Preparation for GCSE language mock 1
Section A: Reading
What could you be assessed on?
Mini whiteboards please – ready to share!
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
Preparation for GCSE language mock 1
• Do you know the structure of the exam?
• Do you understand what each question
entails?
• Can you create a set of revision notes to
prepare for the mock?
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
GCSE Language Paper 1
Explorations in creative reading and writing 1 hour 45 min
Section A
One source
01) List 4 things…..
4 marks
02) How does the writer use language
8 marks
03) How does the structure interest the reader 8 marks
04) Statement: Do you agree?
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
20 marks
Preparation for GCSE language mock 1
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AO1
Identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas
Select and synthesise evidence from different texts
AO2
Explain, comment on and analyse how written texts use language and
structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant
subject terminology to support their views
AO3
Not assessed on this paper
AO4
Evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual
references
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
01) List 4 things…..
What does retrieve mean?
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
4 marks
01) List 4 things…..
4 marks
Retrieve – pick out quotes from the text.
These are the easiest four marks on the paper!
Have a go on the following slide:
List 4 things you learn about the speaker’s
father?
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
01) List 4 things…..
4 marks
My father was a master storyteller. He could tell a
fine old story that made me hold my sides with
rolling laughter and sent happy tears down my
cheeks, or a story of stark reality that made me
shiver and be grateful for my own warm, secure
surroundings. He could tell stories of beauty and
grace, stories of gentle dreams, and paint them as
vividly as any picture with splashes of dialogue. His
memory detailed every event of ten or forty years or
more before, just as it had happened yesterday.
List 4 things you learn about the speaker’s dad.
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
02) How does the writer use language
8 marks
How many language techniques can you
remember?
Make a list!
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
02) How does the writer use language
8 marks
Which is better: explain or analyse?
Why?
Explain: Give reasons why
Analyse: Examine closely, breaking it down and
inferences and showing how parts contribute to
the whole
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
02) How does the writer use language
8 marks
The exam board state you need to:
• Show detailed and perceptive understanding
of language
• Analyse the effects of the writer’s choices of
language
• Select a judicious range of quotations
• Use sophisticated subject terminology
accurately
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
02) How does the writer use language
8 marks
By our fireside in our northern home or in the South
where I was born, I learned a history not then
written in books but one passed from generation to
generation on the moonlit porches and beside dying
fires in one-room houses, a history of greatgrandparents and of slavery and of the days
following slavery; of those who lived still not free,
yet who would not let their spirits be enslaved. From
my father the storyteller I learned to respect the
AO2 past, to respect my own heritage and myself.
Explain, comment on and analyse how written texts use language and structure to
achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support
their views
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
This answer is a top level answer –
why?
03) How does the structure interest the reader 8 marks
This question assesses how the writer has
structured a text.
Structural features can be:
• At a whole text level e.g. beginnings / endings
/ perspective shifts
• At a paragraph level eg. topic change / single
sentence paragraphs
• At a sentence level e.g. sentence length
Analyse again!
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
03) How does the structure interest the reader 8 marks
By our fireside in our northern home or in the South
where I was born, I learned a history not then
written in books but one passed from generation to
generation on the moonlit porches and beside dying
fires in one-room houses, a history of greatgrandparents and of slavery and of the days
following slavery; of those who lived still not free,
yet who would not let their spirits be enslaved. From
my father the storyteller I learned to respect the
AO2 past, to respect my own heritage and myself.
Explain, comment on and analyse how written texts use language and structure to
achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support
their views
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
This answer shows promise – how?
04) Statement: Do you agree?
20 marks
• You will need to evaluate the text critically and
give a personal response.
Examiner top tip:
• To get all the marks for question 4, you need to
provide a personal evaluation of the text and
back it up with detailed evidence – use a range of
short examples from the text to show what you
have based your opinion on.
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
04) Statement: Do you agree?
20 marks
A student, having read this section of the text, said; “The writer
makes the character’s feelings really clear. It feels as if you really
get to know him”.
To what extent do you agree?
He was a complex person, yet he taught me many simple things,
things important for a child to know: how to ride a horse and how
to skate; how to blow soap bubbles and how to tie a kite knot that
met the challenge of the March winds; how to bath a huge faithful
dog named Tiny. In time, he taught me the complex things too. He
taught me of myself, of life. He taught me hopes and dreams. And
he taught me the love of words. Without his teachings, without his
words, my words would have not been.
AO4
Evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision
This is good! What skills have they
shown?
Preparation for GCSE language mock 1
What could our top tips be for this element of
the exam?
How do you feel about it?
What do you already know?
Bronze– identify skills required
Silver – interpret the exam questions
Gold – plan your response to the mock exam
Platinum – prepare through revision