[English] suggestions needed for context teaching

[Jenny Gilbert]

Hi Gail - and thankyou - this is VERY affirmingJ. Thankyou for taking the
time for such a detailed response.  I hope you follow up with that text book
and I sincerely appreciate the ideas for writing PD you are suggesting. We
are, for all intents and purposes, on the same page with our approach to
marking context. I hope to mark it this year in exam marking. I believe we
have to do some PD as a staff on teaching writing - it is an area of
weakness IMO across the board and I am looking into ways of doing this.
Maybe I will start with a plate of Jelly lol. 

 

Have a good weekend (off to benchmark context pieces lol) 

 

Jen

 

 

From: english-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:english-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Reynolds, Gail G
Sent: Sunday, 12 June 2011 2:22 PM
To: VCE English Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [English] suggestions needed for context teaching

 

HI Jenny, 

 

I think it helps to think of those descriptions as an opening out of what
can be done rather than a prescription for what must be done. I challenge
you to nominate any piece of writing that cannot be fitted to one of the
modes or a hybrid of these.  I did this exercise with my staff and we
couldn't find anything which could not be seen as fitting; because of this,
we have somewhat ( but not completely) de-emphasised the categories and have
increased focus on ways of producing "good" writing.

 

Note that in the exam the students are not allowed to nominate any style and
in fact last time I marked this section, we were told  to disregard any
Explanations which might accompany the Context.  This in effect means that
the only place the students need to be able to identify how their piece fits
into the nominated formats is in their SACs in their "explanation of
authorial choices". Our Y12 teachers agreed that we were doing holistic
marking and as we marked the SACs we would place the emphasis of our marking
on the actual piece of writing more than the Explanation (although we still
took this into account).  I personally would not overly-penalise students
who mix up the various categories, especially in view of the contradictory
information which the students may be accessing.  It is interesting that my
best students can all provide an excellent Explanation and those who mix up
the information sit in the mid to lower range in any case... ( I may be bad,
but I do not lose too much sleep over this)

 

One of our major difficulties with this section is that the Design itself is
unclear as to the task and our approach is always going to be like juggling
jelly... you have to find your own way to succeed and some of it will end up
on the floor. I do understand the feelings of the teacher who wants
something to cling to -- in its first year everyone was playing safe and
Assessors had SOOOOO many boring formulaic expository pieces to mark. I also
know that variety and freshness and engagement with the writing are things
the Assessors look for. I am afraid we have to lead our staff and our
students into more open fields when it comes to this section... and it 'aint
easy!' 

 

The awful how much text question -- answer: between one word and all of it.
I have seen excellent pieces which have used a text as a springboard to dive
into new ideas -- for example a student who used the film Witness as the
basis, writing about the Amish practice of Rumspinga.  There is a clear
relationship to the film, a sound platform for discussing Identity and
Belonging and scope to incorporate the prompt, but it did not draw directly
upon the text. On the other hand there is an occasionally successful
strategy which views the plot of a text through the eyes of another
character (so this one is nearly all text).  The thing to remember is that
this is not a text response (50% text is likely to be way over the top in an
expository for example). We don't need mention of the text every paragraph
or use a formulaic  paragraph about the student's experience followed by a
paragraph about the text (few writers are able to make this interesting and
engaging) I try to get my students to think about the big ideas, how do we
explore these, what  will capture the young writers' imaginations/ interest
the potential audience?

 

As for your staff member, I wish you luck (she says, her mind crowded with
bitter memories).  One of the text books has an excellent section on hybrid
writing (It is on my desk at school and I can't remember which one off hand,
but I'll let you know if I remember) you could try giving that to the
teacher  concerned. For the students at her mercy, how about offering the
whole 12 Eng cohort an afternoon of Context-focused writing workshop with
the English teachers in attendance (Is there a local writer you could get to
facilitate the workshop? Mildura is a relatively big place, there has to be
someone who would do it ... or someone prepared to come in  from elsewhere.
VATE may have some ideas for people to approach???) This one has the value
of acting as PD for your staff without singling out or confronting ... and
it could bring new ideas for everyone.

 

I don't have many more suggestions and believe me, I can empathise with your
predicament. I am not sure that I ever completely succeeded with my guy, but
I tried to give oblique gentle shoves and increased exposure to a range of
sample responses/sample lessons (Could you do this in an English faculty
meeting?)  I have just had a meeting with my staff where I asked everyone to
bring a sample writing lesson. It was actually a lot of fun and some of that
will translate into teaching our Context...

 

(Hope I haven't done that grandma and egg sucking thing..)

 

Gail Reynolds

English and Literacy Co-ordinator

Box Hill High School

9877 1177

  _____  

From: english-bounces at edulists.com.au [english-bounces at edulists.com.au] on
behalf of Jenny Gilbert [nenifoofer at gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, 12 June 2011 11:23 AM
To: 'VCE English Teachers' Mailing List'
Subject: [English] suggestions needed for context teaching

Hi Everyone

I have a need for some help in leadership J I have an English teacher that
is being quite prescriptive ( she is quite presecriptive with most things)
with the writing forms 'expository, persuasive and imaginative'. She is not
dealing well with the combination of possible forms and voices in written
texts. She see them as three completely separate entities. Our teaching of
this area of study has evolved over time - and we now see the students as
having to 'create' as writers using what they know about the Context, text
and their understanding of the concepts in a given prompt. This means we
have moved away from strict structural controls for a 5 paragraph essay,
although we do teach it for those students who need something to hang their
work on as they cling to something of a model.  In yr 11 we do focus on the
three modes - in Unit one we focus on expository and persuasive, in Unit two
creative. (We used to try and do all 3 in semester 1 but it became a
workload nightmare) . In Units 3-4 students choose freely. 

When we first started with context there evolved an understanding of the
expository essay form and that wretched formula of third person formal style
with 50% use of the text, 25% world and 25% self as a guide for students to
structure their writing as informed by the ideas and issues of the set
Context and text. While I have not said do not do this I have encouraged the
flexibility and creativity of both students and teachers to see that the
limits here are on the boundaries of the text and context not the 'rules' of
a specific writing genre. I wonder if there are 'rules'. The way I see it
there are typical features of writing depending on purpose, audience and
form and we need to teach those over the years so that in Yr 12 students are
able to use this knowledge and their skills to write a response they feel
comfortable with. In expository writing students can explore ideas, look at
them from a number of angles, and draw conclusions. We are still
experiencing confusion with this - students explaining their work as
expository when it clearly argues a view, or vice versa, claiming they have
done a persuasive piece that in fact has not clear line of argument and is
even lacking a clear contention. The pick 'persuasive' simply because in the
end they express an opinion. 

Then there is that awful question - how much from outside the text has to be
included? It seems the struggle with the grey continues with that 50/25/25
formula. I have - after PD recognised this is not the way to encouraged good
creation of texts. Last years examiners report confirms this

On the other hand, it should be noted that:

. there still seems to be a dependence on formulaic responses, which
suggests that some students believe that

rote-learning is sufficient. The study of English is concerned with
developing students' understanding and

confidence in responding to the specific topics and prompts that are offered
in the examination. Active

engagement with texts enables students to develop language awareness,
articulate ideas and develop

communication skills

. some students did not fully engage with the actual elements of the topics
and prompts. Greater care needs to be

taken in analysing and recognising the specific expectations of each topic
or prompt - often this comes down

to a precise understanding of the words which comprise the task

In section B the commentary is quite clear

The most successful responses drew thoughtfully from the text; however, the
least successful only used a scene or a

feature of character in a superficial way or retold the plot of the text.
This approach was not always relevant to the

prompt. 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 yet more of the same examples. While students writing
using an expository approach tended to

employ both texts, a number of students explored only one text. Students who
used more than one source to illustrate

their ideas often produced pieces with a strong sense of unity and purpose.
This cohesiveness was contrasted by pieces

where one idea followed the next as students went through their list of
examples. The product was more a plan for an

essay than a thoughtful, finished piece.

The transference of ideas from the texts is critical. Students who
understood and could convey sophisticated ideas from

their texts were the most successful, regardless of the approach to writing
selected.

 

 
<http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vcaa/vce/studies/english/englishassess/2010/engl
ish_assessrep_10.pdf>
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vcaa/vce/studies/english/englishassess/2010/engli
sh_assessrep_10.pdf

 

Our focus has been much more on the concepts and ideas in the prompt and
text than in writing to a specific formula.  Our returning prescriptive
teacher is more focussed on the required form and wanting rigorous specific
supplementary texts included in the study. I will refer her to this
examiners report and others have provided her with documentation from
inservices- but can anyone offer useful definitions of the 'three explicit'
forms because I can't. I prefer to paint the grey lines and encourage
students to create with the focus much more on the connection of the
concepts and texts. In this instance the labelling of expository, persuasive
or imaginative is squishing the potential to write from the heart and mind
if it is done as this teacher is suggesting. SO...

What suggestions do you have about what I should say to her other than to
send her on PD to meet the examiners -I have not yet marked this section so
I am at a bit of a loss and relying very much on my experience teaching it,
PD and examiners reports. 

Thanks

PS..to add to confusion some publications are now using the word exposition
for persuasive writing - how do we deal with that? 

 

Jenny Gilbert

 

English Coordinator, St Joseph's College Mildura

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