Can someone help me with English Lang please?

[Poppy802]

I'm trying hard to help my son. I've looked at his Mock Language paper. I'm looking at an 8 point question and he's got 1 mark out of 8.
The feedback is this:

Focus on behaviour
Write Less just PEA and compare

I said to my son do you understand her feedback and he said no he doesn't get it.
He doesn't feel he can talk to his teacher either.
How can I help my son with not long to go?
I've looked up PEA and can only see something about PEE? Is that the same?

I'd really appreciate some advice please 🙏

No one's checking I'm not drunk - but we're checked every day by the system when we start, and frequently through the day. If we get something wrong, a human has to check too.

@Random102 I can send you some stuff if you want to pm me

Oh lord last year's marking. Nightmares about scorpions and life saving rescues (why were they all stuck in lifts?!?).

Search for "mr dowling padlet" - some really lovely resources there

Every year I give thanks that I mark Lit 1 and Lang 2, and not the other way round 🤣

That would be amazing thank you!

@Poppy802 PEA doesn't allow for the comparison bit and pupils often make the mistake of analysing the language using PEA.

They only need inference and not analysis in this question.

Do you ever struggle really bad to read certain handwriting? Sorry it's turning into AMA!! I find it interesting.

In ten years of marking there have been less than 10 I couldn't read.

It's above me! How would they know what technique to use? Sounds like his teacher doesn't know either!

Do I get a smiley face sticker for recognising the paper? 🤣
Yes, 😀.
You beat me to it.

I'm also surprised that PEA has been given to OP's son for this question.

SQI or SQUID or point-evidence-inference would all be more appropriate techniques as he won't gain marks analysing language in that question.

Ignore me, other people have said the same thing already.
That will teach me not to read the whole thread.

I guess they failed if you couldn't read it.

My sons handwriting isn't great but a teacher has never raised concern

Eek..

I'm really not understanding when he should use PEA and Squid and how he would know....

I get lots escalated to me, but it's very very rare that I can't make anything out. If I'm struggling, it's probably because it's very late at night!

Different questions have different mark schemes so required different things. I'm happy to email you some stuff that should make it clear.

So will my son need to decide based on the question on the day which method to use?

Thank you!

No. The questions are always the same in the same order. The mark schemes are therefore fixed. So he needs to learn how to answer each one and then stick to it.

OK. I didn't know this.

Sorry for all the questions.

I'm really not understanding when he should use PEA and Squid and how he would know
The questions are always in the same order and usually schools/teachers will teach their students a structure for each question.

Paper 2 Question 2 is an inference question so whatever structure he uses he needs to have quotations from the text and some inferences. It doesn't matter of he uses SQuID, SQI, or another inference structure. They're just a way of remembering what to do.

Questions that have the word 'how' in them (such as paper 1 q2, paper 2 q3) are asking him to analyse language. In these questions he will need to focus on on specific words and phrases, then comment on the effect. Again, it doesn't matter whether he does PEA or another structure as most of them are different ways of teaching the same thing.

If you ask him which questions he is unsure off and post here, the MN teachers will probably be happy to advise.

Don't be sorry: these questions are quite literally my job!

Thanks so much!!
We have so much to do and learn!

He says his teacher is very very stressed and there's so much tension in the lessons at the moment. Not ideal but can understand!

I'm glad DD has a year 'off' doing Eng Lang GCSE.
It's a bad day when I recognised the English extract.

Good luck to your DS, OP. If he fails he can take it again. And again. And again .....

Genuine question: if it's so nailed down, and the same each year, why do teachers (schools, I guess) weave language and literature in together when they teach? Why don't they say "Today we're going to look at this skill which is needed to answer paper 2, question 2."?

DD2 should be taking her exams soon. Instead she is resitting year 10, in a different school, in large part because she couldn't grasp what her English teacher was asking her to do. She's autistic (no learning difficulties) and expecting her to pick out what technique she should use based on the question text was just impossible. She would have been grand if someone had said to her "For question 2 use SQuID. For question 4 use PEA." Or, if they'd said "If it says 'how' do this. If it says 'compare' do this."

It may well be that she would have been moved on to that by year 11, but by then any shred of confidence left was destroyed and she was incapable of learning.

As it is, she's doing Functional Skills 2, English Language and will probably not do Literature. But it's such a shame when I read such clear advice on a thread like this, that she couldn't have had teaching that made it clear for her.

@Lougle I used to think like you re DD1. I came to the conclusion however that the teachers were saying all this stuff well enough for 95% of the class, but just not as direct and explicit as my DD needed (she was undiagnosed at the time which wouldn't have helped.) Also if they just 'said' it but didn't write it down in clear powerpoints stuck into the book, it would get forgotten by her anyway.

Most of the knowledge I have is from exam marking. It helps make you a better teacher (in English and my experience) as I know what the questions want for answers