Unless I am reading this wrong, in the AQA Spanish A level exam the gap fill exercises seem to focus on literary texts. Gap fill activities always seem to have traps in them and they do like to use an expression or two. Getting the students to focus on the types of words listed is key + then to work out the possibilities. If one of the possible answers is an adjective does the gap require masculine, feminine, etc? If a verb is needed which tense etc? I try to get my students to do this before filling the gaps telling them that there are always more words than gaps and the extra words might be trying to catch them out.
Attached is an example I’ve put together within the topic area of “el paro entre los jóvenes” from the novel “En la Orilla” by Rafael Chirbes.
WORKSHEET: GAP FILL En la orilla LITERATURA answers GAP FILL En la orilla LITERATURA
Another update to my resources on the Spanish A level topic of Franco y su dictadura, but somewhat left of field. I was watching a BBC documentary in which they mentioned that there was some controversy when Spain participated in and won the Eurovision Song Contest 1968. It was alleged that the contest was rigged by “el Caudillo”, who sent state television officials across Europe offering cash and promising to buy television series and contract unknown artists in other participating countries in return for their votes. The UK came second by one vote that year. Whether or not this is true, it is an interesting stories and it lends itself pretty well to an A level summary task which is posted below.
Although translation can easily be embedded into teaching, I find that it is important to take a period of time to focus on the skills involved. Attached is a booklet I have put together which is made up of all of the AQA translations into English from recent past papers. I find that pulling everything together from a certain task type helps to focus the students on the skills needed and also helps me as a teacher to spot trends.
As I explained in a post a week or two ago, we are trying to prepare our Year 11 students for their A level studies from September. We are putting together transition packs, but are doing this in two phases. Attached is the work I have created for phase 2. I really want to get the balance right between engaging them to do some work and pushing them beyond GCSE while at the same time not putting anyone off taking the subject! Not sure whether I’ve managed it here, but you can adapt it yourselves to your own context. Students work through the three tasks independently.
I am almost out of space on this blog, so while I save up for the upgrade, I’m posting on the TES website. On the link below you will find a reading resource for A level Spanish in the topic area of Jóvenes de hoy – ciudadanos del mañana. It focuses on a Spanish street artist (Pejac) and how this art form can be used as a means of social protest.
I have made another post on the TES resources site in order to keep my blog going. The resources focus on colonialism and its impact. I could not upload the PowerPoint as it was too large – I guess this is why I have almost run out of space on this blog (!) – so I had to upload it as a pdf. Not ideal, but …
I have been putting things together so that I can do revision of topics that were covered during lockdown – I will want to pop back to some of them as we move through the first term. One part of this is a resource based on an interview with the Venezuelan trans producer ARCA. I have also taken the opportunity to take a look at suffixes in Spanish. When you see the resources you will see how I have shoehorned that in!
Guerrero, Una Vida, Muchas Batallas
Thanks to a comment on the blog I have been reminded that I was going to post a boOklet on translating from English into Spanish (A level AQA). As there is very limited space left on this blog, I have posted it on the TES site – for free. It is based on past paper translations as well as those from the specimen papers. The AQA way of dealing with translation into Spanish does require a bit of technique and practice esp. using the text provided successfully. Hope this is of use.
The attached resource is something I have put together for my Year 13 students to quickly revise SER + ESTAR. They are quite good at this now, but I want them to start incorporating some idioms etc. into their language. This element of grammar frequently appears in translation into Spanish work, so it’s always worth revisiting.
I have covered the imperfect subjunctive with my Year 13 students, but it is an area which still causes some difficulty. To support them I have put together the attached booklet. The imperfect subjunctive is something I want them to incorporate into their discursive language esp. in their individual research topics for the speaking exam and they also need to look out for it in the translation into Spanish in the summer exam. So, with this in mind the attached resources has emerged + I hope it will be of use to some other people.
My A level students often struggle with pronouns in Spanish – direct, indirect and prepositional. Although we have covered all of these and done practice work, I have made the attached guide to draw everything together. I thought that going through all of this in one go could be a bit much. Sometimes I see them losing the will! So, I have split it up with a speaking activity in the middle discussing the use of pronouns in the trans community. Seems relevant and provides some necessary speaking practice.
I am sharing a homework task I have just put together for my A level Spanish students. I am going back over some of the topic areas we have previously covered. Summary skills have been an area they have struggled with, so I have been using homework to give them frequent practice. Hope this is of use.