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
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!
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