Poorly answered questions
4.8 The question asks for Function but very few learners gave the function of the different kinds of memory.
7.1.a) The question asks the learners to fit the table on a single page. In this question it became apparent that many learners do not know the terms – change the orientation to 'Landscape’, and ‘narrow’ or ‘widen’ the columns.
7.4.b) The question asks for ‘other factors that could be considered to ensure that the secretary’s health is not compromised.’ Now it asks for ‘factors’. It does not ask how to prevent problems.
Learners need to pay close attention to the phrasing in the questions.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teachers Awards 2008 - Hong Kong
Congratulations to Sarietjie Musgrave of Eunice High School: Free State for her project Spread the Sunshine which gained her runner up position in the Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teachers Awards 2008, category Innovation in Community Category. It was awarded in Hong Kong early this month.
The project for Grade 10 Computer Applications Technology involved learners investigating the needs of disabled people and then using their skills to create useful ICT based artefacts for disabled people. A range of applications were used including an animation package to design a public awareness campaign and Clicker to design software to support the disabled.
Thamsanqa Makhathini of Mpophomeni High School: KwaZulu-Natal also went to the ceremony with his project Local is Lekker@Mpophomeni in the Innovation in Challenging Contexts category. Below is his description of his entry.
Groups of Grade 11 Computer Applications Technology learners designed research instruments and interviewed community members about pre- and post-1994. Findings, photographs and audio-clips (recorded using cell phones) were then used to create a website.
Congratulations to both. Information from http://www.schoolnet.org.za/itf/index.htm and http://www.schoolnet.org.za/
Monday, November 17, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Gr 11 Practical examinations
COMMENT from CAT teacher in Gauteng about Gr 11 Practical Paper from Study Opportunities:
I think the paper was: “doable”, Balanced, Different to the norm – this is a good aspect.
I also think it is a good thing that they have been exposed to a paper set by someone else and not by me. Every teacher has their own unique way of setting a paper and pupils get used to that way. They are then only exposed to a different way of setting in the matric exam and can then flounder.
It was in my opinion maybe about 30 minutes too long depending on the child. I am not worried about my pupils who have not been working during the year not finishing – they need a wake up call and would have still not finished even with extra time. But my top pupils should be able to finish and they battled hence my decision to give them an extra 20 minutes. As this is an internal exam, I think we as experienced educators should be able to use our discretion about increasing the time given during an internal exam. I have not marked any of my weaker pupils’ papers yet so I cannot comment on their results as yet. Maybe they are going to have been more affected by the length.
In my opinion, there was nothing “unseen” or extremely difficult and it was not unreasonable. The database form was more complicated than I had done in class with my pupils but my top pupils managed it well. It is something I will have to work on next year as I seem to never do enough work on forms. My pupils also seem to generally battle with Access in grade11 but with more exposure in grade 12 improve.
There was also quite a lot of reading which they have to get used to as it seems that this is the trend with most subjects in the new syllabus and a weakness of our “modern” pupils.
In my opinion it was a matric standard paper that grade 11’s had to write and they have not yet had as much exam practice as a matric child has had. My matric pupils found both the prelim practical exam and the final practical exam long, but my top pupils finished comfortably.
My top child has got a steady 91% per term this year. For her June prac she got 94% and for this exam 85%. When I asked her afterwards how she found the exam, she said she could do everything but she felt very rushed for time and hence made silly mistakes. When I marked her paper, I realised that she was correct as she made mistakes on sections she knows well and would not normally make mistakes on. She has never been rushed for time before as she always works quickly and efficiently and knows the applications very well. She did not have time to go back and check her work either.
My top 2 kids had just finished question 6 when they had 5 minutes left. I therefore gave them an extra 20 minutes. Once I have marked them all, I am going to look at their year marks and if I feel they are too low, I may moderate the prac slightly. However, an end of year exam mark is normally lower than during the year as it is set on a much larger section of work. When all the years’ tasks and PAT are added together, I am sure it will even out. I also don’t want to have my pupils arriving in matric with inflated grade 11 marks but at the same time would not want them to be demoralised.
The paper marks well (I have only marked 2) – the marking grid is great. I think that we should have the solutions printed out to see what certain documents should look like: for example the table in question 5. Just check the ticks as in one or two questions the number of ticks does not match the overall mark.
Question 6, the type of question I normally dislike marking as it usually takes so long, marks beautifully thanks to the way the memo is designed.
I also think for the second year of grade 11’s and a new syllabus, Study Opportunities has done very well to set a paper of such a good standard. I for one am very grateful not to have had to set CAT papers for my school but could rather spend my time on marking the PATs. Everyone knows how long it takes to set an exam paper.
CAT should not be seen as an “easy” option for the pupils and it should challenge the bright pupils who choose to take CAT rather than IT or other subjects. It is such a pity CAT is not yet recognized as a subject for university entrance as it is such a useful subject to study.
I think the paper was: “doable”, Balanced, Different to the norm – this is a good aspect.
I also think it is a good thing that they have been exposed to a paper set by someone else and not by me. Every teacher has their own unique way of setting a paper and pupils get used to that way. They are then only exposed to a different way of setting in the matric exam and can then flounder.
It was in my opinion maybe about 30 minutes too long depending on the child. I am not worried about my pupils who have not been working during the year not finishing – they need a wake up call and would have still not finished even with extra time. But my top pupils should be able to finish and they battled hence my decision to give them an extra 20 minutes. As this is an internal exam, I think we as experienced educators should be able to use our discretion about increasing the time given during an internal exam. I have not marked any of my weaker pupils’ papers yet so I cannot comment on their results as yet. Maybe they are going to have been more affected by the length.
In my opinion, there was nothing “unseen” or extremely difficult and it was not unreasonable. The database form was more complicated than I had done in class with my pupils but my top pupils managed it well. It is something I will have to work on next year as I seem to never do enough work on forms. My pupils also seem to generally battle with Access in grade11 but with more exposure in grade 12 improve.
There was also quite a lot of reading which they have to get used to as it seems that this is the trend with most subjects in the new syllabus and a weakness of our “modern” pupils.
In my opinion it was a matric standard paper that grade 11’s had to write and they have not yet had as much exam practice as a matric child has had. My matric pupils found both the prelim practical exam and the final practical exam long, but my top pupils finished comfortably.
My top child has got a steady 91% per term this year. For her June prac she got 94% and for this exam 85%. When I asked her afterwards how she found the exam, she said she could do everything but she felt very rushed for time and hence made silly mistakes. When I marked her paper, I realised that she was correct as she made mistakes on sections she knows well and would not normally make mistakes on. She has never been rushed for time before as she always works quickly and efficiently and knows the applications very well. She did not have time to go back and check her work either.
My top 2 kids had just finished question 6 when they had 5 minutes left. I therefore gave them an extra 20 minutes. Once I have marked them all, I am going to look at their year marks and if I feel they are too low, I may moderate the prac slightly. However, an end of year exam mark is normally lower than during the year as it is set on a much larger section of work. When all the years’ tasks and PAT are added together, I am sure it will even out. I also don’t want to have my pupils arriving in matric with inflated grade 11 marks but at the same time would not want them to be demoralised.
The paper marks well (I have only marked 2) – the marking grid is great. I think that we should have the solutions printed out to see what certain documents should look like: for example the table in question 5. Just check the ticks as in one or two questions the number of ticks does not match the overall mark.
Question 6, the type of question I normally dislike marking as it usually takes so long, marks beautifully thanks to the way the memo is designed.
I also think for the second year of grade 11’s and a new syllabus, Study Opportunities has done very well to set a paper of such a good standard. I for one am very grateful not to have had to set CAT papers for my school but could rather spend my time on marking the PATs. Everyone knows how long it takes to set an exam paper.
CAT should not be seen as an “easy” option for the pupils and it should challenge the bright pupils who choose to take CAT rather than IT or other subjects. It is such a pity CAT is not yet recognized as a subject for university entrance as it is such a useful subject to study.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Examination papers
There have been repeated requests to get the password for the exam papers. There is only one way to get them. You must have completed the document found on the studyopportunities.co.za web site and faxed it back to the correct place. The password would then have been SMSed to you. It is also pointless putting a request in a 'Comment' if you do not add contact details, and the password cannot be put onto the blog as that defeat the point of having a password.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Gr 10 and 11 Written papers
Length of Written papers – next week:
We decided to stick to the SAG which specifies:
Gr 10: 100 marks, 2 hours
Gr 11: 150 marks, 3 hours.
Experience has however shown that many learners do not need the full time.
We decided to stick to the SAG which specifies:
Gr 10: 100 marks, 2 hours
Gr 11: 150 marks, 3 hours.
Experience has however shown that many learners do not need the full time.
Gr 11 Practical Errata
Slegs AFRIKAANSE vraestel - Vraag 4, eerste bullet moet wees (R0-00 vir lede en R20-00 vir nie-lede).
Please open and fix the data files 6Answers.doc (English) and 6Antwoorde.doc. It should refer to Question 6, not Question 7.
Please open and fix the data files 6Answers.doc (English) and 6Antwoorde.doc. It should refer to Question 6, not Question 7.
Gr 11 Practical Exam Papers
Friday, November 7, 2008
Gr 10 Revision or Disaster
Did you do the Pug Dog Club set in 2006 question paper (data files and memo) as revision with your Gr 10 learners? Did you see the fat fawn pug who had to be taken for a walk, and was also used in other questions in the paper. Well, he is fat and this morning became even fatter.I could scream at him!
Long story. I managed to get some special green mealies from Gauteng. I made some special green mealie cake (not carrot cake, green mealie cake). I had it wrapped in heavy Alcan foil in a Checkers packet along with chips, peanuts, dips, biscuits, cooldrinks, etc. especially for our weekend in the Cedarberg. All the bags were on the floor in the garage ready for leaving straight after school today. This morning, I was busy dressing and organising the house. Friend went outside to open the garage door and get my car ready, not thinking of the contents of the carrier bags and the dogs. When it was time to lock the front door we looked for the dogs, and found the fawn pug with his nose in the bag and 3/4s of the cake gone! Thank goodness it was not the fruitcake which was still on the shelf in the kitchen. Now when you do that old exam paper, you know why he is fat!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Gr 10 PAT
I have just finished marking the Gr 10 PATs. I believe we have left out an important point, or we did not leave it out but we did not allocate enough marks and the learners ignored it. The learners did not properly draw the research project to a clear conclusion: do the public (not disabled people) have a clear idea of the abilities of the disabled and all the different kinds of disabled people, and are there facilities to help the disabled. I think we must allocate more marks to this section and perhaps give more criteria in the checklist. We gave 1 and 4 marks respectively to this and my learners seemed to ignore it, maybe because the rubric did not specify more criteria. Most learners did not answer the main question or problem.
Gr 10 November Practical examinations
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Gr 11 PAT Phases 5 and 6
I have just finished marking the Gr 11 PAT Phases 5 and 6 and certain aspects are common to most of the learner's work - in the handout they did not
- introduce the work
- properly explain how the particular technology works
- discuss/introduce/explain the database query and report
- draw the work to a clear conclusion.
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