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

 Edexcel has submitted Draft 2 to Ofqual and published the revised SAMS with blue highlighting showing changes  AQA has submitted Draft 2 to Ofqual but will not publish again until they are approved (Draft 1 only available on website)  OCR has just submitted its Draft 2 to Ofqual and has now published the revised SAMS on its website So…. what do we know? The story so far…!

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 Ofqual has not approved them anyway!

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

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: