CARIBBEAN EXAMINATION COUNCIL

ENGLISH LANGUAGE
(THE YEAR 2023)
SCHOOL-BASED ASSESSMENT (SBA)

NAME OF CANDIDATE: SHAQUILLE DIXON

CANDIDATE NUMBER:
CENTER NUMBER:100033
TEACHER: MISS SHA-LEE RUSSELL
TOPIC: TEENAGE PREGNANCY
SUBTOPIC: CAUSES OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction

Plan of investigation

Artifacts 1, 2, 3

Reflection#1

Reflection#2

Reflection#3

Written Report

Plan of Oral

Reference

INTRODUCTION
My name is Shaquille Dixon I am 16 years of age and currently, in grade 11 at
Excelsior High School in Kingston St Andrew, This topic has been a major issue in
Jamaica over the past couple of years. Teen mothers now have to face the reality
of having a child that could be prematurely born. They could contract STDs such
as HIV and soon unprotected sex may not only cause damage to their tender
bodies which are not fully developed to bring another life on earth but their failed
education as well. They often fail to understand the consequences of risking their
lives when they give birth to a child

PLAN OF INVESTIGATION
My School Based Assessment (SBA) topic that I got to discuss is “Teenage
Pregnancy” I’ll be doing a subtopic of the main topic entitle “Cause of Teenage
Pregnancy”. Teenage Pregnancy has a big impact on most high school teenagers
and it is a very prevalent situation in Jamaica. This topic grabbed my attention
because a close friend of mine got pregnant at an early age. I strongly believe that
this research will provide the information required to uncover the main causes of
teen pregnancy In addition this will benefit me as an English student to have more
knowledge about teenage pregnancy and some of the causes of teenage
pregnancy. Data collection would include both quantitative and qualitative
methods such as articles and a poem to complete my investigation I will collect
these data by surfing the internet and by using the newspaper.

Artifact#1
What is Teenage Pregnancy? Teenage pregnancy is when a woman under 20 gets
pregnant. It usually refers to teens between the ages of 15-19. But it can include
girls as young as 10. It's also called teen pregnancy or adolescent pregnancy

What causes Teenage Pregnancy? Some of the things that cause teenage
pregnancy are
*Lack of parental care
*Lack of formal and informal education
*Lack of sex education
*Insufficient communication and supervision by parents.
*Poverty
*Peer pressure
*Low educational level
*Negative family interactions

Approximately 90% of births to girls aged 15-19 in developing countries occur

within early marriage where there is often an imbalance of power, no access to
contraception, and pressure on girls to prove their fertility. Factors such as
parental income and the extent of a girl’s education also contribute. Girls who
have received minimal education are 5 times more likely to become a mother
than those with higher levels of education. Pregnant girls often drop out of
school, limiting opportunities for future employment and perpetuating the cycle
of poverty. In many cases, girls perceive pregnancy to be a better option than
continuing their education

ARTEFACT#2
 ARTIFACT#3

Poem on teenage pregnancy

 A pregnant teenager walked in due to contraction pain,
She was rather chubby and dressed plainly,
She looked term and looked like she would deliver soon,
The night had already started as we could see the moon,

She went to the washroom for some time,

And walked out as if everything was fine,
A senior doctor noticed her trying to leave,
He noticed something was unusual as he was not naive,

He told the staff to grab hold of her before she could run,
He questioned the young teenager about what she had done,
Her clothes were wet, she looked like she was in a hurry,
Such a long time in the washroom that anyone would worry,

He told the staff to check the washroom as fast as they could,

So the nurses and doctors did it as fast as they could,
They found a newborn stuck in the toilet bowl,
They called for backup and saved the child's soul,

The baby is safe and the mother is filled with shame,

For trying to abandon her child whom she did not even name,
Baby dumping and teen pregnancies are serious issues,
Causing rivers of tears that cannot be wiped by tissues,

I hope that proper education and good parenting help our teens,
To start being responsible and stop wasting their genes,
A child's life is something you cannot put a price upon,
You cannot bring back the gift of life once it is gone! By Daya Nanda

REFELCTION#1
The first piece of artifact that was used was an article that I found on google
entitled “The causes of teen-age pregnancy” In the article, it tells us what exactly
teenage pregnancy is and it also lists some of the causes that usually lead to
teenage pregnancy

The second piece of the artifact is an image displaying the causes of teenage
pregnancy. After viewing this particular image I learned some of the reason that
causes teenage pregnancy and now know that it is a lot more complicated than
adult pregnancy

The third piece of the artifact is a poem, in the poem, it states that A pregnant
teenager walked into a hospital due to contraction pain which implies that she is
pregnant and soon to have a baby but I personally think because of the high level
of stress and embarrassment that she’ll face she chose to abandon the child but
luckily the nurses were just in time to save the child and of course she is filled
with more shame because “A child's life is something you cannot put a price
upon, You cannot bring back the gift of life once it is gone”

REFELCTION#2
The first artifact that was used was informational in the research on Teenage
Pregnancy. With the use of google, it gave the audience a clear understanding of
how serious Teenage Pregnancy is. The article is written in a form which is like
summarizes the information. This was done to portray the most significant effects
so the audience can get a clear and better understanding of the problem. The
language used was formal english.

The second artifact is basically a picture that states some of the causes of teenage
pregnancy. The reason why I chose an image as my second artifact is that some
people seem to understand things more visually, in the image it shows a pregnant
teenager, and beside the teen, there is a list of causes of teenage pregnancy.

The final artifact is a poem, in the poem, it’s basically talking about a teenager
that got pregnant and I guess that she couldn’t carry a child at a young age so she
decided to try and abandon the child by going to the washroom and try to flush
the child down the toilet but lucky the child was saved by the member of staffs
and the nurses.

REFELCTION#3
Doing this SBA has helped me to improve my comprehension and vocabulary skills
and with the improvement of these areas, it will aid in the improvement of my
writing skills. This SBA has also helped me to be a better researcher and it also
increased my analytical skills due to the amount of information that was gathered
to complete this SBA

The process has increased my group cohesiveness, my ability to work better in

pairs, and increase my social skills. This SBA thought me how to summarize
information properly and how to identify reliable sources by asking questions like
if this source agrees with the other sources or if it can actually be useful in
answering my question.

After learning everything that I have about the causes of teenage pregnancy, my
knowledge has increased a whole lot and I now know some of the struggles that
teenagers go through hence the reason some of them easily get misguided.
 PLAN OF ORAL

*Topic: Teenage Pregnancy

* Subtopic: Causes of Teenage Pregnancy
* Genre: Skit and Poem
* Source: Original Piece
* Language: A mixture of Standard Jamaican English and Jamaica Creole (Patois)
*Reason for selecting genre: I love to act out skits and I believe that it will help me
to express myself and to broadcast my message more effectively
 WRITTEN REPORT

The SBA started with our teacher explaining the different sections of the English
SBA’S. After this, we were merged into groups and got our theme, and decided on
our sub-topic.
Once we had everything in place we started our individual research, the project
research was done with the use the of internet. The articles found were very
informative and also help in improving our vocabulary.
Our knowledge on the topic; ‘Teenage pregnancy’ was widened and improved
which led to us being more aware of the effects, consequences, and causes of
teenage pregnancy.
My group members were: Shaquille Dixon, Edna Nwachuku, and Daniel Mullings
and our subtopics were; Effect of teenage pregnancy, risk of teenage pregnancy,
and causes of teenage pregnancy.
 REFERENCE

Artifact #1: Martin JA, Hamilton BE, Osterman MJK, Driscoll AK. Births: final data
for 2019. Natl Vital Stat Rep. 2021; 70(2):1–50

Artifact#2: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?
q=tbn:ANd9GcR_SPAotcsVT858GozZZ8LBQeITc2yp1MlEAQ&usqp=CAU

Artifact#3: https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/teen-pregnancies/