[adam osborne]

Hi

After many years of taching Lenin and the Bolosheviks and the old coursework spec, I am now strugling with the change to 965. I am teaching Russian Revolutions and have a load of resources I would be happy offer to anyone who wants them.

What I would really like help with is a pupil friendly mark scheme and or a scheme of work? Also it is not clear to me if the interpretations part of the coursewrk needs the same type of referencing and bibliography as the investegations?

Any help really appreeciated

Adam

[Jenjane]

adam osborne, on 11 September 2009 - 07:48 AM, said:

Hi

After many years of taching Lenin and the Bolosheviks and the old coursework spec, I am now strugling with the change to 965. I am teaching Russian Revolutions and have a load of resources I would be happy offer to anyone who wants them.

What I would really like help with is a pupil friendly mark scheme and or a scheme of work? Also it is not clear to me if the interpretations part of the coursewrk needs the same type of referencing and bibliography as the investegations?

Any help really appreeciated

Adam

As far as I know they have not done any SOW for this moule, but do exist for the others although as explored by other threads they don't cover all topics. I am going on the INSET in October to get help. But had to go to one in Birmingham...
Jane

[Helen R G]

Hello

I am doing this for the cold war and am booked on a course which has been put back to the end of November. By then I hope that the students will have done their first coursework essay.

Have you been on the course now? Do you know how they should reference/do the bibliography?

Do you have any resources that may help?

Many thanks

Helen

[Simon Ross]

We attended the INSET which was useful, although we were disappointed that there was no exemplar student work. Instead delegates were asked to look at essays from the old exam paper and 'imagine' that they were full length 2000 word essay. Not very impressive!

I would suggest that colleagues look at the advice booklet on the OCR website and also use the coursework consultancy form. This provides feedback on essay combination and other issues. With regard to footnoting, our response from the coursework consultant said that on the interpretations (passages) essays students do NOT need to footnote. However on the investigations essay they need to footnote in the style of the old coursework unit.

Don't forget also that you can submit two pieces of work for feedback on your marking - this is separate to the compulsory moderation.

Below is a summary from a member of our department who attended the London INSET:

OCR A2 Level Coursework

Introduction

Marking and moderating (more on this later!)
• OCR will moderate not mark c’wk i.e. similar to GCSE, but c’wk will go direct to OCR not the moderator
• OCR examining if schools applying mark scheme consistently and fairly i.e. are you justified in giving the mark you have?
• What is written on the scripts is very important (more on this later):
 Tick free zone
 No underlining
 No comments to students
 Write O.K. (own knowledge) and Eval (evaluation) in margin
• Scripts back from the OCR moderator will have comments on the marking not comments on individual scripts
• Individual candidates cannot apply for a re-mark – any review will be of the whole centre! This needs to be clearly explained to students.
• Sample will be selected in a similar way to GCSE – rank order will therefore be essential.
• If OCR thinks a rank order is wrong then the school will be asked to re-order them and then re-submit.
• Mike Wells advises starting your rank from the bottom and moving up.

Re-submission
• Can submit c’wk in Jan
• Cannot re-submit same piece of work again

Prohibited Combinations of Courses and The Tasks
• Check on OCR website
• If in doubt email OCR via enquiry form to check
• If give candidates free choice of question then ensure they do not do c’wk on a subject studied at AS.
• Jan 2010 Interpretations (passages) will be refreshed to ensure departments aren’t doing exactly the same c’wk each year.
• No subject specific mark schemes will be available so that teachers aren’t tempted to give to students!
• Investigations (essay) – use board broad topics to formulate questions: Coursework Guidance booklet pg 13+
• When submitting c’wk form, HODs will be asked to write which other units they have studied
• Only 2000 word limit per task – beware of scope of essays and word count very important – must stick to this limit.

Aims of Coursework
• Assessing the skills rather than the knowledge (this is reflected in the mark schemes).
• Don’t spend the whole of the teaching time on content, but concentrate on skills and they can obtain the knowledge from books

INTERPRETATIONS (Passages)

Planning Your Scheme of Work

What you should NOT do in your teaching:
 Go through each passage and explain the views in the passages
 Suggest specific knowledge or page references relevant to the passages
 Mark drafts and make specific suggestions for improvement
 Teach to the passages making sure that all references to events etc are taught

What you should DO in your teaching:
 Ensure that students understand the background to the topic
 Ensure they have the skills to do the exercises
 Ensure they understand the criteria for success
 Ensure that they have had practice in doing passage based evaluation
 Mark their work according to the mark scheme (this should not be returned to students).

Use the KQs on course spec to plan the content of the course
Less handouts and more skills!!!

• 3 sets of passages provided per topic: might decide to do all 3 and send in best 1 – you cannot give them one back with comments and then submit
• You can give them a reading list, but cannot tell them to look at something specifically when looking at a specific passage.
• OCR strongly advise that old exam papers are used for practice papers – however, be aware that the texts in the old exam papers were edited to make them simpler to use in exam conditions
• The more practice they can have looking at passages the better – might be a good idea to start with one passage, then move up to two, then three and then four together i.e. build up skills of judgement
• Can they work out the debate from looking at other passages? This is the skill they need.
• They do not need to refer to schools of History and actually this can ruin their answers!!!!
• Instead, what is it saying and what do they know that agrees or disagrees with it?

GOOD IDEA TO GIVE STUDENTS THE PASSAGES THEY WILL BE USING AT THE START OF THE COURSE

• Remember you are marking for the moderator not for the student – you cannot give students back marked work
• Also no peer marking of scripts if there is a chance it will be submitted– can do this on practice ones only

NO GRADE BOUNDARIES YET – rough idea from looking at AS exam!!!


Skills For Passages

Analysis of Interpretations
• Not describing interpretations
• Showing an understanding of how an historian interprets a key issue
Evaluation of Interpretations
• Making a supported judgement about the value of the interpretation using evaluative vocabulary and applying contextual knowledge

• Students should be using their knowledge to judge the passages – need to say whether they agree or not with the judgement the historian displays in the passage
• Practice Questions - get them to highlight their own answers for:
1. evaluative comments / language
2. contextual knowledge relevant to the passage and which helps them make their judgement
• Might need to teach them evaluative vocabulary e.g. this is supported by, fails to consider, agrees with, judged to be, however, overoptimistic, fails to convey etc
• Mike Wells says only about half of exams submitted displayed this and this will be essential with c’wk
Essential S of W develop skills not content!!!
• Synoptic judgement = overall judgement about the passages – need to come to a conclusion and say why they reached that conclusion

AVOID USING PASSAGES TO ILLUSTRATE THE HISTORICAL DEBATE
• Need to start with the passages not a pre-conceived view
• NOT an essay, but a passages question!!!!
• Need to see the passage as a whole – what is the view of the whole passage not just one line in it that they latch on to!!! (This happens when students get caught up in the historical debate)
• Skill = selecting knowledge relevant to the passage not just writing down everything they know (Skills audit sheet available in RBA’s folder)

Marking Passages: Advice

• Decide on AO2b first as this is where the bulk of the marks are
• Read through answer – does it actually have a focus on the Q set?
• Needs to have synthesis and synoptic judgement – how are they bringing their own knowledge to bear in the evaluation?
• Cannot have evaluation without judgement – get them to think like Simon Cowell on X Factor i.e. be judgemental not nice!!!
• On 2nd read through think of AO1a and AO1b
• Grouping of passages is essential i.e. not linear approach




Script A
• if expended into 2000 word c’wk probably level 1B / Level II
Script B
• lots of own knowledge first one and a half pages – selecting relevant info – good
• Don’t want whole paragraphs of historical knowledge
• V.g. for exam conditions – more eval on 1st side would be better
• Focus on Q and uses passages = Level 1B
Script C
• Lack of focus on Q: ‘Was the break up of the Grand Alliance in the 2nd WW inevitable?’ – seems to have not really u’stood word inevitable
• End 2nd side ‘doomed to break up’ is more towards the Q
• HISTORIOGRAPHY TOTALLY UNHELPFUL as it has encouraged them to answer a different question
• Poor answer
Script D
• Pg 13 evaluation
• Some good use of historical vocab
• Level 1 A/B i.e. solid top grade answer
Scripts E and H
• Not as good as D, but good focus and eval
Scripts F and G
• Solid level IIs
Script I
• Some o.k. / some eval
• Just about a level III (low level) or level IV
• All eval at end, but need to focus on success rather than negatives…if it is there you need to give it credit and best fit in mark scheme


INVESTIGATIONS (Essay)

Source based essays – need at least 8-12 sources…any less is not ‘a range of sources’
 Main skill being tested is AO2a i.e. ‘analyse and evaluate a range of appropriate source material with discrimination.’
 Can use sources at back of Access books
 Do not give a booklet of sources and say ‘analyse these’!!! Providing materials and guiding them towards them is however allowed.
 A general, analytical answer cannot get high marks….has to be evidence based with a range of debates and above all it must be CRITICAL i.e. what has the historian based their evidence on and how valid is what they say?
 The sources should drive the argument i.e. not historiography / schools of thought!!!
 Teachers need to ensure there is hypothesis in the questions i.e. there needs to be an actual debate.
 2000 word limit – be succinct

Script J
• Top level – v good answer
• Passage (a) – could have become listy
• Some good phrases e.g. ‘However, it is going too far.’
• Passage ( – primary source being used critically
Script K
• Level V – no skills of source evaluation really displayed
• Obviously an intelligent student, but a lot of description and juxtaposition of sources to help tell the story rather than actually using sources and analysing and evaluating (and sense of argument)
Script L
• Passage (L) – attempts at eval even if not great choice of quotes that don’t really put forward an argument and make sense!
• Have to give them credit for eval though…even though not great!!!
Script N
• Passage (M) – attempts to test reliability, but looks at the sources the wrong way round!
• Probably a weak student, with a formulaic (GCSE) approach, but not just a narrative and they should be given credit for attempts at eval and the fact they are trying to use the sources critically
• Probably get level III (perhaps if they had evaluated other way round = level II)

Tip for helping students develop skills:
 Send them off to highlight evaluation in their own essays (you cannot do this for them)
 Give them extracts from these scripts and do a marking exercise (inset for staff too!)
 Must not do a re-draft after you have looked at it so get them to ‘mark’ (i.e. improve) their own essays using highlighters to indicate eval and knowledge

OCR envisage that most lessons when they are doing c’wk essays will be private study (in the library?) and individual tutorials
Advice:
 Have a departmental c’wk booklet with your c’wk policy in it
 Get it countersigned by SLT
 It should be available to staff, students and parents
 Ensure all your staff are fully aware of what they can and cannot do
 Regulations are on SCQ website
 If a teacher comments on the c’wk they will be accused of malpractice – you cannot put written comments on drafts
 Can give verbal feedback e.g. ‘please check you have evaluation’ (highlighting exercise above) and you can ask them questions about their drafts e.g. ‘can you point out to me where your evaluation is?’
 If you have to read something 3 times and it still doesn’t make a lot of sense it is probably not good!

STANDARDISATION / INTERNAL MODERATION

• See slides in folder
• Correct rank order crucial – advise going back to look at this a week later
• Double check your very high and very low scripts – do you stick to the mark scheme or have you just tried to use a range of marks?
• Lots of centres may not have a wide or the full range of marks….don’t think you have to and then mark inaccurately!
• You need to take a step back and mark the essays in front of you i.e. not thinking about the students and how much work they have put in or not!
• Cross mark a sample throughout the course (???)
• At the bottom of each script should be the 3 separate AO marks and a total mark – check arithmetic!!!!
• Start by awarding marks in the AO where the most marks are.
• Holistic judgement
• Annotation should reflect the mark scheme NOT ticking, AO1 etc throughout essay and no comments to student e.g. ‘O.K. used’, ‘eval’, ‘argument’, ‘description’, ‘juxtaposed’ etc written in margin (script A an example of what OCR like)
• Marking to justify why you are giving mark you are not for students

Script X
• Dark marking wrong and poor!
• Doesn’t answer the actual Q
Script XX
• Worst in the folder!!!

[Mark H.]

I haven't been able to get on a course for this. They moved the date of the one I was originally booked on to a day where I was unable to attend because of an important school event. Unfortunately all the other courses within reach were already booked up. I'm not the only HOD I've spoken to who's had the same problem. The OCR INSET doesn't seem to compare favourably with AQA's. Although they haven't got actual student work (no-one's done this module yet!) AQA have gone to considerable lengths to rewrite previous 'real' personal studies in the new format and incorporating the 100 year period rubric for use as exemplars.

This post has been edited by Mark H.: 14 October 2009 - 05:30 AM

[Mark H.]

I haven't been able to get on a course for this. They moved the date of the one I was originally booked on to a day where I was unable to attend because of an important school event. Unfortunately all the other courses within reach were already booked up. I'm not the only HOD I've spoken to who's had the same problem. The OCR INSET doesn't seem to compare favourably with AQA's. Although they haven't got actual student work (no-one's done this module yet!) AQA have gone to considerable lengths to rewrite previous 'real' personal studies in the new format and incorporating the 100 year period rubric.
Given all the difficulties we and many other centres had with the old externally-marked OCR coursework module (see numerous previous discussion threads) I was looking forward to a new start with this internally-marked version, but I must admit that as we've embarked on it I'm becoming more apprehensive.

[Helen R G]

Thanks for all the help people have submitted above. It is very useful but at the same time I am feeling quite apprehensive now and hope that I have been teaching it correctly!

Helen

[Simon Ross]

My confidence in the exam board wasn't boosted when I enquired to the GCSE controlled assesssment consultant about what evidence would need to be submitted. For example, would we need to submit copies of the student booklets and example preparatory work, as might be expected given the tight prescription about the nature of how it should be taught.

The response, after a week, was that they don't know yet. Sigh.

[Mark H.]

One reason that we're seriously thinking of switching exam boards. It's a great pity, as we really like the structure of the OCR course and the choice of topics, but the continued unpredictablity of the marking, combined with the lack of support compared to AQA and Edexcel, is driving us away.

This post has been edited by Mark H.: 17 October 2009 - 05:40 AM

[CD McKie]

Mark H., on 16 October 2009 - 01:28 PM, said:

One reason that we're seriously think of switching exam boards. It's a great pity, as we really like the structure of the OCR course and the choice of topics, but the continued unpredictablity of the marking, combined with the lack of support compared to AQA and Edexcel, is driving us away.

I've only just moved from AQA to OCR at A level for the positive reasons you mention above. The course is interesting to teach, but I think their mark schemes could be simplified. Their support, even at this early stage for me, appears quite limited. AQA are excellent in this regard; I just didn't like the broad-based nature of their courses.

[Mark H.]

We're probably moving the other way. As I say, I can't fault the content of the course, it is a pleasure to teach and receives a very positive response from the students, at least until they receive their results! Unfortunately I have had enough of having to try to explain to anxious parents why their son managed an A on every other AS/A2 Module he took except a single History one for which OCR saw fit to reward him with a D (or in one infamous case a U). When there were 6 modules, and the wacky marking was largely confined to the dreaded Coursework at A2, it was usually evened out by results on the other units. Now that we are down to two modules each at AS and A2, errant marking on one can more easily lead to the sabotaging of university offers and Oxbridge places. I know that OCR are by no means alone in this but we have had too many experiences of this over the years to simply chalk it up to experience and hope for better luck next year. Like you, CD, I believe that the main problem OCR has is overly-complex and rigid mark schemes. These are being used by examiners who sometimes lack the experience or specific knowledge of the topic they are marking to interpret them sensibly. It remains to be seen what will happen when the F965 corsework is moderated externally. Will centre marks be adjusted drastically?

This post has been edited by Mark H.: 17 October 2009 - 06:50 AM

[Jenjane]

I went on the same course as mentioned above on Monday and was given the distinct impression from the man who spoke to us that as long as we justify our choice of marks to the amrkscheme then all should be well. You need to annotate using the key words from the markscheme (as mentioned above), and at the end write a little summary justifying your choice of marks fro each AO. If you have shown this in your annotations then it should be fairly easy. I also did see from their annotations that they simply identify where the student has evaluated/synthesised/etc. They don't (as I would in my marking ordinarily for instance) identify if it is good/weak/excellent etc. He was at pains to tell us that this annotation is for the moderator, not the students, so I suppose this is why. He also said that you must make sure that your rank order is correct, your top marks and your bottom marks are really secure too. He said he would be looking for progression from your bottom student to your top which again would link with your marks being justified. If your marks were "acceptable" (he said they wouldn't quibble over or as he called it 'micro-mark' to change 1 or 2 marks) then no marks would be changed, if you were consisently generous or harsh then all of your marks would be adjusted to compensate, and if they could not see a pattern to your marking to explain why they disagreed then they would request a remark. In other words they would send it back to the centre and tell you to remark it. Ace.

This post has been edited by Jenjane: 21 October 2009 - 03:20 PM

[Jenjane]

Hi,
am just marking some of my students attempts at answering one of the interpretations style questions and am finding it pretty depressing. I thought I had explained what evaluation was but I very clearly haven't: even the student I can rely on to produce a great answer seems completely flummoxed. Can anyone help? How do you explain evaluate to your students? I gave them an example from the above course and thought we all agreed what it was. Apparently not. Should I have a lesson where we just mark more of the past examples? (Which aren't on our topic). I am afraid they won't understand the markscsheme if they don't get what evaluate is. Is there a really basic way I can get them to see what I mean? They all seem to be churning out source comparision.
Jane

[MrsRH]

I am telling mine that evaluation is "judging the value of the interpretations in the light of their own knowledge" which is how it was described to me on OCR Inset on 3rd Nov. HTH

[CD McKie]

MrsRH, on 07 November 2009 - 04:00 PM, said:

I am telling mine that evaluation is "judging the value of the interpretations in the light of their own knowledge" which is how it was described to me on OCR Inset on 3rd Nov. HTH

It looks like we attended the same INSET. Manchester, perchance? Your quotation appears to sum up the main message of the meeting and it's probably not as scary as I first thought. My students, however, cannot seem to understand why I won't make written comments on draft answers.