Good luck to all the students doing the English exam this Friday! If you’ve prepared well, you’ll be fine.

Download this short audio podcast by David Baxter as he talks through the exam preparation process for the English Exam.

DOWNLOAD

It probably doesn’t make a big difference to students doing Year 12 this year, but teachers might be interested in a slight change in the VCAA instructions for Part B (Context) of the exam this year.  Below are the new instructions for this part of the exam. There are more details on the VCAA site.

Instructions for Section B:

Section B requires students to complete an extended written response.

In your writing, you must draw on ideas suggested by one of the following four Contexts

Your writing must draw directly from the selected text you have studied for this Context and be based on the ideas in the prompt/stimulus material

Your response may be an expository, persuasive or imaginative piece of writing.

If you write on a selected film text in Section A, you must not write on a selected film text in Section B.

Section B is worth 30 marks.

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

day to the exam … but you knew that didn’t you1

It may not exactly be the text or context you’re studying, but there’s still plenty of great tips in this revision slideshow from Victorian teacher SoulCradler as seen on Slideshare.net

It will go quickly; enjoy every lesson!

The 2007 English Exam is now done and dusted and, right now, most of the students who sat for that exam are sunning themselves in Lorne or Byron Bay.

Most teachers and students we’ve spoken to felt that it was a pretty fair exam with questions that didn’t try to ‘trick’ students but asked students to open and up and explore some important topics.

Later on, in this blog, we might look at some of the questions from the exam from some of the more popular texts. Meanwhile, whether you’ve just finished Year 12 English, or just starting, enjoy the sunshine.