Students create a vignette with a focus on writing that is brief, descriptive, and set in one point in time. They should not be concerned with plot. As the emphasis is on quality rather than quantity, students need to show a controlled and elegant skill in writing, and to use figurative language to 'show' rather than 'tell'.
This task assesses students' ability to discriminate between the use of full stops, exclamation marks, and question marks by asking them to read a letter and insert the appropriate punctuation at the end of each sentence.
Assessment focus: ability to critically analyse and interpret a visual text, based on individual perception and the use of descriptors (visual/verbal/sound etc) to illustrate interpretation.
Students prepare a 2 to 3 minute speech, to inform, persuade, or entertain. Topics suitable for secondary students are provided. Assessment guides A, B, and C are suitable for this task.
Students first do the science activity Throwing balloons 3 or Throwing balloons 4 where they predict, observe, and explain what will happen when a balloon containing another balloon filled with water is thrown. Then the students do this resource's writing task where they describe the balloon and what happens when it is thrown, and explain why they think it moved the way it did. Six annotated exemplars of student scripts (writing) are included under the "Working with Students" tab.