Structure of the exam and useful lesson plans and sample material

1. Trinity
GESE 1
INITIAL STAGE

2. Exam format
 Total exam time: 5 minutes
 The exam consists of one assessed phase:
 Conversation with the examiner (up to 5 minutes) .

3. Candidate performance
Communicative skills:
 Exchange greetings with the examiner
 Show understanding of simple instructions through appropriate actions
 Give very short answers to simple questions and requests for information

4. LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS
 Language functions:
 Exchanging greetings
 Giving personal information, eg. name, age
 Identifying and naming items given in the lexical list below
 Leave-taking

5. LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS
 Grammar
The candidate is expected to demonstrate the ability to understand:
 Imperatives for common actions, eg. go, come, show, point, give, touch, stand up
 Question words what? how many? how old?
 Demonstratives this, that, these, those
The candidate is expected to demonstrate the ability to understand and use:
 The present simple tense of the verb to be
 Common nouns in singular and plural (regular and irregular), eg. shoe/shoes, foot/feet
 Simple adjectives, eg. small, tall, green
 Determiners a, the, my, your, his, her
 Pronouns I, you, he, she, it, they

6. LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS
Lexis:
The candidate is expected to demonstrate the ability to understand and use
vocabulary related to:
 Personal information
 Immediate surroundings including classroom objects
 Basic parts of the face and body
 Common animals (domestic, farm and wild)
 Cardinal numbers up to 20
 Colours
 Everyday items of clothing
 Words relating to the language functions listed above

7. LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS
Phonology :
 The correct pronunciation of common words relevant to the lexical areas listed above

8. LESSON PLANS – 1 -
 Documents Recommended to start working:
 GESE GUIDE FOR TEACHERS (Handout 1)
 GESE G1 - Classroom activity 1 - colours, parts of the body, clothing (handout 3)
 GESE G1 - Classroom activity 2 – animals (handout 4)
 GESE G1 - Classroom activity 3 - classroom objects and numbers (Handout 5)
 Performance Descriptors (Handout 2)
Please note:
• The suggestions given in this presentation are only examples of some of the many ways of practising for the
real exam.
• The suggestions are NOT models to be memorised.
• Examiners will use a range of methods and questions to help the candidates demonstrate the required
language of Grade 1.

9. LESSON PLANS:
1.- CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES: Colours, Body, Clothes
HANDOUT 3: Classroom activity 1 - colours, parts of the body, clothing
 Grade: GESE Grade 1 (CEFR pre-A1)
 Focus: Talking about colours, parts of the body and clothing
 Time: 45 minutes
 Aims:
• To introduce Grade 1 using a video of an exam
• To practise vocabulary for GESE Grade 1: colours, parts of the body, clothing and additional
language of the Grade
• To develop communication skills
• To prepare candidates for the GESE Grade 1 exam
 Materials needed:
• Before the lesson: the students bring a photo of one person from their family
• Worksheet 1 — Pictures of Grade 1 vocabulary examples

10. LESSON PLANS:
1.- CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES: Colours, Body, Clothes
 Practising questions (5 minutes)
• Tell the students to walk around the classroom and when you say ‘Stop’ they find a
partner. For 1 minute, the students ask for and give personal information using
questions from the ‘Noticing questions’ task (above).
• After 1 minute, the students find a new partner and repeat the activity.
• Extra option 1: the students can make a paper mask (draw a face — create personal
information for the mask) and repeat the activity.
• Extra option 2: in pairs, the students describe each other’s masks (‘His hair is black...
etc’).

11. LESSON PLANS:
1.- CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES: Colours, Body, Clothes
Error pairs (8 minutes)
• Show the class a photo of one person from your family. Use the
language of Grade 1 to describe the person’s clothes, hair and eye
colour. For example: ‘His name is...’, ‘His eyes are...’, ‘His hair is...’,
‘His sweater is...’ In pairs, the students repeat the activity with their
family photos.
• Describe the photo of your family member again. But this time, say
something that is not true about the photo. Ask the class to correct any
mistakes for example, Teacher: ‘His hair is black.’ Student: ‘No, it isn’t,
it’s blonde.’
• Students repeat the activity in pairs, saying things that are true and not
true. If they say something that is not true, their partner corrects them.

12. LESSON PLANS:
1.- CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES: Colours, Body, Clothes
 Simon says (10 minutes)
• 1. Start the ‘Simonsays’ game by saying: ‘Simon says touch your nose’, ‘Point to a
blue sweater’,‘Touch a window’etc. The students only do actions when the instruction
starts with ‘Simon says’.
• 2. Next, choose a student. The student now gives the ‘Simon says’ instructions. The
student uses the language of Grade 1. Select another student and repeat.
Note: See also other suggested Trinity Lesson Plans: Handout 4 and 5)

13. LESSON PLANS:
1.- EXTRA CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES: Colours
 Activity 1: “Songs” : motivate and energize your students:
‘Rainbow Colors Song‘ by the Singing Walrus.
• The lyrics of this song associate all the colours with objects that kids are familiar with. For
example, green frog, orange carrot, etc.
• This song is great to introduce the topic of colours and to activate students’ existing
knowledge of colour vocabulary.
 Activity 2: ‘I Spy’ Game – I See Something (Green).
• For the next activity students must try to guess what object you are thinking of.
• Look around the classroom and choose one of the objects. Then, before students start to
guess, give them a hint by letting them know the colour of the object by saying ‘I see
something (green).’.
• The students should guess what object you are thinking of by looking around the class for
something of the same colour. Once a student guesses correctly, invite that student to the
front of the class to try.

14. LESSON PLANS:
1.- CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES: Colours
 Activity 3: Colours Telepathy Game
• For this final activity, print these answers sheets and
give one to each student or pair of students. In this
‘Telepathy Game’ students will see a black and white
image and they must try to guess what colour it is.
• If they guess correctly, then they get a point. To indicate
their guess, students must circle the colour on the
answers sheet.
• Alternatively, if you don’t want to use the answer sheet,
students can indicate their guess by simply raising their
hand, or moving to one side of the room.

15. LESSON PLANS:
1.- CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES: Colours + School Objects +
Numbers
 Activity 4: Colours and school objects
 Activity 5: Numbers

16. Initial stage Grades 1 (CEFR level A1–A2.1)
 Activity 6: Body Parts Game
 Activity 7: Phonics

17. Initial stage Grades 1–3 (CEFR level A1–A2.1)
Mª Ascensión Villalba Varona avillalba@varonas.com