When working on literary texts I have also been using song lyrics as well as poetry. The benefit of song lyrics is that you will often get an accompanying video which provides a wealth of cultural references. Attached is a worksheet relating to part of the lyrics to Rosalia’s Malamente.
PS. Undivé = Dios / divino
WORKSHEET: Malamente READING LITERARY TEXT Foundation SONG BY ROSALIA
If you follow the AQA GCSE board, the following may be of use. I have put together similar exercises from all of the GCSE higher listening materials we have to date. There are some types of exercise that are repeated e.g. news item comprehension, past/present/future, inference, etc. I have grouped them together and I will be working through them soon with my group. Strategies like looking out for distractors are well known, but inference esp. answering when the words are not provided are more difficult and need some practice. The fact that similar exercise types have appeared in all papers so far is no guarantee that this will happen this summer, but the strategies in coping with distractors, tenses, inference, answering in the target language etc. will still be there.
When using the resources, the transcript part should be hidden. I’m getting the students to fold the paper.
RESOURCES: SKILLS types of listening questions PowerPoint – COMPREHENSION skills LISTENING
Attached are a range of Spanish literary texts and exercises. They are all adapted from GCSE exam board materials or texts online. The techniques suggested are those provided by EdExcel.
KS4: Variety of literature READING LITERARY TEXT Higher Viaje a la Alcarria READING LITERARY TEXT Foundation Lecciones de poesía para niños inquietos READING LITERARY TEXT Higher Dime quién soy READING LITERARY TEXT Higher La ciudad de las bestias READING LITERARY TEXT Higher El tiempo entre costuras READING LITERARY TEXT Higher Yerma by Lorca READING LITERARY TEXT Foundation Historia de una maestra READING LITERARY TEXT Foundation La familia de Pascual Duarte READING LITERARY TEXT Foundation Las tres bodas de Manolita READING LITERARY TEXT Foundation Paula by Isabel Allende READING LITERARY TEXT Foundation Pobre Monolito by Elvira Lindo READING LITERARY TEXT Higher El árbol de la ciencia READING LITERARY TEXT Foundation Bodas de sangre READING LITERARY TEXT Foundation El caballero de Azor READING LITERARY TEXT Foundation Vida feliz de un joven llamado Esteban READING LITERARY TEXT Higher Tiempo de escarcha READING LITERARY TEXT Foundation El misterio de la llave READING LITERARY TEXT Higher La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes READING LITERARY TEXT Higher KS3: El sueño de Otto READING LITERARY TEXT Year 7 Persecución en Madrid READING LITERARY TEXT Year 7
The resources attached are from a lesson I taught recently. The topic was “Festivals” and I have been working towards a Higher Level GCSE 150 word writing task where one of the bullet points asks the students to write about a festival they would like to take part in.
There was a listening activity in the PowerPoint which I have deleted as it was based on audio from VIVA. I used the transcript to create an activity where the students heard the audio, but my transcript had replaced many words with synonyms and other verbs taken from the High Level Verbs sheet.
The lesson was taught a few days before the Day of the Dead in Mexico, hence the reference in the PowerPoint.
POWERPOINT: una fiesta en casa HIGHER RESOURCES: SAN FERMIN reading grades 7+SAN FERMIN reading grades 5 6VERBS San Fermin lesson TEST SHEETVERBS San Fermin lesson ANSWERS
The attached documents highlight the core language students need to know in order to function well when producing Spanish independently. I think there is work to be done to adapt some of the attached documents to the requirements of Higher Level GCSE – I made them last year with lower sets in mind. This will be a task for me in the coming weeks.
The attached documents are just ideas. The key thing for me is continually revisiting the language in lessons especially expressions which continually trip up students such as “tampoco”, question words and expressions such as “acabar de”.
RESOURCES: compulsory language SPANISH past paper questions TRANSLATION into Spanish FOUNDATION compulsory language SPANISH answers compulsory language SPANISH blank compulsory language SPANISH connectives worksheet compulsory language SPANISH essential verbs crossword compulsory language SPANISH paritally completed compulsory language SPANISH past paper questions TRANSLATION FOUNDATION compulsory language SPANISH past paper questions TRANSLATION HIGHER
I’m posting a few documents I use regularly for translation (into and from Spanish). The formats can be used for all translation tasks – I just change the text. For the “select the best translation” task, a bit more work is required. The assessment criteria are those used by AQA.
RESOURCES: Higher Translation from Spanish to English FIESTA and English to Spanish TRANSLATION GCSE into ENGLISH foundation BEST FRIENDS TRANSLATION GCSE into SPANISH foundation SCHOOL NOW + IN THE PAST Foundation Translation from Spanish to English TIEMPO LIBRE and English to Spanish
The resources attached are for a higher ability Year 11 GCSE group on the topic of free time, but more specifically on discussing music. The aim is to get the students to give interesting responses to questions about their musical tastes – ones which would score well at Higher Level in the GCSE speaking exam.
There is a video embedded into the PowerPoint which is a brief edit of an interview with a contestant from The Voice in Colombia. The reading comprehension interview with the contestant is made up, but hopefully carries on in the vein of what the singer was saying on the video. All should make sense when you look at the resources, however the first slides aim to build up vocabulary and useful phrases. With slide 8 students discuss each statement giving a personal response using some of the language presented. This then all builds to the comprehension activities. Finally the students prepare their own answers to the last two questions using the language presented and taking David’s responses as examples of good extended answers.
RESOURCES: PowerPoint: Una entrevista con David Worksheet: ENTREVISTA CON DAVID La Voz Colombia
The attached resource is nothing great and there will be much better versions out there, but I’m sharing in case it is of use to someone. I have two bottom sets for GCSE Spanish and trying to get them all ready for the heavy demands of the new GCSE speaking exam is daunting. I have a number of SEN students who are finding the work challenging. At my school we follow AQA and the attached booklet is one I will be using from March when I will have covered everything topic-wise. From that point I will be concentrating on final preparation for the oral exam as well as exam technique + general revision.
We are using Rachel Hawkes‘ approach to vocabulary acquisition which she terms as ‘non-negotiables’. We are using the term ‘compulsory language’. I start most lessons running through key bits of language (much of which is essential for students to construct language independently). I have attached some PowerPoint slides as an example. As dull as it is, we just work through the slides and they all tell me the meanings. We have mini-tests as well to make sure they are getting to grips with all the terms. The attached PowerPoint is a collection of many of the slides. They aren’t all used together but are dropped into lessons as appropriate.
RESOURCES: POWERPOINT KEY LANGUAGE SLIDES examples BOOKLET: SPEAKING ASSESSMENT role play and photo card EXAM PRACTICE BOOKLET ASSESSMENT EXAMPLES: MICRO ASSESSMENT exam practice MICRO ASSESSMENT high frequency words
Hardly my favourite topic to teach, but this lesson re: opinions on different ways of buying things worked. I’ll explain how I used the attached PowerPoint bit by bit.
The homework task is a translation based on language from this and previous lessons. I’ve been teaching them “Diría que” as an alternative to “Creo que ../ Pienso que …”.
RESOURCES: De compras TRANSLATION GCSE into ENGLISH foundation ONLINE SHOPPING TRANSLATION EXERCISE linked to PPT ENTREVISTAS Cómo prefieres comprar ENTREVISTAS Cómo prefieres comprar SEN VERSION ENTREVISTAS Cómo prefieres comprar HIGHER VERSION
A quick post to share a PowerPoint. Each slide shows a photo taken from a mixture of exam boards which has been used for the photo card description. I teach bottom sets at the moment for GCSE and I am using the WWWD technique where they describe who, where and what they see + add a description either of a person or the weather. They seem to have found this technique a bit easier to cope with than others I have tried. I have dropped each of the slides into the PowerPoint for their relevant topics so that we constantly practise the technique throughout the course. The PowerPoint below is a compilation of everything I have put together so far. My approach is to show the picture and then run through the WWWD technique with the group to see what they come up with. I have been drilling key high frequency terms such as “hay”, “tiene(n)” etc. which you can see in my examples. My groups do find this activity difficult so the language I have used is fairly simple.
POWERPOINT: PHOTO CARDS2
Spanish Teaching Resources and Ideas 