Mind Over Module:

The HSC English Syllabus ‘Unplugged’

STRUCTURE• PAPER 1

Area of Study: Unseen text responses /15 Creative composition /15 Integrated essay /15• PAPER 2

Module A: Extended response /20Module B: Extended response /20Module C: Extended response /20

POSSIBLE TOTAL: 105

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PAPER 2: MODULES

• ADVANCEDModule A: Comparative Study of Texts and ContextModule B: Critical Study of TextModule C: Representation and Text• STANDARDModule A: Experience Through LanguageModule B: Close Study of TextModule C: Texts and Society

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Module A: Comparative StudyThis module requires students to compare texts in order to explore them in

relation to their contexts. It develops students’ understanding of the effects of context and questions of value.

Each elective in this module requires the study of groups of texts which are to be selected from a prescribed text list. These texts may be in different forms or media. Students examine ways in which social, cultural and historical context influences aspects of texts, or the ways in which changes in context lead to changed values being reflected in texts. This includes study and use of the language of texts, consideration of purposes and audiences, and analysis of the content, values and attitudes conveyed through a range of readings.

Students develop a range of imaginative, interpretive and analytical compositions that relate to the comparative study of texts and context. These compositions may be realised in a variety of forms and media.

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Elective 1: Exploring Connections

In this elective students will explore how meanings of a pair of texts can be shaped and re-shaped by considering the nature of the connections between them. Exploration of the connections between the texts will enhance understanding of the values and context of each text. Relationships between these texts may be implicit or explicit. Connections may be established through direct or indirect references , contexts, values, ideas, and the use of language forms and features.

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PRESCRIBED TEXTS

• Shakespeare, William, King Richard IIIPacino, Al, Looking for Richard, Fox, 2005

• White, Patrick, The Aunt’s StoryDobson, Rosemary, Selected Poems

• Pride and Prejudice, Austen, JaneWeldon, Fay, Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen

• Donne, John, Selected PoetryEdson, Margaret, W;t

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Elective 2: Texts in Time

In this elective students compare how the treatment of similar content in a pair of texts composed in different times and contexts may reflect changing values and perspectives. By considering the texts in their contexts and comparing values, ideas and language forms and features , students come to a heightened understanding of the meaning and significance of each text.

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PRESCRIBED TEXTS

• Shelley, Mary FrankensteinScott, Ridley Bladerunner

• Fitzgerald, F Scott The Great GatsbyBrowning, Elizabeth Barret Selected Poems

• Albee, Edward Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Woolf, Virginia A Room of One’s Own

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Module B: Critical StudyThis module requires students to explore and evaluate a specific text and its

reception in a range of contexts. It develops students’ understanding of questions of textual integrity. Each elective in this module requires close study of a single text to be chosen from a list of prescribed texts.

Students explore the ideas expressed in the text through analysing its construction, content and language. They examine how particular features of the text contribute to textual integrity. They research others’ perspectives of the text and test these against their own understanding and interpretations of the text. Students discuss and evaluate the ways in which the set work has been read, received and valued in historical and other contexts. They extrapolate from this study of a particular text to explore questions of textual integrity and significance.

Students develop a range of imaginative, interpretive and analytical compositions that relate to the study of their specific text. These compositions may be realised in a variety of forms and media.

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Descriptor

This module requires students to engage with and develop an informed personal understanding of their prescribed text. Through critical analysis and evaluation of its language, content and construction, students will develop an appreciation of the textual integrity of their prescribed text. They refine their own understanding and interpretations of the prescribed text and critically consider these in the light of the perspectives of others. Students explore how context influences their own and others’ responses to the text and how the text has been received and valued.

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PRESCRIBED TEXTS• Shakespeare, William Hamlet• Ondaatje, Michael In the Skin of a Lion• Winton, Tim Cloudstreet• Jones, Gail Sixty Lights• Bronte, Charlotte Jane Eyre• Ibsen, Henrik A Doll’s House• Wells, Orson Citizen Kane• Yeats, WB Selected poems• Harwood, Gwen Selected poems• Slessor, Kenneth Selected poems• Orwell, George Selected essays• Speeches inc. Atwood, Keating, Pearson, Suu Kyi, Bandler, Sadat

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Module C: Representation and Text

This module requires students to explore various representations of events, personalities or situations. They evaluate how medium of production, textual form, perspective and choice of language influence meaning. The study develops students’ understanding of the relationships between representation and meaning.

Each elective in this module requires the study of one prescribed text offering a representation of an event, personality or situation. Students are also required to supplement this study with texts of their own choosing which provide a variety of representations of that event, personality or situation. These texts are to be drawn from a variety of sources, in a range of genres and media. Students explore the ways in which different media present information and ideas to understand how various textual forms and their media of production offer different versions and perspectives for a range of audiences and purposes.

Students develop a range of imaginative, interpretive and analytical compositions that relate to different forms and media of representation. These compositions may be realised in a variety of forms and media.

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Elective 1: Conflicting Perspectives

In their responding and composing, students consider the ways in which conflicting perspectives on events, personalities or situations are represented in their prescribed text and other related texts of their own choosing. Students analyse and evaluate how acts of representation, such as the choice of textual forms, features and language, shape meaning and influence responses.

Students choose one of the following texts as the basis of their further exploration of the representations of conflicting perspectives.

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PRESCRIBED TEXTS

• Shakespeare, William Julius Caesar• Guterson, David Snow Falling on Cedars• Whelan, David The Herbal Bed• Levinson, Barry Wag the Dog• Hughes, Ted Birthday Letters• Robertson, Geoffrey The Justice Game

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Elective 2: History and Memory

In their responding and composing, students consider their prescribed text and other texts which explore the relationships between individual memory and documented events. Students analyse and evaluate the interplay of personal experience, memory and documented evidence to broaden their understanding of how history and personal history are shaped and represented.

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PRESCRIBED TEXTS

• Kingston, Maxine Hong The Woman Warrior• Carey, Peter The True History of the Kelly

Gang• Fears, Stephen The Queen• Levertov, Denise Selected poems• Baker, Mark Raphael The Fiftieth Gate• Website: Smithsonian National Museum of

American History, September 11

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Examples of Supplementary Material

• Newspaper articles (children overboard, Schapelle Corby, Russia’s re-writing of history)

• War propaganda posters• Akira Kurosawa’s Rashômon (1950) • Nam Le, Short Stories

• Julian Barnes, Talking it Over• Helen Garner, A Scrapbook, An Album

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Student ResponseIn adopting the present tense while recalling the past, evident in “a

single finger waves Yossl and Baruch to the right”, Baker outlines his belief that memory gives history a sense of immediacy and relevance. The repetition and questioning of Genia’s, “you read, you read, books, books, but do you know how it feels?” allows Baker, as the mediator between evidence and experience, to stress the importance of the emotionally intensive memory in providing a more sentimental truth for the responder...

In comparison, A Beautiful Life stresses that the recollection of memory allows for a continued understanding for all viewpoints involved. As the mediator of the story, Amir’s soliloquy conveys that Australians “don’t want to know [the refugee’s] stories, we expect them to be silent…when the best service we can provide is to listen”. As with Baker, Amir therefore suggests ...

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Module A: Experience through Language

This module requires students to explore the uses of a particular aspect of language. It develops students’ awareness of language and helps them to understand how our perceptions of and relationships with others and the world are shaped in written, spoken and visual language. Each elective in this module requires study of a prescribed text through a key aspect of language. This provides the basis for the study and use of this aspect of language in other texts, including texts drawn from students’ own experience. Students examine particular language structures and features used in the prescribed text and in a range of situations that they encounter in their daily lives. They explore, examine and analyse how the conventions of textual forms, language modes and media shape meaning. Composition focuses on experimentation with variations of purpose, audience and form to achieve different effects. These compositions may be realised in a variety of forms and media.

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Elective 1: Distinctive Voices

In their responding and composing students consider various types and functions of voices in texts. They explore the ways language is used to create voices in texts, and how this use of language affects interpretation and shapes meaning. Students examine one prescribed text, in addition to other texts providing examples of distinctive voices.

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PRESCRIBED TEXTS

• Day, Marele The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender

• Shaw, George Bernard Pygmalion• Burns, Joanne On a Clear Day (poetry)• Paterson, A.B Paterson Collected Verse• Speeches inc. Luther-King, Cullis-Suzuki,

Kennedy, Street, Spencer, Gandhi

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Elective 2: Distinctively Visual

In their responding and composing students explore the ways the images we see and/or visualise in texts are created. Students consider how the forms and language of different texts create these images, affect interpretation and shape meaning. Students examine one prescribed text, in addition to other texts providing examples of the distinctively visual.

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PRESCRIBED TEXTS

• Lawson, Henry Short Stories• Goldsworthy, Peter Maestro• Misto, John The Shoe-Horn Sonata• Stewart, Douglas Selected poems• Tykwer, Tom Run Lola Run

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Examples of Supplementary Material

• Miranda July, short stories eg: The Shared Patio

• THE ALMANAC SINGERS, 1942 Song lyrics, ‘Belt Line Girl’

• Propaganda posters• Dorothy Parker, The Waltz• Derek Walcott, ‘Blues’• John Agard, ‘Listen Mr Oxford Don’

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Module B: Close Study of TextThis module requires students to engage in detailed analysis

of a text. It develops students’ understanding of how the ideas, forms and language of a text interact within the text and may affect those responding to it. Each elective in this module involves close study of a single text from a list of prescribed texts. Students engage with the text to respond imaginatively, affectively and critically. They explore and analyse particular characteristics of the text, considering how these shape meaning. They also consider the ways in which these characteristics establish the text’s distinctive qualities. Composition focuses on meaning shaped in and through the text. These compositions may be realised in a variety of forms and media.

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Prescribed Texts

• Haddon, Mark The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

• Yolen, Jane Briar Rose• Malouf, David Fly Away Peter• Nowra, Louis Cosi• Shakespeare, William The Merchant of Venice• Owen, Wilfred War poems• Krakauer, Jon Into the Wild

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Module C: Texts and SocietyThis module requires students to explore and analyse texts used in a

specific situation. It assists students’ understanding of the ways that texts communicate information, ideas, bodies of knowledge, attitudes and belief systems in ways particular to specific areas of society. Electives in this module are designed around a specific social context and the texts that are characteristic of and valued within it. Prescribed texts will be drawn from a variety of professional and social contexts.

Students are also required to supplement this study with texts of their own choosing related to the module. Students explore the role of textual features in the shaping of meaning in specific contexts. They develop the communication skills necessary for a wide variety of personal, social, historical, cultural and workplace contexts. Composition focuses on analysing and experimenting with textual forms characteristic of the specific contexts. These compositions may be realised in a variety of forms and media.

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Elective 1: The Global VillageIn this elective students explore a variety of texts that

deal with the way in which individuals and communities experience and live in a global context. Students consider the positive and negative aspects of the global village and the consequences of these on values, attitudes and beliefs. Students also consider the role of media and technology within the global village and different attitudes people may have towards them. Students respond to and investigate a range of texts to investigate how and in what ways living in a global village may influence the ways we communicate, engage and interact with each other.

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PRESCRIBED TEXTS

• Koch, Christopher The Year of Living Dangerously

• Enright, Nick A Man with Five Children• Sitch, Rob The Castle• Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia

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Elective 2: Into the World

In this elective students explore a variety of texts that deal with aspects of growing up or transition into new phases of life and a broader world. People encounter different experiences and respond to them individually. These personal experiences may result in growth, change or other consequences.

Students respond to and compose a range of texts that illustrate different pathways into new experiences. They examine the features of texts that shape our knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about individuals venturing into new experiences.

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PRESCRIBED TEXTS

• Burke, JC The Story of Tom Brennan• Russell, Willy Educating Rita• Blake, William Songs of Innocence and

Experience• Watson, Ken At the Round Earth’s Imagined

Corners• Pung, Alice Unpolished Gem• Daldry, Stephen Billy Elliot

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Examples of Supplementary TextsUnfriendly modern mobilesTuesday, 27 February,Letters

THERE IS much talk is about aged folk making up the greater percentage of our population. So why do technology “experts” and marketers forget the basic needs of the old?This was brought home to me when my trusty old CDMA mobile died. I relied on it when, at nearly 80, I was working on my property or driving to town. I felt safer with it should I have a fall or break down.So all I asked for was a simple mobile on which I could make or receive a call but I was told there is nothing made without “extras” and that I must contract for a tiny thing, most of which I can’t read without glasses. The print is unreadable in tiny, pale letters on a coloured background using symbols that mean nothing to me. Sure, as with every other modern technical device, there are volumes of explanatory drivel – alsounreadable. I need to learn a new language before I make head or tail of voluminous, garbled instructions.How many want these extras? When technologists get old, they will understand that the majority of people (not just oldies) want to do a job quickly and efficiently. They don’t want keys so small that arthritic fingers can’t handle them or video calls, messages, cameras, etcetera. Bring on a simple, uncluttered mobile that simply makes or takes calls.

Pat Graham

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RESPONSE

bg (27 February at 01:36 AM)In the time it took to write the email some kids could have shown you how to do it. It’s nice to think though that you can still enjoy your farm at 80 with all the mod cons assisting you. I don’t know what’s wrong with old people these days. They have got it so good but they just keep whingeing. In Africa the old people have to walk five miles barefoot in the noonday sun just to get a drink, and dodge bullets too.

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CONTACT DETAILS

Lucy Swiateke: Lucyna.Swiatek@humn.mq.edu.au

ph: 9701 - 1032

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