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Assessment Task Notification

Context: In this module, students would have developed skills and knowledge to appreciate
and understand the various ways different communication technologies shape the way we
read, navigate, understand and respond to multimedia, multimodal and non-linear texts The
focus of this unit is the series Sherlock (Season 1). Student’s have correspondingly
considered and reflected on a variety of representations of the literary figure of Sherlock
Holmes in different contexts. In addition, students have studied the contemporary
possibilities for storytelling across a diverse range of platforms and media and have also
reflected and critically analysed their own engagement as readers and active participants in
the creation of meaning.

Course Name: Year 11 Standard English 2018

Due date for first draft submission: To be negotiated
Due Date for final submission: Term 2 Week 9A – 27th June 2019

Assessment Task Number: 2

Assessment Task Title: Module A Contemporary Possibilities: Multimodal Presentation
Assessment Weighting: 25%
Total Marks Allocated to this task: 25 Marks
Text: Sherlock Holmes

Outcomes Assessed:
EN11-1 responds to and composes increasingly complex texts for understanding, interpretation,
analysis, imaginative expression and pleasure
EN11-2 uses and evaluates processes, skills and knowledge required to effectively respond to and
compose texts in different modes, media and technologies
EN11-5 thinks imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and analytically to respond to and compose
texts that include considered and detailed information, ideas and arguments

Task Description:

Create an automated presentation, using a medium of their choice, such as, Keynote,
PowerPoint, Prezi, iMovie, Screen-O-Matic or other appropriate tools. Voice recordings are
essential, and therefore need to be included in accompaniment to the visuals used in the
presentation.

In your presentation, explore how new technologies enable readers/audience to engage in texts in
new and more active ways. Students also need to demonstrate why it is valuable to study the
possibilities of technology for contemporary society. Students must use evidence from the
Sherlock Series 1 (BBC) and one other related multimodal or digital text of your own choosing,
such as:
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- The official BBC website

- Computer game connecting to Sherlock Holmes/murder mystery crime story

- Another multimodal text of your choosing.

Marking Criteria:
You will be assessed on how well you:

 compose a creative and informative presentation that explores the topic

 analyse evidence from both texts to support your ideas
 use appropriate language to communicate ideas.

Feedback provided:
Written feedback from teacher will be provided after submission highlighting areas strengths and
weaknesses.
Students will

Assessment Criteria/Marking Guidelines

Marking Criteria Marks

• Delivers a successful and engaging multimodal presentation, demonstrating skilful 21-25

control and manipulation of a wide range of modes of communication.
• Presents insightful and evaluative responses to the task focus questions, demonstrating
sophisticated understanding of the issues and skilful control of expression.
• Critically analyses the way the texts represent the implications of technology for a
contemporary world with significant and apt textual referencing.
• Effectively synthesises information to assess and evaluate the significance of technology
to contemporary society in both their personal and public worlds.

• Delivers a clear and competent multimodal presentation, demonstrating a well-developed 16-20

control of at least 2 modes of communication.
• Presents evaluative responses to the task focus questions, demonstrating a well-developed
understanding of the issues and an effective control of expression.
•Analyses the way the texts represent the implications of technology for a contemporary
world with apt textual references.
• Synthesises information to assess and provide some evaluation about the significance of
technology for contemporary society in both their personal and public worlds.

• Delivers a multimodal presentation with a mostly sound control of at least 2 modes of 11-15
communication.
• Presents sound responses to the task focus questions, demonstrating an understanding of
the issues with clear control of expression.
• Analyses inconsistently the way the texts represent some of the implications of
technology for a contemporary world with textual references.
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• Assesses and comments on the significance of technology in relation to both personal and
public worlds.

• Delivers an attempt at a multimodal presentation with variable control of 2 or less modes 6-10
of communication.
• Presents responses to the task focus questions, demonstrating an inconsistent and/or basic
understanding of some of the issues with limited control of expression. • Explains or
describes aspects of representation used by the texts with minimal or no textual references.
• Attempts to comment on Technology from a personal or public perspective.

Delivers an inconsistent and/or minimal attempt at a multimodal presentation with minimal 0-5
or no control of modes of communication
• Presents minimal or incorrect responses to aspects of the task focus questions,
demonstrating minimal or no understanding of the issues with no control of expression.
• Describes or identifies some aspects of the texts.
• Identifies some aspects of technology in relation to contemporary society or themselves

Comments/General Feedback
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Part 2: Essay

In recent years, educators have outlined the importance of developing assessment tasks that

not only assess and measure what students have learned but also enhance their learning

(Jetnikoff, 2010; Silseth & Gilje, 2017). This change has led academics to challenge existing

assessment practices, in which summative assessments have always been the primary

activity, and emphasise specifically on formative assessment (Jetnikoff, 2010). With the

implementation of multimodal assessment tasks, there are a range of opportunities and

challenges that come with it. This paper will explore the opportunities multimodal assessment

tasks bring to their students, as well as any challenges that may be present. It will go on

further to discuss the specific practices that will enable students to appropriately prepare for

this kind of task, in relation to their Stage 6 Module A: Contemporary Possibilities

assessment task.

The inclusion of multimodal assessment provides secondary schools valuable opportunities

for teachers to design or create more enhance, interactive, more inclusive and engaging

learning environments. One of the key advantages by adding multimodal educational

technologies into the curriculum is the desire to improve the engagement and learning

opportunities of students (Ibid, 2019). To assist with this the increasing use of multimedia in

teaching has provided many opportunities to present multiple representations of content (text,

video, audio, images, interactive elements) to cater more effectively to the different learning

styles of an increasingly diverse student body (Ibid, 2019).

There is an obvious connection between multimodal tasks and ICT to the Australian

Professional Standards for Teachers, with standard 2.6 Information and Communication

Technology, and standard 4.5 Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically (AITSL, 2017). In
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this way, teachers are constantly expected to be able to adapt to a variety of technology-based

and other approaches for content delivery, learning support, and assessment (Mattiello, 2016;

Jetnikoff, 2010). Moreover, multimodal learning and ICT must not be viewed as an ‘add-on’

or support tool but be a powerful tool that can foster a life-long love for learning that goes

beyond the four walls of a classroom (Ibid, 2016). Multimodal learning fosters critical

thinking and problem-solving, communication and collaboration, creativity and innovation,

social and cross-cultural interaction, leadership and responsibility (Ibid, 2016).

Multimodal assessments also permit’s students to take an active approach in their own

learning, meaning they need to undergo the necessary procedures to search for knowledge.

This idea is the concept of flipped learning, which is the practice of blended learning that

reverses the traditional learning environment by delivering instructional content online,

usually outside the classroom (Jetnikoff, 2010). In addition, students always vocalise how the

knowledge required for their futures will most likely be different to the content they’re

taught, the idea of this provides insight into why multimodal tasks are imperative for students

to learn how to discover knowledge, actively communicate with others and solve problems so

that they can be productive life-long members of society (Bitner & Bitner, 2002). In this way,

it is the responsibility of teachers to enable learning for students in a responsive way to the

ever-evolving world around them.

In addition, multimodal assessments provide teachers with the opportunity to be in tune with

student’s expectations. It is evident that students of today have grown up with easy access to

screens and devices and they would be quite familiar with (Weeks, 2019). By introducing

multimodal assessment tasks, with support and scaffolding, will hopefully give students the

opportunity to explore and expand their digital literacy capabilities, as well as, provide

various opportunities in how students engage with their assessment tasks (Ibid, 2019).
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Furthermore, in recent years there has been calls for more flexibility and student ownership in

assessment (Ibid, 2019). By administering multimodal assessment tasks, students are more

engaged as they can see the future transferability and relevance from their assessments to

their futures.

As much as multimodal assessment tasks provide opportunities for students, there are several

areas that need attention in regarding them. For instance; marking criteria’s, students and

teacher’s technical knowledge and skills and selecting suitable media for their task.

When administering a multimodal assessment task, common questions always arise and that

is, what should be assessed. What criteria do teachers use to assess the quality of the artefact,

or do teachers assess the quality of the multimodality as well as the content and disciplinary

understanding (Ibid, 2019). To combat this challenge, it would be important to help students

understand explicitly of what constitutes a good multimodal assessment task by providing

them with clear goals, criteria and expected standards. In addition, by engaging students in

designing their own criteria which can be negotiated between themselves and the teacher is

another suggestion to combat this issue (Ibid, 2019). Moreover, submitting drafts and

feedback on each other’s work and perhaps teachers using multimodality in their feedback

are also other ways to contest the issue (Ibid, 2019).

Another challenge presented by multimodal assessment tasks are students’ and teachers’

technical skills (Ibid, 2019). It is essential to not assume that students or teachers are experts

at composing and creating multimodal artefacts (Ibid, 2019). Although there is a variety of

exposure amongst students, it is important to acknowledge that not all students will possess

the skills to use the digital tools or edit their work. Moreover, students may have great

knowledge in new technologies and be familiar with multimodal texts from previous

experiences in the classroom, but they may not necessarily know how to produce one. In
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order to fix this issue, it would be imperative for teachers to use a scaffolded and modelled

approach, for instance using examples of multimodal texts, digital literacy throughout the unit

they’re teaching.

One more challenge that students may have with multimodal assessment tasks is choosing the

suitable media for their task. In comparison to essay writing, students may not have

considered which media are most suitable for their assessment tasks. Multimodal assessment

task has a lot more composition required of it, as the focus is on not only what is being said,

but how it is being said. Students are required to draw on different texts and use a wide range

of technologies and applications. Furthermore, students may tend to lose control over their

responses and creations, and need more assistance in preparation, drafting their work and

editing. To combat this issue, it is essential for teachers to provide examples of different

media technologies, scaffolding and opportunities to create multimodal designs in the

classroom, where relevant. In addition, brainstorming the goals of the assessment is also

essential because it may allow students to see which resources would suit their assessment

tasks.

In order to maximise the learning opportunities for students completing the assessment task

outlined above, as well as Module A: Contemporary Possibilities, teachers must make the

task relevant, provide examples and scaffolding (for module and assessment), allow for

drafts, and brainstorming to assist in selecting appropriate mediums for the assessment.

It is important to make the module and assessment relevant to the students, so they are

engaged in the learning. At the beginning of the module, it is important to start the unit with a

clear and coherent discussion about what ‘contemporary’ means, as well as, what new

possibilities exist for composing and responding in the digital age. The teachers should guide
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students to consider the changing patterns in the consumption of texts, and there should be

discussions on reader/audience engagement and in the interactivity of contemporary texts.

Throughout the duration for the module, students will be looking closely at Sherlock Holmes

BBC Series (Season 1). To help them understand the concepts further, it will be a good idea

for teachers to allow the students to take several moments from the story that they think will

best engage the reader. Followed by annotations to demonstrate how that was achieved, with

references to language features that have been identified. In addition, students need to

understand how editing and graphics are used within the show as a way of captivating the

viewers attention in the multimodal text. This will also give them insight for their assessment

tasks, as they can list the techniques in their workbooks, and refer to them when completing

their assessments. The class can also discuss how the audience are being drawn into solving

the crime and can highlight examples where audience engagement and participating can also

make meaning from the texts. Likewise, going through intertextuality and adaption- is

important for students in preparation for their assessment- by going through various textual

spin-offs of Sherlock Holmes.

Throughout the duration of the module and after it is completed, students will need to

understand how multimodal texts capture audience engagement and what new possibilities

for story telling exist in contemporary texts.

In order to assist with the assessment, teachers should allow for drafts to be submitted with

adequate feedback to provide students with the opportunity to achieve good results in their

assessments. By providing feedback, students get to revise their work and make appropriate

adjustments. Likewise, brainstorming their chosen texts will also provide students with

insight into what medium will best support their assessment task. Lastly, giving students time
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to practice using different technologies is also essential in ensuring they’re able to complete

the task.

In summary, multimodal learning and assessments provides teachers with the opportunity to

enhance student learning in the classroom. Although there are several challenges when it

comes to multimodal learning, with sufficient and consistent training for teachers and

practice for students, it will become a powerful tool.

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Reference List:

Australian Institute for Learning and School Leadership (AITSL) (2013). Australian

Professional Standards for teachers. Retrieved from

http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/standards/list

Jetnikoff, A. (2010). Using Media Technologies in English. In S. Gannon, M. Howie, & W.

Sawyer, Charged with Meaning Re-viewing English: Third Edition (pp. 97-102).

Putney , NSW , Australia : Phoenix Education Pty ltd.

Mattiello, V. Supporting learning with technology. In E. Boas, & S. Gazis, The Artful

English Teacher (pp. 103-129). Kensington Gardens, S.A. , Australia : The Australian

Association for the Teaching of English.

Sankey, M., Birch, D., & Gardiner, M. (2010). Engaging students through multimodal

learning environments: The journey continues. Retrieved from .

Silseth, K., & Gilje, Ø. (2019). Multimodal composition and assessment: A sociocultural

perspective. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 26(1), 26-42.

Weeks, R. (2019). Multimodal assessment- what, why and how? . 2019 Education Portfolio.

retrieved from https://sydney.edu.au/education-

portfolio/ei/teaching@sydney/multimodal-assessment-what-why-and-how/