Common Assessment Task
Year 9
Social Studies
Pakuranga College
Who do You Think You Are:
This is Your Life
Focus: Levels 4
Understanding how formal and informal groups make decisions that impact on communities.
Understand how people pass on and sustain culture and heritage for different reasons and that this has
consequences for people.
Focus: Level 5
Understand how the ideas and actions of people in the past have had a significant impact on people’s lives.
Introduction:
The aim of this task is to find out about your family background by interviewing a family member about
their life and, based on the information you have gathered in the interview, to create a document called
‘This is Your Life’.
The Task:
The big question: What has the life of your chosen person been like?
Choose a suitable person from your family who is easily accessible, as you will need to interview them,
either in person, over the phone, on Skype, by email, etc. It is preferable to choose a grandparent as their
lives will be significantly different from your life so far. If you do not have a grandparent available to
interview, then a parent is fine. Adoptive parents or grandparents are also fine, if that suites your situation
better. If none of the above are available, think of the most significant adult in your life and talk to your
teacher about whether they would work for this assignment.
1. Write the questions for your interview; remember you will need more open questions than closed
ones, as open questions help you gather more useful information. You will also need a wide range
of questions covering most of the important aspects of the person’s life to gain a good grade.
Having follow-up questions that flow from your most important questions is also a good idea.
2. Put your questions into a logical order and in categories that cover the main aspects of the
person’s life such as, Family, Early Childhood, Education, Employment, Interests, etc.
3. Set up an interview time which is convenient to your interviewee and decide how to record the
information. Recording the information is very important, because if you lose or forget important
information then it will be very hard to gain a good grade. Do not simply hand them the questions
and ask them to fill it in, unless the only method you can find to carry out the interview is by email
and if that is the case make sure you ask more questions later to clarify any confusing answers. Your
chosen person may have evidence that you can look at such as: photographs; certificates; school
reports; travel documents, etc.
4. Carry out the interview and keep very good records of what your person says.
5. Go through the answers and decide how you will write up the information. Remember, you are not
presenting a transcript of your interview; rather you are creating an account of your person’s life so
far. Make sure you focus a lot of your writing on things that are important and/or interesting.
6. Write your first draft. Decide if you will include any visual material or supportive evidence, these
can make your writing more interesting.
7. Make sure you have a title page that includes your interviewee’s full name and relationship to you,
e.g. This is Your Life: Effie Jones, my Grandmother. Add a by-line, e.g. By John Harness 2013.
8. Make sure you include an introduction and a conclusion.
9. Proof read your document carefully before you hand it in. You may use a computer or handwriting
to create the document.
10. Provide evidence from the interview
11. Evaluate the process of inquiry. Your teacher will place this evaluation on Moodle for you to
complete.
The Conditions:
1. You must complete the task individually.
2. Your writing is to be presented in a booklet form.
3. You must complete all of the requirements of the task given in the assessment schedule, to the
highest curriculum level.
4. You will be given one and a half weeks of class time to work on this task, but you must also use
some time at home to collect relevant information and to work on the presentation.
5. The deadline for the handing in, or the sending electronically of your completed task is
________________________________________________________________________________
It is your responsibility to see that the task is completed on time.
6. Remember all of the key competencies, which follow:
 Relating to others – be polite and respectful to the person you interview
 Thinking – you understand the task, collect relevant information and analyse the
information
 Using language, symbols and texts – you use formal language to present your findings
 Managing self – you plan your time carefully to meet the deadline
Year 9 CAT: This is Your Life- Write a narrative – Total marks possible = 21
Inquiry
I
Details of the
processes of Inquiry
3+
4-
4
4+
Ideas
Can identify the
focus
of
the
inquiry
Can describe
the focus of the
inquiry
Can explain the
focus of the
inquiry
Can make a
relevant choice
based on the focus
of the inquiry
C
Asks some relevant
questions linked to
the inquiry
Information
needed
Marks assigned
Collects
0
Collects
information but
needs relevance
1
Collects some
relevant
information
2
Collects a range
of relevant
information
3
Collects a
comprehensive
range of relevant
information
Collates and
Communicates
Marks assigned
E
Evidence of
use of sources
0
Needs notes or
recorded
evidence that
interview was
conducted
1
A few notes/
answers to
questions
recorded
2
Some
notes/answers
to questions are
recorded
3
A wide range of
notes/answers to
questions and at
least one visual is
recorded
Evaluation of
process of
inquiry
Marks assigned
5-
0
1
2
3
5
Asks a range of
relevant questions
linked to the inquiry
5+
Asks a comprehensive
range of relevant
questions linked to
the inquiry
4
2
3
Uses information
collected to cover
all aspects of the
inquiry and follows
some of the
criteria for the
style of
presentation
Uses a range of
information, written
clearly which covers
all aspects of the
inquiry and follows
some of the criteria for
the style of
presentation
2
3
Two ways in which
the process of
inquiry was
conducted are
noted
A minimum of three
ways in which the
process of inquiry was
conducted are noted
More than five ways
in which the process
of inquiry was
conducted well or
needed improvement
are noted
2
3
4
Uses a wide range of
information, written
clearly with minimal
errors and which
covers all aspects of
the inquiry. Most of
the criteria for the
style of presentation
are followed.
4