ASSESSMENT AND SUPPORT
Explaining big ideas and context
Assessment Criteria and What A Good One Looks Like
Below you will find the Skill Check assessment criteria for this skill, and underneath you will find two examples of what a good one looks like, one for big ideas only and one for big ideas and context, each with a brief explanation of how it fits the criteria.
Assessment Criteria for Explaining big ideas and context
minus
any of these things
Basic task instructions have not been followed (e.g. it’s not the analysis part of the paragraph)
No attempt made to explain the basic meaning of the evidence
Only writes about the characters/plot – doesn’t go outside the text into big ideas or context
equals
all of these things
Attempts to explain the basic meaning of the evidence.
Identifies the big idea from the paragraph point in the analysis, but with no meaningful development of that idea beyond what is stated in the point
plus
all of these things
Attempts to explain the basic meaning of the evidence.
Attempts to explain the big idea from the paragraph point in the analysis
[Year 9 onwards] Identifies a valid link to the context of the text, if one is expected
star
all of these things
Attempts to explain the basic meaning of the evidence.
Explains the big idea from the paragraph point in the analysis, providing noticeably more detail to clarify the idea
[Year 9 onwards] Explains a worthwhile link to the context of the text, if one is expected
What a good one looks like — Year 8 example (big ideas only)
Example task
Read the point and evidence and then complete the task underneath.
In ‘Those Winter Sundays’ Robert Hayden suggests that it is often through their unseen actions that parents show their love. The speaker describes how, even on Sundays, his father would get up early and dress in “the blueblack cold” and light the fires with his “cracked hands” even though “no one ever thanked him.”
Write the next part of this paragraph by explaining the evidence and then explaining the big ideas that are being explored here.
Example response
Here, we see the speaker’s father going above and beyond for his son. Even on Sundays — a day of rest, when people would often lie in — he suffers through the cold to warm the house, without ever expecting gratitude. There is a selflessness to this act which Hayden uses to show the nature of parental love: it is a thankless job, very often, being a parent, with young children especially ungrateful because they lack the perspective and understanding that the speaker of this poem now has, since he is reflecting on his youth in later life. Parents suffer, Hayden suggests, reflected in the “cracked hands” of the father here, not for personal gain but because they love their children, and that is often how they show their love.
Notes on this response
It begins by explaining the basic meaning of the evidence, discussing the poem itself, and what the evidence shows about the characters in it (the speaker, his father) — this is essential for this task — don’t just go straight into big ideas.
There is no analysis of methods — it’s not necessary for this task so we didn’t include it here; it can be included, but it won’t make the mark higher.
The discussion moves from the basic meaning of the poem to what the text tells us about big ideas (“…which Hayden uses to show…”).
The big ideas are not just identified but explained here — the explanation goes much deeper than what is included in the paragraph point in the task, making the ideas in the point much clearer.
There is no need to write about context because these big ideas are universal and independent of time and place.
What a good one looks like — Year 9+ example (big ideas AND context)
Example task
Read the point and evidence and then complete the task underneath.
Throughout the novel, Dickens offers a strident critique of the social policies of 19th century Britain. For example, when Scrooge and the Spirit encounter Ignorance and Want at the end of Stave 3, Scrooge asks if they have any refuge, and the Spirit replies with Scrooge’s own words: “Are there no prisons?” it says. “Are there no workhouses?”
Write the next part of this paragraph by explaining the evidence and then explaining the big ideas that are being explored here, including relevant links to the context of the text.
Example response
This is a key moment for Scrooge, who finds his own prior ignorance exposed: he is suddenly in the same position as the charity collectors in Stave 1, wishing for social justice and having that wish coldly (ironically) rejected by the spirit. This is the last of Dickens’s purposeful echoes of Stave 1, which he uses throughout the first half of the novel to show how wrong Scrooge’s initial opinions are. Though these views seem extreme to us today, to Scrooge (and to those in Dickens’s society who thought like him) they were all too commonplace and acceptable. During the industrial revolution, urban populations skyrocketed, creating vast urban poverty in cities like London. Rather than provide welfare programs to support all the new poor people, the Poor Law of 1834 made falling into poverty even worse in order to force people to work longer and harder. Though Dickens hated it, many people supported this policy. By repeating these views here, with the added context provided in the middle part of the novel, Dickens shows how cruel and absurd the social policies of his time were.
Notes on this response
It begins by explaining what the evidence means in terms of the characters and the plot (in one long sentence).
It then shifts to big ideas, going outside the text and into the social conditions of people at this time.
During the discussion of big ideas it shifts into a discussion of the context of the text (“During the industrial revolution…”).
This link to context is not just identified but explained over 3 sentences, including some specific details like dates (1834).
The whole discussion of big ideas is centred around the context of the text, since this is a novel from the 19th century that is, politically speaking at least, about the 19th century. To write about the political ‘big ideas’ in this text requires writing about the context of the text — these two concepts (big ideas and context) are hard to separate in a paragraph like this.
This won’t always be the case for historical texts (some big ideas are universal and independent of context), but because it’s sometimes the case (e.g. when it’s political or personal to the writer), you need to be able to write about both big ideas AND context.