[GCSE English Literature Standardising - Jekyll and Hyde]
[Chief Examiner] Okay, I'm going to start off with Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. That's question
three. As you know, candidates were presented with the extract where Henry Jekyll writes
the letter to Dr Lanyon. 3A question was asking candidates to explore
how Stevenson presents Jekyll's request for help in the extract, then part B is looking
at the help elsewhere in the novel. Both parts are marked out of 20.
The first example I wanted to show you was this one. I think weíve all had chance to
read through and make a few notes. One of the main things I wanted to point out is that
section A of the paper is assessed for AO2. A bit like the Shakespeare in that part A
is AO2 language form and structure, hopefully with some terminology as well. If we bear
that in mind as we're looking at Part A here. As we look through this, the candidate does
make some referencing to the language, which is what weíre looking for. They begin straight
away with a quotation, the candidate does talk about the use of the word verb 'break'
is used to insinuate a pause or downfall whereas actually in the context of where itís used
here it's actually a noun. [Principal Examiner] How would you address
that when it comes to marking? Is that something you would acknowledge that theyíre trying
to use terminology but obviously it's incorrect? [Chief Examiner] That's the exact way we
would go. We would look through the response holistically for a start.
[Team Leader] So they wouldnít be penalised? [Chief Examiner] No, I wouldnít penalise
on that inaccuracy. Obviously, judging it on the rest of the response we'd need to
read that all first and see what else has been said.
[Principal Examiner] Yes, they do use accurate terminology further on, with the correct use
of the noun. [Team Leader] There is use of the noun and
lifting. [Chief Examiner] Again, we've got the noun
mentioned as well there in that first paragraph which is good. I think the important message
is that the negatives do not negate the positives. Weíre also looking in this first paragraph
there is a lot of talk about friendship and leading up, eventually, to the concept of
help but a lot of it is about the relationship. [Team Leader] Yes, that rather concerned me
that it took a while to get the requirements of the question.
[Chief Examiner] Yes, we are doing a little bit of work for the candidate as weíre looking
at that relationship leading up to why he would help. But yes, with the limited time
they've got I would have been looking at the evidence we've got with the language
form and structure with this. [Principal Examiner] It's a slightly better
focus maybe, to move it further on. [Chief Examiner] Come the next paragraph it
gets a bit more focused on the idea of 'help'. We get the request for help, the quotation,
then we talk about the noun. It's really quite exciting when you turn over to the next
page and you get the informal mode of address. This candidate certainly knows these terms
and it's a good point, the informal mode of address because that's exactly what it
is. And then it does link back to that friendship. [Principal Examiner] It gets a little frustrating
as you know the candidate knows what they're talking about, but isn't quite tying it into
the question. [Chief Examiner] We've got the idea of selective
quotations there and by the way it does say after the triadic structure point says about
how deep Lanyon's favour is to Jekyll there, that's what he's trying to say. Yeah, if
Lanyon fails, so we've got some selective quotations.
Moving on to the next paragraph, we have the reference in for crying for help and if
you fail me tonight a reference to the verb.
[Team Leader] Yes, we've got terminology here again.
[Principal Examiner] I like the euphemism. [Chief Examiner] Yes, nice language points
going on. Just what we want for the Assessment Objective.
[Principal Examiner] Did you feel there was the depth of language, because there was lots
going on about verbs and nouns, but others? [Chief Examiner] It could have had a wider
scope. There was plenty in the extract to go broader. Obviously, verbs, nouns and adjectives
are all valid points, but a more able candidate would have been able to stretch and use a
wider range, breadth of language analysis. But no, overall, once we got over the friendship
and relationship part for this one, Iive written here there's lots of verbs and nouns
identified. But I decided it did slip into the Level 4.
[Principal Examiner] Yes, it would be harsh to be lower because there was a lot there.
They'd written a lot in that time given. [Chief Examiner] Yes, the decision is then
how far into Level 4. I did actually toy with 15. I think the candidates worked hard to
try and hunt out specific language. [Team Leader] Itís focused and itís detailed.
In spite of that first paragraph the candidates draws it in and it does answer the requirements
of the question. [Principal Examiner] I agree. I think thatís
a good mark. [Chief Examiner] Good, so 15 for part A. And
then we move over to Part B. I know that you read this before and I asked
you to highlight up and I think it's a really useful thing with this script to actually
highlight up the references to help. The question is explain how characters try to
help others elsewhere in the novel? And what you will find is, by highlighting the
word 'help' you will see it's not been used very much at all and rather it's implicitly
implied at times. It starts with Enfield goes after Hyde, help
is implied after the first quotations, here in the first paragraph. Then we have a bit
of an issue as the candidate starts talking about the language which is not assessed at
all in this bit of the paper. It's not required, candidates don't need to do that at all in
Part B of this paper. It's only assessing AO1, reading and understanding of the text.
Although the points made are correct, they aren't assessed.
[Principal Examiner] Such a shame, as they really do understand what's going on in the
rest of the text. [Team Leader] As you quite rightly say, we
can't assess them because they're not part of the mark scheme.
[Chief Examiner] Moving on eventually we've got a point about a wish to help others, but
then we get more language points. Unfortunately the response just isn't sharply focused on
the question. My next problem with this is there's quite
a bit on the second page about context, but again context is not assessed. So there's
so much. Really this is a sustained answer, and if it was addressing the right assessment
objective, I would be hoping to be looking Level 4/Level 5 but itís not doing what it
should be doing. So again, context is not assessed. Thereís a whole paragraph there.
The paragraph beginning finally Utterson there is about Utterson trying to help Jekyll.
The candidate does persist with the language because we've got the use of imperatives.
[Principal Examiner] Every paragraph just seems to go back to the language.
[Chief Examiner] Rather than exploring the help, because this part of the paper is looking
to test the knowledge of the novel, the texts and the themes in it. And being able to give
as many examples as they can throughout the novel of the given question.
[Principal Examiner] There is an element of moving back to reputation, relationship rather
than sticking to help. It's like I know a lot about this text and I'm going to get
as much of it in as I can [Chief Examiner] The sad thing is we can see
that the candidate does know about the text. [Team Leader] Ironically the candidate does
actually mention the incidents of help about the girl thatís being trampled, but again
that's not taken any further. There is the idea of Utterson's duty to help and later
on actually how Jekyll rejects the help. So three main incidents are mentioned, but they're
not taken any further and they're looked at from the wrong angle.
[Chief Examiner] Because it's either brought in the context, the language or the relationship.
Because it finished off with the relationship [Team Leader] Such a shame.
It's a very difficult one to mark, but it's got to be on a best fit. We have to take what
is relevant to the question and what is addressing the assessment objective head on. Unfortunately,
much to my disappointment, because you know me, I would love to give them as high as I
can but I've placed it at the top of Level 2 as a best fit scenario on 8 marks because
much of it is on areas which are not assessed.