These are editable resources (if you feel the need to tweak!) but PDF are included too. They are a bundle of my two resources around scaffolded speech writing. There is repetition in the tasks, which I hope means that students will remember what goes in to a good speech! Ever tried to teach speech writing and been met with a sea of faces staring back blankly? However, when the terminal exam promises the distinct possibility of a speech writing task (Paper 2 Question 5) then students must be prepared for this eventuality. This is one way to encourage students to write good speeches. This set of prompts is designed to introduce students to speech writing in a number of ways. It resource is designed as a 60 minute section of any class and it focuses on a FULL RESPONSE for a speech about whether or not students should be made to do homework. If you want to use exercise books, there are ‘instruction only’ sets here too.

I don’t know about you but a lot of my students don’t read – much, at all, ever (unless in the classroom and that sometimes takes some coercion!). That means that the development of their vocabulary is essentially restricted to what they hear rather than what they read. This is a worry, considering that both of the written texts that they have to produce in the GCSE English exams are marked on the use of sophisticated vocabulary (amongst many other things). However, my students do respond to a little gentle competition. I wanted to create a resource that would give them something to do for homework (the dreaded word!) but which wouldn’t take a huge amount of time. Not only that, I didn’t want to give the words VOCABULARY or SPELLING too much prominence either – the students would run for the hills (metaphorically at least). Finally I did not want to increase my workload (in terms of marking) in any way, shape or form. So I came up with WORD GYM. The idea is that each week ten words will be given out to students. This is called the warm up – where they have to go away and discover for themselves the definition and word class of the week’s chosen words (all KS4) plus write a sentence for each word. The follow up is the work out – the ten minute (or so) test in class where they are presented with a variety of questions. This resource consists of: 10 warm ups (this is the homework) containing ten words each 10** work outs** (this is the test for the classroom). The questions and answers for the 10 work outs. Rinse and repeat. However, work outs 2-10 have 15 questions, 10 from that week’s warmup and 5 about any of the words on previous work outs. The short tests work very well and it is hoped that you will start to see some of the words being used in other texts your students create. These resources are all editable so if you don’t want to use a word or two you can adapt them to suit yourself. These exercises cover the following Assessment Objectives: AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

These three resources can be used as whole classes. However, they are also great as ‘fillers’ - to take up a short amount of time in a class (at the beginning or end, perhaps!). They were created in response to student need. Looking at the whole of Paper 1 Question 5 can become repetitious - and does not always suit less able students. The three resources are: Flashback writing exercised (students given a picture and a pre-written paragraph and must imagine what has happened previously). Write Four Things - a game, of sorts. Students become the examiner and have to provide their peers with a paragraph which could be used to answer Paper 1 Question 1. Openings - students are given a scaffold with which to build the first paragraph of a description or narrative. These exercises fit in a lot of what A05 and A06 cover. AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation. (This requirement must constitute 20% of the marks for each specification as a whole.)

This bundle consists of 3 separate resources Paper 1 Question 5 Descriptive & Narrative Writing Questions This pack of picture questions is designed for AQA GCSE English Language 9-1. They simulate Paper 1 Question 5 where students are given a picture and are presented with two options (it’s hard, almost to call them questions!). The tasks can be for a descriptive or a narrative response (although both tasks can be descriptive or narrative and this pack reflects that). I hope that you will be able to use this pack to help you increase the story-telling powers of your learners as well as their descriptive prowess! The pack gives teachers the opportunity to have a selection of ready-made questions for Paper 1 Question 5. These can be used to ensure that there are always writing tasks at hand. They might be used to stimulate class or small group discussion or can be used as interchangeable exercises to be done during a session. I hope that there is a sufficient variety of images in this pack to pique the interest of even the most reluctant of writers. By giving your learners a choice of task (while the assessment objectives - A05 and A06 remain the same) these sample questions might help to ensure both differentiation and an element of choice. Structural Features Game This was created for learners doing GCSE English Language - the new Grade 9-1 Course. It can be used as a revision but more particularly as an introduction to structural features. Paper 1 Question 3 is the structure questions where learners must comment on structure (see example question below from the June 2018 examination). A student response can easily become muddled if they are not confident with the terminology used to do that. The game is designed to be naturally differentiated - the quality of the responses will depend on the ability of the students but all can participate. Learners are given individual structural features to investigate and must report back on it to the class, including an easy-to-understand definition and hopefully examples of where it is used in one of a variety of forms. If there are no opportunities to use internet enabled devices in class, this could be easily changed to be a homework activity. It is also perfect for a cover class! Scaffolded Descriptive Writing This set of prompts is designed to introduce students to descriptive writing in a number of ways… The resource is designed as a 10-15 minute section of any class and it focuses on an opening paragraph for a description of a picture. Students can build their confidence here before then progressing to longer pieces. It could also be used as a ‘snap’ revision session, a cover class (where more than one is attempted) or as a prompt for a longer response which the students must do once they finish their first paragraph. In fact it’s a highly adaptable (and editable!) resource which you can turn to many things.

There are 3 main resources in this bundle. A set of 20 pictures to be used as stimuli for narrative responses to GCSE English Paper 1 Question 5 - general pictures of people and places. A set of 20 pictures to be used as stimuli for narrative AND descriptive responses to GCSE English Paper 1 Question 5 - general pictures of people and places. A set of 20 pictures to be used as stimuli for narrative AND descriptive responses to GCSE English Paper 1 Question 5 - science fiction and fantasy genre. A set of 30 pictures around the theme of Christmas - for Paper 1 Question 5 I have also included my “First World War” set of pictures - although it is free, I thought I would pop it in just in case you missed it! Have fun!

This bundle incorporates all the scaffolded writing resources I have uploaded to TES. Together they create a continuous resource from the introduction of “bite size” openers to whole text creation. The aim, ultimately is to “self-scaffold” and that is what the last resource does. Once at that point students should be able to scaffold quickly with no assistance. Contents: 20 English scaffold openers (short, bite-size, lots of 'em!) Whole text excercise using scaffolding 2 whole text scaffolded exercises using the same picture to create different tone 3 self-scaffolded exercises where students create their own scaffold. This is enough to keep your students busy for quite a while. It is also an alternative approach to descriptive writing which may enliven teaching and learning. The aim, ultimately, is to significantly increase the marks awarded for Paper 1 Question 5 (descriptive writing) of GCSE English Language (AQA but these are editable and easily adaptable for any board). These exercises cover the following Assessment Objectives: AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

Encourage your students to write with these great resources. Plus, buying these together saves you a heap of money!

This bundle enables you to purchase our last 12 resources at a discount to you of 25%, Although you can see their descriptions individually, I’ll just run through the content for you! Scaffolded Descriptive Writing (4 resources) 20 English scaffold openers (short, bite-size, lots of 'em!) Whole text excercise using scaffolding 2 whole text scaffolded exercises using the same picture to create different tone 3 self-scaffolded exercises where students create their own scaffold. Questions for Paper 1 Question 5 (4 resources) Two sets of tasks for descriptive and/or narrative writing. Altogether that will give you 90 tasks to mix and match (or otherwise!) with your students. Structural Features Game (1 resource) Fun for all the family (well, OK, no) with this game - students research a structural feature and then have to report their findings to the class. Word Gym Homework and Tests (2 resources) Need to give homework but don’t want to do any marking? Give them these (editable) quizzes. Over 10 sessions (week, however you want) send your students to the WORD GYM. 10 tasks to do as homework (probably take them an hour each) for classroom based tests (10-15 mins). 100 KS4 words for them to discover! Spreadsheet (1 resource, 6 spreadsheets) Using the grade boundaries for each paper (Jun 17 and 18, November 17) if you give them a mock using these spreadsheets you will be able to see your students’ grades quickly and easily. ENJOY!