The Stone Gods

Homework: For Tuesday, November 14th finish reading The Stone Gods!

Written Task #1

I have posted comments on the written tasks for my class in the "opdracht" in Magister. Together with the comments, I will be giving everyone a grade of "2", except for cases of severe plagiarism, if present. This grade is simply a placeholder so that you know that the comments are present.

When I see that, in your portfolio, in the folder you have created for English in the school year 2017-18, there is a subfolder called something like "Written Task #1" or "WT1", etc., and in that folder is at least a copy of the task you put in Magister (and the rationale and source list, if these were separate documents) AND you have copied my comments and put them in a separate Word document labeled as such in that folder, I will replace that "2" with your actual grade.

How your actual grade is determined is as follows:
A maximum of 2 points was awarded for your detailed proposal.
You get 1 point if you have handed in in hard copy the peer reviews of 3 students on time.
You get 1/2 point for handing in your written task on time in the Opdracht and another 1/2 point if you put the written task in your portfolio at the same time.
This is a total of 4 points.
You can get a maximum of 1 point for a good rationale, 1/2 a point for making an attempt to write a rationale.
You can get 2 points for the quality of English in your task, which includes whether it is the correct register and is appropriate for the text type, whether it is varied and whether it is correct.
You can get 3 points for how well your task demonstrates understanding of the topic, how well your task demonstrates understanding of the text type chosen, how appropriate the task is for its chosen purpose (as set forth in your rationale) and how well your task has demonstrated the learning outcome(s) you specified in your rationale. If your rationale does not specify your learning outcome, it is difficult to achieve full points here.

When your grade is given, you will see the breakdown in this order where the comments are given:
Detailed proposal-Peer-opdracht-rationale-language-content-portfolio.
Thus a 10 would look like: 2-1-0.5-1-2-3-0.5

If your portfolio is complete and correct, including the comments I have given on your task, before Monday evening, no further points will be deducted and you will earn full marks, except for one-point errors and plagiarism. Extreme plagiarism results in a grade of 1; one-point errors mean the final mark is reduced by 1 for each instance of an error.

Note that, except in extreme cases of plagiarism, in this first task, no penalty has been assessed for failure to properly cite sources, neither has citing sources in a non-standard manner been penalized (for the proper manner, refer to the handout you received on how to cite sources). Failure on subsequent tasks to list all sources, including sources of illustrations, will be severely penalized.

One-point errors, however, have been assessed. The list has been on the blog since the beginning of the year, I have made frequent reference to it, and you had the opportunity to use spelling checkers and to have 3 peers check your work; if it still contains these very basic errors, it is your own fault.

Don't forget to continue reading The Stone Gods. Planning is that you are finished reading it when the SE week is over. See you Monday!

General Feedback on practice Paper 1

1. If I ask you to finish a practice paper at home so I can give you useful feedback, and you don't do so, don't expect me to read it.  If your homework is to finish something you start in class, and you don't, then you did not do your homework. If you have a legitimate reason you could not finish it before the lesson where it is due, you may ask for a reasonable extension.  If you don't plan to finish it, just throw it away.  When you receive a paper from a classmate for peer review, if it is unfinished, you should indicate so in your comments and mock grade.  
2. Remember to skip a line between every line, to leave room for marking and to make reading easier.  If you do not skip a line, I will not read practice pieces; on the real test, I will limit comments to the barest minimum.
3. You had an example that was approximately 1000 words, and it scored 13 points; some of you gave your classmate higher marks (sometimes as much as 18), when he/she sometimes only wrote as few as 350 words, and often did not finish the piece.  Consider whether this shows much critical thought.  Are you critically reflecting on what you or your classmate need to do to get a good grade?  Is it really helpful to a classmate to pat them on the back and tell them "you've scored 18 points", when their actual score is closer to 7?
4. Some of you are still making the "1-point errors".  Check and learn the list under the tab of this website to avoid them.
5. Important features to discuss, which only one or two people, if any, picked up on:
1. Paragraph 1 is a general introduction, paragraphs 2-4 are about Antigua, and paragraphs 5-8 are about Barbuda.
2. Antigua is the island of luxurious beaches and expensive hotels and resorts, good food, winding roads lined with pineapple; Barbuda is more the island for those who want to get closer to nature, with "uninhabited beach [i.e., no hotels] accessed by rutted roads surrounded by scrub brush and cacti" (with the exception of a very exclusive resort).
3. The blue background color suggesting the blue of the Caribbean waters surrounding the islands.
4. This page is merely an overview, or introduction of a larger piece. It is therefore an extract from a travel guide.The pictures, like the text under them, are clickable links to more information on the islands, which therefore together with this overview, constitute the entire piece.   
6. Don't try to prove the obvious.  At the end of the 2nd page, before the guiding questions, it is written "From the website..."  You don't need to prove this with evidence from the text.  You can explain why certain features are present because it is a website, but you don't have to prove it is a website because those features are present.