A Guide to Spanish Coursework – Page 1
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Doing coursework in Spanish is quite different from the coursework you will meet in your other subjects:
- Spanish coursework is likely to be shorter
- your whole Spanish class will probably do the same coursework task at the same time
- you might not be given a choice of task in your Spanish coursework
Below are the questions most frequently asked about doing coursework in Spanish.
How much coursework do I have to do?
You must submit three pieces of coursework on different topics. You should aim to do at least 4 or 5 different pieces of coursework so you can choose the three best at the end of year 11.
When will I be doing my Spanish coursework?
You can do your coursework at any point during your GCSE course. Most teachers time a piece of coursework to come at the end of a particular topic which prepares you well for that piece of writing.
How long is the coursework?
Not very – about 100-150 words per piece on average
How much time do I get to spend on each piece?
Your teacher will let you know this, but it might vary from one piece to another.
Can I ask my teacher to extend the deadline?
You shouldn’t need too long a deadline to write just 100 words! It is in your interest to do the coursework while all the relevant vocabulary is fresh in your mind. Also, your teacher might have to get the coursework marked and sorted by a certain date so they might not be able to extend the deadline.
What if I do an awful piece of coursework?
Do another one! You could ask your teacher if you could do another piece in the same topic area, on in a different topic.
Can I use ICT?
Yes (if your teacher agrees). There is no point in using a word processor just to ‘type up’ your coursework – this doesn’t get you any extra marks. You must also declare all software used, including spellcheckers.
Examiner’s advice
It is very clear that many GCSE candidates write less well using ICT. In particular they tend to be less accurate and leave off more accents when they type. So use word processing with care.
A Guide to Spanish Coursework – continued – page 2
Can I use electronic translators?
We strongly advise that you do not use electronic translators as your marks will be lower and they are never really capable of conveying what you want to say, so you lose out twice. Remember that you have to declare all software used.
Do I get marks for presentation? No – if you are asked to write a brochure, for example, you will not get any marks for pictures and maps (even if you draw them yourself). Similarly, don’t waste time on title pages, fancy borders, folders and so on.
Examiner’s advice
You should always take care to make all your work neat and easy to read.
Can I do the same piece of writing as other people in my class?
Yes, and you will probably use quite a lot of the same vocabulary and structures as well! But there will always be differences as you’ll be writing about your holiday or your work experience for example.
Can I use a writing frame?
Yes, but obviously the more of your own ideas you write, the higher your marks are likely to be.
Can I use bits of writing I’ve seen in books?
You must never, ever copy! However, you should try and use lots of the interesting vocabulary and phrases you have learnt from your worksheets and coursebooks, including the content you have covered with Agility.
Can I get other people to help me?
No – you have to sign that this is your own unaided coursework. You will cover all of the language you need in class and you will be helped with your planning. Your teacher will have a good idea of the standard of writing you are capable of from your other work in class. If your teacher suspects you have not written a piece of coursework yourself, they might:
- Refuse to let you submit it at all
- Make you rewrite the piece in exam conditions
- Inform the exam board that you have been cheating
Examiner’s advice
It is very easy for teachers and examiners to spot where a candidate has tried to write their own Spanish, and where they have copied - so don’t do it!
A Guide to Spanish Coursework – continued- page 3
Top Ten Coursework Assignments
One of the reasons why many candidates don’t score as much as they could on some pieces of coursework is because they do not include a wide enough variety of content. For example, if they are writing about their ‘IdealSchool’ they write a bit about improving the canteen and reducing the amount of homework. Your are unlikely to be able to get enough content from these two small areas, so you should look for other things to write about such as: the teachers, the uniform, the classrooms, the sports facilities, the time school starts, the days you go to school, the furniture, the computers and other equipment, the library, assemblies… This gives you a better variety of content to write about!
The other frequent reason why candidates don’t score as much as they could in coursework is because they don’t include a range of tenses – you should aim to write about the past, present and future in each piece.
The final point you need to include is opinions. It is not enough just to describe something in your writing, you must also give your opinion, analysis or other comment.
To help you with these points here are ten of the most common and successful coursework assignments. (Your teacher might give you other assignments in addition to these, and you might not be able to do all of these assignments, according to which exam board you are doing.) Each assignment has been planned to show what kinds of content you could include. You don’t have to include everything here and you can add other ideas. But one final word of advice – make sure you are doing the correct assignment – if the title is ‘My ideal school uniform’ and all you write about is your existing uniform, you will lose marks!
Try this
Read each coursework plan and identify: {You could use highlighters or coloured pens to do this}
- sections you could write in the past tense
- sections you could write in the present tense
- sections you could write in other tenses (e.g. future and conditional)
- sections which allow you to express opinions
Finally, jot down useful vocabulary phrases for each topic or area – you could compete with your partner or another group to see who could come up with the most language for each assignment within a given time limit
A Guide to Spanish Coursework – continued – page 4
A Leisure Activity
What is your favourite pastime?
How long have you been doing this?
Where, when, how often and with whom do you do this?
Why do you enjoy this activity?
What kinds of hobbies did you do when you were younger?
What other activities would you like to try?
Would you recommend this activity to other people? Why?
Advertising your local area
Where exactly is your town/ village/region?
What kinds of visitor is it suitable for?
What is the most interesting thing about your local area?
What was it like 100 years ago?
What are the plans for the future for your area?
Give a final reason why people should visit
Profile of a famous person
{You could also write about a group of famous people e.g. a music group or sports team}
Why have you chosen to write about this person?
What are their personal details? (Name, age, where they live)
Describe their appearance and/or character
What are they famous for?
What is the most remarkable thing they have done?
What will they do in the future?
Account of a holiday or exchange visit
{You could write about an imaginary holiday, using brochures or the Internet to give you ideas}
How did you feel before the holiday (or exchange)? {This is a good opportunity to use the pluperfect or imperfect tense}
Where did you go on holiday?
How did you travel? Who with?
What did you do on the first day?
What were you first impressions?
Where do you usually spend your holidays?
Where will you go next year?
A Special Occasion
{This assignment gives you the opportunity to write about a wide range of events – a festival or religious holiday, moving house, the birth of a baby, a wedding, a major sporting event, a concert, starting a new job…}
What was the special occasion – where and when did it happen?
Was it a regional, religious, sporting, entertainment or family event? (Or none of these?)
What happened and what did you do?
What were the best and worst bits?
Would you like to do this kind of thing again?
A Guide to Spanish Coursework – continued – page 5
Am I fit and healthy?
What I normally eat
My favourite foods
What exercise I do
My bad habits
What I ate and did when I was younger
Is my lifestyle healthy or not? Why?
My resolutions for a healthier lifestyle
Work experience
Where and when you worked
Who organised your work experience
Describe a typical day {This means that you don’t have to write a long description of absolutely everything you did on work experience; if every day was the same, say so}
The best and worst things
Was your work experience useful? What did you learn?
Would you like to do this work again in the future? Why?/Why not?
My ideal future job
{You can adapt parts of this plan to write about your ideal school, holiday, home, lover…}
What is your ideal future job? Why?
Do you know anyone who does this job?
Advantages and disadvantages of this job
What work have you already done?
At what age will you leave school?
What do you need to do to get this job?
Letter to a Problem Page
How do you feel?
What are your problems?
Who or what is causing the problems?
What would you like to do?
Ask for help or advice
You could also write a reply
For and Against
{This is another example of a topic where you have a great deal of choice in what you write about, for example:
- For and Against living in the town or country
- For and Against going to university
- For and Against Homework}
Say why you want to write about this debate
Give some of the arguments in favour
Now, on the other hand, give some of the arguments against
Now give your own opinion, with a reason why
Suggest an alternative
Conclude by saying whether the situation is likely to change or not
A Guide to Spanish Coursework – continued – page 6
Improving your coursework – improving your writing
The best way to improve your mark in coursework is to improve your writing! When you are writing under coursework conditions it is reasonable to expect a good standard of writing, as you are given an opportunity to plan and draft your writing, and a reasonable amount of time to produce the final version. So in this section you will be shown how to improve your writing in several ways: organising your writing, expanding your writing and varying your writing.
Organising your writing
Let’s look at a piece of writing that Ana has done about her daily routine – a common task in coursework as well as writing and speaking tests.
Me llamo Ana.
Los lunes, los martes, los miércoles, los jueves y los viernes, me levanto a las siete.
Mis clases empiezan a las ocho y media. Mis clases terminan a las tres.
Por la tarde hago mis deberes.
El sábado voy a la piscina o al cine.
Me levanto a las siete y diez. Me lavo a las siete y cuarto y me visto a las siete y veinticinco. Salgo de casa a las ocho menos cuarto.
Tomo el bus a las ocho.
Tomo el desayuno y me lavo los dientes.
El fin de semana me levanto a eso de las nueve y media.
Although this piece of writing is about 100 words long, a lot of it is just lists. It is also very repetitive and boring! Ana writes short sentences and just sticks them together in any old order. Although Ana’s Spanish is accurate, she still wouldn’t score well in the GCSE with this piece of writing.
Try this
Rearrange the sentences in Ana’s writing above into a more logical order
Expanding writing
Even though the piece of writing above it is now in a more logical order, let’s look at how Ana can improve it further:
- by adding detail
- by cutting out repetition, unnecessary details and lists
- by varying the sentence structure
A Guide to Spanish Coursework – continued – page 7
Me llamo Ana y aún soy alumna en un instituto. / Good use of ‘y’ to join two related sentences and addition of more detail to make a better introductionDurante la semana me despierto a las siete y salgo de casa a las ocho menos cuarto. Para ir al instituto tomo el bus. / The list of days has been replaced with a neat phrase
Ana describes her routine without the boring details about teeth-brushing
Mis clases empiezan a las ocho y media y termino a las tres. Por la tarde hago mis deberes luego veo la televisión. / Good use of ‘luego’ to link two actions in a logical sequence
She uses ‘termino’ to vary the language slightly
En contraste, los fines de semana me levanto a eso de las nueve y media. / A good phrase to contrast her routine at the weekend
Normalmente voy a la piscina o al cine con mis amigos. / Good use of an adverb
Cuando hay exámenes, paso mi tiempo repasando y me acuesto muy temprano. / Ana adds further relevant detail about her routine during the exams
Much better! This is now a genuinely interesting piece of writing both in content and variety of language. It is still about the same length but would score more marks. However, it is all in the present tense and doesn’t have any opinions which means that Ana wouldn’t usually score more than a grade D. So how could Ana include extra tenses and some opinions in this piece of writing?
Try this
Here are some ideas of what Ana might include in this piece to vary the tenses – which tense are they introducing?
- Ana has mentioned her exams – what will she do after them? Después de los exámenes, voy a ir de vacaciones.
- Which A levels does Ana want to do En setiembre volveré al instituto a seguir mis estudios en …..
- What time did Ana get up during the Christmas holidays? Durante las vacaciones de Navidad, me levantaba siempre a las …….
- What would she like to do during the summer? Este verano me gustaría …
If Ana added these elements she would be well on her way to getting a high grade!
A Guide to Spanish Coursework – continued – page 8
Varying your writing
Some GCSE candidates tend to reuse the same vocabulary again and again, for example very simple descriptions such as
- es muy interesante
- es bueno
There is nothing wrong with these phrases, but to gain higher marks in coursework you are expected to be able to show a greater variety of language than this. In this section we look at simple ways to vary your writing, using vocabulary and structures you probably already know.
Over-used vocabulary / Alternativesbueno / simpático/a, agradable, bonito, perfecto, estupendo/a, magnífico/a, importante, el/la mejor,
malo / espantoso/a, insuficiente, el/la peor
ver / notar, encontrar
Estar/ser / estar situado/a, encontrarse, tener lugar
ahora / hoy en día, en el siglo 21
mucho / la mayoría, varios/as
muy / cada vez más
pensar / encontrar, creer, considerar, opinar, me parece que.
hay / tenemos, se ve, existe, se puede encontrar
IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF YOUR LANGUAGE
- Put an adjective with every noun.
- Avoid hay
- Use an adverb like afortunadamente or desafortunadamente in each sentence.
- Make your sentences longer (e.g by using porque …)
En la ciudad, hay una piscina.
En la ciudad, han construido una piscina.
En la ciudad, han construido una piscina nueva.
En esta ciudad industrial, han construido una piscina nueva.
En esta ciudad industrial donde vivo, han construido una piscina nueva.
En esta ciudad industrial donde vivo, acaban de construir una piscina nueva.
En esta ciudad industrial donde vivo, acaban de construir una piscina que los habitantes aprecian mucho porque la natación es buena para la salud.
En esta ciudad industrial donde vivo, afortunadamente acaban de construir una piscina que los habitantes aprecian mucho porque la natación es buena para la salud.
Example of an ambitious sentence.Opinion + justification + opposing opinion + justification.
Me encanta España porque la cocina es excelente pero al contrario no me gustan ciertos aspectos de la vida española por ejemplo la manera peligrosa de conducir.
BASIC VERSION