Unpacking the Rubrics of AOS &

Modules

Teaching the Key Concepts

Karen.yager@det.nsw.edu.au

Unpacking the Rubrics

• Students must have a thorough understanding of the conceptual focus and demands of the syllabus and Prescriptions’ rubrics.

• The conceptual focus and the demands that are grounded in the syllabus outcomes must drive the design and delivery of our teaching programs and assessment tasks.

Notes from the Marking Centre

• Candidates who clearly understood the purpose of their texts were able to demonstrate conceptual understanding and respond personally.

• High-range responses used key terms particular to their focus area to create their own thesis, and displayed an ability to evaluate and analyse.

• Better responses developed a thesis which demonstrated a strong conceptual understanding of the module and the elective.

• Better responses introduced a thesis to answer the question in their introduction and maintained and supported it throughout the essay. (ESL Feedback)

BELONGING

AREA OF STUDY

AOS Concepts

Representation How the composer’s choice of language modes, forms, features and structures shape meaning and influence responses. These choices are influenced by a composer’s sense of belonging.How the concept of ‘Belonging’ is conveyed through the representations in texts of people, relationships, ideas, places, events, and societies. Assumptions underlying various representations of the concept of ‘Belonging’.Possibilities presented by a sense of belonging to, or exclusion from the text and the world it represents.

AOS Concepts

Perceptions -How an individual’s perception of belonging or not belonging can vary and is shaped by his or her personal, cultural, historical and social context.-The ways in which a responder perceives the world through texts.

Contextualisation How the perspectives of the composer and the responder are shaped by personal, cultural, historical and social contexts.InterrelationshipsThe connections between texts through the concept of ‘Belonging’

AOS Concepts

Aspects

of Belonging

ExperiencesNotions of identityRelationshipsAcceptanceUnderstanding

SkrzyneckiDisplacement: The migrants feel displaced in a new land -‘Unaware of the season whose track we would follow’– They search for a place where they belong spiritually, socially and culturally. Alienation and Rejection: The migrants reject the new culture and cling to the past and their country of origin. The persona distances himself from his family as he is too young to remember the past and becomes an Australian- “pegging of tents further and further south of Hadrian’s Wall” and “I repeat I never knew you.”

Emily Dickinson Experiences: The death

of friends and family meant that she focused on loss and transience. She lived a reclusive life but she maintained a rich epistolary relationship with friends and mentors. When turning, hungry, lone,I looked in windows…

It makes us think of all the deadThat sauntered with us here,By separation’s sorceryMade cruelly more dear.

Emily Dickinson Relationships: An

independent, free spirit who stated that her only real companions were the hills, the sundown and her dog, Carlo; influenced by a series of ‘masters’. Her epigrammatic, compressed syntactical lyrics voice ideas of independence and individualism. Her strident dashes reach out and hold us at bay and her half rhyme is discordant and disconcerting. She expressed an all consuming closeness with nature.

Emily Dickinson Notions of identity: The

lyrics are highly subjective conveying a strong awareness of self.

Acceptance: THIS is my letter to the world, that never wrote to me,- Although she conveys isolation she accepted her solitude. Estrangement and belonging paradoxically operate in her poetry: The next two lines in the poem express intimacy and remoteness

The simple News that Nature told –With tender Majesty

Texts of Own

Choosing

Encourage students to choose texts that: They are passionate about Enable them to make strong connections with their prescribed text and theses (support and challenge) Enable them to discuss with ease the textual features and details

Picture Books: The Red Tree, Way Home, Tales from Outer Suburbia, The Arrival, My Place, The IslandGraphic Novels: -American Born Chinese (Yang) - Jin Wang, a lonely Asian American middle school student who would do anything to fit in with his white classmates- The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Selznick)- The Wall: Growing up Behind the Iron Curtain (Sis)

Texts of Own

Choosing

Writing Task

Must have a concept or key ideaStrong on imagery and descriptive languageUse the setting suggestively and symbolicallyCould be inspired by the prescribed text or a text of own choosingDevelop a clear, strong voice 100-word micro story Images and quotes as inspiration

AOS Implications for Teaching

Brainstorming of key concepts and ideas

Developing theses or lines of argument

Using a key concept to shape an imaginative response

Choosing texts that connect with concepts

Activity

• How will you approach the teaching of the AOS?

• Brainstorm possible theses for Belonging

• Any suggestions for texts of own choosing

STANDARD MODULES

How our perceptions of and relationships with others and the world are shaped in

written, spoken and visual language

How our perceptions of and relationships with others and the world are shaped in

written, spoken and visual language

How the conventions of textual forms, language modes and media shape

meaning

How the conventions of textual forms, language modes and media shape

meaning

Distinctive VoicesVoice: The ways language is used to create voices in texts, and how this use of

language affects interpretation and shapes meaning

Close textual analysis:Grammar ToneSyntaxSemantic chainsWord choicePunctuationMoodModalityTenorSyntaxAgencyAccentRhythmColloquialismsFormality

Close textual analysis:Grammar ToneSyntaxSemantic chainsWord choicePunctuationMoodModalityTenorSyntaxAgencyAccentRhythmColloquialismsFormality

 

Distinctly VisualImage: How the forms and language of different texts create

images, affect interpretation and shape meaning

Imagery: the images we visualiseImages: the images we see

Bush all around – bush with no horizon, for the country is flat. No ranges in the distance. The bush consists of stunted, rotten native apple-trees. No undergrowth. Nothing to relieve the eye save the darker green of a few she-oaks which are sighing above the narrow, almost waterless creek.

Distinctly Visual Saussure: Language is a

system of interrelated signs Lola as a superhuman (avatar)

who rebels against father & society

An electronic, virtually real punk Berlin

Chaos of possibilities Plurality of viewpoints Flashbacks & snapshots of the

future Split screen & jump cuts

heighten tension Pastiche of 35mm colour and

monochrome film, video, and animation

Symbolism: close-up of clocks ticking towards high-noon = fate

Non-diegetic sound: frenetic, pulsating techno soundtrack

Distinctly VisualIdeas and Meaning

We shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time - T.S.Eliot, ‘Little Gidding’“The journey not the arrival matters” T.S. Eliot.

Coincidence as the arbiter of destiny - three alternative versions

Crime and its effect on essentially innocent individuals

Time as an unforgiving concept

How a text’s textual features and details, structure and form

shape meaning

How a text’s textual features and details, structure and form

shape meaning

How a text’s textual features and details, structure and form

establish its distinctive qualities

How a text’s textual features and details, structure and form

establish its distinctive qualities

How the ideas, forms and language of a text may affect the perceptions

of responders

How the ideas, forms and language of a text may affect the perceptions

of responders

HSC Expectations Better responses

demonstrated a deep understanding of an idea or related ideas, drawing on detailed textual knowledge. They were thorough, fluently expressed and well structured.

Better responses also reflected a personal perspective.

Candidates who clearly understood the purpose of their texts were able to demonstrate conceptual understanding.

Many responses limited themselves to the beginning of the text and consequently did not show the development of an idea throughout the novel.

Cosi ‘We usually see

madness as dark and scary, so we can keep it in a corner and ignore it’ Nowra.

Craft or artistry Context: Australia in

the 70’s Characterisation:

transformation of Lewis

Meaning & ideas Personal response

The relationship between texts in terms of social context

The role of textual features in the shaping of meaning in specific

contexts

How textual forms and features reflect personal , social, historical, cultural and workplace contexts

The positive and negative aspects of the global village and the consequences of these

on attitudes, values and beliefs

The positive and negative aspects of the global village and the consequences of these

on attitudes, values and beliefs

How living in a global village may influence the ways we communicate, engage and

interact with each other

How living in a global village may influence the ways we communicate, engage and

interact with each other

Into the World Aspects of growing up or

transition into new phases of life and a broader world: A teenage protagonist coping with:

- Living with trauma- A transforming sibling

relationship- Social acceptability in a new

place- Relationship with the

opposite sex- Emotional growth- Changed place in social

order- Social judgment

Into the World

People encounter different experiences and respond to them individually:‘I wanted to explore how many lives are changed through the actions of another’ JC Burke.– Fin: shaping a new life

as a paraplegic– Daniel: coming to terms

with his mistakes and finding a new path

– Kylie: composing a new path separate and distinct from Tom’s

Into the World Personal experiences may

result in growth, change or other consequences:

- The change in Tom is the main focus of the novel, complex and mature response: ‘Part of Tom’s journey is being forced to see situations and people as they really are, not as he thought they were’ JC Burke.

- Daniel symbiosis- New mentor, Brendan- Daniel’s change is more

troubled, difficult and less articulate

- Kylie’s change

Into the World Features of texts that shape

our knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about individuals venturing into new experiences:

- 1st person narrator: A young male who can express his internal battles, dialogues and thoughts with sophistication and complexity

- Flashback to reveal more about the night of the accident

- Contrast between the representation of Tom and Daniel and their response to the accident

- Evocative imagery

ESL MODULE A: Experience Through Language

Elective 1: Australian Voices Explore the ways in which language is

used to represent voices in texts. Consider the different types of voices

evident in texts and how the creation of a distinctly Australian voice, or voices, affects interpretation and shapes meaning.

ESL MODULE A: Experience Through Language

Elective 2: Australian Visions

• Explore the ways in which language is used to represent visions in texts.

• Consider the different types of visions evident in texts and how the creation of a distinctly Australian vision, or visions, affects interpretation and shapes meaning.

• How we see the world; our way of thinking

ADVANCED MODULES

Advanced Module A

Comparative Study of Texts & Context

Elective 1: Exploring Connections

Elective 2: Texts in Time

Advanced Module A

Contextualisation: The effects of social,

historical and cultural context and questions of value on texts.

The ways in which changes in context lead to changed values being reflected in texts.

The relationship between texts in terms of context.

Advanced Module A

Elective 1: Exploring Connections

How meanings of a pair of texts can be shaped and reshaped by considering the nature of the connections between them

Connections through direct or indirect references, contexts, values, ideas, and the use of language forms and features

Advanced Module A

Elective 2: Texts in Time How the treatment of similar

content in a pair of texts composed in different times and contexts may reflect changing values and perspectives

Considering the texts in their contexts and comparing values, ideas and language forms and features

Frankenstein & Blade Runner

Nature of humanity Value of life Redemption Loss of Innocence Alienation Scientific

development and responsibility

Power of the imagination

Implications for Teaching

Making connections through concepts first then contexts, values, ideas and use of language forms, features and structures in mind maps, posters, Venn diagrams, jigsaws, etc

Hot Seats: Characters, composers

Advanced Module B

Critical Study of Texts Textual Integrity: How

particular features – structure, form, language features, characterisation, setting, ideas, etc - of a text contribute to textual integrity.

Advanced Module B

Others’ Perspectives: Evaluation of the ways in which a text has been read, received and valued in historical and other contexts.

Interpretation: How we respond to and evaluate texts.

Module B - Hamlet

‘What piece of work is man’ – what it is to be human

Artistry Meditation on

mortality Universality Resonance

Implications for Teaching

Developing theses or lines of argument

Intimate and detailed knowledge and understanding of the text

Others’ perspectives used to support and challenge student’s interpretation

Advanced Module C

Representation & Text

Elective 1: Conflicting Perspectives

Elective 2: History and Memory

Advanced Module C

Representation: - The processes of

representation and how meaning is conveyed through the medium of production, textual form, perspective and choice of language.

- Representation of events, personalities or situations.

Perspectives: How texts present different versions and perspectives of events, personalities or situations for a range of audiences and purposes.

Advanced Module C

Elective 1: Conflicting Perspectives:- Ways in which conflicting

perspectives on events, personalities or situations are represented

- Analyse and evaluate how acts of representation, such as the choice of textual forms, features and language, shape meaning and influence responses

Advanced Module C

Elective 2: History and Memory

- Explore the relationships between individual memory and documented events

- 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

`History is a representation of the past, not the past itself` (Rosenstone, 1995, p. 35)

Implications for Teaching

Representation the core concept

Focus on the HOW and MEANING

PURPOSE and CONTEXT of composer

Activity

• Planning for the Modules

• Extract the key concepts/theses that emerge from the modules