Why my lessons start with the mark scheme, not the textbook.

When a new student sends me a piece of writing, I often see hours of honest work: the plot is clear, the vocabulary is rich, the effort is obvious. Then I ask a different question: what do you think the examiner can reward in this paragraph? That is usually where the silence begins, and that is where my lessons start.

The criteria are not paperwork

Every IB Spanish exam is marked against published criteria. Instead of treating them as small print, I turn each one into a question you can ask your own writing. Do I interpret, or only retell? Do I compare the works, or describe them one after the other? Is my language precise enough to carry the idea? A student who can ask these questions alone does not need me to tell them what is wrong.

What a lesson looks like

1. A short piece of writing first. It shows where you really are, not where you think you are.
2. Reading it against the bands. We mark together where it earns credit and where it quietly loses it.
3. One target for the lesson. Not ten corrections: one change that moves the work up.
4. A rewrite. The same paragraph, better, before the lesson ends.
5. A plan for between lessons. Short, specific practice, so the next hour starts higher.

An example from Literature

In a comparative essay, the most common weakness is not a lack of knowledge. It is taking turns. Compare these two sentences:

• Taking turns: “En la primera obra el tiempo es importante. En la segunda obra también hay tiempo.”
• Talking to each other: “Mientras que una obra anuncia el final desde el principio, la otra deja que el lector lo descubra con el protagonista; así, cada una convierte el tiempo en una forma de tensión distinta.”

The second sentence puts both works in the same room. That is the habit we train, again and again, until it stops being a trick and becomes how you think. Criteria and their weighting can change between exam sessions, so I always work from the current subject guide.

A mark scheme is a map of what the examiner can reward. Study the map before the journey.

If you are the parent

You do not need to read Spanish to check whether a lesson is aimed. Ask your child at the end of the week: “What was your target this week, in one sentence?” If the answer sounds like “to compare the works instead of retelling them”, the work has a direction. If the answer is “we did some Spanish”, it is worth asking what exactly is being trained.

If you would like to see how this works for your child, book an assessment lesson below.