A Powerpoint showing how to build up a paragraph in a film / literature essay, here using 2 examples about the film Good Bye Lenin. Students are encouraged to support their statements with specific evidence from the film / text and then to extend and analyse. Having looked at the 2 examples (they can decide how successful they are), the final slide has a selection of essay titles for students to choose from and write a SEXY paragraph of their own.

Suggested phrases for a) summarising information in a stimulus b) giving opinions about a related issue c) giving factual information. Proven to help students structure their thoughts and express them more clearly. Promotes use of ambitious language.

Reading comprehension in which Philipp and Gabi explain about their school. Questions are in English and there is a follow up writing task.

Monopoly-style game on the topic of holidays. Students start on ‘Los!’ with 3 points. If they land on a picture they have to say what they did on holiday (pictures are a just a guide). 1pt for a short answer e.g. ich bin nach Italien gefahren. 2pts if extended e.g. Letztes Jahr bin ich nach Italien mit meiner Familie gefahren und wir haben Rom besucht. 3pts if an opinion is added to an extended answer. If a player lands on a question mark square, they pick up a (chance) card from the middle, work out what it means using help sheet and win or lose points. Great for practising past tenses, encouraging extension and ambition and allowing for peer evaluation.

Students are given a list of qualities a friend may have which they rate by importance. They use this to discuss with different partners what an ideal friend (or boy/girlfriend) would be like. Excellent for engaging and motivating. Great vocab builder. Also good for practising ambitious sentence structures (esp subordinate clauses).

Useful phrases and structures to describe pictures. Includes language to describe what is in the picture but also ideas on how students can be more imaginative and ambitious. Motivating and engaging.

Useful shopping phrases to match up. This can then lead on to students devising their own shopping dialogues. They could read / act out their dialogues to others and ask questions about it. Good practice for GCSE role-play.

Useful sheet with vocabulary for different clothes and adjectives to describe them. The sheet also shows the gender of each item of clothing and indicates what adjective ending to use. Proven to broaden students’ descriptive vocabulary.

Worksheet outlining the rules for the imperfect tense (regular and irregular verbs) with 2 creative tasks for practice.

German listening activity with questions to answer on 6 audio recordings of a hotel guest making complaints. Links in well with the Holidays topic at GCSE and is a good vocab booster. Proven to help with role-play tasks too.

Ambitious opinion and tense structures for GCSE writing and speaking, including different connective types. Ideal for adding variety to students’ work. Proven to help students access the higher grades at GCSE.

3 separate reading tasks about 3 young people. Each one gives information about their jobs, family, interests, school, as well as referring to the past and future. The first task is a comprehension with questions in English, the second a gap text, and the third a translation. The texts are challenging but accessible. I have used for several different purposes - an assessment, a cover lesson, a task to focus students while speaking tests are taking place. They have proven to motivate and engage.

Students match German idioms relating to food to their literal and actual meanings. Great activity to boost vocabulary and as an extension task when doing the food topic at GCSE. Students could also look at ways of including the idioms when discussing other topic areas.

This sheet gives students suggestions about how to include ambitious sentences in a GCSE essay about jobs. In preparation for the essay, students translate 9 sentences (page 1) that would fit the essay bullet points. They use the grammar notes (page 2) to help them. Answers are on page 3. Once complete students should write their own essay. This task has produced some excellent essays for me in the past, and has helped those who frequently complain that they ‘don’t know what to write’.

Useful phrases for students to promote a tourist attraction, giving key details (price, facilities, location etc). Could be used for a written task, such as a flier to promote an attraction, or for a speaking activity during which students argue about whose attraction is best and why. Proven to engage and expand vocab.

A range of phrases and vocabulary to help students talk about musical interests and give opinions about different types of music. There are some ambitious adjectives here. I have used this by playing some different types of music as students move around the room discussing what they here. Encourages interaction and ambition.

Model dialogue in which 2 people arrange to go to the cinema. Students fill in the gaps by finding missing words in the word puzzle. As an extension task, they can complete the film programme information and devise their own conversation based on it.

3 role-play tasks based on the topic of music. Prompts are given in English, questions for interviewer / assessor are in German. Some utterances need to be in different tenses. There is also a peer assessment feedback sheet. These tasks are proven in class to be motivating and to encourage interaction.

Help sheet explaining how subordinating conjunctions work in German, with examples and a follow up task.

Students read about what Elias does for the environment, then adapt his paragraph to make him sound non environmentally-friendly. This is a good task for lower ability students as much of the necessary language is in both German and English on the worksheet.