New
New
Year 10
Eduqas

Evaluating ideas about a writer's craft

I can evaluate how well a writer achieves certain effects.

New
New
Year 10
Eduqas

Evaluating ideas about a writer's craft

I can evaluate how well a writer achieves certain effects.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Evaluation requires you to critically examine something, thus it is more complex than understanding and analysis.
  2. Using evaluative adverbs and adjectives is good way to signpost your evaluation.
  3. Evaluative adverbs show you are able to comment on how well a writer does something.
  4. You should use evidence from the text to support your evaluative comments.

Keywords

  • Evaluate - to judge the value or quality of something

  • Critical - to think seriously about something; considering what is good or bad about it

  • Signpost - showing how something is going to develop

  • Evaluative adverb - adverbs that express a judgement about something

Common misconception

Students may think that they only way to evaluate is to write whether they 'agree' or 'disagree' with something.

In Learning Cycle 2, students learn that they can phrase and signpost their evaluations in a more sophisticated way, directly commenting on the writer's craft with evaluative adverbs.

In Learning Cycle 2, you might want to model how Aisha may have come to her opinion by reading the text as a class and annotating it under a visualiser.
Teacher tip

Equipment

You will need access to Chapter 1 of 'Suite Française' by Irene Nemirovsky for this lesson. You will find a copy in the additional materials.

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of upsetting content
  • Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Match the skill up to its definition.
Correct Answer:understand,make sense of something

make sense of something

Correct Answer:analyse,unpick a text, identify patterns

unpick a text, identify patterns

Correct Answer:evaluate,critically examine and make judgements

critically examine and make judgements

Q2.
How can you show that you are critically examining something?
Correct answer: ask questions
immediately accept what people tell you
Correct answer: conduct your own research
Q3.
Which of these is an evaluative statement?
The text is set in WW2.
Correct answer: The text successfully evokes sympathy in the reader.
The word "shrill" creates a nervous effect.
Q4.
Order the skills from least to most complex.
1 - understand
2 - analyse
3 - evaluate
4 - create
Q5.
Which word shows that we have formed a positive evaluation of something?
Correct answer: effectively
barely
unsatisfactorily
Q6.
Why is it important to be able to evaluate?
Correct answer: It shows you are an independent thinker.
It shows you are a dependent thinker.
It shows you are creative.

6 Questions

Q1.
Match the sentence to the skill it demonstrates.
Correct Answer:analyse,The verb "wailing" conveys the discomforting sound of the air raid.

The verb "wailing" conveys the discomforting sound of the air raid.

Correct Answer:understand,The extract events take place on 4th June.

The extract events take place on 4th June.

Correct Answer:evaluate,Nemirovsky effectively conveys the innocence of the Parisian citizens.

Nemirovsky effectively conveys the innocence of the Parisian citizens.

Q2.
Which type of words signpost which skill?
Correct Answer:understanding,words that express certainty

words that express certainty

Correct Answer:analysis,action words, tentative language

action words, tentative language

Correct Answer:evaluation,evaluative adverbs/adjectives

evaluative adverbs/adjectives

Q3.
Which word conveys that you are evaluating the writer's craft?
Correct answer: effectively
conveys
demonstrate
Q4.
Which of these is not an evaluative adverb?
effectively
unsuccessfully
Correct answer: good
Q5.
How can you examine the quality of someone's argument?
agree with what they are saying
build upon what they are saying
Correct answer: question what they are saying
Q6.
What is important to include in an evaluative paragraph?
Correct answer: evidence from the text
language techniques
structural techniques

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