GCSE English Language Exam Preparation – Descriptive & Creative Writing
Course outline:
GCSE English Language Exam Preparation Course is designed to develop and enhance students writing skills in order to stretch them as creative writers and to ultimately allow them to succeed in writing a narrative story in preparation for all major UK exam board's English Language exams, including AQA and Edexcel. This is the first module of the exam preparation and it offers scrutiny of key elements of a good story, such as compelling plots, believable characters, strong imagery and a good pace, amongst others. It also focuses on appropriate punctuation which acts as a set of 'road signs' to guide the reader through the ideas expressed in students' stories.
The course is delivered through the use of different online platforms including Nearpod, Padlet and/or Google Slides which allow students to maximise their learning experience.
Date: 21 February -28 March 2022 (6 weeks)
Day & Time: Monday, 6:30 -7:30 pm.
Age: 14-16
Min/max number of students: 3-6
Price: £95.00
Lesson 1 –
Understanding the importance of planning & using stimuli to generate
ideas.
It is important to structure writing carefully so that a reader
can follow the ideas. Also, a strong structure will help keep the reader
engaged. After this class students will know what’s the purpose of narratives;
how to structure a linear narrative writing effectively using ‘The 3 Acts
Method’, and how to use paragraphing, amongst others. We will also use a spider
diagram and plan a response to a picture using the important ‘W’ questions.
Lesson
2 – How to keep a reader engaged by writing creative openings
First impressions count! The opening lines of a story need to
engage the reader so that they keep reading. In this class,
students will look at 4 examples of interesting story openings and discuss different
techniques used. They will also create their own story openings thinking of how
to hook a reader.
Lesson 3 – Developing interesting settings and atmosphere, as well as
introducing characters to our stories.
The setting of a text includes the location and
time when events take place. Setting can play a crucial part in establishing
atmosphere and reflecting themes and character within a text.
The writer may use specific techniques to create a particular
effect. For example, they could use pathetic fallacy to
give emphasis to a character’s emotions. In this class, we will explore and
experiment with how to introduce an imaginary character to our stories, for instance
by the description as well as slow reveal.
Lesson 4 - Use of figurative language
Figurative language allows the writer to appeal
to the reader’s senses, imagination and sense of humour. It paints a picture in
the reader’s mind to better describe parts of their story to make it more
interesting to read. This class will familiarise students with the following
literary techniques: similie, metaphor and personification. We will use these
in different tasks, for example finishing sentences with appropriate literary
techniques, or transforming ordinary and boring descriptions into thrilling
pieces of text to enhance emotions.
Lesson 5 – Using various sentence structures and creative vocabulary to generate a particular effect.
Writing a
narrative involves coming up with creative and original ideas to develop an
interesting piece of writing. Using a variety of sentences (e.g., simple, complex,
compound and adjective clauses) can help students create pace and tension in
their writing. Experimenting with different sentence lengths and types also help
to build atmosphere, mood and suspense. Moreover, vocabulary can be used to
change the way a reader feels about a scene. By changing just a few keywords a
setting can be made much more interesting to read.
Lesson
6 –The positive effect of
different types of punctuation influencing our writing.
Using punctuation effectively means that our
readers can make sense of our writing. It can also help create a particular
effect to give our writing depth. We will look at the use of commas, colons,
semi-colons, ellipsis, dashes/hyphens amongst others. Students will practice
these using various tasks, for instance, multiple-choice tasks, or correcting
punctuation mistakes in different narratives.
Homework
Students will be required to complete homework after each class. It will build on the work done in the lesson, and it will ensure a deeper understanding and retention of studied concepts.