Do you remember ever having to write a paragraph about a specific topic ?
One I remember vividly was in French, having to write about my pets.
But the thing was, back then – I didn’t have any pets.
So – I lied.
And today, I often tell students to lie in their work!
Here’s why (and how to do it right)… 😉
Introducing Bonnie! My first EVER pet!
(Unless you count the goldfish that my dad accidentally won at a fair when I was about 4 and lived for all of about a month).
Bonnie is a 10mth old Kelpie-mix and our new arrival to the Rock Solid Study team – Check her out in the video 🙂
We just adopted her last Sunday from a dog shelter and she really didn’t want to sit for the video as I’d so thoughtfully planned, so I brought her bed along and she was happy to lie in that and just make a forehead and paws appearance ? at just the right time, mind you.
So back to the French writing task I had…
The thing was – back then, when we had to write 100 words about our pets – I didn’t have any pets.
And obviously that’s pretty hard to expand into 100 words and wouldn’t exactly show my French writing prowess.
So – I lied.
I remember forcing myself to write a whole paragraph of lies in French – about the colour of the dogs I didn’t have and the name of the cat that didn’t exist.
I’m not sure if I included a goldfish.
Now – It totally went against my nature (as a bit of a goody two shoes) and I still find it hard to tell a lie and keep a straight face or calm voice today.
But I actually tell students to lie in their work often.
I’ll tell you when and why in a moment.
But first let me make that clear – I tell them to lie in certain tasks; not in life.
Just want to get that straight.
I don’t wanna get the blame for any household disputes here! 😉
But anyway, that paragraph about my pets is a pretty basic example of when to just ‘make it up’ in order to come up with a response that’s gonna get better marks than the truth.
Because, the thing is, examiners and teachers don’t know the truth (and generally they don’t even care what the facts of the answer are!).
The question is being asked as a vehicle to have students show their ability.
(It’s not because they actually want to know the answer. Newsflash – my French teacher didn’t actually care what pets every kid in the class had).
They are looking for evidence for what gets ticks on the mark scheme.
So, here are some other examples of when I’ve told students to ‘make it up’ or tell straight-up lies:
1) Purposely making up an error in a science experiment or geography fieldwork in order to have a problem or improvement to write about in their evaluations.
Evaluations that say ‘everything went perfectly’, are like paragraphs that simply say I don’t have any pets …
They don’t get good marks.
Those that identify flaws and issues and explain the impact of them on the reliability of the data AND how to address those issues get great marks.
2) When writing a persuasive speech or opinion feature article in English, inserting a quote or statistic from a known source that sounds realistic even (if it isn’t 100% correct).
Adding ‘supporting evidence’ means a tick on the marking criteria as it’s counted as a persuasive device.
In this type of assessment the criteria will be more about being able to use that device appropriately rather than knowing the exact stats or wording of the evidence.
So, the lesson from Bonnie and I is this:
When it’s not the actual content that’s being marked,
then if necessary, your teen should make that content whatever’s going to get more marks on the marking guide and allow them to operate at their highest level and access more of the success criteria.
Even if means lying and making it all up.
Now, let’s have some fun… tell me what things you’ve made up before as a student in order to have something more interesting or high level to write or talk about at school!
(Or… failing that, your best excuse – something better than ‘my dog ate my homework’. Just for a giggle) 🙂
