Two Readings of the Same Refrain
In a Kanpur school, Class 10 has studied a prescribed poem in which the speaker returns to a childhood place and finds that 'the same wind / still turns the same leaves'. The teacher sets a 4-mark extract question: 'What does the repetition of "same" suggest about the speaker's feelings?' The marking scheme says: 1 mark for identifying the tone, 2 for explanation, 1 for naming a poetic device. Script 1: 'The repetition shows the speaker is bored because nothing changes.' Script 2: 'It suggests both comfort and unease: the wind and leaves are unchanged, so the speaker feels at home, but "still" hints that time has not moved, which is unsettling.' Script 3: 'It shows repetition.' A senior colleague insists there is only one correct answer, nostalgia, and wants Script 2 marked down for contradicting it. The teacher must finish moderation that afternoon.
1. Mark the three scripts and justify each award against the four-mark scheme.
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Script 1: 1/4. 'Bored' is a tone, so the tone mark can be allowed, but 'nothing changes' merely restates the quotation. There is no explanation of how the repetition produces the feeling, and no device is named.
Script 2: 4/4. It names a compound tone (comfort and unease), explains how 'same' and 'still' produce it, and remains consistent with the extract. It does not have to use the word 'nostalgia' if the feeling is described accurately. Device: repetition is implied and should be explicitly named in feedback.
Script 3: 1/4. It names repetition, the device, but does not say what the repetition suggests, so only the device mark is earned. If the department treats the device mark as dependent on interpretation, award 0 and record the reason.
2. Respond to the colleague's claim that only 'nostalgia' is correct.
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The question asks what the repetition suggests, not what label the poet's biography supplies. Two supported readings can both be valid if each is tied to the words of the extract. 'Nostalgia' is itself a label, not an explanation; Script 2 is unpacking the feeling the label names rather than contradicting it.
Apply the rubric - claim, explanation, device, textual support - and mark the response, not the label. If the colleague's view prevails, the fair solution is to change the wording to 'What is the poet's attitude?' and issue an expected answer, so candidates are not penalised for a defensible reading. Record the moderation decision on the file.
3. A student asks, 'If any reading is acceptable, why did I lose marks?' Write the reply that distinguishes interpretation from evidence.
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Because the marks are not for having a feeling about the poem; they are for showing that the poem supports it. Script 1 had a reading but no evidence and no explanation, so it earned one mark. Script 2 had a less obvious reading but pointed to 'same' and 'still' and explained how each word produced the feeling, so it earned four.
An interpretation becomes examinable when it can be located in the text and explained in sequence. That is why two students can disagree about whether the speaker is comforted or unsettled and both score well, while a student who writes only 'it is sad' scores poorly. The discipline is not guessing the examiner's view; it is demonstrating yours.