Rubric changes

Tutoring English this term has been a change from my usual routine. With the change in syllabus, I find myself, as a tutor, having to do a certain amount of studying myself.

Most of that study has gone into the marking rubrics. The criteria students are assessed against have shifted, and with them, what a strong response actually looks like. Where I could once rely on familiarity with what markers reward, I've been reading the new criteria, comparing them with the old.

The biggest change I've noticed is the emphasis on how students think, not just what they know. The criteria are asking students to look at ideas relative to culture and history, two concepts left out on the previous syllabus. As for Extension, the modules have completely shifted, asking students to inquire on nuanced ideas that haven't previously been emphasised. Similarly, the Extension 2 exam introduction has added a very new dimension. Until now, the course was entirely assessed on the Major Work, but from 2027students will also sit an online written exam worth 40 of the 100 marks that tests a new focus area, Author and Authority. Meanwhile, the reflection has been removed, and the Major Work is shorter. For students, that means thinking critically about authorship under exam conditions, not just over months of drafting.

Going back to study has been good for me. It's put me back in my student's shoes, trying to make sense of unfamiliar criteria and working out what is really being asked. That empathy has changed how I explain thing, I now unpack the rubric with students at the start of each session, so they understnad not only what they write, but why they matter.

The change have been a challenge, but a welcomed one. They've made me a more deliberate tutor.