Is 'sitting' wrong? Marking one-word picture answers
Pre A1 Starters Reading and Writing Part 5 shows a living-room picture with three questions. In the picture a man is in an armchair with an open book, a girl is at the table with a cake, and two cats are asleep on the sofa. Sofia, aged 8, writes: 1 Where is the girl? - 'table' 2 What is the man doing? - 'sitting' 3 Where are the cats? - 'on the sofa' The answer key gives 'reading' for question 2 and 'sofa' for question 3, and the rubric on the page says 'Write one-word answers'. Sofia's teacher says question 3 should lose the mark because three words break the instruction, and that question 2 is wrong because she did not use the book. Sofia reads her reading book at home every night and her spelling in class is usually accurate. You are the person who marks the mock and writes the feedback for a group of twenty children.
1. Mark question 2 ('sitting') and justify the decision.
Read the worked answer
The question is 'What is the man doing?', not 'What is the man reading?'. 'Sitting' is a true single word about the man, spelt correctly, and it is the -ing form the question invites. A marker working from the picture would have to accept another true description of the action.
Decision: award the mark. The key offers one acceptable answer; it is not a list of the only permitted words. Marking it wrong would tell Sofia that a correct answer is incorrect, which is the fastest way to make a child stop thinking and start guessing keys.
But investigate before you teach. She may have avoided 'reading' because she cannot spell it (read + ing, or a 'reading/redding' worry), or because she did not notice the book, or because 'sitting' was the first word that came. Ask her which. The first needs spelling work, the second needs picture-scanning work, the third needs nothing at all.
Write it up as: comprehension secure, choice of word less informative than it could be, follow-up question asked in class.
2. Mark question 3 ('on the sofa').
Read the worked answer
Two things are tangled here: comprehension and format.
- Comprehension is clearly present: the key word 'sofa' is there and correct, and the cats really are on it.
- The format instruction is not followed: three words, including a preposition.
Decision for the mock: record it as a format error, not a comprehension failure. The child has understood the picture and produced the target word. What she has not done is follow the one-word rule. In the real paper that rule is part of the task, so the error does matter and must be fixed - but describing it as 'she doesn't understand' would be false and would send the teaching in the wrong direction.
Likely cause. 'Where...' invites 'on the...', and she may be copying the shape of the question rather than answering it. That is a routine problem, not a knowledge problem.
Quick check. Ask her to say the answer aloud before writing. If she says 'sofa', the knowledge is secure and only the routine needs work. If she says 'on the sofa' aloud, teach the question word itself.
3. Write the feedback line for Sofia and plan the next 15 minutes of class.
Read the worked answer
Feedback line. Separate three things so she can see them: You understood all three pictures. Your spelling was right. You wrote three words in number 3 - the paper asks for one. Then show the correction.
Next 15 minutes.
- Question words (5 min). Where / What / Who / How many on the board; children match each to the kind of answer it wants (a place, an action, a person, a number).
- One-word drill (5 min). Five picture questions; children answer aloud in one word, then write it, then count the words on their fingers and check the count is one.
- Spelling hedge (5 min). If her follow-up answer shows she was avoiding 'reading', pre-teach read - reading, sit - sitting, run - running. Do not teach this to the whole group on the strength of one script.
Success criterion. On a fresh Part 5 picture: 3/3 within the one-word limit, with at least two answers being the most informative action or place word available, not merely a true one.