Task Design

Assessment Type 1: Text Analysis Make appropriate text choices according to the subject outline (choice of four text types): an extended prose, verse, or multimodal text (e.g. a novel, a graphic novel, a collection of short stories, a biography or other non-fiction prose text) a selection of poems (e.g. poet study, anthology, theme study, song lyrics) a film or a television miniseries a drama text or a drama performance (the success of responses to live performance was commented upon most favourably by moderators) film trailers single poem or song comparison of a performance of live theatre with a film version of the same text

REMINDER: 2 written responses and one oral response A range of forms can be offered to students as opportunities for response including: blogs interviews with author or director traditional analytical essays speeches/presentations with student as author visual scrapbook page as a response writing an additional scene or chapter This range often enabled students to demonstrate a repertoire of skills in relation to analysis and conventions of forms.

Moderators noted that high achieving students often addressed one of the three analysis criterion in each response of this assessment type: An1Analysis of authors’ use of the conventions of different text types to communicate ideas and influence readers’ response. An2Analysis of connections between the ideas, experiences, values, and beliefs of students, and those explored in texts. An3Analysis of the ideas, experiences, values, and beliefs explored in texts.

An2 proved the most problematic Where teachers had designed tasks and taught explicitly with this as the sole analysis criterion, students appeared to perform well. Successful tasks encouraged students to consider their own experiences and personal views in some depth Some of the best examples included student connections made to the contemporary world of politics, human rights or environmental issues. poor responses were made to texts with which students had no strong personal connection

Poetry Responses Were most successful when texts were considered as a group of two or more as opposed to individual texts (although more than 4 is not recommended) One poem is insufficient and does not meet the requirements of the subject outline choice and selection of song lyrics is important – in many cases this text type reduced the depth of analysis in responses (many students describing the meaning of the lyrics rather than deconstructing the text)

SUMMARY Students benefitted from explicit teaching of text, scaffolding and a choice of tasks when constructing responses Task design is crucial to student success

Assessment Type 2: Text Production Students compose 3 texts the composition of the 3 texts should be produced for 3 distinct purposes Task design is important here in encouraging students to demonstrate diversity in writing skills.

Some Suggestions: A recount, expository, narrative visual stimuli as a prompt (eg. photos and art work) multimodal texts, including film digital narratives A report and 2 recounts picture books as narratives some poetry task design biography

Success was noted where students had been provided with: (a) Tasks that offered some flexibility in response (b) Where tasks had been designed with the interests and abilities of the cohort in mind Examples included: How to get an A in Year 12 Why should INSERT TEXT NAME stay on the curriculum Mourning the death of civilised women The reasons why one particular character or subject is better than or preferable to another (e.g.. superhero or pop star OR Kmart and Big W)

Assessment Type 3: Communication Study Part 1: A comparison of 2 examples of communication chosen from one of the 5 specified categories Students are expected to explore and compare the relationships between: Form Purpose Audience Language Context

Do not select the comparative texts across 2 of the categories (e.g. mass media & personal communication) Students experienced success when task design for part 1 encouraged comparison throughout the entire response Students who analysed texts separately and kept comparison to a minimum did not achieve as well.

Popular tasks: Hard copy advertisements (with substantial written elements) Travel programs Cooking programs Car programs Film Trailers (best if a point of similarity existed such as genre, or a remake) Comparison of 2 TV shows (such as the British Sherlock Vs the American Sherlock)

Considerations for Teachers Explicit teaching of a form resulted in greater success than directing students to a generic form (e.g a feature article rather than newspapers in general) Comparison should occur throughout the response Students should mention specific language features, demonstrating their knowledge of their purpose or effect rather than just listing them.

Part 2: the Practical Application Can be selected from the 8 applications offered Students who considered the production and the reflection parts of this task with equal importance achieved most consistent results

Most Popular Application: WRITING FOR PUBLICATION Original texts (verified by the teacher) Reviews (high risk of plagiarism) Children’s Books (students distracted by presentational devices at the expense of language) Brochures (high risk of plagiarism)

Assessment Type 4: Folio (External) The Folio is “a product of independent study” Folios where Part 1 & Part 2 were connected in some way were not as successful at meeting the performance standards to a high degree (e.g. responding to a persuasive speech and writing a persuasive article) Students do best when they demonstrate they can write for two purposes and audiences across the folio.

Part 1: Response to an example of Communication Responses that were guided by a well-worded topic or question were the most successful Questions that contained words such as “language techniques”, “appeal to the audience,” “stylistic features” or “effects on the reader or listener” directed students most appropriately. For example – “Discuss the effectiveness of the film techniques the director uses to explore the idea of …..”

Questions that focused on content, characters or themes did not give the students enough scope to address KU1, 2, 4 &An1. For example – “How effectively does the director explore the theme of……”

Observations: The better responses focused on specific structural and language features and their connection to the audience (with close reference to their chosen text). An entire essay devoted to the student’s opinion of the text does not display knowledge about how the text was constructed. Students who named the creator of the text, outlined what techniques they were discussing and mentioned audience in the introduction, steered the response to meet the performance standards at the highest levels.

Popular Choices film texts poems songs journalistic articles advertisements (with sufficient text) speeches short films (ie. from Tropfest)

Problem Choices: animated films song lyrics music videos computer games soap operas (a whole genre) entire series (eg. Big Bang Theory)

The greater the familiarity with the text, the less likely the student was to be objective and insightful in the response.

Part 2: Text Production with Writer’s Statement Successful pieces of writing included: personal recounts descriptive writing narratives letters to the editor (if the student was familiar with the subject matter) vignettes monologues -based stories comedies

articles for specialised magazines play scripts opinion pieces (based on social, regional, cultural issues) satire different types of expository writing (informative, persuasive, instructional etc.) although if it relied heavily on statistics and facts it was difficult for students to display originality (and plagiarism crept in) taking students to a specific location and using it as a prompt for their writing (creative or functional)

Problem Choices: brochures (riddled with plagiarism) letters of complaint picture books simplistic poetry clichéd narratives (so many set in New York!) stories based on the paranormal (lacked a unique voice) wedding / 21 st invitations anything with minimal writing

Teachers are reminded that content and language that is overly offensive is inappropriate and markers can refuse to read such material, resulting in very low scores. control of tenses, especially in recounts, and correct use of dialogue punctuation needed greater attention in some folios.

Writer’s Statement Students who wrote in very general terms about their writing did not produce effective statements. Better students discussed language features, applying each closely to their own writing, and explaining the effect they were aiming for on their audience. Over-generalisations should be avoided (such as, “teenagers like horror so they will read my story”). It is important that comments made about the audience, purpose and language techniques of the piece of writing are specific and relevant.

Students are advised to avoid a lengthy explanation of the ideas behind the writing at the expense of justifying the language decisions made (this was most evident when students chose to write personal recounts) The research process the student undertook before producing their writing is not relevant. Restating what they had written in each paragraph without making any reference to the language techniques they had employed did not meet the assessment requirements of this task.

What to do if pieces of student work are missing? Penalties must apply if students do not complete the required number of tasks. The penalty needs to reflect the Performance Standards (e.g. AP1 – A standard is a wide range of language skills and techniques). If a student has not submitted a piece the wide range will not be evident. Others would include AP3 and AP4 ( a range of familiar and unfamiliar contexts, audiences and purposes) where the range is compromised by missing work. Criteria where number or range is referred to include K and U 1,2,3,4, An1,3, AP1,3,4 and C1 and 2. Therefore any work missing, limits the overall possible grade.

Teachers are reminded to apply the assessment criteria to whatever has been submitted, recognising that missing work severely limits the level of success for the overall assessment type (but does not automatically fail the student) eg. students who completed two pieces of work in the A grade band, and who then did not submit a third could possibly gain a C grading overall for that assessment type, but this would not be possible for those whose first two pieces were of a C standard)