New HL Paper 1 non-fiction response

This week we have posted a new Higher Level student's response to the non-fiction extract on the May 2021 TZ1 paper 1 examination, Prospero's Cell by Lawrence Durrell. 

 

The new sample, and all others can be found at the page linked below, where responses are organised by literary form. This sample, number 17, can be found in the  Responses to prose non-fiction section. 

This is an interesting sample to look at as it is written by a student who took a real dislike to the passage  - in their own words they felt "contempt" for it.  Despite this "contempt", they still manage to engage with an analysis and interpretation of the text.  Areas to explore with students might include: the extent to which this interpretation is convincingly supported by analysis of evidence; whether the student manages to balance an objective, critical approach with their own negative engagement with the text; if there are places where the student goes too far with their personal response to the text? 

We may feel that the student is too extreme in their response at times, and as a result that they drift too far from the focus of the guiding question. However, we may think that many of their points are convincing and there is no doubt the student is engaged with the text and the task in a way that is quite refreshing to read.  This is an example of a resistant reading, which is an important concept for students to understand, although it is a potentially risky approach to take in an examination.  That is why it is vital to root a discussion about this response in the assessment criteria and the extent to which the student uses evidence and analysis in a convincing way to support their interpretation. 

It is important for teachers and students to look at a range of examples in order to become familiar with the expectations of this task and how student work is assessed using the criteria. While many of these samples could be described as very good, they do vary in approach, style and quality; it is important for students to see that there is not one set way of responding to these questions, and it is also useful to look at examples in terms of what they get wrong or could do better, as well as those that do a lot of things right.