English Syllabus PDF
English (Advanced) Objectives
Objectives are general statements, organising the more specific learning goals contained in the English (Advanced) outcomes.
Students will develop knowledge and understanding of: • the purposes and effects of a range of textual forms in their personal, social, historical, cultural and workplace contexts • the ways language forms and features, and the structures of texts shape meaning in a variety of textual forms.
Students will develop skills in: • responding to and composing a range of complex texts • effective communication at different levels of complexity • independent investigation, individual and collaborative learning • imaginative, critical and reflective thinking about meaning • reflection as a way to evaluate their processes of composing, responding and learning.
Students will come to value and appreciate: • the role of language in developing positive interaction and cooperation • their developing skills as users of English • the pleasure and diversity of language and literature • the role of language and literature in their lives • the study and use of English as a key to learning • reflection on their own processes of responding, composing and learning • English as a language of communication and culture • appropriateness, subtlety and aesthetics in language use.
Preliminary Area of Study
Common Content – Area of Study An Area of Study is the exploration of a concept that affects our perceptions of ourselves and our world. Students explore, analyse, question and articulate the ways in which perceptions of this concept are shaped in and through a variety of texts. In the Area of Study, students explore and examine relationships between language and text, and interrelationships among texts. They examine closely the individual qualities of texts while considering the texts’ relationships to the wider context of the Area of Study. They synthesise ideas to clarify meaning and develop new meanings. They take into account whether aspects such as context, purpose and register, text structures, stylistic features, grammatical features and vocabulary are appropriate to the particular text.
The Area of Study integrates the range and variety of practices students undertake in their study and use of English. It provides students with opportunities to explore, analyse and experiment with: • meaning conveyed, shaped, interpreted and reflected in and through texts • ways texts are responded to and composed • ways perspective may affect meaning and interpretation • connections between and among texts • how texts are influenced by other texts and contexts. Students’ responses to texts are supported by their own composition of, and experimentation with, imaginative and other texts. They explore ways of representing events, experiences, ideas, values and processes, and consider the ways in which changes of form and language affect meaning.
The Area of Study and the prescribed texts will be subject to periodic evaluation and review. Prescribed texts are: • A range of prescribed texts for the Area of Study from which at least one must be selected. This text list will be published in an English Stage 6 support document. In addition, students will explore texts of their own choosing relevant to the Area of Study. Students draw their chosen texts from a variety of sources, in a range of genres and media.
Electives
The electives require students to explore the ways particular texts, forms, media, contexts or aspects of language shape meaning. The electives are developed by teachers to allow for: • their students’ needs, interests and abilities • choice of approach • choice of texts for study • student–teacher negotiation of content
AREA OF STUDY: JOURNEYS
Definitions worksheet
‘It sure has been an amazing journey!’
As a class discuss how the cliche of ‘journey’ is used everyday in modern lexicon and media, e.g. ‘The HSC has been a challenging journey!’ Why do people always talk about ‘the journey’?
Describe ONE life experience where you didn’t go anywhere but had an ‘inner’ journey. How did this experience affect you? How did you change or grow?
Powerpoint on Journeys
RELATED MATERIAL powerpoint
‘Introduction to Text, Context and Values’
AIM: Examine closely the individual qualities of texts to learn how meaning is shaped in, and through, texts.
They might consider:
· the effect of the choice of language forms, features and structures
· the influence of context on meaning
· how meaning is changed by changing any aspect of the above
· how cultural assumptions and expectations influence meaning.
KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN EXAMINING TEXTS
They should be able to address such questions as:
· What is the text about?
· What is its position? Do you agree with it? Justify your view
· What counter arguments are there to the position of the text?
· How effectively do the language and structure of the text achieve its purpose?
Stimulus Texts 1-4 AOS - Journeys Stimulus Booklet pdf
The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost
Youtube clip of Road Not Taken
The Ivory Trail (Novel cover)
The Wind in the Willows (novel extract)
Journey to the Interior - Margaret Atwood (optional)
Examine each stimulus text.
For each text deconstruct the ideas of journey and the language features used by annotating the text.
Complete the activities from the Journeys Booklet
KING LEAR
English (Advanced) Objectives
Objectives are general statements, organising the more specific learning goals contained in the English (Advanced) outcomes.
Students will develop knowledge and understanding of: • the purposes and effects of a range of textual forms in their personal, social, historical, cultural and workplace contexts • the ways language forms and features, and the structures of texts shape meaning in a variety of textual forms.
Students will develop skills in: • responding to and composing a range of complex texts • effective communication at different levels of complexity • independent investigation, individual and collaborative learning • imaginative, critical and reflective thinking about meaning • reflection as a way to evaluate their processes of composing, responding and learning.
Students will come to value and appreciate: • the role of language in developing positive interaction and cooperation • their developing skills as users of English • the pleasure and diversity of language and literature • the role of language and literature in their lives • the study and use of English as a key to learning • reflection on their own processes of responding, composing and learning • English as a language of communication and culture • appropriateness, subtlety and aesthetics in language use.
Preliminary Area of Study
Common Content – Area of Study An Area of Study is the exploration of a concept that affects our perceptions of ourselves and our world. Students explore, analyse, question and articulate the ways in which perceptions of this concept are shaped in and through a variety of texts. In the Area of Study, students explore and examine relationships between language and text, and interrelationships among texts. They examine closely the individual qualities of texts while considering the texts’ relationships to the wider context of the Area of Study. They synthesise ideas to clarify meaning and develop new meanings. They take into account whether aspects such as context, purpose and register, text structures, stylistic features, grammatical features and vocabulary are appropriate to the particular text.
The Area of Study integrates the range and variety of practices students undertake in their study and use of English. It provides students with opportunities to explore, analyse and experiment with: • meaning conveyed, shaped, interpreted and reflected in and through texts • ways texts are responded to and composed • ways perspective may affect meaning and interpretation • connections between and among texts • how texts are influenced by other texts and contexts. Students’ responses to texts are supported by their own composition of, and experimentation with, imaginative and other texts. They explore ways of representing events, experiences, ideas, values and processes, and consider the ways in which changes of form and language affect meaning.
The Area of Study and the prescribed texts will be subject to periodic evaluation and review. Prescribed texts are: • A range of prescribed texts for the Area of Study from which at least one must be selected. This text list will be published in an English Stage 6 support document. In addition, students will explore texts of their own choosing relevant to the Area of Study. Students draw their chosen texts from a variety of sources, in a range of genres and media.
Electives
The electives require students to explore the ways particular texts, forms, media, contexts or aspects of language shape meaning. The electives are developed by teachers to allow for: • their students’ needs, interests and abilities • choice of approach • choice of texts for study • student–teacher negotiation of content
AREA OF STUDY: JOURNEYS
Definitions worksheet
‘It sure has been an amazing journey!’
As a class discuss how the cliche of ‘journey’ is used everyday in modern lexicon and media, e.g. ‘The HSC has been a challenging journey!’ Why do people always talk about ‘the journey’?
Describe ONE life experience where you didn’t go anywhere but had an ‘inner’ journey. How did this experience affect you? How did you change or grow?
Powerpoint on Journeys
RELATED MATERIAL powerpoint
‘Introduction to Text, Context and Values’
AIM: Examine closely the individual qualities of texts to learn how meaning is shaped in, and through, texts.
They might consider:
· the effect of the choice of language forms, features and structures
· the influence of context on meaning
· how meaning is changed by changing any aspect of the above
· how cultural assumptions and expectations influence meaning.
KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN EXAMINING TEXTS
They should be able to address such questions as:
· What is the text about?
· What is its position? Do you agree with it? Justify your view
· What counter arguments are there to the position of the text?
· How effectively do the language and structure of the text achieve its purpose?
Stimulus Texts 1-4 AOS - Journeys Stimulus Booklet pdf
The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost
Youtube clip of Road Not Taken
The Ivory Trail (Novel cover)
The Wind in the Willows (novel extract)
Journey to the Interior - Margaret Atwood (optional)
Examine each stimulus text.
For each text deconstruct the ideas of journey and the language features used by annotating the text.
Complete the activities from the Journeys Booklet
KING LEAR
MODULE A: COMPARING TEXTS, CONTEXT AND VALUES - BEAUTY AND BRUTALITY
'I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.'
'We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world. I've witnessed first hand the power of ideas, I've seen people kill in the name of them, and die defending them... but you cannot kiss an idea, cannot touch it, or hold it... ideas do not bleed, they do not feel pain, they do not love... And it is not an idea that I miss, it is a man... A man that made me remember the Fifth of November. A man that I will never forget.'
THE MODULE:
- This module requires students to compare texts in order to explore them in relation to their contexts.
- Knowledge and understanding of contextual influence and the impact of prevailing attitudes and values will be examined.
- Comparative evaluation will focus on how the treatment of similar thematic content in paired texts composed in different times and contexts may reflect changing values and perspectives.
- Respective and comparative study will consider contextual background, textual issues and techniques, forms and features. Detailed language study with regards to propagandist and persuasive methods will be incorporated as well as consideration of purpose, audience and register.
- Comparative study of the differences and similarities of paired texts and context will be supported by the development of writing skills in a range of imaginative, interpretive and analytical compositions.
- ‘The Book Thief’ and ‘V for Vendetta’ will be comparatively examined in terms of prose versus film mediums and the influence of genre conventions, tropes and motifs and social and historical contextual impact on meaning.
KEY LEARNING QUESTIONS:
- How does context influence the prevailing values and attitudes conveyed in and through texts?
- How do different texts from different contexts exhibit comparable meaning and values due to similarities and differences in context, purpose and form, language features?
- How and why do we value particular texts due to their aesthetic and artistic qualities and/or the values espoused through the texts?
KEY TERMS
Aesthetic: Having an appreciation of beauty.
Affective: Relating to a thoughtful consideration and evaluation of emotions and values associated with an idea or set of ideas.
Appropriated text: A text which has been taken from one context and translated into another. The process of translation allows new insights into the original text and emphasises contextual differences between the two.
Assess: To establish the value of a particular idea or text.
Collaborative: An interactive approach to teamwork that enables students to learning combine their individual skills and resources to generate creative solutions to mutually defined problems.
Composing: The activity that occurs when students produce written, spoken, or visual texts. Composing typically: • involves the shaping and arrangement of textual elements to explore and express ideas and values • involves the processes of imagining, drafting, appraising, reflecting and refining • depends on knowledge and understanding and use of texts, their language forms, features and structures.
Concept: A concept is an abstract idea derived or inferred from specific instances or occurrences. In the context of an Area of Study, ‘concept’ typically operates in and through language and text which enables ideas and experiences to be organised and at the same time shapes meaning and inferences.
Context: The range of personal, social, historical, cultural and workplace conditions in which a text is responded to and composed. conventions Accepted practices or features which help define textual forms and meaning.
Creative thinking: The ability to think laterally and imaginatively looking at all sides of an issue and devising interesting and imaginative solutions.
Critical thinking: The ability to think using hypothesis and deduction as a way to question, interpret and draw conclusions.
Culture: The social practices of a particular people or group, including shared beliefs, values, knowledge, customs and lifestyle.
Electronic media: Media technology, such as television, the internet, radio, teletext and email, that communicates with large numbers of people.
Evaluate: To estimate the worth of a text in a range of contexts and to justify that estimation and its process.
Genre: A category of text that can be recognised by specific aspects of its subject matter, form and language.
Language forms and features: The symbolic patterns and conventions that shape meaning in and features texts. These vary according to the particular mode or medium of production of each text.
Meaning: The dynamic relationship between text and responder involving information (explicit and implicit), the affective and the contextual.
Paradigm: Organising principles and underlying beliefs that form the basis of a set of shared concepts.
Perspective: A way of regarding situations, facts and texts and evaluating their relative significance.
Popular culture: Cultural experiences widely enjoyed by members of various groups within the community.
Recreating texts: Transforming texts to explore how changes in particular elements of a text affect meaning.
Reflection: The thought process by which students develop an understanding and appreciation of their own learning. This process draws on both cognitive and affective experience.
Register: The use of language in a text appropriate for its purpose, audience and context. A register suited to one kind of text may be inappropriate in another.
Representation: The ways ideas are portrayed through texts.
Representing: The language mode that involves composing images by means of visual or other texts. These images and their meaning are composed using codes and conventions. The term can include such activities as graphically presenting the structure of a novel, making a film, composing a web page, or enacting a dramatic text.
Responding: The activity that occurs when students read, listen to or view texts. It encompasses the personal and intellectual connections a student makes with texts. It also recognises that students and the texts to which they respond exist in social and cultural contexts. ‘Responding’ typically involves: • reading, listening and viewing that depend on, but go beyond, the decoding of texts • identifying, comprehending, selecting, articulating, imagining, critically analysing and evaluating.
Structures of texts: The relationships of the different parts of a text to each other texts and to the text as a complex whole.
Synthesis: The collecting and connecting of many specific elements or ideas from various sources to form something new.
Textual integrity: The unity of a text; its coherent use of form and language to produce an integrated whole in terms of meaning and value.
Value (verb): To estimate or assign worth to a text; to consider something to have worth.
Value (noun): A quality desirable as a means or an end in itself.
THE BOOK THIEF - CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND
Markus Zusak - The Writing Process Part 1 The Writing Process Part 2
http://motherdaughterbookclub.com/2010/02/interview-with-markus-zusak-author-of-the-book-thief-and-i-am-the-messenger/
http://bookthieflitcircle.weebly.com/index.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-book-thief/context.html
http://www.shmoop.com/book-thief/
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/books/review/14greenj.html?_r=0
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/markus-zusak-how-i-let-go-of-the-book-thief-20140102-306he.html
ACTIVITY: Research the author and context of the novel using the links above and others of your choosing to answer the question: What was Markus Zusak's purpose in writing the novel and how can the personal, historical and social/cultural context of the novel be defined?
Make initial notes then compose a detailed answer in the form of an extended response 250 words.
Chapter Summaries
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qTZWFG0evHxxhxZiigbG4g73sRO6SDhk8fuNCOXom9c/edit
Comparing the texts...
Make a Venn Diagram that examines the similarities and differences between the two texts in terms of context, values, form and features.
HOLISTIC:
Characterised by the belief that the parts of something are intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.
HSC MODULE A SAMPLES
lwww.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/stds-matl/english-advanced-paper-2-sm.html
ESSAY QUESTION Preliminary Exam 2016
In your answer you will be assessed on how well you:
- demonstrate understanding of texts, context and values
- organise, develop and express ideas using language appropriate to audience, purpose and context
How does the comparative treatment of the power of words in The Book Thief and V for Vendetta offer new insights on the distinctive contexts of each composer and the impact of form and medium in shaping meaning? (1,000 words approx).
In your response refer closely to both prescribed texts for this elective:
The Book Thief by Marcus Zuzak
V for Vendetta by James McTeigue (dir.)
MODULE B: TRUTH AND LIES AND FAKE NEWS
https://sternstrategy.com/fact-fiction-truth-media-rise-fake-news/
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s4615275.htm
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170301-lies-propaganda-and-fake-news-a-grand-challenge-of-our-age
Truth represented in Media texts: the impact of purpose and medium on the construction of truth.
The Siege techniques
Frontline Response: How does Rob Sitch employ satirical techniques in the TV Series Frontline, to expose the questionable motivations and practices of Current Affairs shows in representing the truth? In your answer make detailed reference to the episodes Add, Sex and Stir and The Siege.
Rhetorical Devices
Brainstorm a list of rhetorical devices you are familiar with.
Using your own knowledge and the website http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm, create a poster that provides a definition and example for ONE.
BRUCE DAWE POEMS
The Tet Offensive
What was the Tet Offensive? When did it take place? Why was it a turning point in the war?
Vietnam - The first televised war
How was the Vietnam War different to other wars? How did this impact the outcome of the war?
Homecoming (1968)
Read and annotate the poem. How does Dawe convey the reality and scale of deaths in Vietnam and the impact on communities? Is Homecoming a protest poem? Justify your answer.
Homo Surburbensis
Write a poem about your suburban experience. You can use the title of Dawe's poem as a starting point, write your own or if you need some help, use the Snap Shot structure below.
Snapshot Poem
Line 1: time of day, place. e.g. 12.11, D8 English
Line 2: Describe three things you can see.... I see...
Line 3: Describe three things you can hear... I hear...
Line 4: Describe one thing you can smell and one you can taste. I smell... I taste...
Line 5: Describe what you can feel or what feelings you have. I feel...
Line 6: Repeat Line 1.
In your poem, choose you words carefully. Try to use imagery to capture the experience of where you are and what that is like. It's a snapshot of the moment.
https://sternstrategy.com/fact-fiction-truth-media-rise-fake-news/
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s4615275.htm
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170301-lies-propaganda-and-fake-news-a-grand-challenge-of-our-age
Truth represented in Media texts: the impact of purpose and medium on the construction of truth.
The Siege techniques
Frontline Response: How does Rob Sitch employ satirical techniques in the TV Series Frontline, to expose the questionable motivations and practices of Current Affairs shows in representing the truth? In your answer make detailed reference to the episodes Add, Sex and Stir and The Siege.
- Class discussion/revision: Objective vs. subjective language in journalism
- Revision of techniques used in media texts especially TV news and current affairs programs to represent truth and shape opinion
- Students view an excerpt from A Current Affair screened on Channel 9. http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/video/ and the previous day’s episode of The Project and Q and A episode
Rhetorical Devices
Brainstorm a list of rhetorical devices you are familiar with.
Using your own knowledge and the website http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm, create a poster that provides a definition and example for ONE.
- Class discussion: through reflections upon speeches the students have heard/presented themselves:
- What constitutes an effective speech?
- What are the key verbal and non-verbal features of an effective speech
- How are speeches significant within social discourse?
- Chalie Teo Australia Day Speech Charlie Teo Full Transcript
- Stan Grant Transcript
- Evaluate the impact of context, purpose and audience on the ‘truth’ about Australians represented in both speeches. Analyse how are the speeches similar and different in ideas and representation (rhetorical devices).
- Students listen to/ read the following speeches and analyse in terms of rhetorical devices, structure, verbal and nonverbal features:
- Students evaluate the impact of context and audience on the construction of George Bush’s speech and the ‘truth’ represented about the Terrorist Attacks on the World Trade Center.
BRUCE DAWE POEMS
The Tet Offensive
What was the Tet Offensive? When did it take place? Why was it a turning point in the war?
Vietnam - The first televised war
How was the Vietnam War different to other wars? How did this impact the outcome of the war?
Homecoming (1968)
Read and annotate the poem. How does Dawe convey the reality and scale of deaths in Vietnam and the impact on communities? Is Homecoming a protest poem? Justify your answer.
Homo Surburbensis
Write a poem about your suburban experience. You can use the title of Dawe's poem as a starting point, write your own or if you need some help, use the Snap Shot structure below.
Snapshot Poem
Line 1: time of day, place. e.g. 12.11, D8 English
Line 2: Describe three things you can see.... I see...
Line 3: Describe three things you can hear... I hear...
Line 4: Describe one thing you can smell and one you can taste. I smell... I taste...
Line 5: Describe what you can feel or what feelings you have. I feel...
Line 6: Repeat Line 1.
In your poem, choose you words carefully. Try to use imagery to capture the experience of where you are and what that is like. It's a snapshot of the moment.