The Marking Criteria

Band 3• Students demonstrate: • 3.1 Sustained response to task • 3.2 Sustained response to text • 3.3 Effective use of details to support interpretation • 3.4 Explanation of effects of writer’s uses of language and/or

form and/or structure and effects on readers/audience • 3.5 Understanding of ideas/themes/feelings/attitudes

• Information is usually presented in a way which assists with communication of meaning. Syntax and spelling are generally accurate.

Band 3: Keep Quoting

• Sustained: quote• Interpretation: because,

therefore, consequently•Writer: Steinbeck• Effects on audience: we, us

Difference Between D and CTypically, grade D responses:

• identify the effects of writers’ uses of language e.g. �‘Lennie is compared to a bear which makes him seem strong’.

• Often make the mistake of telling the story.

Whereas grade C responses:• explain � the effects of writers’ uses of language e.g.

‘Lennie is compared to a “bear” because, like a bear, he is strong, unpredictable and dangerous, qualities shown when, without warning, he kills Curley’s wife’.

• Quotations should be short.

What Methods Means• The characters are not real people, they are

used to represent Steinbeck’s ideas.• Curley’s wife represents the social attitude

toward women.• Carlson and Curley represent the brutality of

men caused by the depression.• Candy represents the vulnerability of the poor

and old during the depression.• Crooks represents the injustice of racism.

Band 4• Students demonstrate: • 4.1 Considered/qualified response to task • 4.2 Considered/qualified response to text • 4.3 Details linked to interpretation • 4.4 Appreciation/consideration of writer’s uses of language

and/or form and/or structure and effect on readers/audience • 4.5 Thoughtful consideration of ideas/themes

• Information is presented in a way which assists with communication of meaning. Syntax and spelling are generally accurate.

•

Band 4• Qualified: alternatively, on the other

hand, whereas, in contrast, however

• Considered: appears, suggests, implies

• Thoughtful: perhaps, might, may, possibly

How to get a CAim for a B

How to get an A or A*

Examiner’s Advice: A and A*

• Typically, A*/A responses are analytical and exploratory.

• This means that candidates ‘write a lot about a little’: they tease out meanings and effects from a small section of the text, considering the impact of individual words and sounds, often thinking about possible alternative interpretations.

Band 5:• Students demonstrate: • 5.1 Exploratory response to task • 5.2 Exploratory response to text • 5.3 Analytical use of details to support interpretation • 5.4 Analysis of writer’s uses of language and/or structure

and/or form and effects on readers/audience • 5.5 Exploration of ideas/themes

• Structure and style are used effectively to render meaning clear. Syntax and spelling are used with a high degree of accuracy.

Band 5: AWE!• Analysis: have more than one interpretation• Writer: Steinbeck• Exploration: have more than one

interpretation of character, God, the ending and Steinbeck

Band 6• Students demonstrate:

• 6.1 Insightful exploratory interpretation of ideas/themes

• 6.2 Close analysis of detail to support interpretation

• 6.3 Evaluation of the writer’s uses of language and/or structure and/or form and effects on readers

•6.4 Insightful exploratory response to context(s)

• 6.5 Insightful exploration of a range of telling detail to support response to context(s)

• Information is presented clearly and accurately. Writing is fluent and focused. Syntax and spelling are used with a high degree of accuracy.

Band 6• Insightful exploratory interpretation• Close analysis• Evaluation• Writer• Response to context(s)

• Telling detail

Band 6• Evaluation• Writer• Response to context(s)

• Telling detail • To do these: write about the

ending, and Steinbeck’s political message

Past Questions

Context• Question 21 • Read the passage and then answer part (a) and part (b) • Part (a) • (a) What methods does Steinbeck use in this passage

to present Candy?

• and then Part (b) • (b) How do you think Steinbeck uses the character of

Candy in the novel as a whole to convey important ideas about society at that time?

Answer Part B, Context• Often the context would lack references to the

novel• A small number of students didn’t address Part

(b) at all. It was normal for some answers to get side-tracked into a well-supported discussion of the other men, not successfully relating it back to Curley’s wife and women in society.

• Other responses over simplified the life choices for women at the time, with many students seeming to believe that it was a straight choice between domesticity or prostitution.

Examiner’s View of Methods

The ‘methods’ were often not identified, let alone analysed or explained. Instead, details were picked out and a gloss or paraphrase provided

Context: Lennie and GeorgeLennie followed his words admiringly, and moved his lips a little to keep up. George continued, ‘You remember Andy Cushman, Lennie? Went to grammar school?’‘The one that his old lady used to make hot cakes for the kids?’ Lennie asked.‘Yeah. That’s the one. You can remember anything if there’s anything to eat in it.’George looked carefully at the solitaire hand. He put an ace up on his scoring rack and piled a two, three and four of diamonds on it. ‘Andy’s in San Quentin right now on account of a tart,’ said George.Lennie drummed on the table with his fingers. ‘George?’‘Huh?’’‘George, how long’s it gonna be till we get that little place an’ live on the fatta the lan’ – an’ rabbits?’

Context: Candy and Curley’s WifeThe old man was reassured. He had drawn a derogatory statement from George.He felt safe now, and he spoke more confidently. ‘Wait’ll you see Curley’s wife.’George cut the cards again and put out a solitaire lay, slowly and deliberately.‘Purty?’ he asked casually.‘Yeah. Purty ... but ––’George studied his cards. ‘But what?’‘Well – she got the eye.’‘Yeah? Married two weeks and got the eye? Maybe that’s why Curley’s pants is full of ants.’

Context: Exam Mark Scheme• AO4 • shows another form of

discrimination in society at the time • segregation of society – theme of

loneliness and isolation • roles and work in society

• Question 21 • Part (a) • How do the details in this passage add to

your understanding of George and his relationship with Lennie?

• and then Part (b) • How does Steinbeck use their relationship

in the novel as a whole to convey ideas about America in the 1930s?

Context• AO4 • their support for each other in an

individualistic world • the way Lennie‟s disability is viewed

in 1930‟s America • attitudes towards women, shown by

George in the passage and others elsewhere

Context

• Backdrop of the Great Depression and the American Dream – fear of being ‘canned’ and being kept going by an unattainable dream • Some ranch workers subject to

prejudice and discrimination

Importance of Steinbeck’s Purposemany candidates took a word or phrase, giving various suggestions as to what it may ‘connote’ – many of which were not connected to a writer’s intentions or purpose.

• Question 21 • Part (a)

(a) How does Steinbeck use details in this passage to present the bunkhouse and its inhabitants?

• and then Part (b) (b) In the rest of the novel, how does Steinbeck present the lives of ranch workers at that time?

• How the impersonal, harsh – almost formal – nature of the bunkhouse is created, e.g. ‘rectangular’, ‘square’, ‘straight up’, ‘boxes’

• Significance of the word ‘littered’ in contrast with the ordered nature of the rest of the bunkhouse

• The ‘sameness’ of each bunk and each man’s possessions

• Lives of ranch workers presented through different characters

• The structure of the novel reflecting the ranch workers’ lives

Missing the Method

Some candidates merely wrote about the meaning of the details rather than

Steinbeck’s methods;

ContextThe problem was that they did not link their knowledge of contexts to the text clearly enough, resulting in unsupported comments with few details. Most candidates could write about the Depression, the American Dream and the plight of itinerant workers but this tended to be through generalisations which were not rooted in the text.

A* ContextThe very best candidates wrote about an interesting range of contexts, for example identifying the role of Aunt Clara in George and Lennie’s friendship and then contrasting the presentation of Aunt Clara as an idealised portrayal of a homemaker, who makes cakes and shows concern for the childlike Lennie’s welfare, with that of Curley’s wife and coming to the conclusion that women were viewed as either selfless domestic goddesses or tarts.

Carlson

Lennie

Lennie

George

George

• George, on life without Lennie: " God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. "

Curley

Curley

Curley

• "You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn't no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wisht somebody'd shoot me. But they won't do nothing like that. I won't have no place to go, an' I can't get no more jobs."

Slim

Slim

'Never you mind,' said Slim. 'A guy got to sometimes.'

Slim

“George looked over at Slim and saw the calm, godlike eyes fastened on him”

Crooks

Crooks

• Crooks’ face lighted with pleasure in his torture

Curley’s Wife

Curley’s Wife

Candy

Candy

Fate

• George, on the lost dream: "-I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we'd never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would"

Friendship

• The Boss, on George and Lennie: "Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is"

Men

• George, on loneliness and Lennie: "I ain't got no people. I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no fun. After a long time they get mean. "

Hope

• Crooks, on George and Lennie's dream: "I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches…every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it. Just like heaven. "

Loneliness

• "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place....With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us."

The Easter Story

• Good Friday – crucifixion• Saturday burial• Sunday resurrection

• Of Mice and Men it is reversed

The Ending