Well, the dust has barely settled on the 2009 English Exam (more posts about that particular 3 hourexperience later) and we’re already thinking of next year.

This week we saw the brand-new, pre-release, freshly minted and entirely rewritten Issues Book, which we’ve been working on for a while. It’s great to see it ready to go for the year ahead.  Contact Cengage for purchasing details.

This week it had to be from the AFL Grand Final and the AGE headline: ‘The Cats Get the Dream’.

The AGE is always a great resource of interesting articles and opinions. Today’s edition contained two letters with diametrically opposed views on the the issue of W-Class trams.  Keep your analysis skills intact and have a go at analysing these two letters in a short essay.

Retire these relics

THERE will be regret at the passing of the historic W-class trams. But the fact is that elderly and disabled people can’t cope with boarding and alighting these old trams. The sheer vertical ”drop” of the boarding step is unsafe for those with balance problems.

I have cerebral palsy and use a walking stick, and also have a severe hearing loss. The Jam Factory, in Chapel Street, Prahran, is the only cinema showing open-captioned movies for deaf people. W-class trams are used in Chapel Street. Because I can’t board and alight these trams safely, I have to use taxis to get there.

Low-floor trams would make Chapel Street’s shops and facilities much more accessible to me, and others unable to manage the W-class trams.

While history buffs may regret the passing of these old trams, the travelling needs of today’s public must be borne in mind. Our ageing population makes a fully accessible public transport system throughout Melbourne vital, and the W-class trams don’t meet this need.

Kaye Gooch, Prahran

Remember the Hitachis

SURELY now is not the time to be retiring so many of our heritage W-class trams. Our fleet of trams is not coping with patronage levels, and with commuter demand for public transport expected to continue to increase, it seems like a no-brainer that we should keep as many trams as possible, no matter what their age.

You would think that this Government had learnt its lesson from the hasty retirement of the Hitachi train fleet. Sure the W-class trams are a little slow and old, but why can’t the state spend some money to upgrade them and extend their life span? They are a part of magnificent Melbourne and our history and would be sorely missed.

James Christou, Thornbury

We hear a lot about the diversity of our press, especially in comparison with other countries such as China, but it wasn’t really in evidence in the sports pages in Melbourne this week. Maybe some good advice would be to ‘think of the most obvious headline, and then think again!’.

‘Dream team’ 28/7/2009

Jumping Jack Flash 27/7/2009

Looking to improve your visual literacy skills in preparation for language analysis? And have a laugh at the same time? We’re pretty certain that some kind of visual will be part of the language analysis in the exam so it’s a skill you need to develop.

So, maybe check out the new exhibition, Behind the Lines: the Year’s Best Cartoons, on as part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival and taking place in Melbourne now. You’ll get a chance to view the best political cartoons of the year AND tell your mum you’re doing homework.

More details are HERE

The report from the examiners who marked last  year’s paper went online yesterday and should be considered essential reading for VCE students.  It’s particularly interesting this year because last year was the first of the new course and just how the context, for example, would exactly look, was a bit unknown.

The examiner’s report goes through each sectionof the exam and comments on how students responded last year and the kind of responses that examiner’s preferred. It also contains extended samples of student writing from the exam.

On first reading, here’s some of the key points, but be sure to download the whole thing from the link below.

General Points

This is an English examination and strong language skills (including correct spelling and grammar) are expected and necessary for success

The importance of engaging with the actual elements of the topic or prompt cannot be overemphasised. Too often students obviously referred to previous years’ topics rather than grappling with the specifics of the topic offered in this examination.

It is recommended that students organise their time so that enough time is left to proofread their work. While handwriting is not assessed directly, it must be legible.

Section A – Text Reponse

Students should be encouraged to have confidence in their own reading and demonstrate a personal understanding of their text rather than simply writing what they believe the assessor is looking for.

Students should be taught to look critically at the wording of the topic and to consider what assumptions are being made within it.

when a topic asks students to look at a film-maker’s use of visual imagery, it is not an invitation to simply describe all of the images in the film, but rather to describe how it operates and why it is being used to add meaning.

Students demonstrated a good understanding of how to write an essay. Clear introductions, appropriate paragraphing and the ability to embed quotations appropriately were a feature of most pieces. However, these basic skills must continue to be reinforced, including the ability to build more sophisticated vocabulary, to improve grammar and to focus more on sentence structure. It is apparent that students who write plot summaries or simplistic character discussions often have not structured their paragraphs adequately and offer a topic sentence that is plot-driven rather than conceptual. This can then send them in an undesired direction.

Section B – Writing in Context

For too many, the approach to writing could be likened very much to a text response. Section B is not text response; it focuses equally on ideas and writing. Overreliance on a text may undermine the capacity to develop ideas that emerge from the prompt

Weaker responses relied too much on the text and responded with great slabs of plot. The difference between successful and unsuccessful pieces in this regard was a conceptual discussion versus simplistic storytelling. Many responses leaned too heavily on the text and were not able to use the text as a conduit for exploring the Context. Often the quality of ideas appeared inhibited because students seemed afraid to move too far away from the text. Weaker responses, on the other hand, also seemed to have pre-prepared introductions, which were obvious as they were often generic discussions of the Contexts. The introductions were followed by a passing recognition of the prompt with a number of examples included from one or two texts. Often the penultimate paragraph discussed a wider ‘outside world’ example. In these cases there was little engagement with the direction of the prompt nor any attempt to create an authentic piece of writing

Students who attempted a more imaginative approach generally directly employed the text as a basis for their work. Less often students used the text in implicit ways, often beyond, however, their capacity to do so. Some did little more than reuse the basic plot, perhaps in a modern setting. Others created hypothetical scenarios which placed the characters in a different setting and time. While this could be successful, too often in these cases the stories were trite and superficial. Like all responses these were of varying success. Some pieces, however, bore virtually no connection to the prompt or one of the texts.

Some of the best responses were imaginative. Capable students demonstrated the capacity to create an engaging piece of writing, weaving insights and explorations of both the Context and the prompt into their story or narrative. This task is equally about ideas and writing, so those students who could produce an artful piece were highly rewarded. A potential problem, however, is when a student creates an imaginative response using a particular text but then does little more than retell the plot of the story and offer a cursory nod at the prompt. Whatever approach to writing a student decides on, they must explore the ideas of the prompt, the Context and the text. Use of text There can be no definitive advice on the success of relying on a single text or employing both (or more). Some students used the two texts expertly to demonstrate exceptions and qualifications while others did little more than use the second text to add more of the same examples. Some students who relied on a single text were able to develop a more coherent response than those who felt they were required to use both texts, and were unable to make the transition from one text to the other in a coherent, fluent manner. It appeared that in general, students who used more texts needed to be more skilled in pulling the ideas together seamlessly.

Section C – Analysis of Language Use

Simplistic listings of persuasive techniques were very rarely seen in responses. The best responses showed excellent analysis that was quite sophisticated and showed an understanding of the links in language and the construction of argument. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement and students should be encouraged to be more specific in their analyses.

Too many students offered a general discussion rather than a specific impact on the audience. Comments such as ‘grab the readers’ attention’ or ‘to get the reader interested’ are far too generalised and vague. Likewise, students need to go beyond statements such as ‘makes the reader feel sad’ and explore the implication of this intention in relation to the writer’s purpose. Teachers should spend time throughout the year drawing attention to the impact of specific words and phrases intentionally selected by the writer to support the purpose of the piece.

Download the 2008 Examiner’s Report HERE

Students doing language analysis may like to know that the start of the footy season is often the silly season for headline writers, but cycling was the inspiration for my silly headline of the week.  This was from the Herald-Sun today on the news that cyclist Lance Armstrong had broken his collarbone:

‘Not So Arm Strong’

The things they all must learn in journalism school!

Right about now many students will be thinking about issues, and what issue they might respond to for AOS3. Some schools choose the issue for the whole year level, others have individual classes doing different issues while others allow students to choose.

Two issues in the media in the last week that have a lot of potential for language analysis and point of view writing are ‘whaling’ and ‘cycling in Melbourne’

Whaling is an ongoing issue, in the news a lot and it raises plenty of emotions and strong feelings.

A much more localised, and probably briefer, issue is the issue of cyclists and how they should be treated and how they should act on the road. Rod Moodie of the AGE write a piece last week called ‘It’s war on the roads and cars should not be the winners‘ (March 7th) and the paper also featured three letters on the same topic that day. That’s more than enough to get you started if you’re interested in that as an issue.

Photo: Warrick