Retrieval, Inference, Overreach: Marking an Unseen Passage
An unseen passage of 180 words describes a village pond that has shrunk by half in five years. The panchayat fixes a rule: no one may draw water for irrigation on Tuesdays and Fridays; a widow who grows vegetables is exempt. The author ends: 'The pond did not dry because the rains failed; it dried because every family thought its own thirst was the only thirst.' The 12-mark question set has four factual questions (1 mark each), two vocabulary questions (1 mark each), and two inference questions (2 marks each). One inference question asks: 'What is the author's main concern?' Script A writes: 'The main concern is water scarcity because the pond has shrunk by half.' Script B writes: 'The main concern is not only water but the habit of thinking only of oneself; the pond is an example.' Script C writes: 'The author hates the panchayat because it made rules.' The teacher must mark 12 scripts before lunch.
1. Award marks to A, B, and C on the 2-mark inference question. Explain the difference between retrieval, inference, and overreach.
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A = 1/2. A has found a true detail and named a real topic, but the question asks for the author's main concern, and A stops at the surface fact. The last sentence turns the pond into an example of a social habit; A does not cross that bridge. B = 2/2. B states the concern in abstract terms ('the habit of thinking only of oneself') and then explains the pond's role as evidence. The wording 'not only water but...' is not copied from the passage, but it is licensed by the final sentence. C = 0/2. C invents an attitude ('hates') and misreads the panchayat's rule as the target; the passage presents the rule as a response, not as the author's enemy.
Retrieval finds stated facts; inference combines stated facts with the author's evaluative language; overreach adds a judgement the passage does not support.
2. Script B's answer uses a phrase not in the passage. Some colleagues call that 'adding material'. How will you defend or revise the mark?
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I would defend 2/2. Unseen comprehension does not require copying; it requires a warranted reading. The phrase 'thinking only of oneself' is a paraphrase of 'every family thought its own thirst was the only thirst'. The test is whether the answer can be traced back to the text and whether it explains the question. B does both. If B had written 'the author hates the panchayat', that would be adding material because no textual signal supports it. To make this transparent, I would annotate the mark scheme with two columns: 'textual signal' and 'inferential move'. That also helps colleagues distinguish paraphrase from invention.
3. Design a two-column note-taking routine that students can use on the next unseen passage, and explain how it would have prevented A's and C's errors.
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Routine: divide the margin into 'متن کہتا ہے' and 'متن سے نکلتا ہے'. On the first read, students put only quoted facts in column 1; on the second read, they put inferences in column 2 and draw an arrow to the fact that supports each one. A would have seen that 'pond shrank by half' belongs in column 1 and still needed a column-2 sentence about the author's concern. C would have had to point to a supporting line for 'hates the panchayat' and would have found none. For the 2-mark inference questions, require one column-2 sentence plus one arrow; mark the arrow as part of the reasoning.