Monday, June 19 - Thursday, June 22

Thursday

I will be at school by 8:00-ish tomorrow. I will have doughnuts and coffee/tea ready. 

1. Read two of the synthesis pieces from a past exam.
2. Let's take a deeper look at the synthesis part of the exam. First, some tips from the experts: see below.
3. Score some of the synthesis responses from students who wrote the exam.
rubric: https://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/exams/specs/grade12/en/14_scoring_guides.pdf
sample: https://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/exams/exemplars/en_synthesis/en12-synthesis-samples.pdf


Tips from the experts ie. people who have marked the exam for many years...

The Synthesis Essay:

Everything that pertains to the Stand-Alone text also pertains here.

Most English teachers have students compare and contrast things now and then, but we would do well to teach this more directly. Essays with well-synthesized ideas have the connection between the works as their subject, and use one text as the perspective from which to view the other. I tell my students to consider one text as providing the critical lens through which to view the other.

Upper level responses are detailed and thoroughly consider the texts in relation to the question.

Students should strive for a relatively formal academic voice in these, avoiding first person and avoiding editorializing (and avoiding referring to authors by their first names!).

Again, the point isn’t to produce an answer which is merely correct, but to produce an essay that elegantly and perceptively considers the question. A merely correct answer will likely net a 4.

Second,

Part B: Synthesis Text 1

In the comprehension section, you are expected to read a non-fiction passage or a poem and answer the multiple choice questions based on the content of the passage. You are showing that you understand what you read. Read the questions carefully and answer to the best of your ability. Never leave an answer blank. If you have to, guess. Try not to spend more than the ten minutes suggested for this section.

This section should be easy marks. Don’t give them away by not reading the questions properly or making silly mistakes. 

Part C: Interpretation of Prose (Short Story)/Synthesis Text 2

In this section you are required to read a short story, answer 8-14 multiple choice questions and write a synthesis essay that looks at the prose piece and either the non-fiction piece or the poem from Part B. Stories are usually about 2 pages in length. This section is worth 33 points – more than 1/3 of your entire provincial mark! The time suggested for the prose section is 45 minutes – use at least that much, if not more (remember the extra hour everyone gets).

The multiple choice questions you will be required to answer are both on the passage specifically as well as questions that deal with the synthesizing of both texts.

The multiple choice questions are one point each. Never leave a question unanswered – if necessary, use the process of elimination.

Multiple choice may ask you about terms, techniques, understanding the story, or vocabulary. KNOW YOUR TERMS.

Remember to read the essay questions first, before reading the story.

* It is very easy to score a 4 in this section but often hard to score a higher mark. Stay focused, prove your clear arguments and use strong, appropriate quotes to prove your thesis. Vivid, proper vocabulary will also help as well complex sentence structures that vary through the paragraphs.

As you read, use a highlighter or your pen to underline and make notes to help you answer the question. Write all over the booklet if you wish!

This is a literary essay. DO NOT USE ‘I’ OR ‘YOU’. Write in third person. This is a SYNTHESIS question – make sure you incorporate BOTH pieces of literature and answer the question.

Your essay needs to be at least 3 paragraphs long – if it less than that, you will lose one point from your mark. And will likely not score higher than a 3 because you haven’t developed your ideas.

Make sure your first paragraph is as error free as possible. This is where the marker gets their first impression of your writing ability. Don’t give them a reason to question your skill level.

Be sure to use quotes to support your answer. INTEGRATE YOUR QUOTES WELL.

*Quotes are like Barbies™ – they can’t stand up by themselves!

You need to have a clear thesis sentence. This sentence should contain the author’s names and the story’s titles and connect to synthesis. But it should not be the only sentence in your introduction.

Be sure to answer the question!

Synthesis questions may ask about the following: character*, theme*, tone, mood, irony, imagery, compare & contrast, and a variety of literary devices – metaphor, extended metaphor, symbolism*, allusion, etc. Be sure you know your terms.

* = very popular topics.

Essays are double marked on the 6 point scale, the marks are combined, multiplied by 2 and you receive a grade out of 24.

Do not refer to the author by first name only. Be clear on whether the author is male or female so that you use the correct pronoun. These little things if correct, tell the marker you know what’s going on. If you use the wrong pronoun or some other small error, it’s a little warning to the marker you may not understand what you read.

Avoid clichés, rhetorical questions or review like comments. Stay neutral and don’t preach or “teach” the markers about the story.

Eg; In the short story, “Andy Warhol”, the author, Jesse Smith does an amazing job of creating a vivid theme of overcoming hardship.

ANSWER THE QUESTION!
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Some tips for the multiple choice section of the exam...

From the blog Rasul Learning Blog 

Many students find the English 12 provincial difficult to study for. The texts and theme are different for each exam, so unlike knowledge-based tests, there is nothing to memorize (aside from a laundry list of literary terms and devices). Students can prepare, however, by familiarizing themselves with the exam format and types of reading passages and response questions, which remain consistent for each exam. Below is a detailed break-down on what to expect from the multiple choice.

Skills Assessed

The multiple choice questions are designed to evaluate your skills in four reading comprehension categories. The most basic is the ability to retrieve information, which involves answering questions by locating the pertinent information within the text. You must also be able to recognize meaning by understanding how to reformulate information in the text and identifying a range of literary terms and devices. More challenging is the ability to interpret texts, inferring ideas or linking concepts that are not explicit in the reading. Finally, you will be required to analyze texts, evaluating elements such as purpose, viewpoint, and character, and synthesizing information from more than one source.

How to Recognize Question Types

Retrieve information – These questions have no particular form or clue words, and may start with any of the ‘5 Ws.’ However, they will be quite straightforward, such as “What caused…” or “Why did X…”

Recognize meaning – Most of these questions will ask you to identify a literary device used in a part of a passage. Another question commonly asked is about the form of the poem. Examples of typical questions are “What sound device is used in line 3?” and “What term best describes the style of the poem?”

Interpret texts – These questions tend to ask you to draw an inference from a quotation about a character, or character’s beliefs, or purpose. Clue words to watch for are “imply” and “suggest.” For example, a question may ask “What do lines 2-4 imply about character Y?”, or “What does sentence 3 suggest about the purpose of Z?” Other common questions require you to identify the central idea of the text, or conclusion that can be drawn, or the mood of a passage.

Analyze texts – These questions usually ask about the similarities or differences between some aspect of the synthesis passages, such as how the character’s goals differ, or in what respect two characters are the same. Another common question is how one character would “most likely respond” to another character’s situation.

Frequency of Question Types

Each multiple choice question assesses your skills in one of the above categories. A look at the multiple choice questions from past provincial exams available on the BC Ministry of Education website (http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/exams/search/) reveals that the number of questions from each category has remained fairly stable over the last several years. Here are some patterns that arise:

• There will be 22 or 23 total multiple choice questions.
• You can expect 2 or 3 questions testing your ability to retrieve information.
• There will be around 7 questions testing your ability to recognize meaning.
• Interpreting texts will be a focus of the multiple choice sections, comprising around 11 questions.
• There will be 2 or 3 multiple choice questions testing your ability to analyze meaning.
•  There will be 5-8 questions that ask you to choose the “best” answer (meaning that more than one answer may seem plausible).
• There will be 1 question on a graphic image (e.g. chart, timeline etc.) that accompanies one of the reading passages.
•  You should expect 1 or 2 questions about tone or mood.
• There are generally 5 or 6 questions that require you to identify literary terms and devices.
• At least 1 or 2 questions will touch upon your existing knowledge of vocabulary.

Wednesday

1. Kahoot that I found? https://create.kahoot.it/#quiz/4c11358c-175b-421b-9500-24b5a6a44bfa
2. Watch the rest of Hamlet?
3. Time to work on your Two Minute stories?
Remember the prompt: A good life doesn't have to be complicated. I have summarized all the fantastic observations that the class made about the PodCast stories we listened to last week:
- focus on a particular time - don't try to cover weeks and weeks of time in this type of story
- theme should be clear
- self-reflection by the main character (use 1st person) should be obvious
- reasoning - cause-effect in story is clear
- make powerful comparisons through the use of metaphor and simile
- there should be movement towards change/a moment of revelation in the story
- start the story with dialogue, or jumping right into the action, or with a little anecdote
- use dialogue in the story
- use transitions to move the story forward - chronological order
- EMOTIONs - how does the main character feel - ideally SHOW (through actions) rather than TELLING.
- have a point of revelation/epiphany/realization/turning point near the end of the story
- use vivid verbs, -ly words, -ed describing words, parallelism,
- voice - expressing the senses
- tone -
2. Some tips on the composition section of the exam - see below.
3. Score some more student samples from past exams:
rubric: https://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/exams/exemplars/en_oc/09_ques_rubric.pdf
samples: https://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/exams/exemplars/en_oc/en12-comp-sp.pdf

In general, students should be reminded that the written responses are compositions, not merely answers to questions. Markers are looking for clearly articulated, perceptive understandings of the works in question. Because these are marked holistically, there is nothing that is automatically punished or rewarded (except writing the essays in verse, complete failure to address the question, or having wildly inappropriate content).

Note that on the rubrics, there is nothing particularly wrong with a paper at the scale point 4. But scale points 5 and 6 have notable strengths in content and/or expression

Part D: Original Composition

This section is worth 24 marks and requires you write an original composition. The suggested time is 40 minutes – use at least that and likely more.

The instructions for this section are as follows:

“Using standard English, write a coherent, unified, multi-paragraph composition of approximately 300 words on the topic below. In your composition, you may apply any effective and appropriate method of development which includes any combination of exposition, persuasion, description and narration.”

Your composition needs to be multi paragraph or you will lose marks.

You are given a topic to write about, but how you choose to approach the topic is up to you. Typically, narrative essays do better than expository simply because they tend to be more creative. However, many expository and persuasive essays have received 6’s. Write the way you write best.

Some past topics:

Keeping an open mind allows for growth. (Jan 2000)

The pursuit of freedom involves change. (April 2000)

It is important to have a realistic view of life. (April 2001)

People can create their own reality. (Jan 2002)

People can be influenced by their environments.(June 02)

Certain experiences can mark the beginnings of maturity. (Jan 03)

Our journey into the future begins in the past. (April 03)

Our views of the past change as we mature. (Jan 04)

Use some time to pre-plan. You need to be clear in what you are writing about. Remember to save some time to proof read and edit. You will only have time and room to write one copy – make sure it’s a good one.

* Handwriting can often be a factor in your mark. Be sure to be as neat and legible as possible. Don’t give anyone reason to lower your mark!

Make sure your first paragraph is error free and as engaging as possible. This is what will create the readers’ first impression of your work.

Have a title. It’s refreshing and a nice extra piece of pizzazz the readers enjoy.

Zeros are only given if the essay if completely off topic or if the language/content is inappropriate.

Remember your audience. Watch your language for slang, boring, common vocabulary and inappropriate content.

It MUST be your work! Re-writing common movie plots or novel story lines will not only insult the marker, but can result in a zero.

Tuesday
I was away unexpectedly, so I asked the TOC to show a modern version of Hamlet to the class.




Monday

1. We are in the computer lab today (506) so that you can go here: https://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/exams/search/

and plan/prepare for the exam.

Here you will find an entry point into a practice provincial exam. 

Everyone in the class is to do the same exam (2011-2012). 

Everyone is to do the e-exam (so you can print your results)

After you select e-Exam for 2011/12, you end up here:

To enter the exam, just double-click the blue link for the 2011/12 exam. It will auto-fill the PEN and Session Password boxes for you. 

After you select e-Exam for 2011/12, you end up here:

IF you have already done 2011-2012, pick a different exam. If you have done all the sample exams, see me for a copy of the 2015 paper exam. 

Regardless of whether you have previously completed a practice exam before or not, do one practice exam in-class today, print your results and hand them in to me.  Don't forget to put your name on your answer sheet.

Do the multiple choice for all parts of the exam, plan the stand alone text response, plan the synthesis essay and actually write the composition for the exam. Yes - I will look it over, and I will give you feedback on your composition.