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TES GCSE bundle now published

https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/spsmith45

You may already be aware that Gianfranco and I have been working on French GCSE translation units for some time. We had previously uploaded to TES a number of these at £3 each. We have now created a full bundle of eight units and are selling it at £15. Look out for special sale prices too.

So what's in this bundle?

The eight units, which are pitched at GCSE Higher Tier, cover these topics:

1.  Health
2.  Volunteering
3.  Holidays
4.  Marriage
5.  Television
6.  Ambitions
7.  School
8.  Environment

Each unit consists of six to eight A4 pages of densely packed text and exercises with no pictures. An answer key is provided for self-marking by pupils. The pattern is very similar for each unit:

1.  Pre-reading

A set of tasks featuring the vocabulary items which will appear in the reading texts to follow. Exercise types include matching vocab lists Fr-Eng, finding synonyms and antonyms, gap-filling and short translations both ways.

2. Reading

A set of about six short texts based on the featured topic. These are based on the concept of "narrow reading" whereby each texts recycles similar language used in slightly different contexts. You'll be familiar with this sort of thing in exams and text books - six different characters talk about the same topic. Our texts are "adapted authentic" in style and vary somewhat in difficulty level across the eight units. We think our approach to the recycling is more rigorous that what you'd find in text books. We believe that the more encounters there are with a word, phrase of structure, the more likely it will be acquired.

After the texts there are comprehension exercises of various types, including true/false, gap-fill from a list of words, translation and questions in English.

3. Pre-translation

This section resembles section 1 in style but leads up to the translations to follow. Language from sections 1 and 2 is further recycled, and new items introduced. This section also includes a grammatical section which focuses on an aspect of grammar featuring in the texts. This is typically tense usage or combinations of tenses. For example, in Unit 8 the grammar structure highlighted is the faire faire structure, whilst another looks at si clauses with the imperfect and conditional.

4. Translation

Five short paragraphs to translate into French, graded in difficulty, but all a bit harder than what you will find on the new exam papers. Having done all the lead-up tasks, however, pupils should find them very approachable. Remember that by this point most of the vocabulary and structures will have already been seen or manipulated a number of times. Very little at all is brand new in the translations.

5. Answer key

All answers are provided.

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