The new GCSE 2018: Specification change as an opportunity to build best practice

 AQA and Edexcel have their specifications approved for 2018  AQA has its 2 nd SAMS available on the secure area of their website  Eduqas has also just had their specification approved  OCR withdrew from the approval process and won’t offer GCSE or A level languages So…. what do we know? The story so far – June 2016…!

Joined up GCSE specifications will be cumulative and progressive in content and language. They will take account of the matters, skills and processes specified in the national curriculum programmes of study for key stages 2 and 3. They will also build on the foundation of core grammar and vocabulary outlined in the programmes of study for key stages 2 and 3, increasing the level of linguistic and cognitive demand.

Joined up Earlier start Higher expectations Greater emphasis on manipulation More authentic source material Greater variety of language structure Freedom of content (theme) at KS2 and KS3 Less predictable exams at the end of KS4

GCSE builds directly from KS3 translation use of literary texts / authentic material grammar spontaneous speaking extended writing (from memory)

But the new GCSE…? business as usual… does not fulfil on promise of the new KS3 competing paradigms teachers under pressure government push for textbooks

On the positive side… More time teaching, less time assessing 100% externally assessed Solid foundation for further study Greater focus on TL culture Emphasis on independent use of TL Spontaneous speaking… Clearer links to KS3 (the 4 skills, translation, literary texts, authentic material)

National curriculum aims The National Curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils: understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

GCSE Speaking 2018  unpredictability “ the awarding organisation must take all reasonable steps to minimise the predictability of each such assessment.”  preparation time (between 10 and 12 minutes)  teacher-conducted, audio-recorded, awarding body- assessed  conversation (more than one topic, only one of which may be chosen by the learner in advance of the assessment)  two further tasks, from the following: (role play, response to visual stimulus, response to textual stimulus, response to stimulus with visuals and text)  no dictionaries  Foundation – 7-9 minutes Higher – minutes

AQA SAMS Spanish Higher Role Play 13 Conversations at Y11

For the Role-play overall Mark Knowledge and use of language 5 Very good knowledge and use of language. 4 Good knowledge and use of language. 3 Reasonable knowledge and use of language. 2 Limited knowledge and use of language. 1 Poor knowledge and use of language. 0 No language produced is worthy of credit. Higher Tier Part 1 [15 marks] Role-play - Assessment criteria There are 5 tasks for the Role-play, each of which will be awarded up to 2 marks for Communication. There will then be an overall assessment of the student’s Knowledge and use of language in the Role-play. Up to 5 marks will be available for this assessment. For each task Mark Communication 2 The message is conveyed without ambiguity. 1 The message is partially conveyed or conveyed with some ambiguity. 0 No part of the message is conveyed.

Higher student 4 (RP13) Communication Task marks. Two details of the student’s relationship with his family are given when he says: Mis relaciones con mi familia son muy buenos ya que nunca discutimos and so the incorrect Spanish which follows is ignored. Task marks. He is unable to answer the question asked. Task 3 = 1 mark. The pronunciation of jugué is poor and causes some confusion and, although he goes on to give more details than he is asked to give, this initial confusion results in a mark of 1. The first detail is that he played football and the second that he played with his parents and brother. The reference to shopping is ignored for assessment purposes. Task marks. El tráfico es bastante mal is enough for two marks and so what follows is ignored. Task marks. A good question. Knowledge and use of language 4 marks (good knowledge and use of language). Some errors occur after a task has been completed and so do not count for the mark given here. He is unable to answer the unprepared task and this shows some limitation. Other than that, he only makes two minor grammatical errors and he pronounces jugué badly. The question task is done very well. Communication Use of language Total

AQA Spanish SAMS Photo Card L ¿Cuáles son los aspectos positivos de ir de vacaciones con amigos?... ¿Por qué? ¿Qué hiciste durante las vacaciones el año pasado?

Higher Tier Part 2 Photo card – Assessment criteria The student’s responses to the five questions are assessed for Communication only, as per the criteria below. [15 marks] Mark Communication The speaker replies to all questions clearly and develops most answers. He/she gives and explains an opinion The speaker replies to all or nearly all questions clearly and develops some answers. He/she gives and explains an opinion. 7-9 The speaker gives understandable replies to most questions and develops at least one answer. He/she gives an opinion. 4-6 The speaker gives understandable replies to most questions but they may be short and/or repetitive. 1-3 The speaker replies to some questions but the answers are likely to be short and/or repetitive. 0 Communication does not meet the standard required for Level 1 at this tier.

Higher Tier Part 2 Photo card – Assessment criteria The student’s responses to the five questions are assessed for Communication only, as per the criteria below. [15 marks] The student just falls short of a performance worthy of a mark in the top band because of the lack of clarity caused by grammatical errors from time to time. In particular, inappropriate uses of the preterite tense and of the infinitive cloud the message in the response to questions 2, 3 and 4. However, he does develop his answers well and, with more accurate Spanish, this would have merited a mark in the top band. He scores 12 marks. Communication 12

Inspection findings … “Overall there is insufficient emphasis on helping students to use the language spontaneously for real situations. Consequently too few students could speak creatively, or beyond the topic they were studying, by making up their own sentences in an unrehearsed situation.” (OFSTED, 2008, p.12) “In many of the secondary schools visited, opportunities for students to listen to and communicate in the target language were often limited by many teachers’ unpreparedness to use it. Too often, students were not taught how to respond to everyday requests and thus routine work in the target language and opportunities to use it spontaneously were too few.” (OFSTED, 2011, p.6).

Listening: ideas for teaching  Maximise use of target language in the classroom  Use strategies to make listening a task not a test  Use authentic materials as much as possible  Mix and match text book / past paper audio  Use listen and read – make multiple use of transcripts  Encourage repeated listening to the same passage  Use self-created differentiated passages (hard  easy)  Teach prediction and note-taking explicitly

Speaking: ideas for teaching  Maximise use of target language in the classroom  Teach students how to ask questions and do this often  Consider length of utterance and length of turn  Repeat speaking activities immediately with less / no support  Plan in favour of language use rather than language practice activities  Increase the opportunities for unscripted interaction in every lesson  Focus on working from memory as often as possible – have explicit memory / retention strategies

Reading: ideas for teaching  Read for different purposes  Read a variety of material  Combine reading with speaking and writing  Combine reading with listening  Read to translate  Read to develop vocabulary

Writing: ideas for teaching Students need to:  know how to form simple, compound and complex sentences  have a bank of structures and core language that they can manipulate well across a the range of contexts at GCSE  have language stored in long-term memory  be attentive to detail, able to spot and correct errors  vary vocabulary and structures  write for different purposes, showing an awareness of style and register

http :// www. rachelhawkes. com / PandT /2018 _ GCSE /2018 GCSE. php The new GCSE 2018: Specification change as an opportunity to build best practice Task and strategy ideas available here: