DSE Practice on Learning English through Short Stories
Paper 2: Writing
Write about 400 words on ONE of the following questions.
1.
You are going to take part in an inter-school English story writing competition.
The competition is organized by a voluntary organization for handicapped children.
Participants are required to produce a story about a handicapped child who has become a very
successful person in Hong Kong.
Write the story.
2.
You have just learned that your favourite story writer will visit Hong Kong next month.
The writer will meet some readers in a hotel and have tea with them. To win the chance to meet the
writer, readers are asked to write a letter to the writer stating their favourite title and explain clearly
why they like the story.
Write the letter.
3.
According to a recent survey, students seldom spend their leisure on reading English stories.
You are now writing a letter to the editor to express your concern over the issue. In your letter, you
should explain why it is important to read English stories and what parents and teachers can do to
encourage students to read more English stories.
Write your letter.
4.
You are the Chairman of the English Association in your school. Your Principal has asked you to
give a speech to junior form students to encourage them to read English stories.
In your speech you should tell students:
(1)
why you like reading English stories
(2)
an English story book which you have recently read
(3)
the activities that students can do by reading English stories
(4)
how reading English stories help you to learn
Write the speech.
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English Language
Practice on
School-based Assessment
Elective Component
Assessment Tasks
Set 1
Tasks 1 and 2
Module: Learning English through Short Stories
Name of SBA Task: English Stories Festival
Oral Text-type:  individual presentation
 interaction
Communicative Functions:
 describing  persuading
 explaining  discussing
 comparing
 others: ___________________
 classifying
 reporting
Description of pre-assessment activities
1. Teacher asks student to finish reading one short story.
2. Teacher has discussed the main features of stories in class.
3. Student needs to keep a journal for any comments about the book read.
Planned SBA Task 1:
Individual Presentation:
On the day of assessment, each student is given a note card and 10 – 15 minutes for planning.
The following question will be given:
You have just finished reading a short story. Try to tell how you feel about the story. You may also want to give an
outline of the story and talk about one or two major characters/events/conflicts you find interesting. You may also
want to talk about the reasons you like or dislike reading the book.
Planned SBA Task 2:
Group Interaction:
On the day of assessment, students are formed into groups of three/four and each student is given a note card and 10 –
15 minutes for planning.
The following question will be given:
Your school library is going to hold an ‘English Stories Festival’. The school library committee has asked your class
to give suggestions on running the Festival.
You and your classmates are now meeting to discuss:
(1) the time when the Festival should be held;
(2) the types of story books to be introduced to schoolmates;
(3) the person(s) to invite to the Festival and what he/she should do;
(4) activities that can be held in the Festival;
(5) anything else you think is important.
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English Language
Practice on
School-based Assessment
Elective Component
Assessment Tasks
Set 2
Tasks 3 and 4
Module: Learning English through Short Stories
Name of SBA Task: Rewriting and recommending story books
Oral Text-type:  individual presentation
 interaction
Communicative Functions:
 describing  persuading
 explaining  discussing
 comparing
 others: ___________________
 classifying
 reporting
Description of pre-assessment activities
1. Teacher has shown and discussed some samples of ‘rewritten’ stories in class.
2. Student has previous experience in rewriting stories.
3. Student has kept a journal on the story he/she is going to rewrite.
4. Teacher has given some guidelines on how to rewrite stories.
Planned SBA Task 3:
Individual Presentation
On the day of the assessment, each student is given a note card and 10 – 15 minutes for planning.
The following question will be given:
Your English teacher has encouraged you to rewrite some famous short stories. You have chosen a story to write on.
Tell which story you have chosen and why. You should talk about some of your ideas to be incorporated to the new
version of the story. You may also want to talk about how you prepare rewriting the story and how much time you need
to finish your story.
Planned SBA Task 4:
Group Interaction
On the day of assessment, each student is given a note card and 10 – 15 minutes for planning.
The following question will be given:
Your Principal has asked each senior secondary class to recommend one English story book to junior secondary
schoolmates. The class should also design some activities for the book recommended.
You are the Chairman of the Class Association and are now holding a meeting with your classmates to decide which
book your class should recommend.
In the meeting, you may want to talk about:
(1) the book to recommend;
(2) its level of difficulty i.e. language use, vocabulary, subject matter, etc;
(3) anything that makes the story special to read, e.g. the writer, the character, the setting, the plot, etc;
(4) what individual / group activities that can be done in class, at home or during extra curricular activity;
(5) anything else you think is important.
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