Thursday, March 17, 2011

Feeling bleek?

I have been marking lots and lots of exams recently. Now, I'm not saying that when I myself was an examinee, I necessarily wowed the markers with my genius.

But I think I might have managed a bit more coherence than these two students:

1. As this is a very important scene and it happens very shortly after the first scene ends we need to realise the impact that the first scene had on the significant part of the first scene.

2. The setting down by the river through John Steinbeck’s structure of the way it’s written from you imaging somewhere beautiful with lush green fresh hills to the orange flicker of the last of the days sun reflecting of the water to feeling bleek lonely no life like nothing has no colour just a grey matter. It’s the same place but due to the excellence way in which its written excuceded and procented it doesn’t feel like the same place at all.


I think I need to read these again.

(No. Didn't really help.)



10 comments:

  1. Once I marked a GCSE paper on 'Of Mice and Men' which read 'I would rather have a cheese grater scraped down my face than ever read Steinbeck's book again'. I suspect this child wasn't particularly inspired by her study of it ..

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  2. I am not going to read those again. I am genuinely afraid they may start to make sense.

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  3. The second one has a feel of ee cummings about it....

    I love the comment that Fran`s exam candidate made. There`s nothing like honesty!

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  4. Is this perhaps a passage lost in translation? As in, if I say excuceded and procented with a Scottish accent, will I understand what words they are? I do hope their marks weren't excellence! ;-)

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  5. and THAT is why children need to learn how to spell without SpellCheck ... although #2 actually kinda sorta made sense (keeping in mind that my own grey matter has very few wrinkles, unlike my bleek lonely no life face)

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  6. My 14-year old read her paper about earthquakes to me this evening. It was cringe worthy.

    We have a system. I don't read her papers anymore because then I edit--oh, I'll just say it. I try to rewrite the paper. She's taken to reading them to me instead. Now I only have to muddle through the reading of the paper, wondering if she's really written it the way she's reading it or only stumbling in the reading.

    It's a science paper so maybe she'll be okay.

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  7. I have it! The second one is actually a blues song! Imagine a fuzzy blues guitar riff following each of the lines:

    Down by the river
    John Stein beck's structure
    The way it's written
    Lush green fresh turns to bleak and lonely
    No life like nothing
    Has no colour
    Just a grey matter
    Uh huh
    Just a greeeeeeey matter.

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  8. Mercy, no more!! How do you wade through that??

    Have strength, my thoughts are with you.

    Lesley x

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  9. Drugs....there's no other explanation ;)
    Do you ever hand their paper back and say, "Read this to me, then please explain it."?
    I think Rosemary Riveter is on to something. uh huh.
    Poor, poor Isabelle. My heart bleeds for you.

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  10. love your idea Rosemary Riveter. That must be it.

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