English Assessment Map – Sample at Level 6
Ricketts
The stimulus is an extract about the Ricketts family from Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans. The extract is a challenging text that combines sophisticated vocabulary in complex sentences using an unfamiliar style representative of its period. A government report on the Ricketts family is also provided for this task.
Students were given 20 minutes to read the extract and respond to a series of questions. They worked without assistance from other students or their teacher.
The elements of the Reading standard addressed by this task are:
(Students) … read, view, analyse, critique, reflect on and discuss contemporary and classical imaginative texts that explore personal, social, cultural and political issues of significance to their own lives.
(Students) explain how texts are shaped by the time, place and cultural setting in which they are created.
(Students) compare and contrast the typical features of particular texts and synthesise information from different texts to draw conclusions.
The following extract is about the Ricketts, a family of poor tenant farmers living in America in the 1930s
The Ricketts are spoken of disapprovingly, even so far away as the county courthouse, as ‘problem’ children. Their attendance record is extremely bad; their conduct is not at all good; they are always fighting and sassing back. Besides their long walk in bad weather, here is some more explanation. They are much too innocent to understand the profits of docility. They have to wear clothes and shoes which make them the obvious butts of most of the children. They come of a family which is marked and poor even among the poor whites, and are looked down on even by most levels of the tenant class. They are uncommonly sensitive, open, trusting, easily hurt, and amazed by meanness and by cruelty, and their ostracism is of a sort to inspire savage loyalty among them.
They are indeed ‘problems’; and the ‘problem’ will not be simplified as these ‘over’-sexed and anarchic children shift into adolescence. The two girls in particular seem inevitably marked out for incredibly cruel misunderstanding and mistreatment.
Source:Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans
The extract is also available in the English CSF II Annotated Work Samples CD-ROM and p80 of the English CSF II Annotated Work Samples Booklet (2001). These resources are available in schools.
The following samples illustrate the kinds of responses that students typically produce when they have achieved the elements of the standard addressed by this task.
1. Rejection of the Ricketts children
creates division in the rest of the community.
strengthens kinship bonds within the Ricketts farmers. (correct answer)
leads to greater dissension within the Ricketts family.
encourages greater tolerance towards othe poor white farmers.
2. The words ‘amazed by meanness’ suggest the Ricketts?
are ignorant and dull.
have a certain decency about them. (correct answer)
have been influenced by the rest of the community.
are too preoccupied with family troubles to know about meanness.
3. The writers say that the Ricketts children are ‘indeed problems’. By this they mean that
their rebelliousness is likely to harm other students.
their behaviour is worse than that of other students in their social class.
they are not intrinsically problems, but will be regarded as such by others. (correct answer)
they are likely to become law breakers and criminals when they leave schools.
4a. Why do you think the writers believe ‘the two girls in particular seem inevitably marked out for incredibly cruel misunderstanding and mistreatment’?
4b. ‘The two girls in particular seem inevitably marked out for incredibly cruel misunderstanding and mistreatment.’ This was written in America in the 1930s. Do you think the statement is still true? Explain your answer.
Here is an extract from a government report on the Ricketts children.
Dated this 14th day of June 1936.
Status: at risk.
Record of attendance at County School: poor. Rolls show 27 unexplained absences since March 1st. Court records: 2 recent attendances on minor charges of fighting and bad language by eldest son. Parents in attendance. Unable to pay fine. Medical records: all children presented during the month of May, with a range of injuries and complaints. Two eldest had severe colds, youngest daughter deep cuts from a fight. Mother chronic chest complaint. Unable to pay for medications.
5. Complete the table below to indicate the differences between the original text and the government report.
The first one has been done for you.
View text version
Reading – Level 6
Questions 1–3: Although the text is complex and unfamiliar in style, students working at Level 6 find these questions relatively easy to answer. Selection of the correct choices in 2 and 3 require higher levels of comprehension using inference and on-balance judgment.
Element of the standard
(Students) … read, view, analyse, critique, reflect on and discuss contemporary and classical imaginative texts that explore personal, social, cultural and political issues of significance to their own lives.
Questions 4a–4b: The student discusses the ideas, including class and gender implications, in relation to prevailing attitudes of historical period.
Element of the standard
(Students) explain how texts are shaped by the time, place and cultural setting in which they are created.
Question 5: The student is able to compare and contrast meaningfully the language used in two different types of texts written for different purposes.
Element of the standard
(Students) compare and contrast the typical features of particular texts and synthesise information from different texts to draw conclusions.
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