Week 10 Term 3: English Department: PART TWO - NCEA Level 1 English Internal Assessment: 1.2 91926 (September 15 - September 19)

 In my previous post I outlined and reviewed the new NCEA Level 1 English internal assessment (1.2: 91926) that we have been focusing on this term. You can see the review and outline of the assessment here - see Alby's Blog Post Entry - 08/09/25. In this post I am going outline the unit that we have designed for this assessment and comment on how the student's have responded to the unit so far. 

Designing the Unit for 91926

There are three pieces of writing that we can explicitly teach (spend a week on each) plan, draft for each style of writing. The three styles of writing that we aimed to teach explicitly were:

1. Narrative Writing
2. Personal Account Writing
3. Opinion Writing

When the assessment comes around, tell students that they can do any type of writing but remind them that we have done three types of writing. Once the assessment starts, they recommend 6-8 hours for the assessment (from the introduction of the assessment to the crafting of the text). The assessment window needs to run consecutively (two week period). Ideally students are not receiving any scaffolding or feedback for their work during the assessment period. We want to ensure that we set clear expectations, this is independently writing without any feedback. Students can do handwritten drafts and the students can type out their final draft. This is good, we can see the progression of the student’s writing. We can give general feedback, focused on the assessment criteria only. They can use a basic spell check and grammar check. 

We ended up choosing to focus on two styles of writing (Personal Account Writing and Narrative Writing). We created a unit for each style of writing that had a text for the students to read, a response to text study and plan that the students had to complete for that style of writing. It is imperative in the unit that the students complete each task for each style of writing and that they complete the plan for that style. 

Personal Account Writing Text Study

Narrative Writing Text Study

The plan ensures that they have an idea on what they would do and how they would write the text if they chose that particular style. The students had to choose ONE genre and style of writing that you have covered in class. Either PERSONAL ACCOUNT WRITING or NARRATIVE WRITING. 

Student response so far

NCEA Level 1 English students working on draft 1 for 91926

NCEA Level 1 English students working on draft 1 for 91926 

The response has been positive. The students have really connected with Personal Account Writing and they have enjoyed creating a text that is grounded in their personal experience and voice. Many of our students have opted to write in the style of Personal Account Writing. We are really pleased with how the student's have engaged and embraced the unit. The students are currently working on their first draft (which is hand written). They will complete their final draft online during the last two weeks of Term 3 (Week 9 and Week 10). We are looking forward to closing this internal assessment at the end of Week 1 Term 4. The student's response to this new assessment has been positive and we can see how they have instantly connected to the idea of writing, crafting and creating texts that resonate with them on a creative and personal level. 

Week 9 Term 3: English Department: PART ONE - NCEA Level 1 English Internal Assessment: 1.2 91926 (September 01 - September 05)

NZQA Weaving Knowledge

Over the next two weeks I am going to reflect on the NCEA Level 1 English internal assessment 1.2: 91926 - Develop ideas in writing using stylistic and written conventions. This is a new internal assessment. Originally it was flagged as a submitted external assessment. We started our new curriculum for NCEA Level 1 English we decided not to do the submitted external and opted for the two internal assessments. This year, the internal assessment (1.1) that we planned on doing was converted into an external assessment and 1.2 was introduced as a internal assessment. 

In this post I am going to reflect on what the assessment entails and my understanding on what the teachers and students need to know with this new assessment. In my up and coming posts, I will highlight what the English Department have planned and designed as a unit of learning for 1.2 and the journey on how the plan has come to life in our classrooms this term. 

The big thing is different with the standard this year is that it is internally assessed, not externally assessed. It is an internal assessment, fully internally assessed and marked.

The two key assumptions or driving principles of the assessment is:

Student agency - the assessment is looking for students to have agency and choice with the assessment they are writing.

Independence - its an assessment on what the students are able to do entirely independently

This assessment, in contrast with the old 1.4 and 1.5, this one is not over scaffolded. Students are getting an opportunity to write different types of texts (formal writing, poetry, character description). The assessment encourages the students to do the assessment independently as they have skills on how to craft different texts. The assessment should enable students to write independently with little feedback and scaffolding.

Teaching and learning which is then assessed by the standard.

• The intent of the standard is not to return to how we have assessed writing in the past.
• The intent of the standard is that students are getting exposed and learn how to write a range of different types of writing - Formal Writing, Persuasive Writing, Creative Writing, Poetry
• Using language appropriately for purpose and audience
• What stylistic features are appropriate for the purpose and audience for your written text
• The standard is trying to assess, can the student INDEPENDENTLY craft the text

Conditions of the assessment and how you run the assessment.

• When the students do their writing, it still hands off from the teacher
• The students need to independently need to plan and draft their writing once they get the assessment
• Teacher can give some brief, general feedback for example “you need to look at your accuracy” - general commentary
• EXPLICITLY - students cannot do a piece of writing for this standard that they have done for another standard - they cannot study a novel, teach the kids to write an essay about the novel and use that essay for the writing standard.
• The writing assessment needs to be assessed in and around 6-8 hours (during a week) in an exam setting or in class.

In my next post I am going highlight the unit of learning that the English Department has designed for 91926.