Overall I was pleased with today's Writing SATs.
The only paper I wasn't keen on was the short writing task. The children had to write a description of a busy place. Not too bad if you can imagine somewhere busy. It really helped to think of somewhere busy that you had actually been to. But describing has never been a strong point for my literacy class (Set Two). We have focused such a lot on organising and structuring work but this short writing task didn't need any of it. However it did involve lots of VCOP so that was good. I was disappointed when I spotted a few pupils' descriptions had turned into a story...
The Spelling Paper wasn't too bad but there were a few tricky words, 'fascinated' for one. There were a couple of tricky words for the reader too!!
The Long Writing Task was fantastic. For the second year running the genre was a genre we study in Year Six - report writing. The task was virtually identical to the Pack-it-in-Bag paper from about 10 years ago, and luckily my class had tried this just a month ago! You could see their eyes light up as they read it!
I have to disagree. I thought the Short Writing Task was okay and allowed the children to create imagery through their writing. However the Long Writing Task was as dull as ditch water. My children were disappointed - the report on the Tongo Lizard a few years ago allowed for some imagination and creativity. Today's task was restrictive. There is only so much you can say about a trainer!
ReplyDeleteAhh, I've just discovered your blog and it brought back memories. I'm pretty sure that my year six writing task was something to do with a bag - we had to design a bag that could carry a lot of things?
ReplyDeleteNot sure, but it was about 10 yeas ago that I had my Sats..
Just read your post about the 2009 SATs. I felt the short writing task was appalling, mainly because the marking scheme assumed children would write in the first person and express their feelings, yet there's nothing in the task to suggest they should do this, so anyone writing in the third person is penalised. Also, some children wrote great descriptions of a busy place - how it looked, what was there, etc - without describing the movement, pushing and shoving, etc.
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