iGCSE Revision - Question 1 Starter: Turn the words below into spider diagrams by writing as many synonyms around them as you can. Tips: synonym means words that have the same or very similar meaning so don’t use words that are too far away from the original meaning. You can use a small phrase as well as just a single word. Joy Ran Crush Happy Dirty Crowded Loved hated Objectives: To recall the methods used to answer question 1 Challenge: To write in concise manner while still making sure that your writing makes sense. To use your own words as far as possible.

Task: On your copy of this question – annotate what the different parts want you to do. Julia, during her recovery, fully explained her experience to her parents. A reporter for a newspaper interviews Julia’s parents and asks the following three questions only: What made you choose to visit the rainforest in Ecuador with your daughter Julia? How did Julia’s accident happen and what did she do to survive? What are your thoughts and feelings towards the Achuar people and their way of life? Write the words of the interview beginning with the first question. Base your interview on what you have read in Passage A. Be careful to use you own words. Write between 300-350 words. Up to 15 marks are available for the content of your answer and up to 5 marks for the quality of your writing.

Make sure that you write as the correct person Make sure that you write as the correct person. In this case you need to write both as the reporter and Julia’s parents. You need to write in an appropriate style. Audience – this tells you that you are writing for newspaper readers so you should write in a formal way. The content of your writing should be made up of the answers to these questions. Julia, during her recovery, fully explained her experience to her parents. A reporter for a newspaper interviews Julia’s parents and asks the following three questions only: What made you choose to visit the rainforest in Ecuador with your daughter Julia? How did Julia’s accident happen and what did she do to survive? What are your thoughts and feelings towards the Achuar people and their way of life? Write the words of the interview beginning with the first question. Base your interview on what you have read in Passage A. Be careful to use you own words. Write between 300-350 words. Up to 15 marks are available for the content of your answer and up to 5 marks for the quality of your writing. Form – This tells you the form in which you need to write. This tells you how much you should write and that you are mainly marked on your ability to read and understand details from the passage. You must put these ideas into your own words.

Question 1 – The Process This question asks you to read a passage and then use your understanding of the passage to write a new text in a given form and for a given audience. You are marked for how many ideas you use from the text and how you develop them. Read and deconstruct the question (work out what it wants from you) Read Passage A. Use three different coloured highlighters (one for each bulletpoint) to highlight relevant information in the text. Use this to help you plan your response. Work out which register (voice) you will be writing in. Work out who you are writing to. Work out why you are writing the text. Take 5 minutes to plan your response REMEMBER to write in the format asked for in the question. Use the bulletpoints to help you. Make sure you have material for each bulletpoint and cover the bullet points equally. Write your response, starting how the question instructs you to. Spend a few minutes checking your response afterwards. Remember that you get 5 marks for writing, so your use of paragraphs, spelling, punctuation, sentences and vocabulary are all important.

Top Tips Remember to use the bulletpoints! You should write equal amounts for each bulletpoint (2-3 paragraphs for each one). Make sure that your points are relevant to the bulletpoints and that you are not just re-telling the story. Remember to use your own words! If you just copy the words from the passage, then the examiner cannot tell if you understand them. Candidates must change the language of the passages in response to Question 1 and Question 3 in order to achieve a higher Reading and Writing mark. Answer all parts of the question, giving equal attention to each of the three sections. Answer in your own words and adapt material from the passage to the form and viewpoint of the response. Use all the main ideas in the passage Develop and extend some of the ideas relevantly. Create a suitable voice, tone and style for the persona in the response.

More practise of turning things into your own words This is a vital skills for both Question 1 and 3. Take each of the sections on your sheet and put them in your own words. Tips: you should aim to change the words in the original but also to reorder the words. Remember, not all words can be changed but that is okay as long as you change most of them.)

Question 1 Practise You have been given a range of tasks. These will help you get to grips with the skills needed for question 1 (and 3b). Choose the tasks that are going to help you the most and work as an individual. Importantly, use you brain rather than a thesaurus as you will have to think independently in the exam.

Reflections Do you feel more confident? What else would help? Let me know so that I can plan for you.