It was Gianfranco's suggestion that our new project be linked to the revised GCSE and we quickly came up with the idea of a book in two parts and a structure for each based on five units, each one of 19 pages. The book is A4 size and slim enough to be easily photocopiable within a purchasing school. There are 129 pages, including answers. Each unit is around 20 pages long.
Structure of the units
Each unit consists of the following sections:
- A Foundation Tier vocab building section leading into a number of GCSE-style Reading questions, based on the format of AQA and Pearson specimen papers.
- A Higher Tier vocab building section leading into a number of Reading questions, again based on examples we have seen from the exam boards.
- A 'Grammar Focus' section, consisting of an explanation of key area such as a verb tenses, followed by two pages of intensive exercises, the subject matter related to the unit's thematic content - more about that in a moment.
- A 'Preparing for Speaking and Writing' section, with exercises leading towards (1) a page devoted to the photo card (2) a page devoted to role-plays and (3) a page with Writing questions. All of the preceding are at both Foundation and Higher Tier.
- Finally, each unit has two 'sentence banks', one easier, one harder. These can be used for rote learning or can be adapted. Each sentence is translated, in the style of a parallel texts Knowledge Organiser.
Each of the five units is based on a theme (see below). The topics have been chosen based on an analysis of the themes proposed by all three awarding bodies - they have a lot in common. So the workbook is jot just for one board. Incidentally, Pearson's topics are very broad and a bit vaguer than AQA's and Eduqas's, as I see it, so they embrace quite a broad range of themes.
Each unit makes a point of moving from easier vocabulary and structures to harder, with patterns being recycled many times over, in the way you would find in a Language Gym book. The structures also recur in the sentence banks and can be used in the photo card, role-play and writing tasks.
Topics
The five units of Part One are:
- Healthy living
- Celebrity culture and entertainment
- Custoims, festivals and celebrations
- Environment
- Media and technology
Vocabulary
The vocabulary has been chosen based on the lists provided by AQA and Pearson. The two lists are very similar, though do differ in some ways, for example AQA includes words relating to religious beliefs and festivals, whereas Pearson explicitly ruled this out. We included them. So we have largely respected the principle of high-frequency vocabulary, glossing occasionally in the exam-style tasks as necessary However, we decided to give ourselves just a tiny amount of leeway, where we felt key words were missing from the lists. Examples are given in the book's blurb. This allows students to express themselves more completely orally and in writing. The exam-style reading tasks consist almost entirely of words from the defined lists. We checked all words we were in doubt about.
(We also take the view that the DfE/Ofqual requrement to limit the vocabulary will not be beneficial to all pupils, so would advise teachers to go beyond the defined lists as they feel appropriate.)
Although we include lists of words to be recycled in each unit, we decided against producing a complete list of the 1300/1700 words from the exam boards, since they already provide their own lists.
Grammar
The Grammar Focus pages cover present tense, perfect tense, negatives, conditionals and expressing the future ('futur proche' and simple future.) As with the vocab-building pages, exercises build from easier to harder, with translation playing a significant role. These sections are not divided into Foundation and Higher and may be used as optional extras for classes who benefit from and enjoy a greater grammar focus.
Photo cards and role-plays
The format of these varies a little from one exan board to the next. This is particularly the case for the role-plays. Pearson's role-plays are very transactional or situational in nature (e.g. buying a tiket, asking for information), whereas AQA's are more conversational in style. In this workbook we went for the AQA approach, but the tasks will still be useful for Pearson students, in building their conversational and written skill. In part two we shall include at least one example of a Pearson-style role-play. (They are are actually harder to write since the range of plausible situations is limited, in my view. The ones produced so far by Pearson are not incredibly plausible anyway!
The Reading tasks
We closely followed the formats of the specimen examples produced by AQA and Pearson. In each unit there are roughly 8 Foundation texts/tasks, and 5-6 Higher texts/tasks. The material we wrote for the reading tasks is rooted in French-speaking culture, in line with the DfE/Ofqual's requirements. We made a point of setting the texts in contexts beyond mainland France. Needless to say, I suppose, we kept in mind diversity and inclusivity issues.
How we wrote the workbook
You may be interested in how we put the book together in practice. Gianfranco wrote the vocab building, grammar and pre-speaking/writing exercises and I wrote the reading comprehension taaks, photo card, role-play and writing tasks. I also produced the answer key which can be found at he back of the book. I formatted and edited the workbook, with proofing help from a French native, Catherine Gaufreteau, and two other readers, Elspeth Jones and Dylan Viñales.
This is not a textbook. Nor is it a Language Gym series EPI book, though teachers will find elements of EPI in the intensive nature of the exercises.
We believe teachers and students will find this resource very useful indeed. By working through each unit, students should emerge with a bank of structures and sentences they can deploy and adapt in the exam, whether it be in the Speaking assessment, Reading paper or Writing paper. The language they encounter will also feature a lot in Listening texts. The detailed exercises will help students with accuracy in the dictation section of the Listening exam and, of course, the Writing paper.
Ways to exploit the workbook
1. Students work through the whole book during the course or for revision in Y11. They could do this in class or for homework.
2. Teachers keep copies in class or photocopied sections as extra work for faster students.
3. Teachers photocopy individal pages or section to match the needs of their class. Again, this could be for homework or classwork. The role-play and photo card pages can be carried out in pairs, with optional modelling by the teacher.
4. Teachers photocopy whole units (about 20 pages). These could supplement exisiting material, whether it be from a textbook or in-house resources.
5. Teachers display exercises with a visualiser for whole-class practice or modelling.
Part Two is underway and should be available by the summer.
Comments
Post a Comment