English Language GCSE Paper 1 Writing Section: describing an image.

This English Language GCSE Paper 1 Writing Power-point contains 9 slides that takes students through the process of how to plan and write a response to a descriptive writing question based on an image.

The photograph is of a school being bulldozed and it begins by looking at the requirements of the mark scheme, showing how to ‘zoom in’ on four images within the picture and ‘zoom out’ on the whole picture. Boxes are places around each image with suggested ideas of how each picture within the picture can be described. It takes a step by step approach to developing students’ confidence when they are faced with the image on the English Language GCSE Paper 1 question 5.

I have modeled planning notes on the image and then written an example of a low grade opening paragraph for students to note how it can be improved and then a higher grade paragraph for them to annotate the successful features of it. Though the example writing is aimed at grade 7 and above students, I have used this with both higher and lower ability students and they have enjoyed being shown a stepped approach to this question.