Please note the assessment criteria/marking key below. We will use this when we mark your first assessment.
Some students might also find the following process useful when approaching/tackling Comprehending questions:
- Deconstruct the question. Highlight the key words. Ask yourself… what is the question asking/expecting you to do? What knowledge/key concepts is the question asking you to demonstrate?
- Use your question deconstruction as a context to annotate the text. Identify key features of how the text was constructed. The question deconstruction should guide you to specific ideas/points in the text.
- Once you’ve annotated the text, begin your planning. Get ALL of your ideas in one place.
- THEN… decide, from all of your ideas, what your STRONGEST arguments are. Remember… not all the ideas you have about a text have equal merit. Is there a pattern emerging between your ideas? Is there a common theme?
- Use these to construct your thesis statement, which should be as focused and as specific as possible.
- What evidence are you going to use from the text to support your thesis statement? Is the evidence relevant? Is the BEST evidence? What generic features/text features/visual features are you going to write about?
- Begin your response.
