[English] Meet the Assessors

Wed Feb 18 10:12:15 EST 2009

Very interesting thoughts Peter ... my two cents worth, tho' I'm not  
sure if I'm responding to your exact concerns ...

I think meeting the assessors is a very useful.   Ultimately the exam  
is going to have to rank, discriminate or differentiate between the  
40,000 odd candidates, and give them a number at then end.  Knowledge  
of that process, or how the VCAA Study Designs/Assessment guides are  
interpreted by the marking and exam setting panels can only be  
useful.  I might not like it, but I'll try and understand to give my  
students the best advice I can.

On form, perhaps I'm a bit much of a pragmatist.  I'll agree that the  
question does raise issues tho'.  In the study design we are asked to  
consider the"the understanding of the ideas, characters and themes  
constructed by the author and presented in the set text" and   
"structures, features and conventions used by authors to construct  
meaning across a range of texts".  I would imagine this implicit in  
the exam criteria. So far so good, but no word about balance or  
methodology ...

However, in terms of differentiation of candidates,  I would presume  
it be a 'good' question, as the cognitive manipulation of concepts  
such  form and text that the question hints at would separate the  
students very well.  The top range students would accomplish that task  
and write something 'surprising' or 'brilliant', if the examples of  
previous years on the VCAA website are any guide.  Our 50s would do  
that through their knowledge, savvy and  ability to think and write  
beyond the careful response. Can we ever teach those skills? The  
middle range would do something, well, middle. In the end, the student  
would receive a fair grade, when their papers are compared to the  
papers of their peers.

So ... am I an apologist for the VCAA? ... I'm not sure ... some more  
questions ...  off beam?

Is it ever possible to fully advise our more methodical students on  
how to handle these questions?

Is it the job of an assessment panel to keep the exam evolving, to  
avoid a rote response to questions?

Is another one of our jobs to teach students how to recognize an  
overly curly question?

Cheers!

James Craig

On 18/02/2009, at 8:35 AM, 01869563 wrote:

> Thanks for your commentary. You've convinced me that I can probably  
> find
> something better to do next week when I'm supposed to be going to  
> the next
> "meet the assessors".
>
>
> On 17/02/09 3:47 PM, "PeterPidduck at caulfieldgs.vic.edu.au"
> <PeterPidduck at caulfieldgs.vic.edu.au> wrote:
>
>> Dear All
>> I am glad we have the opportunity to get feedback from the  
>> assessors in
>> English, especially as they often raise as many questions as they
>> answer, which is healthy for the profession. I am particularly  
>> curious
>> about what people made of the advice given by the Meet the Assessor
>> panel last Thursday for VCE English with regard to some of the text
>> questions asked by VCAA. When dealing with student responses to the
>> question 'Does the film-maker's use of visual imagery and setting  
>> help
>> or hinder the viewer's understanding of the concerns of the
>> characters?', we were told repeatedly how excellent the question  
>> was for
>> its ability to differentiate between students (actually, I think the
>> more telling phrase 'discriminate between students' was used), but
>> surely, even if there seemed to be a categorical determination to  
>> assert
>> the excellence of the exam, people are right to feel that this  
>> question
>> uncovers many problems with the expectation of the new course. We  
>> were
>> lectured about the need for students to link the author's language
>> choices to interpretation as though this was a new rationale for
>> English, but I don't believe that this is the main thrust of the
>> criticism to a question like this (the repeated defence of the  
>> question
>> at least implies that there was criticism).
>>
>> To ask whether the form helps or hinders with the content is very
>> difficult, because it assumes problematically that the form can exist
>> independent of the content (thus the very understanding that  
>> apparently
>> underpins the question is contradicted in the question). The sample
>> response flashed all too briefly on the PowerPoint (it seemed from my
>> too brief perusal) clearly examined the director's use of imagery and
>> linked it to a defined understanding of the characters' concerns, but
>> when looking at whether it helped or hindered, it had to be rather
>> superficial because what can you say? For example, if a student  
>> were to
>> write something like: 'By using animation to depict Meryl's anxiety
>> about death, we get an insight into the way she visualises the world
>> through her Art whilst emphasising the worries are taking place  
>> inside
>> her head, detached from the external world, and so the visual  
>> imagery is
>> very helpful in communicating her state of mind' , surely the last
>> clause answers the question, but to what end? The meat is in  
>> linking the
>> visual imagery to the character's concerns, not in evaluating whether
>> they help or hinder, although a student would be marked down if he/ 
>> she
>> didn't make some sort of comment in this direction. And as such, any
>> student who had looked at the link between what was in the film  
>> with why
>> it was there could answer the question, if indeed they were not so
>> confused by what they had to do with the question in the first place.
>> And widespread confusion there was (at least, that seems to be many  
>> of
>> the whispers I have heard in relation to many of the same styled
>> questions). In a situation of widespread confusion, the fault either
>> lies with a) the student, b) the teacher, c) the exam setter, and  
>> where
>> I might be wrong to assume c), I felt the speaker at the VCAA Meet  
>> the
>> Assessors strongly, and erroneously, implied a).
>>
>> My main point is that where it is desirable to have students forge  
>> their
>> interpretations from an awareness of the language choices an author  
>> has
>> made, asking questions in this way has the effect of closing down  
>> such
>> an enquiry; indeed, as I formerly suggested, it treats form as though
>> itr can be considered independently of the interpretation of content.
>> And regardless whether or not I will find agreement with my
>> observations, I am a little concerned that any honest criticism of  
>> the
>> exam or exam marking process is construed as griping that is to be  
>> met
>> with a blanket statement of the paper's excellence (I seem to  
>> remember
>> the term 'brilliant' - or a similarly inflated superlative - being  
>> used
>> to refer to the writing of section 3. There are a lot of words to
>> describe this composition, but 'brilliant' - I'd need more  
>> convincing.
>> Why did the examination need such active talking-up?).
>>
>> What do other people think?
>>
>> Regards
>> Peter
>>
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