This is going to make a lot more sense if you have read Part 1 of how AQA have thrown a Spanner in the Works for how my department teach the Conversation part of the Speaking Exam.
A huge amount of thinking, collaboration and planning has gone into teaching this new GCSE, and in particular, the new Speaking Exam. Our KS3 is designed to teach pupils how to use a growing repertoire of language across topics, with an emphasis on not just learning more language, but on learning how to use it. Pupils work on thinking up what to say, how to make it personal, coherent, interesting and developed.
We start Year 10 with Module 0, showing them how their KS3 French already enables them to tackle the role play, unexpected questions and some conversation questions. In Year 10, we build up language, carefully transferring it across topics, and making sure pupils see how they can deploy it in the exam. I feel we are doing our best to put in place best practice, in dialogue with the ideas behind the new GCSE.
Last year we had the opportunity for Year 10 to do a Speaking Exam. Rather than an exam, it was more of a run-through, to familiarise them and us with the elements and demands of the exam. They had the Role Play, Read Aloud and Photo Cards in advance, so they could turn up and do the Exam in 10 minutes without the need for invigilators or prep time.
What did we discover? Not to be afraid of the exam. The Role Play - short answers containing a verb. The Read Aloud - stunning. The Unexpected Questions - a bit of explaining that you have to guess what you think the question is, say something related, then say a couple more random things that might be related. The Photo Card - say there is or is 8 times for each picture, without risking trying to say anything else. (Post here on the negative effect of the AQA marking guidance on the Photo Card.)
That left the Conversation. We had NOT prepared answers to a list of questions. But pupils knew they would get questions that they could answer using their repertoire of opinions, reasons and tenses. They knew that we would prompt them for more using and, so, for example, why...? We didn't stick to one theme, but used it as an opportunity for them to show off their French across all different topics.
So what we discovered was that their French was up to the task. But the demands (at the end of all the other tasks) and the cognitive load of thinking up what to say and how to say it in French, was too much. After a while their answers ran out of ideas and became repetitive, or we had to switch topics to keep them going. Or we said "Well done" and stopped before the full five and a half minutes.
This then, was our focus for going into Year 11. Tweaks to the Scheme of Work. The Department Plan. Inset in September and department meetings. Individual teachers' Performance Management Targets. All in a coherent focus on managing the balance between having ideas prepared, but not memorising answers. Managing the balance between preparation of ideas, and spontaneous improvisation of the French. So that the pupils could talk for 5 minutes on just one theme (double the time compared to the previous GCSE) without having memorised answers. What is the best way to teach pupils to talk for 5 minutes? Prepared answers is not the best way. Because the more prepared the answer, the quicker it is to deliver and you end up having to learn ridiculous amounts to fill the time. Better to have a genuine conversation, with some ideas prepared, but making up the answer in response to the examiner's questions. A balance of prepared ideas, but spontaneous French.
So we do have a booklet of possible starter questions for the conversation. And pupils are challenged to answer the questions spontaneously in speech and to plan their ideas in writing. They do not memorise their answers, but they do have their ideas ready. We have been careful to mix the questions up across topics so the pupils are deploying the same repertoire irrespective of theme, and there is definitely no set list or order of questions. When we come back to practising questions, we don't let them look at their planned answers - they have to improvise a new answer based on the ideas they had come up with, just as we did with the previous GCSE. We work on creating answers in layers. So they can give an immediate response. Then back it up with reasons or if sentences or examples in past or future. They know that the teacher will prompt for this kind of extended detail with follow-up questions such as et... ? alors...? par exemple...? Pourquoi ? The conjunctions dice game in the second half of this post has featured heavily in getting them to extend answers and respond to being pushed in different directions by the throw of the dice. We have worked hard on the different directions a story can go in, with one idea leading to another, so you don't get stuck thinking up what to say next, as in the mouse and the cookie. We have even turned the order of Year 9 units around, to start with developing ideas into stories.
A huge collaborative and joined-up effort of the entire department, based on taking stock from the Y10 Speaking, and gearing up for the mock speaking next month.
Then AQA put out their guidance and it's hard not to feel as if the rug has been pulled out from under our feet.
It's not the 17 questions. They were always going to have to define "amount of information." Although defining it means everyone will make sure they meet it. With a planned and monitored set of questions. And because everyone meets it, the emphasis that swings the grade will fall on the other criteria: accuracy. And it's not the fact that AQA "extended answers" mean very short basic answers. Although a requirement for a set number of 3 clause accurate answers is perhaps best met through planned, prepared, rote learned answers. And it's not even the fact that redirecting prompts like and... so... for example... why? would now invalidate the pupils' responses, by breaking up the 3 clauses.
Well, yes. It is all that. But the main thing is the removal of the timings. If you no longer have to fill 5 minutes (remember in the old GCSE, there were minimum times on each theme), then you no longer need to have a repertoire you can riff on confidently and indefinitely.
It's not hopeless. We just have to adapt. First we have to audit our questions for each theme. Are there 17 questions? If we include short prompts as further questions, can we do this without disqualifying the pupils' answer from reaching 3 clauses? How many more questions do we need so as to avoid repeating the same questions? How do we allow pupils to show what they can do in terms of inventive longer answers, but still get through 17 questions? Is the AQA exemplar answer "I go to the cinema and we watch action films. I love action films" really going to get a grade 9? If what our pupils can do is superfluous to requirements, what elements of the exam should we have been focusing on? And if the thing that is going to swing the exam is now the accuracy marks, does this mean our pupils now should learn scripted answers off by heart?
No comments:
Post a Comment