Latest / Gabi’s Speech and Drama Podcast / A visit from an (ex) LAMDA Examiner

Transcript

A visit from an (ex) LAMDA Examiner · Gabi’s Speech and Drama Podcast

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hello everybody and welcome to our July meetup
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: with special guest speaker Kerry Woods Shelley and I will allow you
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: to introduce yourself to everyone Hi so I'm Kerry Woods Shelley I'm Kerry I've been
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: a teacher of Lambda since 1990 so 36 years I've been an examiner roughly 20 years
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: and I retired last year so I'm not working for Lambda anymore and I'm
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: look like this because I'm at the beach at the moment on my holly bobs so there we go.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: I was an examiner when exams were taken on the day and results were given out on
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: the day and I've seen lots of changes with
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: the exam boards lambda included reporting styles marking criteria criteria
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: of pass distinction and fail and
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: over
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: the years some things have been great some things haven't been great some things
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: have turned out to be great but
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: when we're teachers we don't always think they're great
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: and sometimes they're absolutely awful and they got rid of them
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: so that's good sometimes always and never i think you'll possibly remember of those
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: of you that have had a lot of experience with lambda personally as
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: an examiner i tried really hard never to use those three words
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: and i didn't get reports back so there were ways around it but it was
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: a difficult time
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: so as a teacher and examiner i also worked through covid and coming out
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: of covid really i think set the online examination path going and so there's
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: a whole load of other criteria that goes alongside doing the in-person exams
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: and doing the online exams but the basic examination is the same and the process is
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: the same it's just a different format to go through
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: so bear with because i have got notes because gabi asked me to prepare some things
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: that you'd asked about so i'd like to start off really
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: with common mistakes these are not exhaustive these are just things that as
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: a teacher and as an examiner i've come across a lot so if we'd like to look at
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: the common mistakes really linked to the knowledge a lot of it is that
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: the questions are not read properly and I think as teachers we have
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: to take responsibility for the fact that we have to disseminate the questions for
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: the children and for the learners I don't have to say learners anymore for
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: the students yeah so it's really important and sometimes that doesn't happen
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: and sometimes I think that as teachers we may forget that it's
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: a ten minute five minute ten minute if we're in a medal exam section of an exam
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: So unless you're succinct and unless it comes from the student's actual body
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: of knowledge,
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: they're going to get very,
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: very stuck if during the discussion a question is asked to qualify something.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: And we've all been there. We've all said exhalation when we meant inhalation.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: And as an examiner, we were very reticent about stopping somebody and going, did you mean this?
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I found over the years, if you didn't say that...
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: then they would go down the wrong path and possibly not pass that part of the exam.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: So read the questions,
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: really read the questions,
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: break the questions down and then make the learner understand what
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: that question means because mood and feelings are two very different things and it's
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: a way of making sure that they're connected with their work.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: I always start with the knowledge and work onto the performances from that
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: because I know them what they need to know from their knowledge.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: if you look at the online examinations if do any of you do
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: an online I'll just be very brief with it but a lot of
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: the time they've been taught very well but unfortunately they haven't had
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: the session where they've done their exam online so their head disappears
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: or they're looking at the ceiling or you miss a nuance of the fact
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: that they're doing a speech where they're talking to their shoes
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: but you can't see their feet you can only see them from
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: the face down or something so it makes sure that camera angles and things like that
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: and the other thing in the knowledge is well it could be well i could be a boy
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: or i could be a girl or it could mean this or it could mean
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: that i can't mark it could be i need you to make a decision
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: and tell me what your decision is before i can give a mark so with
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: the little ones very often they'll be talking about curl what is curl
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: and they'll they'll show you or they'll do an action
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: and you'll say something like, could you tell me what that means?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Give me an example.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, she's got curly hair.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: So what does that curl look like?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's a spiral.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: They've got a mark.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: But that does require the examiner to give quite a lot of extra information.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: So as a teacher,
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: just try and really drill down on the question and give the answers
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: to your students.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: The script didn't say is something, you know.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Girls Like That is a script where it's Girl A or it's Nasty Girl
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: or they have titles but they don't have characters, character names.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: They do have characters but not character names
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: and at distinction level if they turn around and say
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: well I don't know her objective because the script didn'n say
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: or she hasn't got a character, I can't tell you about it
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's very tricky for an examiner to try and give them the marks
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: for that so again
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: be very open with them for an examination you're not doing the whole play
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: for the purposes of the scene so as long as you say that for the
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: purposes of my scene eliza is in love with
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: the professor or eliza's in love avec le colonel
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: it's wrong perhaps but at grade four it doesn't matter if you justify it
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: with what you did and your answer covers
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: the things that you need to cover then it's full marks
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it's about understanding what they understand with the knowledge.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: acting there's lots of things that happen with acting one of the main things is
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: if you take a scene from an old anthology none of those scenes are timed
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: so you may find in the news anthologies that you're using that a scene goes over
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: the five minutes or under the three minutes or whatever it is but that's
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: because it's a set piece and it's allowed to so if you're going to take
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: an anthology piece an old anthology piece perfectly reasonable to do it
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: lots of people do it but you can then cut and you must time because the number
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: of exam sessions I've had that have run over because they're doing
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: an X anthology piece and an anthology piece and it hasn't been timed and
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: the examiner stops marking after the time not on a set piece but on
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: an own choice piece so you don't lose marks per se but you know it's a mistake
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: that you don't really want your students to have to worry about