[senco-forum] Edexcel GCSE Science exams on Monday - help please-SEN element too

From a SEN point of view I am anxious about the amount of reading and

Hi Peter
  My point is that the science exams seems to be disadvantaging pupils who do not meet the criteria for a reader but cannot read the exam paper independently because of the reading level.
  It wasn't 85 words per minute I was talking about.  Exam boards say pupils can have a reader if the standardised score on a single word reading test is below 85 so I was talking about standardised scores.
  Also - foundation tier (G to C) exam papers are not printed on white paper.  They are printed on yellow.  Only higher tier papers are printed on white.

  Amanda
  Secondary SENCO
  Cornwall

Peter Irons <pi at tintavision.co.uk> wrote:
  Hi
The reading scores that you quote approximate closely to rapid automatic
naming speeds.

They are of course the speeds reading black text on white.

If you optimise the colour background for the student then a typical 85
words per minute reader will increase to 114 words per minute. ( based on
primary and secondary studies)

Peter Irons
Eyescience

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk]On Behalf Of Amanda
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 4:51 PM
To: Janet Barlow; senco-forum
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] Edexcel GCSE Science exams on Monday - help
please-SEN element too

Hi Janet

The new science syllabus seems to me too to be a problem because of the
reading level. It's not just the multiple choice tests, it's the classroom
timed assessments as well.

I (unscientifically) estimated you need to be reading with a standardised
score of 95 to access the timed classroom assessments. You are only allowed
a reader if your score is below 85. Of course, I have only been able to
guess this as the papers have to be kept in a secure place.
Some questions do not seem to be about the science. How many seed trays
does it take to fill a greenhouse, for example.
The feedback from pupils on the classroom assessment is that they are not
about science. My daughter is in Year 10 and is aiming for an A - she said
that it didn't seem to be about what she'd revised.

I've not talked to the science dept about the multiple choice tests - but
I do know they are concerned about the classroom assessments and the
multiple choice tests.

Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall

Janet Barlow wrote:
Dear All.,
Our yr 10s sat this multi-choice 20 mins exam on Monday - Chem, Phys and
Biol.
The Physics teacher has shown me the paper and is worried (and annoyed)
about it because:
# to him the higher tier seems an awful lot of reading to do in 20mins (esp
Q 30)
# the phrasing of the questions - containing a negative - 'which of these is
not important when choosing a new xray machine?'
# the physics itself - e.g. again the xray question - 3 answers are not to
do with physics and only 1 is (Q28) and in another question (Q19) about
readings on an ammeter and a voltmeter the experiment involves using a
faulty meter and working out which of 4 statemenets is the correct
suggestion to work out the correct reagings in the table - he felt this was
particularly daft as the kids would never be given faulty equipment.
Has anyone any experience of this? Could anyone check with their science
depts?
>From a SEN point of view I am anxious about the amount of reading and
processing these style of exams have for the kids with literacy
difficulties. I'm also concerned about obscure phrasing which causes
confusion. Negatives in questions cause such trouble and uncertainty and how
often do these kids slide over the little word'not' as they attempt to
decode the more difficult ones?
This is the first year of this new syllabus and I want to get any
appropriate comments in quick so we can get any of these problems sorted
out.
Has anyone got anything that I can use to work out whether there are too
many words for the 'average' reader to read in the time - I can do a smog
and work out the readability level but that is not what I need here. Is
there such a thing?
Yours hopefully,
Janet ( an obvious non-scientist)

Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall

Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall