National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy

1. National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy Narrative Writing Task: training for markers

2. Why we are here • To become familiar with the rubric for marking the NAPLAN Writing task. • To apply the rubric by marking training scripts.

3. Schedule Session 1 • review of the student task • introduction to the marking guide • explanation of criteria 1-4 and marking 2 example scripts Session 2 • explanation of criteria 6-10 and marking 2 example scripts • Prepare to mark qualification scripts

4. The task is to write a narrative

5. This is a demand writing task Students must write a story, although they can respond to the stimulus in a range of ways. • They can tell a story that is: • an imaginative story • an adventure story • a mystery story • a horror story • a romance • a fantasy • …

6. This means they have to know and be able to craft those forms. For example, they need to know that … • amysteryhas: • a setting • characters • event/s — complication (cause and effect; problem and solution) • clues • elements of suspense • resolution — at least to some extent.

7. An adventure story has • a setting in time and place • characters — may not be well developed, one dimensional • event/s complication which builds in a sustained way to a climax(cause and effect; problem and solution) • a strong focus on the action • resolution — at least to some extent.

8. A horror story • can take the overall form of an adventure, a mystery, 1st person narration • uses subject matter that is unusual or abnormal in a normal situation or is very normal in an abnormal context • the emphasis is on the elements of suspense • at least one of characters is extreme with a single element of that character’s personality being relentlessly developed.

9. Writers need to take a narrator stance – and hold it • 1st person narrator stance • uses “I” • sees through the eyes of a story character. • 3rd person narrator stance • uses “they” • takes the perspective of an unseen narrator • has two main types: • all-knowing • knowing only what the characters know.

10. Organisation of the marking guide The manual has • the 10 criteria pages • annotated samples • a general glossary of grammatical terms • a reference list of spelling.

11. Page format Grades

12. Criteria maximum score points Note the weighting of the criteria and mark points on the surface features.

13. Zero scores Before beginning to mark it is important to note that a zero score on any criterion should be applied with caution. Although for many of the criteria a script will only score zero where it a drawing or a series of letters, this is not the case for criterion 7, paragraphing.

14. Difficult to read and very short scripts To gain familiarity with the scoring patterns for low level scripts, please read the first 4 exemplars and their annotations: • Role play writer • Dungaun • The casel • BMX.

15. Audience Skill focus: The writer’s capacity to orient, engage and affect the reader. Score range: 0 – 6

16. In marking audience we are looking for the students’ awareness of their audience. • Have they responded to the task? • How well? • Have they selected subject matter relevant to the task and of interest to their audience? • Have they attempted to engage their audience? E.g. select and deploy rhetorical devices that • lead a reader through • engage a reader’s interest or emotion • directly appeal to a reader e.g. rhetorical questions.

17. Understanding of audience GROWTH Self audience Trusted audience (family and friends) Known audience (teacher) Distant audience (physically remote) Distant audience (socially remote/powerful) Knows and uses different reader expectations

18. Engaging reader interest— language choices Literary (“narrative”) devices Students acknowledge and engage readers when they use language the way writers do. Even clichés may be a step in the right direction. • Figurative language – a starry night • Hyperbole: My Dad is the world’s laziest. • Understatement: Death is a bit disruptive. • Idiom or jargon: “I could well of backed the trifecta”, he said.

19. Activity • ReadMagical parkand St John’s orphanage. • Working in pairs, discuss these two scripts. • Mark the audience criterion • Refer to the manual – use the category descriptions and additional information as well as the annotated scripts to confirm your understanding of the rubric and how it is applied. • Discuss your reasons for making the decisions you did.

20. Text structure Skill focus:The organisation of narrative (story) features including orientation, complication and resolution. Score range: 0 – 4

21. Text structure • Orientation • Complication • Resolution … into a complete narrative.

22. An orientation can focus the reader on the: • situation • setting • action • characters.

23. A complication advances the plot.It is more than a disappointment.

24. A narrative needs a plot • Plots have different forms • dramatic plot • episodic plot • cumulative plot • parallel plot • circular plot • Plots usually have an element of tension.

26. Narrative plots are often driven by conflict • Struggle against nature – Children of the Oregon trail; Little house … • Struggle against another person usually the antagonist – Redwall, Harry Potter • Struggle against society – The Guardians; Northern lights • Struggle against fate – Holes • An internal struggle, e.g. the two sides of one character – Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

27. Narrative devices • imagery • metaphor • figurative language • allusion • hyperbole • understatement • symbolism

28. Activity • ReadMagical parkand St John’s orphanage. • Working in pairs, discuss these two scripts. • Mark thetext structurecriterion. • Refer to the manual – use the category descriptions and additional information as well as the annotated scripts to confirm your understanding. • Discuss the reasons why you made the decision you did.

29. Ideas Skill focus: The creation, selection and crafting of ideas for a narrative. Score range: 0 – 5

30. What is an idea? • In some scripts the ideas are the events in the story. • BMX (page 25) is a one-idea story with no elaboration. • Have the ideas been elaborated? • At the higher score levels (4 or 5) theme is an important consideration. • It is not necessary (and often not desirable) for a theme to be stated explicitly – the best ones underpin the entire text.

31. Theme Theme is the important idea, the meaning, the significance behind the story. “Theme is the melody, the motive, or the dominant idea developed in the story. Children, like adults prefer authors who trust readers to infer theme from the characters, events and setting from story events rather than preaching or explicitly stating the theme.” (Calkins)

32. Theme … multiple themes • The need to be loved • give/receive unconditional love • The need to belong • The need to achieve • The need for security • The need to know • the power of knowledge • The need to survive • resourcefulness • The need to mature (with heroic qualities) • Life and death • Good over evil • …

33. Activity • ReadMagical parkand St John’s orphanage. • Working in pairs, discuss these two scripts. • Mark theideascriterion. • Refer to the manual – use the category descriptions and additional information as well as the annotated scripts to confirm your understanding. • Discuss the reasons why you made the decision you did.

34. Character and Setting Skill focus: Character — the portrayal and development of character Setting — the development of a sense of time and place. Score range: 0 – 4

35. Students’ development of characterisation GROWTH • Generic characters —the boy, the girl;alsomovie or book characters (1) • Friend characters — those with the names of the writer and his/her friends (1) • Invented characters — begins about Year 2 but common by about Year 4 (1) • Characters through dialogue — bits of character emerge (2) • Characters through description (3) • Characters through their actions and reactions. (4) • … (more advanced stages) Graves, 1989, 1991, 1994; Jenkins, 1996

36. Telling vs. showing If I have to tell you, I lose. If on the other hand I can show you a dirty­haired woman who compulsively gobbles cake and candy then you have to draw the conclusion that Annie is in the depressive part of a manic-depressive cycle, I win. … If, on the other hand, I turn her into a cackling crone, she’s just another pop-up bogey lady. In which case I lose big time and so does the reader. Stephen King 2000:190

37. Wolf Gillian Cross He came in the early morning, at about half past two. His feet padded along the balcony, slinking silently past the closed doors of the other flats. No one glimpsed his shadow flickering across the curtain or noticed the uneven rhythm of his steps. But he woke Cassy. She lay in her bed under the window and listened as the footsteps stopped outside. There were two quick, light taps on the front door. Then a pause and then two more taps, like a signal. Cassy sat up slowly. She heard the door of the back room open and Nan come hurrying out. Not running (nurses never run, except for fire or haemorrhage), but crossing the tiny hall in two quick strides. The front door handle clicked, but no one spoke and no light from the hall showed under Cassy’s door. He came in quickly, in silence, in the dark, and the door closed behind him a once.

38. She lay down again and closed her yes, wiping her mind clean and willing the questions away. Mind your own business, Nan always said, and you won’t get your nose caught in my mouse trap. No questions. No thinking at all. The blankness came easily, from long practice, and she floated into a dreamless sleep. When she woke up again it was morning. Nan was standing at the foot of the bed, beside the chest of drawers. On top of the chest, level with Nan’s face, was the big framed photograph of Cassy’s father as a little boy. Both of them stood very straight, shining clean, but not smiling. Mother and son. Nan was staring straight at Cassy, but the boy’s eyes were gazing into the distance, fixed on something beyond the picture. For a second, floating up out of sleep, Cassy wondered what it was. Then she saw the old brown suitcase in Nan’s right hand.

39. Activity • ReadMagical parkand St John’s orphanage. • Working in pairs, discuss these two scripts. • Mark thecharacter and settingcriterion. • Refer to the manual – use the category descriptions and additional information as well as the annotated scripts to confirm your understanding. • Discuss the reasons why you made the decision you did.

40. Session 2 • explanation of criteria 6-10 and marking 2 example scripts • prepare to mark qualification scripts

41. Vocabulary Skill focus: The range and precision of language choices. Score range: 0 - 5

42. Vocabulary • The best writing • selects words with precision, for effect • uses figurative language to give • — connotations of meaning, • — to develop the emotive qualities of the text • Uses vocabulary to increase the density of ideas and thus “paint in the details” of the story.

43. Cohesion Skill focus: The control of multiple threadsand relationships across the whole text, achieved by the use of referring words (pronouns), substitutions, word associations and text connectives. Score range: 0 – 4

44. Cohesion Cohesion can be either: • grammatical or • lexical.

45. Cohesion • Grammatical cohesion • pronoun referencing • connectives • time • cause • addition • contrast • use of repeated conjunctions to connect clause • additive (and); contrastive (but ) & time (then) • causal (so, because, consequently)

46. Cohesion • Grammatical cohesion • pronoun referencing • inside or outside the text (as against undefined) • backward or forward referencing use • repetition of conjunctions to connect clauses • additive (and); contrastive (but ) & time (then) • causal ( so, because, consequently) • use of connectives.

47. Pronouns should be redefined when the reference chains • cross each other • get too long • change in number, e.g. we = Tommy, Jim and I and then Tommy leaves, • cross the paragraph boundaries (often)

48. Connectives Time • Since then, after that, next, as soon as, next morning, by and by • At first, until then, earlier • At the same time, meanwhile, without delay Cause • As a result, therefore, consequently • Because of, so that, due to • Otherwise, in that case, then • As long as, granted that, considering how, now that Addition • Furthermore, moreover, similarly • Indeed, actually, namely, that is • For example, finally • Therefore, in conclusion Contrast • But yet, on the other hand • however

49. Cohesion Lexical cohesion – linking of ideas • repetition • substitution (synonyms) • related words (collocation) • part to whole • class to sub-class • ellipsis

50. Matt bent over with laughter. ‘We did it, Jess,’ he cried out. We did it.’ He ran over and hugged his sister in her ghostgown.‘We scared the tripe out of him.’ Jessica was more interested in getting rid of her robes. ‘Here, help me out of this clobber,’ she said, trying to lift the folds over her head. ‘It’s like being tangled up in a parachute.’ Matt helped her out of her garmentsand she started to foldthemup. The scarecrow spectre was still leaning against the rock nearby. Matt was too busy enjoying the joke against Uncle Bert to begin dismantlingit, but Jessica was in a hurry. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘I want to go home.’ ‘Okay.’ They both turned quickly — and froze. Jessica gave a little cry. At the same time she heard Matt draw his breath in a rasping gasp. The skin on the napes of their neck prickled and their blood seemed to run as cold as ice. A shrouded figurewas standing within thirty metres of them on the Klontarf trail. It was quite motionless – a still white column, strangely luminous, as though lit by a diffused inner light. It was an etherealpresence — calm, mystic, unmoving — the embodiment of the world of spirits.Colin Thiele