Describing - Planning for Aspects of the New GCSE

 You might be surprised that "Describing" is one of the aspects of the new GCSE that I am focusing on. But for the current GCSE, I don't really tackle Describing. (My pupils will be disappointed that I'm not referring to it as describering, to match scuba-divering and swimmering.)

I know a lot of resources tick the box for opinion + reason by teaching "I like... because it is..." And pupils do also automatically reach for this, and then realise they don't have a convincing opinion and the answer is going nowhere. Instead, I teach them to say, "I like... because I can..." And in fact, it then turns into "I like... because I can... but if... then I prefer... Sometimes I have to... especially if.. for example..."

Even if they did say, "I like... because it is..." then I would expect them to follow it up with "so I can..."

It's not just because this creates good routines for extending answers and meeting the criteria for the current exam. It's also because it creates a repertoire of language they can transfer across topics. And because once they have this core of language, other new words and grammar coalesce around the core. It becomes like a snowball of language that doesn't melt away, and in fact gets bigger and bigger as more language sticks to it.

I don't find that it is + adjective has the same power.

How do I get away with not teaching describering for the current GCSE? Because if you ask "What do you think of..." then you are going to get a better answer than if you say, "Describe..." or "What is x like?". So in conducting the exam, I always go for a question that gives the pupils a platform for showing what they can do, rather than questions to test if I can catch them out.

What about the new GCSE? The increased number of unprepared questions scripted by the board will be a major feature. I have written about this and how I plan to tackle it here. And the High Frequency Vocabulary List approach means there's a lot of adjectives to learn and be tested on.

Currently, "it is" + adjective isn't a big part of my teaching, because the word "describe" does not appear in the criteria for the speaking exam, whereas the word "narrate" does. The word "narrate" has disappeared from the criteria in the new GCSE. And it gets worse for my approach. The new GCSE exam guidance from AQA, where they interpret what is going to be meant by "good development" is a bit of a shocker:

From the AQA guidance accompanying the SAMs.

"Good development" is exemplified as "I don't like... because it is..." And to add insult to INRI, the adjective they give is "boring." This does NOT mean I will be stopping teaching routines and repertoire for extended answers. Firstly because they will still need to talk for 5 minutes. And secondly because of the importance of having this core repertoire for all other language to stick to.

But if we look at the scripted questions, will I have to boost my teaching of description? What if the card says, "Describe your school" and the pupil says, "I like my school because I can see my friends but I don't like the teachers because we can't work together except in Spanish where we can talk Spanish, of course." Would AQA give this answer no credit because they didn't "describe"?????? I'm not going to risk it.

The thing is, describering is tricky. If you mean verb to be + adjective. It's always an irregular verb. Of course we should teach irregular verbs. But it doesn't mean it sticks. Pupils know is but are is much more tricky. Then there's ser/estar in Spanish. Of course we teach it. But it remains a minefield, as we know from the current photo card, where pupils should switch between the two, but don't. Plus confusion between is and there is and sometimes the verb to have or sometimes the verb to do/to make when it comes to it is sunny. And in French the huge trap of there being no present continuous. We all know the feeling when in the exam a pupil has a photo of some people working and they start with the words, "Ils sont..."

And then there's adjectival agreement. And don't even get me started on pronouns. And I don't even mean object pronouns. Getting the right word in French for "it" in "it is..." is complex and tricky beyond the point where most pupils can be bothered to care just to say something so simple. And I think the exam boards have probably given up too. Do we just accept c'est rather than asking pupils to identify the gender of the noun in the question and use il / elle ?

Of course we should teach these things. But they don't make for a strong core of useful language which pupils can deploy. It doesn't make for a strong core around which other language can coalesce. They are tricky and bitty and conflicting. They are precisely the sort of language which can start to stick once pupils already have a good size snowball of language. And precisely the sort of language that melts away if you start with it and it has nothing to stick to.

Let's have a look at the SAMs from AQA and see where the word Describe is used.

Wow!!!! Thank you, AQA! These are examples of the scripted questions that could come after the Read Aloud task. Pupils do not see these questions in the preparation period. They are unexpected questions they have to listen to. Not a single describe in sight. They are the kind of open questions that give pupils a platform to speak. They go for the formulation "Talk to me about..." which gives pupils permission to say "I like... because I can... but if... then I prefer..." rather than "It is..." Can we trust AQA to stick to this? I hope so but I'm not going to risk it.

AQA Sample unprepared questions following the Read Aloud task

What about the AQA Role Play questions?

AQA Sample Role Play Questions

There we are. "Describe" is on every card. This is a slightly different teapot of fish though. These answers are prepared in the preparation time. And they only require a short answer. They are all about people so the choice of il/elle and the gender of the adjective should be clear. Or just learn sympa and extra which are invariable.

So what would I plan for the new GCSE and what would I look for in a textbook?

• I don't want to start with describing.
• I want to build a core repertoire of powerful, useable, transferable language first.
• I want to see describing added on to this core of language, in small doses in every unit.
• I don't want to try to make describing into a massive feature if all that's needed is My friend is nice.
• I do want to make sure all the adjectives are covered for the Listening and Reading exams.
• I think the photo card is less about description using to be + adjective than you might think. But I do want talking about a photo to be built in to every unit, with lots of reusable and recycled language for talking about any photo.
• I do want the complexity of describing (verbs to be, gender, pronouns) to be dealt with explicitly, once pupils have enough language for it to all make sense.
• If a textbook does start with the verb to be and the verb to have, and spends a unit describing people, I want to see where this is picked up in subsequent units. Where does it lead? How is it sustained?

There. You might have been surprised I wanted to do a whole post on describering. But I am glad I did. I got a few things straight. And also found that for AQA it might not be as much of a big deal as I was fearing. I'll have to look at the photo card in more detail in a future post though...