Assessment 1

Assessment 1
Characters of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas


Text: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Novel
Type of Task: Choice between a journal entry or a graph (Linguistic or Mathematical/Logical)
Time Allowed: Overnight (suggested 1-2 hours)

Task:

This assessment aims to promote understanding of the characters and the ways in which they are represented in the novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
Students are required to choose one of two assessment options to show their understanding and learning in this unit.

Option 1 - Students are to choose one of the central characters from The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and write a one page journal entry from the perspective of that character. Students are to show their understanding of the character, the character's opinions, the character's knowledge (or lack thereof) of the war and its wider meaning, and the ways in which the author has revealed all of these things about the character to the reader. Students should also demonstrate good literacy skills including grammar, sentence structure and spelling, along with an understanding of the conventions and expectations of the journal text type. This task choice involves a lot of detail and some analysis of one character. One example of this option could be a journal entry written by Bruno on the first day he sees Auschwitz, how he feels about what he sees, about the war, and about his father's part in the war.

Option 2 - Students are to create a graph that represents the central characters of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas including any (but not all) of the following: the character's opinions, the character's knowledge (or lack thereof) of the war and its wider meaning, and the ways in which the author has revealed all of these things about the character to the reader. Students should also demonstrate good literacy skills including spelling and grammar, along with good visual or logical skills in presenting characters as good/bad/different to each other. This task choice involves less detail but more analysis of several characters and the ways they can be compared to each other. One example of this option could be a compass graph where each corner represents an attitude to the war such as Very Supportive, Supportive, Not Supportive, Very Not Supportive. Characters could be placed in each corner with evidence from the novel to indicate why they are in that position.

Marking Criteria:

Marking Criteria	E	G	S	I	N
Ability to demonstrate understanding of character
Ability to demonstrate use of textual evidence
Ability to demonstrate literary techniques
Ability to understand perspective and demonstrate this in task
Ability to write or create a task using appropriate language including sentence structure, spelling and grammar
Ability to reflect on completed work and explain decisions made in composing it

E = Excellent         G = Good               S = Satisfactory           I = Improvement needed             N: Non Assessable