After the MOCK exams: THE LEARNING SCHEDULE STRATEGY

Like most teachers in the country, we have just finished our Mock Exams. For our school, this is the second set of trial exams carried out by our Year 11 classes.  The data that comes from these exams is invaluable in deciding a course of action for the next few weeks, leading to the actual exams in May and June. 

To help students analyse the data, we use the following KS4 Self-Reflection Exam analysis form, which breaks up students' performance by skill and helps them see how many marks away they are from the next grade.

There are several elements to consider, when we analyse the data of our Y11 classes:

• Which skill was the worst performed by our students?
• Within that skill, which question or section was the most challenging?
• Which skill was the best performed? Why? 
• How many marks are students away from the next grade?

Exactly a year ago, I wrote a blog post "SOS: After the mock exams, what?" describing a strategy to follow in order to maximise, listening, reading, writing and speaking skills in the last few weeks of the course. Although this was meant for the old languages GCSE qualification, the strategies and techniques are the same. You can access the blogpost here.

In this short post, I want to focus on creating a learning schedule for the students.

I see, year after year, that students perform in lessons and generally can do the work well but once they are at home, a part from specific homework tasks, they do not know how to revise. 

In the case of the languages exams, this task becomes harder, as students have 4 different papers to prepare for requiring specific skills and within the papers, different exam questions, such as the translation or dictation tasks, all underpinned by a strong vocabulary and grammar command and knowledge. 

Even the best students can become overwhelmed with the languages revision demands and many reduce this revision task to learning some random quizlets, with disjointed vocabulary, with a few carrying out some past papers, in the best of cases, normally, a day or two before the actual GCSE exams. 

To help students with their revision, we have created The Learning Schedules.

We have created two learning schedules: One to be carried out, specifically during the Easter holiday period, focussed, entirely on the Oral exam and a second one, spread over three weeks, to be started mid May, leading to the actual Listening, Reading and Writing exams. 

The schedules tell students what to revise and for how long, on each day, during a given week. Ours is based on 5 days of learning revising 45 minutes on each day.  We have used Padlet to create the schedules so that these are fully accessible and interactive, with direct links to specific, quizlet, Mizou courses, past papers or Exampro tasks.

The Oral exam Learning Schedule

You can access the Oral exam learning schedule here.  The idea is to start the schedule during the Easter Holidays. The main focus of the schedule is to prepare students for the unprepared conversation following the description of the two photos and reading aloud tasks, by chunking the revision of different topics throughout different days, with interleaving practice and using Mizou to practise random, potential questions for the exam.  When following the schedule, students will identify gaps and they are encouraged to be proactive, and go back to their own Sentence Builders Booklet to revise any topic which they may find challenging.

The May-June Learning Schedule 

You can access the May-June Learning Schedule here.  This schedule is meant to start once the oral exams are finished. It practises lots of different skills: 

• Writing, using potential questions from the previous schedule and Mizou, now to be carried out in writing.
• Reading and Listening, using past papers from previous years and Exampro tasks
• Official AQA vocabulary learning, via quizlets featuring all official vocabulary.
• The 5 Magic Powers practice, via a quizlet and a technique to maximise the skill: to write a sentence with each key structure.
• Grammar practice, focussed on verb endings via interactive tasks for Higher Students and interactive practice for Foundation Students on Question 3 of the writing paper.
• Dictation and translation, via interactive Exampro tasks.

The schedule breaks up the revision of these elements, day by day, giving students flexibility to assess and evaluate which skills to focus on, depending on the data provided by our Mock exams. Ultimately, we want students to ask themselves:

Which skill do I struggle the most? 

Which particular question do I struggle the most?

How can I practise my verb endings?

How can I practise the 5 Magic Powers and the Verb Nuggets as an alternative to verb endings, if I need to?

How can I practise my listening and reading skills?

How can I practise the vocabulary?

and find something in the schedule to close the gap so that they become independent learners. 

Exploring Gemini Gems in Google Classroom: Study Partner

I hope everyone had a wonderful half-term break! In this post, I would like to share how you can create a Gem Assignment in Google Classroom, which will support your students with their learning. In other words, I will show you step by step, how you can create a Study Partner, fully personalised to your students' needs, using the content that you, as a teacher, want. This could be extremely useful to help Y11 students in their learning for mock exams and for the real exams in the Summer.  This feature, together with Brisk Boost Student Activity function, NotebookLM and Mizou, are in my opinion at the moment, the best students Study Partners for KS4 and KS5 students.

How does it work?

The idea is to create an activity, generated by AI, where a virtual tutor will guide students to learn/memorise/revise key content for their GCSE MFL exam.  To help the process, I based my instructions on the following GCSE AQA New GCSE Sentence Builders booklet, which can be accessed here.   These are the steps to follow:

1. Go to GoogleClassroom, select your class and go to Classwork

2. Click on Create. Here, together with the classic, Assignment and Material, you can now find NotebookLM and Gem. Click on Gem.

3. Click on New and Study Partner. This will create an assignment, with an attached document, which is the new Study Partner gem, where normally you would have found any document to share with students, such as Slides or Docs. It will look something like the picture below. 

4. Click on the document Study partner with the blue Gemini star next to it. This action will open the Study Partner in Gemini. It will look something like the picture below.

5. This is the important part now where you need to personalise your Study Partner Gem for your students. On the left hand side, under Gems, click on your newly created Study Partner and click on the 3 dots. This will open a little menu. Click on Edit. 

6. This action will open open the Instructions  and Knowledge boxes for you to define the Persona of your Study Partner Gem, what the objectives of the app are and what to use as a reference for the guided instruction. There are some templates which I modified to give specific instructions.

Under Knowledge, (you can add documents here) I added my GCSE Sentence Builder Booklet. Under Instructions I made clear reference to the new GCSE AQA syllabus and the importance to guide students to learn the structures in the booklet so that they could create sentences and paragraphs on their own, using different tenses, giving opinions and reasons and where possible, to be encouraged to talk about someone else by adapting the vocabulary found in the attached booklet. On the right, you can see a preview of your Gem to test it. 

7. Close the Gem and you will go back to your GoogleClassroom Assignment/Material box. Click on Post, as you will do with any normal assignment. That's it! 

By the way, when giving instructions, you can also change the name of your Gem. I called mine Study Amigo.

This is the final result, Study Amigo Study Partner to help my Y10 and Y11 students to practise the vocabulary and structures for the new AQA GCSE for Spanish. Apologies if it does not work outside my organisation, that can be the case! 

Overall, a high impressive Study Partner which was generated in minutes, using our specific vocabulary input. 

How to develop fluency in the unprepared conversation for the GCSE ORAL exam.

Yesterday I wrote a blog in respond to AQA new guidance to mark the unprepared conversation. Following the signs of times: u turns a as norm, that guidance has been scrapped. This is great news for the reasons I elaborated on yesterday, mainly, the impact that such guidance would have on less able students. 

I did also create a mark scheme for teachers to use when carrying out the mocks. The sheet, although would need to get rid of the number of questions element, can still be used and it may save time. You can get it here. Click here. Despite this positive change, there is a clear emphasis, and rightly so, to avoid rote learning and extending your answers, without preparing monologues! 

As mentioned in the second part of my blog yesterday, these are the two strategies we have adopted in our department to teach students to think in their feet and not relying on pre learned questions.

The extended element. The rule of three 

                                                    

AQA was always very honest about their definition of  very well extended, good and limited extended answers, which I found very helpful. That’s why in our department we have been teaching students to use the rule of 3, even for foundation students who only need to extend their answers with two clauses (having conjugated verbs).The rule of 3 is simple. For each question you are asked, apart from the roleplay, always give three pieces of information using a verb. To mechanise the process and not pre learn answers, we use, as we used in the previous GCSE syllabus, the 5 Magic Powers, which are embedded in our curriculum and mark schemes since Y7. They are:

Using more than one tense

Giving opinions 

Giving reasons

Talking about someone else or using reported speech

Using high impact expressions

Every single topic we teach, aims to cover the 5 Magic Powers in the productive skills. The rule of 3 is tightly linked to this: every question must have reference to at least 3 Magic Powers:  

¿te gusta el fútbol? Me gusta el fútbol (opinión) porque me ayuda a relajarme (reason + high impact expression) . Antes solía jugar al fútbol también (two tenses used + high impact expression used with solía). That is a well extended answer by AQA definition for Higher tier and I know that many of my Foundation students can produce something like this too.  

Students have many ways to use the Magic Powers, which are transferable to any topic/theme avoiding having to learn answers to questions by heart. We use this 5  Magic Powers Poster for students to stick in their bedrooms and are constantly referred to in lessons, especially, to coach students on using clever ways to avoid conjugating a verb if they forget the endings: using suelo/ solía/ me gustaría/ decidí/ empecé a/ voy a/ + infinitive.  

Follow up Questions Structures 

We created an oral booklet, a copy of which can be found here. In the booklet there are potential questions per topic BUT in lessons, we don’t only practise these questions, we also extensively practise the FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS STRUCTURES. This is a nice FIPPLITY activity to go with it. 

The Follow up Questions Structures are meant to move students from learning answers by heart. They are a set of questions that can be applied to any topic and when used in lessons, especially with MWBs to start with, together with the 5 Magic Powers, not only they help students to achieve fluency in oral and written skills but they are also an excellent tool for retrieval practice. The structures are:

¿Te gusta  el fútbol/ tu colegio/tu ciudad/tu amigo etc… as many possibilities as you want for any topic it can include a noun or an Infinitive ver vídeos de TikTok

¿Antes te gustaba…..?

¿Te gustaría….?

¿Qué opinas de…?

¿Cómo es….?

¿Cómo era..?

¿Cómo sería…?

¿Qué haces….?

¿Qué hiciste…..el año pasado/ayer?

¿Qué te gustaría hacer para….?

¿Cuál es tu……favorito/a?

¿Quién es tu…..favorito/a?

¿Prefieres….o….?

Once you combine the follow up questions structures along all 9 topics, you can ask 100s of questions and impossible to learn by heart each combination, but using the structures is an incredibly powerful tool, if practised enough alongside the 5 Magic Powers, to answer any unprepared question and extend answers, especially for lower strainer students, which contributes to experiencing success.  

By using these tools, I am confident that spontaneity and fluency can be achieved with step by step modelling and practice! 

Have a wonderful half term!

AQA 2026 New Guidance on the Oral Mark Scheme. Thoughts and tools for success

Half term is nearly here for everyone and in kind of typical "last minute", "wait-for-your-busiest time" moment, last week, AQA announced their new guidance to mark the unprepared conversation after the photocards description. The time to announce this guidance, was not the best: by the end of term 1 when teachers feel tired and may be overwhelmed. 

This vital information should have been announced in September or, even better, last year, when all teachers embarked on teaching the new GCSE syllabus. 

The new guidance has created some upheave in the MFL teaching community and I can see why. 

The guidance clearly stipulates the amount of questions that teachers need to ask on the day of the exam and the amount of extension that is required  to award different marks. I can see how AQA wants to be crystal clear about what is required to achieve specific marks and, most importantly, wants to avoid students pre learning answers to questions or rote learning. 

I get it. However, in doing so at this stage, AQA may have created both, stress for the teacher conducting the exam, and for students, specially lower attainers and SEN pupils, who had chosen languages as one of their options, even though, “everyone knows how hard they are”. 

Why is that? 

Let's focus on the MFL teacher. Up to recently, when conducting the oral exam, teachers had to make sure stuck to the stipulated time, asked appropriate questions for a given theme and tried to get the best out of students with skilful question technique. 

Now, the MFL teacher will have to deal with another layer: to count/tick how many questions are actually asked. Basically, minimum of 17 questions for Higher and 12 for Foundation. Although it does not seem much, is another element added to a highly stressful situation: the conduct of the exam. However, it can be easily overcome with a good preparation sheet on the day. 

I have created the following sheet to print for each candidate to help us conduct and mark mock exams, and which can be used/ adapted for the real exam to tick on boxes as we ask students questions for the unprepared conversation after describing the photocards.  Click here.

From the point of view of the student, this new piece of information is not about ticking boxes, but a much more pronounced shift. Based on the guidance, which had been published so far and my own teaching experience, I had been reassuring students not to worry about the amount of questions they will be asked on the day, as it is not about hitting a magic number of questions, but, talking, clearly and confidently for a specific period of time. My focus has always been on increasing confidence in students and minimise panic factors while creating positive attitudes to learning: a "I can do" attitude.  Having a specific number of questions to answer on the day, minimum of 12 for Foundation students, may be a big worry factor for lower attainer students. 

Students, including those with SEN, can, indeed, do very well in the oral exam. However, having to answer 12 questions, in the stipulated time, may prove a little bit too much for some, because SEN and lower attainer students tend to need more time to think due to processing difficulties. This new variable may lead to anxiety and underperforming. 

Under this new guidance, I could ask students 6 questions, not 12, where answers may be well extended, as described by AQA, and students may use a good variety of vocabulary, however, automatically, students won’t qualify for the top marks in AO1, as only 6 questions were asked. 

I was always confident I could get the most out of my students, but specially foundation tier, by asking skilful questions, getting them at ease and promote extended answers, by asking follow up questions such as: why? And what is your opinion on that? If extended answers are not naturally delivered by the pupils. Up to now, it was the whole performance in the general conversation that counted, independently on the number of questions asked. 

There was a choice: some students would benefit from fewer questions, because they needed extra time to process information, and others from more questions to get a particular grade. That choice is not available anymore, as all students will need to ask a set number of questions to reach a certain mark. 

This may have deep consequences on our less able students who need more time to process/produce information. This may, paradoxically lead to more rote learning as students will feel they need to be fast giving their answers and what’s the best way to do so? By learning model answers!! Although I understand the rationale behind AQA's announcement, moving away from-time only based conversations to a specific number of questions + time conversations may not be the best way to avoid rote learning and make GCSE languages accessible to all.

The extended element. The rule of three 

                                                    

AQA was always very honest about their definition of  very well extended, good and limited extended answers, which I found very helpful. That’s why in our department we have been teaching students to use the rule of 3, even for foundation students who only need to extend their answers with two clauses (having conjugated verbs).The rule of 3 is simple. For each question you are asked, apart from the roleplay, always give three pieces of information using a verb. To mechanise the process and not pre learn answers, we use, as we used in the previous GCSE syllabus, the 5 Magic Powers, which are embedded in our curriculum and mark schemes since Y7. They are:

Using more than one tense

Giving opinions 

Giving reasons

Talking about someone else or using reported speech

Using high impact expressions

Every single topic we teach, aims to cover the 5 Magic Powers in the productive skills. The rule of 3 is tightly linked to this: every question must have reference to at least 3 Magic Powers:  

¿te gusta el fútbol? Me gusta el fútbol (opinión) porque me ayuda a relajarme (reason + high impact expression) . Antes solía jugar al fútbol también (two tenses used + high impact expression used with solía). That is a well extended answer by AQA definition for Higher tier and I know that many of my Foundation students can produce something like this too.  

Students have many ways to use the Magic Powers, which are transferable to any topic/theme avoiding having to learn answers to questions by heart. We use this 5  Magic Powers Poster for students to stick in their bedrooms and are constantly referred to in lessons, especially, to coach students on using clever ways to avoid conjugating a verb if they forget the endings: using suelo/ solía/ me gustaría/ decidí/ empecé a/ voy a/ + infinitive.  

Follow up Questions Structures 

We created an oral booklet, a copy of which can be found here. In the booklet there are potential questions per topic BUT in lessons, we don’t only practise these questions, we also extensively practise the FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS STRUCTURES. This is a nice FIPPLITY activity to go with it. 

The Follow up Questions Structures are meant to move students from learning answers by heart. They are a set of questions that can be applied to any topic and when used in lessons, especially with MWBs to start with, together with the 5 Magic Powers, not only they help students to achieve fluency in oral and written skills but they are also an excellent tool for retrieval practice. The structures are:

¿Te gusta  el fútbol/ tu colegio/tu ciudad/tu amigo etc… as many possibilities as you want for any topic it can include a noun or an Infinitive ver vídeos de TikTok

¿Antes te gustaba…..?

¿Te gustaría….?

¿Qué opinas de…?

¿Cómo es….?

¿Cómo era..?

¿Cómo sería…?

¿Qué haces….?

¿Qué hiciste…..el año pasado/ayer?

¿Qué te gustaría hacer para….?

¿Cuál es tu……favorito/a?

¿Quién es tu…..favorito/a?

Once you combine the follow up questions structures along all 9 topics, you can ask 100s of questions and impossible to learn by heart each combination, but using the structures is an incredibly powerful tool, if practised enough alongside the 5 Magic Powers, to answer any unprepared question and extend answers, especially for lower strainer students, which contributes to experiencing success.  

By using these tools, I am confident that our students will be able to cope, in theory, with 12-17 unprepared oral questions, hence this post! However, I also believe that moving from time to number of questions based conversations may, paradoxically lead to rote learning if this aspect of the exam is not tackled efficiently and students feel under pressure to answer a specific number of questions.

Maximising AI: Using Gemini Storybook Gem and Brisk together

Next week we are starting the new academic year and we will be planning first lessons for all our classes. After analysing GCSE exam results, this is exactly what I am doing this week: planning my first lessons in GoogleClassroom. 

In the case of KS3 (Y8 and Y9) I always like starting the first lesson setting the expectations of the class, what is our motto and why "Languages, a life skill to achieve", going through all the apps we will be using and making sure they can log in properly, (Sentence Builders, Languagenut, Quizlet) and a quick revision, about two lessons, on the work carried out last year. What can the students remember?

This year, I have also planned to carry out a reading activity to revise key vocabulary and grammar learned last year. Will my students remember any??? 

For that, I have used the assistance of AI, and inspired by Joe Dale, I created a PhotoStory for my lesson boosted by Brisk. I am planning, first, to read the story as a whole class, asking students to read aloud, asking them key questions on the text and while students use their MWBs to interact with me while reading the text. 

To create my resources, this is the process I followed with links to the final activities, all created within minutes, using Gemini AI and Brisk Teaching.

1. I went to Gemini AI, PhotoStory GEM option. Once I was there, I gave Gemini the following prompt:  "Create a Photostory for Y9 students of Spanish, in Spanish, using the vocabulary in the attached document. Make sure the story is engaging for 13 year old students".

I uploaded my Sentence Builder Booklet in PDF format, containing all the sentence builders learned by my students in Y7 and Y8.  Gemini created the following storybook, "El verano de nuestros sueños"

2. I opened the storybook so it showed on my screen, and opened Brisk from my Chrome Google Extensions bar. Once Brisk was open, I clicked on "Create" and "Forms" and I used the following prompt: "Create a reading comprehension quiz (20 multiple choice questions and two short answer questions) in English about the photostory that is showing on the screen".  

Within seconds, Brisk created this Form. I thought it was pretty good! 

3. As I want to support my students when carrying out the activity, I clicked on "Boost Activity" "Tutoring Option" in Brisk. This option makes the whole difference!! Once clicked, Brisk creates a task, which you can just share with your class, where the students carry out the previous Reading Comprehension Quiz, but now, with the help of a virtual Tutor which will guide them through the process.  

The final activity to share with students, using "Boost Activity" in Brisk, looks like this. 

The whole process took minutes!!! 

Overall, I am very happy with the result: The Storybook is engaging and looks like a book!!  I can exploit the text, traditionally, while sharing the link with my students in GoogleClassroom and then expect students to work independently with Forms and having the Tutoring option for help.