Top Reads for 2021

This year, in total, I read just over 100 books - a mixture of fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, audiobooks, and picture books. You may note that this blog has not had as many updates lately... suffice to say, I found 2021 to be immensely challenging for a range of reasons. So it was nice, no matter what was happening, to always have some reading on the go. Often I find reading to be an anchor of sorts. 

I got my list down from 111 to my favourite 17.

The Dry by Jane Harper: I was riveted from start to finish and could not stop reading it because I really had to know what happened. This is great Australian crime fiction, and the isolated location gave me strong Peter Temple's Broken Shore vibes. I ordered and read Harper's second book almost immediately after finishing The Dry. 

The Museum of Whales You Will Never See by A. Kendra Greene: A wonderful series of discursive essays that take the reader along on the author's adventures through Iceland's esoteric museums. Wistful, fascinating, and full of wanderlust. Museum.. is the best kind of travel writing and easily my most favourite piece of non-fiction that I read this year.

Milkman by Anna Burns: What an incredible tour-de-force exploration of Northern Ireland's 'Troubles' period. Expertly constructed with an authentic and razor-sharp voice... a devastating examination of the corrosive power of conformity. This easily deserved its Booker Prize.

The Boy From the Mish by Gary Lonesborough: A beautiful, funny, heartfelt, authentic coming-of-age YA story from a gay Aboriginal perspective. My only gripe is that it's a bit sexually explicit in parts, which means I'd be hesitant to tackle it in a classroom. Lonesborough's future books will be ones to watch!

Nothing Much Happens by Kathryn Nicolai: A different sort of book to the other ones on this list. This is a book version of a popular podcast; I bought it on a whim as something to read to my wife each night to help her sleep. It worked a treat - easy rhythmic episodes designed to relax and lull. A nice concept, and it earns its place on this list because it had a positive real world impact on my life.

Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan: I've never read anything like this before and I loved it so much. It's a hard novel to describe but it's short and it's perfectly written and hilarious and poignant. Brautigan has become my new favourite author. 

The Iliad by Homer (Translated by Stephen Mitchell): Why did I wait so long to read this? I was swept up by the chance to experience the iconography and elegiac descriptions of the horrors and glories of a war culture, as written from within. Interwoven with myth and history... not at all as I expected (no Trojan horse, no Achilles heel!). I listened to this one, and Alfred Molina was a great narrator.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: I don't read a lot of YA Lit but I had to check this out due to the hype. It did not disappoint. Very much a vivid and electric book for our times. The Hate U Give is a frequently contested titles in schools due to the way it links into the BlackLivesMatter movement, but it's hard to imagine a legitimate reason for anyone wanting to stop other people from reading it. 

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead: Historical literature with a dash of magic realism. Whitehead employs crisp imagery, riveting characterisation, and a memorable examination of 19th century slavery in order to construct a 21st century literary classic on par with To Kill a Mockingbird. Loved it. 

Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse: I came across this while working my way through the graphic novel canon and was taken by its careful reconstruction of a time period via the lens of memoir. Stuck Rubber Baby is a roman-a-clef that offers a rich representation of the civil rights movement from a gay perspective. Amazingly detailed artwork and brilliant storytelling.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel: I thought I'd be over hearing about Henry and Anne Boleyn after bingeing on The Tudors a few years back but Mantel offers a narrative that effortlessly recreates historical detail while retaining an identifiable human element. Mantel's Cromwell is a masterful characterisation. A truly absorbing novel. 

The Story of China by Michael Wood: I've looked at Wood's stuff before and, whilst he is very much a historian in the TV Presenter mood, I found a lot to be impressed with in this one-volume take on the Middle Kingdom. This ambitious, overarching history of China does a brilliant job at presenting the big events alongside smaller and more under-represented stories. 

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart: A compelling and authentic piece of literary art. Shuggie Bain offers a heartbreaking perspective on the cycle of poverty, addiction, and dysfunction. Agnes Bain will go down as one of the great characters of 21st century literature. Another well-deserved Booker Prize win.

Under-Earth by Chris Gooch: A perfectly constructed and artful depiction of a brutal Australian dystopia. Modern day convicts are thrown into a garbage underworld without hope or independence. One of the best new dystopias I've read in a while.

Civilisations by Laurent Binet: This unique chronicle of counter-factual history imagines a sequence of events that leads to an Inca conquest of Europe in the early 16th century. It sounds like such an unlikely concept but Binet absolutely nails it through his fine observation of history and the forces that make it tick. Fascinating, incisively satirical, lively, and devastating in its dissection of European ideologies.  

Mirror Sydney by Vanessa Berry: A wonderful book of essays about Sydney's hidden histories and the layers of urban esoterica that evoke our memory. Berry has a knack for exploring nostalgia and loss, and attaching value to the devalued. This one really resonated with me because of how familiar I found the geography and history.

Follow Me In by Katriona Chapman: Another personal one. I picked this memoir travel-lit up because it features a lot of places in Mexico that I'd visited. Chapman's memoir is heartfelt and bittersweet and features some of the most beautiful and accomplished artwork I've ever seen in comic form. It took me back to Mexico and I felt like I'd walked it all over again. 

Online Media - How Does it 'Get' You?

Hi! 

Recently I had Year 7 English class that looked at the Media and how ideas are represented within it. It was a very relevant unit of work in light of our society's growing concerns with fake news, toxic online cultures, and the need to increase diversity both in front and behind the screen. It was also quite a useful topic as it allowed me to explore a broad range of ideas and activities while we try to get students back into some sort of meaningful routine after a prolonged lockdown.

The lesson idea below was created afterwards while I was reflecting on the unit. It focuses on targeted online media and the way that it interacts with users. Year 7 students have varying degrees of online literacy and are often experts at operating a range of apps and devices. There are, however, very few who understand the 'back end' of online technology. The rise of smooth smartphone-friendly user interfaces has meant that it's no longer all that necessary to understand the nature of an internet browser cache, what HTML is, or even how web addresses work.

At least, that is to say, it's not necessary if you're a casual user who relies upon social media to navigate the online world. 

But it is perhaps this lack of digital literacy that is ultimately letting our society down and opens some people up to exploitation. The Stage 4 English syllabus can assist our students here with outcomes and content dot points that look to address some of the issues around this. Some examples of how this lesson links to the current syllabus:

Outcome 2: A student effectively uses a widening range of processes, skills, strategies and knowledge for responding to and composing texts in different media and technologies EN4-2A

• Recognise and practise responsible and ethical digital communication
• Analyse and explain the effect of technological innovations on texts, particularly media texts

Outcome 7: A student demonstrates understanding of how texts can express aspects of their broadening world and their relationship within it EN4-7D

• Draw on experience to consider the ways the 'real world' is represented in the imaginary worlds of texts, including (...) media and multimedia texts.

The following lesson looks at how cookies are used to track our activity online and the ways in which this leads to targeted advertising. 

1. Students start off by completing this worksheet - Tracking Activity.

During this activity they outline and describe what they were doing at set points throughout the previous afternoon and the morning before the lesson. This is then put aside, with the teacher explaining that this information will become relevant at the end of the lesson.

2. The teacher then leads students through a PowerPoint with some questions that combine comprehension and critical thinking skills. During this PPT, students learn about online cookies and the way in which advertisements online target individual users. 

PowerPoint Here - Online Media.

3. The final part of the PPT brings students back to the tracking sheet, which they swap with a partner. Each student must then use the information provided to gather information about the 'user' and then design an advertisement to target this person. 

I think it would be a useful activity in the sense that it allows for students to learn about online tracking without having to actually go online (which I often find a logistical problem - EG. Tracking down laptops for classroom use, monitoring and locating student passwords to get onto school network, relying on functionality of wifi). It's also useful in a more abstract sense as it helps students understand what it means when a website asks them to 'accept cookies', how their search history can be financially exploited by advertisers, and why advertisements seem to specifically apply to just them.

Disclaimer: All of the above material was created specifically for this blog in my own spare time.

The Film Canon: What's In It?

A little while ago I posted a meta-curated post that pulled together various 'best of' lists to create a representation of the Literary Canon. I love a good list and you can follow that link to read more about canons in general if it's of interest to you. Today's post moves on to look at another canon:

The Film Canon

My relationship with film is a little different to the way I feel about books. Before I was a teacher I used to live a patchwork lifestyle of sorts... I worked in retail to pay the rent in a series of Young Ones-styled hovels and spent my nights playing in punk bands. While I drifted through my 20s in this way I was also lucky enough to get the opportunity to subsidise my income through writing hundreds of film reviews. I became obsessive about cinema and I began to work my way through large parts of the film canon - this kept me going for the better part of a decade, and I could easily watch 10-20 films a week sometimes. 

So this list is close to my heart :)

These days I probably only watch one new movie a month though. Far too busy with work, and family, and preoccupied with reading and writing. But that's okay. I'm sure I'll get back to working through the film canon one day. 

Like the Literary Canon, this is a living meta-list. Film especially is much more 'alive' than literature - there are numerous websites that continuously aggregate film popularity and critically acclaimed movies, and the history of cinema is much shorter than literature's, so the drawing-together of a cinematic meta-canon is a less 'fixed' event. It's constantly in a state of flux - as if to say, this canon is still forming. Anyway, here's how the above spreadsheet was put together:

• 1001 Films You Must Watch Before You Die - a film-equivalent to the popular book compendium of a similar name. This list is a collaborative effort that calls upon the expertise of approximately 100 respected film critics.
• The Academy Awards - it's been fashionable to decry the Oscars for a long time (and as far as an awards ceremony goes it isn't without its faults) but no one can say that the Academy Awards aren't the most famous film awards in the world. For every film that feels a bit off there are easily a lot of films that are very much worth seeing, and these are America's version of a Film Canon. For my list I included Best Film Winners, Best Film Nominees, Best International Film Winners and Nominees, Best Documentary Winners and Nominees, and Best Animated Film Winners and Nominees.
• They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? - of all the lists I've used as a reference, this is the one that I put the most trust in. They Shoot Pictures, Don't They is a meta-canon that brings together the opinions of film critics over time to create a more global 'Best 1000 Films' list. This list constantly changes as there are new films and new critics emerging all the time, so I've just utilised the 2020/2021 version for now. I've also included the Next Best 1000 Films from this site as well.
• The Story of Film - this is a groundbreaking 15-part documentary series from renowned Irish film critic Mark Cousins. It takes a different approach to most 'best of' lists in that it surveys the history of cinema to chart its most important developments. This is done in a way to demonstrate how the medium has shifted and grown over time into its own art form. 
• A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies - a bit subjective to include the opinions of just one filmmaker but Scorsese offers a robust representation of the uniquely American genres (specifically the Western, the Musical, and the Gangster/Film Noir) that have influenced the world over. 
• Sight & Sound - this British film magazine creates a new list every ten years by inviting famous film critics and filmmakers to contribute their picks for 'best film'. Widely considered to be the most respected of film magazine lists, perhaps due to its longevity (it was founded in the 1930s). 
• IMDB - I used the 4/10/21 version of IMDB's constantly shifting Top 250 to fill out the list with a few more populist titles. These are some of the more popular films that sometimes get overlooked by critics but are widely considered by film fans to be of high quality - a grass roots contribution, if you will.
• Rotten Tomatoes - 'RT Top' in the spreadsheet refers to the Top 100 'Certified Fresh' titles from the Rotten Tomatoes website. The purpose of this website is to aggregate ratings from hundreds of film reviews but, strangely, 99 of these films are from the last 20 years. I don't know if this is a deliberate choice or whether it indicates that film reviewing has increased exponentially in the last couple of decades, but I've included this information nonetheless. 

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm sure in the future I can expand the list by looking at Cannes, and the AFI and BAFTA awards. As of this point, the spreadsheet in the link above contains over 3000 films so it should keep any completist busy!

The English Book Room

Along with my wonderful colleague Dette Therese, I run a Facebook group for NSW English teachers that focuses on sharing resources and building a culture of open collegiality and practical support. Term 3, 2021, has been quite a challenging time to be a teacher in NSW, so to keep our teachers' Facebook group focussed on something positive I started sharing a few examples of books we usually tend to find in the high school English book room so people could discuss them.  

It's been absolutely amazing to hear from teachers all over the state and beyond, with a range of experience, as we shared our impressions and ideas regarding individual books. It pepped me up a little each day to see so many passionate teachers willing to share their thoughts on class-set novels. The goal was to prompt a few thoughts with generic questions:

• Anyone taught this one before?
• If so, which year groups?
• Is it a winner?
• Who's seen it in their bookroom?
• Would you / do you still teach it?

...and anything else a teacher might want to add. 

Anyway, I've collected the information into the following excel spreadsheet:

The English Book Room (Version 1, Sept. 2021)

I've kept it in a spreadsheet so the information can be sorted by the reader - you might be looking for the most popular options, and can therefore sort by the 'recommended' column, or you might prefer to browse through alphabetically by author. 

In the spreadsheet you will find:

> Book Title 

> Author 

> Year of Publication 

> Country of Publication 

> Key Words indicating themes and genre 

> What kind of class it suits

> How many teachers recommended teaching it 

> How many teachers recommended not teaching it 

> Content Warning = things that could prompt potential issues in the classroom when teaching it

and

> A separate tab at the bottom that contains comments/reviews from teachers on each title.

Some Notes

• This is a living document. It will change and get updated periodically to reflect the ongoing accumulation of further information, and additional permissions granted by teachers to have their contributions included. Some elements may appear a bit rough at the moment but I'll continue to enhance the spreadsheet as more is added.
• More than 200 teachers contributed to this so I want to say a massive THANK YOU to each and every one of them. It's a great testament to how social media can be used in a positive fashion for collaboration.
• Each of the teachers featured in the document gave their permission to be quoted. I am only uploading the spreadsheet here and in the Facebook group. Downloading your own copy is fine so long as it's non-monetary and for your own use. 

Books Featured So Far:

• Does My Head Look Big in This by Randa Abdel-Fattah
• 10 Things I Hate About Me by Randa Abdel-Fattah
• The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah
• Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody
• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
• Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl
• The Divine Wind by Garry Disher
• Hitler's Daughter by Jackie French
• Macbeth and Son by Jackie French
• Mahtab's Story by Libby Gleeson
• Once by Morris Gleitzman
• Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman
• Singing the Dogstar Blues by Alison Goodman
• Looking for Alaska by John Green
• Journey to Eureka by Kerry Greenwood
• Deadly Unna? by Phillip Gwynne
• That Was Then, This is Now by S.E. Hinton
• I Am David by Anne Holm
• Taronga by Victor Kelleher
• Onion Tears by Diana Kidd
• Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence
• Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
• So Much to Tell You by John Marsden
• Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
• Boys of Blood and Bone by David Metzenthen
• Raw by Scott Monk
• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
• The Loblolly Boy by James Norcliffe
• Z For Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien
• Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park
• The Harp in the South by Ruth Park
• My Sister Sif by Ruth Park
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• The Wave by Morton Rhue
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling
• Holes by Louis Sachar
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
• The Cay by Theodore Taylor
• Blueback by Tim Winton
• The Sky So Heavy by Claire Zorn

Thank You:

Acknowledgement to the English teachers who contributed and graciously gave permission to be included here:

Alan Lane, Amanda Elizabeth, Amanda Fournaris, Amanda Hannah, Amelia Drinkwater, Amelia Kerr, Amy Greatrix, Angelina Catherine, Angell Harris, April Flavell-Adams, Ashleigh Ftynogiannis, Bec Atkins, Bec Jane, Belinda Diddly-Doodly, Belinda Ryan, Belinda Sinclair, Bernadette Gurr, Bernadette Virwani, Bernhard Huber, Beth Kermode, Brunella Pagano, Carla Beattie, Caroline Brosnan-Kennedy, Catherine Byrne, Catherine McCrae, Cathy Greaves, Celeste Fernandes, Cherie Clark Obrien, Chris Hardy, Claire Low, Clairie Ormiston, Cosette Sheridan, Crab Apple, Cristie Reid-Heuser, Danielle Asquith, Danielle Cleary, Darcy Moore, David Searle, Debbie de Graaf, Denise McKinna, Detter Therese, Deyel Bokor-Charlier, Dhara Des Fours, Dia Zois, Edwina Adelaide, Edwina McCarron, Eleanor King, Elif Tirzik, Elizabeth Ford, Emily Beach, Emily Bosco, Emma Jane Hope, Erika Monk, Erin Graham, Erin Stewart, Ez Fong, Fadia Abousaleh, Faye Cazouris, Fergus Gardiner, Fez Chepe, Fiona Lugnan, Francesca De Leon, Gavin Raymond Brown, Genine Howard, Georgia L'Bank, Georgina Lindsay, Georgina Philpott, Grant Sciberras, Hannah Gierhart, Hannah Rappell, Hannah Thompson Geraghty, Hayley Chisholm, Hayley Sharkey Crowshaw, Hellon Wheels, Imelda Judge, Isabelle Marzano, James Clarke, Jamie Barnes, Jane Drabble, Janelle Stenner, Jarita Banerjee, Jay Goocher, Jeannie Baker, Jeffrey Campbell, Jemma Messer, Jennifer Purssell, Jennifer Waljae, Jenny Holmes, Jess Laxton, Jessica Ansell, Jessica Campbell, Jessica Mann, Jo Bickford Sturgiss, Jo Gresham, Joanna Jennings, Joerg Gruenfeld, Josephine Camilleri, Judith Ridge, Julie Renee, Julz Jewels, Juvena Baldry, Karyn Mooney, Kate Bradley, Kate O'Sea, Katelyn Parrott, Kathleen Emma, Kelly Mack, Kelsey Rae, Kerri Yates Green, Kerrie Guest, Kimberley, Kirilly Farrell, KJ Burke, Kristi Ryan, Kristin Smith, Kristin Vlasto, Lara Hancock, Laura Gabrielle, Letitia McCubbin, Lexi Hunter, Linda Grats, Linda Holloway, Linda Officer LisaPisa Pot, Loren Yaslana, Lorena Najarro, Lorrine Eggleston, Louise O'Reilly, Lu Mac, Lyn Tiernan, Maddie Lee, Mandy Jane, Mark Cochran, Mark McDonald, Markus Joseph, Marney Meredith, Meg Clarke, Megan Gilbert, Mel Marin, Melanie Bailey, Melanie O'Nions, Melinda Giveen, Melinda Lee, Melinda Taylor, Melissa Anne, Melissa Anthony, Meredith Healey, Merrilee Lennon, Michelle Johnson, Michelle Nooroa Katuke, Michelle Patricia, Michelle Renshaw, Michelle Sloan, MJ Logan, Narece Thapa, Natalie Bluhdorn, Natalie Jones, Natalie Quimby, Natasha Audrey Joseph, Nicole Taylor, PamPam Potter, Patricia Fay, Paul Cullen, Paula Madigan, Pauline Griffiths, Peta Clark, Phoebe Black, Rachele Haigh, Rebecca Lea Grant, Rebecca Millhouse, Rebecca Ormand, Rebecca Rowlings, Rhys Hernan, Rob Lockett, Robert Klein, Roberta Wolsey, Rony May, Samantha Jackson, Samantha McFayden, Samantha Miller, Samantha Woolnough, Sandra Lee, Sarah Lee, Sarah Marie, Sarah Wellington, Semir Kuljanin, Sharon Rae, Simon James, Sofia Carmensita Whitehouse, Sophie Kenna, Stacey Treloar, Steve Upsall, Steven Call, Stewart McGowan, Sue Atkins, Sue Harper, Suzana Curcuruto, Suzanne Smith, Tamara Jill, Tammy Borthwick-Mathurin, Tate Williams, Tennielle Willis, Teresa Rodd, Tim Creighton, Tracey Adamson, Ursula Jones, Vicki Denton, Victoria Keech, Wayne Crich, Yosheda Tracey-Lee

* Apologies to anyone I've accidently left off, accidentally left in, or misspelt the name of. Let me know if this is you and I'll fix it up straight away!

Stage 6 Writing Craft 2: Craft of Writing

This post follows on from last week's overview of writing craft across Stage 6. For that blog, I outlined my approach to Reading to Write for Year 11. Today, I'll share how I approach Craft of Writing for Year 12. 

My approach here is a little less involved than what I do with Reading to Write, and the reason for this is that I prefer a student-led approach. I don't mean student enquiry or anything like that - the idea is just for students to create a portfolio in which they craft their own pieces of imaginative, persuasive, and discursive writing. 

It's also less involved for practical reasons. Reading to Write is mandated as the first module of work for Year 11. By contrast, Craft of Writing usually ends up as the last module undertaken in Year 12. Being last means that the module is subject to all kinds of variables - other modules could have overrun, the teacher may decide that copious amounts of revision is needed for their class in preparation for the Trial HSC... anything could happen, really. So I like to ensure that I only need about 5 weeks for Craft of Writing. This is supplemented by ensuring that a suitable degree of prep work is integrated into Stage 6 leading up to this point.

Anyway, without further preamble, here's what I do.

Craft of Writing

One of the key elements of giving students room to create their own portfolio is in setting them up with a range of supporting material. The previously-outlined approach to Reading to Write is designed to do just this, but another thing that can be done on top of this is ensuring that explicit teaching of writing craft happens on a regular basis throughout all of Year 12. 

Students can chip away at this at the start of every second lesson by engaging in mini-lessons that highlight a literary device or writing technique, with the teacher walking students through short activities in the first 5-10 minutes. Where preferable, these mini-lessons should happen within-context, highlighting writing craft for the Prescribed Texts from the other modules (hence why you may notice a few Nineteen Eighty--Four, Under Milk Wood, The Tempest, and Hag-Seed references throughout my resources - these are my texts from my most recent pattern of study). 

Throughout Year 12: For the mini-lessons, students are given a 'Writology' exercise where they learn about an element of writing craft and then try it out themselves. These are aimed at an Advanced English level. I'll admit there are some obscure ones in here but this unfamiliarity/newness is part of what motivates Advanced students to try them out. It's not expected for students to learn them all by-heart, it's just presented as an ongoing range of tools for them to explore. Said tools are placed in front of students and they pick which ones they like. Some examples:

• Asyndeton
• Parentheses
• Hyperbaton
• Modality
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Iambic Pentameter
• Brachyology
• Shared Lines
• Congery
• Irony
• Symbolism
• Ellipsis
• Anthimeria
• Antithesis
• Stream of Consciousness
• Reported Speech
• Anadiplosis
• Allusion
• Tmesis
• Euphemism
• Motif
• Intertextuality
• Synaesthesia 

Weeks 1-2: This is where the study of the Prescribed Craft of Writing texts begins. I start by introducing the Craft of Writing module, looking at the writing genres, and examining selected prescribed texts.

• Students work through this PowerPoint to explore the different writing genres from the module descriptor. There are certain points throughout where the teacher will need to stop and look at some of the Prescribed Texts from Craft of Writing. The ones I use, as included in this PPT, are 'Eulogy for Gough Whitlam' by Noel Pearson (persuasive), 'Eight Days in a Corset' by Siri Hustvedt (discursive), and 'Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice' by Name Le (imaginative).
• Each time we look at one of the Prescribed Texts, students complete a schema to analyse it - resource here.
• On top of the ones we look at as a class, I also include another three Prescribed Texts for students to read and choose from on their own. I wanted to give my Advanced students a range of options to look at so that there's some level of differentiation at work. The other texts I offer the class are 'How to Marry Your Daughters' by Helen Garner, 'Spotty-Handed Villainesses' by Margaret Atwood, and 'That Crafty Feeling' by Zadie Smith. 
• We also look at some poetry - 'Mastering the Craft' by Vernon Scannell (which came recommended to me courtesy of some ETA professional learning), 'O What is That Sound' by W.H. Auden, and a piece of poetry that I've written myself (I think it's important for English teachers to be vulnerable with their own writing and share with students as part of building a collaborative writing culture). 

This is all a lot more open-ended than how I do Reading to Write. Some other things we might do:

• Examine and annotate a page from one of the Prescribed Texts.
• Have students evaluate one of the Prescribed Texts by writing some guided dot points outlining their ideas on the text's context, a summary of the text, what they see as the text's thematic core (thesis), how effective the text is in using writing craft to get the author's thesis across, and what their final verdict on the piece is and why.
• Getting 'Up-Close' with Noel Pearson's Eulogy for Gough Whitlam - resource here.

The Assessment Task should also be introduced by this point so students can start working on it:

Assessment Portfolio

It's not a complicated assessment task. I didn't want students to get bogged down asking about assessment specifications and getting stuck on passing individual sections of the task before moving on to the next one. The idea is for students to just write! They create three drafts and then turn ONE of these into a polished piece with a reflection. Get them started as soon as possible. 

Weeks 3-5: Students continue analysing the Prescribed Texts and working on their portfolio. Part of the drafting process in any of my classes is for students to show their work to their peers and give/get feedback. Now, this can be a very difficult hurdle to overcome - you have to create a culture of peer feedback, which I mentioned back in the Reading to Write blog. 

Peer assessment is valuable because it: 

1. Helps students articulate their thinking with appropriate metalanguage while giving feedback to their peers (this helps with their reflective writing).
2. Helps break down the kind of competitive culture that can occasionally make high-achieving classes a little toxic. 
3. Helps students learn how to draft their work by using feedback. 

Once a student has picked which of their three pieces they want to revise, they're required to show it to a peer for feedback before I'll give them my teacher feedback. Teacher feedback can be used as a 'carrot' to reward students who have shared with their peers first. Peers use this scaffold to help make the process less confronting.

To break things up, a lesson can also be spent engaging in Socratic discussion. This approach is outlined here. And some questions relevant to Craft of Writing for Socratic discussion can be found here.

I don't mandate the incorporation of material from the Prescribed Texts into the assessable writing pieces but I found that nearly all my students drew inspiration from the pieces anyway due to the recency of examining them, plus they incorporated material they had gathered from the Writology mini-lessons. 

It's a wonderful experience to read reflections where students explicitly referred to what they had learned and explained what inspired the craft and technicality of their own writing processes. It builds confidence for students in regard to their own writing ability, and it's a reassuring process for teachers to be involved in too.

Revision: At the end of it all, students can revise the entire module, using the HSC Seminar below:

• Craft of Writing PPT
• A booklet of material that goes with the above PPT. 

Stage 6 Writing Craft 1: Reading to Write

I'm not teaching Stage 6 English in any form this year. Since I moved schools I've switched over to History for a bit, which has been a nice sea change. This has given me time to pause, take stock, and reflect on my approaches to Preliminary and Advanced English. Today I thought I'd outline my approach to Craft of Writing and Reading to Write.

Since the implementation of the 'new' syllabus in 2019 (maybe I should stop calling it new, it's been nearly 3 years now and I'm sure another syllabus is already being worked on in some form, somewhere) one of the bigger shifts has been the inclusion of Module C: Craft of Writing. This Year 12 module shares strong blood ties with the new Year 11 Common Module Reading to Write. 

Before I lay everything out and demonstrate how I approach Craft of Writing / Reading to Write, there are two sticky elements of the syllabus that I'd like to acknowledge. 

The first of these are the Prescribed Texts.

In all of the Stage 6 English syllabuses, aside from possibly the ATAR option for Studies, there is nothing quite as murky and confusing as the existence of Prescribed Texts for Craft of Writing. For teachers who are new to teaching English, this is what it looks like:

• Teachers are required to cover at least TWO of the texts prescribed within the syllabus for the Craft of Writing. There is a Standard English list, and an Advanced English list.
• When this current iteration of the syllabus was first launched, it wasn't clear exactly how these Prescribed Texts would consistently fit into the HSC examination. To be honest, this still isn't clear after a couple of years.
• Students are required to study these Prescribed Texts in class but there is no mandate for them to be internally assessed. Students may need to call upon knowledge of a Prescribed Text in some form for the HSC examination but this is not guaranteed (the 2019 paper asked students to compare their own piece of writing to a Prescribed Text they studied, but the 2020 paper made no mention of Prescribed Texts at all). 

The other major element is the concept of writing discursive, persuasive, imaginative and informative texts. There are some confusing aspects to the introduction of these genres of writing.

• Students are required to explore and create their own texts using these approaches. It has been indicated, however, that informative texts won't be assessed and this is why no 'informative'-styled texts have been included in the Prescribed Texts list. Considering that a lot of teachers don't get to Craft of Writing until the end of their class's Year 12 year, I would suspect that informative texts just aren't covered as there is little reason to make space for them at the 11th hour before a student's HSC examinations.
• The coverage of imaginative, discursive and persuasive writing seems intended to allow students to play to their own strengths - there is no single sample NESA HSC question or past HSC question that requires students to write in ONE of these specific modes only. The logic therefore follows that a student could potentially not be taught about discursive writing and would still be able to do the HSC examination. That said, I would be loathe to rely upon this implication for the inevitable one time that NESA decides to throw a curveball in a future HSC exam.

Reading to Write

Before tucking into Craft of Writing, it makes sense to prepare students as much as possible by backward mapping into its precursor, Reading to Write.

Considering that Craft of Writing focuses on a few shorter texts rather than a single large one (unless you're brave and you went for Metamorphosis, The Awakening or the massive Colum McCann 'short' story), I decided to approach Reading to Write in a similar fashion by using a collection of shorter texts (a few short stories and some poetry) to model techniques and look at the conscious writing choices made by writers.

After a few weeks of this, students then had to pick from a list of selected texts (drawn from what they've studied in class) and create their own piece of writing in a similar style. 

On a sidenote, I've heard some experienced teachers disparage the Craft of Writing concept of getting 16 year olds to emulate the writing styles of 'great' authors... that it's a near-impossible feat and beyond the practicality of what students are capable of, or what would be in their zone of proximal development. I can only speak for my own context but I found that every single student in my Year 11 Advanced English class either enjoyed the idea of experimenting with different writing styles or was able to engage with the idea in a valuable way - the key is finding accessible texts with a diverse range of clearly defined authorial styles. I think this could work for Standard English too, it's just a matter of finding model texts that suit their ability. 

Below you will find my unit outline, some links to resources or previous blogs that support it, and the assessment task that I use. There will be a couple of gaps where you may need to source copyrighted texts if you want to use my approach.

Weeks 1-2: Okay, so it's Day 1 of Year 11. You might have a range of students in your class who aren't even sure if they want to do Advanced English. Some might be there because they've been told by someone that just by doing the course they're assured to get a better ATAR. It's important at this point to start building the right kind of class culture that encourages a love for reading and writing, constructive student collaboration, and a willingness to try things outside of one's comfort zone. Reading to Write is perfect for this. Things that I like to cover in this introductory period:

• An overview of the Advanced English course, and an overview of Reading to Write in particular.
• Some writing activities where students reflect on their own relationship with reading, why people read, why writers write, etc. 
• An examination of notions of author, authorship and authority - resource can be found here.
• Students look at poem 'Introduction to Poetry' by Billy Collins and use annotation prompts to analyse and reflect on the relationship between reading and writing.
• Students then take a deeper dive into another poem, 'Brooklyn Snow' by Omar Musa (found in his collection Millefiori [2017]) and engage in some writing exercises in response to it. These exercises also offer a good opportunity to introduce some poetry metalanguage, EG. Persona, point of view, etc., in support of further modules throughout both Year 11 and Year 12. 

Weeks 3-4: Continue 'building the field' by looking at what makes good writing and what makes bad writing. At this point students will start to engage with some short texts to explore writing style, narrative voice, etc. 

• Examine the concept of narrative voice. Some students will already be familiar with things like tense and narrative point of view, but I've found it's always best to assume nothing when you have a fresh class of Year 11 students. Work through this PPT on Narrative Voice, and follow up with some guided analysis of two extracts from longer texts (Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey and The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard).
• Read 'Sticks' by George Saunders together as a class. Students then select their three favourite or the three most significant parts of the story and justify why they chose accordingly.
• Look at paratext around 'Sticks' - introducing concept of shorter short stories (flash fiction, microfiction, etc.) to get students comfortable with the length of text they should be writing by the time they do Craft of Writing in HSC. Really short but effective texts are best in this context because, let's face it, students have all of 45 minutes to write an imaginative response during the HSC examination. Resource here.
• Students read examples of flash fiction written by their classmates and complete peer reflection scaffolds - this is designed to continue building the classroom environment as a collaborative writing space, and to get students thinking reflectively. Resource here.
• Read Tim Winton's short story 'Wake' and complete associated activities - resources can be found here.
• Introduce concept of discursive writing with extract from Judith Lucy's memoir The Lucy Family Alphabet - resources can be found here. 
• As this is the beginning of Year 11, it's also useful to introduce the concept of thesis nice and early. Look at what thesis statements are, how a strong thesis can underpin any piece of writing, etc. Typically we might talk about a thesis as being something students need in order to write a strong essay, but a strong thesis is just as useful for any piece of writing - discursive, imaginative, and so on. This PPT outlines what a thesis is, why it's important, and how students can apply this concept to the texts they've already looked at in this unit.

Weeks 5-6: These lessons form the last part of the 'studying / comprehending' section of the unit before the students start to engage with the assessment task. 

• Students read Hemingway's famous short story 'A Clean Well-Lighted Place'. Have students record their initial thoughts on the text before engaging with some paratextual information (this can be easily found online with Spark Notes guides and the like). After this additional reading, students then come back to their recorded thoughts and revise their opinion in light of what they've learned - further building their capacity to articulate their thinking in reflective writing forms.
• Students build on their understanding of Hemingway's story by completing associated activities.
• Look at some of Lydia Davis's short fiction, which you can find in The Collected Short Stories of Lydia Davis (2014). I have to admit, this has probably been the least successful of the all the texts I introduced to my students as part of Reading to Write. I still think it's important to expose students to these sorts of challenging texts nonetheless, though, and Lydia Davis is well-known for her witty, post-modernist flash fiction approach to writing short stories. I use the 1-2 page story 'Our Trip' but, really, you could probably use any of her stories. Get the students to annotate the story by using this schema.
• Spend some time examining the importance of orientations. Discuss the idea that the opening sentences of a text work in orientating the reader in numerous ways, and that the opening sentences of a short story typically work as a purposeful and concerted effort on the part of the author to set up a specific relationship between the reader and the text. Use this range of extracts from Lydia Davis to demonstrate a range of possible orientations, with students using this proforma to analyse the impact of each approach.
• Have students examine some rules for writing from well-known authors. This overview includes 'rules' put forth by Kurt Vonnegut, William Faulkner, George Orwell, Roddy Doyle, and Annie Proulx. Students read through and then come up with their own guide by selecting five rules they will adopt, five rules they will ignore, and three rules of their own.
• If you have time, students could also look at one more model text, '2BR02B' by Kurt Vonnegut, and do some of their own independent analysis by using a combination of approaches taught to them in the prior 5 or so weeks (examining the orientation, annotating the text, using schemas, etc.)

Week 7-8: I like the keep the final two weeks clear so students can work on the assessment task in class. This allows the task to be run as assessment for learning, with lots of discussion around what's working and what isn't as the students write and reflect on their own imaginative pieces. 

• The task itself requires students to draw upon one of the model texts they've looked at in the unit and use it to inspire their own piece of imaginative writing that explores individuality.
• Students also write a reflection on their writing to explain how they drew upon the style of their selected model text.
• The marking criteria demonstrates how major discrete skills and understandings taught throughout the unit of work are linked to the syllabus outcomes. Students can use this marking criteria to guide them, and teachers can use it to indicate what students need to work on.

Assessment Task here.

I really enjoy teaching this assessment task, it's interesting to see which texts each student chooses as their inspiration. Those who like Vonnegut create their own miniature explorations of dystopian ideas, those who engaged with Hemingway try their hand at sparse modernist prose, and some use the days-of-the-week structure of Tim Winton's 'Wake' as a starting point for a piece. So many different approaches!

I'll post the follow-up Craft of Writing module unit soon.

DISCLAIMER: It should go without saying, but all of the above is just my way of approaching the syllabus. It's not the 'right' way to do it, it's just one way to do it.

Craft of Writing: Motif, Intertextuality, and Synaesthesia

Hi there! Below you will find three Craft of Writing mini-lessons that support students in practising their writing craft all year-round. You can find a range of other Craft of Writing resources here. The mini-lesson approach involves examining a writing technique in a ten minute segment at the start of each lesson - students are shown how to use the technique, alongside contextual examples, and then asked to put it into practice.

Motif

What is it: An image, sound, action, idea, phrase, word or anything else that repeatedly occurs throughout a text. This is used as a form of symbolism suggestive of a theme or message that the author wants to convey. (See also: symbolism, generic conventions)

Examples:

• The appearance of straight lines and harsh geometric shapes whenever the rabbit characters are seen in the picture book The Rabbits, which is suggestive of their association with artificial human-made structures. (The Rabbits by John Marsden and Shaun Tan)
• The repeated references to performance and terms associated with it in Prospero's speeches. (The Tempest by William Shakespeare)
• Felix's recurring use of metaphorical language associated with magic. (Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood)

Why use it:

• Reinforces the thematic core of a text and helps a writer convey their thesis.
• Creates another level of communication in the text that can allow some readers to pick up on ideas that they might normally not pick up on.
• Contributes to a sense of mood or atmosphere in the text. Can reinforce setting with motifs associated with specific generic conventions.

Quick Activity: Accepting that a book is a symbol of knowledge, write a paragraph about an intelligent character washed up on an island that uses this symbol as a motif. It can be the literal inclusion of a book, language related to books, and/or both.

Textual Allusion / Intertextuality

What is it: Intertextuality is the use of other texts to build meaning in a new text. This can include the merging of texts, the retelling of an older text, rewriting texts in a modern context, borrowing parts of texts in order to comment on genre and narrative ideas, etc. A textual allusion is just a single reference to another text within the text, usually without affecting the narrative in a significant way. Textual allusions may or may not contribution to intertextuality. (See also: analogy, adaptation, appropriation, pastiche)

Examples:

• INTERTEXTUALITY: Hag-Seed features a production of The Tempest as a way to provide parallels between the original play and its own retelling of the play. (Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood)
• TEXTUAL ALLUSION: 8Handz plays the song Ride the Lightning by Metallica while Sal and Tony are locked into a cell. (Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood)
• "A fever of panic against an unseen evil, as though Perth were Gotham City itself" - Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey.

Why use it:

• Adds layers of meaning to a work of fiction - the use of a familiar reference can change the reader's perspective of either the new text or the older one, or both.
• Can clarify meaning when discussing complicated ideas - provides a frame of reference for the reader to identify.

Quick Activity: Describe something by using a reference to a text you have read in English.

Synaesthesia

What is it: A figure of speech in which one of the five primary senses is used in the place of another. Usually used as part of a metaphor or simile as this allows for a sense to refer to something that is completely unrelated to it, such as describing abstract concepts using colours; or smell, taste or sound-based adjectives and verbs used in unexpected places.

Examples:

• "The smell of misery, lying over everyone within like an enchantment" - Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood
• "The words cut the air like a dagger" - The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• "Taste the rainbow" - Skittles advertisement

Why use it:

• Demonstrates creativity when communicating ideas and adds layers of meaning to a text.
• Can reinforce a motif through describing a variety of things using vocabulary related to one particular sense.
• Some authors can use it to create humour by surprising and deliberately confusing the reader.

Quick Activity: Use a taste to describe something unrelated to taste. Use a sound to describe something unrelated to sound. Use a colour to describe something that cannot be seen. 

Here are the three writing elements all in one sheet for ease of use:

• Writology Issue 9

Happy writing!

The Literary Canon: What's In It?

If you're feeling brave, feel free to look up any Twitter debate on 'The Canon'. It's an increasingly partisan debate and... yeah, that's all I'll say about that. I don't really feel up to arguing in favour of either side, whether we should be focusing our teaching on the classics of the canon or whether we should be attempting to destablise the canon by looking at texts written by marginalised voices - it's just too big a question for me to pour any energy into right now. 

I do confess, however, to having more than a passing interest in the canon. 

My introduction to the concept of a 'canon' was through my childhood love of Doctor Who, wherein fans would refer to anything that formed part of the 'official' narrative as 'The Canon'. Even now in Doctor Who fandom there are endless debates about whether something counts as canon or not. Many of these fans aren't even aware that the term has a far more academic meaning. 

Next, as a teenager, I realised that the term's etymology was partially linked to theology. Thinking about it in this way - that the Canon refers to the texts officially accepted by the Church (and this extends to canonized saints) - it helped me to make sense of why the term has come to be used in various other ways.

Then I learned about the Literary Canon, and the Western Canon; maddeningly elastic concepts that can seem as solid as marble or as slippery as an avalanche. And the canons go on... there's a canon for comics, a canon for film, a canon of short stories, one for poetry, one for music, and ones for art, philosophy, architecture, and on and on and on. If enough people think it's important then there might be a canon for it.

And let me be unequivocal here: there is no exact Western or Literary Canon. 

Isn't it fun? Exclusive? Exhausting?

I enjoy making lists. So I made a list to represent the Literary Canon (and one for comics, one for science fiction, one for film, etc.). As I've said above, there's no one, single, definitive Literary Canon (despite what anyone tells you), so this is a living meta-list, one that I continue to add to, and it so far represents information pulled from the following places:

• 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die - a decent attempt at a collaborative canon that utilises contributions from approximately 100 academics and eminent literary critics. 
• The Bokklubben World Library - a master list of the '100 best books' compiled by the Norwegian Book Club in 2002. Created via proposals from 100 writers from 54 separate countries.
• Classic Chinese Novels - this refers to the 10 key novels within China's own literary canon.
• Guardian Top 100 - I included this because I like the literature stuff the Guardian puts out, and I wanted something a bit more popular included.
  
• Times Top 100 - for an American perspective. 
• Pulitzer - America's most prestigious literary prize.
• Miles Franklin - Australia's oldest and perhaps most academically-respected prize. Included here because I'm Australian.
  
• Booker Prize - one of the most well-known international prizes in English language literature. I've also included the shortlisted novels alongside the winners.
• Costa and Commonwealth - I've included these two major literary prizes just to try and broaden the list out a little with more recent titles.
• Asian Classics - a collation of a few titles considered to be part of the canon across the continent of Asia.
  
• Modern Library - a 100+ year old publishing initiative where a board of 'prominent thinkers' put together a Top 100 fiction novels.
• The Western Canon - Harold Bloom is probably the chief Canonist of the 20th century. His 'Western Canon' sought to pull together the definitive list of texts that have informed Western thinking. I've only included the novels and full length non-fiction texts from the list - I've opted to consider the poetry and plays as their own separate canons.

Some ground rules I established while sifting through these canons for the curating of this Literary Canon:

1. The focus is on novels and books. These are primarily fictional, though there are some crossover non-fiction novels that seemed to find their way onto some of the above lists, so I've included those too.
2. I've left out plays/drama, poetry, and opera - I feel like these could have their own lists, especially as they appear to be becoming increasingly niche as the decades and centuries go on. The only poetry that is the exception to this rule is when an author creates a long-form poem or narrative poem that exists as a singular book. 
3. There is the odd graphic novel that made its way onto some of the above lists (such as Watchmen) but I've chosen to leave this out as the Comics Canon is quite extensive and deserves to live as its own list. 
4. Some of the above lists include the occasional book series. In these cases I've broken each series up into the individual books.
5. There are not any individual short stories in this Literary Canon but there are some entire short story collections - I've included these to reflect wherever they've been mentioned by the above lists.
   
6. I have not added anything that I personally felt should be in there. That would defeat the purpose of researching the canon.
   

 Anyway... here's the list!

Peace Train Comprehension - Remote Learning, 2021

Hello fellow NSW teachers, looks like we're back in lockdown and steering the remote learning train once again! What can one say?

Here's an activity I used with a mixed ability Year 8 class last year. It isn't complicated or revolutionary in any way, just a cute clip I found on Youtube for Cat Stevens' timeless song Peace Train. The worksheet I made is fairly straightforward and focuses on comprehension of the lyrics - I wanted something simple and not too difficult so the class could ease into remote learning. Getting as many students engaged as possible so that they stay in a calm routine, well, it's the name of the game at this point.

This is how it goes...

Step 1: Students watch the following clip:

This can also be seen here. I would recommend using some kind of Youtube downloader site (provided you have good antivirus software) so you can download your own copy. Having a downloaded copy usually leads to less problems than trying to access wifi - even (or especially) when teaching a full classroom as per normal routine.

Step 2: Students respond to questions on the worksheet. This can be uploaded as a .doc to a Google Classroom so students can just type into the boxes, or printed off as a worksheet if needed.

• Worksheet (Word version)
• Worksheet (PDF)

A lot of my students hadn't heard the song before and they enjoyed it, which is always a fun bonus. It was nice to have a lesson focused on something positive so students could disconnect a little bit from the negativity of the pandemic.

Anyway, that's all for today, like I said - it's a fairly straightforward worksheet. 

I hope your remote learning experiences this time around are as smooth and stress-free as possible!

Take care.

Using Schemas with Related Texts

The drive for senior NSW students to locate and select their own related texts has diminished somewhat since the days of Belonging and Discovery. The 2019 syllabus de-emphasised it across the entire Standard and Advanced curriculum, relegating it as a single Common Module element that doesn't require external assessment (meaning there is no requirement for students to recall their related text in the HSC exam... make of that what you will!) 

All that said, Extension English 1 still requires students to find some related texts for their elective module. In total, the elective module involves the study of three prescribed texts (selected from a pool of six) and two related texts - with students expected to (most likely) draw upon their knowledge of two prescribed and one related text for the HSC question. 

In a 1 hour exam context, it's quite a feat to be able to tie together that many texts and tailor a response to a previously unseen essay question.

I found myself grappling with this challenge when I first picked up an Extension class a few years ago, thinking to myself: 

How does one prepare Year 12 students to be adaptable while managing sophisticated and interlocking knowledge of that many texts?

A schema works. This is a way to guide students in pulling out specific textual examples from their texts. The examples are collected in connection to the module descriptor, which can be a highly effective way to organise thinking if the student is made to do it over and over again with in the following ways:

1. Use the schema with multiple texts at the same time in a single lesson
   
2. Use the schema with the same texts at different times throughout the year
   

My schema was developed for the Literary Homelands elective but versions could be easily made for any of the other electives. I was heavily influenced by Paul Kiem's excellent video on the Question 1 segment of the History Extension exam. I recommend watching it even if you have no connection at all to the teaching of History as it's a really valuable approach to teaching adaptable critical thinking and the synthesis of ideas at a more academic level. 

Download schema here.

Once students have used the schema a bunch of times they can then try out some paragraph or essay responses. I start them out with the instruction to come up with a thesis in response to the question (a whole other exercise) and then to tie this thesis to one of the themes in the schema. The notes the student has made on each of their texts (both prescribed and related) in relation to this specific theme can then be pulled from each schema to construct a single thematically-driven essay paragraph that ties together two, three or even four texts. 

It's not the only way to do things but my students found it helpful so maybe yours will too :)