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BreakingNews.ie
2 hours ago
- Lifestyle
- BreakingNews.ie
Leaving Cert: Teacher says many students found today's English exam 'challenging'
A teacher has said many students found the questions challenging in the latest Leaving Cert exam. Students completed English paper two on Thursday afternoon. Advertisement Sue O'Sullivan Casey, from Pobalscoil Inbhear Scèine, Kenmare, Co Kerry, said the Higher Level questions on Shakespeare's King Lear challenged students to consider a variety of elements of the play. 'The questions on Shakespeare's King Lear were manageable for those who were familiar not just with the King Lear character but minor characters also,' she said. 'The first question allowed students to write about the complex villains of the play. They could have also reflected on King Lear's actions, too, and those of his daughter Cordelia. The alternative question centred on the staple themes of the play: justice and order. 'Other popular Single Text questions on Anthony Doerr's 'All the Light We Cannot See', Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' and Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' allowed students to explore both character and theme in their chosen texts with plenty of opportunity to offer critical analysis and argument. Advertisement 'The General Vision and Viewpoint focused on aspects of human nature and the complexities within it. Students would have seen a similar style question in recent papers and should have managed this fine. The Cultural Context question, meanwhile, explored control and power and students would have been pleased to see such a question. However, the question asked students to identify the subtle ways in which divisions were explored. This may have thrown some. 'Whilst inclusion and exclusion were analysed for those students who had studied Theme or Issue. This may have proven difficult for some students if they had not explored this aspect of the texts. However, issues of power and identity would have lent themselves to this idea of inclusion/ exclusion. The Comparative questions once again only required students to base their answer on two texts for the 70-mark question. However, a great many students still answer this question based on three texts to allow for lots of opportunities to contrast and compare. Overall, those students who took their time to stop and carefully consider the keywords of the question and plan their answers would have managed well. 'Lastly, the prescribed poets that appeared on this year's paper were not overly surprising. As many predicted, the contemporary female American poet Tracy K. Smith appeared much to the relief of a great many students. The shock of the day for many students was the absence of Hopkins. Students would have been frustrated by this, as it eliminated an option that many of them would have had worked hard on. 'Another surprise was the inclusion of not one but three Irish poets; Boland, Kavanagh and Mahon. The unseen poem featured As Far as Turn Back by Pat Boran and was succinct and easy to navigate with the questions that followed testing students' ability to interpret the poet's message through their use of language. Advertisement 'Overall, the paper was fair and balanced with nothing too out of the ordinary. The student who had put in the work over the course of two years would have felt prepared and capable to meet each question diligently.' Ordinary paper Ms O'Sullivan Casey said the Ordinary Level questions were accessible and many students would have managed well. 'For students who would have studied Sive by John B. Keane, the questions asked students to consider the text's key moments, characters and relationships. It also offered some clear, manageable functional writing tasks including the text for a podcast and a debate. Quiz Quiz: Could you pass Junior Certificate Maths? Read More 'Other questions on Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' and Colson Whitehead's 'The Underground Railroad' were challenging but not unfamiliar. Advertisement 'The Comparative Study saw students study their texts in relation to either Themes, Social Setting or Relationships and the questions today allowed those who knew their texts well to write about key moments that highlighted these modes at work. 'The Studied Poetry saw poems from Boland, Eliot, and Dickinson appear from the traditional poetry course and poems by Sinead Morrissey, Liz Lockhead and Jessica Traynor appear from the alternative poetry course. The Unseen Poetry question featured First Day by Theo Dorgan and the questions gave students an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to identify and comment on the poet's use of language. 'The paper was fair and straightforward. A student who had prepared consistently over two years would have been ready to handle the questions well.'
Irish Times
a day ago
- General
- Irish Times
Junior Cycle English exam: ‘Balanced and fair'
The first of this year's Junior Cycle exams, English, was a balanced and fair paper, but with some surprises, teachers have said. Aoife O'Driscoll, junior cycle English teacher at the , said that the paper focused on the theme of perception. 'Overall, it struck a good balance between familiarity and challenge,' she said. 'The poetry question asked students to reflect on how two poems gave them a broader understanding of the world. This is a task that many will have practiced, though it's worth noting that the expectation to discuss more than one poem is becoming more common.' READ MORE Kate Barry, a teacher at Loreto Secondary School in Cork and ASTI subject representative for English, said that students and teachers alike were happy with the paper. However, she said that a question on the moral or lesson an audience may draw from a Shakespearian play may have been tricky for some candidates. 'I would have preferred a more thematic approach, perhaps asking how the playwright ties it all up at the end, as people and life are complicated, and it isn't always easy to draw simple moral lessons from Shakespeare,' Ms Barry said. Studyclix subject expert Sue O'Sullivan Casey from Pobalscoil Inbhear Scèine, Kenmare, Co. Kerry, agreed that this may have been tricky for some candidates. 'They may have had some difficulty with this terminology,' she said. 'Another curveball was the question asking candidates to write about a short story in class. This is a new style of question for JC English and candidates may not have prepared for this going into the exam.' Ms Barry said that the ordinary level paper was 'really lovely, and it gave good opportunities to write.' There was a lot of content that students would have felt comfortable with, said Ms O'Driscoll, including an unseen piece based on Kensuke's Kingdom, a novel by the author Michael Morpurgo, whose books would be familiar to many students.
Irish Times
a day ago
- General
- Irish Times
Leaving Cert English paper one: challenging but plenty of choice
The first of this year's Leaving Cert exams contained challenging elements, but provided enough choice for students to engage with it meaningfully, teachers have said. 'The higher level paper, which was based on the theme of 'perspectives', featured a nice balance between creative tasks and reflective or discursive tasks,' said Kate Barry, a teacher at Loreto Secondary School in Cork and ASTI subject representative for English. 'This played to the strengths of different candidates.' [ Classroom to College: our expert newsletter on the Leaving Cert for parents, guardian and students ] Gillian Chute, head of English at , an online grinds company, said that the three section B questions tend to be consistently unpredictable. 'This seemed to be the case this year, where students were asked to assume the persona of a hotel manager and write an online response on the hotel website 'in response to a disgruntled guest's highly critical review,' Ms Chute said. READ MORE Sue O'Sullivan Casey, subject expert and a teacher at Pobalscoil Inbhear Scèine, Kenmare, said that, overall, students would have been happy with the accessibility of English paper one. 'The three reading comprehensions centred on how perspectives can change either on a personal or societal level,' Ms O'Sullivan Casey said. 'Candidates would have been pleased with the variety of text types, which included an article on 'underdogs', a speech by novelist Margaret Atwood and a narrative extract from the Booker-prize winning novel, Orbital by Samantha Harvey.' In the personal essay question, one of the more challenging options asked students to 'write a personal essay in which you reflect on some of the factors that would influence your voting intentions in future elections.' Ms Barry said that she hoped the State Examinations Commission would give clear instructions to examiners that students should be assessed here on their writing, and not on their political opinions, which any individual examiner may or may not agree with. She said, however, that any of the other six essays offered a good choice. Ms Chute said that the essay genres were predictable. 'There was one discursive essay, one speech, one article, two personal essays and two short stories,' she said. Ms O'Sullivan Casey said that students would have favoured the essay on disappointments which allowed for scope to demonstrate their reflective writing skills. 'Both short stories on offer allowed students to explore character in their narrative writing and gave candidates freedom to develop plots in a number of directions,' she said. Meanwhile, Ms Chute said that the speech titled 'Truth has become a valueless currency in today's world' would have provided students with ample material to explore such as AI, social media and fake news. Ordinary level At ordinary level, Ms O'Sullivan Casey said that the paper was clear and straightforward, asking students to demonstrate their understanding of language and their writing skills. 'Candidates sitting the Ordinary Level paper would have been pleased with the accessibility of the three texts to choose from,' she said. 'An article, narrative extract and a series of quotes, lyrics and images were all on offer and the Question As were easy to navigate and manage. 'The Question B writing tasks were familiar to those candidates who had diligently prepared. A pamphlet, letter and interview were available to choose from and the tasks were clear in their requirements. 'The composition titles that appeared featured a good selection of choice for these candidates,' Ms O'Sullivan Casey concluded. Try this one: Leaving Cert English (higher level), section one, Q3 (b) You are a contributor to a podcast entitled, Eyes Wide Open, where you reflect on how your perspective on a significant issue changed as a result of an experience or an encounter. Write your reflection for the podcast in which you: identify the issue and explain your previous attitude towards it, describe the experience or encounter that changed your perspective, and consider some of the life lessons that you and others can learn from this reflection.
BreakingNews.ie
a day ago
- General
- BreakingNews.ie
Leaving Cert: Teacher analyses English paper one as students complete first exam
A teacher has given her initial reaction to Leaving Cert English paper one, which students completed on Wednesday morning. Overall, students would have been very happy with the paper's accessibility, Sue O'Sullivan Casey from Pobalscoil Inbhear Scèine, Kenmare, Co Kerry, said. Advertisement She added: 'The three reading comprehensions centred on how perspectives can change either on a personal or societal level. Candidates would have been pleased with the variety of text types, which included an article on 'underdogs', a speech by novelist Margaret Atwood and a narrative extract from the Booker-prize winning novel, Orbital by Samantha Harvey.' 'The 2025 paper was student-centred and would have appealed to the candidate who had diligently worked hard on the language aspect of the course over the two years. Those candidates who used past papers in their own study would have benefitted from seeing familiar or similar tasks appear and would have had the confidence and ability to execute each question successfully.' Ms O'Sullivan Casey, who is a Studyclix subject expert, said candidates sitting the Ordinary Level paper would have been pleased with the accessibility of the three texts to choose from. 'An article, narrative extract and a series of quotes, lyrics and images were all on offer and the Question As were easy to navigate and manage. Advertisement 'The Question B writing tasks were familiar to those candidates who had diligently prepared. A pamphlet, letter and interview were available to choose from and the tasks were clear in their requirements.' She added: 'The Ordinary level paper was clear and straight-forward, asking students to demonstrate their understanding of language and their writing skills.' Junior Cert In the Junior Cert, Ms O'Sullivan Casey said the Higher Level paper was 'fair'. 'There were some surprises but nothing too challenging for those candidates who had prepared', she said. Advertisement 'An unseen poem formed part of Section A and was accessible in its subject matter and themes. However, candidates would have been surprised to see the studied poetry question require them to write about two poems that they have studied in Junior Cycle – a departure from recent years that only the prepared candidates would have managed well. 'The studied drama question asked candidates to write about moments of suspense, but the latter question asked candidates to identify the 'moral lessons' of the play. Some candidates may have had difficulty with this terminology. 'Another curveball was the question asking candidates to write about a short story in class. This is a new style of question for Junior Cert English and candidates may not have prepared for this going into the exam.' She said the Ordinary Level paper would have been welcomed by some students who had a good understanding of their studied texts. Advertisement 'The short questions were easy to navigate and accessible. The paper required candidates to answer questions on studied poetry, a drama and a novel which is challenging but the style of short-answer questions allowed for candidates to navigate the paper in an easy and straightforward manner. Writing tasks included writing a letter and candidates would have been well prepared for this.'
Irish Times
3 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
Michael Gaine's funeral to be held next weekend in Kenmare
Kerry farmer Michael Gaine will be laid to rest next weekend after a funeral Mass in his native Kenmare. Gardaí have returned his remains to his family following the completion of a postmortem. Mr Gaine's disappearance is being investigated by gardaí as suspected murder. Mr Gaine (56) was last seen alive on March 20th when his image was caught on CCTV footage at a shop in Kenmare. Gardaí believe he was murdered soon after this when he returned to his isolated farmyard at Carrig East, six kilometres from Kenmare town. READ MORE In late April gardaí upgraded their missing persons case to a homicide inquiry. On May 16th, human remains were found by his nephew while spreading slurry with a local agricultural contractor at the farm. Gardaí recovered Mr Gaine's dismembered remains from fields and a slurry tank. Following a postmortem by State Pathologist Dr Sally Anne Collis, the remains have been returned to Mr Gaine's family for the funeral next weekend. Mr Gaine is survived by his wife, Janice; sisters Noreen and Catherine; nieces Emma and Rachael; nephews Jamie and Mark; and brother-in-law Sean O'Regan. He will lie in repose at Finnegan's Funeral Home in Kenmare on Friday. His requiem Mass will take place at 10.30am on Saturday with a private family burial afterwards. His funeral notice on says he will be 'sadly missed and fondly remembered by his heartbroken wife', family and wide circle of friends in the farming and rallying community and beyond. Meanwhile, the Garda investigation into Mr Gaine's homicide is continuing following the arrest and release of a former US soldier, Michael Kelley (53), on May 17th for questioning about the death. He was released without charge after being held and questioned for 24 hours. Mr Kelley, who is from Maine, denies having any involvement in Mr Gaine's disappearance. Mr Kelley had been living alone at the old farmhouse at Carrig East, some five kilometres from where Mr Gaine lived, where he used to help out with farm work in return for accommodation. He is now living in Tralee.
