Conceptual understandings in the Group 2 courses

A new academic year is upon all of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, and the first Group 2 assessments in the 'new' course aren't all that far off anymore.  Understandably students are getting a little bit itchy and want to know how to score those top grades … Teachers are doing their very best to provide the necessary answers, and one area that remains a little bit vague maybe is that of the assessment of Conceptual Understanding (Criterion C) in the Paper 1 composition paper.
I am taking the liberty to post some excellent questions that have been asked on social media platforms and that need input from curriculum reviewers, examiners and workshop leaders.  Send in your own take on the issue presented, so that we can all learn from each other and better prepare our students for this particular assessment.  Thank you in advance !

The question on Conceptual Understanding goes as follows :

In the 2020 guide, Criterion C : Conceptual understanding.
At the bottom of the criteria explanation there is a rectangular box which says:

"Note: A response that ignores context, purpose and audience may receive marks of 0 for criteria B and C, even if the response has received a high mark for criterion A."

My questions is: if a student chooses the wrong text type simply because there were 2 text types which could have been right and this poor student chooses the wrong one, what happens?
Does he get 0 in Message as well as in Conceptual Understanding or does he get a 0 in CU, but in Message (Criterion B) he is marked according to the text type he has chosen even if it is the one that the IB examiners did not  want him to choose?   

An immediate response was provided by Mr Gabriel Henao, super-experienced teacher and workshop leader of Language Ab Initio :

Question : What if a student chooses "the wrong text type"?

For starters, there's not such a thing as a "wrong" type of text. The writing task can be satisfactorily carried out with any of the choices provided but there are tasks that are harder to complete with certain kinds of texts. 

For example, let's say that the task is about requesting the Head of school for support to make a fundraiser for a charity. If one of the options is a diary entry or an interview and the student chooses either of them, it is still possible to satisfy the criteria, but it wouldn't be as easy as with let's say a formal letter or even a brochure. With an interview or a diary entry, the student would need to make a clever manipulation of the text type to hit the spot on context, purpose and audience. Let's say the candidate chooses a diary entry. If the entry is about planning to go and see the head of school and ask for money then we have a problem. Why? Context: it's supposed to call for a persuasive text, not a chronicle or report. Purpose: it's supposed to be a formal request, not a plan to make such request and finally, Audience: it's for the Head of School, not necessarily for the diary or oneself. So here we have a well-intended text that will certainly obtain a 0 in Criterion C. Can you spin the format to fit the intended message? Of course, but it would require a Level B kind of mastery of the language. There are no "wrong" text types, there are only formats that are more suitable than others.

To this excellent response I would personally add the following :

It is very important for all of us (teachers), and for the students, to know that there is no 'wrong' text type to choose. The three text types given offer the students the opportunity to show that they have considered the five concepts carefully before putting pen to paper. In the past, the text type was given in the instructions, now the students need to read the instructions very carefully and, in my opinion, ask themselves this crucial question : "Who am I writing this text to ?" (audience). The main difference between most of the text types is one of audience (again, this is my humble opinion, it isn't stated anywhere). If the student is to reflect on something he or she has just experienced and isn't going to share this reflection, then they will write a diary entry. If the reflection is shared with a particular person, then it's an email or a letter. If that person requires formal addressing, then it's a formal letter. If the person is a friend or a relative (and then things depend on the culture), it may be an informal letter. If the reflections, or the advice, or the information are to be shared with an unknown audience, then a blog entry would be called for. If the audience is a particular group of people, with a particular interest (eg tourists, visitors to a country), then the students should consider the leaflet or brochure ... Etc. All five concepts are important and need to be taught over and over again, and every time we set a writing task for the students we should have a discussion with them about the various possible audiences and how these affect the choice of text type. In workshops we've already spent quite some time trying to find out how each of the three given text types would look if they were chosen for one particular task, and with some training and teaching it'll become pretty clear which one, of the three given text types, lends itself best to a particular instruction. I believe that Little Miss Sunshine, the star character of the Language Ab Initio Student Workbook, has become even more important in the new course. Careful reading and dissecting of the Paper 1 instruction is absolutely essential and, if our experience is anything to go by, probably the skill that we have to insist the most on with our students nowadays.

What's your take on this ? How do you understand, apply and teach Criterion C ?

Add your comments please so that we all get further clarification as well as a good level of peace of mind …

​Thank you in advance !
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