Helping with English Homework

[mrsbrown]

I'm sitting at the kitchen table helping MsNotaGoth do her preparation for her English SAC.

She will be assessed on an essay she writes in class time, under test conditions. But she already knows the topic AND she can take 2 A4 pages into the test with her.

I know it's ok. Everyone else is being assessed on the same basis. It's not cheating if everyone does it.

Her teacher has given her several articles written about the book they're studying. She also has a pro-forma for the writing the plan, which seems to reduce the process of writing an essay to filling out a form. She's also been given a running sheet for the book

If someone had given me a handout titled "how to write a text response" with the entire formula for how to write an HSC english essay, and another sheet summarising the whole book, I would have done much better than my 52/100 end of year result, and I wouldn't have had to spend as much time studying either.

I'm now a reasonable writer, I write technical reports that other people describe as readable and accessible. I understand the formula for them and I can crank the handle and out they come.

But I left school bewildered by the knowledge that my verbal abilities didn't match my ability to write an essay for English.

So unfair!

Comments

[nephthys-secret.livejournal.com]

So what exactly is she supposed to do in this exam, it seems like they have handed her the answer sheet. Things have certainly changed in the last 10+ years that's for sure.

[hnpcc]

I remain bemused by some of the decisions being made about what is allowed to be taken in to VCE exams. Not to mention some of the stuff on the exams. But mostly that the formerly 3 hour French written, 30 minutes (I think) aural and 30 minutes oral exams have been replaced by a 2 hour written/aural exam and a 30 minute oral exam. And there's absolutely no grammar questions!!!

Well, OK, that and the VCE history exam carefully defining what "apartheid[1]" was - call me kind of cynical but shouldn't you know that if you're writing a history exam?

Bah, humbug, am getting old.

[1] "A discriminatory system of government in South Africa during the 20th century."

[elefianora.livejournal.com]

Like you I struggled to pass year 12 English.

In hindsight I think part of the problem was that I was far to direct and to the point. I couldn't fluff it out enough. In the weeks of swot vacc I did numerous practice essays, going through each step with my teacher before going home and doing the next step (ie analyse the question one night, collect points and arrange them in logical order for paragraphs the next night and then write the essay). She would check that I had relevant points and the logic was good, I'd write the essay and she would mark it and give it 10/20. When I asked why she would blame my prep work, look at it, decide that it was fine (again), and could not explain why my mark was so low - and she was one of the VCE examiners. It was very frustrating when teachers year after year could not tell me how or where to improve essays, just that they weren't good enough, esecially when other kids who could barely put a coherent sentence together got high marks.

I don't think my communication skills are that poor, OTOH I might do better with technical rather than creative writing, too.