Guide

How to succeed in your Junior Cycle English CBA 2

By Jamie Dockery - 7 minute read

This CBA guide, written by English teacher Jamie Dockery, will help you easily navigate your English CBA 2.

Introduction

The new Junior Cycle English course allows students to showcase their work from 2nd year and 3rd years in the form of the CBA. These are two specific tasks given to students by your class teacher for which you will be given two 'descriptors' (more about that later).

These descriptors will be added to your Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement alongside the grade you get in your exam at the end of 3rd year.

For some students, you may have already completed CBAs in other subjects but for others, the idea of doing a CBA may seem scary. Fear not! That is where this CBA guide will help you through your English CBA step-by-step to ensure you get the highest descriptor possible.

Important

There are two CBAs in Junior Cycle English and they are assessed at a common level.

Classroom-Based Assessments (CBAs) are best described as the occasions when the teacher assesses the students using the specific tasks set out in the curriculum specification for each subject. They are completed within the teaching time allocated for each subject (NCCA Guidelines).

Descriptors

The teachers will agree on a grade descriptor which best fits the work you present. Here’s what they’ll be using to decide:

Exceptional

The student’s text shows creativity and command of the chosen genre. The writing is highly competent and marked by original ideas with imaginative word choices perfectly suited to the purpose of the text. The work is fully shaped for its intended receiver/audience.

Above expectations

The student’s text shows a very good control of the chosen genre. The writing is consistently competent, and effective word choices are very well-matched to the purpose of the text. The work is clearly shaped with the receiver/audience in mind.

In line with expectations

The student’s text shows good awareness of the chosen genre. The writing is generally competent with word choices matching the purpose of the text well. Content and development of ideas reveal consistent awareness of the receiver/audience.

Yet to meet expectations

The student’s text shows little awareness of the chosen genre. The writing lacks competence and word choices may be inappropriate for the intended purpose of the text. Content and development of ideas reveal little awareness of a receiver/audience.

CBA 2: common questions

What is this CBA about?

The title of CBA 2 is 'The Collection of the Student’s Texts'. During your three years of English class, you will probably write a LOT. This is likely a mix of different stuff, not just answers to questions from your book but stories, diary entries, opinion pieces, speeches and maybe even a poem or two. You may even have had to read out some of your work to your class and discuss it. This CBA is all about how you express yourself in writing in different ways.

When do I do this CBA?

This will happen pretty much throughout all of 2nd and 3rd year but will be finished around March/April.

How do I do this CBA?

You will gather together four pieces you think are your best work and give them to your teacher. You’ll also be using these pieces to complete your Assessment Task (but more of that later).

Four steps to approaching your CBA 2

See below the four steps to follow when approaching your CBA 2:

Step 1

Write and keep safe

As I said, you will be writing loads in English, for example, your teacher might go over how to write a report or a speech and ask you to try one of your own. Whenever something like this happens, make sure you mark this in a particular way so that you remember what it is. If you have a special English copy, put a little highlighter star on the top of the page. An even better idea would be to have a dedicated folder for all your own written work. This will make ‘step 2’ super easy.

Step 2

Gather and choose

Okay, it’s showtime: your teacher has asked you to choose your work to hand up. Choose four pieces of your work that you are proud of or that your teacher has told you were good. If you’re not sure, make sure you ask them. A good tip here is to have as many different types of (fancy word alert) genres as possible. For example, these could include:

an opinion piece (tell your reader how you feel about a particular issue);
a descriptive piece or short story;
a functional writing piece (like a letter or an email);
an autobiography (writing about yourself);
something creative like a poem, drama or film script.

Step 3

Get feedback and rewrite

Sometimes, something you’ve written can be easily improved with a little re-write and some minor changes. Take it from me, teachers really love it when you do a second (or even a third) draft of something you have written. This shows us that you’ve taken our feedback on board and are thinking deeply about your work and how to improve. Don’t worry, you’ll be given time in class to do this.

Step 4

Reflect and submit

Once you’re happy with the four pieces you’ve chosen, your teacher will give you a 'student reflection note' to complete for each piece you hand up. On this sheet, you will explain why you chose the piece and anything you learned from creating this piece. This will show your teacher how much work you’ve put into the piece so it’s worth giving lots of detail here. Once they have all your work, your teacher will go through it with other English teachers in the school.

The Assessment Task

You’re nearly there, just one more little hurdle to jump over. So hopefully you found CBA 2 interesting and maybe even fun (shock, horror!). 'Assessment' (another fancy word) just means checking to see what we’ve learned and that’s what the Assessment Task is all about. Here’s the thing though, this task is worth 10% of your total Junior Cycle English grade. You’ll complete a little booklet during class time which will be collected by the school and put together with your answer booklet from the actual exam in June. This will be corrected by an examiner and not your teacher. There will be two parts which will take place over two classes:

Stimulus

You’ll be shown some videos and given some recorded pieces to listen to. These change every year but will be a collection of different people speaking about their own writing. They could be a famous writer, journalist or a young person like you. They might chat about where they get their ideas from or how they go about putting words on the page. Your teacher will use the recordings to have a class discussion. These recordings and the class discussion are just to help you think about your own writing.

The Assessment Task Booklet

Your teacher will give you a very important-looking booklet that you will then have the chance to fill in. This booklet will have two sections.

In section A of this booklet, you will write out a paragraph from one of the pieces you handed up to your teacher as part of your CBA 2. You will also write about some of the features you included in it and any changes you made to the original piece. This might be a little tricky but you’ll be given some time to think and your 'reflection note' will help you too.

For section B, your teacher will read out/write on the board four prompt statements. These change every year but here are some recent examples:

How I came up with ideas for one of my texts.
Something I have discovered about writing from creating my collection of texts.
How I worked with classmates to develop my writing skills.
How I considered my audience when writing one of my texts.

All you have to do is pick any two of these and write a short paragraph in your Assessment Task booklet.

Remember

Try to be as detailed and thoughtful as you can.

Good luck with your CBAs and Assessment Task! You've got this.

Useful links

Need tips on your other CBA? Read how to succeed in your CBA 1.
Not sure what the English exam involves? Read our guide on how to get a distinction in Junior cycle English.

By Jamie Dockery

Jamie has multiple degrees and qualifications under his belt, including a bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts with English and History, and master's degrees in Modern English Literature, and also Leadership & Management in Education. Jamie has corrected at both Junior and Leaving Certificate levels since 2010. When not shaping young minds, he surfs and plays golf (badly and without grace!)