Class 10th Syllabus English A


EXAMINATION SPECIFICATIONS
English Communicative - CLASS-X

Division of Syllabus for Term I (April-September) Total Weightage Assigned
Summative Assessment I                              30%
Section Marks
Reading                                                           20
Writing                                                            25
Grammar                                                         20
Literature                                                        25
Formative Assessment                                  20%
TOTAL                                                          90% marks 50%

Division of Syllabus for Term II (October -March) Total Weightage Assigned
Summative Assessment II                             30%
Section Marks
Reading                                                           20
Writing                                                            25
Grammar                                                         20
Literature `                                                      25
Formative Assessment                                  20%

TOTAL                                                          90 marks 50%
Note:
1.      The total weightage assigned to Summative Assessment (SA I&II) is 60%. The total weightage assigned to Formative Assessment (FA1, 2, 3, &4) is 40%. Out of the 40% assigned to Formative Assessment, 10%weightage is assigned to conversation skills (5% each in Term I&II) and 10% weightage to the Reading Project (at least 1 Book is to be read in each term and the Project will carry a weightage of 5% in each term).
2.      The Summative Assessment I and Summative Assessment II is for ninety marks each. The weighatge assigned to Summative Assessment I is 30% and the weightage assigned to Summative Assessment II is 30%.

SECTION A: READING 20 Marks
Qs 1-3 The reading section will have three unseen texts as shown below:
Text Number
Text Type
Length
Type
Type of Questions.
Text 1
Factual/Discursive Literary
450 - 500 words
10 marks
Supply Type
(Gap filling, sentence completion,
Table completion, word attack
questions, short answer questions
and Reference questions)

Text 2
Factual/Discursive/
Literary
200 - 300 words
5 marks
Multiple Choice Questions.

Text 3
Factual/Discursive/ Literary
200 - 300 words In case of a poem,
it may be shorter
than 200 words.

5 marks
Multiple Choice Questions

The total length of the three passages will be between 850 - 1100 words. There will be at least 5 marks for assessing vocabulary. All questions on vocabulary will not be from the same passage.
Care should be taken to cover all the three text types, ie factual, discursive and literary while selecting the passages.
A poem may or may not be used as one of the three texts. Text I will be either factual or discursive. Apart from a poem, prose literary texts may include excerpts from authentic literature such as short story, autobiography, biography, travelogue, novel etc.
Whenever a poem or a prose literary text is used, the other two texts should be discursive and factual, thus covering all the three text types.

SECTION B: WRITING                                                                             25 Marks
The writing section comprises four writing tasks as indicated below.

Q. 4 A short composition of upto 50 words in the form of a Notice, Message or Diary Entry.   4 Marks
Questions 4 & 5 will assess students' skill of expressing ideas in clear and grammatically correct English, presenting ideas coherently and concisely, writing a clear description, a clear account of events, expanding notes into a piece of writing, transcoding information from one form to another or using a style appropriate for a notice, message or diary entry.

Q. 5 A composition of upto 100 words in the form of Biographical sketch, Data Interpretation, Dialogue writing or Description (people, Objects or Events) 6 Mark

Q. 6 An extended writing task of length upto 120 words in the form of a Formal/Informal Letter or Email. The long piece of writing will assess the use of appropriate style, language, content and expression.                                                                                     7 Marks

Q. 7 An extended writing task of length upto 150 words in the form of an Article, Speech, Report or Story.                                                                                                        8 Marks

Students' skill in expressing ideas in clear and grammatically correct English, planning, organising an presenting ideas coherently by introducing, developing and concluding a topic, comparing and contrasting ideas and arriving at a conclusion, presenting an argument with supporting examples, using an appropriate style and format and expanding notes into longer pieces of writing and creative expression of ideas will be assessed.
Qs 6 & 7 will make use of a visual/ verbal stimulus.
Important Note on Format and Word Limit:
• Format will not carry any separate marks and in most cases, format will be given in the questions paper.
• The word limit given is the suggested minimum word limit. No candidate may be penalised for writing more or less than the suggested word limit provided the topic is covered and adequately. Stress should be on content, expression, coherence and relevance of the content presented.

SECTION C: GRAMMAR                                                                                                 20 Marks
This section will assess Grammar items in context for 20 Marks. It will carry 5 questions of 4 marks each.

Questions 8 & 9 will have Multiple Choice Questions. The test types for MCQs include the following:

• Gap filling
• Sentence completion
• Dialogue completion

Questions 10,11 & 12 will be based on response supplied by students (Supply Type). The test types will include the following:

• Sentence reordering
• Editing
• Omission
• Sentence transformation

Questions 8 to 12 will test grammar items which have been dealt with in class IX. Different structures such as verb forms, sentence structure, connectors, determiners, pronouns, prepositions, clauses, phrases etc., can be tested through formative assessment over a period of time. As far as the summative assessment is concerned, it will recycle grammar items learnt over a period of time and will test them in context.
Tests types used will include gap-filling, cloze (gap filling exercise with blanks at regular intervals), sentence completion, recording word groups into sentences, editing, dialogue-completion and sentence-transformation.

The grammar syllabus will be sampled each year, with marks allotted for:
·         Verbs forms
·         Sentence structures
·         Other areas
Note: Jumbled words in reordering exercise to test syntax will involve sentences in a context. Each sentence will be split into sense groups (not necessarily into single words) and jumbled up.

Section D: LITERATURE                                                                                      25 Marks

Q 13 will have the following arrangement:
13 A: An extract from poetry with three Multiple Choice Questions based on reference to context. (Word limit : 20-30 words)                                        3 Marks
13 B: An extract from a short story with three reference to context questions requiring the students to supply the answers. (Word limit : 20-30 words)                                3 Marks
13 C: An extract from a play with three reference to context questions requiring the students to supply the answers. (Word limit : 20-30 words)                                      3 Marks

Q 14 Four out of Five short answer type questions based on prose, poetry and play of 2 marks each. The questions will not test recall but inference and evaluation. (Word limit : 30 - 40 words each)                                                                                                  8 Marks
Q 15 One out of two long answer type questions to assess personal response to text (story, poem or play) by going beyond the text/ poem/story or extract. Creativity, imagination and extrapolation beyond the text and across two texts will also be assessed. (Word limit : 150 words)                                                                                                                         8 Marks

Prescribed Books/ Materials
1. Interact in English - X Main Course Book Revised edition
2. Interact in English - X Literature Reader Revised edition Published by CBSE
3. Interact in English -X Workbook Revised edition Delhi-110092

Reading Section:
Reading for comprehension, critical evaluation, inference and analysis is a skill to be tested formatively as well as summatively. There will be no division of passages for this section, however, for reading purpose. The Interact in English Main Course Book will be read in two terms i.e. Term I (April-September) and Term II (October-March).

Writing Section:
All types of short and extended writing tasks will be dealt with in both I and II Term Summative as well as in Formative Assessment. For purpose of assessment all themes dealt with in Main Course Book and other themes may be used.

Note on assessing Writing Tasks.
Q. 4     Content           : 2 marks
Expression       : 2 marks (Accuracy & Fluency)
Total : 4 marks
Upto one mark may be deducted for spelling, punctuation and grammar errors.
Q. 5     Content           : 3 marks
Fluency           : 2 marks
Accuracy         : 1 mark
Total                : 6 marks
Upto one mark may be deducted for spelling, punctuation and grammar errors.
Q.6      Content           : 3 marks
Fluency           : 2 marks
Accuracy         : 2 marks
Total                : 7 marks
Upto two marks may be deducted for spelling punctuation and grammar errors.
Q. 7:    Content           : 4 marks
Fluency           : 2 marks
Accuracy         : 2 marks
Total                : 8 marks
Upto two marks may be deducted for spelling, punctuation and grammar errors.
Though marks have been allotted specifically for Content, they should not be awarded in a mechanical manner. For instance, if a student has merely mentioned the value points (content) as per the marking scheme, the examiner should assess whether the content has been expressed/communicated in a coherent and cohesive manner. It means content and expression are perceived as interlinked aspects of writing.
Similarly in all the writing tasks credit should be given to creativity in the realm of ideas and language use. What it means for the examiner is that students who think differently and are able to use the language with felicity in terms of structures as well as vocabulary should be given due weightage. This need not necessarily be seen as leaning towards subjectivity in marking. A proper balance of content, expression (accuracy, fluency, cohesion and coherence) and creativity would encourage students to aim for higher standards in written communication. Errors in spelling,
punctuation and grammar should be penalised to the extent of marks allotted for Accuracy.

Grammar:
Grammar items mentioned in the syllabus will be taught and assessed summatively as well as formatively over a period of time. There will be no division of syllabus for Grammar in the summative of formative assessments for the terms. However a suggested split - up of the Work Book for the two terms is given to help teachers in planning their classroom teaching.

Syllabus for Terms
S.No. Text Books
First Term
(April - September
Second Term
(October - March)

FA 1 10
FA2 10
SA I 30
FA3 10
FA4 10
SA II 30
Literature Reader






PROSE






1. Two Gentlemen of Verona

Yes

Yes



2.Mrs Packletide's Tiger

Yes

Yes



3. The Letter

Yes
Yes



4. A Shady Plot



Yes

Yes
5. Patol Babu, Film Star



Yes

Yes
6. Virtually True




Yes
Yes
POETRY






1. The Frog and the Nightingale
Yes

Yes



2. Mirror
Yes

Yes



3. Not Marble, nor the Gilded Monuments

Yes
Yes



4. Ozymandias



Yes

Yes
5. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner



Yes

Yes
6. Snake




Yes
Yes
DRAMA






1. The Dear Departed
Yes

Yes



2. Julius Caesar



Yes

Yes
Main Course Book






1. Health and Medicine
Yes

Yes



2. Education

Yes
Yes



3. Science

Yes
Yes



4. Environment



Yes

Yes
5. Travel and Tourism



Yes

Yes
6. National Integration




Yes
Yes


WORK BOOK* - Suggested Break-up of Units for the Purpose of Classroom Teaching only - NOT FOR TESTING (see the note below).
Term I
1. Determiners
2. Tenses
3. Subject-Verb Agreement
4. Non-Finites
5. Relatives
6. Connectors
7. Conditionals
Term II
8. Comparison
9. Avoiding Repetition
10. Nominalisation
11. Modals
12. Active and Passive
13. Reported Speech
14. Prepositions


* NOTE ON WORKBOOK
The suggested split up of the units of the Workbook reflects a distribution for the purpose of classroom teaching only. Since grammar and usage is not to be tested discreetly, but in an integrated manner, the split up as shown above will not restrict questions in the grammar section of SA I and SA II question papers to the specific units shown in the split up of Workbook units. Grammar will be tested recycling grammar items learnt
over a period of time in a comprehensive manner. Teachers may adapt this suggested distribution for classroom teaching making modifications according to their specific needs. Similarly Formative Assessment of grammar items may also be carried out in an integrated manner along with the skills of Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening as well as Literature.
Note:
1. Formative Assessment is assessment 'for' learning. Thus schools may adapt the above break-up as per their convenience.
2. All activities related to Formative Assessment such as Language games, quizzes, projects, role plays, dramatization, script writing etc must be done as 'in class' and 'in school' activities. In case, a field survey or visit is taken up it must be under the direct supervision of the teacher.