SHOW NOTES

"Don't worry. There's no right or wrong answers."
- Declared by the teacher as if it's a good thing.
As if that's helpful.

Argh!
I hated hearing that as a student. It doesn’t give any direction or guidance. 

And actually - there clearly IS a right answer. Otherwise, everyone would be getting 20 out of 20 for those big essay questions - and that definitely isn’t happening.

Listen in to discover:
- how your teen can figure out what at least one of the right answers is,
- the official proof of why this is the case
and
- how they can compose a clear and focused response.

FEATURED ON THE SHOW:

• Episode 18: The Truth Behind Creative Tasks
   
• Kick Off Super-Session: Facebook Live Recording
   
• Follow Rock Solid Study on Facebook
   
• Follow Rock Solid Study on Instagram
   
• Have your teen trained by me in the 10WGT: 10 Week Grade Transformation Program
   
• Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.

TRANSCRIPT:
 

You’re listening to The Parents of Hardworking Teens Podcast, episode 83 - how to deal with -  ‘there’s no right or wrong answer’.
"Argh!"
I hated hearing that as a student, and to be honest, still hearing that today as a teacher and examiner who does know how to deal with those types of questions it’s still not helpful. It doesn’t give any direction or guidance.
And actually - there clearly IS a right answer. Otherwise everyone would be getting 20 out of 20 for those big essay questions, and that definitely isn’t happening. So, if your teen also finds the phrase - 'there’s no right or wrong answer' a bit of a nightmare to be honest, rather than something to be excited about, then stay tuned.

Hey VIPs. I hope you’re doing amazing. I think everyone is back at school now no matter where you are in the country or the world, so I hope it’s been a smooth and positive start for you and your teens.

After taking a bit of an extra push to get going again after Christmas an New Year like I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I can tell you that I am in my element right now. Energy is flowing, brain cells are buzzing.
Our kick off super-session was really good - you can still catch that in full on the Rock Solid Study Facebook page, I’ve been  in school doing some relief work already, which I’ve felt really ready to get back into, AND we have some fantastic students in the 10 Week Grade Transformation program right now - and I’ve had some great conversations with their parents. And I am VERY excited about what our students over the summer and who’ve enrolled over the past couple of weeks  are going to experience and achieve this year.

And to top all of that off, we are also right in the midst of putting the final touches to our Semester 1 Next Level event, which is entitled: ‘How to Excel in English Exams’ and I say ‘we’ because, for the first time ever, I am not the one leading the event. I’m going to be there and I’m having a tiny bit of input on the planning and delivery, but we have our specialist English Coach and external examiner extraordinaire Gemma Toms leading the event and creating and delivering the content and training.

And so I’m really  thinking about the sorts of issues and challenges that come with English exams right now. And by far and away, the one that really got me as a student was ‘there’s no right or wrong answer’. - Said like its a good thing! Like that’s helpful! Like this is great news.
And of course, this isn’t exclusive to English exams. 

I remember it being a thing in History for sure, and I’m sure it happens in other subjects too. Except maybe Maths! Which would explain why I’ve always liked and been pretty good at Maths and it’s my second teaching subject thee days.

So, if your teen is anything like me - and they need or just want something a little bit more structured and focused than that to go on, then definitely listen in. And if they’re the opposite of me, if they love a blank canvas, then this will still be useful as it will help them refine and up-level their responses - for any subject or topic - maybe it’s art, maybe it’s history, maybe it’s anything open to interpretation like drama or dance or a design subject. 
Because what I’ve learned over the years of teaching, marking and moderating assessment, is that actually, there are systematic, dare I even say it ‘black and white’ ways to tackle a grey or open question. 

I’ve noticed and really focused on the fact that even the most open tasks are better when they have some sort of system or core concepts that underpin them. And this is often the case in real life examples as well as with study.
For example, I really love photography, and when composing a photograph, something really open and artistic, there’s the rule of thirds. Camera lenses even have a setting where you can use that to position and frame a scene nicely. 

And then recently, something I’ve been trying to get a bit into and basically better at recently, because I really am terrible at it - is Interior design.
I wanted to give our house a little bit of a revamp over the summer hols. Just freshen up our decor a bit - have a new look and feel but without going crazy. Keep all the main furniture, but get some new pictures or features on the walls, new cushions on the sofa, different plants and pots and whatever.

BUT… I have no eye for this sort of thing. I don’t have the ability to look at a piece of furniture or a rug or a picture and know that it will go perfectly with this other thing over here from this other store.
For example, I had this one day, where I bought 8 cushions, got them home, decided half of them look terrible when I put them on the sofas and took four of them back the next day.

Basically, I just want to pick out one of the glossy interior photos on realestate.com and copy-paste it into my home. 

So… while I had some extra time, I started google-ing finding interior design guides, watching some youtube tutorial.
Turns out, there are some key concepts to work with.
Like - certain themes and what can and cannot be put together in them.
And HOW MANY. One main base neutral colour, a secondary main colour and then one accent colour.
Then you get variety through it turns out - textures.
I’d never thought about textures. 

So, with an open task - whether it’s home decor or an analytical essay or research project - having some core concepts to work with, a system, some guiding rules - to work with, makes things a lot more productive and successful and enjoyable. And a lot less frustrating and less time wasting re-doing, scrapping and re-starting. Like returning half your cushions to spotlight and adairs, and driving miles to Ikea where everything is systematised. Just saying.

So, the first thing I would share is that there ARE right answers and there ARE wrong answers.
There are things your teen could write about that fit the question and of course, they could write something that just totally doesn’t relate or is just plain incorrect. Either factually or interpretation-wise.

But  it's not so much a 'right answer' situation.
And more of a right WAY TO answer.

And, in particular, a way to do that at a high level.
Because these sorts of questions are generally extended response or essay type questions.
So of course there’s the actual answer - the thesis statement or position or argument.
And  there will be ‘right answers’ or appropriate or relevant thesis statements, and there will also be wrong ones. Like I said, ones that just don’t work.

And then there are many different ways to back up a right answer with evidence and analysis.

And there are ways that you could try to make a wrong answer ‘viable’ or acceptable to the marker, by selecting evidence that supports it in some way, but my position is why risk it, or why make life hard for yourself?

It might be kinda fun or interesting to do this just in class or for a task that’s time constrained and isn’t being formally marked, for sure, go for it then.

But one of the things I’d ask any student who I’m working with is who’s trying to grapple with ‘no right or wrong answer’ type question is - what do you think the expected answer is? What’s the obvious answer?
Or what do you think the author or the artist or the director WANTED you to think or feel? What is the message they were intending to convey? What would most people think about the historical event if they learnt all about it the way your teen has learnt about it in class?

So, if the question asks, what does this novel - whatever it is - say about power and control?
With the idea that it could be saying all sorts of things - different people might take away different points of significance from the story - Rather than be overwhelmed by that, just think okay - what is the moral of the story? Or what point is the author wanting to make in relation to power and control? What do you think is the opinion of the author?

Or, if it’s analysing an event in history - what would most people think given the information and sources you’ve been studying?
What would your teacher be expecting you to say?

Let’s say it’s an essay asking about how effective a particular leader was.
They just need to look at the evidence - the events that happened and how that leader influenced them  that’s the subject knowledge part - and then from that - decide:

yes, they were an effective leader - and here are the reasons. No they weren’t here are they reasons. Or they were somewhat effective  -and  here are some of the ways they were good and here are ways they weren’t.
 

And here’s why I advise going with the expected answer. And not going against the grain or trying to find some unique perspective.

First-off, there are no bonus marks for being different or unique when it comes to analysing or evaluating a text or source. This is not a creative task (and by the way, even the creative tasks have more criteria and credit given to applying techniques or devices than they do for being original - you can listen to episode 18 - the truth about creative tasks for more on that - especially if your teen is like me and not naturally creative  - actually also if they are - because they might be relying too heavily on that creativity and missing out on those other marks. )

And secondly, your teen is being taught certain points and messaging and takeaways from the text. It’s exteremely rare - especially if its for an assessment or for an examination that students will be left to figure it all out for themselves.
The teacher will be explaining parts of the text, or discussing techniques the artist has used, or spotlighting examples of certain techniques or devices in the play.
For example, in English, and I say this having marked for English writing tasks, and educating myself around English assessment, but NOT as an English specialist teacher, that there is what’s known as close reading of a text.  

the Victoria department of education says:

“Close reading has become a widely used approach in teaching comprehension. Snow and Connor (2016) define close reading as “an approach to teaching comprehension that insists students extract meaning from text by examining carefully how language is used in the passage itself” (p. 1). “
In other words, they extract the message - thats the knowledge and understanding part of it. And they know what language devices or writing techniques have helped contribute to or create that message - that’s the analysis part of it. 

And it then goes on to say:
“That is, that critical reading of the text is based on what is in the text, not on what the reader might bring to the text.”
 

Essentially it’s teaching comprehension of the text. And a text could be a novel, a play, a poem, even a magazine cover or a poster. But there are certain things that students are meant to get from it and understand about it.
Not that students shouldn’t question any of it, indeed they should or could in class and in discussions. But to help with comprehension, taking away from it what is intended, is the close reading of the text.

Now, for me, as the student 16 year old version of me, that is good news.
It means that there is a right answer. The right answer is the theme or the message that we’ve covered in class.
And I also now know that there are no bonus marks for being unique or taking the difficult path.
In depth analysis will get more marks as it requires in depth knowledge and detailed analysis and explanation which is a high level skill and it can therefore can ‘feel’ or be described as difficult, but that is not the same as taking a difficult path for a response.

So I’m hoping that sharing these will help you be able to give your teen some structure and support if they’re ever floundering in these sorts of tasks or essays.
Or if they love the freedom and openness of ‘no right or wrong type questions’ but they’re looking to uplevel their responses, then maybe this might be a way to do that. 

If your teen is coming to the Excel in English Exams Advanced workshop, remember - this is only open to students who’ve completed the 10WGT - as we’ll be using and applying the skills and techniques and concepts from that to the challenges and opportunities that English exams present - if they’re coming then I hope they’re getting excited because I can tell you it is jam-packed with such detailed and strategic training from external Senior examiner and lead marker Gemma Toms. I just reviewed her slides and wrote a stack of bullet points just from the first 19 slides - and there are over a hundred. I cannot wait for it.

And if your teen hasn’t yet completed the 10 Week Grade Transformation Program and you’d love for them to get these sorts of skills to break down and dissect questions and be able to construct clear and concise yet sophisticated response, then check out the program at www.gradetransformation.com/join. It’s open for enrolment at all times and I’d love to train and support your teen this year.

And wherever they’re at with things, I hope you and your teen have a fantastic rest of your week,  I’ll meet you back here next week, if you find this podcast helpful, I’d be really grateful if you’d give it a five star rating on the app wherever you get your podcasts, it really does make a difference. Thanks for listening - take care - bye!