The four categories
| Category | In this course, that means… |
|---|---|
| Knowledge and Understanding | You know the text and the terms |
| Thinking | You can interpret and evaluate, with evidence, including evidence that complicates your case |
| Communication | A reader follows you; the writing is organised and the voice is yours |
| Application | You transfer what we learned to a text or a task you have not seen |
The split
70% from the work of the course; 30% from the final evaluation — Final Examination in the examination period, plus the seminar performance that leads into it.
Within the 70%, later work counts for more. A January essay is better evidence of what you can do than an October one, and the mark should say what you can do.
Drafts
Every major piece is drafted, read, and rewritten. The draft is not marked; it is where the teaching happens. Handing in a first attempt is allowed and reliably costs more than the time it saved.
Late work
Talk to me before the deadline and we will set a new one. Silence is the problem, not lateness: work that never arrives cannot be assessed, and something unassessed cannot earn a mark.
The most useful ten minutes in this course
Read the criteria table on a task page before you start, and again when you think you are finished. Most of the gap between a level 3 and a level 4 in this room is a criterion somebody did not read twice.
Curriculum connection
C4.1
describe a variety of strategies they used before, during, and after writing; explain which ones they found most helpful; and identify appropriate steps they can take to improve as writers (e.g., explain the benefits of sharing their brainstorming list with a partner; identify the graphic organizers they find most useful for organizing their writing ideas and the characteristics that make them useful; identify the proofreading technique or tip they found most helpful)
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B4.1
describe a variety of strategies they used before, during, and after reading; explain which ones they found most helpful; and identify detailed steps they can take to improve as readers (e.g., describe the strategies they used in reading a short story and explain how the strategies were helpful; use a Venn diagram to identify which strategies are useful at a particular stage of the reading process and which are useful at more than one stage – or at all stages)
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