or an entire lesson dependent upon student abilities. Activities include: word search (key words) word check (GCSE terms) quiz covering Paper 1 and Paper 2 ‘how many words can you create’ activity. This resource includes an answer sheet. The quiz covering Paper 1 and Paper 2 can be used as a simple, short standalone assessment. I use this resource with my own Year 11 students at the start of the autumn term as it encourages a working knowledge of the the layout of both GCSE English Language papers.

Step Up to English - Secret Spies Theme Gold Level - Component 2 (creative reading and writing) A full practice assessment for AQA’s Step Up to English qualification at Gold Level (pre-GCSE). The assessment has been created around an engaging theme of ‘Secret Spies’. Text extracts are taken from ‘The Night Manager’ by John le Carre and ‘Scorpia’ by Antony Horowitz. This resource contains: A full practice assessment. A mark scheme to accompany the practice assessment. Why purchase me? My theme is highly engaging and I have been created to mirror the assessment criteria of the Step Up to English live assessments. A ‘Secret Spies’ fully resourced series of lessons, to support this assessment, is currently under development. Lesson duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes. Attribution of images used in assessment and mark scheme: Image 1 https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/secret-agent-holding-gun-against-tunnel-131052221 Image 2 https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/film-noir-concept-showing-detective-holding-1219782715?src=library Attribution of extracts used in the assessment and separate extracts: ‘The Night Manager’ by John le Carre ‘Scorpia’ by Anthony Horowitz

These sheets enable teachers to both record and track evidence required for the AQA GCSE English Language Teacher Assessment process in 2021. I created these for use with my own Year 11s and I am finding them extremely useful for the assembling of evidence for my teacher assessed GCSE grades. It includes all of the AQA assessment criteria for reading, writing and spoken language. Presented in Word document format, so that it can be easily adapted for other exam boards.

These build up exercises have been designed to develop the skills to support completion of the AQA GCSE English Language style questions. I created this suite of exercises for use with my own students and they have proved extremely successful. They aim to: • secure students’ understanding of AQA Paper 1 style questions • learn how to break down and tackle each question in turn by using a range of strategies • evidence students’ developing skills to show progression for their monitoring grades; • support, through increased skills, the completion of mock papers for teacher assessed GCSE grades. This bank of developmental exercises are based on the AQA Paper 1 style questions. Before starting, select an extract from a practice paper taken from the AQA website to work with. Question 1 AO1 Reciprocal reading strategies: a useful exercise to encourage your students to engage with the extract – students are asked to develop their predictive reading strategies in encourage identification of implicit information, themes and ideas. Question 2 AO2 Simile Venn diagram: use to help students unpick a key quotation from the extract in question 2. Supplied in editable format, so that students can use for any simile (or metaphor) that they may be struggling to explain. Strategies to help students reflect on the question – exercises including a word mat to walk students through the question by breaking it down into a series of manageable steps. Question 3 AO3 Storyboard: use to encourage students to consider how the use of structural devices drive the story forward and how they are manipulated by the author to maintain interest in the reader. Features of Structure: use as a quick reference guide or cut them up and encourage your students to match the feature with the description. Strategies to help students reflect on the question – exercises including a word mat to walk students through the question by breaking it down into a series of manageable steps. Question 4 AO4 A template is included to assist students with the concept of P.E.E. Strategies to help students reflect on the question - exercises including a word mat to walk students through the question by breaking it down into a series of manageable steps. Question 5 AO5 & AO6 Students are shown how to create a well-drawn character to incorporate into a variety of images for the creative writing task. Incorporates copyright-free images which are based on past GCSE papers so that students can consider how to incorporate their character into a variety of settings. Copyright: images used have a creative commons licence (copyright free) and have been sourced from unsplash.com

GCSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PAPER 1 | The Bunker Diary | AQA style “I thought he was blind. That’s how he got me.” (The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks) This GCSE English language KS4 / GCSE mock-revision assessment is based on the sensational Bunker Diary. Students at my school have tried and tested it - they love it! Refreshingly different from the usual practice assessments; this extract is immediately gripping - it is taken from the edgy and controversial Bunker Diary. Students swiftly engage with the narrative before forming their own robust opinions about its content. A clarity of understanding regarding the questions rapidly emerge as students are not bogged down with having to wade through an uninspiring and opaque extract. If you decide to pre/post-teach this assessment then lively and thought provocking discussions will be assured. Let’s face it, you cannot say that about every GCSE Paper 1 practice assessment! The opinions that this resource provocks will also help with the skill development for Paper 2. In order to illustrate this, consider Q4: “This part of the story, where the homeless Linus is kidnapped, shows that it is his fault for trying to help the blind man.” Due to the varied student responses this assessment inspires, it comes complete with an extensive and comprehensive16 page GCSE mark scheme - this is based on the AQA mark scheme for Paper 1 English Language. The full text (available from all good book shops or your school library) has strong links to the PSHE curriculum due its themes of: existentialism, human cruelty, the concept of God and the annihilation of hope (embedding whole school literacy). In addition, many KS4 students choose to go on to read the entire text after working through this assessment which also supports school literacy initiatives. [Please note that due to the themes/content contained within The Bunker Diary, the entire book is best suited to KS4 although my GCSE Paper 1 assessment can also be used with upper KS3.] Files included: English Language Paper 1 Assessment [AQA inspired] Extract : The Bunker Diary taken from the book by Kevin Brooks. Extensive mark scheme – 16 pages! Lesson duration (assessment): 1 hour and 45 minutes. Pre-post teaching: teacher dependent. Attribution: Images: unsplash.com licence Cover image: https://unsplash.com/photos/3R_GnBNRVI0 Bunker tunnel image: https://unsplash.com/photos/2T47CztPSyM Extract: The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks. Extract fully credited to the book’s author Kevin Brooks.

This is a single page overview of the allocation of marks for the new English Language GCSE (Paper 2). I created it to stick into student exercise books and both myself and the students find it very useful to use as part of exam revision.

Step Up to English -’ Fight for Freedom’ theme Gold Level - Component 2 (creative reading and writing) A full practice assessment for AQA’s Step Up to English qualification at Gold Level (pre-GCSE). The assessment has been created around an engaging theme of ‘Discrimination’. Text extracts are taken from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Coming to England by Floella Benjamin. This resource contains: • A full practice assessment. • A mark scheme to accompany the practice assessment. Why purchase me? My theme is highly engaging and I have been created to mirror the assessment criteria of the Step Up to English live assessments. A ‘Discrimination’ fully resourced medium term plan, to support this assessment, is currently under development. Lesson duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes. Attribution of images used in assessment and mark scheme: Image 1 https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/handsome-5-year-old-chimney-sweep-684197668Image Image 2 https://pixabay.com/en/african-american-black-female-1296524/ Attribution of extracts used in the assessment: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Coming to England by Floella Benjamin.

GCSE Progress Task Tracker for Practice Papers and Learning Diary. This is a three-sheet progress task tracker which I created for my own students who are studying for the AQA GCSE English Language qualification. This free resource comprises: Sheet one: Explorations in creative reading and writing. This breaks down the questions into their respective assessment objectives. Sheet two: Writers’ viewpoints and perspectives. This breaks down the questions into their respective assessment objectives. Instructions: Teachers grade students against each assessment objective then the students self-assess their own progress using the monitoring grid. Sheet three: A task tracker/learning diary for staff and student use. Ideal for termly target setting and the sign posting of students to supporting activities and resources. Why download these? A tried and trusted resource. I developed this resource in order to support grading, target setting and the sign-posting of underpinning exercises to support skills development for GCSE in English Language. They have proved extremely popular with students and they are in regular use at my school.

AQA Step Up to English Gold AO1 Lessons Component 2 Secret Spies. Step Up to English - Gold Level. Fully resourced lessons for assessment objective AO1. Component 2 (creative reading and writing). Excitement here at Quirky Whiskers, I have developed the first, of an eagerly anticipated, series of lessons to complement the Secret Spies assessment at Gold level – Component 2. This unit of work aims to support the acquisition and development of the assessment objective AO1: • read and understand a range of texts • identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas. These lessons are based on extracts taken from the engaging text driver, ‘The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency’ written by Alexander McCall Smith. The African setting is used to context set a suite of engaging exercises. I am a practising English teacher as well as a head of department and my resources are developed for use by my own students, a number of which have SEN and/or challenging behaviour. In order to meet their needs, I create resources which are SEN aware, engaging as well as academically challenging. My own students have responded extremely well to these resources; the resources are targeted to support progress and attainment towards the qualification. This resource comprises 10 engaging, short, sharp activities to support students who are working at pre-GCSE level and require support with the first of the assessment objectives - AO1. This resource contains: UNIT 1: AO1 lessons L/O Identify explicit and implicit information using an image. L/O Interpret ideas at a literal level. L/O Expand upon ideas at a deeper level. L/O Compare and contrast the difference between explicit and implicit information. L/O Locate key points in a text. Establish the difference between fact and fiction. L/O Interpret texts at a deeper level by locating key points. L/O Read a text to locate key information. L/O Expand upon a text to obtain its meaning. L/O Read a text for meaning and understanding. L/O Assessment of Assessment Objective AO1 locate key points in texts - interpret texts at a literal level. Attribution of images used in this resource: www.shutterstock.com www.pixabay.com Attribution of extracts used in this resource: ‘The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency’ by Alexander McCall Smith

AQA Step Up to English Gold AO2 Lessons Component 2 Secret Spies. Step Up to English - Gold Level. Fully resourced lessons for assessment objective AO2. Component 2 (creative reading and writing). Here is the second, series of lessons to complement the Secret Spies assessment at Gold level – Component 2. This unit of work aims to support the acquisition and development of the assessment objective AO2: • begin to show awareness of the writer’s craft • identify some features of the language used by the writer • begin to show awareness of structure. These lessons are based on extracts taken from the engaging text driver, ‘Farewell My Lovely’ written by Raymond Chandler – featuring the Los Angeles private eye, Philip Marlowe. The 1940s American setting is used to context set a suite of engaging exercises. I am a practising English teacher as well as a head of department and my resources are developed for use by my own students, a number of which have SEN and/or challenging behaviour. In order to meet their needs, I create resources which are SEN aware, engaging as well as academically challenging. My own students have responded extremely well to these resources; the resources are targeted to support progress and attainment towards the qualification. This resource comprises 12 engaging, short, sharp activities to support students who are working at pre-GCSE level and require support with the first of the assessment objectives – AO2. This high-quality resource contains: UNIT 2: AO2 lessons • Act 1 Visual Imagery • Act 1a What are your Thoughts • Act 2 Descriptive Words and Phrases • Act 3 Interesting Adjectives and Similes • Act 4 Word Check • Act 5 Farewell My Lovely extract • Act 6 Draw the Image • Act 7 Change the Adjectives and Simile • Act 8 Has the Visual Imagery Changed • Act 9 Figurative Language TARANTULA • Act 10 Figurative Language RAT • Act 11 Extract Visual Imagery • Act 12 What is Good about the Language • Act 13 Describe the Difference Attribution of images used in this resource: www.shutterstock.com www.pixabay.com Attribution of extracts used in this resource: ‘Farewell My Lovely’ by Raymond Chandler

Two Methods to Covert Microsoft Office Docs to Google Docs In common with a lot of teachers right now, I have been busy moving all of my teaching and learning resources onto Google Classrooms. However, it quicky became apparent that Microsoft Office documents need converting to Google docs to enable: maximum functionality and ease of access for students with the most basic of devices. Students with SEN also need to be able to access online learning without too many ‘clicks’ or processes. If, like me, you have been navigating the minefield that is technology, I have put together a short, but comprehensive help guide on how to complete the conversion between Microsoft Office and Google Docs to help. It has worked very well with my own team. This help guide is free, if you would like me to share more as I continue my journey with Google Classrooms, please just let me know. I am not an IT expert, just an English teacher who is trying to get up to speed with the new way of working - happy to share what I am doing if it helps colleagues in other schools with their work-life balance. Good luck everyone - we are doing an amazing job! Be kind to yourselves.

Creating Online Registers for Google Classrooms In common with a lot of teachers right now, I have been busy moving all of my teaching and learning resources onto Google Classrooms. As HOD I know have to report on online engagement with my department’s classes. This is tricky because Google Classrooms does not currently provide a way to be able to do this. This has left teachers struggling to devise a ‘best-fit’ approach. If, like me, you have been navigating the minefield that is technology, I have put together a short, but comprehensive help guide on how to set up online registers. These registers can provide an indication as to which students have accessed your classroom - they cannot tell you for definite whether or not students have completed any work, but they are a step in the right direction :-) This help guide is free, if you would like me to share more as I continue my journey with Google Classrooms, please just let me know. I am not an IT expert, just an English teacher who is trying to get up to speed with the new way of working - happy to share what I am doing if it helps colleagues in other schools with their work-life balance. Good luck everyone - we are doing an amazing job! Be kind to yourselves.

Mortal Engines | Word Searches A handy set of word searches for the first 6 chapters. I use these as starters and for a ‘brain-break’ at my school. Suitable for KS3.