A Game of Two Halves

 With my Dance Moms French Year 11 intervention group, we spent 3 sessions working on our Game Plan for the GCSE Speaking Exam. I have used it as a metaphor before, as a way of thinking about tackling the Speaking Exam, but now I am using it as a class activity.

Here it is in Spanish from my Year 10 lesson this morning.

You can see the general layout as a football pitch. With on the left, our defensive half. And on the right, the goal we are attacking. At the top, the pupil has written an explanation of the difference. In the defensive half, we concentrate on keeping the ball, moving it with confidence, taking few risks, and playing out from the back. We pass from defender to defender, using and, but, so, because, especially to keep the ball moving. We can even play a one-two by using a pair of if sentences: if I go with my friends... But if I have to go with my family... Or If it is sunny... But if it rains...

The language we use in the defensive half is the structures we are confident with. Opinions and reasons. Verb + infinitive. We can use it to talk about any topic. And we can do it as long as you like, with no danger of losing the ball or slipping up.

Something like:

I like to go into town because I can go to the shops, especially if I can go with my friends, but I don't like it if I have to go with my family because I prefer to spend time with my friends, and there is a cinema so I can see a film if I want but normally I just go to the shops because it is expensive to go to the cinema and when...

That's the defensive half. On now to the attacking phase. Here again, the pupil has spelled it out. In the attacking phase, we take risks. We show off. We score goals. Our attitude to "difficulty" is that we want to show it off. Just like at football training, no-one wants to practise passing and receiving the ball correctly. Everyone wants to practise their Maradona turns, their Ronaldo chops and their rainbow flicks (Ardiles flick, for the older fan). So here we have our fancier language:  I was going to, I decided to, I would have preferred to... And an attacking version of the one-two with I said... But she said...

In the middle of the pitch, you can see two words highlighted in yellow. These are important. Firstly "por ejemplo". In football training, imagine an exercise where the coach wants the players to move from the defensive phase to the attacking phase. The players start by playing the ball out from the back, passing and moving, protecting the ball, taking no risks. Just as we do with opinions and reasons and conjunctions. Then the coach blows a whistle and the player with the ball bursts into the attacking half and has to use some tricks to beat the defenders, and try to score. The for example is the whistle.

As we are in pairs (or as a class) doing the defensive drill, a designated member of the class can call out por ejemplo. At which point the pupil speaking will swap to the attacking half. I will show you in a minute how this looks. But first I must point out that this is exactly what happens in the actual Speaking Exam. As the teacher-examiner, I don't have to say, Please give me a recent example in the past. I just say ¿Por ejemplo? and the pupils are drilled to attack.

So the whole drill (in Spanish) in pairs or as a class will look something like this:

I like to go into town because I can go to the shops, especially if I can go with my friends, but I don't like it if I have to go with my family because I prefer to spend time with my friends, and there is a cinema so I can see a film if I want POR EJEMPLO at the weekend I was going to do my homework but my friend said, "I am going to the cinema" so I said, "I love to go to the cinema" so we went to the cinema and we saw a war film. I would have preferred to see a romantic film.

I forgot to mention the offside rule. The other word highlighted in yellow is "When". Before you are allowed to move into the attacking half, you have to set the timeframe - in this example it was at the weekend... So now you understand the offside rule!

Are you worried about the lack of full stops in the example? Firstly, in speaking, there aren't really any full stops, and we just want our pupils to keep talking. Secondly, in the actual exam, a lot of the conjunctions actually come from the teacher-examiner. So a pupil will say, I like to go into town. And it's me who says ¿por qué? or ¿entonces?

And if you look at the AQA exam criteria, you will see this is exactly what scores marks in the Conversation. Develops answers, extended sequences, narrates, opinions and reasons, past, present and future, reacts naturally, spontaneity, fluency. And the markscheme even acknowledges the idea of taking risks in the attacking half, allowing for errors in attempting more complex structures.

Pupils love it. They really enjoy having a clear idea of how to approach the exam, how to extend their answers, how to wow the examiner. All the language they have been learning falls into place with a clear plan of how to deploy it for any of the Conversation topics.

Can't leave this without a sad look back to the Controlled Assessment GCSE where all this counted for nothing, as what was rewarded was fancy rote-learned answers recorded perfectly. And a sad look forward to the proposed new GCSE where being able to extend answers spontaneously, narrating and developing stories, will no longer be needed.