Mice And Men Newsletter Assesment - Max

G8 'OF MICE AND MEN' NEWSPAPER TASK Writing to inform, explain & describe This newspaper project is an opportunity to present a collection of written works that you will be producing as our class moves through John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. You should present these works in a local newspaper designed to be read by people living in the 1920s or 1930s in the vicinity of Soledad/ the ranch/ surrounding towns. Included in your newspaper will be the following items: 1) Two work wanted ads: one for George, one for Lenny 2) One letter-to-the-editor (written by a character) 4) One obituary 5) One front page news article (detailing a key event at the ranch) 6) One opinion column (expressing and supporting an opinion about a key societal issue) Adding small extra items (sports results, photos, etc.) will add to the overall effect of your presentation. This project must be word-processed and should fit on two double-sided sheets of A4 paper. Further instructions will be given about each individual news item later.

Level

Ideas

Structures

Style & language

Questions to help you:

Questions to help you:

Questions to help you:

How perceptive and focused are the ideas in my newspaper?

How skillfully have I structured my newspaper and the individual items?

How accurate, varied and effective is my use of language?

How effectively does my newspaper deal with the main themes and issues of the novel?

How well have I used sentences, paragraphs and titles?

Have I used language appropriate for my (imagined) audience?

My newspaper is purposefully organised

My style and language achieves desired effects appropriate to each style of writing.

9-10 Imagination and depth of thought are clearly evident S in my work T R My ideas show a perceptive O understanding of the N themes of the novel. G I use numerous wellchosen relevant details that support and help my audience

I use a variety of sentence types and styles to achieve stylistic effects I use paragraphs and transitions carefully and effectively I use titles and layout skillfully

I use punctuation skillfully. My tone and voice add to the impact of my writing as appropriate to the task

7-8

Imagination and depth of I use a variety of sentence thought are evident in my types and styles to achieve work stylistic effects

My style and language are accurate and somewhat varied according to the needs of the item being written.

My ideas show a good understanding of the themes of the novel.

I use paragraphs and transitions carefully and effectively

Errors in spelling, punctuation and word-use are infrequent and never impede understanding

I use well-chosen relevant details that support and help my audience

I choose effective titles

I use the appropriate tone and voice for each item

5-6 D E V E L O P I N G

Imagination is evident in my work

I attempt to use a variety of sentence types

My style and language are appropriate to task and audience

3-4 E M E R GING

My ideas show a basic understanding of the task

1-2 NOT YET

My ideas show a limited understanding of the task

Student Teacher

E F F E C T I V E

My ideas show an understanding of the themes of the novel.

I use paragraphs and transitions reasonably well There is an attempt to sequence my ideas

I generally use the appropriate tone and voice

I use relevant details that support and help my audience

I develop some ideas

There are only a few errors in spelling, punctuation and word-use

I attempt to organise my work I use basic paragraphs

My use of language is not always effective There may be regular and errors in spelling and punctuation

I am unsuccessful in organising my work

There are significant weaknesses with the style and language I have used

5

5

5

6

5

5

I attempt the task

Student comments (What are you pleased with? What do you need to work on?) It diddnt turn out as well as i expected. Writing newspapers is harder than I expected, particularly the layout. I used a horrid template and things were rather all over the place. just the writing itself was not very good either. Reading it myself, i felt as though it just came right out of the top of my head, just like that, and that actually was how it really was. I diddnt think things through enough, and in the end, it diddnt come out very good.

Teacher Comments: This task was all about learning to get the register of your language right for the different purposes and you found this difficult Max. You also needed to try to recreate the style and look of a 1930's newspaper but your style (although interesting) is not like a newspaper, more a scrapbook. You need to learn to write in different voices better Max and to plan and structure your writing more carefully. A newspaper, needs to be very structured and factual especially on the front page so people can access the information quickly. In the editorial, the language can be more persuasive but still needs to strike the right tone. There are some excellent ideas in this project but too often you are not thinking about the purpose of the pieces you are writing. You have shown in previous projects a strong ability to manipulate language so perhaps poor organisation and planning let you down on this assignment. Hopefully in the poetry unit we have started you can show a more consistent approach to learning. Dear parents, To support the students technology skills we are trialling a fully digital method of communication for this assignment. An e-mail will be sent to you to explain how to leave comments on the students blog/ digital portfolio. Please make sure you do acknowledge that you have seen the assessment information. Please e-mail me at [email protected] of you have any questions about this process. Thanks, Colin Campbell