Gcse 2018 (10) The one with half term

Loose I got it from the mark scheme. She didn't use any linguistic devices (because they didn't really fit in a leavers' day speech) or any punctuation other than commas or full stops. There were no spelling or grammar errors at all but from what I could understand of the mark scheme coupled with mr bruff that isn't enough for the spag marks. She needs every mark she can get for spag because she has no imagination and hates creative writing.

I'd love to find I'm wrong on this.

And thankfully he's been steadily improving. Let's hope that continues next week.

Thanks, loose. I won't be encouraging him to write a description if he prefers the narrative. His range of 4-8 scores have been on school mocks. I wouldn't attempt to mark English! Glad I'm not an examiner.

Actually I can see how grades vary on whole papers during year 11 - the likeliest explanation is not answering the question that was asked. So the answer might be good because the student is able but if they go off topic they can't get the marks for it.
On the creative writing, using a range of techniques effectively will get higher marks but it doesn't have to be the full range of possible devices.

And I do appreciate it’s a competitive world........

Mmzz - so they are indeed benchmarking against their own year group rather than across multiple years. So x% will fail because they will set the grade 4 boundary to reflect the % that would have likely fallen below the grade 4 boundary in SATs. Hope I am not coming over as confrontational but it seems a tad unfair for those on the cusp.

From my DDs perspective it’s (hopefully) not whether she will get a 5 or not but about the grade she will get and as I said before, she has done her best so it will be what it will be.
But for those on the edge of 3/4/5 it’s really harsh. If everyone works really hard (as all your DCs are doing) then it just pushes those boundaries up and the same proportion will ‘fail’. It’s no longer about “do you know the subject” and more about “are you better than everyone else?”.
Expecting to be shot down for this post (especially as a newbie) but it just seems sad!

Ellen different students have different strengths. Some are much better off writing a description of the picture because they don't enjoy imaginative writing. Others prefer coming up with a story. I have students with fantastic imagination but not all of them are comfortable with plot and character.

DD spent today on Maths again...and by choice did another past paper and scored 10% higher than yesterday ...the school have posted a sort of mock paper on the student portal which includes questions on what they predict will be in the Maths exam - which is helpful.

She's worked really consistently since the last exam before half term apart from taking Sunday off...she does take every evening off which I think is fair enough.

Eek! How are you arriving at these grades? There isn't a checklist of linguistic devices for creative writing and you can get a perfectly good mark without using a semi colon! Admittedly, the correct use of semi colons and colons will definitely help the SPAG total out of 16 but it's in conjunction with good spelling and grammatical sentences. Not using one doesn't lose lots of marks.

It sounds like language is causing lots of problems. Similar story here.

The paper she sat earlier was a really nice piece of writing but it didn't have any semi colons in it . Or any metaphors or simile. So apparently it would barely scrape a 5.

I don't know whether to be frustrated at dd because she knows she needs to use them or frustrated at the stupid system that can't just reward interesting writing.

DS3 has varied between a 4 and an 8 in English as well in Y11! Luckily his last one was an 8.

He much prefers the story type question to the description type. A bit nervous if PP's teacher has recommended the picture over the story. Any thoughts, loose?

I can well believe it, i do remember last year reading on one of these threads how someone was saying how their DC didn't get a 9 but was brilliant at English but someone else in class had who had never scored so high before, I believe they were wondering whether to go for a re-mark, but to be honest I can believe that if the right paper comes up for someone I think this could easily happen!

Bluebelle - my dd tells me that her marks for English language have varied between a 4 and an 8. Bit of a worry really!

mmzz perhaps he was just a bit fed up with it all, I think we all have off days........maybe his creative juices will be running tomorrow?

Was he just disengaged because he had mentally checked out and had enough for today mmzz? Give it another go when he is fresh tomorrow morning.

DS attempted some paper 1 questions which the school have made up, I typed them up so they can be emailed to his teacher for marking. I was really struck by the quality of his responses I would say they varied by at least a grade if not more, if the right extract doesn't come up then he really struggles to find anything to say, but if it fires his imagination then he does a lot better.......I guess English is like that for most people.

I think DS was just arguing for the sake of it. I'd say something, and he'd say that he couldn't see it. No counter suggestions from him. No ideas at all from him. Apparently no personal experiences of having been happy, sad, scared, bored, intimidated etc etc that he could draw on. No glimmer of understanding about what other people might feel.
It felt like I was the only one trying to make headway with the exam.
I'm still irritated now! Or worried - is he really that bad ??

actually I know what I am doing wrong. Trying to explain too much at once. He is a one instruction at a time sort of guy.

sorry, that wasn't very grammatical was it

ds has very good expressive language but some receptive language (identified) issues. He has difficulty with inferring but once he knows the techniques he tends to do it quite competently. In this case, just making him revise the techniques threw him into a panic. And the word clause... like how is this sentence constructed? He does it naturally (lots of clauses) but he just cannot see how it is happening in the text when someone else writes it.

mmzz I've just had an equally frustrating time trying to do Victorian non-fiction extract with ds2..he ran off.

tomorrow may be better, I think he needs to prepare a lot mentally before doing work with me I said, just 30 mins a day but I think the timing was too random for him. He really really needs a 6 and he knows it, but still, the panic sets in, and then he does "flight"

I've had a frustrating evening with DS trying to help him with some reading conversation for English language post 1 question 2.
We made zero progress and I was getting exasperated with him.
This is why I am not a teacher!

I'm still trying to work out if he was deliberately being obtuse or if he really struggles with the basics. One again, I'm left wondering what the teacher can see that I can't.

Oh, just to clarify there is always a picture, even if there are two stories (and one may be real experience rather than fiction).
Talking of pictures, that is a lovely photo Sostenueto - I can see pup has grown!
DS did some revision with a friend after the film but is back on the computer. He has a maths session tomorrow afternoon so will revise something else in the morning.

Yes, it is possible - I’ve seen a specimen paper where there are two stories, though one has more of an obvious link to the picture.

Sorry, cross-posted!