Football Picture Prompts & Story Scaffolds for GCSE English Language

I don’t really like football, to be honest – but many of my students do.  So much so, in fact, that I have been forced, coerced and badgered into creating a new resource about a soccer match and the final penalty shoot-out to get my reluctant creative writers to… write creatively!  Although you can see screenshots in this article, you can get hold of it here.

I created the resource a few months ago, and it has worked very well. Best of all – the learners have been very happy with the resulting complete stories that they have written.  Strangely, too, they have shown a much greater interest in reading each other’s work – even though they know what is going to happen in the story, they want to know how their friends have approached the writing of it.

Welcome to “The Final Kick”. This is an editable set of resources which, as you already know,  has gone down very well with my students, both male and female.  It is focused entirely on a few moments in a football match – the penalty shoot-out.  It may seem like it’s not going to go down too well with those who don’t like football, but I have found that these students have enjoyed it, and the soccer-mad boys and girls love it.

This is a VERY scaffolded resource, using 10 picture prompts (created by prompting AI very carefully and laboriously, but meaning the resource is very visual without copyright worries), as well as written ones.  It also comes with a PowerPoint presentation which can be used to accompany the resource (or on its own if you want to use exercise books). The prompts indicate what they should write. There is also plenty of time for sharing and class discussions between each section.

I know that some teachers don’t like the idea of scaffolding, but I find it works very well with students of all abilities, especially at the beginning of delivery.  “The Final Kick” enables students to write the story of a moment – the seconds before a footballer takes the penalty kick that will decide the match (and, who knows, the cup).  It shows them that a story doesn’t have to be a three-volume-novel condensed into what they can scrawl down in 45 minutes, but that thoughts, feelings and emotions, are the things that unleash creativity.

It also helps them to create a character that feels real by giving them unique traits, desires, and fears – not to mention a backstory in a flashback.  It helps them to create a protagonist and show how they react to real-time events and interact with others so readers can connect with them.  Finally, the scaffolded structure of the story shows learners how these devices can be successfully embedded into creative writing – and how they can be used to create tension.  This then goes on to help them in Paper 1 Question 3 (the structure question) as I think there is nothing like using structural devices yourself to help with understanding why and how writers use them in the first place.

I would like to mention this too – professional writers often map out (sometimes in great detail) what is going to happen in their work.  Novelists often don’t start until they know what’s going on from start to finish.  Scriptwriters are often given a synopsis written by someone else entirely, with which they must write an episode - or even a storyboard.  So, scaffolding happens out there in the big wide world – and so there is very little harm in bringing it into the classroom.

I sometimes think I have delivered brilliant classes about how to write stories, but then when my learners sit down to write their own, they are left baffled and bewildered about how to start, plan and see a story through to “the end”.  So, “The Final Kick” also helps with that, too.  Instead of gazing into space or out of the window (or even dozing off), they can start writing straight away.  As an added extra, there are “blank footballer” pictures provided on which they can draw the features of their own favourite player, their number, team colours etc (if you let them).

Using a scaffolded approach is one way to encourage students to write good stories which are suitable for GCSE English – at the very least in terms of showcasing the skills that the markers are looking for.   Yes, it is very much a starting point – and you may still have to persuade reluctant writers to engage – but responses at all grades can be produced using this.

The resource is designed as a 60-90 minute class and it focuses on a FULL RESPONSE for a story featuring a variety of different structural features. The story is divided into 10 sections of varying lengths.  The students build up the story of a footballer approaching a penalty kick and how he feels in the run up to “The Final Kick”.

So, the first (major) prompts, for example, are:

• The opening - a picture of a footballer facing the goal mouth for the penalty kick.
• Shift of focus - a shift to the goalkeeper staring him down.
• Zoom out to the crowd (and a description of it).

…and so on. The story is then further developed with more pictures and prompts which then progress, enabling the students to create a complete response which includes all of the skills descriptors for Paper 1 Question 5. Your students should end up with a piece containing a minimum of 10 paragraphs of varying length with structural features and language devices used throughout. I often give an extension task – asking the students to create a word-processed second draft for homework.

This lesson could also be used as a ‘snap’ creative writing session or a cover class. In fact, it’s a highly adaptable (and editable!) resource which you can turn to many things.

The resource covers the following Assessment Objectives for GCSE English:

• AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts
• AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

You can get your own editable copy here.