any secondary English teachers?

[gcsehelps]

DD appears to have no idea how to tackle creative writing questions for GCSE English Language in next couple of weeks!! Cant see evidence of ever having written one in school other than in her mock which received no feedback. Is there anything she can do to prepare in this short amount of time? Anything I can do to help? Is the best idea to try a couple at home in the correct time?

She knows techniques/analysis for the earlier questions but is totally stumped at idea of creating an essay. Can she/should she do a written plan in the exam? If so can they have scrap paper or do they just cross their plan out on the exam paper. She appears to have no idea of plans and thinks it is not allowed. I cant imagine how you do it without a plan.

What exam board? Is it the one where you get asked to do a certain type of creative writing eg speech story??

Can she/should she do a written plan in the exam? If so can they have scrap paper or do they just cross their plan out on the exam paper. She appears to have no idea of plans and thinks it is not allowed. I cant imagine how you do it without a plan.

If it's AQA, yes she can and yes she should.

Plan in the booklet - no spare paper allowed.

If it's AQA, the mark scheme is identical to that of paper 2 writing.

@MrsHamlet It is AQA. So should she write the plan under the question rather than on back page for example then cross out the plan and write the story under it?

I dont understand what you mean about the mark scheme and paper 2. Not sure she has looked at paper 2 yet. Does that have a creative essay too?

There is always room to plan her essay before she writes it on the exam paper.
Planning is key.

Search Mr Bruff on YouTube. He has really good video tutorials and walkthroughs for every question on the AQA papers.

Yes. Please don't faff about with different pages - do it under the question.

If she's in year 11, she will have looked at paper 2. The writing there is nonfiction but the mark scheme is the same. If she can do one, she can do the other.

Thank you. I am not sure she has done paper 2 writing either. She seems to go blank when asked to write. I am hoping that a plan would help but school dont seem to have said that a plan is allowed. I think she may find non fiction easier but has no idea what to write when being creative. Is best thing to watch Mr Bruff then try writing one? What would be a good topic to give her to try a creative writing piece. Just want to build up some confidence so she doesnt panic.

The creative writing is either a description inspired by an image, or a story based on a title.

Look on the exam board website - there will be some papers there to look at.

Plans are absolutely allowed and definitely encouraged.

For writing to describe - describe an overview of the whole image - perhaps weather/atmosphere. Isolate four different focal areas in the image - so could be a puddle on the floor, a person in the picture, a rainbow. Describe each focal point using figurative language (similes, metaphors, etc). Link your paragraphs e.g below the angry clouds, a sinewy man stands waiting for the inevitable first drip of rain. When she’s finished the different focal points zoom out to the whole and finish with the big picture. Does that make sense?

I was looking at this with my son a couple of days ago. We looked at a paper online, there were lots of blank pages so loads of space for the plan, which it advised to do under the question. As PP above, there was a descriptive question and a story based one. I advised my son to do the descriptive one because I thought he would find it easier to get going with that rather than have to plan a story, which is something he struggles with. He has good language skills but seems to freeze and spend so long thinking when it is a story that he doesn’t have time to do much.

This is a good video to watch:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fMZf-KblcL4

An extremely crude version might go:

Storm clouds gather on the horizon, like an approaching army. The weak sun falters. The clouds advance, heavy with the raindrops which will soon spill onto the people below.
A small man, old and slightly stooped, raises his eyes to the sky. He holds out a gnarled hand, waiting for the inevitable drip. It does not come.
Surrounding the man, people rush about busily darting in and out of lit-up shops, which look like jewels on this overcast day.
A young mother drags her tiny daughter along the pavement. The girls eyes well with tears that threaten to spill like the raindrops. The mother tugs her chubby hand, as the girl slows to inspect the moss growing between cracks in the paving slabs.
Then suddenly, the first of the raindrops plummets to earth, landing at exactly the same spot the girl is staring at. Eyes look heavenward as shoppers rush to put up umbrellas. Another November day.

Description much easier than story - I always say imagine you are a camera - record what you can see (hear, smell, feel and taste too) - just as a camera can zoom into areas of interest, so should you. Then zoom out. It’s important they connect the paragraphs as the mark scheme looks for a joined-up piece.

I’ve advised my daughter to think of some life experiences she has had that are story worthy and then on the day see if any of them fit in to a theme category.

for example, if you remember a Christmas dinner where everything got burned that might fit into themes like “a family occasion”, “a disaster”, “An unexpected turn of events” etc etc. it’s amazing how many different ways you can spin one story. If you’ve got two or three in your back pocket before you start it might help.

Mine worked on describing weather, so had prepared good descriptors, you can literally google how to describe rain etc and pick out the best bits from several suggestions. They also had people descriptors, so older is better as you can describe wrinkles, stooping, shuffled walking etc. Again google is your friend and synonyms.

AQA has a lot of info on youtube, Bruff as above but also Mr Salles covers all this too and I really rate him. Remember, they are 16, they are not expecting war and peace but good use of language. Mine did a different exam board where there is no photo and they did something by day and the same place by night, ie a children's playground so lots of colours in the day time, laughter, but at night a monochrome place of shadows. So work on those sorts of things.

As a parent you can look at the mark scheme and examiner's reports and find the exemplars, what is a good story? Also in there should be different levels of stories too ie this one is a grade 4 because of this and this one is a 7. Good luck.

In addition to all above, tell her it doesn't have to be true! If she's describing her favourite place, or Christmas the examiners won't know if she doesn't really have a naughty little brother or dog who she has brilliantly described!

Checklist. They are looking for accurate punctuation, paragraphing, a variety of sentence lengths and structures, good vocabulary, similes and metaphors . .

Handy hint. Start with a one word sentence. 'Rain! As I pulled back the slightly musty curtains, I watched the raindrops slide down the outside of my window. How could there still be enough water left in heaven for it still to be raining? . . .

Dog hair! When I remember Alfie, the first thing I remember is not his fabulous tail, sweeping everything off the table, nor his chocolate eyes gazing up hopefully at mealtimes, but dog hair! It got everywhere!

Handy hint 2. If you are stuck for an ending, go back to that original word.

Dog hair. What wouldn't I give to spend one more day, cleaning my Alfie's endless dog hair!

HTH

Thank you all for such sensible helpful advice. Unfortunately DD has now watched Mr Bruff etc and decided she will only do the story option and planned a couple of options that she wants to make fit. I am very concerned that they will not fit as pre planned and even if they can be made to fit might not be appropriate ie about religion and hell. Any suggestions as she is stressed and stubborn. If it was any other subject I would opt out but English language is so critical for 6th form I dont want her to do anything that jeopardizes her result.

I am an examiner. Please tell her that if it doesn't meet the task, she will lose marks.

Mine did this, he hates English but got a 9. The story option is easier IMO if you write a descriptive story. He planned two very descriptive stories, one on waiting for results in a hospital and one about a mythical beast. The trick is being able to make your story fit whatever the title could be. I would recommend she look back at titles from past papers with all different boards and think about how she'd make her stories fit.

Thank you. Will she lose marks for inappropriate ie religion? If story obviously is very contrived to fit and hence not flowing would she just drop 2 or 3 marks or a significant number? How about if totally off topic? Maybe non flowing is worth it if it means she has prepared some content but not if it offends due to religion or gets discounted! What a nightmare stress about English when achieving top grades on all maths/sciences etc.

The mark scheme talks about purpose and audience. If it doesn't meet those, it's a limiting factor.

Thank you for giving your time. Feeling so sorry for her and angry with myself for not addressing the appalling teaching. She has managed to teach herself all the other subjects as she has chosen non essay type and no languages. Is there anywhere we can see examples of question 5s without trying to upload each individual past paper? I really dont know how to help her and think she is really struggling with what to do here as getting 9s on everything else other than the 2 English.

If she has 9s in the subjects she is taking for A level will they let her into 6th form without a pass in English ?

If you pm me your email, I can send you some.

We wouldn't, I'm afraid. We don't offer resit.

Yea, she will get in to sixth form with grades for her subject in most places, or at least in the school where I teach.

Please follow encourage her not to pre write a story and just shoehorn it in. She will
lose quite a lot of marks for not addressing the task. The best approach is to attempt the descriptive question- the narrative question is often not answered well.

I do find it hard to believe that she hasn’t looked at Paper 2 at all. It is only four weeks until the exam!