CENTRAL EAST EDUCATION DIVISION (CEED) ENGLISH GROUPING

TRAINING MANUAL

Compiled by

ENGLISH TEACHERS

(CEED)
 AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The team would like to thank Central East Education Division Manager (CEED), Mr. Billy
Banda for his timely response and support rendered to the grouping. We furthermore
would like to thank all those who participated in various capacities, stages and levels in
the development, refinement and final production of this write-up. The grouping is
particularly indebted to the following for their contributions at various stages:

Mr. Msomali Central East Education Division (SEMA)

All School Managers Central East Education Manager

CONTENT PAGE

Paper one ………………………………………………………………………………

Paper two………………………………………………………………………………

Paper three…………………………………………………………………………….
 PAPER ONE (70 MARKS)

Paper preparation

• Wide reading (use of library)

• School culture (encourage English speaking culture in schools)
• Assignments (compositions, multiple choice)
• Keep past papers at departmental level
• Encourage learners to read fictions books
Content area

• Grammar
• Composition
SECTION A
GRAMMAR

Section A (30 marks)

• It has 30 multiple choice questions
• Candidates are supposed to circle the correct answer

Areas of focus
• Question tags (at least two) • Order of adjectives
• Phrasal verbs • Verb tenses (i.e. conditional
• Prepositions sentences)
• Registers • Models i.e should, shall, would
• Direct and indirect speech • Meanings of words/phrases
• Vocabulary • Clauses/ phrases
• Parts of speech
ACTIVITY 1

HOW TO TEACH REGISTERS

It is a variety of language typically used in a specific type of communication setting.

Some of the words in English appear only in certain subjects. For example, biological
terms which are in English but more inclined to biology. To find the meaning of such
words one is supposed to look up its dictionary meaning then match it with the way the
word has been used in the passage.

PROPOSED APPROACH

1. Have a list ( passage, sentences) of concepts and terms from one subject area
eg judiciary

2. Ask learners to predict the meanings of the terms

3. Guide them to get the meanings of these words from the dictionary

4. Match them with contextual meaning

5. Write them down and give example sentences

6. Let learners make their own sentences

7. Divide the class into small workable groups

8. Give each group one area to do a research/ project eg, health, transport,
entertainment

9. Let the learners present their findings in class

10. Comment on their presentations

11. Give them assignments eg writing reports, letters or compositions on a given

question

The approach would help learners learn more concepts without being bored and it is
learner centered. It gives a room to a learner get several skills at once (listening,
speaking, reading and writing as well as critical thinking).

SECTION B
COMPOSITIONS

These include:
• Letter (friendly/business)
• Report
• Speech
• Short stories (Narratives)
Tips to writing a composition

 Candidates should compose either a short story, letter, report or speech i.e. they
should choose one question.
 Candidates should expect a short story and one of the remaining three.
 Nowadays, no guidelines are provided unlike the previous compositions.
Therefore, candidates need to be creative enough.
 Candidates are not provided with guidelines in order to promote creativity as
many candidates do not write short stories during examinations.
 Learners should understand the key concept in the question. Normally, questions
are derived from the themes found in the syllabus.
 Candidates should take their time to plan for the question they have chosen (the
question normally demands at least 10 minutes for planning).

How to teach compositions

  Familiarize learners with layouts for each composition.
 Learners should be able to develop a topic sentence followed by explanation.
(paragraph development)
 When introducing a paragraph, use a point-explanation-example (PEE) approach.
Thus, start each paragraph with a topic sentence as a way of answering what is
being asked.
 Mostly, English tasks require a point in a single paragraph.

Compositions layouts

A. REPORT

21st June, 2021.

From: Fatson Longwe, Katowo Secondary School, Private Bag 4, Makwasa.

To: The Fisheries Manager, Post Office Box 40, Zomba.

VAN REPLACEMENT

Christopher Banda.
 B. BUSINESS LETTER

Matowo Secondary School

Post Office Box 47

Makwasa

14th June 2021

The District Education Manager

Private Bag 12

Salima

Dear Sir

WATER SHORTAGE
Yours faithfully

Tomaida Phiri

C. SPEECH

DRUG AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE

The Guest of Honour, Mr. Phiri; the Ward Councilor, Mrs. Kaponda; the Group Village
Head, Mr. Gwaza; police officers, ladies and gentlemen. On the onset, let me welcome
you to my presentation on drug and substance abuse.

The Guest of Honour, the Ward Councilor, the Group Village Head, ladies and gentlemen,
I thank you for your attention.
 D. SHORT STORY
 Teachers should guide students on short story writing skills.
 First, drill the candidates in inevitable key areas like:
a) direct and reported speeches
b) active and passive voices
c) questioning skills
d) literary techniques
A short story should have the following features:

• Setting • Resolution
• Characters • Point of view
• Conflict • Language style
• Theme(s) • Mood
• Plot
Guidelines for MSCE Short Story Writing
The story should:

 not be a folktale i.e. never begin with 'Once upon a time.....', 'Long time ago....' or
'A long time ago....'
 have a clear plot.
 have a temporal dimension ie. should develop from one event to another.
 have a single event or few events.
 have a few characters, one major and few minor ones.
  have flat characters as it may be difficult to develop round characters
successfully.
 be built around a conflict -internal or external.

Writing Process/Procedure

 Read and understand the question.

 Plan your work. This involves choosing or deciding on characters, setting, point
of view, plot and storyline, beginning transition-ending etc.

 Write the short story.

 Proofread and edit.

Marking compositions

When marking circle all mistakes

These include:
• Double subjects e.g people they say ….
• Cutting of words e.g can not
• Spellings
• Combination of words e.g a lot
• Demonstrative with nouns e.g. this men
• Punctuations
• Word order e.g. I and my friend instead of my friend and I
• Sentence structure e.g. each and every…
• Wrong sentences. Use a wavy line for wrongly constructed sentences but no
mark is deducted
• Beginnings (i.e. starting a sentence with a conjunction e.g. but or a small letter)
• Coherence
• Literal translation
• All abbreviations
• Slashes
• Omission of words
 • Plurals e.g. womens
• Contractions e.g. don’t instead of do not (with exceptional of short stories)
• Figures (i.e. all figures between zero to ninety nine should be written in words)

NOTE: If the mistake is repeated just underline the word and a candidate should not be
penalized

Each circle is worth ½ a mark

MARKING FORMULAE

REPORT/LETTER

A). Full

B). Short
C). ON/OFF Full

D). ON/OFF Short

E). OFF Point Full
F). OFF Point Short
SHORT STORY/ SPEECH

A). Full

B). Short
C). ON/OFF Full

D.ON/OFF Short
E). OFF Point Full
F). OFF Point Short

NOTE: X is for mechanical errors

PAPER TWO (60 MARKS)

The paper has two questions

 Note making (20 marks)

 Comprehension (40 marks)

SECTION A

NOTE MAKING (20 MARKS)

 Note making involves making a record of some information one has read in a
highly summarized way.
 Note making is a summary in note form.
The aim of note making is:

 To be actively involved in reading

  To make a summary of what one wants to remember
Note making allows for the contents to be seen at glance. Use tabulation method to
ensure clarity. Tabulation involves selecting the major points and then grouping other
points under them.

Notes should be shorter than the original text. They should have only the main points
and a few supporting details. This helps to achieve brevity.

APPROACH TO NOTE MAKING

Learners should be taught step by step:

 Teach learners how to identify titles (oral and written passages)

 Then, main points identification from oral and written passages
 After that, they should be able to identify supporting and minor points. Learners
must have the knowledge of signaling devices, paraphrasing , symbols, short
forms and abbreviations
 Let the learners know the numbering systems
 The teacher must present a model of a notes in order for the learners to follow
 Give learners passages from different subject areas to practice

NOTE MAKING AT MSCE

PARTS OF NOTE MAKING

The good notes should have the following;

a. The title
b. Main points
c. Supporting points

TITLE
The title should:

 be capitalized
 be centralized
 not be underlined
 no full stop at the end because it is a phrase
 has no symbols and abbreviations

MAIN POINTS

Main points should:

 have no symbols and abbreviations

 have their first letters capitalized
 be underlined

SUPPOTING POINTS

 They must be written in small letters without capitalizing the first letter
 must not be underlined
 Make them as short sentences or phrases as possible

MARKS ALLOCATION

There are three major areas

a) Content = 8 marks

b) Layout = 8 marks

c) Style = 4 marks

A. CONTENT = 8 MARKS
  Minor/ supporting points

 Must be phrases (that make sense)

 Half mark each

 Minimum of 16

B. LAYOUT = 8 MARKS

 Title = 2 marks

 Main Point = 4 marks ( mark each)

 Consistent Underlining of Main Points = 1 mark

 Consistent Numbering = 1 mark

C. STYLE = 4 MARKS

 Phrases = 1 Mark

 Abbreviations/ short forms = 1 mark

 Symbols = 1 mark

 Brevity = 1 mark

NB

 Candidates must use conventional symbols

 Use of diagrams is not allowed

 Prose is awarded a zero

 Symbols, abbreviations must be used in content and not in titles or main

 points

MARKING KEY

Content = 08

Layout = 2+ 4+1+1 = 08

Style = 1+1+1+1 = 04

SECTION B
COMPREHENSION (40 MARKS)
 Comprehension means understanding

 Understand the passage

 Questions range from low level to higher level of understanding

APPROACH TO COMPREHENSION
 Comprehensions demand wide range of reading ,

 This has to be active reading where the aim is to understand the content.

 Let learners read silently or loudly

 You can have listening or reading activities

 Answering given questions is one way of ensuring that learners have

understood the passage

 Let learners summarise the passage in their own words.

 Advise learners to be taking down some main points from the passage.
This helps one to be active listener or reader
ANSWERING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

 When answering questions candidates must know the following

 Avoid lifting of answers

 Sentences must start with capital letters and end with full stops

 Phrases must start with small letters and end with no full stops

 Answers must maintain the tense of the question

 Subtract half mark for each mechanical error

 Maximum of one mark is deducted for mechanical errors on a single

question

 Question on meaning of words

o Give one word only or a phrase

o Maintain the tense and part of speech

 When giving meanings of words, candidates should give synonyms of the

words given, e.g.

o scorching = blazing

 Question on explaining the meaning of expressions

o Write a suitable expression, a phrase or a word

o Maintain a tense

o e.g . caught his eye = drew his attention

 Questions on character
 o Provide a character (adjective), then give justification

 Question on title

o Ask yourself “what is the passage about?”

o Most of the titles are derived from main characters’ description

o Must not be an idiomatic expression

SUMMARY WRITING

A summary is a shortened piece of writing. It should include all the important points.
Leave out all unnecessary details when writing. Summaries are written in continuous
prose unlike notes.

STEPS IN WRITING A SUMMARY

 Read the passage carefully

 Make notes of the main ideas

 Identify minor supporting details and note them down. (eliminate all the
unnecessary words)

 Write a rough draft and count the words

 Read through the rough draft

 Cross out any unnecessary words

  Write the final draft ensuring that there is logical progression of the ideas

Dos and Don’ts

 Must be in single paragraph

 Come up with a minimum of six prominent points

 Each point is 1 mark

 Be consistent with tense (present or past)

 Observe word limit

 Write in a prose form

 No use of contractions, abbreviations

 Start with character’s name to avoid writing without a names

 Title not needed

Conditions for awarding a zero

 A summary without a name of characters

 Starting with “Once upon time”, “long years ago”…

 Writing in first person point of view

 Changing character’s names

 Changing a setting

 Summarizing a different passage

 Writing in a point form

 Who writes in form of commentary, poem, letter, report, essay or any other
literary work.
 Summarizes the passage in a language other than English

MARKING KEY
CONTENT (C) = 6
MECHANICAL ACCURACY (MA) = 2
FLOW =2
TOTAL = 10 MARKS

Content = 6 points, 1 mark each = 6 marks

Mechanical accuracy = grammatical errors, spellings, tenses = half each
(maximum of 4)
Flow = single paragraph, few errors in grammar
 PAPER THREE (70 MARKS)

LITERATURE

CLASSROOM APPROACH
How best can we prepare learners for literature?

• Encourage them to read widely so that they can have vast vocabulary which will
help them in understanding literary genres.

• Give learners assignments frequently to practice skills in answering essays,

poems and short stories. Poetry

• Learners should understand all the literary terms and poetic devices
• During lesson delivery, read the poem at least twice and have the surface and
deep meanings

• Understand the poem by employing comprehension questions

• Identify the literary devices in the poem

Short Story

Learners should know all the elements of short stories, that is;

• Setting
• Character
• Conflict
• Plot
• Theme
 • Language style Novel/Play

• Learners should read the chapter or scene in advance (where possible) and
discussions should follow

• Learners should be asked to make a summary of the chapter or scene after

discussions. This should be emphasized during lesson delivery to ensure that
learners have a clear understanding of concepts to be used in essay writing.

• General questions (other than essay questions) should be asked at the end of a
chapter or scene

• Analyze the chapter/scene in terms of characterization and thematic

illustrations. This is a very crucial aspect of teaching the novel and the play.

PART A :Test items formulation

Paper 3 comprises two sections; Section A (poem and short story) and Section B
(essays).

1. Poem and short story

 When formulating test items for poem and short story, ensure that
technical (literary) questions are not less than 70%. That is, questions that
address literary devices (figures of speech) and literary terms should
dominate the items.

 Use literary languages when formulating technical questions. In addition,

use standardized terminology when coming up with questions. The table
below illustrates the point:

Instead of: Use:

Who is speaking in the poem? Who is the persona in the poem?
What is the behavior of the What is the character of the
 narrator? narrator?
Pick out the following devices: Pick out the following figures of
speech:
What is the emotion created by the What is the tone of the story?
story?

2. Essays

There are two major kinds of essay questions in MSCE Literature. Loaded essay
and multiple essay. Remember to balance the two types when formulating essay
questions.

PART B: Marking techniques

1. Poem and Short story

Candidates should adhere to standard of responding to literature questions.

Failure to adhere to conventional ways of writing answers costs candidates
some marks. Let us explore some of the DOS and DON’TS:

a. Character

 Must always be expressed as an adjective. For example, candidates

must avoid responses like “He is a hard worker.” Rather, the response
should be “He is hardworking.” Failure to express a character as an
adjective attracts a zero.

 Must always denote behaviour and not an emotional state. For

instance, “She is angry” is incorrect.

 Questions worth 2 marks must always be backed by an expression

even if the question doesn’t specify an expression.

b. Theme
  Should be expressed as a noun and not an adjective.

 Not every character may be directly converted into a theme.

c. Alliteration

 Alliteration should not include any word that does not have an initial
letter similar to the rest of the initial letters. For instance, “He took time
to talk” is incorrect because the initial letter of “He” doesn’t match with
the rest. The correct response should be “took time to talk to”.

d. Simile

 A simile compares two things. The response should therefore include

the two things being compared. For example, “Like a river” is incorrect.
The correct response should be “Her tears flowed like a river”

e. Personification

 When explain personification, candidates should explain how an

inanimate object has been portrayed as a person.

 For instance, if a candidate meets the question:

How has personification been used in the phrase “The tree spoke wise
words”? The candidate should not say, “This is personification because
a tree cannot speak.”
The correct response should be, “This is personification because the
tree has been attributed a person’s trait/behaviour/character of
speaking.”
2. Essays

Some of the tips of answering essay questions are as follows:

 The first sentence of the paragraph should be a typical topical sentence.
That is, it should be straight to the point that the candidate seeks to
 present.

 Every point should be expressed in its own paragraph

 The introduction and the conclusion do not have any marks currently. Do
not worry much about them.

 Multiple essays should always be properly “numbered “as follows:

MACBETHby William Shakespeare

4a. Explain how the following themes are portrayed in the bookMacbeth.

i. suspicion

ii. irresponsibility

(20 marks)

MACBETH
4a. (i) The theme of suspicion in ‘Macbeth’

Firstly, the theme of suspicion is portrayed when Macduff suspects

Macbeth of doing evil when King Duncan dies. When Macduff finds the
king dead in the morning, Macbeth quickly kills the chamberlains to hide
his evil deed. In suspicion, Macduff asks Macbeth’s motive for killing the
guards. Evident to the suspicion, Macduff does not attend Macbeth’s
coronation.

Secondly, there is suspicion that Duncan’s sons are responsible for their
father’s death. When Duncan is killed, Donalbain and Malcolm flee from
Scotland. Although they escape for their lives, some officials suspect
that the two have a hand in the murder of their father.

Thirdly, Macbeth suspects Macduff’s absence from the banquet as an

act of insubordination. Macduff boycotts both the coronation and the
celebratory banquet. Macbeth is troubled by the conspicuous absence of
his subject and suspects he has gone to England to plot against him.
This adds to his furry and he mercilessly butchers Macduff’s family.

Another form of suspicion is illustrated when Malcolm suspects that

Macduff has come to
England to spy on him. When Macduff sees the tyranny and oppression
inflicted by
Macbeth as the new king, he goes to England to convince Malcolm to
fight against Macbeth. However, Malcolm shows suspicion by refusing
to be the King of Scotland. His suspicion ends when he realizes that
Macduff is not a spy.

(ii) The theme of irresponsibility in ‘Macbeth’

In Macbeth, irresponsibility is shown by the king’s chamberlains who get

drunk while on duty. Instead of protecting the king vigilantly, the guards
drink wine and get drunk and sleepy. This causes the death of the king
who is assassinated by Macbeth.
In addition, irresponsibility is portrayed when Macduff abandons his
family when he visits England. This happens when he intends to
persuade Malcolm to overthrow Macbeth from his kingship. Macduff
fails in his responsibility by leaving the family prone to danger. His wife
and children are killed by thugs sent by Macbeth.

Furthermore, the theme of irresponsibility is expounded by the action of

the thane of Cawdor who is not responsible for the security of his
country. The thane joins forces with his country’s enemies in battle. His
irresponsibility brings national instability and consequently gets him
executed.

Finally, Macbeth shows extreme irresponsibility when he rules Scotland

with cruelty and oppression. Instead of building the country, Macbeth
kills innocent people such as Banquo and Macduff’s family. His own
irresponsible conduct leads to his downfall when he is conquered and
killed.
References