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Moderator's Newsletter - English
February 2010
Contents
- Planning for changes to Level 1 in 2011
- Additional resources available for teachers
- Changes to optional teacher-selected evidence
Planning for changes to Level 1 in 2011
Trials of the draft revised level 1 standards begin this year and moderation of student work submitted for the new standards will begin in term two.
This will include:
- Moderators will be annotating samples of student work for the new standards.
- The samples will be annotated to indicate how they meet or do not meet the new criteria.
- Reference and annotation will also be made, where appropriate, to the differences between the new and current level 1 standards.
- Teachers are advised to make themselves familiar with the revised matrix and the level 1 standards
- Teachers are also reminded that all these documents are still at the draft stage, although one can assume that changes at this stage will be minor.
Additional resources available for teachers
Specific guidance for individual standards is beginning to be developed on the Resources for English page. Clarification documents provide guidance with interpretation of criteria within standards. Exemplar documents provide samples of student work at the grade boundaries. By the end of this term, clarification and/or exemplar documents for all frequently used standards should be available.
Changes to optional teacher-selected evidence
Changes from September 2009 (Circular A2009/027):
- The number of samples of student work for optional teacher selected evidence has been increased. Teachers may now send up to ten samples per standard per year.
- The samples for optional evidence feedback can relate to any standard, not just the standard selected for external moderation.
- The samples can be sent at any time throughout the year (through Secondary Moderation, NZQA), not just at the time of the school submission date (directly to moderator).
- The samples do not have to be accompanied by other assessment materials unless the teacher believes they would assist the moderator in understanding their question
- There is no specific turnaround time for samples sent outside the school submission date as this will depend on moderator capacity.
Specific questions can be asked about the samples to help further define the grade boundaries and clarify issues in the assessment of that work. The feedback provided from the moderator does not form part of the official moderation report and is designed to be more developmental in nature. Teachers are encouraged to take this opportunity to engage in professional dialogue to further define the grade boundaries
Last updated: 16 February 2010