TASK-BASED LEARNING FOR GCSE SPEAKING AND WRITING

Elliot Hsiao-Williams

Dragons Teaching &

The Charter School North & East Dulwich

老师们好 …..

Let’s try and sit in two groups!

(AQA or Edexcel)

GCSE new specification since 2017---speaking and writing activities

■ What have we done so far that has gone well?

■ What have we done so far that has NOT gone so

well?

What are our common views on delivering the speaking and writing of the spec?

What’s been good?

What are our common views on delivering the speaking and writing of the spec?

What’s NOT been so good?

Our aim today:

To become aware of the purpose and effectiveness of ‘task-based learning’, with the focused skills of speaking and writing.

Current GCSE specification vs. Current GCSE textbooks

■ How have we been planning the GCSE

SoW?

Have we planned or at least ever paid attention to the specification themes?

■Themes are the starting points of

task-based learning.

What is ‘Task-based learning’?

1. Set an expectation/aspirational target.

2. Model and then encourage learners to initiate the learning process, with teacher’s guidelines.

3. Learners demonstrate their acquired learning outcomes with teacher.

4. Teacher feedback for instigating learner’s further learning of the same task, to rectify misconception / errors.

5. Peer/self assessment on whether the expectation/target is reached.

6. Set up follow-up learning based on steps 1-5.

GCSE themes and topics (AQA based) –

Let’s identify the following learning topics with the specification themes!

What some of my colleagues and I have done for speaking and writing… (based on AQA spec)

Example: AQA Theme 3 related:

1) Identify what is in Theme 3 (Current and Future Study and

Employment).

2) Identify which AQA textbook chapters are there related to Theme 3 (It

would be Unit 11, 15 and partially Unit 19).

3) Collate the vocabulary + sentence structures needed for Theme 3

(either referring to AQA specification or the textbook)

4) Plan and design speaking role play and speaking photocards

embed them in the lessons, homework and assessments.

5) Plan and design writing tasks applying the collated items in 3)

embed them in the lessons, homework and assessments.

Q: Do we have to follow the textbook’s chapter sequence?

Planning –Let’s plan an outline of a mid-term plan for ‘speaking’ or ‘writing’ based on ‘specification themes’

Steps:

1) Pick your exam board.

2) Pick a theme (out of 5 from Edexcel; out of 3 from AQA).

3) Refer to the GCSE textbooks for the topic(s) you’d like students to learn (either Edexcel or AQA).

4) Set an outline of a mid-term plan for that theme (roughly around 0.5 – 1 term / 4 to 7 weeks).

An outline example -- 1:‘From School to Career’ (‘从学校到事业‘)

■ What vocabulary should be covered? refer to specification (e.g. AQA’s Theme 3 / Edexcel Theme 3 + 4?) and check against what our textbooks have to offer for the related topics (e.g. AQA textbooks’ Unit 13 and 15?).

For writing development (求职广告 or 求职申请 context presented to students)：

Week 1 and 2: vocabulary quizzes sentence making homework applying prior and newly-plan-to-be-learnt sentence patterns

Week 3 and 4: bullet-pointed writing homework/exercises prepared bullet-pointed writing periodical teacher feedback (求职广告 vs. 求职申请)

Week 5 and 6: prepared and/or impromptu ‘poster making’ or ‘letter writing’ competition teacher feedback (求职广告 vs. 求职申请)

**Consolidate further or move on to next topic/task?**

An outline example:‘from school to career’ (‘从学校到事业‘)

For writing development：

Week 1 and 2: vocabulary quizzes sentence making homework

applying prior and newly-planned-to-be-learnt sentence patterns

The method –

1) first teaching with a purpose (giving students ‘topical language

bricks’ to build on and an example to look up to.)

An outline example:‘from school to career’ (‘从学校到事业‘)

For writing development：

Week 3 and 4: bullet-pointed writing homework/exercises

prepared bullet-pointed writing (求职广告 vs. 求职申请)

The method –

1) repeated use of the ‘topical language bricks’ with ‘potentially

real settings’ incorporated with intermittent support provided

(informal assessment opportunities)

An outline example:‘from school to career’ (‘从学校到事业‘)

For writing development：

Week 5 and 6: prepared and/or impromptu ‘poster making’ or

‘letter writing’ competition (求职广告 vs. 求职申请)

The methods –

1) challenge students to apply the ‘topical language bricks’ in ‘real

settings’

2) assessment opportunities (teacher-facilitated peer/self

assessment)

An outline example -- 2:‘Local Area + Tourism’ (‘地区导游‘)

■ What vocabulary should be covered? refer to specification (e.g. AQA’s Theme 2 / Edexcel’s Theme 2?) and check against what our textbooks have to offer for the related topics (e.g. AQA textbooks’ Unit 2, 8 and 9?).

For SPEAKING development (‘Take your Chinese friends out / 带你的中国朋友出去玩儿’ context presented to students)：

Week 1: vocabulary quizzes sentence making homework applying prior and newly-plan-to-be-learnt sentence patterns

Week 2 and 3: develop key spoken content for ‘becoming a local tour guide’ (teacher could provide ‘role-play-style’ prompts to help develop periodical teacher feedback, on accuracy of the language used + creative content

Week 4 and 6: prepared conversation presentation or prepared presentation as a recording file for assessment teacher feedback

**Consolidate further or move on to next topic/task?**

Let’s share your outlines!

My humble views:

■ The specifications –

are there to indicate what is to be tested.

■ The textbooks –

are there to guide us teachers with resources for teaching.

■ The 2 skills (speaking and writing) –

are supposed to be developed with practical (and ideally culturally relevant) tasks over time.

■ Task-based learning – Mandarin is possible through independent learning!

Questions and Discussions

Elliot Hsiao-Williams

Elliot@dragonsteaching.com or EHsiao@charternorthdulwich.org.uk