CSEC ENGLISH SBA

Sharon Phillip
Hassan Basarally
 OBJECTIVES
1. Describe the layout of the English SBA.
2. Understand the content required for the Plan of Investigation,
Reflections and Group Written Report.
3. Practice marking samples from the English SBA.
4. Understand the importance and correct method of English SBA upload.
5. Identify weaker areas in the English SBA mentioned in Examination
Reports.
6. Develop teacher self efficacy and reduce stress.
 BEFORE YOU START…
• Ensure that the topic can have enough sub topics for each group
member.

• Students should choose artefacts that are: of sufficient length,

directly related to the topic and contains a language strategy.

• Encourage students to note the bibliographic information of the

artefacts as soon as it is collected.
 COVER PAGE
• CANDIDATE NAME:
• CANDIDATE NUMBER:
• CENTRE NAME:
• CENTRE NUMBER:
• YEAR OF EXAMINATION:
• TEACHER:
• SUBJECT:
• TOPIC:
• TERRITORY:
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Have the students start it and add to it as the SBA progresses.
2. This is what a completed TOC includes:

Plan of Investigation
Artifact 1
Artifact 2
Artifact 3
Reflection 1
Reflection 2
Reflection 3
Group Written Report
Artifacts for Group Written Report
Plan of Oral Presentation
Bibliography
 PLAN OF INVESTIGATION
CRITERIA BREAKDOWN
Reason for choosing the topic and Must be well explained.
selection of ‘I find this topic interesting’:1 mark
title. 3 marks
Expected benefits to you as a student of Summary writing, persuasive writing,
English 3 marks persuasive speaking, vocabulary.
Research skills, knowledge of the topic: 1
mark
Material to be collected 2 marks Genre e.g. poem, song, short story,
article: 1 mark
Sources: newspaper, internet, textbooks
1 mark
Use of the English Language skills to be Summary writing & expanded vocabulary
used will be used in writing reflections and
in analysing the material 2 marks group report.
Persuasive writing & persuasive speaking
will be used in the oral presentation.
 SELECTION OF ARTEFACTS
LESS DIFFICULT MORE DIFFICULT
Poem Video
Short story Audio
Song Picture
Article
Play

NOTE: For each artifact, add at the top of the page:

NAME:
AUTHOR:
SOURCE:
 REFECTION 1
1. How did the student think about the issue before starting the
SBA?
2. What was the main idea or issue in the 3 selected
pieces?
3. What new knowledge did the student gain from each piece of
material?
 HINTS FOR REFLECTION 1
• The artefact title must be mentioned.
• Speak about each artefact separately.
• Each reflection must be 150 words
• Do not include definitions.
 REFLECTION 2
1. What category did the piece fall into (e.g. poem, article, and
poster)?
2. What was the purpose of each piece (to persuade, to entertain,
to inform, etc.)?
3. What were some of the main language techniques used
by the writer in the pieces?
4. How effective were these techniques in achieving the
writer’s purpose?
5. IEE: Identify, Example, Explain
 HINTS FOR REFLECTION 2
• Choose one language device to speak about
• Registers: formal, informal, consultative, frozen, intimate
• Tone
• Mood e.g. fearful, angry, sad, calm, cheerful, peaceful, exciting, lonely etc.
• Literary devices e.g. simile, metaphor, personification, repetition
• Examples
• Statistics
• Structure: categorical, comparative, evaluative, sequential
• You must say how the device helps to achieve the writer’s purpose.
• Examples of the language device identified must be included.
 REFLECTION 3
1.What did the student learn about the topic?
2.Did the student’s research help him in any facet of his life (socially, academically, etc)?
3.What was the student’s experience working in a group?
4.Was the group work challenging or beneficial? Does the student explain his opinion of the
experience?
5.How did the student cope with group challenges?
6.Were the students able to help each other?
7.Did the student have any other experiences and how did these help them to grow?
8.Was the student able to assess, read, find and evaluate a range of research information?
9. Did the student’s writing improve?
10. Was the student’s vocabulary expanded?
11. Did the student’s self-discipline increase?

NOTE: there is no need to answer each of these questions, you can answer some based on your word limit.
 REFLECTION 3
INTERPRETATIONS
Reflection 3 – may be interpreted in 3 ways. Either
• (a) Your experience working as a group
OR
• (b) -a discussion on how the completion of an SBA or SBA generally
has helped the student to “become a better person’
-How doing a specific (topic) SBA has caused the improvement-
(Improvement / better person may include the personal –
psychological, social, physical…educational)
OR
• (c) A combination of A & B
 GROUP WRITTEN REPORT
1. Content: 4 marks

a. What different aspects of the theme did each group member investigate?
b. Was it easy or hard to find pieces/artefacts? Why?
c. How did the group decide what three pieces/ artefacts to use?
d. How many pieces/artefacts did the group have? What are the names of
the three chosen? Mention here the Title, Author and Year of publication for
each one.
e. What was the process of the group writing the report-How did you go about
doing this report. Eg: How did you meet? Did you meet after school or during
class time etc.
 GROUP WRITTEN REPORT
2. Evidence of investigation: 3 marks
a. What did the group learn from each of the pieces/artefacts?
b. What was the major issue in each piece/artefact?
c. Mention the title, author and year of each artefact (if possible).

3. Language use and vocabulary: 3 marks

d. Grammar and mechanics
e. Utilise vocabulary/jargon from the stimuli.
 HINTS FOR GROUP WRITTEN
REPORT
• If any group member has a different report, the candidate cannot receive
the same mark as the rest of the group.
• This is the only part of the SBA that spelling and grammar is penalised.
• The three artefacts must be included after the report of the SBA for each
member of the group.
• Basic APA format is to be used.
• All artefacts used for the report must be included in the portfolio.
• 300 word limit. Remember there is no need to write the names of your
group members or what they did in this report.
 ORAL PRESENTATION
• A personal response related to issue/topic/ theme/ event should be
delivered orally in 3 to 5 minutes.

• The oral presentation should be delivered predominately in

Standard English and in a genre of the student’s choosing, for
example, drama, poetry, prose, role play, speech, argument,
exposition.

• Creole is accepted in the suitable contexts and registers.

 PLAN OF ORAL PRESENTATION
• The student should deliver a brief overview of the presentation
including the genre chosen, the sources used and a comment on the
kind of language used.

• A brief plan of the Oral Presentation must be submitted in the Portfolio.

• TOPIC:
• GENRE:
• SOURCES:
 REFERENCES
• Basic APA format
 UPLOADING OF SAMPLES
• Two documents are required: 1. CXC Cover sheet 2. SBA

• SBA should be typed, if it is handwritten it must be scanned in PDF

format.

• You can include the CXC Cover sheet with the SBA as well. This will
be useful if for some reason it cannot be viewed during moderation.
 SBA REPORT
The following are some comments made by moderators over the years:

1. Plan of Investigation

• There were several unnecessary ‘Introductions’ to the plan as well as bulleted

lists of several ‘problems’ the students expected to occur.

• The main area to be improved is in how the language skills would be used in the
SBA. Language skills cover a wide range of speaking, writing, reading and
listening. Expected responses included developing and using skills in writing
genres such as report writing to provide information about the chosen topic, or
narrative/descriptive/creative writing to craft a personal response to the theme.
 SBA REPORT
Plan of Investigation (continued)

• Candidates wrote very long reasons for choosing the topic and used most
of the 100 words allocated .

• Definitions are not needed.

• English skills need to be mentioned, not general skills.

• Sources of information and genres of artefacts are required.

 SBA REPORT
Reflections

• Students needed guidance in choosing suitable artefacts, especially visual artefacts.

• A statement on previous knowledge of the topic is required in Reflection 1.

• In writing Reflection 2 which required students to discuss the use of language in the material selected, many
students failed to identify and discuss a suitable language technique. Students must be able to discuss the
use of language in each artefact

• An example of the language strategy from the artefact is needed in Reflection 2.

• There were elements of repetition in Reflection 3.

• Mention the title of artefacts.

 SBA REPORT
Group Written Report

• Candidates need to discuss the reason for selecting the stimuli for the
Written Report from the pool of artefacts the group possessed.

• Each stimuli must be discussed separately.

• The title and author of each stimuli should be mentioned.

 SBA REPORT
General

• Projects should have the appropriately titled sections.

• There should be evidence that there are three artefacts used for the individual sections.

• Teachers are advised against the inflation of students’ scores as the moderation exercise will
result in the scores for the entire class being reduced using regression analysis.

• Teacher must use whole numbers in scoring.

• Teachers should ensure that the SBA actually contains the sections which are to be moderated
and for which they have awarded marks.
 THANK YOU
Questions?