One Nice Thing about the New (current) GCSE

 **Note. In this post from 2021, the GCSE referred to as the "new GCSE" is the one they decided to get rid of.

The best thing about the new GCSE (examined in 2018 and 2019) is the way we can return to spontaneous speaking for the General Conversation.

The old GCSE was supposed to respond to the Dearing Review by making the Speaking Exam less "intimidating". This had damaging unintended consequences which may have set back languages teaching in the UK for a whole generation. The Speaking Controlled Assessment was set as a known task. A known topic, with known questions. Pupils learned it from memory, by rote. The markscheme privileged "variety" of language over a re-useable core, which again encouraged rote learning of specific one off fancy expressions rather than having a repertoire you could deploy across topics.

The new (current) GCSE specifically has marks for spontaneity and fluency. It has such a wide range of topics, that hopefully no-one would ask pupils to memorise all the possible answers by rote!

But have teachers adapted to the new GCSE yet? Have we lost the knowledge of how to teach pupils to respond spontaneously? After only going through the actual exam twice, have we managed to tweak our teaching so our pupils can give extended answers, developing coherent narration while improvising on the spot?

I have made this video on how I teach this over KS3 and KS4. (Click this link if the embedded video doesn't show.)

We don't know what the new new GCSE speaking exam is going to look like, and obviously we will have to make changes to our teaching to equip pupils to tackle the tasks and success criteria. I just hope the ability to speak fluently and develop answers in response to further questioning is something that continues to be rewarded.

Thinking Nice Thoughts about Curriculum Change

 With hints of big changes coming, through the new GCSE, I am determined not to be frightened of change. If I can recognise and admit to some of the obstacles, perhaps I will be better placed to be objective and effective.

Change isn't about creating a new curriculum on paper, with everything ticked off and covered somewhere. The curriculum is what happens in teachers' classrooms, in pupils' books, in pupils' heads. It is the flow of learning like the current of a river, heading somewhere and taking all along with it, moving and growing.

In languages we need to create a curriculum which does three things. 

1. It has to have a sense of overall progression and accumulation of language both in terms of memorisation and understanding, leading to growing mastery of the whole system.

2. It must not delay the ability to use the language until mastery of the whole system has been accomplished. Self expression, creativity and exploration of culture must be there throughout and for all learners.

3. The ability to use the language is as important as knowledge of the language. It requires constant practice, monitoring and development. New language must add to what pupils can do, and improve the range, spontaneity, sophistication and coherence with which they can do it.

The first two come together in the third.

Creating this on paper is hard enough. Making it happen in the hundreds of different lessons over all the year groups across a department, is a huge task. It has to be a task shared by all, where one person's vision doesn't stifle the contribution of others. And where the different versions of the vision that inevitably happen with different teachers, different pupils, different classes, are a strength not a flaw. Add to that staffing changes, personal circumstances, changes to groupings, to the school day, and it's a never ending labour that is extraordinary when it all comes together.

Then there's the messages to pupils about their learning, the assessments, the exemplars, the resources. The things done in Year 7 that you expect a class you pick up in Year 9 to respond to, like the "fish" hand signal to pre-empt a mispronunication of the word "coiffeur". The things you hear pupils say that show you they've got the message, "The French is easy, it's thinking what you can say with it that you need to work on." Or "It's like food tech - work with the ingredients you've got."

And what if the central thing you are working towards - increasing their ability to develop spoken and written answers spontaneously - is no longer rewarded or required at GCSE? We did live through a GCSE where rote learning of fancy model answers did trump the ability to speak spontaneously. But if we really believe in it, surely it is a powerful enough curriculum model that it will sweep along with it all the other debris of possessive pronouns and preceding direct objects?

You see, it was helpful to write this. I am more and more confident that we should stick with what we've got and the time to throw in some of the fiddly stuff is later, once the current is strong enough to take it onwards.