About the Trainer:

Workshop details and availability:

Topic GCSE Speaking and Writing

Provider Ron Wallace

Workshop times Half day (1 x 2 hours max), in school Whole day (2 x 2 hours max), in-school

Dates available Spring term 2016

Sunday 26th February 2017 (am & pm)

Monday 27th February 2017 (am & pm)

Tuesday 28th February 2017 (am & pm)

Wednesday 1st March 2017 (am & pm)

Thursday 2nd March 2017 (am & pm)

Languages French and / or Spanish, GCSE

Cost Half day: AED 4500 Full day: AED 8500

French and Spanish GCSE Grade Booster Workshops for students

www.infinitelearning.ae KHDA approved

Infinite Learning in partnership with Ron Wallace offers

Ron Wallace is an experienced teacher of Modern Languages as well as an MFL trainer, examiner and author. For 20 years he was a Head of Subject in a large Comprehensive School in Sussex in the UK where he taught Spanish and French to all abilities from beginner to A-level. He has extensive examining experience with a major UK exam board with which he has been a Principal and Chief Examiner. He currently works as a Moderator, Marker and Adviser and leads Training Meetings for teachers and Grade Booster Workshops for GCSE students. His publications have included Caminos Book 1 (co-author, Nelson Thornes, now OUP), the assessment materials for Pronto (Collins), ¿Hablamos? a practice book for AQA role-plays (also Nelson Thornes), Listos 3 - OHT support pack (Pearson/Heinemann). He was also the assessment adviser and consultant for Mira 3 for AQA (Pearson/Heinemann), and has worked on Spanish Bitesize materials for the BBC. This workshop is

ideal for: Year 11 students preparing for Controlled Assessment tasks or end-of-course Speaking or Writing exams in French or Spanish Their French or Spanish teachers also need to be present in the workshop

The main aim of the workshop is: To make students aware of the requirements of the key elements of the criteria of assessment and enable them to achieve the best possible GCSE grade they can

Testimonials from teachers and students at The English College, Dubai After having spent two Professional Development courses with Ron and learning a great deal from him myself I decided for our school to take part in his GCSE Bootcamp sessions for Controlled Assessment. It was perfect timing as we had a Speaking Controlled Assessment in the very near future. Our students learnt a great deal from Ron as they were able to pick up ideas from a 'real examiner' for AQA to help them with their Controlled Assessment. The activities he provided for the students were engaging from start to finish and my department and I have even taken a few of his Teaching and Learning ideas and embedded these into our schemes of work. The techniques and concepts Ron shared with the students was then evident in their Controlled Assessment. It was a great afternoon for both students and the languages department here at The English College. Mrs J Sims, Head of Languages at The English College, Dubai

Caitlin (Year 11 Spanish student) - The experience was extremely helpful. Ron showed us different ideas and concepts to help with our Controlled Assessments. He highlighted, Higher-Middle-Low level words that helped us improve our sentence structure as we were able to avoid using the same words.

Ayesha (Year 11 French & Spanish student) - The booklet Ron provided us with during the workshop was incredibly helpful and helped me in preparing for my Controlled Assessment. I still use it today to help me improve both my French and Spanish.

See below for more detailed feedback

from the students

Further details:

Outline programme for the Grade Booster Workshop

1. Introduction and ice breaker activity to give the students a chance to settle

2. Opening questionnaire about how they see their Speaking and Writing abilities

3. Outline of what examiners are looking for: key features of assessment criteria

4. Presentation of ways of giving opinions, reasons and explanations

5. Presentation of linguistic structures - graded by degrees of difficulty

6. Speaking activity to practise answering questions with complex structures

7. Writing activity to practise expressing simple ideas in complex sentences

8. Closing questionnaire - feedback, and statements of intentions to improve

Arrangements on the day

The workshop can take place in a classroom or a school hall. For most of the time students will be seated but there is one activity that requires some of them to walk up to a board at the front to pin or stick a card on to it. Desks or tables should be arranged in groups to enable pair-work or small group work. Students can be arranged in groups of like-ability, different ability, by class, by friendship group, randomly or any other convenient way. It’s a good idea to organise this in advance so that students know where to go and sit if necessary. For practical reasons it may not be possible to arrange for students to sit in separate pairs, but groups of 4 or 6 work quite well. The board can be a classroom fixture or a moveable one. Cards will be stuck (with blutac) or pinned to it as appropriate. Ideally there needs to be enough space to fit the cards into three horizontal sections of the board or ‘shelves’ as they will be called. If this is not possible, they can also be arranged on three separate boards side by side. The aim is simply to see the cards in separate groups. Headings for each ‘shelf’ are also useful. There needs to be a student booklet ready at each seat. All the white display cards need to be distributed randomly round the desks so that there is a selection of structures from each level on each table (or group of desks). Sets of the small colour-coded pair-work cards (in envelopes or bags or strung together) also need to be available on each table (or group of desks) and must be unopened (or not visible). A minimum of one set of each level/colour per table (or group of desks) will be required.

Intended outcomes for students:

Better awareness of what examiners are looking for

Greater confidence in using more complex structures in spoken and written language work

Clarification of the need to give opinions, develop ideas and give detailed explanations

Development of strategies for achieving the right balance between

quantity and quality of language

www.infinitelearning.ae KHDA approved

French and Spanish GCSE Grade Booster Workshops for students

Materials to copy and prepare in advance:

Booklet and cards:

The student booklet

This runs to 12 pages. The master document is A4 in size and it can be produced either as an A4 or an A5 stapled

booklet. The cover page is in colour but the inside pages are meant to be printed in black. It’s not essential to print the

cover page in colour, however. Each student need his/her own copy, and should bring a pen. It is personalised with the

name of the school on the front.

Large cards for displaying on a board

a) Display cards (basic level)

b) Display cards (intermediate level)

c) Display cards (higher level)

These have language ‘structures’ on them and are grouped in three levels of difficulty. There are 16 per level but only

ONE copy of each ‘structure’ needs to be copied. They all fit on to 17 sheets of A4 and should be printed on white card.

(They could also be laminated to preserve them, for example.) They are intended to be mixed up during the workshop

but can be stored in envelopes by level of difficulty.

Small pair-work cards

a) Pair work cards (Basic)

b) Pair work cards (Intermediate)

c) Pair work cards (Higher)

These correspond exactly to the language ‘structures’ on the display cards. All 16 of each level are on a single card and

can be duplicated as many times as you feel you will need sets of them. For the purposes of the workshop one set per 4-

6 students might be a reasonable number. Colour-coding them will be essential, e.g. GREEN for Basic, YELLOW or

AMBER for Intermediate and RED for Higher, but any colours will do. Laminating them (while they are still an A4 sheet

and then guillotining them) will help to preserve them as they will become a resource that can be used for a long time

afterwards. Each set of 16 small pair-work cards needs to be stored separately in an appropriately labelled envelope or

bag. They could be named by language, and colour, and/or level, for example. Another option might be to punch a hole

in the corner of each one and put them on a piece of string.

French and Spanish GCSE Grade Booster Workshops for students

Feedback from students at West Buckland School in Devon, UK:

French and Spanish GCSE Grade Booster Workshops for students

French and Spanish GCSE Grade Booster Workshops for students

S French and Spanish GCSE Grade Booster Workshops for students

Sample materials and activities from the student booklet: