good grief -- New Brunswick has now got a test that is only 25 years old --
that's probably the best that can be said about this..... Andrea
At 02:48 PM 8/12/2000 +0000, you wrote:
>I recently recieved a question from a teacher friend here in New
>Brunswick (Susan MacDonald, for those who might remember her from
>previous Inkshed meetings). She's concerned about the provincial
>grade 11 English test. The province is proposing a new item for the
>test. This is part of it:
>
> ----------------
>Student instructions:
>
>Sentence Combining
>
>Combine each group of sentences into one effective sentence.
>
> a. All of the original ideas must be included in each newly
> constructed sentence.
> b. Do not add any new ideas.
> c. Your score will be based on effective combination of ideas,
> correct spelling and punctuation.
> d. If you have difficulty with a particular group of sentences,
> go on to other sentences and come back to the difficult group when
> you have time.
>
>Sample item D
>
> 1. Ian Rankin is one of the most famous writers of the twentieth
> century.
> 2. Rankin was born in Edinburgh.
> 3. Rankin has written six detective novels.
> 4. One of these novels won the prestigious "Golden Dagger
> Award".
> 5. The winning novel is titled The Hidden Highway.
>
>Sample item F
>
> 1. Freud and Jung "discovered" the unconscious in the nineteenth
> century.
> 2. Each had a very different view of this mental space.
> 3. For Freud the unconscious was a savage place which harboured
> humanity's primitive instincts.
> 4. For Jung the unconscious was a place which contained
> humanity's collective wisdom.
>
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>
>She asked me what I thought about it, and whether I knew of research
>bearing on issues of current views of sentence combining, whether
>testing sentence combining is a useful strategy, and whether the
>likely consequence of including such an item -- that teachers would
>be more likely to include formal sentence combining instruction in
>their classrooms -- was one to be desired. (My own immediate
>question is why in Heaven's name anyone would attempt to construct
>one Frankenstein sentence which included all this stuff, but let that
>pass. You can also let pass my ignorance about who Ian Rankin, "one
>of the most famous writers of the twentieth century" is, or what Doug
>Vipond pointed out, that it's got Jung in the wrong century. Unless
>you think someone should care at least distantly about what they're
>writing.)
>
>I'd be grateful for any thoughts or (especially) references on this,
>and I'll pass them on to her.
>
> -- Russ
> __|~_
>Russell A. Hunt __|~_)_ __)_|~_ Professor of English
>St. Thomas University )_ __)_|_)__ __) PHONE: (506) 452-0424
>Fredericton, New Brunswick | )____) | FAX: (506) 450-9615
>E3B 5G3 CANADA ___|____|____|____/ [log in to unmask]
> \ /
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.StThomasU.ca/~hunt/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
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To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
[log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]
For the list archives and information about the organization,
the annual conference, and publications, go to the Inkshed Web site at
http://www.StThomasU.ca/inkshed/
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