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Task details |
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| Name of writing assessment task | Information report on a survey |
| EAL curriculum level range | B2, B3, C2, C3, C4 |
| Text orientation | Informative |
| Task type | Cued response |
Task specification |
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| Purpose | To assess students' ability to write up a report based on data. |
| Description | Students use data from a given survey in order to write a report based on the data. |
| Assumed knowledge and description |
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Learning/teaching context |
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| Language centre/mainstream class | Language centre or mainstream class – EAL support |
| Subject/key curriculum objectives, outcomes | English |
| Topic/teaching unit | Information reports |
| Assessment conditions |
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| Notes |
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Task implementation |
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| STAGE | ACTION STEPS |
| Pre-assessment activity |
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| Assessment activity |
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| Post-assessment activity |
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TEAL Task 18 – unmarked criteria sheet [PDF]
TEAL Task 18 – unmarked criteria sheet [Word]
An explanation of the purpose, nature and use of criteria sheets is available at 4. Using the assessment criteria.
Year level: 3/4
Home language: Vietnamese
Year level: 3/4
Home language: Vietnamese
Year level: 3/4
Home language: Vietnamese
Year level: 3/4
Home language: Filipino
Nature and purpose of the task
These Year 3/4 students worked with a survey on activities completed at a school camp. This task connects language and mathematical skills, as students need to use written language to describe what is presented in a simple bar graph on a topic. The task assesses the students’ skills in writing a basic factual text. It deals with subject matter familiar to students, such as a school camp, swimming and playing tennis. The task requires students to use the graph to describe the survey results, and to make recommendations on activities provided at future camps. This task provides insight into how students are progressing in their formal, academic written language, especially in relation to ways of reporting data or information. This task is related to TEAL Oral Task 10: Interpreting a graph.
Contextual information
The students came from a school where all students participate in a school camp. The students had also previously worked with bar graphs and were familiar with them. The graph was given to students and vocabulary items, such as canoeing, were checked to ensure students understood them. The students were given the Information Report framework (from the Task implementation page) to assist them in preparing their reports. They made notes in the table, which they used as a prompt in writing their reports.
Sentence starter prompts were given prior to students completing the task of writing a report were given, including:
- The data tells us…
- It tells us…
- It shows…
- I think…
- I recommend…
- My recommendations are…
In presenting the text framework, the teacher also supported some students by writing Why do we have this information? under Purpose of the survey, and Who is it about? under Who was surveyed? The student who wrote Sample 1 used their answers to these questions in their first paragraph.
Commentary
The texts produced by the students are all recognisable as information reports, although some are clearer and stronger than others. All the students wrote a text with recognisable paragraph units and appropriate sentence structures. The students used some of the language prompts given, but not all students made use of these. The students compared data between boys and girls within each activity, using language such as more than, and less than. However, they did not make comparisons across more than one piece of information and they didn’t use connectives of reason. The texts they produced reflect the notes they made using the Information report framework, where they often used phrases or sentences that they incorporated into their draft reports. While all of the samples are recognisable information reports, they all contain some grammatical errors, and exhibit issues with text structure. Some samples have a stronger text structure with more limited grammar, while Sample 4 provides more complex meanings, but has greater weaknesses in text structure. Two of the students (Samples 3 and 4) make errors treating activities as a singular noun, which suggests that perhaps only the plural form of the word was modelled, leading to difficulties when they came to use it as a singular noun.
Year level: 3/4
Home language: Vietnamese
Commentary
The student has produced a recognisable report, which includes statements about the numbers of students in activities. However, while attempts are made to introduce and conclude the report with a statement of purpose and recommendations, these are not successful, and the meaning of the final sentence is not clear.
The text generally carries a suitable impersonal tone for a report, and it contains the expected elements of such a text, including a heading and paragraphs. While the sentence units are clearly marked and comprehensible, there are some grammatical errors, such as there is 10 girls and 5 boy. The only structure used to report information is there is (including for plural items), along with the numbers of students in the activities. Some plurals are not marked. There are two unsuccessful attempts to use only, which do not succeed in expressing the contrast or limited numbers usually conveyed. The hand writing is clear and sentences are punctuated with capital letters and full stops.
The marked criteria sheet shows that the student mostly meets criteria at Level 1, with some criteria at Levels 2 and 3.
The student’s language use in this task is consistent with the descriptions of students at Level C2, Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
Using this assessment to further learning
Two sets of activities are provided here for students at similar stages of English language learning:
- one for younger learners (in middle or upper primary grades)
- one for older students (in upper primary or secondary year levels).
Use the suggestions most appropriate for your students.
For younger students:
Work through the teaching suggestions below (points 1, 2 and 3), and then ask the student to use the information and samples to revise their text.
- Starting and finishing a report
- Point out to the student how their first and last paragraph don’t really start and finish the report very well.
- Ask the student to look at the sentences in the table below, and to say which would be best to start the report, and which would be best to finish it:
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I suggest changing craft to something else, because not many students did it.
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Start or finish?
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The graph tells us the numbers of students who did each activity on the school camp.
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Start or finish? |
- Ask the student to use these starting and finishing sentences when they revise their report.
- Describing information
- Ask the student to look at these sentences:
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Thirty-five boys and 35 girls went swimming. Ten girls did crafts. |
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Fifteen girls went canoeing. Twenty-five boys played tennis. |
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There were 20 girls in canoeing. There were 35 boys in swimming. |
- Ask the student to change the sentences that they wrote to look more like these sentences. For example: The first sentence could be written as: Thirty girls and 25 boys played tennis.
- Ask the student to use sentences like this when they next revise the report.
- Use of ‘only’
- Point out that ‘only’ is used in reports of numbers to emphasise that one number is less than another, or to say something is not a very high number.
For example:
Thirty girls and only 10 boys went swimming. Sixty students went swimming, but only 5 students did crafts.
- Now write ‘only’ in the space in the sentence, if it will go there. Leave the space blank if only doesn’t fit there. The first one is done for you:
- There was only one boy in tennis.
- There were _________ 60 students at swimming.
- _________________ girls did crafts, but ______ three boys did.
- ________________ 6 students played tennis.
- Ask the student to check how they use ‘only’ when they revise the report. Tell them it is a good word to use, and they should use it when they can do so correctly.
For older students:
Work through the teaching suggestions below (points 1, 2 and 3), and then ask the student to use the information and samples to revise their text.
- Introducing and concluding a report
Refer to the text framework handout and the student’s text.
- Ask the student to identify:
- The title
- The introduction
- The presentation of information and the conclusion.
- Ask the student look at the ideas that fit into each section, and possible sentences that could work in each section of the text.
| Section | Purpose | Useful sentences |
| Title | Identify topic of the report | Participation in camp activities. |
| Introduction | Tell the reader what information is being reported. | This report tells us about how many students did each activity on the school camp. |
| Report of data | Describe the information in the graph. |
Thirty girls and 25 boys played tennis. There were 35 students in swimming. |
| Conclusion | Make a recommendation based on the information. | Replace craft because not many students did this activity. |
- Ask the student to compare what is written for each section here with what they wrote in their text. Ask them to use these ideas when they revise their text.
- Describing data
Ask the student to look at the following sentence structures that can be used for describing data:
| Structure for describing information | Examples |
| (Number) (category)(verb) (activity). |
Thirty-five boys and 35 girls went swimming. Ten girls did crafts. |
| (Number) (category) participated in (activity). |
Fifteen girls participated in canoeing. Twenty-five boys participated in tennis. |
| There were (number) (category) in (activity). |
There were twenty girls in canoeing. There were 35 boys in swimming. |
Now ask the student to use some of these structures when they revise their text.
- Using only
- Share this explanation with the student:
Only is a good word to use when reporting numbers, as it can highlight a difference in the numbers being reported. It is often used to show a number is much less than others, or less than might be expected.
For example:
Seventy students went swimming, but only fifteen did crafts.
The ice cream cost only $1.
- Ask the student to look at where only is used in the sample, and discuss whether it can be used more effectively to show a contrast in numbers.
- Ask the student to use this information in next revising the text.
Year level: 3/4
Home language: Vietnamese
Commentary
This sample is more successful in providing the elements of an information report, including an introduction and a conclusion. However, in the body of the text, the author is too reliant on one sentence prompt to report the data. This results in a repetitive effect he student has formatted the second paragraph so that each sentence begins on a new line.
While there are fewer grammatical errors in this text than in the other samples, it is less adventurous and more controlled in the ideas expressed. There are some tense errors, and past and present tenses are mixed in reporting the data.
Punctuation is generally accurate, although there is an incorrect capital for Tennis, and the way the student writes lower case ‘g’ could be mistaken for a capital letter.
The marked criteria sheet shows that the student meets most criteria at Level 2, with one at Level 3.
The student’s language use in this task is consistent with the descriptions of students at Level B2, Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
Using this assessment to further learning
For younger students:
- Using the right word
Explain we use present to talk about the graph, but past to talk about the things that happened.
For example, The graph shows that only five boys did crafts.
Ask the student to write the correct form of the verb in the following sentences. The first one is done for you.
The blue lines (show) show that many students (go) went swimming.
Fifteen students (do) crafts, and 55 (play) tennis.
The graph (show) that more girls (play) _____ tennis than boys.
Fifteen girls (do) canoeing.
Explain to the student that when writing a report it is important that sentences follow each other. A report will be easier to read and more interesting if some different types of sentences are used.
Some examples of sentences to use in a report:
Ask the student to write sentence like the examples in the right side of the table:
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There were twenty girls in canoeing. There were 35 boys in swimming. |
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Thirty-five boys and 35 girls went swimming. Ten girls did crafts. |
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Fifteen girls participated in canoeing. Twenty-five boys participated in tennis. |
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Ask the student to use sentences like this when they revise the report.
- Listing results
When a lot of information is presented, a list can be used to make it clear.
A list in report looks like this:
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The graph tells us how popular each activity was, and that: • Swimming was the most popular • Tennis was the second most popular activity • Canoeing was third • Crafts was the least popular activity.
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Now ask the student to make their own list by filling in the gaps.
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The graph shows that: Seventy students went students played Thirty-five . |
For older students:
- Using present tense to describe the graph, and past tense to describe reported events.
- Explain the way we use tenses in an information report. We use present tense to talk about a graph, diagram or table, but past tense for events or things that are described in a graph when it is a past event. For example:
The blue bar shows the number of boys in an activity, and the red bar shows the number of girls. More girls played tennis than boys. Both present and past tense can be used in a sentence that says something about the graph and what it shows. The graph shows that thirty-five students went canoeing.
Ask the student to write three sentences, one of each type:
| Sentence type | Example |
| Sentence that describes the graph | |
| Sentence that describes what happened | |
| Sentence that says how the graph shows something that happened |
Suggest the student try to write sentences like these when next revising their report.
- Presenting data/information in a paragraph
Explain to the student that when reporting information in a report it is good to:
- use a variety of sentence structures, to make the text more interesting
- present the information in a properly formatted paragraph, where sentences follow on from each other.
Use a variety of text structures to make a text more interesting:
| Structure for describing information | Examples |
| (Number) (category) (verb) (activity). |
Thirty-five boys and 35 girls went swimming. Ten girls did crafts. |
| (Number) (category) participated in (activity). |
Fifteen girls participated in canoeing. Twenty-five boys participated in tennis. |
| There were (number) (category) in (activity). |
There were twenty girls in canoeing. There were 35 boys in swimming. |
Ask the student to use some of these structures when they revise their information report.
- Ask the student to study the table, which shows the differences between providing a list and writing in a paragraph:
| List | Paragraph | |
| Purpose and comments |
• Can be used to present items • Needs to have the same structure (verbs etc) |
Used in a report to present information in an interesting way. |
| Structure |
Introductory sentence: • item 1, • item 2, etc. Last one needs a full stop. |
Sentences follow on from each other. Can arrange sentences to show similarities or differences. |
| Example |
Children could choose from these activities on camp: • going swimming • playing tennis • going canoeing • doing crafts. |
All 70 of the students went swimming, but only 15 participated in crafts. Tennis was also popular, with 55 students participating. More boys went canoeing than girls. |
Suggest the student use a paragraph, not a list, when they next revise their report.
Year level: 3/4
Home language: Vietnamese
Commentary
This text is moving closer to the expectations for an information report than Samples 1 and 2. The introduction and presentation of information are explicit, despite some grammatical errors in these paragraphs. A list is used to present numerical data. The final paragraph presents a concluding sentence identifying the most and least popular activities, but does not make an explicit recommendation. While grammatical errors do not interfere with the meaning of the text, they are a distraction for the reader. Errors include some problems of subject-verb agreement, such as it show, boys and girls is seem, and problems associated with pluralisation, including this activities (inconsistency between determiner and noun), swimming is a activities (this suggests the student has not realised that the activities label on the graph is a plural, and the singular is activity), and the use of a activity in place of an activity. The use of ‘And’ to begin the listing is problematic. There is a minor spelling mistake ‘caft’ for ‘craft’, despite crafts being spelt correctly previously. The writing and punctuation is clear and the layout appropriate.
The marked criteria sheet shows that the student meets most criteria at Level 3.
The student’s language use in this task is consistent with the descriptions of students at Level B3, Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
Using this assessment for further learning
For younger students:
- Talking about how many things there are
Ask the student to look at the information in this table about singular and plural nouns and words we use with each.
| One | More than one |
| Words | |
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(a) boy (a) girl (a) student (a) child (an) activity |
(two) boys (three) girls (six) students (seventy) children (many) activities |
| Words for saying which one or ones | |
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this that a/an/the |
these those some |
| Examples | |
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This boy These boys A child Some children |
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Now give examples of your own from your report:
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Something to remember: We can add ‘s’, or use the word for more than one, like: a child, two children, some children.. an activity, three activities, some activities… All of these are things we can count.
But we can’t say waters, sugars, sands, or sunlights! Because we can’t count those things. So we say some water, a lot of sugar, a little bit of sand, some sunlight…
When we want to ask questions or talk about the amount of something, we have to use different words for the things we can count and the things we can’t count. How many ….? (if it is something you can count) How much…..? (if it is something you can’t count) How many children went swimming? How much water was in the lake?
Now fill put much or many in the gaps in the sentence. The first two are done for you: How many apples do you have? How much water did you drink? How oranges did you buy? How sand was on the beach? How girls played tennis? How music did you listen to? How books did you read this week?
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- Ask the student to use this information to make any necessary corrections to the draft of the report.
- Listing results
When a lot of information is presented, a list can be used to make it clear.
A list in report looks like this:
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The graph tells us how popular each activity was, and that: · Swimming was the most popular · Tennis was the second most popular activity · Canoeing was third · Crafts was the least popular activity.
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Now ask the student to make their own list by filling in the gaps
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The graph shows that: • Seventy students went • students played _________________ • Thirty-five _________________________________ • .
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For older students:
- Talking about plurals
- Ask the student to look at the information in this table about singular and plural nouns and words we use with each.
| Singular | Plural |
| Words (nouns) | |
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boy girl student child activity |
boys girls students children activities |
| Words for saying which one or ones (determiners) | |
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this that a/an/the |
these those some |
| Examples | |
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This boy These boys A child Some children |
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Now insert some examples of your own from your report:
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A strange thing about plurals: Many words can be made plural, because we can count them: a child, two children, some children.. an activity, three activities, some activities…
But in English we can’t make some words plural, because the things they name can’t be counted: water, sugar, sand, air, sunlight.
When we want to ask questions or talk about the amount of something, we have to use different words for the things we can count and the things we can’t count. How many children went swimming? How much water was in the lake? |
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Ask the student to use this information to make any necessary corrections to the draft of the report.
- How to present a list
Ask the student to study the table, which shows the differences between providing a list and writing in a paragraph:
| List | Paragraph | |
| Purpose and comments |
• Can be used to present items • Needs to have the same structure (verbs etc) • Sometimes presented in an order, such as highest number to lowest |
Used in a report to present information in an interesting way. |
| Structure |
Introductory sentence: • item 1, • item 2, etc. Last one needs a full stop. |
Sentences follow on from each other. Can arrange sentences to show similarities or differences. |
| Example |
The numbers of children in the activities were: • Swimming 70, (35 girls and 35 boys) • Tennis 55 (30 girls and 25 boys).
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All 70 of the students went swimming, but only 15 participated in crafts. Tennis was also popular, with 55 students participating. More boys went canoeing than girls. |
- Ask the student to correctly format the list in the text next time the report is revised.
- Tenses for presenting data
Ask the student to look at the following sentence structures that can be used for describing data:
| Structure for describing information | Examples |
| (Number) (category) (verb) (activity). |
35 boys and 35 girls went swimming. Ten girls did crafts. |
| (Number) (category) participated in (activity). |
Fifteen girls participated in canoeing. Twenty-five boys participated in tennis. |
| There were (number) (category) in (activity). |
There were twenty girls in canoeing. There were 35 boys in swimming. |
- Now ask the student to use some of these structures when they revise their text.
Year level: 3/4
Home language: Filipino
Commentary
This text presents marked differences between the levels of performance of different dimensions of language use. On the level of communication of ideas the text provides more detail compared to the other samples. It describes the data and provides a commentary (tennis is really popular), and gives recommendations related to the data (I suggest they should keep the swimming because all the of the kids went swimming).
However, there are significant problems with the organisation of the text, with information and recommendations mixed together in the first two paragraphs, and each of those paragraphs failing to have a clear focus. There are some sophisticated sentence structures, such as I suggest they should pick another activities (sic) and replace to (sic) craft, only a little bit of (sic) kids did craft. Yet some sentences are not clear, such as I think there might be 20 boys and 15 girls total 35., and Just need 5 girls to be 35. The sentences in paragraphs one and two are not well connected, and almost appear in random order. Some modal verbs are used; should, might, and generally appropriate use is made of present and past tenses, and a wide range of topic-relevant vocabulary. However, there are also some fundamental grammatical errors, half of the boys done it!, another activities, and the use of kids for children is not consistent with the expectations of a formal tone for such a report.
The text could be better organised, as descriptions and recommendations are mixed in different paragraphs. In the introduction the purpose for the text is introduced along with the statement of the number of students it reports on. However, the student moves prematurely to make a recommendation about the activities to be retained. Paragraph two is an extension of the last part of paragraph one, and again recommendations are made amongst the reporting of information. The second paragraph again links recommendations to data, but the paragraph beginning and end are arbitrary, with important information overlapping the initial and final paragraph boundaries. The final one-sentence paragraph provides a clear recommendation for the replacement of the craft activity, but is separated from other recommendations.
Depending on the age and stage of development of students, this text illustrates an important issue in assessing language tasks, because of their multidimensional nature. The variability of control between different language dimensions of this text presents a dilemma in making a summative assessment of the text. A decision needs to be made about the purpose of the assessment, and decisions made about which dimensions, and to some extent, which components of some dimensions (such as grammatical features) are used to rate it or rank it in relation other texts. For example, if text organisation is of highest priority, the text would be rated at a lower standard than Samples 2 and 3. But if communication of ideas, or use of a range of sentence types, were given more weighting it may be rated higher than the other samples. In these circumstances the criteria given greatest weight needs to be clearly articulated, along with the reason for weighting that dimension. If assessment is for formative purposes, to inform further teaching, the dilemma is not so great, but the point of focus for teaching priorities still needs to be determined, and the rationale for its choice understood.
The marked criteria sheet shows that the student meets most criteria at Levels 3 and 4.
The student’s language use in this task is consistent with the descriptions of students at Level B3, Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
Using this assessment for further learning
For younger students:
- Which sentences belong together?
Put the sentences into the right part of the table. One example of each type of sentence has been written for you.
The grey lines show how many boys and girls did an activity.
Swimming had the highest number of students.
Craft should be changed, because it is not so popular.
Twenty girls and 15 boys did canoeing.
Tennis is popular and should not be changed.
There were 70 students on the camp recorded by the graph.
| About the graph | Activities on the camp | Suggestions |
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The graph shows how many students did each activity on the recent camp.
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Tennis had 55 students. | I think swimming should be kept, because it is so popular. |
- Arranging a report
Look at the information report framework (An information report – A framework for your notes PDF).
Write the sentences from the table above in the parts of the report they belong to.
Now compare what sorts of sentences you had in each part of your report.
- Talking about how many things there are
- Ask the student to look at the information in this table about singular and plural nouns and words we use with each.
| One | More than one |
| Words (nouns) | |
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(a)boy (a) girl (a) student (a) child (an) activity |
(two) boys (three) girls (six) students (seventy) children (many) activities |
| Words for saying which one or ones | |
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this that a/an/the |
these those some |
| Examples | |
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This boy These boys A child Some children |
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Now give some examples of your own from your report:
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Something to remember: We can add ‘s’, or use word for more than one:: a child, two children, some children.. an activity, three activities, some activities… All of these are things we can count.
But we can’t say waters, sugars, sands, or sunlights! Because we can’t count those things. So we say ‘Some water, lots of sugar, a little bit of sand, some sunlight..
When we want to ask questions or talk about the amount of something, we have to use different words for the things we can count and the things we can’t count. How many ….? (if it is something you can count) How much…..? (if it is something you can’t count) How many children went swimming? How much water was in the lake? Now fill put much or many in the gaps in the sentence. The first two are done for you: How many apples do you have? How much water did you drink? How oranges did you buy? How sand was on the beach? How girls played tennis. How music did you listen to? How books did you read this week?
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- Ask the student to use this information to make any necessary corrections to the draft of the report.
For older students:
- Expressing your ideas within a text structure
- Discuss the importance of a clear structure and organisation for any text, but especially an information report, where if information and conclusions are not well organised, the reader can easily get confused in trying to understand a lot of detailed information.
- Ask the student to refer to An information report – a framework for your notes PDF
- Ask the student to identify or mark where different types of communication are presented in the text:
- Presentation of general information about the report and the topic
- Description of data
- Presentation of recommendations and reasons
- Ask the student to compare how the different types of communication are organised in their text, and whether that is similar or different to what is presented in the Information report framework
- Ask the student to revise their text so that it has a clearer organisational structure.
- Constructing a paragraph
- Ask the student to study the table, which shows the differences between providing a list and writing in a paragraph:
| List | Paragraph | |
| Purpose and comments |
- Can be used to present items - Needs to have the same structure (verbs etc.) - sometimes presented in an order, such as highest number to lowest |
Used in a report to present information in an interesting way. |
| Structure |
Introductory sentence: - item 1, - item 2, etc. Last one needs a full stop. |
Sentences follow on from each other. Can arrange sentences to show similarities or differences. |
| Example |
The numbers of children in the activities were: - Swimming 70, (35 girls and 35 boys) - Tennis 55 (30 girls and 25 boys).
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All 70 of the students went swimming, but only 15 participated in crafts. Tennis was also popular, with 55 students participating. More boys went canoeing than girls. |
- Ask the student to look at their second paragraph, which seems sometimes to be a list, sometimes as a paragraph.
- Ask them to use the information presented here when they next revise the text. This may be done at the same time as the previous teaching point.
- Expressions of quantity
- Ask the student to review this information about singular and plurals
| Singular | Plural |
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Words (nouns) Fill in the missing words: |
|
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boy
____________
______________
child
activity |
_________
girls
students
______________
___________________ |
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A strange thing about plurals: Many words can be made plural, because we can count them: a child, two children, some children. an activity, three activities, some activities…
But in English we can’t make some words plural, because the things they name can’t be counted: water, sugar, sand, air, sunlight.
When we want to ask questions or talk about the amount of something, we have to use different words for the things we can count and the things we can’t count. How many children went swimming? How much water was in the lake? |
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| Check your draft report to see how you have used plurals, and expressions about plurals (like how many or how much). Correct any errors. | |
