A2 Key for Schools and B1 Preliminary for Schools

set SMART goals

Reading 

Writing 

3) I'd like to teach YL 'cause I like the format, tests are colourful, I can use different games to develop their skills.

Activity that I'd like to present is Blind Artist - it helps Ss to develop their speaking, listening skills and creativity. There is a video above where you can find more about this activity 

3. I would like to teach Flyers as this is the next exam after Starters and Movers.

4. Activity that can help us to prepare Ss for speaking part in Movers where they have to find the odd picture and explain why do they think so:
Ss work in small groups - they look at different pictures and have to say the common idea/feature in each picture line.  The next step is to find the odd one and explain your point of view, for example: The tiger - is odd picture as he is not a sea animal. The partner checks the answer.

Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGkvIHn_B84
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22F-a9Vw2XE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSJCBZ0wqA0

I've never prepared for foreign examinations, but I plan my courses such that students may apply what they've learned in class to the exam, thus I frequently include assignments from Cambridge exam prep books. I'm using Go Getter, and this lesson already has modules that attempt to evaluate various exam abilities.

2.

It's very important that young learners actually enjoy taking a test, and they know:
-  what to do and be prepared
-  what to expect,
- they will be rewarded for what they know, not what they don't know

Assessing young learners CAN:
-   be Motivating. Positive. Encouraging (parents are also pleased to see that their children are being encouraged in their English skills)

 -  have a direction, a goal

Resources will help support you with your course and particularly with your exam preparation

Handbook for teachers:
-  full vocabulary list. which is in an alphabetical order for each level of the test.

-  list of the grammar and structure that is included

and there is information about each part of the exam

including tips for preparation on each part of the exam suggestions.
- sample papers
- access the audio that go with the sample papers

A2-C1:

Questions that every teacher have to answer before preparing  SS for exams:

-  Is this level appropriate and what support do I need to give my learners?
- So how do I know that the learners are making progress?
- What skills are tested in the exam in the different parts of the exam?
- What sorts of questions and tasks are used to teach each skill?
- What are the assessment criteria for each question type or task type?
- How many different parts are there to the exam?
- How much time is allowed for each part?
- What are the assessment criteria for each question/task type?
- How is the exam marked?

3.

As I am already familiar with the format and specifics of preparing for this exam, I would like to prepare young learners for Cambridge exams. Furthermore, this is one of the most intriguing preparations for me because it should include interesting tasks, colorful pictures, and even games.


Here you can see how the exam is progressing. Also on the cover, as seen from above, is a textbook for studying for the exam "Movers," which contains a lot of practice activities.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV2Iss8NALI&t=1s

An excellent online resource where you can work out all the necessary skills to prepare for the exam

- https://www.esleschool.com/animal-set-1-starters/

The teacher should make the process of teaching exams fun, motivating, engaging.

Listening: encourage ss to use mime, physical activities (touch your nose, head), one example for a task - before listening ss look at the picture and think of 5 things that begin with the letter “W”, use the songs. 

Vocabulary: use colorful pictures; worksheets; crosswords; flash cards. (it’s important to exploit the same material in different ways).

Reading and writing: scaffolding technique, paraphrasing, word scramble, word search, crosswords, labelling the pictures, look at the picture and write a small story.

Speaking: describe pictures, picker wheel with some questions, storytelling

Reading: look at the sings and answer the questions; T/F; pre-reading stage is the most important (pre-teach vocab; answer the questions and etc)

Writing: students look at the letter and answer the questions: type of text? Features? Intended audience?; work with abbreviations and acronyms; ss draft their writing; makes sure ss know what to do.

Listening: ask ss to read the questions and underline keywords; use the transcript; draw ss’ attention to features of pronunciation

Speaking: one of the things we need to help learners develop is the ability to stretch communication 

Reading: T/F tasks; remove prepositions from familiar text  and ask to complete; ask ss not to read the whole text first

Writing: ss draft their writing; work with simple texts

Listening: prepare ss to a listening task (guess the topic, pre-teach vocab)

Speaking: set a time while ss are speaking; ss record themselves; learn useful expressions 

3. I would choose Cambridge exam Preliminary B1 because I’m experienced in teaching this exam. I familiar with the structure tasks and etc. 

One task: 
Ss describe a picture using the words “at the front; in the background; He looks like; He seems to be.. and etc”

Before starting to prepare for the exam, teacher should test what students know and only after it start working. The process of learning should be fun, various and motivating for students. The teacher should convey the idea that is not given to fail, it’s to prove what they already know. 

All 4 skills should be trained. This should be done in a friendly manner using context, colours, and characters. Teacher may use a handbook where he can find tips, tap scrips, examples of the tasks, list of vocabulary and can-do statements. There are different handbooks which are refers to different levels.

Listening

Teacher may use not only sample test but also create kahoot. Additional materials can be found in Cambridge assess and English. 

There is a special wordlist is presented. Only these words will be used. Teacher can also use flashcards to introduce new vocabulary.
 
Reading 

Teacher may use planes which are available for free before the lesson in order to check what are the other ways of introducing material. There are special book Classroom activities where teacher can find lots of additional class activities.  Teacher may use flippy to give tasks, to unscramble the words.

 Speaking

Speaking can be trained through storytelling, videos on YouTube. Students should know what to expect on exam.

Before stating preparing for the exam, teacher should help students to set goals. They will be different for different levels. SMART goals can help where 

S – specific. What I want students to achieve.

M – measurable. The progress should be seen.

A – available. Appropriate for the level and needs.

R – relevant. 

T – time-bounded. By what time should be done?

Teacher should know the structure of exam very well in order to explain students it. At the classroom, Teacher should use similar tasks, but not the same.

 Reading

Teacher should help manage the time, give pictures to create interest and set a content. Context should be set before reading
 
 Writing 

Students should be aware of types, audience. Scaffolding help students to complete the tasks better. Teacher can use assessing writer handbook.

 Listening

Teacher asks student to read questions, underline important information, say that only one answer is correct, play audio as much as possible, use transcript after watching.

Speaking 

Teacher should help develop better responses, give tips, discuss with visual stimulus.

B2 & C1
Reading 

Teacher should mention that students should understand the text not just put words, loot at that is before and after gap and give strategies – Use of English
 
Writing

Students should have a list of expressions. They may use POWER strategy to write.

Speaking 

Students may record themselves and realize what the problems they have. 

3) I would choose to teach Russian State Exam or Cambridge ones. Speaking about the first, I am aware of it. The second one seems existing to try myself in teaching it. 

4) one activity for key for school. Students should look at the picture and guess who these students are, what they are speaking about, where they are going. After it, they should listen and say if they were correct or not. Doing this, teacher creates interest and focus students’ attention on the recording. 

2) YL

Ss should be engaged in the process of preparation. Assessing should be positive,motivating.

T should not only give tests, it should also provide additional materials(for example Kahoot!) He can add memes before starting listening. To use gestures when explain something.

I liked the topic where Ss should complete words which start with different letters

And also great thing for YL to use various subjects (for example use cards T (tick) and F (cross) if you have an online lesson)

I also want to mention an application where you can work with the spelling of words 'flippity'

Each exam preparation task should contain bright pictures and should attract students.

- T should set SMART goals

- T should answer for following questions

1. How long is the exam?

2. What skills are tested?

3. What sorts of questions are used to test each skill?

4. How many different parts are there on the exam?

5. How much time is allowed for each year?

6. What are the assessment criteria for each question type or task type?

7. How is the exam marked?

8. How are the results presented?

- to set the topics before the exams

- scaffolding is good method to prepare for writing part

- use the transcript of the recording once learners have completed a task. It can be useful to look at it to identify key phrases, cues, and distraction.

-prepare learners on their needs

- Ss have to have the ability to analyse

- encourage student independence and self-access

3) I would like to start to prepare for the Cambridge exams. I want to teach these exams because they are universal. And they can be passed once and there is no need to confirm their level and I also plan to take it myself and thus get more familiar with the structure

I'd like to share a link where you can find useful speaking activities which you can use when you prepare for exams because I suppose that speaking is the most difficult part of the exam

 

2. The process of preparation for YL should be motivating and fun. Also, T should know what they are working with and check Ss’ knowledge. Moreover, tell Ss that the test is just checking what Ss know, but not don’t know. T train the all 4 skills:
Listening
Vocabulary
Reading
Speaking

With each skill the preparation should be exciting, colorful, actual, and interesting for kids, so it will develop their engagement.
Young learners are the best exam takers since taking the test is not so important for them, so it is easy to prepare them and for learners it’s easier to pass it. 

A2/C1

The goal should be SMART and Ss need to understand why do they need this test.

In reading Ss mostly need to understand the text they are given, not just read and complete some tasks. 

In writing Ss need to be familiar with samples and drafts, they need to understand abbreviations, generate their own ideas.

In speaking Ss need to predict, practice, produce. They should understand what situations they may face and what to say. They should not be scared if they will need to improvise, and if they forget some word they can describe it.

In listening Ss need to identify keywords in questions, understand different pronunciation and be prepared for tricky vocabulary.

 

3. Nowadays, I wouldn’t like to prepare for any kind of exams, since it is quite a relative thing when a student's excitement can play a cruel trick on him during an exam, and the teacher will be the one to blame. 

4. To prepare Ss for reading, here small idea.
The teacher can find/draw simple illustrations of events from the text to help students better understand the text. The students should place the illustration cards in chronological order, or they could ask the students to describe (retell) the events from the cards.

 

2) I don’t have a lot to sum up here. Many of my coursemates already did it not once or twice. 

Ss should learn what do they need in each section of test. It is the must-have section of preparation. (Ts should know the criteria of each task in order to avoid common mistakes by Ss)

Skills should be trained in the way of natural language acquisition. But they are all interlinked and should be taught together.

Ss should be engaged in the process of preparation.

SMART – goals should be used.

Scaffolding is necessary at early stages of preparation.

For preparing for Listening part, it may be useful to develop Visual Memory of Learners.

Posters with different situations and different actions happening are very useful for going through different lexis, improving speaking.

Here it is necessary to develop learners’ autonomy. Higher the level is, higher the autonomy should be.

Transcripts may be useful while preparing for the exam.

At this point, it is necessary to look seriously at Use of English

Self-assessments are preferable 

 

3) As for me, I’d like to teach Ss all the YLE. But not the way I do RN. I want to have a course for teaching. Still, I don’t see the sense of passing exams that do not necessary for enrolling somewhere.

4)For explaining how to write small stories (with 3 pictures) T can give to read yonkomas, small-strip comics and ask some students to act it, one person to be a narrator and others to be critics, who should say what did they like in the performance and what didn’t.

I mostly work with the Cambridge English examinations. I’ve taught for Movers and Flyers exams one of my private students. It was a compulsory to take this exams by the end of the 4^th and 5^th grades at her school. Also, I’ve prepared 2 groups of ss for KET and PET. I believe that I was given such responsibilities as I’ve passed all the levels from starters to FCE myself. For ss preparation I use materials, books and trainers provided by Cambridge publishing, as it’s the most suitable and content oriented for such exams.
 
2) Sum up the information from all the videos you have watched. Were the any insights for you? 

I’m pretty well acquainted with the format itself. However, I would say that the videos for YLE and A2-B1were really useful to refresh the knowledge upon some peculiar strategies for each and every part of the exam. In general, we as teachers should remember about the step by step approach in preparing for the exam. Depending on the time limit we have for preparation, it’s better to introduce firstly tasks, which have some similarities to the exam ones, but don’t require the full set of knowledge. 

Additionally, several new online resources to improve writing and speaking parts were introduced in the video. I will definitely try to implement them in my teaching .As for the B2-C1 video, I found a lot of useful ideas in it from the angle of a learner, as I’m currently preparing for the CAE exam. The video perfectly covers the format and gave me the insights how to guide my self-preparation for the writing part efficiently. 

 3) Which exam you would like to teach? Why? 

I’d like to try teaching FCE exam, as I prefer to work with teenagers and I’d like to enrich my experience in working with B2 levels. It might be challenging, but at the same time really useful to upgrade my personal knowledge. Hopefully, next year I will have such opportunity.
 
 + activity we can use in the classroom that can help us to prepare Ss for listening PET/FCE

Knowing and understanding the synonyms/paraphrasing varians is crucial for listening, that’s the aim for this activity

Procedure: Ss read the questions one by one in pairs. As they go through them, they discuss and try to predict what words or phrases they might hear during the recording. For each potential answer, they should write down two or three phrases. This should include synonyms and paraphrasing of the possible answers.

For example: Listen to this man talking about a film he saw recently. What is his opinion of the lead actor?

A – He is funny

B – He is intimidating

C – He is terrible

Students’ notes might look like this:

A – hilarious, made me laugh, humorous

B – tall, scary, imposing

C – awful, really bad, much worse than…

Once students have finished, do the listening task as normal. Finally, give students the recording script or listen to the recording again and ask them to indicate any words that they included in their predictions. 

https://teachinggamesefl.com/exam-resources1/   here's a source with diverse activities which are adapted and applicable for the exam formats. Hopefully, you would find it useful) 

2. Summary:

It is important to make exam preparation fun, motivating, positive and encouraging. Materials should be colorful and children-friendly.

It is important to use some digital resources (for example, Kahoot) – it will be more interesting for students.

Availability of wordlists; colorful pictures.

Scaffolding technique; crosswords.

Finishing sentence with the word of few words; answering the questions.

Usage of flashcards. Students can be asked to answer the questions “What is your favorite?”, “I like…/ I don’t like…”. Usage of Picker wheel and posters. Storytelling and voice recording.

Importance of setting SMART goals

Set the topic before learners go to the text; use pictures to elicit information.

Students need to look at the letter and to answer the questions: “Type of text?”, “Features?”; Acronyms and abbreviations in the text; react to the text by answering some questions.

It is important that learners process information by themselves, so they develop the necessary listening and reading skills for the exam.

Students need to read the questions and underline key words in the questions and in the answer, and then listen. Use the transcript of the recording.

Defining, describing, explaining – ask students to give more detailed answer. 

Importance to set goals (SMART)

Get students to think about understanding the text, not just trying to fill in the gaps; scaffolding.

Give students a list of expressions and a table with some categories; pair work for generating ideas before writing.

Power process:

P – prepare

O – organize

W – write

E – edit

R – review and reflect

Getting the students to do as much as possible. Preparing for listening: prediction, activating prior knowledge, think about the topic, anticipate vocabulary.

Students need to record their speech in order to get feedback from the teacher and work out mistakes.

3. I would like to teach for Russian State Exam, because I have never taught for this exam and I want to try something new. And I don’t want to start with something difficult for me, such as Cambridge exam. 

Activity:  I will use the game Taboo (you need to explain this or that word, without naming either it or others associated with it) – it will help students to enlarge vocabulary and to develop speaking skills. 

Although I have three-years teaching experience with students of different age, language level and background, I have not been given a chance to teach any of them for international exams yet. The only exam preparation I’ve been through with my Ss was usual Russian State Exam. I believe that teaching for international exams requires high level of all skills development (which I hope I have) and a proof of these skills with some certificate of the exam having been passed (which I don’t have). Anyway, it would be an amazing experience I’m willing to take some day in the future.

2)      Sum up the information from all the videos you have watched. Were the any insights for you? 

YL: the preparation should be motivational, fun and engaging. Materials should be colourful and easy to understand. 

A2-B1: T should set SMART goals, emphasizing exam structure, questions for T to answer How long is the exam? What skills are tested? What sorts of questions/tasks are used to test each skills? How many different parts are there to the exam? How much time is allowed at each part?

B2-C1: T should develop S’s independence and self-awareness, analyzing skills, focusing on S’s needs

3)      Which exam you would like to teach? Why? 

I’d like to teach Ss IELTS or Cambridge exams as they are the most common exams to prove your language level and take a start to a life abroad if one wants that. Anyway, I believe that I’m not ready yet to take such responsibility as preparing students for exams I didn’t take myself. 

3. Now, I don`t want to take responsbility for exam preparation. 

I have never prepared students for international exams. However, I have experience in creating a course to prepare for IELTS. The most valuable thing I’ve found out is that when preparing for exams, it is necessary not to overload students with extra useless information; any exercise/lesson should be applied by students in the future on the exam.

I would prefer to teach IELTS, since I already have methodological experience and I know all the details about this exam.

2.
Insights:
 Preparation should be fun and motivating

 It is important to cover all 4 skills while preparation

 Use additional resources

Show names that students can see on exam

Use online materials

One of the most important thing is vocabulary

Posters are important for preparation

Students should record themselves to practise speaking

Students must know what to expect on exam

Use online preparation plan 

SMART goals are important

Teach students about time management

Teach abbreviations

3. I think I would like to teach young children, because they have more enthusiasm and they are more focused on results and like to write tests

4. Abbreviations hangman

Students only need to successfully guess the abbreviation to win the game, even though all the letters of the longer form are filled in as they choose them. For example, the letters “RE_EREE” are put in if they ask for the letters “E” and “R” but they have to get “ref” to save their man and win that round of the game. You could also give bonus points for getting the longer form too (without any further letter clues after the short form has been successfully guessed). If you want to include more speaking, the person who has the teacher role can also give other hints on the abbreviation’s use, meaning and/ or formality such as “It’s a business term” and “The short form is also used in our language”.

3) I would not participate in exam preparation, as this is a very responsible and time-consuming job that requires a delicate approach.

2. Summary:

YL - exam preparation should be enjoyable, motivating, uplifting, and encouraging. Colorful and kid-friendly materials should be used.

Listening - it is critical to incorporate certain digital resources (such as Kahoot) to keep kids engaged.

Vocabulary - wordlists; colorful pictures.

Reading - scaffolding; crosswords.

Writing - adding a few words to the end of a phrase; responding to queries.

Speaking - the use of flashcards "What is your favorite?" and "I like.../ I don't like..." are questions that can be asked of students. Picker wheel and posters are used. Storytelling and voice recording are two techniques that can be used to tell a story.

A2-B1 - setting SMART goals

Reading - before students proceed to the text, decide on a theme and use illustrations to extract information..

Writing - students must examine the letter and respond to the following questions: "What type of text is it?" and "What are its features?" Acronyms and abbreviations throughout the text; answer some questions in response to the text.

Listening - Learners must analyze material independently in order to achieve the requisite listening and reading abilities for the exam.

Speaking – ask students to give more detailed answer. 

B2-C1 - Importance to set goals (SMART)

Reading - encourage students to consider the text as a whole rather than merely filling in the blanks; scaffolding.

Writing - students should be given a list of expressions as well as a table with some classifications. Before writing, pair work is used to generate ideas.

POWER process: Prepare Organize Write Edit Review and reflect

Listening - getting the students to participate in as many activities as possible. Predicting, activating prior information, thinking about the topic, anticipating language are all ways to prepare for listening.

Speaking - Students should record their speeches so that they may receive feedback from the teacher and correct any errors.

3. I would like to teach for Russian State Exam, because this is very much in demand. 

I would use the app Edvibe – it will help students to learn a language, enlarge vocabulary, practice grammar and to develop speaking skills. 

2. Young learners: it is important to make the educational process motivating and engaging, to make it fun and positive. It may be beneficial for young learners to enhance their visual memory in order to prepare for the listening part. Posters depicting various scenarios and events are highly good for practicing different lexis and boosting speaking skills.

Learners with A2-B1: Prior to beginning work with a A2-B1 student, it is vital to establish goals that are appropriate for the student's needs. The teacher can ask different questions to understand the «true» need of studying. For A2-B1 learners it is vital to foster their autonomy in the educational process. 

Learners with B2-C1: The most important part is to develop students independence and self-awareness, analyzing skills. 

3.  It may sound strange, but I would like to try to prepare for any exam, because I am more interested not in preparing for any particular exam, but in the student and his needs, I like to select exercises, motivate and see the result of my actions. And I also like working with students for a short period of time, because in this case I do not have time to get used to them and get emotionally attached to them. 

2. 

- To make it easier for students to learn new vocabulary, you can give them words from the list and play games to practice new words.

3. The Cambridge exams provide a comprehensive assessment of your English language achievements, making learning interesting and effective. Preparation for it contributes to constant progress in mastering English and improving language skills. These exams are designed for those who study English at school, at university, for those who need the language for work or just for themselves.

I would use the following websites:

Gramaro.io, - a free service for pumping up English grammar in a playful way. Here students can practice a large number of grammar rules.

LinguaLeo - an excellent portal for learning English. Students will be able to read articles, listen to music and watch soap operas while learning the language in this way. Then students will have to do assignments that will help them reinforce the words they have learned.

YL 

It is necessary to make exam preparation interesting, exciting and motivating. 

Listening: To attract the attention of children, it is necessary to use various digital resources. For example, Kahoot 

Vocabulary: It is important that children have a list of words in front of their eyes, to make the lesson interesting and productive, it is necessary to use colorful pictures

Reading: Using crosswords, paraphrasing, word search, scaffolding techniques 

Speaking: Describe pictures, storytelling 

A2/B1

Before starting to prepare for the exam, it is necessary to determine the goals of the students. SMART goals can help. 

Reading: The teacher should help in the allocation of time. To make the task interesting, you need to use pictures. The context must be revealed before reading.

Writing: Scaffolding help students to complete the task better

Listening: Before listening, it is important that the student reads the questions and highlights important information. It is necessary to use transcription after listening.

B2/C1

Before starting to prepare for the exam, it is necessary to determine the goals of the students. SMART goals can help. 

Reading: It is very important to encourage students to think about understanding the text. 

Writing: It is necessary to give a list of expressions that they can use. To generate ideas before writing, it is better to work in pairs

Listening: Prediction, activation of prior knowledge, thinking about the topic, thinking about the vocabulary. 

3. I would choose to prepare for the Cambridge exams, because the format and structure of this exam is clear and there are many resources that can help me in teaching

Here you can see some speaking activities, which you can use in teaching

2)     I know about SMART system but I have never tried it before, but I would like to do it.

It is also important to implement the visual materials and additional tasks. Lessons should be interactive with usage of creative tasks where students should work both in groups and individually. POWER (Prepare Organize Write Edit Review and Reflect) is also a good thing that should be mentioned. 

3)     I want to continue teaching for Russian State Exam, maybe I'll choose IELTS in the future. 

- T should remember about the necessity of short and clear instructions

- Motivation is the key to successful preparation to exams

- All receptive and productive skills should be developed together

- T should vary all the activities and use several additional materials

- Sts should be  prepared for the structure of the exam

3)  I would like to teach for Russian State Exams and IELTS , because they are very much in demand. 

+ Site with all types the activities that we should use in teaching IELTS  https://www.english-exam.org/IELTS/ielts_speaking_practices/

 

A2-B1: First of all the teacher should set goals (Concept of SMART goals). With these learners teacher should answer all the questions about the organization and structure of the exam. Also use different types of exercises and work. 

B2-C1: Teacher also should be able to explain the structure of the exam. Use materials and exercises for students’ needs. Try to introduce self-assessment. 

Task: I think, that for practicing productive skills I will use role plays (for A2-C1) connected to the topic of the lesson, what we have. It’s one of the best type of work (in my opinion) as it helps for teacher to check spontaneous work of learners.