Home tutoring for 11 plus English - help please

[legallady]

Hi all,

Just hoping someone with a bit more experience can give me a few tips.

I'm helping DC prepare for 11 plus in September and struggling to find out how marks are likely to be allocated for the English essay part of the tests. The time given to write the essay varies between 20 mins and half an hour so the schools can't be expecting a thesis and obviously basic grammar, spelling and structure will all be important.

My problem is that its a pretty subjective test whereas maths is either correct or it isn't (and the same applies for VR and NVR). What's the best advice for gaining the most marks? I know there will be slight variations from school to school (we are SW London if that helps) but does experience suggest that marking will be similar for gaining a level 5 during SATs for example - i.e. tick the box and make sure you get in a few similes, complex sentences and a variety of punctuation or is it something more complicated?

Would really appreciate some advice. I'm all for home tutoring where it suits you and your family, but this is one area where I do feel that an expert might be able to give some pearls of wisdom .

[OhDearConfused]

Bump. I also would appreciate some advice here. (We are in SW London too!)Checking VR, NVR, maths, English comprehension etc is relatively easy for reasons you say.

But how do you mark/judge/guide extented essays? Checking spelling and grammar is ok, but how do you judge what will be good enough to pass the Wilsons/Walllington/various indies etc English extended writing test? Clearly, whether something is "interesting" or "rich language" is (i) subjective and (ii) something our DCs state primary doesn't give any feed back on!

[legallady]

Exactly Confused! Here's hoping someone will come along and put us out of our misery .

[Hardboiled]

My guess:
-use and richness of vocabulary
-intention/tone suitable (is it a letter to the council? a description? a fiction work? a diary of an nineteenth century explorer? were you supposed to make it scary? etc)
-structure - did you finish? did you plan ahead with the time you had? Does it have a beginning, middle and end? did you reach any conclusions if you had to? etc.
-use of paragraphs/ use of sentences of different lenghts
-connectives, adjectives - making it "interesting".
-use of both simple and complex sentences
-imagination not only with fiction but for example also with coming up with as many arguments as possible about an issue

let me think of more...

[breadandbutterfly]

I came top in the HBS English exam many moons ago - I suspect because my creative writing was imaginative, fluent, used a range of appropriate vocab (more important than 'wow' words - try to use the right word), a sense of rhythm, good variety of punctuation, sentence length, accurate punctuation, perfect spelling and use of paragraphs, and was fun to read - vivid, personal, from the heart.

A 'dead' piece of writing that ostensibly ticks the boxes by using 'fancy' vocab and punctutation but not appropriately, will score lower.

The ONL way to write fluently and expressively is to read widely. Reading a wide range of children's classics and being left to get on with writing is the only preparation a child needs. If they haven't learned the rules of punctuation or how to use paragraphs, teach them. That's it really.

[legallady]

Thanks Hardboiled, that's useful. So, at a guess, would you think that someone marking a paper would almost have a list of things they expect to see and would give a certain number of marks per each of these elements with a few left over for the general "feel" of the piece?

I'm really loath to "coach" DS about what to write but I do think that in 20 minutes you can only write so much and, therefore, your best bet may be to just make sure the elements you mention are included and not to worry too much about how beautifully crafted it is (just for these purposes of course ).

[Hardboiled]

I agree with bread, reading is the key.
Legal, reading lots and looking together at what your DC has written and maybe talk about how it could be improved or even better...I find that useful. But don't kill the spontaneity putting a list of things to tick in his/her head, that's also important...!

[legallady]

Sorry breadandbutterfly, was busy typing whilst you posted.

I agree that beautiful prose would be what I would endeavour to achieve in a perfect world, but to be honest I'm not sure whether what my son writes is beautiful or not. Sure, I like it, but of course everything he does is perfect . However, I'm very aware that I'm not going to be marking the paper and so I have to try and teach him to get as many marks as possible. It is "teaching to the test" in the worst possible way, I suppose, but if I just tell him to write fluently and interestingly, we're unlikely to get very far.......

Hopefully you can see my dilemma

[Hamishbear]

Take a look at the English advice on the 11 plus forum - very helpful. Also perhaps speak to 'Lessons in the post' - details on 11 plus forum or google. I've found them incredibly helpful. Good luck.

[breadandbutterfly]

Should add - am an English language examiner and have been for many years and criteria differ from one examining board to another, but whilst there may be tick boxes, it's not that simple - it's an art not a science marking English essays. Fluency - natural, readable style, lack of errors - is one of the things that marks out the highest candidates. I suppoae it's a question of whether you're aiming for your ds to scrape by with the bare minimum or achieve a really high standard of written English - my tendency would be to teach towards the latter not the former, as the latter is also much more fun to do - enjoying the beauty of great literature, expressing yourself and creating something meaningful - this is fun. Trying to remember checklists of grammar, punctuation, vocab etc - likely to kill any interest in English literature or creative writing for life.

Just my opinion, of course.

[legallady]

Of course you're right Bread and you sum up my problem exactly when you say that marking English is an art and not a science! That's what worries me.......

I think we'll just have to keep reading and writing and try to make sure that the things he can get correct (like punctuation) are drilled in, without being prescriptive on what he actually writes. He does worry me though sometimes - he wrote a short piece on how a young boy would feel if he fell into a river and couldn't swim. I told him to ensure he brought the piece to a conclusion in the appropriate time. He finished by saying that as the boy' s head slipped under the water, he "embraced death like an old friend." When questioned about where he got this from, he confirmed that he lifted it straight out of Harry Potter. Can 10 year olds be done for plagiarism?

[Hardboiled]

Legal, if your DS is absorbing what he reads like that and then using it in the right context, you have nothing to worry about. Picasso said to every artist: you must copy, but copy only the greats.

[Shagmundfreud]

I agree with breadandbutterfly.

There's such a thing as 'flair' when it comes to English, and it can't be taught.

Sorry, that's not very helpful.

My tip: encourage your child to read, read, read.