Skip to main content

OCR homepage

  • OCR sites
  • About
  • Contact us

Administration

  • Active Results
  • Interchange
  • Submit for Assessment
  • Teach Cambridge

Support

  • ExamBuilder

FAQs

  • Online Support Centre

Main navigation

  • Subjects
    • Mathematics
    • English
    • Geography
    • History
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Physics
    • Science
    • Computer science and ICT
    • Business
    • PE and sport
    See all subjects
  • Qualifications
    • AS and A Level
    • GCSE
    • Entry Level
    • Cambridge Advanced Nationals
    • Cambridge Technicals
    • Cambridge Nationals
    • Core Maths
    See all qualifications
  • Administration
    • Overviews
    • Preparation
    • Entries
    • Assessment
    • Results
    • Post-results services
    • Certificates
    • Support and tools
    Administration
    • Interchange
    • Basedata
    • Grade boundaries
    • Key dates and timetables
  • More
  • Students
    • Past papers
    • Replacement certificates
    • Exam dates and timetables
    • Getting your results
    • Convert raw marks to UMS
    • Private candidates
    • Exams explained
    • Managing stress
    More for students
  • Students
    • Past papers
    • Replacement certificates
    • Exam dates and timetables
    • Getting your results
    • Convert raw marks to UMS
    • Private candidates
    • Exams explained
    • Managing stress
    More for students
  • OCR Sites
    • Active Results
    • Interchange
    • Submit for Assessment
    • Teach Cambridge
    • ExamBuilder
    • Online Support Centre
  • About
  • Contact us

  • Subjects
    • Mathematics
    • English
    • Geography
    • History
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Physics
    • Science
    • Computer science and ICT
    • Business
    • PE and sport
    • See all subjects
  • Qualifications
    • AS and A Level
    • GCSE
    • Entry Level
    • Cambridge Advanced Nationals
    • Cambridge Technicals
    • Cambridge Nationals
    • Core Maths
    • See all qualifications
  • Administration
    • Overviews
    • Preparation
    • Entries
    • Assessment
    • Results
    • Post-results services
    • Certificates
    • Support and tools
    • Administration
    • Interchange
    • Basedata
    • Grade boundaries
    • Key dates and timetables
  • Students
    • Past papers
    • Replacement certificates
    • Exam dates and timetables
    • Getting your results
    • Convert raw marks to UMS
    • Private candidates
    • Exams explained
    • Managing stress
    • More for students
  • OCR Sites
    • Active Results
    • Interchange
    • Submit for Assessment
    • Teach Cambridge
    • ExamBuilder
    • Online Support Centre
  • About
  • Contact us
  • Home
  • News
  • Breaking down geographical barriers workshop GA annual conference April 2017

    • Sign up for email updates
    • OCR on Twitter
    • OCR on Instagram
    • OCR on Facebook
    • OCR on LinkedIn
    • OCR YouTube channel
    • Latest OCR blog posts

    Return to news

    Quick Links

      • Sign up for email updates
      • OCR on Twitter
      • OCR on Instagram
      • OCR on Facebook
      • OCR on LinkedIn
      • OCR YouTube channel
      • Latest OCR blog posts
      'Breaking down geographical barriers' workshop 10 January 2018

      This workshop was focused on breaking down ‘assessment’ barriers at GCSE. The key aims of this interactive workshop were:

      • Confidence building for EAL and lower ability learners
      • Accessibility of exam questions (deconstructing)
      • Strategies for success (focus on language)

      A number of teaching and learning strategies were discussed to support students in learning key terminology (which there is a lot of in geography) and in breaking down questions to make them accessible in the examinations.

      All workshop attendees experienced the activities as if in the position of the ‘learner’ so they could evaluate their potential use with their students in the classroom, this led to a number of helpful discussions on techniques / strategies the teachers currently use. The teaching and learning strategies which we discussed can be found in detail on the power point attached and these included:

      Deconstructing language

      The focus was on a range of ‘stimuli’ and activities to get students to use geographical terms.

      Breaking down exam questions

      We discussed the use of colour to highlight parts of a question and a pizza template (to ‘slice up’ the question).

      Vocabulary building and embedding understanding

      Explored through a key term glossary, with definitions and images. From here students build sentences supporting them in ‘getting started’ with tackling an exam question.

      Getting students writing

      • Sticking with the ‘food’ analogy we looked at the ingredients for student’s answers to exam questions and how they could be supported in this process through
      • We explored a planning tool (framework) for getting students writing;
      • Techniques to develop ‘full’ answers such as gap filling or mix and match answers

      Breaking down geographical barriers presentation

      Resources can be downloaded from the link below:

      Workshop resources folder

      • Facebook
      • Twitter
      • LinkedIn
      • YouTube
      • Instagram

      © OCR

      • Terms and conditions
      • Privacy policy
      • Accessibility
      • Statement on modern slavery
      • Use of cookies
      • Copyright statement

      © OCR