The way forward for LC2021

Str8outtaWuhan wrote: »

Nope, but I live with one. unions said PG a once off last yr and SEC were not running it last yr . This yr PG back and SEC running yet. adding 2+2 it makes sense. Plus they will be expecting subject teachers to be on site for practicals in Easter? so thats your easter hols gone.

Nobody last year thought the pandemic would be ongoing this year. We need the sec involved to avoid some of the nonsense from last year.

We will be back to a normal LC in 2022.

We’ll see how the orals go.

Ordinary level English, Irish and maths teachers will have a difficult task ahead of them over the next few months.

Just heard on the news that only students who are opting for the written exam will do Orals??? I'm wondering if the newsreader (newstalk) got it wrong?? Did anyone else hear that?
I'd say my junior certs will be burning their books this weekend.....!!!!!

pandoraj09 wrote: »

Just heard on the news that only students who are opting for the written exam will do Orals??? I'm wondering if the newsreader (newstalk) got it wrong?? Did anyone else hear that?
I'd say my junior certs will be burning their books this weekend.....!!!!!

So they have to decide soon.

That would make sense for keeping numbers down.

pandoraj09 wrote: »

I'd say my junior certs will be burning their books this weekend.....!!!!!

I'd say most schools will be doing some form of end of year assessment with 3rd years to make sure they keep working for another bit. It's what we have planned anyway.

Barbeapapa wrote: »

Teachers who are advising taking the exams anyway, I notice you are mentioning your H1 and H2 students. What about the others? Your "H3 at best" students, not all skivers or dunces but not quite as academic but still hoping for reasonable results, what would you advise there?

I think you'd have to advise them to go and take the exam too. I can't see a downside to any student putting their head down now and doing the best the can for an exam in June. I think it will be unlikely that many of them will exceed the calculated grade the teacher will give them for many reasons (time lost, motivation etc). Last year most teachers erred on the side of caution and inflated the grade. If that gets repeated, which I would imagine it will be given what went on last year, it will be hard for students to improve in an exam they won't be that very well prepared for??

I think the two groups that do very well out of this system are the high achieving well motivated students who have continued to work and now can sit an exam knowing the teacher will probably grade them highly anyway. This will remove some of the stress and have a back up if they perform poorly on the day.

I think those who just want to get the certification and move on will also do well out of this. They'll down tools now, get the predicted grades and move on with their lives.

That leaves a large cohort in between who I think will continue to struggle for the next while in a bit of uncertainty. With online learning to continue for a little longer anyway, they'll stress over every assignment wondering will it factor into their online grade. Class tests when we return to school the same. Teachers will be scalded for not giving notice, every wrong answer queried (despite assurances from teachers that particular test won't be taken into consideration). Many of them will spend far more time questioning what subjects to drop (if any) than actually studying. Even though students wanted options I think a lot of them will struggle with the choice.

I'd be very interested in knowing will there be two separate pools of results in terms of standarisation or fitting to a curve. I think it would be very unfair to throw them in together.

Nyla Worried Son wrote: »

Right. My main query then would be about levels. Will students be allowed to choose the level of the exam on the day as normal. I think any change to that would be unfair. So say they opt for HL predicted grade with risk of failing, can they then sit OL in the exam as an insurance policy?

Hard to know. According to the article on the journal data right up to May can be use to arrive at a predicted grade. I can see a fun couple of months ahead. In terms of student reaction, I can see them complaining about all the class tests coming their way in order to have data for a predicted grade

Rosita wrote: »

The downside of doing an exam where you most likely will never improve your grade is the opportunity cost in study and preparation time for subjects where you probably could improve with more work. I'm think of subjects like Geography and Biology.

100% I normally correct Bio LC HL, with the extra choice this was already an issue. I gave mine a full paper and had kids getting over 90 at Christmas, the choice is massive. I don't envy the setters, there will need to be a few twists in every question to keep the H1s down. I'm assuming the marking scheme will go through about 100 revisions!

Rosita wrote: »

Re Orals - that makes sense as students should be entitled to predicted grades too. It would explain why they think it'll be done in two days.

Students will be making the choice in the coming weeks so if orals are going to take place at Easter. I’d imagine the DES are expecting a lot to opt out of OL Irish in particular.

It also means once you’ve opted out of sitting the exam for a subject there’s no late change of mind.

am_zarathustra wrote: »

Is the opt in the online system they were talking about, linked to the matrix that should be in schools?

They may have to make this decision very quickly if so.

I’d say so because the details of that weren’t sent to schools yet to the best of my knowledge. I imagine whatever was designed will be tweaked to allow them confirm their subjects, levels and predicted grade only or PG and exam

Rosita wrote: »

I notice in the press release they mention that while grades will be SEC accredited, the orals and coursework will not be SEC accredited. What could that mean I wonder? Does it mean that there will not really be stare oral examinations at all and that they too will be teacher assessed?

I think it means if they go for accredited grades the orals/practicals aren’t included in that, but if they go for exams they are.

History Queen wrote: »

Actually ISSU had an interesting line on this that I was about to ask about see it here in their tweet.

"Teachers from neighbouring schools will conduct them"

Not sure what that's about.

https://twitter.com/issu4u/status/1362109216698363904?s=19

The last line also says schools are closing a week early In the summer
They could be confused though and it might just be J Certs are finishing up a week early to allow for schools to do to their results

History Queen wrote: »

Actually ISSU had an interesting line on this that I was about to ask about see it here in their tweet.

"Teachers from neighbouring schools will conduct them"

Not sure what that's about.

https://twitter.com/issu4u/status/1362109216698363904?s=19

There’s a lot of interesting info in there! Schools to close a week early?

Nyla Worried Son wrote: »

Yes, ISSU saying teachers from neighbouring schools to conduct orals or practicals, but they will be marked by SEC.

That’s more info than the government press release.