Question about marking English HL Mock paper

sitstill

I'm just going to start correcting mocks. I have JC HL English. There's one boy in the class who is basically perfect and he generally gets full marks - if he gets an A- say, he worries about why he didn't get an A or an A+.

So when correcting the mock, do I give him the A he's probably going to earn or do I try and mark him down to make sure he keeps working? Thanks

rainbowtrout

sitstill wrote: »

I'm just going to start correcting mocks. I have JC HL English. There's one boy in the class who is basically perfect and he generally gets full marks - if he gets an A- say, he worries about why he didn't get an A or an A+.

So when correcting the mock, do I give him the A he's probably going to earn or do I try and mark him down to make sure he keeps working? Thanks

No you give him the mark he deserves based on what he wrote on the day because that is what an examiner is going to do in June.

Why would you give him an A if he doesn't deserve it on the mock? If anything other students in the class will just say it's favoritism if he gets higher marks than them and has written the same answer.

peanuthead

rainbowtrout wrote: »

No you give him the mark he deserves based on what he wrote on the day because that is what an examiner is going to do in June.

Why would you give him an A if he doesn't deserve it on the mock? If anything other students in the class will just say it's favoritism if he gets higher marks than them and has written the same answer.

I think you've got it the wrong way around there rainbowtrout - the student deserves the A and the teacher is wondering whether or not to mark him DOWN so as to make him work.

OP - What I would do as an English teacher is give him the mark he is entitled to. But I would probably tell him he is borderline and that without consistent work that A could slip down to a B.

I would also warn him that working on his English is likely to help him in other subjects which he may not necessarily be aceing, for example Art History, Religion and History all require long winded, well constructed essays with clear, coherent expression of views.

This should keep him on the straight and narrow.

rainbowtrout

peanuthead wrote: »

I think you've got it the wrong way around there rainbowtrout - the student deserves the A and the teacher is wondering whether or not to mark him DOWN so as to make him work.

OP - What I would do as an English teacher is give him the mark he is entitled to. But I would probably tell him he is borderline and that without consistent work that A could slip down to a B.

I would also warn him that working on his English is likely to help him in other subjects which he may not necessarily be aceing, for example Art History, Religion and History all require long winded, well constructed essays with clear, coherent expression of views.

This should keep him on the straight and narrow.

Whichever, but it's the same difference anyway. Give him the mark he deserves for what he wrote on the day, not what he might get in June, not what he normally gets in class, and not what will make him work.

peanuthead

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Whichever, but it's the same difference anyway. Give him the mark he deserves for what he wrote on the day, not what he might get in June, not what he normally gets in class, and not what will make him work.

Yeah I agree, same difference. If he's been consistently getting As all along he's pretty motivated to begin with so I don't see why he would suddenly decide not to bother.

He actually sounds like the opposite would be a problem, as in he doesn't know when to relax!!

implausible

Depends on the student. I mark mine harder than the actual LC so that there's always an area to improve on. So much depends on the paper on the day of the actual LC that most students can't afford to become complacent.

Fizzical

sitstill wrote: »

I'm just going to start correcting mocks. I have JC HL English. There's one boy in the class who is basically perfect and he generally gets full marks - if he gets an A- say, he worries about why he didn't get an A or an A+.

So when correcting the mock, do I give him the A he's probably going to earn or do I try and mark him down to make sure he keeps working? Thanks

How rotten can you be???

The least a student can expect of their teacher is honesty.

peanuthead

Fizzical wrote: »

How rotten can you be???

The least a student can expect of their teacher is honesty.

To be fair, the OP is not being rotten.

A lot of teachers will be very hard on students they feel could do extremely well. A method that some teachers use to make the student go the extra mile is to really down grade their work. This wakes the student up, makes them go all out and results in fantastic marks in the exam.

The problem with that method is that it won't and doesn't always work that way. Some students will pull back from the subject or teacher or lose any love they had for the subject at all!

I have seen that method work absolute wonders with students, but I have also seen it destroy some. You have to be very careful who you use it with and make sure you know them well.

Obviously the situation I'm talking about is when a teacher consistently does this over a period of one or two years and not just in a mock exam.

Me, I prefer the honest approach. I would give the student the mark he deserves, and lets face it, if he's an A English student, he has a gift for writing and that should be nurtured. It's obviously too late for this now, but what I would have done with him in 5th year is got him involved in creative writing workshops, sent him to plays etc.. got him involved in writing competitions and foster a love for English and writing in him so that he would now be interested in further work and study for personal fulfillment as well as to obtain points.


Okay, very long winded, but maybe something to think about for the future

rainbowtrout

peanuthead wrote: »

To be fair, the OP is not being rotten.

A lot of teachers will be very hard on students they feel could do extremely well. A method that some teachers use to make the student go the extra mile is to really down grade their work. This wakes the student up, makes them go all out and results in fantastic marks in the exam.

The problem with that method is that it won't and doesn't always work that way. Some students will pull back from the subject or teacher or lose any love they had for the subject at all!

I have seen that method work absolute wonders with students, but I have also seen it destroy some. You have to be very careful who you use it with and make sure you know them well.

Obviously the situation I'm talking about is when a teacher consistently does this over a period of one or two years and not just in a mock exam.

Me, I prefer the honest approach. I would give the student the mark he deserves, and lets face it, if he's an A English student, he has a gift for writing and that should be nurtured. It's obviously too late for this now, but what I would have done with him in 5th year is got him involved in creative writing workshops, sent him to plays etc.. got him involved in writing competitions and foster a love for English and writing in him so that he would now be interested in further work and study for personal fulfillment as well as to obtain points.


Okay, very long winded, but maybe something to think about for the future

I've seen some teachers employ that method too. I stick to giving the student the grade they deserve on the answers they wrote. However my students finished their mocks last week and the papers have been sent away for correction. I usually end up re-correcting mine when they come back because the correcting for my subject is generally atrocious.

I thought the mock paper my students sat was a joke. (I didn't see it before hand, it was all copy and paste from previous past papers and too many one line answers for HL, but that's a whole other rant). When I asked the class on monday how it went I got 'It was awful, really, really hard' from a good few of them. Then we went through the paper in class and they started calling out the answers and realised how easy it had been compared to a real paper and I was glad to see they came to that conclusion themselves.

So they have been well warned: if they do well on this paper, well done to them, but the one they sit in June will be nowhere near as easy as the mock and they have to put in a lot of work in the next four months.

Fizzical

peanuthead wrote: »

To be fair, the OP is not being rotten.

A lot of teachers will be very hard on students they feel could do extremely well. A method that some teachers use to make the student go the extra mile is to really down grade their work. This wakes the student up, makes them go all out and results in fantastic marks in the exam.

The problem with that method is that it won't and doesn't always work that way. Some students will pull back from the subject or teacher or lose any love they had for the subject at all!

I have seen that method work absolute wonders with students, but I have also seen it destroy some. You have to be very careful who you use it with and make sure you know them well.

Obviously the situation I'm talking about is when a teacher consistently does this over a period of one or two years and not just in a mock exam.

Me, I prefer the honest approach. I would give the student the mark he deserves, and lets face it, if he's an A English student, he has a gift for writing and that should be nurtured. It's obviously too late for this now, but what I would have done with him in 5th year is got him involved in creative writing workshops, sent him to plays etc.. got him involved in writing competitions and foster a love for English and writing in him so that he would now be interested in further work and study for personal fulfillment as well as to obtain points.


Okay, very long winded, but maybe something to think about for the future

To be fair, it's manipulative and dishonest.

I hear what you're saying and I understand the motivation. But a student hands up a paper they've put their heart into, to a teacher they trust asking for a fair judgement on their work.

Give pointers, don't give the extra mark if it's borderline and the work is not fully up to scratch or give warnings about grades falling due to over-confidence but in my mind a deliberate mis-marking of that paper is a betrayal of trust.

Not to mention totally unprofessional.

Fizzical

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I've seen some teachers employ that method too. I stick to giving the student the grade they deserve on the answers they wrote. However my students finished their mocks last week and the papers have been sent away for correction. I usually end up re-correcting mine when they come back because the correcting for my subject is generally atrocious.

I thought the mock paper my students sat was a joke. (I didn't see it before hand, it was all copy and paste from previous past papers and too many one line answers for HL, but that's a whole other rant). When I asked the class on monday how it went I got 'It was awful, really, really hard' from a good few of them. Then we went through the paper in class and they started calling out the answers and realised how easy it had been compared to a real paper and I was glad to see they came to that conclusion themselves.

So they have been well warned: if they do well on this paper, well done to them, but the one they sit in June will be nowhere near as easy as the mock and they have to put in a lot of work in the next four months.

I wonder did they sit the same papers as mine...:mad:

I had a teacher once who was well known to mark everyone a grade down. We only had her one year, my previous teacher whom I trusted a lot more, confirmed this. I was getting Bs on A - worthy papers.
I did work a bit harder but I also lost trust in her.

OP I would say mark accurately, go under rather than over if it's borderline, and warn him to keep it up

implausible

I think that the subject has a lot to do with it. Science and Maths based subjects have a lot less room for manoeuvre than English. I more or less ignore the marking schemes given by the mock companies and mark according to the harshest interpretation that could be given in a state exam. If a student appears particularly despondent about a mark, I'll have a word, but for the most part, it gives many the motivation they need. I must add here that all of the students get a lengthy note of constructive criticism at the end of their script.

While not the case in my school, I have taught in schools where parents expect the mark in state exams to mirror the marks they had been getting throughout the years in school. It has made me wary of giving As in mock exams.