HBETA Meeting: 4pm Thursday 18th June 2009
Venue: Napier Boys High School Library

· Next meeting will be week 9 Thursday 17th September.
· All schools need to respond to the draft. Only 9% response rate, 3rd of July is the cut off date. Do the online questionnaire. Document on TKI, go into NCEA, go to English support material
· Current curriculum based Unit Standards are below NZC level 6. What are the students from the alternative classes going to do? There is a feeling that this is a step backwards to old School Certificate. Addressed on page 2 of the document.
· Only 3 External Standards offered.
· Has been a real battle with what the government views as a duplication of standards.
· Request that Shakespeare remain compulsory at level 3. Can be taught for 3.1. At level three the subject becomes a specialist subject, students need to have encountered Shakespeare. Concern for the choice of questions at 3.1, will they be appropriate for a Shakespeare text.
· Battle between literacy and English, are we teaching literacy or English.
· It is important to respond. Respond both positive and negative comments. Small discrepancies need to be pointed out. For example, the word ‘texts’ has been used for the film standard. Does this imply that we should teach more than one film.
· Must be really clear what you need to teach. For new teachers, as well as non-English teachers.
· Creating a folio at level two and three for Creative Writing and Formal Writing. Could present issues. There is a concern that there are more chances to fail. A student could write one or two excellent pieces of writing and one below requirements, as a result they will Not Achieve the Standard.
· If you did a seminar and spoke as well as using a power point, could you get both the speaking, and visual and verbal language standard?
· What constitutes sufficiently level for 8808 and 12905. This has been addressed, as it will now be an Achievement Standard.
· Has been forbidden by the Ministry to provide a personal reading standard at level 3.
· Will UE literacy still be achievable at level 2? Which standards will apply as literacy standards?
· Collaborative text production. Reflects the new curriculum. It is not good enough to say it is too hard to assess, therefore, should be left out of the curriculum. Need to separate the achievement criteria to ensure the contribution of the group, as well as end result, are marked independently. This is a problematic standard and needs some reworking. However, it would be a shame to see it dropped.
· What is the difference between convincing and perceptive? What constitutes a convincing response and what is a perceptive response? Should this be explained further? Aligned to Blooms taxonomy. Why are we not using the, describe, explain format any longer?
· Should there be a requirement of how many short stories, how many poems etc. for 1.1, 2.1, 3.1. One well-written essay should be sufficient, why must they use more than one poem or short story?
· Positive change to see significant error patterns, rather than errors only.
· Formal writing is a relatively simple adjustment.
· Missed a few opportunities to clean up the language. Visual, verbal and oral. What is verbal text?
· There has been a strong Ministry push that 24 credits is too much, 18 to 20 is more appropriate. There is a real sense that the standards should be integrated. Documentation to suggest this integration will be in the tasks.
· Prefer that texts are written, not visual and oral for the personal reading standard. All written texts must be selected independently, not prescribed by class. This is then contradicted by qualifying that visual and oral texts can be read as part of the in-class programme by the whole class. Requirement needs to be one or the other.
· Concern that externals are being phased out. Government wants to save money by having teachers mark all work.
· No suggestion that you reduce your teaching, only assessment is reduced.