This was used with my top set Y9 Spanish group and they were asked to find examples of each in the text. I then gave them the blank version and asked them to plan what examples they were going to include in their own piece of writing. 

​I've done activities similar to this since then, but always try to stick to the same 8 images each time. They're familiar with these now and they're really good at knowing what to include to produce a successful piece of writing.​

Hope you find this useful. 

What do you do to prepare your GCSE students for a piece of writing? If you have any great ideas please let me know in the comments below.

Dannielle Warren

Below you'll find some free Spanish resources for the Television topic. These were used over a few lessons with my Y9 top set.

Translations - TV Opinions
The translations sheets could be done as a 1 Pen 1 Die activity or just as a normal translation.

Reading - TV Viewing Habits
Students were asked to find the phrases in the text and highlight them. 
 
Listening Gap Fill - TV Viewing Habits
This was recorded by my Spanish colleague, as I wanted it to be a nice challenge for them because they're not used to hearing her voice and she can obviously speak a lot faster than I can! I produced an easier one and a more challenging version - the only difference is the amount of words missing from the sheets. You will also find missing word help sheets below. My Y9s were really good and despite being offered the sheet, no-one actually used it.

I then asked them to work in groups to pick out what made it a successful text and they were able to recognise the different tenses etc.

Writing - TV Viewing Habits
I produced a 'Structure Strip' style sheet (credit to Stephen Lockyer - @ mrlockyer on Twitter - for the Structure Strip idea!!!) for them to do their writing on and used the same images I'd used previously to prompt them on what they should include (see my previous Writing Preparation blogpost for more information on this!). 

​I also gave them a Writing Support sheet just in case - again, they were really good and none of them used this!

Once they'd finished their piece of writing I asked them to peer assess their partner's work and fill in the section at the bottom of their sheet. 

All resources are available for free download below.

Hope they're useful!
​Dannielle Warren

Next week I’ll be running a short CPD session for staff at my school on how teachers can use Twitter for their own CPD. Thanks to @BaystonLincs for the fantastic handout you shared with me on the Twitter basics!

I’ve also created this sheet with suggestions of people to follow for each department, as well as some hashtags to have a look at. Feel free to edit this as you wish and share with colleagues in your schools.

UPDATE:
-This sheet is purely supposed to be a starting point for teachers at my school if they decide to join Twitter - I'm sure there are a lot of amazing educators I have missed off.
-Having missed a couple of subjects off previously I have edited and re-uploaded the sheet (see bottom of blog post). 
-If there are other subjects that aren't on there, it's because we don't do them at my school...you're more than welcome to download it and edit it as you wish.
-I hadn't forgotten about Joe Dale - I had added him to the Twitter basics handout @BaystonLincs shared with me, as I feel it would be useful for any subject teacher to follow him. I haven't shared this other handout as it isn't mine to share. I have, however, now added Joe to the sheet below as well.

If anyone has any good suggestions of other teachers to follow (for any subject) please let me know. I’m an MFL teacher so I found it quite a challenge finding tweachers of some other subjects!

Useful Links:
Guardian Article: Why Join Twitter

A Teacher's Guide to Staying Safe on Twitter

Useful Hashtags for Educators

YouTube Video - Teacher Twitter CPD