Welcome to Take KS4 Cover - Teachit English · 2013. 1. 14. · English AO3 (English Language AO4) i, ii, iii English/English Language: AQA Unit 1; WJEC Unit 2; Edexcel Unit 1; OCR
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Thank you for purchasing this pack. As with its brother, Take Cover for Key Stage 3, our aim is to provide you with a range of sure-fire, user-friendly, self-contained, classroom-ready English lessons for cover teachers. You will be able to set work for any Key Stage 4 class, confident in the knowledge that the students will be engaged and outcomes will be meaningful.
Please note that we have used the term ‘cover teacher’ throughout to refer to supply teachers, other teaching colleagues, TAs and anyone else who is drafted in to teach a lesson in the absence of the usual class teacher.
What are the advantages of using Take KS4 Cover?
The pack covers the whole Key Stage 4 curriculum and all four examination boards, so you are virtually guaranteed to find a lesson appropriate to your class, whether you are teaching English, English Language or English Literature.
The lessons are written by established and successful Teachit contributors, so you can trust that the lessons are all practical, workable and interesting, and that they reflect the strengths and enthusiasms of the teachers who wrote them.
The lessons have been carefully designed for non-specialists. Answers to questions and prompts for the cover teacher are supplied to make their job as straightforward as possible.
Each lesson comprises a teacher sheet, student sheet and appropriate resources, so preparation is minimal – simply photocopy what you need, and teach.
Differentiation is built in. All lessons contain suggestions for differentiation both to stretch the highest attainers and support the lowest. Each topic in the English Language section has two lessons, one aimed at Higher Tier and one at Foundation Tier, to help you provide those of any ability with the stimulus they need.
The pack is flexible. Choose any lesson from anywhere in the pack – there is no set route. Where possible, lessons include links to other lessons on similar or related aspects, so it is possible to develop the learning journey if the class teacher is away for more than one lesson.
It is likely to be future-proof: lessons should remain relevant when the proposed replacements to GCSEs are introduced.
And, best of all – the entire pack is available online (in colour!), so that you can set cover wherever you happen to be.
Contents of the pack
The pack contains 56 one-off lessons. There are eight lessons in each of the following areas:
English Language Reading non-fiction
Writing non-fiction
Creative writing
Speaking and listening
Spoken language English Literature Drama (including literary heritage)
Prose (including literary heritage and different cultures)
Poetry (including literary heritage)
Literature texts have been carefully selected to reflect the most popular texts on the current GCSE specifications and include old favourites as well as fresh, modern works. If you are teaching English, simply choose the appropriate lesson from either of the two lists. Please see the grids on pages 8–14 for a detailed list of contents mapped to current examination specifications.
The lessons are designed for a 60-minute class. You may need to adjust the timings or suggested activities if your school timetable differs markedly from this.
When you receive the pack, it’s a good idea to ensure that potential cover teachers have access to the registers of each class. You may wish to print these off from the electronic management system and file them in the front of the pack to save time when cover is needed in a hurry. (Remember to update these sheets at the start of a new year and at any other time that groups change.)
Make sure that the department is aware of the summary form on page 15, which is for recording which class has completed which lesson and when. This will avoid one class being set the same lesson more than once. You may wish to pin this on the departmental noticeboard for easy access, or download a copy from the online version and store it on the shared drive.
Teacher involvement
If known in advance, you can select a lesson to suit the expertise and commitments of the cover teacher.
The ‘low’ teacher involvement lessons are mainly self-contained, and would allow a busy colleague drafted in at short notice to carry on with their marking!
The ‘medium’ lessons require some interaction, typically to run the starter and plenary, with a relatively self-contained main section.
The ‘high’ involvement lessons are for active teaching by confident cover teachers.
Photocopying and printing
Unless otherwise stated, print or photocopy one copy of the teacher sheet and enough student sheets and resource sheets for each student. (If the students are not required to write on the sheets, one between two may be sufficient.) Please note that the student sheet should always be printed separately from the student resource sheet(s) so that students can refer to the instructions and resource sheet side by side.
It is a good idea to use the reverse of the photocopied teacher sheet for additional notes from the class teacher to the cover teacher, and/or feedback. (It might be particularly helpful to identify students who will need extra support.) This will ensure that meaningful communication about the lesson can be exchanged to ensure continuity in learning.
This password gives your department online access to a digital version of Take KS4 Cover. We suggest that you each make a separate note of it in your planners.
To access the online version, go to www.teachit.co.uk/takeKS4cover.
As well as allowing you to browse Take KS4 Cover and select appropriate lessons even when you’re out of the school, the online version has the following additional benefits:
all instruction sheets and resources are available as editable MS Word documents
images are available in colour where applicable to print and/or display on a whiteboard
the resources recommended as appropriate for cover lessons in ‘A selection of the best one-offs from Teachit’ are all included within the online area in editable formats.
We hope that you will enjoy using this pack as much as we have enjoyed preparing it. If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please get in touch: email [email protected] or call us on 01225 788850.