(Mind) Controlled assessments at GCSE

Oh my Lord in heaven, why have you forsaken me? I am spiralling into a pit of despair when it comes to language examinations in this country. I have just calendared all of the Y10 and 11 French and Spanish controlled assessments between now and July and figure that I have about three hours teaching time available this year in each language. Great. Now not only do I have to train my children to memorise (bottom of Bloom's taxonomy...) a ridiculous amount of material, but I have no time to teach them anything interesting or even vaguely linguistic. That bodes well for getting them prepared for A-level...

So a little prayer my dear language loving friends...

Dear God, 

Grant me the serentity to accept the things I cannot change (the exams and ridiculous assessment regime)

the courage to change the things I can (teaching the kids to be linguists rather than empty vases to be filled - light a fire don't fill a vase...)

and the wisdom to know the difference (this is my fatal flaw, I think I can change the world!)

Comments

[Alex Blagona]

Chris - we're in the same situation. Don't the examination boards actually listen to the views of teachers. I've lost so much teaching time through the lessons of preparation and drafting, that you don't actually get any time to 'teach' the kids anything. The strange thing was, though, that we entered our kids for the Listening and Reading at the end of Y10, and they did miles better than we expected. I'm now at a loss to understand how GCSE MFL works. Can anyone else explain it to me?

[mfl_noemie]

Alex, I reckon the first batch of new style listening and reading exams are way too easy compared to the old system. Not to worry though, I'm sure exam boards will find some good old tricks to bring back in and trip up kids instead of asking genuine comprehension questions that would assess the actual proficiency of a child in a languages, instead of their ability to jump through hoops.

Talking of which, I've just realised that, having prepared Y11 for a speaking assessment, I have absolutely no marked work to use for the monthly reporting to parents... Chris, I think your average of three lessons a year not taken up by assessments rings about true.

[vickitoria35]

It's ridiculous isn't it! We orginally had Spanish speaking scheduled for day before French writing (on the same topic!) and all of my Spanish class are dual linguists. I managed to change the Spanish one to before half term, but then have the same situation as you, with hardly any teaching time!

[Chris Harte]

Why do exam boards not listen? Who the hell is coming up with this - I think we should call strike action à la française..