Cover Lesson (x2) for GCSE English Language - "Sharpen Your Skills"

Short Exam-Focused English Activities for GCSE English Language

When is a cover lesson not a cover lesson? When it’s all printed up and ready to go the next time a colleague is off. When it’s beautifully presented and covers a number of the important assessment objectives the students will have to cover in the exams. When it’s cunningly disguised as something that has taken time to prepare and hasn’t been thrown together in a panic. When the students enjoy doing it…!

These two cover lessons are called “Sharpen Your Skills” and take the form of short 8 page booklets that can be taken to class and will need little or no explanation. They each have a variety of tasks (see below) which are low stakes but cover some important elements of the qualification. There is an answer booklet for each, too.

I have used these in my institution with success. Students have reported that they like the variety of tasks involved which keep them busy for an hour. Plus they have enjoyed the subject matter of the tasks and texts involved. Although the evaluation question can be a little challenging, it focuses on skills that can attract high marks in the exams…

In fact, we have students asking for more so they can do them at home!

Sharpen Your Skills 1 comprises of…

• A “Do Now” set of five questions
• A “Ready Steady Write” – flash writing about being faced by a zombie
• A newspaper report about gangs in South London from 1898, with a “List Four Things” question and an evaluation task
• A “multiple choice showdown” about various aspects of the text (9 questions)
• A “describe the setting” task which asks students to write the second paragraph of a text.

Sharpen Your Skills 2 comprises of…

• A “Do Now” set of three questions (one which mirrors P2Q1)
• A “Ready Steady Write” – flash writing about education failing young people.
• An extract from Octavia Hill’s 1875 “Homes of the London Poor”, with a “List Four Things” question and an evaluation task
• A creative writing task with a set of picture prompts which asks students to write about when they or someone the know has shown bravery.

They are both included as Word documents and PDFs.
All images are used under a Creative Commons licence,