Structured Skills for Writing Summaries

For AQA AS & A Level French, Spanish & German
Paper 1: Listening, Reading and Writing

One of the best resources I have seen for A Level and I cannot wait to get my hands on it

G Smith, Head of Spanish and Peer Reviewer
AS and A Level subtopics are paired with 9 core skills:
  1. Analysing the question
  2. Key words in listening and reading
  3. Taking notes while listening
  4. Organising ideas
  5. Using your own words to paraphrase
  6. Useful phrases
  7. Agreement of tenses
  8. Writing in full sentences
  9. Correcting mistakes

Step-by-step guidance, skills-based activities and exam-style questions help students prepare for the writing summaries tasks.

Tackling this new question in the 2016 specs can be challenging! This pack breaks down both the listening and reading tasks for effective learning:

  • PART 1 – Working on skills
  • PART 2 – Consolidation exercises
  • PART 3 – Exam-style questions

Thank you for a fabulous resource which has saved me many hours of preparation

J Tipton, Teacher, Examiner and Peer Reviewer

  • Includes answers, recordings, transcripts and indicative content for exam-style questions.

Flexible! For use in class, as homework and as exam revision.


What do teachers say about this resource? (8650)

I feel this resource is extremely valuable, as it gives students vital practice of key skills for their exam. The texts are appropriate in their difficulty and topics, and complement the AQA specification very well. I really like the structure of the resource, which enables you to work on a skill in thelesson and then set the exam style activity as homework or vice versa. The guidance is so clear, that it could also be used completely for independent study. I particularly like the focus on paraphrasing and using synonyms, as many of my students struggle with this in an exam.

H Oberg, Head of German and Peer Reviewer

Fantastic resource! Staged really well to help students understand what is required of them and it gives them good practice in the skills. I'm sure students will feel more confident after doing some of the tasks and teachers will feel better equipped to mark the summaries as the mark scheme is really clear with good suggestions of what to accept and not accept.

S Lemmetyinen, MFL Teacher and Peer Reviewer

This resource provides very welcome support for the development of structured writing skills in preparation for the summary questions which appear in both the listening and the reading sections of Paper 1 of the AQA A-Level examination. Summarising a lengthy and complex written or audio text in 90 words maximum presents a challenge to most students, and many find this the most difficult element of the exam. Teachers also often struggle with finding teaching strategies that lead their students to success with this element of the exam. The structured activities in this resource and the extensive range of listening and reading material on which they are based therefore provide a valuable addition to the course book teachers would normally use.

I am very impressed with the range of texts used as well as the way the activities build up to exam-style questions.

The listening and reading texts used cover Topic 3 and 4, i.e. Year 2 of the AQA A-Level specification, thus revising and deepening students’ factual knowledge of all the Year 2 A-level topics, whilst developing their examination skills. Each of the 9 core skills the author identifies as necessary for successful summarising is referenced to A-Level subtopics, making the resource very flexible in its usage. It could, for example, be used as a revision tool, or as an extension at the point when the respective subtopic is taught in the run of the course.

The resource covers all subtopics of Year 2 of the AQA specification, thus enhancing students’ factual knowledge of German speaking countries, as well as developing topic-specific vocabulary. Both of these strands are useful not just for Paper 1, but also for the stimulus cards in the Speaking exam. 

E Lamb, Teacher of German & Peer Reviewer

A very comprehensive and detailed resource. I particularly liked the way that it works on a different skill for each topic, which means that it would be a useful resource to supplement a scheme of learning.The instructions are also very clear and the skills all fully relevant.

K Pabari, HoD and Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (7628)

Superb – very helpful with clear examples of how to do each step of writing a summary from reading the question to checking the final answer. Thank you for a fabulous resource which has saved me many hours of preparation. More of this for A2 please!

J Tipton, Teacher, Examiner and Peer Reviewer

Excellent step-by-step approach to this challenging aspect of exam. The targeted approach is very effective at building summary skills.

C Morris, Head of German and Customer

I particularly liked the focus on grammar accuracy. Both the activities to pinpoint tenses, as well as the finding errors activities are very useful not only for the summary questions, but overall at GCE Level. I liked how the different activities progressed and slowly got the students thinking about the different skills needed for the summary task.

H Oberg, HoD and Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (7627)

This is really one of the best resources I have seen for A Level and I cannot wait to get my hands on it. I liked that the resource is very methodical and breaks down the summary task into bite-sized tasks, which I feel would really equip students with the skills to do well in the exam.

G Smith, Head of Spanish and Peer Reviewer

This resource is really useful as writing summaries is a new skill in the new AQA AS Spanish specification and this resource takes a step-by-step approach to writing them. The resource breaks down the skill into manageable steps which are then developed in turn. A good number of sub-topics from the AS specification are practised in the resource. With this being a new skill to be developed, there is a lack of relevant resources which means that this resource is great for my students and I. Preparing A Level resources is very time consuming and this saves me time.

D Sutton, HoD and Customer

The content is of high quality and suitable for the first year (or AS) of the new AQA A Levels Spanish specification, first exams in 2017. I would be very happy to use this invaluable resource in my teaching. It is well structured and focused on a new type of task appearing in the AS exam, the writing summaries. With the new specifications, teachers will need to include the skill of producing a summary in their scheme of work and the booklet helps them to plan and prepare for that, saving them an incredible amount of work. 

I Simó-Arroyo, Teacher, Examiner and Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (9021)

On the whole, I think that this is a fantastic resource, it is a skill that needs to be addressed and takes up a lot of teaching time given that it is a skill that is not taught at GCSE.

I really like the variety of topics that are covered. What I particularly like is that in the exam questions, the bullet points are attributed marks, reflecting the exam layout which is something that the text books don't do. This is something that my students have mentioned that they would like in a resource as it does affect how they tackle a question and where they spend more words.

The skills based questions are great, I like how it is broken down to make it more obvious as students really need that. I really like the paraphrasing idea, the choice between two options also modelling good sentence structures and answers. Great variety of vocabulary and grammatical structure

I like that this resource really breaks down the various skills and makes them really obvious as I think that is what students need. as it is such a difficult skill and with the demands of the A level course being so much more than the GCSE course, I think a resource like this really provides the scaffolding needed to be able to attempt the summary tasks which can initially seem very daunting.

I think this resource links really well to the AQA specification (2016) and in particular I like that the rarer more difficult topics are addressed e.g. dictators, immigration. The use of bullet points and putting marks with them really reflects the exam which is useful.

F Lintern, Head of MFL Department & Peer Reviewer

Fantastic as stretch and challenge + revision.

All is done for me! And all in one place.

J Caro, Head of Languages & Customer

This is an excellent teaching and learning resource which addresses many aspects that can be useful to addressing the writing summary elements of both the listening and reading sections for the A Level Spanish specification.The resource analyses and expands in great detail many useful summarising skills.

J I Ermina, Teacher, Examiner and Peer Reviewer

This is a really useful resource to get students used to practising the summary questions. The topics covered are all relevant and the language used is the correct level of challenge. I like the way it is structured per topic as it can be used as an additional resource as the teacher works through the topics. The texts can also be used as background reading and translations once the summaries are complete.

S Zammit, Teacher, Examiner and Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (9008)

Fully pertinent to the A Level French specification. Very detailed with a good range of listening and reading texts covering all sub-topics within the Year Two content. It is clear and user-friendly with a focus on the individual elements that enhance a student's skill in summary writing. I particularly like the way that the student is not overloaded at any point, there is a good amount of information given in manageable chunks. I like the way that each skill is explained, and there are tips given before the exercises and exam-style questions for consolidation. I also thought that the model summaries and mark scheme at end were very helpful.

L Beamish, Teacher & Peer Reviewer

Well put together and very accessible and easy to navigate. It ties in perfectly with the AQA specifications. The resource is a huge asset to students who struggle with summaries [as] they are guided through a range of techniques.

Y Morris, HoD and Customer

Very comprehensive, offering plenty of practice opportunities for students to hone their skills. Good explanations for each task mean that the work can be used at home as well as in class. Very pleasing to see that the exam themes/topics have been covered in detail. I can see me using this with my classes as a resource.

B Phillips, MFL Teacher and Peer Reviewer

Overall, this is a good resource which matches the specification and offer lots of practice exercises.

L Jaillet, French Teacher and Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (7642)

It is a great resource to support both students and teachers in being successful in the most challenging type of question in the paper/exam. It also supports them when faced with that completely new type of skill. It is staged/gives students activities to take it step by step. It also covers all the AS/A level topics gradually.

T Minier, HoD and Customer

Very well structured booklet. Great to use in class or as homework. Varied topics reflecting the spec

C Smith, HoD and Customer

Loads of useful tools. It's very clear and consistent. Great resource to help with writing skills.

R Bedrock, Classroom Assistant and Customer