Thursday, June 25, 2009

Grade 12 PAT Phase 2

My school is an ex-Model C school, whatever that means. I want to discuss the marking of Phase 2 of the Gr 12 PAT. I have marked 60 learners. I sat with learners and marked their work with them. We had 20 minute slots for pairs of learners.

Access information and determine relevance

Evidence of sources is available - The learners had little ‘evidence’.
  1. Surveys – Most had completed printed surveys.
  2. Copies or screen dumps of websites – They copied the relevant information into a word document under headings/questions with a URL, BUT did not have the ‘copies of web sites’ as required.
  3. Photocopies/clippings from printed media or scanned information from printed media – Two out of 60 learners had pages from the telephone directory, none had anything from a book or magazine.
  4. Evidence of interviews conducted – One had a recording on his cell phone, and one had a paper transcript of the conversation.
  5. Printouts or screen dumps of e-mails – One learner had a copy of a letter sent to someone but no reply – silly.
Data/information found is highlighted/marked/cross-referenced/annotated/linked to the questions asked or to groups of questions – Two of the 60 learners had this done correctly.

Evidence that trustworthiness of different types of sources was checked – Two learners wrote about four lines on this. The rest did nothing. They did not seem to understand it.

Use information – Planning

After having marked the two classes and telling the learners to start working on Phase 3 and the report, and create graphs from the survey, one of my bright learners asked me ‘What is a report?’ and another of my bright learners asked what she must do with the graph. I had not explained what a report was and had not explained that the results of the survey should be displayed in a graph and ‘copied’ into the report!
I then realised why the Planning section had been done so badly, most learners getting 0. I had not taught those basics! I then explained that a report shows all the results of an investigation under headings in something like an essay, with graphs, tables or pictures to show the information.
In the staff room I was told that in English the learners do something about reports, cross referencing/linking to questions and checking the trustworthiness of information, in Gr 9.
It looks as if I will have to rethink the PAT with Grades 10 and 11, and my current Gr 12 s – well, I do not know! I had spoken about what was required and shown them a PowerPoint. I had assumed too much. I have begun to think that the PAT is beyond the mental capacity of my current Grade 12 cohort of learners. Maybe with the Gr 10 and 11 PATs being similar to that of Grade 12 the experience will be useful training for Grade 12.

I wonder how those teaching at less privileged schools are doing.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Budget Tours

I was approached for a 'rubric' on Budget Tours. I did not have a rubric but something very different! Well, my aim is to teach so this is how I did Budget Tours.
The learners were given the instructions with marks next to certain sections. The learners were not told how I was going to mark - maybe some read the instruction sheet - well, I only gave marks for certain sections - not every point. And I did not mark the work myself - I have no time. All learners had to put their work on the Internet on a drive that all can see but only the 'owner' can change. I showed the PPT and explained that the sections in certain colours were the areas where the marking would be done. I put the PPT on the network so all could view it. I organised the class so that learners marked particular papers (the learners did not know they were marking each others answers papers). They marked, based on the PPT on the question paper. And then returned the question papers to their owners. So much learning took place! Learners argued about the marks - and came to calm conclusions. I am not a subject advisor and maybe what I did was 'wrong' but it worked for me and the learners learned. I took the marks in to use for the CASS.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Gr 10 June exam papers - Theory

Gr 10 June exam papers - Theory

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Gr 11 June exam papers - Theory

Gr 11 June exam papers - Theory

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Gr 11 June exam papers

Grade 11 June Practical exam papers
Grade 11 June Theory exam papers

Friday, June 5, 2009

Gr 12 June exam papers

Grade 12 June Practical exam papers
Grade 12 June Theory exam papers

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Gr 11 Integrated task 2 - Page S14



The Gr 11 s are busy with the Integrated task on page S14, about Utilities and Smartphones.
This is my 3rd year teaching this section and with experience my teaching is becoming better.
With respect to the formatting of the document the learners have to make sure that
  • the font is the same for the whole document
  • there are no hyperlinks anywhere unless specifically added
  • tables they have copied from the Internet look the same as tables they have made, i.e. all tables look the same
  • no tables have shading they may have copied from the Internet
  • all numbering is automatic
  • pages are automatically numbered
  • the document is ONE document with different borders for Mrs and Mr Wannalearn.
Look at the picture of the smartphone with the word document on it. (One of the learners has an 'old' smartphone from a parent who works in the corporate world where they continually upgrade and pass old phones to their offspring.)

Gr 10 Page 46 - Connecting devices



The section on Connecting devices on pages 46 and 47 talk about USB ports. Look at this USB hub. Really nice for those who like gadgets.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Practical examinations

What irregularities/cheating have you experienced during CAT practical examinations? I heard about learners passing around a flash disk, below the desk top, and copying files!
Click on Comments to tell of the cheating experiences in the computer class. Post the comments under Anonymous! Have your say! Maybe another reader will see something they can find useful.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Grade 12 PAT







The SABC weather man Simon Gear and his book Going green - 365 Ways to change the world - may give some ideas for the PAT, for those who are starting doing their PAT now (a bit late.) Buy it, browse it! Cape Town teachers - I know he will be at the Cape Town Book Fair over the long weekend (13 - 16 June 2009) and doing a number of presentations. www.kalahari.net are selling the book at R112 instead of the normal R140.
When I was in Sudan in the Naqa region I saw the effects of global warming - in this temple, built long before the birth of Christ, there are many pictures of cows, cows which must have lived in the area. Look at the area now, cows could not live in the area with that vegetation. Think about how the climate has changed.