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The teaching of Decision-Making to adolescents as a life-skill in Lesotho High Schools.
Research Questions 1.1 How do life-skills teachers in Lesotho interpret the concept of decision-making as a life-skill for adolescents in the life Skills curriculum? 1.2 How does this transfer to their life-skill lessons? 1.3 What strategies are teachers in Lesotho using to teach decision-making as a life-skill for adolescents? 1.4 Which theories of decision-making do they use to teach decision-making as a life-skill?
Background and rationale The Lesotho ministry of education and training has introduced the Life-skills syllabus both in the primary and high schools curriculum. According to the syllabus vision of Ministry of Education and Training of Lesotho, such curriculum was introduced because “there are many demands and challenges which the youth in particular and society in general are facing. These include HIV and AIDS, stress and anxiety, violence, drug and substance abuse…teenage pregnancy.” (Ministry of education and training: 2007) The research’s interest is teaching of decision-making to adolescents as a life skill on alcohol and substance abuse.
Throughout the world adolescents are faced with vast challenges in which they have to make choices on different issues such as their involvement with gangs and violence, alcohol and drugs, sex and pregnancy… (Moote and Wodarski, 1990). It is evident also that making wise decisions, especially amongst the adolescents is “a cognitive skill that is difficult…regardless of intelligence” (D’zurrilla and Goldfried, 1991). Hence, teaching students to take wise decisions is a challenging situation which needs effective teaching strategies as well as thorough understanding of the concept of decision-making as a life-skill. We are also aware that there are different factors, which include cognitive, psychological, social, cultural social, that influence adolescents to make decisions and this research will look at adolescents’ decision-making on damaging risk-taking behaviors (Cordon,1996).
Lesotho Ministry of education and Training introduced and implemented this new syllabus through workshops that were held for teachers. The teachers chosen to teach Life-skills in schools were already employed at the schools as in other subjects. I am not aware of the strategies used to choose them, but I am aware that they were not necessarily chosen on the requirement that they had previous training on Life-skills curriculum.
In this research, therefore, I am interested in investigating how the teachers in Lesotho high schools understand the concept of decision-making as a life-skill. I am also going to investigate how their understanding of the concept of decision-making transfer to their life-skill lessons. Moreover, I am going to investigate how teachers are teaching the mentioned skill; specifically, what strategies are they using to teach decision-making as a life-skill as well as the theories of decision-making do they base their lessons on.
Literature Review People are always making decisions of varying importance every day, and decision-making is a skill that one needs to have. Studies have shown that most people are much poorer at decision making than they think, which implies that understanding of what decision making involves, together with a few effective techniques can therefore assist to produce better decisions. . (Harris, 2009). Halpern-Felsher (2009:6) says “the questions of how adolescents make decision and the extent to which adolescents can and do make informed choices have been of great interest.” The interest of this research is to investigate how essential part of adolescence’s way of making decision is taught from an understanding of adolescent risk-taking behavior which is rooted in how they interact with other teens, taking risks and making mistakes.
Therefore, the aspect of adolescents’ skill of decision-making, I understand, has connection to peer influence, parenting, and brain development because “adolescence is a time of physical, cognitive, social, and emotional growth, change and…there is an increasing capacity for abstract reasoning [and] counterfactual reasoning...” (Reyna, 2006) The research’s interest is to look at the teaching of the decision-making as a skill to adolescents at schools and which techniques and theories are used in teachers’ lessons.
The research is specifically interested on the teaching of decision-making processes to adolescents as they relate to risk-taking behavior, most specifically on alcohol and substance abuse. The lot of research shows that “...Crime, smoking, drug use, alcoholism, reckless driving and many other unhappy patterns of behavior that play out over a lifetime often debut during adolescence” http://psi.sagepub.com/content/7/1/1
The above paragraph suggests that adolescence is a period of increased risk taking and decision-making as well as increased opportunities to do so. Alcohol and other substance use do typically begin during adolescence, with numerous possible adverse consequences such as risky sexual behavior and drunk driving. The consequences of early alcohol use are not only short-term; early use is associated with higher rates of alcoholism later in life.
According to Meek, (2009) adolescence is frequently described as a time of engaging in risk-taking behaviors and adolescents' involvement in risk-taking behaviors has been explained in a number of ways. Some researchers suggest that teenagers tend to be specifically high in sensation seeking (Zuckerman et al., 1978). Others suggest that they use these behaviors to appear more mature (Jessor, 1987) or because they have heightened egocentrism (Elkind, 1985). http://psi.sagepub.com/content/7/1/1 Essentially, increased independence, opportunity, peer or cultural influence, and continued brain development
Adolescents are understood to be very interested in their social standing among their peers and therefore are more vulnerable to decision-making that relies heavily on what other adolescents are doing. http://www.ncmsa.net/jounal/pdf/jan09/students_think.pdf
At this juncture let us then look at what decision-making as a life skill is and how is related to adolescents. There are different kinds of definitions of decision-making found from vast literature through the world and fields; however I am interested in two of Harris’ definition. The first one says that “decision making is the study of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of the decision maker.” (Harris, 2009) This suggests that making a decision implies that there are alternative choices to be considered, and in such a case there is a need to identify as many of these alternatives as possible but to choose the one that is mostly desired or more align to the intended goals.
The second definition that Harris suggests says decision-making is a process which is recursive and nonlinear which implies that decisions are made by moving backward and forward between “the choice of criteria and the identification of alternatives.” (Harris, 2009). He further says that decision making is the process of sufficiently reducing uncertainty and doubt about alternatives to allow a reasonable choice to be made from among them. This definition stresses the information-gathering function of decision making. It should be noted here that uncertainty is reduced rather than eliminated. It is clear then that very few decisions are made with absolute certainty because complete knowledge about all the alternatives is seldom possible.
Moreover, decision-making involves the ability to choose between competing actions that have varying probabilities of positive or negative outcomes. Through education or experience, people learn to weigh the expected costs versus benefits of their actions and make choices that have the most beneficial outcomes in the long run. It is evident then that adolescents also need a thorough training in decision-making as a skill for them to make wise decisions.
There are tools and techniques that can be used to help make seemingly impossible decisions and solve problems no matter how complex they maybe. This means being able to make decisions, and solve problems with confidence is a life skill, which needs to be taught. The techniques that are used to make decisions are also vast.
The first decision-making technique according to Harris 2009 is optimizing which means choosing the best possible solution. The second one is satisficing which means the satisfactory alternative is chosen. The third one is maximax which means the alternative is chosen based on the maximum possible pay off. The last one according to him is maximin which means the worst possible outcome is considered before making a decision.
(Provisional Reference) 1. Will Meek, 2009: Adolescents & Risk-Taking Behavior 2. http://psi.sagepub.com/content/7/1/1 3. http://www.ncmsa.net/jounal/pdf/jan09/students_think.pdf 4. Http://advancedlifeskills.com/blog/making-wise-decisions .
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I CAN’T BLAME MY UPBRINGING. That morning everybody was sleeping except Thabo who was quiet sitting by the television. The sitting room was full of littered cans of beer and bottles of sminorff spin and hunters dry. Thabo had a scar on his left cheek that run down towards his nose, with big eyes and sharp chin. His big mouth had soft appled shaped lips. He is a medium sized young man. He has strong muscles that are apparent in his tight blue Puma T-shirt. He is wearing camouflage short pants with white Nike takkies. His friends call him Cena after wrestling super star John Cena because of how he wears his clothes.
He is now watching his favourite show of WWE Raw on TV. His mind is not on the show this morning, he is thinking about his brother who has been in South Africa for ten years. He goes back to the time when they were only young kids back at Mahobong village living with their younger sister and their drunken father.
One morning when they were supposed to go to school their father told them to take the cattle to the field, Motsamai, his big brother refused and took his books and went to school. His father was so mad that he brought him from school that day. He pushed him around all the way to the village. He had this big hands that were like the spade blade and they were so rough that one clap could wound you like you were beaten by a brick piece on the face. He was cursing him and calling him all the names you could dare think of.
When they got to the fields where Thabo was with the cattle he told Thabo to go home and leave his brother with the cattle. Before he could walk away he kicked him on the knee with his navy brown big shoes. They had a steel nose that hurt so bad. He kicked him so hard that the sound that came from that knee was like somebody had just hid a chisel with a hammer. Motsamai cried like a piglet going for slaughter. His father just got off without even bothering whether he had hurt him or not and tracking Thabo behind him since he was already crying for his hurt brother. His father never went home that day he went for a local brew at the next village. He was always drinking local brew and never ate his food from his place. The thing is he had lot of mistresses and was so fussy about them. The worst part of it, he was always bringing one with him at night. He would wake up these kids and kick them around for what they never knew.
That day Motsamai never came home, until Thabo went to see what was happening. When he reached the fields his brother was moaning on the ground where their father kicked him early in the morning around ten o’clock. Thabo realised that his brother was in deep pain, he called for assistance from other late herdboys who were still roasting stolen maize. They helped him to his house but since he was in real pain Thabo ran to his grandfather’s place. Mr sekoli, their mother’s father who had been a policeman in republic of South Africa for more than twenty years. His wife had been a teacher there also but she went after him, the hear-say said the old man also disappeared in there until the old lady followed him. We never knew that since he was a cool guy and he loved his grand children so dearly. He took to his molamu and went to see what happened, and when he arrived there he was so furious he never listened to anybody, he took Motsamai to the hospital. He asked one businessman who was living next to our place for his car.
I am sure is better if we get all the story from Thabo since he had always wanted tell me his story, he continued to tell me and said;
He came back from hospital fuming since the doctors said my brother had broken his knee. That night my old man took us with my sister to his place. He went back to wait for our father to return. The cattle were no where to be seen. My neighbour Pule told me that my father came singing that night with his mistress under arm. He realised that Thepa, our milk Afrikaner cow was not in the kraal. He started to swear running to the house, he never knew what was waiting for him. Angry ex-cop. Once he got into the house he collided with a big blow of Lebetlela, traditional wooden weapon. He went down straight away and his mistress started to wail for help. People came running and they found my father in pools of blood. The next morning they took my old man to the chief. I was there but he had ordered me to go to the school. I wanted to listen to what they were going to say.
That morning I realised I had drunk a lot more than I should have, but I was ready for another round should my friends tell me to go for some. The thing is I was never having cash for booze. That was 2001 august I was in my second year at the university. I was so mad about my lost brother, but I was also moaning or I would say grieving over my lost love. I used to call her Pretty face. Thought I was in cloud nine We met when I was still in a seminary; I was at Botha-Buthe doing my pastoral ministry there. I was working with one priest that I can never forget. He was so holy and sweet you would think hell was never there. He used to give me all the lessons about being a good priest. I am sure if Catholic Church would have such priest things would be better in a church. I am not ready for the church now. Pretty face was just doing her Form E when I met her but I was so into religion I never noticed her, until one day I was having a session with the youth there, she was in the front row with those tiny, shiny eyes and a smooth white face. She had small nose with sweet small lips. I was so mesmerised by her golden voice when they sang for me. Truly speaking I firstly fell in love with her voice. I told my self that the angels that we are told that they sing alleluia in heaven, one of them was amongst us. I looked her in the eyes and immediately I saw my other life, I realised that truly speaking God created man and woman in Eden, I realised that this priest hood was a bull. I took her by the hand after the singing practice, my hand was sweating in her tiny soft hand, but I did not take it off. Her voice when talking to me was so soft it went down my spine and I could feel myself sweating under my armpits. Shame to “Brother”.
We talked that day I waited for the answer and one-day it was raining and I was alone at the mission since father was out with his duties. He was not going to come back for three days. I heard a knock at the window, I thought is one of the village boys who used to visit me for the TV. When I looked through the window I saw the angel by the window, I was so surprised and happy that it took me about five minutes waiting there saying nothing just watching. Then I heard a voice saying “ it’s raining and I am freezing out here.” Then I woke up from my illusions and opened for her. That night I will never forget since it was when I decided to love her so dearly and the rest is history.
That morning I was so mad because I had met pretty face at the refectory with her friends and she acted as if she did not know me at all. I did not believe what I was seeing however I told my self that I was dreaming I would wake up to see the reality. I would say that I never saw the reality and since then I started to drink so heavily that even today I wonder who was at fault for our separation. Only God knows.
There was freshers’ ball going on the following weekend and my buddies were ready to rock and roll but not me. I told them that I won’t talk to any girl, my sweat heart is black label. The tears were so hot in my eyes I just left them there and went for a beer. When I got to the bar I bought Mellow wood 5 straight and sat down and drank all that by myself. When my buddies arrived I could not move my lips and they took me to my room.
Let me say this to you, things have been happening to me in life. Bad things have been happening but I was so happy to be at the university since I had told one friend of mine whom I will tell you about later that once pretty face gets to university I am going to marry and together we shall built a house for ourselves. I guess I was also dreaming. This reminds me of how bad I felt when I realised that all that I have dreamt of has been down a trail and this really still hurts but life goes on. Fancy face has been in my life for so long but her memories like those of my father are so hard to remove I wish I could invent memory remover software.
My name to his mistress’s son. When I was still at high school my dad was not living with us, he had a mistress at his work in the mines. They were living there and every time we wanted money we would go to his work and ask for it. One day I went there and I found him with his mistress and he told me that I should wait for tomorrow since that is their payday. While I was still sitting outside there came a little rat with big bellies and fat flat nose. They called him Thabo. My dad did. I was so mad with him I cried the whole night. How can he have a child with some stupid flat ass woman and call their adulterous product by my name for heaven’ sake? That guy has really pissed me that day.
I heard from one old man that I decided to go and sleep at his place that those flats belonged to my dad. In the morning I went to him to tell him that he will find me at the busstop with the money. After two hours there he came with his black ass and red devil eyes and told me that he wanted me a favour since he is still at work. “ What favour?” I furiously asked. He asked me to go at the bar to pay some debts he made before going home. He had given me about thousand maloti. I was so happy to have got such amount from him. I was not aware of what was awaiting me. When I got to the bar, I asked one fine lady that was selling how much my dad owed them. She went back and checked her books. “ Seven hundred and eighty-five maloti and forty-six cents.” She said with a smile. What a hell is she smiling about, I said to myself. I wanted to ask her if he used to have such big debts or what. I also thought that it was just a scam. But can she even mention the forty-six cents? I told her that I am going to tell him since he had just asked me to inquire.
I went outside and looked up at the rented houses where he lived, I knew he was not there since he went back to work. I wanted to go up there and give that fat ass bitch my piece of mind, but I thought twice about it. I wanted to get in the taxi as fast as I can and go straight home. I was already imagining the face of mum when she sees that lot of money. Do you know why my dad was so sure I would pay that money? Is because he was such a lion around us no one ever stood infront of him and said no. I got in the taxi and left.
My journey to Seminary. I should have started by telling you how I happened to be in a seminary at the first place. My dad was such an asshole I could not bear with him. My brother had been three years away to Gauteng. I had just finished my COSC at Makoala high school. I was an altar boy at my catholic mission in the village. I was so happy to be the alter boy but I was not thinking about been a priest. I was only happy because I was the head of the boys. I was also not going to herd the cattle. During the week I was at school and on Saturdays I was with altar boys learning about the catholic church and alter regulations. On Sunday I would be on the altar next to a French parish priest that I hated later when I was at the seminary.
After finishing my COSC I had to wait for the results, which normally come by February the following year. I was and I am still business minded so I opened a spazza shop where I sold makoenya and chips for students. I wanted to have money to help my mother. The fanny part is that now that I working I do not seem to help her in any way. The results were not so good; I had passed with third class, which meant I could not join my friends to the university. I could have gone to NTTC then but I thought again since my father was supposed to pay. Do I need to say why I could not bother?
I met Oblate brothers who had come to our parish for a retreat. They told me of how I could be a priest. They told me that I could choose between two types of congregations. The secular and the oblates of Mary immaculate. I chose the secular because I was told they took lesser years, and I wanted to help my mother, so I could not choose the one that took longer years. I went around and met some priest to help me with information.
This search took only a week the following week I was at the bishop’s house. I met the big man himself and he sent me to one priest he said was the one in charge of the seminarians in his diocese. We talked over night at his place. Mind you I had never told my mother about this and my dad was still lost into his own things. My little sister was still going to same school I was attending. She never asked me about my goings but she trusted me a lot. We were and still are best friends with her. We used to pull big stunts with her.
My sister the friend One day I stole volleyball at school. She was in form B then. I wanted to have a volleyball team at my village so there were no funds to buy my village boys something to keep them busy off the crimes. I took the ball and sprayed it with a blue paint. I had the cabbage bags for the net and our team started to practice. At schoolteachers started to look for the ball. They asked all the volley players including me. I told them I know nothing about the ball and they dismissed me hastily. After two weeks of a thorough search I thought things were never going to catch up with me. Our famous furious teacher Thupa called me to the staff room, I knew things were bad but I never thought of the ball. It was water under bridge. When I got there, there was a rain of questions even from these private teachers who were not qualified. Those ones never asked questions since they knew that we would tell them that they are not teachers.
They asked me about the ball and answered calmly knowing that nobody knew about it. It took about thirty minutes in the staffroom without getting to pin me down. I thought they were going to tell me to go and suddenly I saw my sister come into staffroom. She was carrying something in the plastic. When she dropped it down I realised it was our village blue and white volleyball. I got furious instantly. These fools have sent my sister home to fetch our ball and said it was me who said so. I got really mad about that, I started cursing everybody in the staffroom except my sister. I was telling them to go to hell since I knew nothing about the ball.
They told me I was going to jail for stealing, but they were lying. I was the most brilliant student at school, they wanted good results. Mr Thupa took me outside since I was now out of control telling everybody damn. He convinced me to accept the blame and the punishment. However I refused and the principal was called and I was expelled from school for two weeks. The principal told me to come with my parent at the end of the second week to talk about my future at school.
I thought of my mother and I could not stay at home for so long, I was going to write my final exams. My sister came handy as always in that situation. She wrote a letter as if she is our mother. Please punish the child and let him get to class. He admitted that he stole the ball. But if he keeps on refusing please I wont come to school for his case just expel him I will be fine with your decision. Yours faithfully ‘Mathabo The teachers punished me and I went back to school as normal. The thing is that day I was going to the seminary I told her first in the family, even though she could not understand what I was really into, she prayed with me for my success. I promised to write her once I got there and she promised to write me back. She did and I still have her letters with me in my treasure box. I told my mother the day I was leaving and she was proud of me and she was crying but I could not ask her why she was doing that because I knew we would both cry. She gave me some few bucks and I left for Roma. ………………………………………………………………………………. Those memories when death was better My brother was a very quite person when he crew up even today he is still close up. I sometimes wonder what really closed his mouth from talking his views like my sister and myself. I know the reason, my dad. Sometimes when we talk about our dad my brother does not say a lot in fact he protects our father. But I know that in his heart he is still saying shit this motherfucker fucked my life and I can also see that in his eyes in as much as I see it in my mother’s eyes. I remember one time I was from school and I had to go to the field to fetch my mother who was still looking after the cattle. I found her sitting down alone in the fields, my heart was beating very fast and I felt my eyes heating up. I knew I was about to cry however I did not cry. She stood up and told me not to play and let the cattle get into other people’s field.
As she left the field I saw a strong woman who has dedicated her life to working for her kids and husband. My dad never said thank you to my mother for all she did for him and us. He is just an arrogant punk that is also so selfish. My mother’s face is full of misery if you look at it clearly and it also makes me feel useless even today as I write this book.
One time my dad was from the local shebeen and he told my mother that he is hungry and mind you this fool does not even buy food. All he does is to drink. My mother gave him moroho and papa. He was so furious and he threw the plate outside and said he is not a cow and he does not eat grass. He wanted to beat our mother but we got in between. He decided to throw us outside, that son of a bitch was a real devil. That day we slept outside in the dark, my brother, younger sister and my brother all on the lap of my mother.
Since this bastard was drunk, he slept so fast but he had look the door. My mother said we should not go and tell our grand dad. Even to this day when my dad does something stupid my mother does not want when we ask our dad about it. He some times beat my brother and threw him outside the whole night.
I remember the first time I slept outside. My dad had accused me of giving my friends his mechanic tools, which he stole from the mines. He was a bigger liar since he told us that he was a mechanic at the mines. But the funny part of it is that he never worked on a single car after running away from the mines instead he was building the houses. He also told us that he could built good houses however he never lasted in his jobs. He lied to mum that he was retrenched but the truth is he ran away that coward.
Even at LHDA he ran away and lied that he had been retrenched. That was how he was our dad to us and all these things made my brother to feel ashamed of his family since he was the eldest. But the last straw was when my dad said he could not pay school fees for him, and he could not finish his matric. My dad was a pimple on an ass, and he decided to forget about my poor brother who still try to make the ends meet up to this day.
How I wish I could make you understand how I felt about the love my mum had for my father but I can’t since is not what one can say. She was always quite about it so we learnt it our whole life through toil she went through. I had some love affairs in my life but can not have one that I can say felt as if it was close to what my mother had for my father. I loved that girl I met at Bothabuthe while I was a seminarian but I got over her when I realised that she was not into me.
I am sure I never told you how hurt I was when I learnt that she was in love with some one else. My sister told me since she was staying with her at her school. My girl was a teacher there since she was so brilliant. I was amazed when I heard that she has moved on. I tell you that to this day I could not understand why women were so demanding to be loved but never give that much. Women, I like them very much, but they want more attention. They only want their agenda to be attended to.
When we arrived at the university my friends told me that I should let go of her and I did. I got one lady from the high school in the university. She was a very nice girl even though she was too young to be in love with me. I want to tell you that I once fell in love with a girl and will never fall in love with another one. So this young lovely girl had very beautiful big eyes with a silky voice, she had smooth face and her hair was so well taken care of. In all that she had I was trying to replace my fancy face, however the love was not there any more. I am still sure to this day that my friends thought I was in love until the end of the academic year.
One time I took this young girl for a lunch to town, I felt love pooping on my chest. I felt like I was going to fall in love but now beer was my dear friend. We went to Nandos near the train station, which ironically does not have any train going to or from there. I went there because I like chilli foods. I can fight for Indian curry. She told me how happy she was to be with me but I could see in her eyes that she was to young to say anything sensible.
She was wearing a silk blue blouse with a lime white dress and those pencil high heel black shoes with only laces holding the feet. She was smiling so angelic time and again to me. She reminded me of my sister when she was in the good mood. I loved her that day and I took her to a decent bar in town to have my sweet heart “ Black label” beer. She told me that she had no problem with that. I was so happy to finally found some one that said she loved me so many time in every ten minutes. My mother never had a time to tell me that since we were both crying most of the time. The only familiar phrase I remember from my mother is that “ every thing will be alright my kid, God is with us”. I went to the University the happy man that day. I could not take her to my room since I was staying with an old man that always told me to concentrate on my studies rather than booze. He once asked me if I had a girlfriend, since she might take me off the drinking. I just laughed since booze was my darling at that moment.
I took my sweet angel rescue from stress to my buddy’s place. He was so happy to switch with me so that I can have a good night after so long he said that to me. I enjoyed that night but I can’t tell you now how the memories are to me since that angel disappeared. Fuck life and some dishonest bitches. I love women but I hate to hear women saying men do not have feelings. What a fuck, how can you see when you are to busy searching to be loved and getting tender care instead of giving it to this poor soul.
Who said men are strong? Women have to know that men need their love more than they need theirs. Lucky Dube said blessed is the hand that gives, so what is the problem with every body that only wants to receive. You are doomed all you receivers. After a year I was alone again, remember this was the second person in my life that I thought I loved. I do not want you to think I am saying at the age of twenty-three I had fucked only two women. No way man. I had some taste of the game but I am talking about real love, emotional madness. On my third year I had a girl that I went the way with until the first years closed. I met a girl that I was teaching. Let me save this for some time since I want to tell you about my buddy that I promised to tell you about. This girl I am talking about became the mother of my son. I married her but wait for that… Meeting the woman I loved then. I was so happy on the eve of the millennium when the priest told me that he is going to Israel for his pilgrimage. I knew that I was going to be alone I was happy that I was going to conduct the mass. I was also happy that nobody was going to be on our love way with my fancy face. Lord knows I was really in love with that girl. All the dreams that one can think I was dreaming but God knows I did not know what this was up to, yet I let my heart love what I had. I used to write nice prayers and poems. I do have that gift of poetry when I ma in love that is why I sometimes still write poems for my wife since I do love her and she is the theme of my life now and forever.
On the 31 of December 1999 I was with her and we went to buy some booze with other girls. We bought Over Meer wine and Grown wines. My little girl did not drink this wine so Tebello was so happy to do herself a favour by drinking that wine. I am sure that that night is so memorable the details are so hurting and I am ready to love my wife and forget about the past since I also want her to forget about her past. I want her to be so in love with me that we cold move he mountains.
That girl that stole my heart was so lovely to me that her beauty to me was never so apparent. I still believe that I love her as she was. Now I have a wife that I love as she is, and god help me to be so honest to her, fancy face never had a trouble with me and even today I wish that things never had that turn we would have been friends, so I still remember those days when things we re so fake yet love was so strong.
Friends and life I have always thought I can be a master of every thing especially because I had realised long time ago that people take me only to be a rascal. I sometimes wandered what people thought of my friends and me. I listened to this Hip-Hop star from America who said people never mind about miseries of people but only judge you as a trouble, I have always been so co-operative with people but they have always said I am bad and my friends mean trouble.
I liked them for one thing; we talked about those past that haunted our lives. We sat down over beer and discussed those bad days when our lives were mess. I know Kwavisto has not been my long friend but since I knew him from the university I can write a book about him and us. I can tell the tales both bad and good. Damn that boy has been a hell of a friend to me. He was from Bela-bela, at kolojane and to tell you the truth I met him through my other dog called, skirileke. The tall tiny black ass hole that I met also at the university and he was a fun to hang with. My university friends are just so many I am sure if I can tell how I met them all I would be wasting time on minor things, since I should talk about Gazebo family that consisted of Small, a tiny smart girl with a gap in her mouth. There was also The mother of my son. This would be mean if I can not sit down and be happy about the moments that even today make me happy and forget about the bygones and be a happy dad and husband. You see I was always a talkative and Mampoi always told me that I am a real talkative, she was my mentor and I used to run to her for help whenever things went wrong . Imagine a girl that I just met at the university being my advisor; however, hell she is a good one. I could say a whole lot about her right now but I am sure she would be fine also to know how things got in place for me to have a son.
I was a teacher at one high school in my district and I was so happy to be at that school since that was my turning point. I met lot of people in that school, some liked me and some really hated me. I am telling you that you either love me too much or hate me all the way. I was still with my fancy face then and truly speaking I never had a chance to have a someone else to be with, especially among students. After a year I went to the university and one day while I was from the refectory for lunch I met one of the girls I used to teach at that high school I talked about. She was one of the brilliant students yet so close up I did not know her that much then. She came to me and we chatted a bit and I asked her what was she doing there. She was happy to tell me of her aunt who teaches at the university and her good J.C results, I was happy for her also. She left me and promised to visit me at my place before she goes back to school. Damn man from that day I longed to meet this young girl again but she never came back. One of the good days I had to go home with one of my friends, the Muslim guy I was sharing a room with. He lives at Maputsoe, a small town next to the border. I visited him a while before shooting to my place, when I was about to get to a taxi, there was that young tall brownish schoolgirl. I called her and already told my buddy to take a good look at her while still talking to us. He did that. I accused her of being unfaithful and all that stuff but in matter of fact I was trying to see what is it in her that hocked me up so much; innocence, respect, intelligence but mostly that uniqueness that I saw in her eyes. I saw the beauty that even today does not explain its self but just calls me to always love this girl. I saw in her the future, the true person that does not resemble fakeness. I am sorry I loved fancy face but God knows from the day I realised that she was involved with another man, I saw only a person who is made to be loved by everybody. I felt that sense of not being mine alone.
This girl that I am talking about I could see the person that is so perfectly on her own, somebody that really has a face of African girl. God I think I am just cracy about this girl, what am I describing that I loved? The way she talked to me, the way she answered my questions, that honesty and innocence really took me off my feet. I promised to see her at her sister’s place when I come back from home the following day since she told me that she had visited her sister. We met but I can’t say much about that meeting , but I will tell you one thing though. I could see in her eyes that she loved me but she could not say it and I was also afraid to say it because she was my former student even though I was no longer her teacher and thought never will be. One day we went for a funeral at a village next to the high school, I think she was doing form E then, this was after a year now. I had forgotten about her I suppose but when I saw her at school that day my blood ran down my spine and my feet were hot, I could feel that man’s thing telling me to get her and this time not be afraid of anything. I called her into the minibus that we were travelling with, we got in there and hell kissed man. I kissed her so nice or rather she kissed me so nicely I still remember that kiss. I could not meet her for another full year after that ‘in the bus passionate kiss’. I went back to the university and the following academic year I met her and this time she was a student at the university,
She was going to register for the pre-entry science programme that university offers the BSc students. I was happy to meet her and we talked a bit and I told her where my room was. I could not say much since by that time I was also preparing for my final tests for third year. I was not hoping to see her that night but she came with other students that I taught at the high school she was attending. I was so happy to have them as my guest and seemingly they were so happy too to be there.
I was so much happy to see that I can still be in love with some one, especially the person I feel so attracted to even though I was so much into booze. That visit was just a beginning and I was so quite busy however I also did not want to show others what was kicking. I had to accompany them out of my apartment, and my targeted bird asked me to find her a calculator, I asked her to come late at night. She did not come but early the next day she knocked at my door asking for the calculator. I asked her to visit me tonight but she said I should go and see her place, she told me where she lived. My heart jumped inside my shirt. I was so much in love. I told my buddy, kwavisto that I have got a girl that I have being looking for and he was so happy for me.
That night I was at her room and we chatted a lot until her room mates go to sleep, and when I was about to go I kissed her by the door, it was for the second time and this time it was obvious that we had the same thing. Love. I jumped the whole way to the bar for a bottle of Black label, this time not because I was stressed but because I was happy that I had got a girl.
From that time we visited each other a lot, I wish I could tell you of our first sex. I also wish I could get to those days when we would go to movies and go back to my room playing “Joko:Coffee” game, this is the famous and nice game whereby one rests on another one’s back looking the opposite direction and the other one lifts this one resting with his or her back. We would sometimes go for movies and come late chasing each other playing that “Hiba” game whereby one tries to slap the other before departing. It was so nice because no one would go to his or her place before he or she had hid the other for “Hiba”. I am sure I was really madly in love, I still remember how people try to talk me out of her. I still thank my closest friends because they were very happy for me to be so happy. They all liked her and could not stand to see me loose her. Even to this day I still cherish the way my mind worked when she was around, she revived my dreams of having a family, and those aspirations to be a better husband and a caring dad.
I am therefore so grateful that I got her as my wife and I am still sure that she will be a wife that I need for the rest of my life.
If wishes were horses I am so damn into business and even though I am just a big drunk one can still see future spelled on my forehead. That year that we started a magazine at the university no one ever thought it would be a hit. I am sure you would understand the second year students already trying to make waves in a media worlds at the university level. Man those were the days, and the pen was my biggest weapon. To this day no one can explain how I moved the campus but it moved. That paper mad e people to get my attention, serious that is still one of the biggest achievement I have ever enjoyed, even though it comes second to the fact that I have a son and a wife that loves me.
The corridors of the residences were buzzing gazebo. That was the name of our mag, I had grouped the very … Life is unpredictable I am sure by now I can recall all those nice times I had with my buddies, I am sure that to this very day my life has not changed a bit. I always wonder how is like to be raised in a family that always fights, and when you grow up your mother always pray that you become a better husband than your dad. I think one can understand the pressure of trying to live the opposite life and making those people that ill-treated you that you can be better than then, how ever past comes running after you. Basotho always say burning coal always results in ashes but I am sure you would be suprised to realise that a burning coal sometimes becomes a furnace with heat. Damn life is so cruel, especially when you try to outlive your past, and is so hurting when you have good intentions but everything you touch turns into misery and disaster.
I am sure I can go on trying to blues about how things always get worse when you try to become a better person. There is this girl that was getting married and I was so determined to be so much involved into helping her go through with her marriage. I am so hurt that she was even so much trusting that I would be there for her. We came a long way with her back at the high school days when I was two classes ahead of her, and I was a chairman of Drama and Debating club. She was so much into those kinds of debating, and this was my passion. I was always so happy to see her by me whenever there was a debate or drama. I knew that our performances would be so marvellous. Florence was a skin light in complexion with a dot on her cheek that made look so beautiful, she is that kind of few women that I admired. She is like a sister to me and was always on my mind when ever I thought of life and been so prosperous. I remember one time when she was so madly in love with one guy from the next village to ours, since I was from the same village with her even though she was staying on the other side of the fields next to a school where I attended. One guy called Lekhotso telling me that Florence told him to pass it gave me a letter. I was so devastated when I read the contents of that love and hear that she does not want to be seen with me any more and she will never talk to me in any way.
Those the days, I tried to find out what was going on and I got the explanation that her boyfriend told her so and damn it was so hurting. But that passed, and we became friends again with Florence to this day, but I am sure that now when I sitting her crying Florence is not happy with me. Florence is known at my family as a friend and everybody at the village knows that she is my closest friend. Even at her weeding people wanted to see me thinking I would be there giving them beer but God knows I was crying and so ashamed to meet her. Life is really so unpredictable since I am not sure if my friends once thought that I would be crying saying “ I don’t know what to do”. I was always having some thing to say and they even sometimes called me master mind, my wife knew that I would always make a plan see ourselves happy. My mother knew that I was always having something up my sleeve, but all that changed over a night. the upbringing I got from my father since he never told me to do those nasty thing I life. Sure life is a challenge, and I am out of here. Sure I wanted life to leave me alone butt I could fear that your past can follow you all the way. Is it witchcraft or the y I live? I am sure I have never talked about all those nasty little things that happened to me and I thought it was all my fault. I have always disappointed my mother, to start with I knew myself to be somebody who could work, prepare a garden. To tell the truth I do not know since when I ever touched a spade and dig a garden. I was sure that I would do my mother proud by little things but that is all gone, why I still don’t know. I was so brilliant in class but now I just pass because God gave me brains but hard working never. One time at the Seminary I felt like I was disy and the next thing I fell. They took me to the hospital, I had many thoughts, like to kill myself. I also wanted attention which I did not know why I needed it. I counselled my self and said maybe Is because my dad did not love us that much. I was told to rest a bit out of the seminary, remember I could also not feel like I still want to be there, but to be honest I am not sure if that was my feelings or I was pushed by something. Philosophy helped me to reason out many things in my life. I left seminary after too much drama in my life that drove me to see traditional doctors. One thing which I realised but could not credit them then was their power to tell what happened to you. Let me put it this way, I went to Gauteng to see my uncle and my elder brother. I told them what was haunting me. My uncle took me to an apostolic faith mission seer, and when I got there the guy told me all the problems I encountered back home in Lesotho. I will never forget that even though I forgot it some time back. I could see the power of God, but my uncle took me to a Zulu traditional doctor, sangoma. He told me the same things that the Seer told me. I undergone a treatment and from that time I felt alright. I came to Lesotho and went back to the seminary but this time I couldn’t take long because I saw my sister suffering because she had to go to school, but to tell the truth there was nothing much I did to see to it that she gets that education. I was thinking back then that I was alright because I was a teacher and earning something. I remember the first time I gave my mother some money to buy groceries, I was so glad. I taught there for half a year and I had to go to the university, a sheer luck if I can tell you. The principal of the school that I was teaching at told me that he could no longer pay me. I had to leave, so I decided to apply for the university, many people never thought I would make it there. With the mercy of God I was admitted, I say mercy of God because I never got an admission letter from the university. One day my aunt , the daughter of my grand mother sent me to fetch her gown from university. I decided to go and ask from admission office why I was not admitted, to my surprise I was admitted. My name appeared on the list of the people admitted. I came back home so happy, I prepared my self and went to the university, my mother was so happy for me. I got there and became a student. I started to drink so heavily even people I was with in the seminary were so ashamed of me but I thought that was the life. Lot of good and bad things happened but mostly I became a disgrace to my family because of the way I was drinking. God I was a rascal. I left the university, passed well with 2:2 and my parents were so happy for me. I graduated, and my old man slaughtered his bull for me and a sheep. That was the first big graduation party at my village. I got the job and taught at the secondary school at my village. I started to drink so heavily again. I decided to open a small bar and shop at my place. By this time wee fighting like cats with my father, and I was drowning in beer. Sometime I would spent the whole night at the bar, in the morning I would to go to work so drunk. However all these could not take me off my job. I could have been expelled but God protected me all the way.
Do you think all these time every body was happy? No way. I experienced some problems that even today I still don’t know how I escaped those nasty things. One time I was so sick I saw my death but I am still alive.
Too deep in debts I was sure that by working as a teacher I was going to have a better life than my father but I was wrong. Damn booze man, I was alwys drinking with friends. I was sure I had life but damn I was wrong. I haad to leave my place and go to live at town, I rented a small house with electricity. I was a man and every body thought I was a real shot bu no. I was a fool since I got a loan from the bamk but could not see what I did with that money. I had to pick some furniture on credit from the shops, I thought I will pay but could not pay. I wanted to make sure my family looked nice but the money was not going for the good cause. God knows I always prayed to change but I was so far from changing. I was busy going up and down thinking life would wait up on me. I remember doing big parties and having fun while my mother took a leave of six months to raise my son. I was not even supporting her, I was busy doing my partying.
I was not getting my cheque then so I borrowed money from people with the hope that Iwiil take it back when things got better but they never got beeter because by the time I got my cheque I was so much into debt. I will howver blame the society that I joined at school. I was a treasurer, so I lend myself some money. So when the time came for me to pay back it was so hard I had to take loan from a bank. Sometimes it is just too hurting to realise that .
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1. INTRODUCTION by Thabiso Mats'oele This is a study of Educational Measurement and Assessment, and it is based on the English Literature in Form C. The main purpose of this study is to carry out Item Analogy on a teacher made multiple-choice examination as one of the various objective tests. This is carried out in order to find whether the items asked in an examination really examined what the teacher intended to measure. So, this study starts by development of learning targets and construction of a Table of Specification (Bloom’s Taxonomy of Education). It then goes on to analyze five of the items of the administered examination, concentrating on the Difficult Index, Discrimination Index and Distracter Analogy of those items. The study finally discusses the findings on distracter analogy. 1.1 GENERAL LEARNING TARGETS Learners were expected to know the following English Literature concepts at different higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Education: Characterisation, Theme, Plot figures of speech and meaning in context as we read through the prescribed text books.
1.2 SPECIFIC GOALS
1. Students at the end of the year should be able to relate, compare and justify with personal perspective on events in the text book. (Plot) 2. Students should be able to identify, contrast and argue with logical explanations on characters and character traits. ( characterization) 3. Students should be able to identify, analyse and evaluate with personal perspective the theme from the text book. (Theme) 4. Students should be able to relate and analyse meaning of the concepts and vocabulary to the text book. (meaning in context) 5. Students should be able to identify and justify logically the figures of speech used in the text book. (Figures of speech)
1.3 TABLE OF SPECIFICATON (BLOOM’S TAXONOMY OF EDUCATION)
CONTENT APPLICATION ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS EVALUATION
Theme _ 3 1 1
Characterisation 1 3 _ 1
Plot _ 3 3 3
Meaning in context _ 4 1 _
Figures of speech 1
2 Item Analogy Item analysis refers to a “mixed group of statistics that are computed for each item on a test… [it]…helps to determine the role of each item with respect to the entire test.” (Challamani and Boopathiraj, 2013, p. 189). Hence one can say item analysis is basically done to improve the test questions which are meant to constructively assess the performance of the students that take such test.
2.1 Difficult item and Discrimination index analysis In this section of the research I have analysed both difficult item and discrimination index concurrently on each item. I sometimes analysed two or more items together which I found having similar features. Backhoff, Larrazolo, and Rosas, (2000) show that to calculate the difficulty of an item; the number of persons who answered it correctly is divided by the total number of the persons who answered it. Difficult index=Number of items correct /Total number of learners Items No. of items correct No. of learners Difficult index 1 14 28 0.5 6 17 28 0.6 12 8 28 0.3 14 2 28 0.1 17 27 28 0.9
While the discrimination index is calculated by working out the percentages of the upper and lower groups who answered the question correctly and then subtracting the percentage for the lower group from the percentage for the upper group. (Backhoff, Larrazolo, and Rosas, 2000) Discrimination Index= No. of upper quarter learners who got item correct minus
Total No. of upper quarter learners
No. of Lower quarter learners who got item correct
Total No. of Lower quarter learner
item Upper quarter Lower quarter Discrimination index 1 0.9 0.1 0.8 6 0.7 0.4 0.3 12 0.4 0.3 0.1 14 0.1 0 0.1 17 1 0.9 0.1
2.1.1 Analysis Item 1 has 0.5 difficult index which is reasonably acceptable to be tested and this fact is advocated by Bailey, (1998) cited in Shih (2010) when he states that items between 0.4 and 0.85 are reasonably acceptable and can be tested or administered. Item 6 is also reasonably difficult and worth to be kept since it has 0.6 difficult index; hence Shih (2010) argues the same concept that those above 0.85 are too easy to be tested while those lower than 0.3 are difficult and should be redrafted. Therefore, these two items are in between so they are considered to be banked for further testing.
However item 12 is moderately difficult and is still considered to be worth testing even though it did not discriminate well since only 3 students of the upper group got it correct while 2 students from the lower group got it correct. This fact is supported by the fact that difficult index “ranges from 0 - 100%. The higher the percentage, the easier the item. The recommended range of difficulty is from 30 - 70%. Items having p-values below 30% and above 70% are considered difficult and easy items respectively.”(Hingorjo, and Jaleel, 2012, p. 143) Therefore item 12 is not below 0.3 which means is considered to have an acceptable difficult index, however as an examiner I still believe item behaving like this needs to be reviewed since it does not satisfactorily discriminate.
The above argument is sourced from the fact that the difficulty and discrimination indices are “often reciprocally related. However, this may not always be true. Questions having high p-value (easier questions), discriminate poorly; conversely, questions with a low p-value (harder questions) are considered to be good discriminators”(Hingorjo, and Jaleel (2012, p. 143) Therefore when we look at the discrimination index of item 1and 6 are considered to be worth keeping but their discrimination index is below the recommended; and Rasiah and Sim (2006, pp.68-69) share the same idea that the higher the discrimination index the better the item can determine the difference between those students with high test scores and those with low ones.
Item 6 has a satisfactory difficult index of 0.6 which I have already said is worth keeping and as the above argument stands; its discrimination index proves also to be a good item since Hingorjo, and Jaleel (2012) confirm that items having good difficulty index (p-value = 30 to 70) and good/excellent discrimination index (DI > 0.24) are in most cases considered to be ideal questions that can be used in future.
On the other hand, when we look at items 14 and 17 we see two different extremes which both need to be looked at and either re-drafted or discarded. Thus, Chellamani and Boopathiraj (2013) argue that items with difficulty index above 0.90 are very easy items and might be a concept not worth testing, while those below 0.20 should be reviewed for possible confusing language or the contents need re-instruction. Item 14 seems to be way difficult since even students from the upper group which are believed to be knowledgeable got it wrong while item 17 on the other hand is extremely easy since even less knowledgeable got it correct; and should be discarded or looked.( DiBattista and Kurzawa 2011)
Jaleel and Hingorjo (2012) say that discrimination index describes the ability of an item to distinguish between high and low scorer and it is expected that the high-performing students should select the correct answer for each item more often than the low-performing students. When we look at items 14 and 17 there has been opposite of the above argued fact since these two did not discriminate between the high-performing students and low-performing students. On item 14 both groups got it wrong which puts them on the same level as having difficulty in getting the correct answer; however in this case we cannot say they are all low-performing students yet the item itself need consideration as advocated by different researchers. (Jaleel and Hingorjo, 2012; Tarrant, Ware and Mohammed, 2009; Rasiah and Sim, 2006) The same thing applies on item 17 of which all students except one from both groups got the item correct which shows that it is too easy and does not discriminate well; and should be discarded or re-drafted as argued by the researchers. According to Chiavaroli and Familari (2011, p.74) discrimination index analysis is said to help draw attention to questions which are either flawed or particularly susceptible to guessing, and therefore in need of being reviewed after examination, hence item 17 one can say guessing was applied or the item was too obvious and not well constructed. This is confirmed by Malau-Aduli and Zimitat (2010) that discrimination index (DI) is an indicator that may be used to measure the ability of one question, within a test, to differentiate between high and low achieving students. They further point out that item discrimination statistics focus not on how many people correctly answer an item, but on whether the correct students get the item right or wrong.
2.2 Distracter Analogy
The bolded answers are the correct answers.
Item 1 A B C D Omission Upper group 0 7 0 0 0 Lower group 0 2 0 5 0
Item 6 A B C D Omission Upper group 0 2 5 0 0 Lower group 2 2 3 0 0
Item 12 A B C D Omission Upper group 3 0 2 2 0 Lower group 2 0 2 3 0
Item 14 A B C D Omission
Upper group 3 1 1 2 0
Lower group 0 3 0 4 0
Item 17 A B C D Omission Upper group 0 7 0 0 0 Lower group 0 6 1 0 0
According to DiBattista and Kurzawa (2011) the distracters have two criteria to meet in order to be considered the functional distracters in a multiple choice test. They argue that at least some students writing such test should choose them since if they do not do that then such distracters cannot contribute to the item’s discriminatory power. Secondly, they should attract the less knowledgeable students while the high knowledgeable must select the keyed option more often.
2.2.1 Destructor analysis
According to Tarrant, Ware and Mohammed (2009) a non-functioning option is the one that was chosen by fewer than 5% of examinees. Therefore, when we look at these distracters below; we shall realize that they are non-functioning distracters and should be revised or changed all together; thus Liu (2008) confirms that the distracters which are not chosen by any examinees should be revised or changed, and the following distracters seemed to be dysfunctional in a test according to the above discussed facts:
Item Distracter(s) 1 A, C 6 D 12 B 17 A, D
The above distracters were not chosen by either low or upper group and they were not plausible to less knowledge as well as high-performing students hence they are termed non-functioning distracters. According to some researchers high proportion of items that did not have any functioning distracters or their distracters were not chosen at all; such items would inevitably have high item difficulty statistics (>.90) with almost all students getting the items correct.(Zaman, Niwaz, faize, Dahar, and Alamgir 2010; Legree 1990; Rasiah and Sim 2006). This fact is true if we look at item 17 of which its two distracters (A and D) were not chosen; and one other distracter (C) attracted only one student from the lower group.
On the other hand, it is argued that ideally, low-scoring students, who have not mastered the subject, should choose the distracters more often; whereas, high scorers should discard them more frequently while choosing the correct option. (Jaleel and Hingorjo 2012, p.143) The distracters below were chosen by the less knowledgeable students and one could consider them functional. Item Distracter(s) 1 D 6 A 12 D 14 D 17 C
Moreover, the fact that the above distracters are functional is supported by the fact that “good distractors appeal to a higher proportion of low achieving examinees when compared with high-achieving examinees, thereby resulting in a negative statistic.” (Tarrant, Ware and Mohammed (2009, p.3) However, the above distracters were chosen more by lower group students even though some attracted few percentages of those low performing students and they supposedly need to be revised since a particular distracter which is selected by very few students ought to be replaced with a more plausible one, as is usually recommended by MCQ writing guidelines. (Haladyna and Downing, 1989; Kehoe, 1995).
When we look at the below distracters we shall find that two of them were chosen equally by the lower group and the upper group; meaning they attracted both groups in the same manner thereby not behaving the way the above researchers suggest.
Item Distracter(s) 6 B 12 C
It is further explained that “distractors should appeal to low scorers who have not mastered the material whereas high scorers should infrequently select the distractors.” (Zimmaro, 2004, p.37). However when we look at the above distracters they seemed to attract even the students who are believed to master the material and as an examiner I think they need to be looked at since they did not behave in the expected manner.
Furthermore, Jaleel and Hingorjo (2012) point out that any distractor that has been selected by less 5% of the students is considered to be a non-functioning distractor. The distractor C of item 17 was chosen by one lower group student which does not make it 5% more;hence we can say is a non-functioning distracter.
Item Distracter(s) 14 [A] 17 C
While, distracter A of item 14 was chosen only by the upper group which means it was non-functioning distracter which I also think was too similar to the real answer hence the high-performing students chose it over the correct answer. This is validated by Malau-Aduli and Zimitat (2010) when they argue that functional distractors are those chosen by students that have not achieved the objective and are ignored by students that have achieved the objective. In other words, they have positive discrimination. They further state that for the student who does not possess the ability being measured by the item, the distractors should look as plausible as the answer.
Basically, looking at my distracters one can say they were not satisfactory according to the recommended standards of Multiple Choice Questions Guidelines, (Haladyna and Downing, 1989; Kehoe, 1995) except distracter D of item 1 and D of item 14.
Conclusion
I have realised both from the questions I have set and administered as well as from the readings I have done that good multiple choice questions are the ones having average difficulty index and high discrimination index with three functioning distractors. I learned that there is a great need to analyse questions or items that need to be used in future. The study also highlighted the fact that not all items improve the test score of students as well as properly discriminating the students.
Names of students marks Item 1 Item 6 Item 12 Item 14 Item 17 1.lekhanya 77 1 1 1 0 1 2.Letsika L. 74 1 1 0 0 1 3. Matsoso T. 73 1 1 0 0 1 4. Mashaile M. 68 1 1 1 0 1 5.Matsoso A 68 0 0 1 0 1 6. Ncholo S. 68 1 0 0 0 1 7.Mohloboli M 68 1 1 0 1 1 8. Kobeli M 65 9. Ntoane M 64 10.Molupe M 64 11.Malefane T 64 12.Chobokoane K 64 13.Petsana M 59 14.Malefane F 55 15.Malepa M 55 16.Rathebe T 53 17.Mesere T 53 18.Fuutu M 53 19.Masiu M 50 20. Mohale E 50 21.Badhuza T. 45 22. Lehloara L 46 0 0 0 0 1 23. Ramatekoa K 46 0 1 1 0 1 24.Molapo M 46 0 0 0 0 1 25.Sempe T 46 01 0 1 0 1 26.Ntsihlele S 46 0 0 0 0 1 27.Borotho L 41 0 1 0 0 0 28.Seseli. M 41 0 1 0 0 1
Marking Memo 1. B 2. C 3. C 4. 4 5. D 6. C 7. D 8. C 9. A 10. B 11. C 12. A 13. C 14. C 15. B 16. B 17. B 18. B 19. D 20. C 21. C 22. A
23. C
24. C
25. C
FORMC ENGLISH LITERATURE
MARCH 2013 TIME: 1:30 HRS
1. The mom’s bedroom was cluttered with posters and banners they were preparing for the meeting. Some were written “save whales”. What was the meeting about? (a) Fishing (b) Care for nature (c) Pollution (d) Planets 2. Gerald: I am not staring…I am admiring your mother’s look Kitty: Shut up! Stop staring at her, and shut up! Mum: it was just a joke kitty. What kind of person is kitty? (a) Cruel (b) Harsh (c) Short-tempered (d) Disobedient 3. Helen felt uncomfortable… “Mr. Zungu…I…well…the boys don’t live here.” From which noun is the underlined word rooted?” (a) Comfortably (b) Comforts (c) Comfort (d) Comforting 4. Daniel said that Themba should not trust Claire’s dishonesty. From what Claire did later in the story, what conclusions can you draw the underlined words suggests. (a) Claire’s ability to tell the truth (b) Claire’s disability to tell the truth. (c) Claire’s ability to smile. (d) Claire’s disability to lie.
5. One of the following statement show that Daniel was a generous boy.
(a) He worked at the theatre.
(b) He visited Themba and Khanyisa.
(c) He generated income as an usher.
(d) He gave food to Themba and Khanyisa.
6. Which one of these figures of speech is not simile? (a) They ran like lions. (b) The eyes were as white as snow. (c) He is a tiger in sleep. (d) He is so kind like an angel.
7. From what we have read about Themba’s life why do you think Themba washes the cars? (a) He likes to own one. (b) They belong to his parents. (c) He wants money to buy a car. (d) He wants money for food.
8. From what you have read about Daniel in the book which words best describe him? (a) Jealous and kind (b) Liar and giving (c) Generous and caring (d) Friendly selfish
9. “She lecherously smiled at me, as though about to devour me.” What is the meaning in context of the underlined word? (a) Eat quickly (b) Read quickly (c) Absorb quickly (d) Take quickly
“No sooner had I taken the last sip that I was accosted by a lady unknown to me in my astonishment, I stared at her. She gave me a come-hither look” 10. From what happens later in poem what does the word accosted mean in this context? (a) Accompany (b) Approached (c) Acquainted (d) Approach
11. Why do you think the speaker was surprised by the lady? (a) He did not want to be disturbed. (b) He was still sipping his drink (c) He did not know the lady (d) He was so thirsty 12. “She gave me a come-hither look”. What does this statement suggest was going on? (a) Lady wanted the speaker to come to her. (b) Lady was giving the speaker a present. (c) Lady gave the speaker horrible look. (d) Lady was looking at the speaker bitterly. “ And Manko ,proud of his son, used to boast in the evening, when the villagers got together to talk and smoke, that one day sunny would be a lawyer or a doctor ,despite difficulties.” 13 From the passage what character trait do you think Manko has: a) Pessimistic b) )Intellectual c) ()Optimistic d) (d)Impatient
14 From the passage, what can you say that theme of the story is about? (a) Boastful parents (b) Gathering of villagers (c) Perseverance (d) Careers “But Manko had not laughed for a long time. Bush fires swept Las Lomas and left the garden plots charred and smoking. Cattle were dropping dead in the heat. There was scarcely any water in the village.” 15. If this situation continues what would happen to the villagers? (a)They would leave the village (b)They would all perish (c)They would have a lot of meat (d)They would start producing water
16. From the passage, how would you evaluate the lives of the villages?
(a)They eat meat all the time
(b)They are faced with starvation
(c)They do not need matches for fire
(d)They do not need to sweep
17. When you look at the situation that makes Manko unhappy, what can you say is Manko's work? (a)The mechanic (b)The farmer (c)Sherpard (d)Butcher
Going to the bad, is like going to the battlefield. Death and fear prevail.
As darkness darkens the world.
18. Why does a poet compares going to bed with going to the battlefield? (a) Because their beds have pins. (b) Because there is always death and fear. (c) Because darkness is over the world. (d) Because people live in dark houses.
19. In which political situation do you think people in this poem are? (a)Democracy (b)Dictatorship (c)Tribalism (d)Genocides
20. When you read throughout the story of Drink of water, what do you think is the central message of the story? (a)Water (b)Rain (C)Draught (d)Sun
21. What can you say Rannies sickness signifies in terms of her family’s situation? (a)They do not care for each. (b)They are a very compassionate family. (c)They are a poor family. (d)They get sick easily.
22. According to Themba and Khanyisa, what relations do their parents’ deaths have to their present life? (a)It let to extreme poverty. (b)It made them gangsters. (c)It helped them become men. (d)It made them thieves. 23. Throughout the story of Lamp To The Slaughter which characteristics of modern women do you think are discussed? (a) Stubbornness and cheeky (b) Submissive and obedient (c) Vulnerable and abused (d) Smart and Intelligent 24. The relationship between villagers and The Drowned Handsome developed different views about life in that village. Throughout the story which analysis would make of their life style before he arrived? (a) Cultural (b) Religious (c) Horticultural (d) Sophisticated 25. Themba and khanyisa were living on the streets because of the different issues that are discussed in the book. From how they live on the streets what can you say the theme of the book is about? (a) Corruption (b) Life in the city (c) Human rights (d) Poverty
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