gcse english language: writing skills teacher guide

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GCSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE:

WRITING SKILLS

TEACHER GUIDE & STUDENT WORKSHEETS

This booklet is a companion to the online curriculum available at www.yourfavouriteteacher.com.

It includes the content from the ‘Writing Skills’ course.


Writing Skills

This pack covers key reading skills to help with exam practice.

This booklet contains:

• Suggested teaching order

• Learning objectives for each session

• Questions or activities that tutors could use in their sessions

Suggested Teaching Order and Learning Objectives

Lesson Focus Learning Objectives 1 Register To understand what register means and how it can be

applied in your writing.

2 Punctuation To revise and apply basic punctuation and understand how it can impact your writing.

3 Apostrophes To understand the use of apostrophes and look at how you can apply them in your writing.

4 Tenses and Modal Verbs

To understand the difference between tenses and modal verbs.

5 Writing a Letter To understand the layout of a letter and how to construct one in an exam situation.

6 Writing an Email To understand the layout of an email and how to construct one in an exam situation.

7 Writing a Review To understand the layout of a review and how to construct one in an exam situation.

8 Instructional Text: Content & Layout

To understand the content and layout of instructional texts.

9 Instructional Text: Instructional & Informative

To understand the differences between instructional and informative text.

10 Instructional Text: Persuasive & Descriptive

To understand the differences between persuasive and descriptive writing.


Register When talking about register, we often use the terms formality and intimacy.

Formality is how serious, clear and correct your language is.

For example, using slang and common sayings is informal. Using formal titles like Sir, and names for things (eg potatoes instead of spuds) is also formal.

Intimacy is how well you assume you and your audience know each other.

For example, you might have ‘in-jokes’ or make references your audience would only understand if they know you well. For example, making a joke about someone’s bad haircut 5 years ago shows you know them well, and won’t be offended because you’re already friends.

1. Look at the phrases below and identify whether they are formal or informal.

Phrase Formal Informal To whom it may concern: Alright mate? It freaked me out when the lights died. I was concerned when the lights switched off.


2. Label each phrase below according to whether it’s intimate or not intimate.

Phrase Intimate Not Intimate

This is my old man. He’s scruffy but he’s not bad really.

Good morning. I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me today.

As of course you know, the toilets in our school are……

3. Change this from informal and intimate to formal and not inti-mate.

Cheers Love! This is a great party innit?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………


Punctuation

What’s wrong with these sentences?

1. one day I caught the bus to school and it was late.

2. In the garden.

3. Because I was cold,

4. We all circled around the barbeque

5. No, said rafiyah, you can’t eat them yet.

6. The sausages were nice and brown and the kebabs looked cooked but the corn was burned and the onions were raw.

7. carefully, matthew sliced the onions with his knife.


8. You’ve recorded a speech and typed out the words, but there’s no punctuation! Read the words below and decide where to add in capital letters, full stops, commas, question marks and exclamation marks.

Please welcome our speaker and star of Captain America Samuel L Jackson.

it’s really great to see so many fans of the incredibles are here because none of you are old enough to have seen my other films i’m samuel s jackson, born in washington dc in 1948 then 6 months later moved to chattanooga tennessee (who has heard of Chattanooga) that was during segregation and my education was just like that everyone i went to school with was black and I didn’t get to mix with any white students

i started out studying marine biology but then changed to drama after two years thank god I made that change i’ve loved movies since I was a kid aside from the very serious things i do, i will occasionally do a ‘snakes on a plane’ because those are the kinds of movies I liked when I was a kid

Samuel L Jackson, Black History Assembly at Harvard Westlake School, October 7 2013


Apostrophes

We use apostrophes to show possession and contraction.

Possession: someone owns something.

Mario’s phone.

Mario owns the phone.

Contraction: joining 2 words together and leaving out some of the letters.

Should not -> shouldn’t (leaving out the O!).

Read these sentences carefully.

1. Decide whether you need an apostrophe for possession or con-traction and label P or L in the right column.

2. Add the apostrophes in the correct places.


Sentence Possession or

Contraction? a) Jennifers sister is an excellent boxer.

b) Jennifers brothers are enjoy sport.

c) The town planners shouldnt allow the new mall to be built.

d) I couldnt calculate percentages until I learned a new technique.

e) The teams new mascot is pretty funny!

f) The players skills had really improved after the training camp.

g) The cats claws dug into the sofa, shredding the fabric.


Tenses and Modal Verbs

Can you change these sentences into different tenses? The first one has been done for you…

FUTURE TENSE TO PAST TENSE

1. I will invent a robot which makes my bed.

I invented a robot which made my bed.

2. I will visit all the countries in South America.

……………………………………………………………………………………

PAST TENSE TO PRESENT TENSE

3. I was the best rugby player in my year at school.

……………………………………………………………………………………

4. They were really kind to me when I visited them.

……………………………………………………………………………………


PRESENT TENSE TO FUTURE TENSE

5. You are really tall!

……………………………………………………………………………………

6. She is not worried about what others think.

……………………………………………………………………………………


Writing a Letter


Letter Template

In the table below write where each element is located and a brief description of what is written in each part.

Element Location Description Sender address

Recipient address

Date

Salutation

Body of letter

Sign off

Signature

Print full name


Writing an Email


In the table below write where each feature of an email is located and a brief description of what is written in each part.

Features Location Description Send

Attach

Discard

Recipient address bar

Subject bar

Cc button

Main body of email

Text features

Send button


Writing a Review

Write a review on a movie that has recently come out in the theatre. Talk about:

• The actors in the movie • What you enjoyed and what you didn’t like • Whether you would recommend the movie or not

PLAN

MOVIE TITLE:

___________________

ACTORS

WHAT I LIKED

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE


Writing a Review

Write a review on a summer festival that has recently happened. Talk about:

• Who performed • What you enjoyed and what you didn’t like • Who would you recommend went to the next one (age range etc)

PLAN

PERFORMERS

WHAT I LIKED/DIDN’T LIKE

RECOMMENDATIONS


DESCRIPTIVE WRITING Write a description about a place you visited that was special to you. OR Write a description about a time where you were looked down upon. OR Write a description about a situation that either upset you or made you feel happy/excited.


PERSUASIVE WRITING

Write a letter to persuade your Headteacher to give you a longer lunchbreak. OR Write an article to persuade your local community to work to-gether on a charity event. OR Write a speech persuading the students in your year to help with the litter situation at your school.

gcse english language: writing skills teacher guide

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