Useful+texts+(Report+from+English+Online)

Texts which have 'worked well', according to the markers in 2007, in the Level 1-2 Assessment Reports.
 * Thank you John for sending me this email, it is highly useful and will be of excellent use for next year.

As always, the advice is to select texts with which students can engage, but also ones that provide sufficient scope for students to respond to in appropriate depth. I have copied the relevant sections below....

Reports available by clicking on the following link **[|**Report on useful texts**]

EXTENDED TEXTS LEVEL 1: Choice of text is critical for this standard if students are to be able to reach the highest levels. In some cases, text choice limited opportunities for students, while quality texts of substance were more likely to generate quality answers.

Texts which worked well: //To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Macbeth, The Whale Rider, Krystyna's Story, Angela's Ashes, Looking for Alibrandi, Of Mice and Men, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime, Animal Farm// (although candidates' responses to the latter tended to be less fresh than for other texts).

occur in the text.**
 * Responses in the examination - in which students referred to "the movie"- suggested that some candidates were studying films alongside, or as a substitute for, reading the original novels. Such candidates were unable to provide quotations or they provided examples from the film that did not

SHORT TEXTS LEVEL 1 Text choice continues to be critical for this standard, with poetry often tending to lend itself towards the more perceptive answers, rather than short stories. The hyperfiction / print media response still remains somewhat of a rarity. More challenging or 'substantial' texts, in which students could go beyond literal text details to show their understanding and appreciation, produced more effective answers and the importance of being able to explore the effects of language and style remains paramount.

War poets still dominate responses but it was pleasing to see more New Zealand poets being included //- Glover, Baxter, Dallas, Adcock, Curnow, Colquhoun, Apirana Taylor, Tuwhare, Manhire.// The usual short story writers still featured prominently //(Grace, Ihimaera, Evan Hunter, Dahl, O'Flaherty - now even Mansfield and Sargeson ('A Great Day'), and a few others).//


 * Interestingly, there seemed more science fiction stories this year, a genre whichseemed to offer the potential for students to make links with contemporary society, setting, characterisation and altered features of language - Ray Bradbury, Henry Slesar ('Examination Day'), Kurt onnegut (various, including 'Harrison Bergeron'), Robert Heinlein, Asimov, James Blish ('Surface Tension') and Terry Bisson ('They're Made out of Meat').**

VISUAL/ORAL TEXT LEVEL 1: As for other standards, choice of text remains critical for this standard if students are to be able to reach the highest levels. Documentaries tended to result in less successful responses and oral texts were in a small minority. In some cases, text choice limited opportunities for students, while quality texts of substance were more likely to generate quality answers.

Texts which enabled many students to produce pleasing responses included: //The Truman Show, Remember the Titans, Billy Elliot, Bend It Like Beckham, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Dead Poet's Society, Rabbit Proof Fence, About a Boy, Looking for Alibrandi, Gallipoli, Schindler's List, Whale Rider and The Power of One. The Shawshank Redemption* and Heavenly Creatures provided some students with material for outstanding answers,// **while some texts - In my Father's Den, American Beauty - appeared too challenging for students at this level.**

redemption has a R16 classification. Schools should adhere to guidelines available from the Office of Film and Literature Classification regarding how films should be chosen and used in school (Guidelines are also available from the archives of Education Gazette: Vol. 83 Number 10, 7 June 2004.)**
 * Note: It is important to be aware of the censor restrictions governing movies. The Shawshank

EXTENDED TEXTS LEVEL 2

Texts that elicited strong responses in 2006 included: //The Kite Runner, Out of the Dust, Into the Forest, A Crime in the Neighbourhood, Montana 1948, St Agnes' Stand, About a Boy, The Secret Life of Bees, The Lovely Bones, Tu, Bulibasha and In My Father's Den.//


 * Texts that were generally poorly handled included The Wave, The Outsiders, Tomorrow When the War Began, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Of Mice and Men, Jolt, Romeo and Juliet, Looking for Alibrandi, The Tempest, and Thunder Road.**

In 2007: It was clear that historically fine works such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Macbeth, Lord of the Flies and Catcher in the Rye were still the most popular and allowed the students to respond thoughtfully at all levels of achievement.

These "classics" still work for students and allow them to comment on a wider range of features, ideas and character development than some more recent texts. This is not to say that such texts should be privileged, but rather that they be used as a benchmark with which to judge the level of depth and sophistication of texts required at this level.


 * Markers felt that many candidates were hindered by their study of texts that were more suited to Level 1 or earlier such as "Jolt", "Thunder Road", "Water in the Blood", "Slide the Corner", and "The Wave". These texts did not give the students enough scope to "analyse" at Level 2.**

SHORT TEXTS LEVEL 2 2007:


 * Suitability of text choices remains an issue; those texts which too often provided insufficient depth for candidates to respond to beyond an Achieved level included "The Sniper", "The Last Spin", "On the Sidewalk Bleeding", "It Used to be Green Once", "A Game of Cards", "Big Brother Little Sister", "Lamb to the Slaughter", "Eight Dozen Beer and Nothing to Do", "Snakes", "Bats" and other animal poetry (Blake, Heany, Tennyson and Hughes), and Edgar Allan Poe's short stories.


 * Texts / authors that worked well include war poetry (however overused, this still provides some of the best responses), //Hone Tuwhare, Katherine Mansfield, Witi Ihimaera (some), Glen Colquhoun, Kapka Kassabova, Karlo Mila, Patricia Grace (some), Lauris mond, Carol Ann Duffy, Owen Marshall (some), Frank Sargeson, Apirana Taylor, Henry Lawson, Sylvia Plath, Janet Frame "The Bath", Brian Turner's poetry, Fiona Kidman, Grace Nichols, Sia Figel, Fleur Adcock, Alice Walker.//


 * Some texts that proved too difficult for many candidates to write well about, and to work for the questions, included Shakespearean sonnets, poetry by Donne, Joyce and Shelley.

some candidates to provide enough textual evidence to support their discussion.
 * Poetry that consisted of only seven lines became too difficult for

In 2006: Texts that worked well: //Gattaca, The Truman Show, The Pianist, Schindler's List, Crash, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, In My Father's Den, In the Name of the Father, Mona Lisa Smile, Mississippi Burning, Dead Man Walking, Road to Perdition, American Beauty, Strictly Ballroom, The Hurricane, A Beautiful Mind.//**
 * VISUAL/ORAL TEXTS LEVEL 2

Texts that did not generally contribute to good analyses included :Remember the Titans, Coach Carter, Looking for Alibrandi, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Moulin Rouge, The Outsiders, Stand By Me, The Power of One, Titanic.

In 2007:
 * Nearly all responses were about film; one marker's tally showed nearly 25% of all responses nationally were about The Shawshank Redemption.


 * Many students do not take a critical view of the film studied. They tend to accept, for example, that The Shawshank Redemption has a gritty realism to it without questioning whether that is, in fact, the case.


 * Candidates usually had good film vocabulary and were keen to use it. Some "trotted out" the vocabulary without showing an understanding of it.


 * Some films are totally unsuitable at this level. Films such as Bend it like Beckham and The Outsiders rarely enabled candidates to demonstrate sufficient analysis.

On the other hand, many films, especially those that have depth and encourage a discussion of "meaty" issues, worked well. Films that worked well, apart from the perennial Shawshank, were: //One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Piano, The Ice Storm, Billy Elliot, In the Name of the Father, In My Father's Den, Life is Beautiful, Tsotsi, and Gallipoli.//

Some of the films that did not work as well for many candidates included: The Matrix trilogy, V for Vendetta, James Bond films.**