me121
Premium Member
Does anyone out there go to a school where their English department actually follows the ''Board of Studies Internal Assessment Requirements''? My school doesn’t, so I was curious is this practice widespread or not. The details are below, but in the end they still asses English, it’s not like they are assessing our maths, but ''Board of Studies Internal Assessment Requirements ''are meant to be followed. It is a matter of principal. Also it can make it harder and more stressful for me because we have so many tasks, but in a way this is good, because to me doing the assessments really helps in the end. For that reason I will not ask for a review on a school level or on the Board of Studies level. Also if I complain, then the teachers are less likely to want to help me.
Firstly in the ''Board of Studies Internal Assessment Requirements ''some things are ambiguous. It says ''should'', in my opinion they should not use that world, because they are saying here is what we want but you can choose not to comply with it. Does this mean that schools have to comply or not?
Anyway in the ''Board of Studies Internal Assessment Requirements ''it is says that there should be 5-6 tasks<sup>1</sup>, and that each task be weighed between 10% and 30%. My school, a government school, has 9 separate tasks. Well above the 5-6 recommended. Also the tasks each have the following weightings, 10%, 5%, 15%, 5%, 15%, 10%, 15%, 10%, 15%. Two of the tasks fall below the minimum weighting.
Furthermore in our Trial HSC, for paper 2, the paper will have the same layout and mark allocation as the HSC, which is how it should be. But they have weighted the questions differently, Module A question has 0% weighting towards the final assessment mark, Module B question has 10% and Module C question has 15%. That creates a real problem because then why would anyone waste time in the exam answering a question that has 0% weighting!? But there is a catch; those weightings are towards our final assessment mark. In our reports our trial mark is reported on the report, and for that mark, each question in the trial paper is weighted equally. So if we leave that question unanswered we have more time to spend on the questions that contribute to the final assessment mark, but we lower the mark on our yearly reports. What’s even worse is that now another teacher, the Deputy Principal, who is an English teacher but not the English head teacher, tells me that the assessment schedule is wrong and that for our assessment mark, the trial mark on a whole will be weighted with 15%, and each question will be equally weighted. But this created two more problems, now the module A component has more weighting that the required 20%. Also, to my understanding, they cannot change the assessment schedule now, as it is also a requirement that prior to our commencement of the HSC course we be notified of all the tasks and their weightings.
Task #: #% (Course Content:#%, Language Mode:#%) (Exam/ Non-exam)
Task 1: 10% (AOS: 10%, Listening: 10%) (Exam)
Task 2: 5% (AOS: 5%, Reading: 5%) (Non-exam)
Task 3: 15% (AOS: 15%, Reading: 5% Writing: 10%) (Non-exam)
Task 4: 5% (A: 5%, Listening: 5%) (Exam)
Task 5: 15% (A: 15%, Speaking: 15%) (Non-exam)
Task 6: 10% (B: 10%, Reading: 5% Writing: 5%) (Non-exam)
Task 7: 15% (C: 15%, Viewing & Representing: 15%) (Non-exam)
Task 8: 10% (AOS: 10%, Reading + Writing: 10%) (Trial, Paper 1) (Exam)
Task 9: 15% (B: 10% C: 5%, Reading + Writing: 15%) (Trial, Paper 2) (Exam)
Also in the ''ACE Manuel''<sup>2</sup>, it says that “Each student should receive clear feedback on their performance. This advice should indicate: the student’s attainment in the task relative to the outcomes; the student’s relative position within the school group.” We only received our ranking well past half way through the course and after assessment task 5. We should receive our updated ranking after each task, as this would be “meaningful feedback”<sup>3</sup>.
The ''English Stage 6 Syllabus''<sup>4</sup> also states that no more than 30% of the assessment can be from Examinations. The ''English Stage 6 Support Document: Internal Assessment''<sup>5</sup> also states that examinations are where the task or question is not known by the student prior to the task. We had the following tasks examination style, 1 (10%), 4 (5%), 8 (10%), 9 (15%). In total 40% is examination style. The ''English Stage 6 Syllabus'' stipulates that no more than 30% can be examination style. Again, our school does not comply. But in my opinion 30% examination is way too low.
Concluding, in my opinion there are too many requirements, and to do it all legit is too difficult. There are too many different variables and they all must add up in a certain way to get to a specified value. But the thing is multidimensional, eg. you must have the course content add up and also the language mode, and also the number of tasks, and then the examination style or not. You also may have to comply with the school guidelines, for example have a trial and half yearly.
Please post you comments…
__________________________________________________________________________________
<sup>1</sup> English Stage 6 Syllabus, 1999, Board of Studies NSW, page 114. + ACE Manuel, December 2005, Board of Studies NSW, page 110.
<sup>2</sup> ACE Manuel, December 2005, Board of Studies NSW, page 111.
<sup>3</sup> English Stage 6 Syllabus, 1999, Board of Studies NSW, page 112.
<sup>4</sup> English Stage 6 Syllabus, 1999, Board of Studies NSW, page 114.
<sup>5</sup> English Stage 6 Support Document: Internal Assessment, Board of Studies, 1999, page 6.
Firstly in the ''Board of Studies Internal Assessment Requirements ''some things are ambiguous. It says ''should'', in my opinion they should not use that world, because they are saying here is what we want but you can choose not to comply with it. Does this mean that schools have to comply or not?
Anyway in the ''Board of Studies Internal Assessment Requirements ''it is says that there should be 5-6 tasks<sup>1</sup>, and that each task be weighed between 10% and 30%. My school, a government school, has 9 separate tasks. Well above the 5-6 recommended. Also the tasks each have the following weightings, 10%, 5%, 15%, 5%, 15%, 10%, 15%, 10%, 15%. Two of the tasks fall below the minimum weighting.
Furthermore in our Trial HSC, for paper 2, the paper will have the same layout and mark allocation as the HSC, which is how it should be. But they have weighted the questions differently, Module A question has 0% weighting towards the final assessment mark, Module B question has 10% and Module C question has 15%. That creates a real problem because then why would anyone waste time in the exam answering a question that has 0% weighting!? But there is a catch; those weightings are towards our final assessment mark. In our reports our trial mark is reported on the report, and for that mark, each question in the trial paper is weighted equally. So if we leave that question unanswered we have more time to spend on the questions that contribute to the final assessment mark, but we lower the mark on our yearly reports. What’s even worse is that now another teacher, the Deputy Principal, who is an English teacher but not the English head teacher, tells me that the assessment schedule is wrong and that for our assessment mark, the trial mark on a whole will be weighted with 15%, and each question will be equally weighted. But this created two more problems, now the module A component has more weighting that the required 20%. Also, to my understanding, they cannot change the assessment schedule now, as it is also a requirement that prior to our commencement of the HSC course we be notified of all the tasks and their weightings.
Task #: #% (Course Content:#%, Language Mode:#%) (Exam/ Non-exam)
Task 1: 10% (AOS: 10%, Listening: 10%) (Exam)
Task 2: 5% (AOS: 5%, Reading: 5%) (Non-exam)
Task 3: 15% (AOS: 15%, Reading: 5% Writing: 10%) (Non-exam)
Task 4: 5% (A: 5%, Listening: 5%) (Exam)
Task 5: 15% (A: 15%, Speaking: 15%) (Non-exam)
Task 6: 10% (B: 10%, Reading: 5% Writing: 5%) (Non-exam)
Task 7: 15% (C: 15%, Viewing & Representing: 15%) (Non-exam)
Task 8: 10% (AOS: 10%, Reading + Writing: 10%) (Trial, Paper 1) (Exam)
Task 9: 15% (B: 10% C: 5%, Reading + Writing: 15%) (Trial, Paper 2) (Exam)
Also in the ''ACE Manuel''<sup>2</sup>, it says that “Each student should receive clear feedback on their performance. This advice should indicate: the student’s attainment in the task relative to the outcomes; the student’s relative position within the school group.” We only received our ranking well past half way through the course and after assessment task 5. We should receive our updated ranking after each task, as this would be “meaningful feedback”<sup>3</sup>.
The ''English Stage 6 Syllabus''<sup>4</sup> also states that no more than 30% of the assessment can be from Examinations. The ''English Stage 6 Support Document: Internal Assessment''<sup>5</sup> also states that examinations are where the task or question is not known by the student prior to the task. We had the following tasks examination style, 1 (10%), 4 (5%), 8 (10%), 9 (15%). In total 40% is examination style. The ''English Stage 6 Syllabus'' stipulates that no more than 30% can be examination style. Again, our school does not comply. But in my opinion 30% examination is way too low.
Concluding, in my opinion there are too many requirements, and to do it all legit is too difficult. There are too many different variables and they all must add up in a certain way to get to a specified value. But the thing is multidimensional, eg. you must have the course content add up and also the language mode, and also the number of tasks, and then the examination style or not. You also may have to comply with the school guidelines, for example have a trial and half yearly.
Please post you comments…
__________________________________________________________________________________
<sup>1</sup> English Stage 6 Syllabus, 1999, Board of Studies NSW, page 114. + ACE Manuel, December 2005, Board of Studies NSW, page 110.
<sup>2</sup> ACE Manuel, December 2005, Board of Studies NSW, page 111.
<sup>3</sup> English Stage 6 Syllabus, 1999, Board of Studies NSW, page 112.
<sup>4</sup> English Stage 6 Syllabus, 1999, Board of Studies NSW, page 114.
<sup>5</sup> English Stage 6 Support Document: Internal Assessment, Board of Studies, 1999, page 6.
