English Textual Concepts Framework - What Is It?

With English, we can analyse EVERYTHING! Look at this great advertisement.

I will just say this first, up front - I love the English Textual Concepts. I want to turn them into a blanket and wrap myself up in them, or throw it all into a smoothie that I can drink every morning. The English Textual Concepts framework makes English into a clearer subject in terms of teaching and learning, crystallising a seemingly infinite subject area into 15 broad but separate concepts and 6 concurrent process. 

English can be a 'slippery' subject (Eva Gold's words, not mine!) so a solid framework on which we can hang the subject is manna from heaven for English teachers. That aforementioned slipperiness is reflected in everything from the blank look on a student's face when expected to respond to a question about their favourite TV show, to the discipline's extensive use of impenetrable holistic criteria to assess student work. It's in that moment when a kid finally cracks, and exasperatedly exclaims, "I hate English, sir, I don't get it!" or another student remarks, "What do we even need this for?" (that old chestnut!) 

I used to struggle with explaining to laymen what English was even about. It's tempting to sometimes say 'books' or 'reading and writing' because that's what most people see it as, but as any English teacher (sadly?) knows, books are a very small aspect of the subject. And in contrast, reading and writing is every teacher's job - literacy is a concern for all subject areas, not just English. With more experience under my belt, I now quickly tell students and parents, "English is about thinking". 

But whilst that is true, it's still a bit nebulous - slippery - for some folks to get their heads around. So that's where this English Textual Concepts framework comes in, transforming a difficult key learning learning area into something much more solid for everyone to get their heads around.

The framework is (in its most general terms) arranged into these domains:

Concepts

• Argument
• Author / Authority
• Character
• Code and Convention
• Context
• Figurative Language
• Genre
• Intertextuality
• Literary Value
• Narrative
• Representation
• Perspective
• Point of View
• Style
• Theme

Processes

• Engaging personally
• Engaging critically
• Understanding
• Connecting
• Experimenting
• Reflecting 

The concepts lend themselves to choice - as the teacher, you can look at a text and figure out which 2 to 4 concepts you'd like to concentrate on. The processes then sit alongside these - they're the skills that need to be taught in order for students to come to grips with the concepts. You could perhaps think of it in terms of the syllabus outcomes, with the concepts as your learn about outcomes and the processes as your learn to outcomes. But maybe that's oversimplifying a paradigm that has been constructed on its own terms as an entirely separate but complimentary framework. I guess there's a whole other blog in that discussion!

Here's a brief example of how the concepts can be used, with the poem She by Pedro Xisto:

That's the poem above. Neat, huh?

Anyway, today I attended some Professional Learning on the English Textual Concepts and this concrete poem by Pedro Xisto was used as an example by Ann Small of a potential text for Year 9 poetry. It's a poem that works quite well with looking at the concept of Code and Convention.

"Codes and conventions are prisms through which we interpret the world and ascertain our place in it". Well, yes, of course - but getting more specific, Code and Convention is about structure. At a Kindergarten level you start out looking at morphemes and letters, then as the students develop through primary school to secondary they look at:

• Verbal, visual and digital signs.
• Sentences and pictures
• Paragraphs, conversations, films, novels, genres... (whole texts, and whole meta-texts)

It's grammar. If you've been following this blog you'll know how truly fond I am of grammar. I feel very pleased that the concept of Code and Convention allows us to focus on this in an English context. 

 

Looking at this odd three-letter poem, we can address it in terms of Code and Convention quite easily. What interpretations can students come up with while looking at this poem? What do the letters represent? What conventions of layout are used and how does this influence meaning? Is there repetition of a letter? Is contrast used? What about the relative size of letters? Where are they placed?

In other words:

- At the letter level, what is being said? 

- As a picture, what does it represent?

- As a text, what is the message, and how do you interpret what the composer is saying?

I had never seen this poem before today but I can tell you now, I think it would be really fun to do with a class. Firstly, as analysis using the concept of Code and Convention, and then, secondly (as suggested by presenter Ann Small), a creative activity where students come up with their own concrete poem in the same style - followed by a written explanation of what they're trying to say in their poem.

It's fabulous.