The pressure on students and teachers to get the best grade is high. Teachers have a duty to prepare students as thoroughly as possible, just as students need to their utmost to succeed. Most students do.
In this fourth and final post on teaching A-Level MFL we shall look at steps we can take to ensure best performance on the day. I’ll take each paper in turn.
Paper 1 Listening, reading and writing
Analyse past papers so you and the students are familiar with question types. Share with students remarks made by examiners in their reports. These are available on the exam board websites in a secure area which you should have access to via your exams officer. If you have taught in a principled way during the course, and students have worked hard, good performance will follow. Apart from ensuring students have done a mock and several past papers (some in timed conditions), there are certain elements that require specific preparation and practice.
The main one is the summary tasks. For advice on this, see the blog I wrote here. A key takeaway from that blog is that students should mainly focus on getting across the main points of comprehension very clearly. Some students worry so much about paraphrasing the original text that the essential points may not come across clearly. The ability to paraphrase and summarise is developed throughout the course, not just by doing exam-style summaries.
Paper 2 Film and literature
We looked at this in part 3, but when it comes to preparing students to write two good essays. I have written about this here. That post was partly based on a presentation I gave many times for AQA.
From that post, a key point is this: build up slowly to full essay writing. Scaffold the process during the course, starting with sentences, then paragraphs, then essays. Model good practice. Incidentally, students do not have to quote directly from literary texts or films, but close reference is expected. Needless to say, the emphasis should not be on storytelling, but on critical evaluation. This emphasis is driven by Ofqual who are the ultimate arbiters on these matters.
Students need practice in doing essays in timed conditions, allocating around 20 minutes of each hour to essay planning. Students need to be taught to plan. You can model the process using a sort of 'think aloud' approach with the class. Many students neglect to plan carefully enough, so train them.
Students should understand how the mark schemes work. Share these and give examples of essays with how they were assessed. Exam board websites have these. Have students play the role of examiner by marking essays, e.g. those written by fellow students.
Speaking
Exam boards refer to this as a non-examined assessment (as opposed to an exam) since they have a strict definition of what constitutes an exam (basically multiple students sitting a paper in a room at the same time).
We’ll look separately at the different elements of the speaking assessment: IRP, stimulus cards and conversation. You should carefully read through the specification and instructions for your awarding body.
IRP (Individual Research Project)
The clue is in the name. This really is the student’s own work and the teacher can only do certain things. These are: (1) helping the student establish the area of study and the precise title; (2) advising the student on general sources of information (NOT providing specific resources such as articles or worksheets); (3) monitoring progress against predetermined deadlines; (4) give general advice on the type of language they might use across all topics.
The teacher (or any other person) cannot provide or correct language. Exam boards vary slightly on other points so it’s best to look carefully at their regulations. Schools have a contact person at the board who can advise on the suitability of titles.
For detailed information look at the exam board guides, e.g. the one I wrote for AQA here. It contains detailed guidance and examples of titles.
It’s wise for students to focus on the IRP in the Spring term of Y13 so that the information is fresh in their minds for the speaking assessment in April or May. It’s a good idea to give students independent study time, e.g. a session in the library once a week. During this time you can monitor their progress. You’ll want to help them, but there is not much you can do. It’s their work.
If you think students have obtained input unfairly you should report it. But you need to be certain this is the case, with evidence. Misconduct is rarely reported.
Before the assessment, give an opportunity for students to have a run-through, as a sort of ‘mock’. But your feedback on this must be very limited indeed. Again: check instructions, as exam board guidelines vary a little. Ensure students are familiar with the mark scheme, which is focused on both knowledge (AO4) and language (AO3).
If you conduct the assessment yourself, make sure you are well prepared. Thus does NOT mean you have to be an expert on the topic. Just behave as an interested lay person, probing the candidate to get more information and views.
In practice, students rise to the occasion and can converse very well on their topic. It can be an enjoyable experience, though frustrating because you would like more time to explore further.
Stimulus cards
You’ll have no problem finding examples from past papers and other sources. Students will need plenty of practice working in pairs, playing teacher and candidate. You will have modelled the process and shared the mark schemes with students. Students can use these to assess each other.
Similarly, you will gave done large amounts of paired practise talking about sub-themes. Because one of the four Assessment Objectives is about cultural knowledge (AO4), students need to have a wide range of cultural references at their disposal during the converstional parts of the assessment. After nearly two years of study they will have built up a portfolio of useful facts and information. Text books are a good source, if you use them.
A little tip: when students work in pairs, write up language you would like them to work in. Work in short bursts of a few minutes, then add more language. Students like that challenge and it generates fluency and repetition.
Most schools build in formal summative assessment opportunities during the course, for instance by having and end-of-Y12 exam. An exam like this could be partly based on a past paper, but it may be wiser to design a paper founded on the current level of the students. In any case, students will not be ready for an IRP and will only have covered some sub-themes.
So that concludes this series of four posts. Whatever exam board you use, make sure you know the specification back to front. Teaching A-level is an enormous pleasure. Students are usually highly motivated, you get plenty of time with them and you have a more freedom about what content to use than you may think. You can incorporate task-based activities, storytelling, traditional grammar practice, masses of text-based work, lots of general discussion and much more.
Comments
Post a Comment