AQA English Language: Speaking and Listening PLCs

Pass
Merit
Distinction


These three main stages in the Speaking and Listening marking criteria are quite different. As a result, I've created skills based PLCs for our students to prepare them for this non-exam Speaking and Listening component.


In short, there are four main bullet points for the Speaking and Listening skills set. I've created the following PLCs which aim to give our students detailed self-reflection time. These PLCs are in draft mode right now as I will be using them in the New Year with my classes. I will change them accordingly to what I notice as their areas of strengths and areas for improvement.


Click on the image below to download yourself a copy!

Christmas Countdown Challenge update!

Click the image below in order to access the challenges all in one area for you to download.

Christmas Countdown Challenge

It's that festive time of year again. It's nearly Christmas!


On that note, I've adapted @heymrshallahan's, and @AccessMaths's, Countdown to Christmas revision idea for students. I've decided to place posters up around my department area each day with a new revision task for students to complete. If students complete 5 tasks to a good standard, they will be rewarded with a mystery prize. So far, my Year 11 students' competitive spirit is evident. I continue to post a new task, each day, onto ShowmyHomework online too.




Please feel free to download a copy of the tasks I've set so far by clicking on the images below:

Poetry annotation tracker for poetry anthologies.

I've designed this poetry annotation tracker as I've always wanted to have a quick way of monitoring the quality of my students' anthology annotations! It's like a bookmark. Students need to stick this next to each poem they've annotated in their anthologies. They'll then ask themselves if they've considered the poem's use of each literary term. The question mark option is to be ticked by a student if they don't know the meaning of a specified literary term.


Click on the tracker below to get your copy!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzOKbcWyKF4kNFFhVWVJMEthdHc/view?usp=sharing

10 day, random acts of writing, challenge!

10 DAY CHALLENGE

I've been seeing quite a number of 30 day challenges on the internet lately (thanks to Pinterest). Wouldn't it be great to create a 30 day writing skills challenge for our students? Perhaps we could create a 10 day random acts of writing challenge list. Well then, no time like the present! So here's a challenge list I made earlier. It will grow into a 30 day one soon. I intend to hand it out to my students before the summer holidays.

Download your copy of the 10 day challenge here!

Socratic Seminar AO cards for English Literature AQA 8702 Paper 1 Section A

Socratic Seminar question cards.

You can download your copy of Socratic Seminar cards from here!

 @Ms_WatsonBCS  kindly suggested using Socratic seminar cards tailored to suit mark-schemes at any Key Stage.

Her example included comparing two poems. The seminar was for a group of 6 students. The group was led by two G&T students who had been given the two poems beforehand for annotation. Once the leaders were ready to discuss the poem, front of their peers, their peers were each given a focus card. The rest of the group had to make notes on how the G&T leaders spoke about the poems. Each student was given a focus card.

For example: make notes on how the leaders discuss the use of language techniques in the poems.

I decided to adapt this brilliant idea for GCSE English Literature AQA 8702 AOs. I will give my class two extracts from The Crucible for annotation. I'll divide my students into groups of six. Two High Ability students will have a discussion about the two extracts (comparing them). The rest of the group members will be given an AO card each to analyse the HA students' discussion.


It's an ideal way of developing our students' speaking and listening skills as well as their awareness of the AOs.

You can download your copy of Socratic Seminar cards from here!

Student friendly PLC for new AQA English Literature exam 8702/1. Paper 1 Shakespeare and the 19th -century novel

Here's a student friendly PLC/mark-scheme aimed at Year 9 students. It's aimed at giving them a rough idea of what they're required to do to reach Band 6. Any suggestions on how to improve the boundaries, with the new Grades 1-9 in mind, would be very much appreciated!

Our Year 9 students completed the specimen question on Romeo and Juliet as a mock exam. SLT want to focus on giving Year 9 a realistic idea of what they're expected to do in their GCSE exams.

 Click on the image below to download your copy.

Comparing poems - getting ready for the AQA English Literature Unit 2 exam (Section A - Relationships Cluster)

Here's a method that I've suggested to several students on how they could approach the task of comparing two poems. It's not the be all and end all - it's merely aimed at encouraging students to build a structure of some sort in their essay writing. Most students don't know where to start from. This can help. (<click)

Quote Hunt update!

The lesson went smoothly. Students, in my foundation class, loved the process of hunting for quotes and they enjoyed choosing relevant quotes from a wide range of quotes (from across the novel).

The only alternative changes I would like to make would be to have a pre-lesson! A lesson before the quote hunt where students are set out in groups to identify quotes from a particular chapter for a particular theme. That way it will help them memorise their quotes even more so. The pre-lesson would also focus on language techniques, examples and their definitions.

Quote hunt!

Year 11 revision can be quite repetitive. In the spirit of making revision fun...I'm going to give my Foundation Year 11 class a chance to hunt around for relevant quotes (hidden around the classroom). I'm going to hide relevant historical information around the class too. Different past exam questions will also be placed around the room. Students will be told to choose an exam question and start their hunting for at least four relevant quotes and two pieces of relevant historical information!

In respect of the Learning Objective, the table below will encourage them to consider how relevant their quotes are to their essay questions as most students choose irrelevant quotes just to follow the P.E.E. method.

Don't be put off by the need to collect lots of quotes before the lesson. I downloaded some fantastic resources from @TeachitEnglish for OMM quotes instead of spending an eternity typing up lots of relevant quotes for every character and theme. @TeachitEnglish to the rescue!

I'll keep you posted on how it goes. :)

Filter your quotes - not your coffee!

Some of my students seem to ignore the importance of dissecting a quote to reveal its connotations and language craftwork. As a result, I've created this little gem to see if I could guide students on how to search for meanings independently.

Filter your quotes can be downloaded here!