Retrieval of prior learning and the development of oracy skills

Noticing a remarkable difference (of confidence, structure and poise) between some of our students' presentations skills, I decided to dedicate my end of term lessons on developing our students' speaking and listening skills. Naturally, I couldn't help but add a Literature revision element to their lessons with respect to the number of quotes and set texts that they're expected to know very well. As a result, you'll find below a selection of some of the resources I developed with these objectives in mind.

Please click on the image in order to download the resources for yourselves. I would be grateful if you could tweet how your students have responded to these materials in future lessons (@3dimension1) in the new academic year.

The start of the lesson involved getting students to make a series of random links connected to current affairs.

Then links between characters from the same Literature set text.

 I decided to get our students thinking about links between different set texts so that they could get an  understanding of overlapping themes to help them with their revision.

Students were given the choice to write their speech (with the support of the template below) or to improvise their speech.

All in all, I can see how this strategy can be easily adapted to promote students' higher level thinking skills across all departments with the aim of simultaneously developing their oracy skills.

Please find the link to these resources here.

Change-O-Meter and the concept of structure in English Literature and Language

Thanks to @mrthorntonteach's Change-O-Meter idea on Twitter, my students are effectively engaging with structure in Literature texts. I've adapted his original idea (see below) for AQA Literature Section A Papers 1 and 2. I've added extracts for comparison for earlier on and later on in each set text and the students are responding to it really well. I will be uploading their responses later on today.

Here is an example for An Inspector Calls:

You can download a copy of the sheet for yourself from here: click here

I've also created one for Macbeth here. 

I can't wait to create some Change-O-Meters for Language Papers 1 and 2 too.

Thank you, Greg!

Memory retrieval Power and Conflict poetry tasks

Memory retrieval Power and Conflict poetry tasks

Currently, our KS4 students are revising their Power and Conflict poems and I hope this memory game will improve their recall of quotes.

Each image represents a short quote from one of our Anthology of poems. I've chosen to focus on three quotes from four poems with the deliberate intention of using the same images (with a variety of memory tasks) at the start of every lesson for a week. Our students love it!

Please find lesson 2's starter here. This time the images have been organised in columns with three poems from the same poem.

Here's lesson 3's memory starter:

Here's lesson 4's memory starter. This starter involves PowerPoint animations so that columns 1 appears independently first and then slides 2 and 3 and presented afterwards together.

All in all, I will continue to use this strategy for Power and Conflict quotes as well as Literature set text quotes.

Multiple choice questions and revision

I read @missdcox's blog on providing students with an opportunity to create their own regular multiple choice questions as homework for RS. As a result, I've adapted this idea for English. 

First stage is modelling to students what a multiple choice English Literature/Language homework piece could look like. I will then set my students with the task of creating their own multiple choice questions as part of their revision of English Language/Literature skills.

I will be developing Language Question 4 multiple questions for my students in line with @missdcox's aim at getting our students to evaluate their arguments too.
Thank you @missdcox for this strategy! 

Click on the above image to download a copy of this resource. 

Formative Feedback - comparative poetry essay

Redrafting 

It's an essential skill for our students to develop in order to consider whether they've actually met their feedback target. Using the Personal Learning Checklist, students identify what they've forgotten (or didn't know) to add to their original comparative poetry essay. Students then attempt to redraft it with this feedback in mind. However, their redraft is not the be all and end all. They have to identify how their redraft demonstrates that they have met (or have not met) their feedback target.

Findings?Several students were shocked at how they didn't manage to meet their feedback target despite attempting to do so:  a quick one to one conversation with a buddy (3b4me) gave them the courage to try again.
Some students identified that even though they had met their new target, they had forgotten to demonstrate other targets as well (AO2 for instance). As a result, they recognised that they were expected to redraft again! Cementing into their minds that mistakes (failure) is the way forward as long as we learn from them, I wanted to create a mistake friendly zone. I was very much inspired by their resilience. 

Changes? I will give far more space for the redrafting section (given the number of re-drafts they ended up writing). I will also add a teacher's comment section for an overall RAG rate with respect to student effort and student progress. 

Link to my Formative Feedback comparative poetry and unseen poem sheets can be found here: http://bit.ly/2mvfZHP

English Literature Macbeth Revision task

Thinking of the 'Combination drawing' game, I wanted to try and create an equivalent with GCSE English Literature revision in mind. Click on the image below for a copy of this resource. 

Instructions:

Students create their own exam style question for (AQA) Macbeth. They write down their names and fold/glue the AO1 question in order to keep it covered. Students then pass on the folded AO1 section to a different student in the class.

Student B has to write down everything they can remember about Macbeth for AO2 (quotes, events and analysis) and AO3 (context) without looking at the folded mock exam question.

Student C has the joy of revealing what the AO1 mock exam question was (by gently unfolding the AO1 section) and checking if any of the AO2/AO3 information is actually relevant to the essay question.

Purple Pen 
Student C's next task involves using  a copy of Macbeth in order to find relevant quotes for the essay question and relevant contextual information. Student C also has to cross out in purple pen any irrelevant quotes/contextual information. For homework, students have to write up their essay response to the essay question. 

Why did they use this activity?
1. Students understood the importance of using relevant quotes for their chosen exam question.
2. Students considered the importance of using relevant historical, social and political contextual information.
3. Clear formative assessment opportunity for the teacher to gain an insight into their students' knowledge of: the play, quotes and contextual information.
4. It's a kinaesthetic task which involves students moving around and looking forward to discovering what their question was all along.

The way forward? 
Next time, I'll add an extract to the AO1 section as it was quite difficult for them to formulate a question without the extract in front of them. However, for Set 1, not having the extract meant that students could decide (using purple pen) on the best extract for their question.

Made up AQA style English Language GCSE Paper 1 (not mine).

Pupils: please download the made up paper (click here) for our English Language Paper 1 revision videos on Youtube - Bewiserevise.

Bewiserevise

A big thank you to @Team_English1 for sharing awesome teaching resources. We will continue to share and share alike.

Power and Conflict poems and memory cards!

It's time for our students to take ownership of their learning. I've created these memory cards for my Year 11 classes to complete as a revision task.
Click on the image below to download your copy of the memory card sheets!

Book Check

Book Checks are aimed at considering the quality of teacher marking/feedback and the level of progress over time. In particular, we use Purple Pen time to allow students to work on their target areas for improvement.


Some students need to recognise that their books are a representation of their potential target grades and areas of strength. Before Parents' Evening, most students decide to complete their work a little bit neater or to give that extra 10% effort but by then it's usually too late. Students need to consider the quality of their notes and their presentation standards every lesson (and for their homework too).


Thinking in respect of ways to communicate the importance of their Purple Pen work and presentation, I've decided to use the following sticker to award students with a pride number...5 being the best! Let's see if it improves the level of care shown towards their books.

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

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: