Achievement Standard AS91106
Highly recommended: Form personal responses to independently read texts, supported by evidence
Subject Reference / English 2.9Title / Form developed personal responses to independently read texts, supported by evidence
Level / 2 / Credits / 4 / Assessment / Internal
This achievement standard involves forming developed personal responses to independently read texts, supported by evidence.
Achievement Criteria
Achievement / Achievement with Merit / Achievement with Excellence- Form developed personal responses to independently read texts, supported by evidence.
- Form developed, convincing personal responses to independently read texts, supported by evidence.
- Form developed, perceptive personal responses to independently read texts, supported by evidence.
Explanatory Notes
1Formdeveloped personal responses involves demonstrating understanding of,engagement with, and/or expressing viewpoints on texts. It also includes responding to links between:
- text and self, such as personal contexts and prior knowledge
- text and world, such as connections with knowledge, experience, ideas and imagination from social, cultural, literary, political, or historical contexts.
Form developed, convincing personal responses involves demonstrating significant understandings and expressing viewpoints that are reasoned, clear, and relevant.
Form developed, perceptive personal response involves demonstrating understandings and expressing viewpoints that are insightful and/or original.
2Supported by evidence refers to the use of specific and relevant details from the text to support analysis.
3At least six texts must be included. At least four written texts must be included, two of which must be extended texts. The remaining two texts may be visual, oral, or written texts.(See Reading Log Record Sheet)
Student instructions
Introduction
You need to independently select, read, and recommend six texts. To assist you, your teacher may make suggestions of texts you might consider.
You must form developed personal responses to each of the recommended texts and support these with evidence.
You will complete your personal responses in a written format. Your teacher will guide you.
You should be selecting, reading, and responding to your texts over an extended period of time.
Your teacher will specify a due date. These are published in the course outline.
You need to keep a record of your reading. Fill in the Reading Log Record Sheet as you complete your reading and your written log and file all documents in yourreading portfolio. This portfolio must be left securely in your English classroom.
Task
You need to meet the deadlines set by your teacher during your study. There will be time given in class for logs, class discussion and talking to others about your reading. Logs can be completed at home except for the first magazine log that is to be completed in class.
Part 1: Brainstorm and choose your texts
Brainstorm and select at least six texts. Texts should not be taken from those studied in class.
Choose a variety of texts.
Check each text you choose with your teacher as they MUST be at a Level 2 standard.
Part 2: Develop and present personal responses
Read your texts closely and make detailed notes, as you read them.
Present your six personal responses and recommendations in a form that provides the opportunity for you to achieve the standard at every level.See the achievement criteria.
Each log must be headed up with the following information -
Reading Log Number:
Text:
Author:
Genre:
Resource A - Guidelines about your process
Brainstorming and choosing your texts
You should consider a range of text forms, genres, and perspectives and balance your selection of texts in terms of gender and country of origin.
Of the six texts you select, at least four must be written texts, two of which must be extended texts. The remaining two texts can be visual, oral, or written.No more than two visual or oral texts. (See Reading Log Record Sheet)
Possible texts include: novels, graphic novels, biographies, autobiographies, films, dramas, short stories, poetry, short films, song lyrics, feature magazine articles, or newspaper columns (not newspaperarticles at Level 2!)
You need to follow the guidance of your teacher when selecting texts as all texts must be suitable for Level 2 NCEA students.
Developing and presenting personal responses
Log individual entries for each of the six texts during your period of study.(They should be no more than one and a half pages long – 400 words)
This could include:
- A brief summary of the plot – what the text is about.
- A strong sense of personal response is essential – see the statements
- Explore how the texts teach us about the world in which we live (past or present).
- Make connections between the texts and yourself, your society and the wider world in order to offer perceptive personal responses.
Your teacher may make some suggestions of texts to read, but it is your responsibility to independently select and read each of the six texts.
You should be ready to discuss your reading with other students and your teacher.
- You are encouraged to show some insight or originality in thought or reflection by:
- demonstrating significant personal understandings of, engagement with, and viewpoints on the texts
- making connections between texts
- making links between the texts and yourself – making clear connections between the text and your personal experiences and prior understandings
- making links between the texts and the world – making clear connections with the social, cultural, literary, political, or historical contexts presented in the texts.
Support your responses and recommendations with evidence, such as specific examples from the texts, quotations, and other relevant details.
Present your recommendations and personal responses in a written formaton the deadline indicated or logs may not be accepted. All six logs MUST be completed for a final assessment to be made.All but Log 1 may be published but this is not a requirement.
2. 9 Achievement Standard AS91106Form developed personal responses to independently read texts, supported by evidence.
This standard is all about you reading a text and then responding to it.
It is not about the quantity (how much you have written) but is about quality (what you have said). You should write between 300 – 400 words. Look at the exemplars that have been emailed – this is the format you should use!
Use the following guidelines to help you when writing your reading log. You must demonstrate:
Engagementor a connection with the text.
Show understanding and clear explanation of relevant viewpoints.
Use carefully chosen words.
Support your ideas with specific evidence. Do not generalise. Integrate the evidence.
Consider the social context.
Convincing ideas. Insightful understanding. Perceptive personal response.
Link between text and you and text and what society says about the ideas discussed.
Here are some extracts from our top reading logs:
Song lyrics – Born to Die
The importance of letting go and moving on is emphasized by the texts focus on the author’s relationship, as I can see how she has let her feelings of loss define her life to the point where the writer is so sad that the only thing she can do to make herself feel anything is ‘get high’ and ‘take a walk on the wild side’………Something I didn’t like was how the text was so mysterious and indistinct, requiring me to make my own interpretations about its context, however I think perhaps this was the author’s intention in order to make the text relevant to a wide audience.
Novel – Devastation Road
Matt is driven and focused on finding the truth behind the killings butit is his somewhat immature emotions and clouded judgements towards Tara that stop him from achieving this. Matt’s negative view on Chess is highlighted when he says, ‘She is being tough again. Pretending she could handle it.’ This is an unfair statement as Chess could actually be strong enough to handle the struggles ahead of her. It is Chess, the portrayed annoying‘tag along’ that fits the clues together and discovers that Tara , the pretty mysterious girl that Matt actually fancies is a cold hearted killer. As Chess is more emotionally cut off than Matthew, it suggests that emotionsare in fact not an asset when investigating something that involves friends.
Song lyrics – The A Team
We soon find out however that through her consumption the young girl begins to lose her life to her new found poison, ‘but lately her face seems slowly sinking, wasting, crumbling like pastries’ Here I am made to see how the girl, once bustling with potential, becomes unable to sufficiently care for herself any longer. Much like the delicatetexture of a pastry her life begins to fall to pieces……….I appreciated how ‘The A Team’ ended in this way. By the inclusion of the term ‘angel’ I am given the idea that she wasn’t a nobody, and that at one stage in her life somebody loved her. It provided me with hope that the misunderstood ‘druggie’ girl will have passed onto a better life.
Biography- Solo (From NZQA exemplars)
The book’s never-ending descriptions of ‘brave’, ‘fearless’, ‘amazing’ Andrew irritated me. What sort of father puts his ambitions before his parental duties? It also saddened me that someone with every reason to be content should have to strive for such external shows of success in order to feel happy. Why isn’t being a good husband and father enough? Why doesn’t society applaud such simple but good achievements?
Some of the following sentence starters may be useful to you when completing this reading log:
The text is about…The phrase … tells me that…The main purpose is …The writer wants the reader to think about …
An interesting part/line was … because it made me …I disagreed strongly that….The book made me think about….The conclusion I came to was……I think that…..I know that……I like how……I learned that…..I’m surprised that…..I felt very uneasy when….It made me realise that……..This shows that…….It made me question that………I felt a strong sense that…….Use lots of “I….” and rhetorical questions. ‘Is life really like that?’