Writing effective Schemes of Work

When I first started teaching, there seemed to be an expectation sold to me on my PGCE that all schools would have complete, intact, schemes of work which would provide you with instant lesson plans and many many resources. In reality, this was not the case. In reality, I am glad this was not the case. In reality, pre-packed schemes of work are not much use to the kids we teach.

English is a skill subject. This means that, while there are certain things you must cover, your job as a teacher is to improve the level of skill of your pupils. Take a class, any class. You know the kids in there. You know their needs and strengths, their levels and achievements. You know, because you have assessed them, what they need to know.

A one-size-fits-all scheme of work is not going to fit these pupils. Ready-written schemes of work, in all honesty, make us lazy teachers, and stop us teaching to the needs of your kids.

What I have found does work, however, is a kind of medium term plan, with adaptable ideas, and hopefully, eventually, a bank of adaptable resources.

Say you have your topic, e.g. Gothic Horror. You know which skills you need to focus on. You know what the assessments will be for that unit. A scheme of work typically lasts 6 weeks. Using your assessment focii, your knowledge of your pupils and your knowledge of the topic, the best thing to do is to put together a list, preferably ordered, of your ideas for teaching that unit.

A list has so many advantages over a sequence of lesson-by-lesson plans. It allows for creativity, for adaptability, and most importantly, allows you to teach to the needs of your class.

So, less of the one-size-fits-all; more of the lists!

Ideas for Working with Assessment Focuses

• Laminate each AF onto A3 and string them up on a hook in your classroom. Whichever one you are currently working on, hang it up.
• Make sure the pupils have copies of the AFs in their books for reference.
• Link your Learning Objective to the relevent AF.
• Print out each AF onto card. Give pupils the cards and get them to rank them in terms of difficulty - perhaps working towards a Diamond 9. This is great for the start of the GCSE course.
• Or, more simply, get pupils to card sort the AFs into Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing. They find this harder than you might think!
• Use the AFs to structure a group learning activity - set up learning stations for target AFs around the room. Pupils have to know their targets to know where to go!

Assessment Focuses for GCSE - AQA New Spec

It's interesting to see how these have been changed to fit the demands and requirements of English from 2010.

Speak to communicate clearly and purposefully; structure and sustain talk, adapting it to different situations and audiences; use standard English and a variety of techniques as appropriate.

Listen and respond to speakers’ ideas, perspectives and how they construct and express their meanings.

Interact with others, shaping meanings through suggestions, comments and questions and drawing ideas together.

Create and sustain different roles.

Read and understand texts, selecting material appropriate to purpose, collating from different sources and making comparisons and cross-references as appropriate.

Develop and sustain interpretations of writers’ ideas and perspectives.

Explain and evaluate how writers use linguistic, grammatical, structural and presentational features to achieve effects and engage and influence the reader.

Understand texts in their social, cultural and historical contexts.

Write clearly, effectively and imaginatively, using and adapting forms and selecting vocabulary appropriate to task and purpose in ways that engage the reader.

Organise information and ideas into structured and sequenced sentences, paragraphs and whole texts, using a variety of linguistic and structural features to support cohesion and overall coherence.

Use a range of sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate punctuation and spelling.

Recall, select and communicate their knowledge and understanding of media products and the context in which they are produced and consumed.

Analyse and respond to media texts/topics using media key concepts and appropriate terminology.

Demonstrate research, planning and presentation skills.

Construct and evaluate their own products using creative and technical skills.

Assessment Focuses for GCSE - AQA Old Spec

Reading

(i) Read, with insight and engagement, making appropriate references to texts and developing and sustaining interpretations of them.

(ii) Distinguish between fact and opinion and evaluate how information is presented;

(iii) Follow an argument, identifying implications and recognizing inconsistencies;

(iv) Select material appropriate to their purpose, collate material from different sources, and make cross references;

(v) Understand and evaluate how writers use linguistic, structural and presentational devices to achieve their effects, and comment on ways language varies and changes.

Writing

(i) Communicate clearly and imaginatively, using and adapting forms for different readers and purposes;

(ii) Organise ideas into sentences, paragraphs and whole texts using a variety of linguistic and structural features;

(iii) Use a range of sentence structures effectively with accurate punctuation and spelling.

Key Stage 3 Assessment Focuses

Because I refer to them all the time...

Assessment Focuses for KS3

All your answers will be marked for these areas:

Reading

AF1: Uses a range of strategies, including accurate decoding of text, to read for meaning.

AF2: Understand, describe, select or retrieve information, events or ideas from texts and use quotation and reference to text.

AF3: Deduce, infer or interpret information, events or ideas from texts.

AF4: Identify and comment on the structure and organisation of texts, including grammatical and literary features at text level.

AF5: Explain and comment on writers’ uses of language, including grammatical and literary features at word and sentence level.

AF6: Identify and comment on writers’ purposes and viewpoints, and the effect of the text on the reader.

AF7: Relate texts to their social, cultural and historical traditions

Writing

AF1: Write imaginative, interesting and thoughtful texts.

AF2: Produce texts which are appropriate to task, reader and purpose.

AF3: Organise and present whole texts effectively.

AF4: Construct paragraphs and use cohesion within and between paragraphs.

AF5: Vary sentences for clarity, purpose and effect.

AF6: Write with technical accuracy of syntax and punctuation.

AF7: Select appropriate and effective vocabulary.

AF8: Use correct spelling.

Speaking and Listening

AF1: Talking to others - Talk in purposeful and imaginative ways to explore ideas and feelings, adapting and varying structure and vocabulary according to purpose, audience and content.

AF2: Talking with others – Listen and respond to others, including in pairs and groups, shaping meanings through suggestions, comments and questions.

AF3: Talking within role-play and drama - Create and sustain different roles and scenarios, adapting techniques in a range of dramatic activities to explore texts, ideas and issues.

AF4: Talking about talk – Understand the range and uses of spoken language, commenting on meaning and impact and draw on this when talking to others.