SOS: maximising skills for the GCSE exam!

Just before our Xmas break and before I got Covid from one of my lovely daughters, we conducted our Oral Mock exams for MFL. After Xmas we will carry out the other papers: listening, reading and writing. It was a strange feeling as last time we did these oral exams was back in 2019! 

In this post, I want to concentrate on a straight-forward line of action, which I have followed in the past, when Mock results for some sets/students were at least one grade below Baseline Grades, based on Midyis predictions. In fact, although a SOS guideline, these are strategies we apply to all our Y11 lessons as from September, for a matter of fact! 

Maximising Listening

This is the skill our students tended to underperform in the trial and in the real GCSE exams, the Cinderella skill, like Gianfranco Conti calls it! We started tackling the listening skill at KS3 and I wrote extensively about it in this blog. However, these are the strategies you can adopt at GCSE:

• Dedicate a lesson every two weeks, exclusively to practise listening skills. We have three lessons per week so, one of those 6 lessons, in a fortnight, is exclusively a listening lesson.
• Look up random vocabulary in transcripts and reading past papers, which has appeared in previous years and you know you have not taught and create Quizlet courses. This is one of mine, I have two of these courses. Students learn this vocabulary over several homework tasks. It is amazing to see how some of the most random vocabulary keeps appearing in exams, year after year like: ancianos, sopa de marisco, productos lácteos or me enteré/me decepcionó in AQA!
• Use Exampro activities for AQA, if you have the subscription, on a given theme/topic, so you concentrate on specific vocabulary at a time. If you don't have a subscription to this site, I would recommend you do so! It is affordable and invaluable in preparing students for exam style questions!
• When practising listening, for example via Exampro tasks, do it as a way to learn the language not to test it! For this, we always start by giving students the transcripts first, looking up vocabulary, doing translation activities, filling in the gaps, ideally in previous lessons, or as homework tasks. During our listening lesson, we always listen to the audio while reading the transcript and then complete the task. We may do only 2/3 tasks this way and then we attempt them again without the transcript. On a second listening lesson, we will do them again, interleaved with previous topic tasks, without transcript. 
• Students do add, any unknown vocabulary appearing in the transcript to their own random Quizlet courses: the more vocabulary they know, the better they will be at recognising it in a listening but also reading task!

Keep doing this routine every two weeks and during your normal lessons, emphasise listening tasks via Dictation, Battleships, Rock Climbing, Faulty Echo etc.. as explained in my previous listening blog. Over time, start mixing up topics and themes and set up listening tasks for homework too.  

Maximising Reading 

Students tend to do better in this skill. Learning random vocabulary, as done per listening, and all topic vocabulary is key for success! 

I normally tackle this skill via homework tasks, as I personally like using lesson time for oral/listening activities mainly. Exampro proves invaluable here too!

The key for success for this skill is to treat it, like the listening component, as an opportunity to learn the language!  So, students are encouraged to add any unknown vocabulary to their Random Vocabulary Quizlet, when carrying out the activities. In fact doing this is part of the homework task!

It is important that students don't see this practice as a test/assessment but as a learning opportunity!  Going through the reading tasks/answers with students and stop, to model, as a whole class, the thinking process to tackle those tricky questions, it is vital and super important. 

Don't just ask students to complete a task: reflect on the process of how students came to a particular answer and why it was not another. The exam is full of "catchy" bits, so training students to recognise these and look up for intensifiers, synonyms, negative words etc.. in a text are crucial skills!

Tackling Writing

To get better at this, students need models of what a good writing task looks like and must know the structures/vocabulary/grammar extremely well! This is why using Sentence Builders throughout the GCSE course, not just at KS3, is so important: as these provide a wonderful framework to work with and manipulate the language as needed. 

All our Sentence Builders for GCSE can be found here . Of course, interleaving, retrieval practice and key activities throughout the GCSE course to help students learn these Sentence Builders and transfer them to the Long Term Memory, are essential.  To get ideas on Writing Tasks in general, as from KS3, visit this blogpost. 

• Present students with a model of a writing task. Silvia Bastow has written extensively on how to do this on this Blogpost  as has Sonja Fedrizzi on this other Blogpost. Inspired by these two wonderful educators, this is my model video on how to tackle the 150 word question in AQA:

• Dedicate a lesson every two weeks, to carry out a timed writing task in Y11.  This is the list of Timed writing tasks, which I created based on past papers to train students to carry out the AQA 150 word task.   Every two weeks, students for homework, prepare one of the tasks, taking into account the advice given on the right box:

     During our Writing lesson, they will carry out the task in exam conditions, which will be marked by me, using the AQA Mark Scheme and giving them specific feedback, which they need to tackle on the next task:

This technique, has dramatically improved the writing grades of our students in exams, prior Covid. As a matter of fact, we start using Timed Writings as from October Half-term up to Study leave in May.

• Retrieve, constantly in lessons, those verbs in present/past/future, that students need, together with high impact expressions to get the highest grades in the writing task.
• During lesson time, carry out Translation activities in a game environment! Genially games, as well as Carousel Learning tasks can be great here!

Maximising Speaking

As with the Writing skills, it is important to model how to tackle the different components of the Speaking exam. In the case of AQA, knowing how to do well in the Roleplay and the Photocard is essential, as these two components will provide 50% of the marks for the whole oral and they just require exam technique! To prepare students well for this, we have created this Oral booklet, based on past paper Roleplays and Photocards, as well as, example oral questions. 

• Spend as much lesson time as possible on oral skills. This is the only skill which is very difficult for students to maximise on their own! Similarly, it is the skill that will motivate them the most to study a language at GCSE and beyond!!! If they feel they cannot speak, they will give up on the subject. For that, you can use, some of the activities proposed on this blog, preferably from KS3.
• Using the Oral Booklet, model and practise, first in writing using MWBs, the Roleplay and Photocards. In Y11, these present great starter activities for a lesson! After practising as a whole class with MWBs, Students can practise the tasks, easily, with their partners as the oral booklet has on one side the student card and on the other the teacher's version. 
• To practise the General Conversation part of the exam, 50% of the whole speaking mark, give them model questions which students can start preparing in flashcards, little by little as from Y10, as the course progresses. I make it clear they cannot learn by heart all these questions! but having them in writing, gives them some confidence for their own revision on what a good model answer looks like! 

Make the link between the General Conversation in the Speaking exam and the Writing exam

• Help students practise these questions via home work tasks and connect the oral to the writing: make the next timed writing, as explained above, linked to the same theme/topic as a previous oral homework task. There’s a clear link between both exams and students need to understand such link!

  Students must realise that by revising potential oral questions for the general conversation they are, in fact, learning potential content for the writing tasks. Understanding this link breaks down the gigantic task of tackling four different exams for GCSE. Such concept is also reinforced by using multi skilled activities and the same type tasks to practise different skills, for example Battleships for listening, oral and writing. Students must understand that all skills are interwoven and must be practised interlinked with each other.

• During lessons, dedicate time to practise the general conversation questions in a game format. This is an example with Flippity: students click on the randomiser, play, Piedra, Papel, Tijera and must answer a question as it spins. To make the task more challenging, ask them to include a high impact expression, from the second column, in their answer. 

• Dedicate your lessons two weeks leading to the Mock and real MFL orals to just practise oral skills. 

• As with writing, make sure you retrieve, during your lessons, key verbs in different tenses and high impact expressions.

These techniques have made a big difference for me year after year and have helped my students maximise their grade! I hope it is useful for you. I would be super happy to hear what other techniques you use which are successful for you and your students!

My best (not free but worth every penny) apps and sites to support EPI

I have written a few posts on the apps and digital tools that I extensively use to deliver my lessons and support Sentence Buillders and the EPI methodology, led by Gianfranco Conti. However, so far the vast majority of these apps were free ones such as Flippity, Wheel of names, Genially, LearningApps, DeckToys, Loom or Canva. 

Today, I would like to talk about the sites and apps, which are not free, but that are essential in my MARS EARS approach to teaching Spanish and are worth every penny! Of course, budgets vary massively from school to school, but hopefully this list will help you decide which ones you could try and start using within your budgets.

Modelling and Awareness-raising

Sentencebuilders.com

This is the first stage of the learning process via a lexicogrammar approach to learning languages. Although most of the process will involve the teacher providing live models for students via a Sentence Builder, which can just be displayed into an Interactive Board, using various repetition techniques and activities such as Syllabing, Spotting the missing word, Dictation, Delayed Dictation or Sentence Puzzle, to mention but a few, the site Sentence Builders, can really add an element of fun for whole class activities at this stage.  

This site is super affordable and it is evolving by the day!  It operates around the concept of Sentence Builders. You can use pre-populated Sentence Builders, under Premium Resources, in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Welsh! or, and this is what makes the site so special, you can create, using the site itself, your own Sentence Builders, which you can share with your school or the whole community! Once created a Sentence Builder will look like this, and will generate endless online activities:

It is great for this Stage as you can display it on the board, do repetition as needed, as you would normally do with a PPT or Smartboard slide, but most importantly, after repetition, if you click on the little beret cap icon at the bottom (teacher tools) you will have many choices to display your Sentence Builder: with just initials, with just consonants, with the English translation, without, with the word shape etc.. and now the fun starts!!

After a few repetition rounds with all the words displayed in both languages, I tend to show the Spanish version, firstly, without vowels, then 50/50, finally just initials. I involve the whole class but doing choral repetition to start with and moving to cold calling after a few rounds, working in teams to get points! As this is the modelling stage, students just say the Spanish, but with the added difficulty of having to remember some of the missing letters. I love it, as it avoids me to create a PPT with different slides and it makes the lesson super engaging!  For information on how to use the teacher tools in the Sentence Builders site, have a look at this blogpost.

If you click on Random Spanish prompt, in the yellow box, the site will create random Spanish sentences, based on your Sentence Builder, which you and your students can read, incorporating Phonics into your lesson in context, and translate into English to help memorising.

At this point, I will point out grammatical structures, without explicitly explaining them: Raising Awareness, and will elicit grammatical rules already studied: For example for this Sentence Builder, about holidays in the past, I would ask students to transform the Spanish sentence at the bottom, to the present and would practise the verb IR in the Present tense, followed by "de": voy de vacaciones/ voy de compras/ voy de paseo or just the verb SER. The site will also allow you to print out your Sentence Builders or any Premium, pre-populated ones, which is great to make your own Sentence Builders Booklets! 

Receptive Processing 

This stage is very much linked to the previous one, as it involves to create high-intensity processing practice via listening and reading tasks, (controlled input). At this stage, the Sentence Builders website is great too, as it will create, automatically (once your Sentence Builder is created), a wide range of classic EPI activities such as Dictation, Delayed Dictation, Read and translation, Listening to Translation, Delayed Copying etc.

The site allows you to create your own classes, very easily, and will provide login details for your students. At this stage, I assign a pre-defined path of activities, based on receptive input, which students may carry out during the lesson, as all my students bring their own device to lessons, or as Homework Tasks. 

Structured Production

Sentencebuilders.com and Textivate

At this stage, where students will be required to produce their own sentences via careful planned scaffolded practice, based on the studied Sentence Builder, I use, the Sentence Builders site again. Now, I pre-select activities within the Translate to Spanish option, which will give a lot of  scaffolded opportunities for pushed output: from Word gap (click) to Type all (no clues). Students get points and immediate feedback and you can check progress from your classes section. 

Textivate, another super affordable site by the same creator as Sentence Builders, Martin Lapworth, is another great site for Structured Production activities. The concept is very similar to Sentences Builders, but activities are generated from a text you previously add to the site, rather than a Sentence Builder.

EARS (Expansion, Autonomy, Routanization, Spontaneity)

The Language Gym, Languagenut and This is Language

This is the latest stage of the process and the most difficult to reach! At this stage, the structures have been extensively learned by the students and are practised, interleaving past structures from old Sentence Builders and requiring students to start manipulating the language to create their own output. Scaffolding will still be needed, though! Activities such as creating presentations, freer translations, open questions with limited time constrictions, work well at this stage. Other classics include: speed dating, the spider game, group talk or speak bingo. 

At some point in this stage I will cover grammar via an inductive process, see this blogpost here and will use another of my favourite sites, The Language Gym. The Language Gym allows you to practise the language, via a wide range of pre-populated activities. The site is the digital version of the popular The Language Gym books, authored by Gianfranco Conti, Dylan Viñales and the Language Gym team! So if you use the books in your lessons, this site is a must, and again super affordable! Similarly, using the pre-populated activities in the site, although they don’t coincide entirely with my sentence builders, is priceless to start learning new vocabulary on a given topic, as I explain below.

At this stage, my favourite activity is the Verb Trainer. The verb trainer, does what it says in the tin! It will help students memorise conjugation of verbs. In the Language Gym you can, very easily, create classes and assign assessments from any of the 8 types of exercises above. I love the Verb Trainer because, it helps students drill verb endings in a fun way, especially if you carry the activity live, where all students compete against each other and provide some prizes, like my scratch Bitmoji cards!  It is a winner every single time and students will start using the Verb Trainer independently to revise different tenses, before oral and writing tests. You can practise up to 9 verb tenses, making it ideal from KS3 to KS5!!! My Alevel students use it too!

At this point, together with lots of productive tasks, I also carry out many listening and reading activities moving away from our Sentence Builder.  This process is important, as I want to train my students to learn more vocabulary than just that practised in our Sentence Builders, in preparation for their GCSE exam. I wrote a post on vocabulary learning and how I distinguish between Productive and Receptive vocabulary. Click here to read that post.  To learn Receptive vocabulary, which ideally I would expect to become productive as the students become better linguists and independent in their learning process, I use The language gym activities but also the following sites:

Languagenut and This is Language.  Both of these sites will require the creation of classes, which is very easy to do, and log in details and both of them will be based on pre-populated activities.

This is Language is a site designed to practise listening skills from authentic videos, recorded with native speakers, based on typical GCSE questions and topics for French, German and Spanish. I love it because it allows me and my students to practise exam-style listening content, in a very engaging way, far away from the boring, constricted exam listening tasks and audio files.  The site also allows students to practice grammar and vocabulary aimed at AQA and Edexcel, which makes it a great independent practice tool at KS4!

Recently, the site has also added a Speaking type of activity, which looks great! You can choose a topic, a type of question within that topic and before students record themselves with a suitable answer, they are encouraged to watch some videos with model answers and activities to inspire and enhance their pre-learned oral questions. I love this task, as it practises listening for oral productivity, a key aspect of the EPI approach. As part of the learning process, while carrying out the activities, students are encouraged to add any learned new vocabulary into their Random Quizlet and learn it as part of strategic homework tasks. 

My students really like This is Language and the videos! They are designed, as all the activities in the site, for KS3 and GCSE. You can choose videos per topic for KS3 or by board for GCSE, and within that per theme/topic. Once you select a topic you have a few videos to choose from. I love the fact that you have different accents to choose from, ranging from different regions of Spain to South America. The stars represent the difficulty of the listening, and once a video is selected and assigned, students can slow down the audio as needed in order to carry out some really good activities, which exploit the video resource fully!  

I have found that using This is Language in the last stage of learning on covered topics, expands my students vocabulary and trains them to listen to unknown, unprepared words/structures. The fact that they have access to the full transcript and they are encouraged to look words up, makes it a very powerful tool, which can then be used independently by my students in preparation to their GCSE or just internal exams. 

Languagenut can be used from Primary to GCSE level, with plans to extend it to Alevel! It is available for French, German, Mandarin and Spanish. I love it because we can use it from Y7 to GCSE, under the same subscription. It has a very wide range of pre-populated activities to choose from which are assigned to your classes. 

The activities I mainly use for students to learn new vocabulary via reading and listening, are those under Exam Skills. The texts range from different level of difficulties, which I can assign to specific students. Students will complete the activities and when encountering new key vocabulary, they will add it to their random Quizlet, as done with This is Language. Every so often, my students need to learn this personal random quizlet and when carrying out productive tasks, I always encourage them to use some of such structures/vocabulary. 

Languagenut will also allow students to practice writing and speaking, using the GCSE exam framework. This is great to promote spontaneity as students cannot prepare a given set of questions and writing titles, making it the perfect GCSE revision tool! Students can record their answers and submit them for you to listen to! 

I am lucky that my department can afford these subscriptions! However, there's something for all pockets and focus! When used within a planned sequence of lessons, all these sites can be extremely powerful in the MFL classroom to achieve fluently and develop independent skills in students!