JUNIOR CERT ENGLISH: PAPER I:IT WAS a challenging day for Junior Cert students who sat the higher-level English exam yesterday.
Overall, teachers deemed the higher-level papers distinctly challenging in parts but welcomed the topical nature of paper 1 in particular. There was quite a change in emphasis this year, said Christina Henehan, ASTI subject representative and teacher in Rice College, Westport. There was a real modernisation of the paper, she said.
Anne Gormley, English teacher in Laurel Hill Coláiste, agreed. She noted that an effort was made to ensure that the paper would be relevant. Social networking made an appearance among the composition titles, along with titles such as “My recipe for happiness” and “Things that fill me with wonder”.
Functional writing was also brought up to date with students being asked to write a review of an MP3 player, a games console or an electronic reader rather than the usual film or book review.
The other functional writing option, in which students had to write a letter to their future son or daughter, was a bit difficult, a bit abstract, TUI representative Alan Thompson of the Abbey vocational school in Donegal said.
The ordinary-level paper was a bit more straightforward with a comprehension about Eoin Colfer's book Artemis Fowlbeing voted Britain's all-time favourite Puffin book. Composition titles included "The Prize", "Fame" and "Everyone should have a pet". It was very manageable, Thompson said.
It was a long day for the higher level students who, after sitting paper 1 in the morning, returned for paper 2 in the afternoon.
Again, it was no walkover. An excerpt from A Midsummer Night's Dreamwas welcomed, although a question requiring students to write a diary entry the director of the play might have written during casting was a challenge, according to Henehan. It was linking much more towards the Leaving Cert paper 1, she said.
Other questions on drama and poetry were not without their difficulties but overall, the changes are to be welcomed, Ms Henehan said. More is being demanded of students’ writing skills, she added.
