So Long to 2022, Hello to 2023!

I kept starting blog posts with resources or teaching ideas these last few weeks and would then stop myself from posting them because it's December. I just feel like everyone is done with the teaching year. I'm right, aren't I? This year was the first uninterrupted year of school since 2019 but there was this constant sense of 'could things become unsteady again?' and the COVID-related absences (both staff and students) riddled the year with a certain sense of discontinuity. It feels really obvious to say this but everyone across the entire planet is feeling really tired.  

So I thought I'd do something different and write a little more personally for my last blog of the year. 

Here are some things that I was thankful for this year:

• My beautiful baby, who is now wobbling around the house on two legs like some stop-motion wonder from an old Ray Harryhausen movie. It's a cliche but my whole worldview has genuinely changed with the arrival of this additional person in my house. It's been amazing to watch such grow, to see everything anew through new eyes, and to share this journey with my beautiful wife.
  
• A new school to call home. This is the fourth school I've worked at now and it's been great professional learning to see just how differently every school operates within the same overall system. I feel a great sense of calm in knowing that I will be continuing at this school into next year and beyond. 
• Becoming a Learning and Support Teacher. I've alternated between English and History for my decade-plus career, never quite committing to just one (I'd like to say that I can't pick between the two but the honest truth is that I just go with the flow - if I'm asked to teach English, I will, if it's History, I'm happy to do that too). In Term 4 this year I got to step into the entirely different role of Learning and Support Teacher, and I've loved it so much. I've been feeling a greater sense of self-worth and I enjoy working to help students and their families - plus it allows me to look at big sets of data (a secret and highly nerdy passion that I've never had enough opportunity to dive into in the past).
• New (and old) friends who have been supportive and funny and helpful and a reminder of what matters in the workplace and beyond. 
  

As you might have guessed from the above, things have been busy in my house this year. I haven't had as much of a chance to write aside from a couple of teaching articles and some poems (two were published under a dastardly pseudonym). I read about half the amount of books that I'm usually able to (being a parent reintroduced to me to the concept of existing in a constant state of tiredness) but there were still some really great things that I got to read, here were my ten favourites, in no order:

• Plunder of the Ancients by Lucinda Delaney Schroeder. A true crime account of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agent going undercover in the Native American illegal artefact trade.
• Kindred by Kirli Saunders. I read this because I wanted to teach it to Year 11 and I found the poetry to be quite soothing and welcoming - Saunders has a way with words when it comes to providing a window into the very soul of the earth.  
  
• The Overstory by Richard Powers. This was a big wow; a brilliantly interwoven and finely crafted piece of climate fiction about trees. Much more interesting than you could imagine.
• The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal. My second time reading but my first time truly appreciating.
• Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. A seedy knife's edge cooking memoir, and the perfect spiritual companion to this year's best new TV series (The Bear).   
• A Confederate General at Big Sur by Richard Brautigan. My third Brautigan novel - and I've loved all three so much that I'll be working my way through his entire body of work in the near future.
• Pax by Sara Pennypacker. A heartbreaking and beautiful coming-of-age novel about a fox and his boy. Thanks to my friend Ellen for this one!
• Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong. Last year, Vuong had a poem included in the HSC and he found himself (unexpectedly) bombarded online by students who hadn't coped with said poem. Unlike most authors who have previously faced this horrifying prospect, Vuong merely expressed bemusement and set about savagely and hilariously mocking some of the messages he received. His poetry collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds further exemplifies his mental acuity with a raw juxtaposition of the tough and the intimate in a range of pieces filled with unforgettably visceral imagery and remarkable wordplay.
  
• After Story by Larissa Behrendt. This one was recommended by my friend Lis. I just finished it this morning and I love how effortlessly it blends together so many different elements (trauma, family, travel, literature, Aboriginal culture) through dual perspectives. 
• The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow. Technically you could call this picaresque novel a 'coming-of-age' but, really, I haven't read anything like it before. Bellow's voice is uniquely colloquial yet sophisticated, presenting a range of misadventures and characters both hilarious and poignant.
  

And that's it from me in 2022. If you're reading this, I hope you take some time over the holiday break to rest and be with the people you love most. Here's to a gentle 2023. 

Punk Punk - A Gallery of Subgenres

The -punk suffix genres can be a great discussion starter; there are various permutations and sub-categories that force or push stories in certain directions, and that writers experiment by combining elements to create new science fiction subgenres by leaning into particular aesthetics and ideas. 

Without taking retroactive classifications into account, the cyberpunk genre is unarguably where it all all started. Cyberpunk combines a dystopian near-future setting with a heavy emphasis on emerging technologies; in the 1980s this meant things like the internet, virtual reality, and practical body modification. Cyberpunk became a prominent subgenre after William Gibson helped to define it in his groundbreaking 1984 novel Neuromancer.

Just for fun, here are a range of other subgenres that have developed in the years since, each of which use the -punk suffix as a marker to let audiences know they are engaging with a fictional world. The various subgenres explore potential futures through highly specialised aesthetics - some of them are superficial in outlook, emphasising style over narrative, whereas others hone in on particular themes and concerns.

Steampunk: The most popular of the -punk subgenres (after the 80s/90s computer tech of cyberpunk) is the Victorian-era aesthetic of steampunk, which is perhaps as much about cosplay and fandom as it is about colonial-flavoured alternative realities. Think Jules Verne, The Golden Compass, some Studio Ghibli films.

Dieselpunk: Most of the -punk subgenres are heavily fixated on a particular aesthetic and its through this that the genre is defined. In this sense, dieselpunk presents alternative realities built from combustible engines and 1930s tech. See: Indiana Jones, The Rocketeer, the comic series Hellboy, the first Captain America film.

Clockpunk: Clockpunk is a subgenre that draws on Renaissance designs and iconography to present an alternative sci-fi realm that images a post-medieval world of light and strength. Think Da Vinci, conquistadors, 15th century Europe.

Rococopunk: This seems to be more stylistic than an actual genre of storytelling. It relates to a combination of cyberpunk and rococo/baroque fashion. One of the best things about the -punk suffix is that the suffix itself has the power to inspire bold new combinations of history and storytelling, with fandoms branching out to create their own costumes from the most flowery recesses of their imagination. When I hear 'Rococopunk' I mostly think of music videos like The Killers 'Mr Brightside' or Adam and the Ants.

Atompunk: When 1950s atomic-age aesthetics are used to present an alternative future with a decidedly retro look. Sometimes called 'Raygun Gothic', used to describe everything from The Jetsons to the original series of Star Trek or the film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Biopunk: Biopunk is a sci-fi subgenre that focuses on biotechnology and synthesised biology. Think David Cronenberg's films eXistenZ or Crimes of the Future, the animal-splicing of Island of Dr Moreau, H.R. Giger's monster designs. A genre that explores the blurring of lines between technology and nature, and the disturbing consequences that might ensue.

Solarpunk: An aesthetic built on a hypothetical utopian future scenario in which climate, environmental, and sustainability issues have been solved. It functions as both a subgenre of sci-fi and art, and can also be observed in the more speculative flourishes of architecture and town planning.

Formicapunk: This is a recent branch that demonstrates the way that the -punk genre tree will always continue to grow and revisit territory in new ways. Formicapunk leans heavily on retro-futurism and the stylistic flourishes of the 80s. Also known as casettepunk. You already know this look and love it.

Lunarpunk: A less-developed idea but one in which scenarios have been put forth where sustainable technology is combined with Wicca, supernatural, and pagan-esque iconography. 

Decopunk: Calling upon the aesthetics of the Art Deco movement, this subgenre combines 1920s architecture with sci-fu futurism... hello Metropolis! Aside from the superficial elements that contribute to a particular look, this subgenre also alludes to fascism and Italian futurism.

Feudalpunk: A personal favourite. Feudalpunk combines sci-fi tropes with medieval settings and scenarios in order to explore the intersection of society, control of knowledge, and the devastation of technologies beyond our understanding. It's not a popular subgenre but it certainly exists, see: A Canticle for Leibowitz, Gene Wolfe's novels, the original plans for Alien 3, Riddley Walker, and Dune.

Steelpunk: The uglier, updated, more industrial son of dieselpunk. Rivets, hardware, and pollution abound in this grimy post-apocalyptic permutation. Common in '90s and '00s visions of the future - see films like The Terminator, Mad Max, Robocop, The Edge of Tomorrow.

Silkpunk: A steampunk alternative that draws on Asian antiquity rather than the Victorian era. First identified by Chinese-American writer Ken Liu, this subgenre has been a point of contention in relation to accusations of cultural appropriation - with some Asian writers asserting that its co-opting by Western authors serves as a creative intellectual cousin to colonialism or exploitation. 

Elfpunk: Elfpunk transports fae and elven characters into a gritty urban setting - exploring a juxtaposition of the faerie realm with motorcycles, rock bands, and nightclubs.

Sandalpunk: This one combines technology and speculative worlds with alternative versions of ancient European and Middle Eastern civilisations. Examples include Stargate, various depictions of Atlantis, and 300.

Stonepunk: Stonepunk does the same thing as other -punk subgenres but with dinosaurs and/or a prehistoric setting. The Flintstones didn't set out to slot into this genre (it hadn't been invented yet) but it retroactively fits the bill! Perhaps more of a fantasy derivative than sci-fi.

Cattlepunk: This is the territory where sci-fi meets the Western - cyborg cowboys, robot horses, and super-powered railways abound. This genre perhaps exist mostly as an excuse to keep the tropes of the Western genre alive into the 21st century. Examples include Cowboys and Aliens, the comic East of West, the Will Smith movie Wild Wild West, Westworld, and the TV series Firefly.

And, as far as I know, that's pretty much it for the moment. There are others that don't feel as developed or don't seem differentiated enough from other genres (nanopunk, hopepunk, capepunk, oceanpunk, nowpunk, mythpunk) so I've left these out. Perhaps one day we'll see an Indigenous Australian approach that things like Cleverman could retroactively fit into (ochre-punk?) If you know any other -punk genres that I haven't mentioned, please let me know!

Disclaimer: This is an expanded version of a Twitter thread I wrote five months ago. Most of the images were sourced through Pinterest, where such things are shared and shared again in an endless recursive loop. If you are the artist of any of these pictures and would like credit or for the image to be removed, just let me know and I'll do that.

Happy Halloween: Tag Someone

Looking for something Halloweeny and fun as we nudge our way through the final term of the year? Today's post features a Stage 4 or 5-aimed story (depending on ability) that would work as part of a wider Horror-themed unit that aims to teach generic conventions, or even just as a stand-alone lesson focused on creative writing.  

Before looking at the story, students will need to be primed on short story structure. If they're not familiar, this could involve brainstorming or copying some notes that covers the following:

Structuring a Short Story

There are three main parts to every short story: a beginning, a middle, and an ending. These parts are referred to by these terms:

1. Orientation = the beginning. This should contain enough information for the reader to know what is going on, who the characters are, what the setting is, etc.
2. Complication = the middle. This presents a problem to be solved, increases tension, and requires a response.
3. Resolution = the ending. This is where the complication gets resolved.

Sometimes a story can move these three parts around; some stories begin with the complication and then have a flashback to an orientation. The resolution can also take one of the four main following forms:

• Cliffhanger: a story that ends by resolving one complication with the addition of a new one, or leaves a key question unanswered.
• Twist: something unexpected and surprising happens; usually foreshadowed.
• Reflection: the protagonist (or another character) thinks back on the events of the story and considers what they have learned.
• Circular: the story ends where it began.
  

Reading a Short Story

The story is only three pages long so it's easy enough to cover in one lesson with time for some follow-up. Read through 'Tag Someone' with the students (you would probably want to do this soon, I suspect the technology referenced in the story will become out of date before we know it) and then have some time discussing it a little. 

Story is here: Tag Someone.

Analysing a Short Story

Students then analyse the components with some connection to thinking about the horror genre in particular. The worksheet below covers the purpose of an orientation, how the complication functions as a reflection of the horror genre and the way it explores the fears of our times, and the type of resolution that has been used by the author. 

Worksheet here: Tag Questions.

If you have more time afterwards, students could be asked to start thinking of their own short horror story, the fear they'd like to explore, and how they would structure it.

Happy Halloween :) 

Disclaimer: The above activity was written specifically for this blog. 

Patterns of Study in HSC English - Reflections and Ideas

If there's one part of the English syllabus that attracts my attention more than others, it's the Prescriptions List. I'm endlessly fascinated by the way in which this list interacts with the Literary Canon, intensely curious about how these texts are selected by NESA, and highly interested in what combinations of texts teachers select for their classes. It's the what and the why that I want to know. 

When I invariably ask someone what text they've chosen, and why was it chosen, I never get quite the same response. I think this is great and I'd love to see a big enough sample size to identify specific trends. Of course, this is complicated somewhat by the changeover between Prescribed Text lists, which occurs every 5 years or so.

The last Prescribed Text list released by NESA applied to 2015-2020. This essentially meant that a HSC Pattern of Study could be run for 5 consecutive times before a new text list would get released. The syllabus document from this time (released in 2014) indicated that the Area of Study module (which has now been replaced by the Common Module) would be reviewed in 2018 for updating in 2019. I'm not sure what the reasoning for this was if the rest of the syllabus was scheduled to run until 2020... seems a little needlessly complicated, would love to hear an explanation if anyone knows!

Anyway, I'm not sure what happened, but the Prescriptions List was reviewed prematurely in 2017 and the changeover of the entire syllabus was brought forward to 2019. This is our current syllabus, which was initially scheduled to run from 2019-2023. The unforeseen circumstances of the Covid pandemic, however, means that it's likely to be extended to 2024. I say 'likely' as, even though there's been some communication that this is what's happening, our experience of the 2015-2020 syllabus indicates that we can't plan that far ahead.

We can reflect, however, on what we've taught and what's worked. And perhaps also what hasn't worked, and what we'd do if we had another run at it.

The current Advanced English syllabus for Year 12 specifies that we teach:

• FOUR texts from the main prescriptions list.
• ONE of which must be PROSE fiction (in other words, a novel).
• ONE of which must be SHAKESPEARE.
• And ONE of which must be either POETRY or DRAMA (this would be in addition to Shakespearean drama).
• The FOURTH text can be an additional text from any of the above options OR one of the non-fiction or film/media options.
• TWO texts from the Craft of Writing prescriptions list.
• This can be any two texts from the list, and you're free to teach more than two if you like, though be aware that this particular part of the syllabus remains contentious among teachers due to inconsistent assessment at the HSC Examination level.
• This year's exam (2022), for example, did not require students to call upon any knowledge of their prescribed Craft of Writing texts.
• It's also been embedded in the syllabus that students learn about Imaginative, Persuasive, or Discursive writing forms - but the prescribed list does not delineate which texts are which. The Imaginative texts are the fictional ones, obviously, but the non-fictional texts often combine Persuasive and Discursive elements. It's probably fair to say, though, that there aren't really any strictly Persuasive-only texts included in the list. I mean, let's be honest here, these terms are inventions of the syllabus and are being retroactively applied to texts that didn't set out to be 'Discursive' or 'Persuasive', so the whole thing is problematic unless we're told how we should categorise each text according to the module descriptor. It feels like there's some awareness that Craft of Writing has become unstable due to contradictory interpretations by teachers, and this is perhaps best evidenced by the fact that the 2022 HSC exam question ignored the 'Persuasive' option and instead specified that students write only in the Imaginative or Discursive genre. 
• Let's not even mention the inclusion of poetry in Craft of Writing and how this fits in.
  

The current Standard English syllabus for Year 12 specifies:

• THREE texts from the main prescriptions list.
• ONE of which must be PROSE fiction (a novel).
• ONE of which must be POETRY or DRAMA.
• ONE of which must be FILM/MEDIA or NON-FICTION.
• TWO texts from the Craft of Writing prescriptions list.
• The same rules (and issues) apply as seen in Advanced English.
  

The above specifications allow teachers to design their 'Pattern of Study' for Year 12 in accordance with what will be assessed in the HSC Examination. There are some additional mandated elements in both the Advanced and Standard syllabuses too:

• The range of text types must be 'inclusive' of prose fiction, drama, poetry, nonfiction, film, media, and digital texts. This seems to reinforce the specific choice of texts from the Prescribed List though, in the case of Advanced English in particular, you can choose a pattern of study that does NOT include Film/Media or Non-Fiction, so it seems like this additional caveat is asking for some supplementary material to be included at some point that allows for these text types to be included.
• The texts studied must also include Australian authors, specifically Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander authors. Given that there are no Torres Strait Islander authors represented in any of the Prescribed Texts, this could potentially be seen as confirmation that these authors might be represented in the form of supplementary texts rather than Prescribed ones. I'm not sure how many Advanced English teachers would spend any significant time looking at supplementary texts though.
• The texts studied should also be representative of a range of cultural, social, and gender perspectives. I would interpret this as meaning that, among other things, there should be a mix of male and female authors represented in your pattern of study. As indicated by the dot point above, this is wholly interpretative and I doubt that all teachers approach this in the same way. Incidentally, there is only one non-binary author represented in the entirety of the NSW Prescriptions List (Kae Tempest, who has a performance included as one of the Advanced English Craft of Writing options).

Reflecting on Patterns of Study

I've had the opportunity to teach the Advanced English HSC year three times within this current syllabus. My pattern of choice for two of these times was:

1. The Common Module: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (Prose).
2. Module A: The Tempest by William Shakespeare and Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (Shakespeare).
   
3. Module B: Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas (this covers the Poetry/Drama requirement rather neatly as it's sort of both. It's also technically a Media text as it originated as a radio play [the only text of its sort in the Prescriptions List] and can be played to students in this form). 
4. Module C: I tend to focus on 'Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice' by Nam Le (an imaginative text) and 'Eight Days in a Corset' by Siri Hustvedt (one of the purest examples of discursive writing in the list). I also introduce some others if there's time so students have an opportunity to look at a variety of texts and independently study one that works better for them - these are 'How to Marry Your Daughters' by Helen Garner, 'That Crafty Feeling' by Zadie Smith, and 'Eulogy for Gough Whitlam' by Noel Pearson.
   

For Standard English, which I've taught less, my pattern of choice at the moment is:

1. The Common Module: Billy Elliot directed by Stephen Daldry (Film/Media/Non-Fiction requirement).
2. Module A: Inside My Mother by Ali Cobby Eckermann (Poetry / Drama requirement).
3. Module B: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Prose requirement).
   
4. Module C: 'The Pedestrian' by Ray Bradbury and the 'Funeral Service of the Unknown Soldier' by Paul Keating.
   

Other Patterns

I'm not completely attached to any particular pattern of study as I actually like most of the Prescribed Texts. So, from a personal perspective, I can see the merit in most combinations of texts. That said, I would tend to design a pattern of study based on whatever my school and/or classroom context requires. If I was someone else who did NOT enjoy the vast majority of texts in the Prescriptions list, I would also factor in my enjoyment and/or appreciation of certain texts.

(DISCLAIMER: I'll also mention here that there are a lot of really cool patterns of study that just aren't possible due to the frustration of both a mandated Shakespeare and poetry/drama requirement. If Shakespeare could at least count as Drama then this would solve a lot of problems. More on this in a bit.)

Here are some examples of patterns of study and potential contextual reasons (I'll leave out the Craft of Writing as it doesn't impact on the rest of the pattern).

Advanced English

Example A.

1. The Common Module: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (Prose)
   
2. Module A: Richard III by William Shakespeare and Looking for Richard directed by Al Pacino (Shakespeare).
3. Module B: Selected Poems by T.S. Eliot (Poetry/Drama).
   

Reasoning: This is a 'traditional' approach that sheers pretty close to the Literary Canon. For students and teachers who aren't afraid of the Classics (capitalisation intended), this combination would also be potentially useful if you're strapped for resources and ideas - they've all been taught so much and so widely that it should be relatively easy to find collegial support and resources both online and printed.

Example B.

1. The Common Module: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Prose).
2. Module A: The Tempest by William Shakespeare and Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (Shakespeare).
   
3. Module B: A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen (Poetry/Drama)
   

Reasoning: This is a 'heavy readers' combination that allows for contemporary connections to be made to big concepts with lots of discussion points. For students who have the time or inclination to read (All the Light... is a very large text to ask busy students to read, so I would keep this in mind and watch how students approach texts in the lead-up to Year 12).  

Example C.

1. The Common Module: The Crucible by Arthur Miller (Poetry / Drama).
2. Module A: The Tempest by William Shakespeare and Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (Shakespeare AND Prose).
3. Module B: Good Night and Good Luck directed by George Clooney (Film option) 

Reasoning: It's really difficult to make some combinations work and, invariably, this will mean one of the two Module A Shakespeare options need to be used just to meet requirements. This pattern of study could yield some fantastically deep thinking if you have a cohort of students who are interested in or already studying Modern History - the combination of The Crucible and Good Night and Good Luck makes use of a shared contextual understanding of McCarthyism and the Cold War. 

Some problems... I don't want to get too bogged down in patterns of study that don't work but I'll outline one example just so it's clear why some things can't happen, and this is purely down to the mandatory Shakespeare/Drama issue:

EG. If you wanted to do an Art/Classical/European approach that makes use of The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal (Module B) then you'd have to sacrifice a lot of other texts that would potentially support its study - if there was a Module A combination that uses a Poetry/Drama text with a Prose text then you could at least do The Merchant of Venice for the Common Module. 

Standard English

Example A.

1. The Common Module: Go Back to Where You Came From directed by Ivan O'Mahoney OR Waste Land directed by Lucy Walker (Media).
2. Module A: Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah by Alana Valentine (Poetry/Drama).
   
3. Module B: Feed by M.T. Anderson (Prose). 

Reasoning: If you're looking to challenge the thinking of your class without relying too much on the cohort having developed literacy skills, then this pattern could work well. There's lots to talk about in connection to our modern global context across all of these texts.

Example B.

1. The Common Module: Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett (Prose).
2. Module A: The Castle directed by Rob Sitch (Film) OR One Night the Moon (Media).
3. Module B: Coast Road by Robert Gray OR Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Drama/Poetry).

Reasoning: This pattern allows for a broad look at Australian culture and could work well for regional or suburban classroom contexts where student cohorts have a strong preference for this sort of thing. You could potential present this pattern to students alongside some others so they feel like they have some agency and input into their HSC. 

Example C.

1. The Common Module: Rainbow's End by Jane Harrison (Poetry/Drama).
2. Module A: Reindeer in My Saami Heart directed by Janet Merewether OR Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung (Media/Non-Fiction).
3. Module B: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Prose).
   

Reasoning: This approach has a strong focus on identity and advocacy, with students able to examine the challenges surrounding issues such as the Indigenous experience, multiculturalism, and disability. There are strong links in particular that could be made between Rainbow's End and Reindeer... as both deal with indigenous peoples and explore a common global context. 

Some problems... as above for Advanced, I don't want to dwell on the negative, but the biggest problem across the Prescriptions list for Standard English is the lack of Prose fiction options in Modules A and B.

EG. In order to make use of non-Prose options in the Common Module, teachers only have four options across the other two modules to choose from. This will most likely end up being The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which (oddly) is the most accessible text of the four options. The other straightforward option is Feed by M.T. Anderson, but it will depend on the level of interest and patience your class has for quirky science fiction as to whether this would work. The other two options are Henry Lawson's short stories (again, there may be engagement issues with some classrooms) and Small Island by Andrea Levy (a staggeringly long novel of more than 500 pages). 

---

If you're a teacher reading this, or a student who's just finished looking at each of the modules, let me know below what pattern of study worked or didn't work for you. Have you come across an unusual pattern that works? I'm very interested in knowing!

ETA Peel Valley HSC Seminar Day

Here you shall find the PowerPoint presentations that I spoke through at the ETA Peel Valley HSC Seminar Day on the 15th of September, 2022. All of these relate to Standard English.

For the Common Module...Texts and Human Experiences: Rainbow's End by Jane Harrison.

• Rainbow's End Seminar Presentation.

For Module A... Language, Identity and Culture: Inside My Mother by Ali Cobby Eckermann.

• Inside My Mother Seminar Presentation.
  

For Module B... Close Study of Literature: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.

•  Curious Incident Seminar Presentation.

Any questions at all, feel free to leave them below :)

Aurora College - Advanced English HSC Seminar Day

Hi students (and teachers), you will find links to my two presentations for the Aurora College HSC Seminar here.

Go here for presentation on Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences - The Merchant of Venice

• The Merchant of Venice - 2023 Presentation
  

Go here for presentation on Module A: Textual Conversations - Tempest and Hag-Seed

• Tempest and Hag-Seed - 2023 Presentation

Happy studying!

Teaching Embedded Clauses

One of my favourite things to teach Year 7 or 8 is the embedded clause. It sounds boring but it's relatively simple and students always have fun with the idea of manipulating language in unexpected ways. Embedded clauses can be taught effectively in thirty minutes or so in just three steps.

Step 1: Model an embedded clause

An example, inspired by Louis Sachar's Holes but not actually in the text:

Mr Sir squinted in the moonlight, his hand wavering over his gun, and told Stanley to get out of the way.

The embedded clause in this case is the middle part of the sentence that sits between the commas. The function of this clause is to add additional information to the situation, and it turns the line from a compound sentence to a complex one. 

An easy way of explaining the clause to students is to ask them to remove it from the sentence and then read aloud what remains to see if it still makes sense. If it does, the removed section was an embedded clause and the sentence itself was a successfully complex one.

Students should copy the above modelled sentence, highlight the embedded clause, and label it as such. 

Step 2: Scaffolding an embedded clause

The next step is to provide a sentence without an embedded clause and to ask students where such a clause could be inserted. It's important to make it a bit silly to offset the dryness of an activity focused on grammar. Here is such a sentence:

Spaghetti O'Jones laughed and grabbed a hold of the tortoise.

Students will start to get a feel for this by nominating places where a clause could go. The 'his hand wavering over the gun' clause from the Holes sentence works well enough as an example for discussion purposes. The [ ] indicates potential places to add the clause, and commas have been inserted accordingly to show students how to potentially punctuate it as well:

[ ], Spaghetti O'Jones, [ ] , laughed , [ ] , and , [ ] , grabbed a hold of the tortoise , [ ] .

For the ones at the beginning and end, this can be an opportunity to talk about 'reversibility' with complex sentences. If the sentence still works with the clauses reversed then students can label it correctly as a complex sentence.

Anyway, students then pick one of the following clauses below and insert it in one of the above spots. 

• EG. Spitting pasta everywhere
• EG. Sneezing uncontrollably
• EG. Kicking over the daffodils
• EG. Something else of student's choice

I would take this opportunity to walk the room and read the new sentences students create, laughing or marveling with them at what they've been able to put together.

Step 3: Without Training Wheels

Students then use an embedded clause to create their own sentence from scratch. 

Disclaimer: The above activity was written specifically for this blog.  

Teaching 'Setting' with Holes

Setting/Characterisation is one of the criteria assessed in NAPLAN for the years in which creative writing is prompted. In fact, in comparing the Persuasive and Creative options for the NAPLAN writing section, this is the only real point of difference that comes up in the criteria. Without getting too much into it, Setting and Characterisation are conflated on the understanding that both of these textual elements require sufficient detail and a sustained approach across the length of the student's writing. 

I think there's something in this definition.

For example, if a student introduces their setting at the start of their piece, then we want to see them remember that this is the setting right until the end - and the writing should reflect this. If it's a freezing tundra then we want to see constant and varied reminders of this throughout the text, and we also need to see that events and characters within the text interact with this setting appropriately. 

The same is said for characterisation. If a character is dressed in a cumbersome pizza slice suit, then we  need to read about them sweating throughout the story, or the way in which the suit restricts their movements, and that other characters comment on the bizarre appearance of this pizza slice protagonist.

In Stage 4, I have on occasion used the novel Holes by Louis Sachar to teach the literary concept of setting. This can be done across the first 45 pages in relation to the story being set in Texas's Chihuahuan Desert. Before I demonstrate some of the ways this can be explored, here's a quick paraphrasing of what Stage 4 English says about setting:

• EN4-1A contains a content point that asks students to recognise and analyse the ways in which setting interacts with events or characterisation. 
• EN4-2A contains a content point in which students are encouraged to use textual evidence related to setting when justifying a point of view.

So, as we can see, by the time students are in Years 7 and 8 they should be looking at the more complex ways in which setting operates as an element within a text and be able to use their knowledge about this when analysing said text. Here are three ways in which this can be addressed in relation to Holes:

Activity 1 - Stretching Our Creative Muscles

1. Before the students even have a chance to read Holes, I ask them to spend 10 minutes writing about their own setting for a story. Free reign is given here, students can set their story anywhere, anytime. I usually walk around the room and give students a range of options to prompt their imagination - do they like the beach? Bushwalking? Perhaps they'd like to go to an alien world, or a frozen wasteland? Haunted houses, grimy cities, and ancient civilisations all get a look in as well.  
2. Then we go off and do something else for the bulk of the lesson. I like to let their descriptions sit for a little bit, perhaps while the class does one of the other setting-related activities.
3. At the end of the lesson, for about 20 minutes, I then direct students to read through their descriptions and monitor how they used vocabulary to build a setting. This means highlighting any adjectives they've used, and circling any imagery that relates to four of the major senses (sight, smell, sound, touch). Students then come up with an additional 5-10 adjectives or sensory imagery that could have been used in their description.

Activity 2 - Purpose and Complexity

1. Read the opening chapter of Holes as a class and then discuss what sort of setting this is. Students collect together any details that let them know what this setting is, and reflect on what impression Sachar wants the reader to get.
2. Then we read on until we get to Chapter 3, where the protagonist Stanley Yelnats is travelling to the Juvenile Correction Facility at Camp Green Lake via bus. There is a part in this chapter where Stanley thinks about where he is going and expresses gratitude that he will at least be able to go for a swim in the 'Lake'. 

Stop here and explain what irony is. I look at three types of irony and usually a little bit of discussion will get students to recognise that sarcasm is one of these - this is a good way of starting off.

• Verbal Irony: Also known as sarcasm, this is when someone says something that is the opposite of what they mean.
• Situation Irony: This is when we expect something to happen in a story only for it to be subverted or flipped by the writer.
• Dramatic Irony: This is when there is a disconnect between what the audience knows and what a character knows. When the audience knows more about something than a character this can create tension or humour.

    3. I ask students here to consider how Sachar has used dramatic irony. The answer is the bit where            Stanley thinks he is going to be able to swim at Camp Green Lake. Thanks to the opening chapter         (which features no characters and only focuses on setting), the reader is aware that this lake is                 completely dry - although Stanley is not. We see now how setting interacts with character and                 the novel's structure in a more complex fashion than students perhaps realised, and the teacher can         help make it clear here that the entire purpose of the opening chapter was to allow the reader to            know about the setting before Stanley does.

Activity 3 - Textual Evidence

1. Students read Chapters 5 to 7. If you wanted to do this in the classroom, I find that this will take about half an hour. This works well if you read to the students (which is valuable for a whole range of reasons) because the second half of the lesson then has the students working more independently. 
2. After finishing Chapter 7, we look at Reinforcing Setting. That is to say, how has Sachar continuously made references to the setting and shown how this setting impacts on the characters? Students will at this point be asked to gather 8 quotations from Chapters 5 to 7 that demonstrate this.
3. For some students, this could be the first time they've been asked to identify quotes as a form of textual evidence. With that in mind, I think it's useful to give students the page numbers so they don't waste time aimlessly flipping through pages and disengaging altogether. I do the first one for them so they can see exactly what they need to do (NOTE: the page numbers refer to the edition of Holes pictured above. Even though the cover may be the same, be aware that some page numbers may differ a tiny bit due to different printings having slightly different font size):

• P.17, "They were dripping with sweat", this shows the way in which the setting is affecting the characters.
• P.19
• P.21
• P.26
• P.28
• P.32
• P.35
• P.36

What I find interesting about this last activity is that some students will pause and ask how a character being thirsty relates to the setting, and this allows for discussions of more subtle uses of setting beyond "It was dry and hot". 

 

The above activities can of course be adapted for use with a variety of other novels too.

Disclaimer: The above activities were adjusted specifically for this blog. 

The Use of Rhetoric in Documentaries

The explicit teaching of rhetoric can provide a useful framework through which students can better understand persuasive texts. In the case of documentaries, narratives are constructed with the express purpose of manipulating an audience. It is via the major modes of persuasion that this is best facilitated, often referred to as the 'rhetorical triangle'. The use of the rhetorical triangle is perhaps relevant in some way for all texts but, in the case of the documentary, it is hardwired into the very fibre of the genre. 

Your mileage will vary in terms of which cornerstones of rhetoric you want to touch on. The most popular approach is to teach the aforementioned rhetorical triangle - Ethos, Logos, Pathos - but this isn't necessarily where things need to end. If we think of communication as a rhetorical process, you can quite easily stretch this to six cornerstones - making space for Kairos, Telos, and Topos (a rhetorical hexagon, I guess) 

This will require the teacher to have an awareness of their class and which persuasive element might be a Greek word too far. At the moment with Stage 5 I tend to stop at four (Ethos, Logos, Pathos, Kairos) but will always re-assess depending on the cohort being taught and how enthusiastic they are about rhetoric. I'm unlikely to ever teach all six, I think.

Some useful definitions:

• Ethos - Appealing to an audience through the use of authority, ethics, and credibility.
• Logos - Appealing to an audience through the use of logic, evidence, and factual-sounding claims.
• Pathos - Appealing to an audience through the use of emotion, particularly through triggering an emotional response.
  
• Kairos - Appealing to an audience by picking the best time and place to make an argument.

Today's activity is designed for use with the documentary Blackfish. 

1. I would project this document onto a board for students to see. 
2. Students draw up a table and sort the examples into whether they work as examples of Ethos, Logos, Pathos, or Kairos. 
3. Come together as a class to discuss which rhetorical cornerstones students matched each of the examples to.
4. Students can then be given a paragraph prompt - Account for Blackfish's ability to challenge the beliefs of audiences. This question essentially requires students to discuss the way in which rhetoric has been used to convince or persuade the audience, I would give a Year 9 or Year 10 class eight to ten minutes to complete the paragraph - this time limit will keep them focussed, and also works as the average amount of time it should take students to write ONE essay body paragraph in timed conditions. 

(The answers for the sheet are, with the key reasons underlined...)

Ethos

• An official from the Occupation Safety and Health Administration provides opinions that contradict SeaWorld's official lines regarding the lifespan of Orcas.
• A police report is included near the beginning of the documentary.
• A whale expert explains that Orcas have never harmed any humans in the wild.
• Many official news reports are shown in regard to some of the events that happened at SeaWorld.

Kairos

• Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite filmed and released Blackfish just 2-3 years after Orca trainer Dawn Brancheau was kileld.
• First screened at a variety of American Film Festival ahead of the international 'award-giving' season.

Logos

• Computer simulation is used to recreate the strategies used to hunt and capture Orcas. 
• An incredibly lengthy autopsy report is shown, including factual explanations of many specific details of Dawn's death.
• A graphic of Tilikum's family tree demonstrates how Tilikum is responsible for the breeding of 54% of the SeaWorld franchise's Orcas.

Pathos

• Quote about Orcas, "When you look into their eyes you know somebody is home."
• Dramatic, sad-sounding music in a 'minor key' is often played at key moments.
• Whale Hunter remorsefully describes what he did as being "like kidnapping a little kid away away from their mother."
• Details of death by Orca are explained in graphic and gruesome detail.
• The former trainers talk about crying upon seeing Orcas in the wild for the first time.
• Trainer, talking about an Orca being separated from its child, "That is heartbreaking. How can anyone look at that and think is is morally acceptable? It is not. That is not okay."

Disclaimer: The above resource was created specifically for this blog.

Scaffolding Paragraph Construction

If there's one thing I was never explicitly taught as an English student back in the 1990s, it was how to write an essay. Even in my time as a senior student, I don't remember ever being conscious of how to write one... I wrote them, of course, and I got good enough marks to justify my later life choices, but essay and paragraph structure weren't ever focused on in my days as a student. 

This presented me with a challenge when I became a teacher. The day I became an English teacher was the day when I first had to start thinking about how essays were written. I observed my fellow teachers and backwards-engineered A range student responses, learned about PEEL paragraphs for the first time and, a bit later, ALARM. I've since come across a range of acronyms that help to formularise and quantify the process of paragraph writing in English... PEAL, TEAL, PEEEL, ICAV, CLACEL, OREO. 

I don't begrudge any of these. Whatever works, right? I just don't have the experience of learning these as a student, and I think it's important for teachers to have such experiences to call upon. Being inside the learning process as student is very different to constructing it as teacher.

I've since tried my hand at writing in the aforementioned formulae for this precise reason, sometimes under fake student names so that I can get an honest appraisal from my teaching peers (a daunting process, let me tell you!). Thankfully, my essays have received appropriately high marks when I've done the 'fake student' thing, but I have to admit that I don't think I do my best writing in the context of using paragraph formulae and scaffolds. When I meet students who have an instinct for writing I encourage them to avoid squeezing themselves into the acronyms, at least as much as our system allows.

That's enough reflection for now. Below is a task that I wrote a couple of years ago while I was thinking about paragraph writing. I've since used it with Stage 5 classes (both Year 9 and Year 10) and it works pretty well. 

It relates to the documentary Blackfish and aims to familiarise students with the idea of supporting a concept statement with relevant examples and analysis. The task does not require students to come up with said examples and analysis as I wanted to explicitly and specifically hone in on the actual construction of the paragraph. As I've explained before on this blog, I think we sometimes get too open-ended as teachers and become afraid to show students exactly how things are done because we don't want to be seen as doing the work for them. Unfortunately, this approach can leave students completely in the dark and they can become unwilling to attempt tasks that they perceive as just too complex.

Here is my thinking:

• Academic paragraph writing is complex. It requires the synthesis of multiple skills - conceptualising, judicious selection of evidence, the ability to write sentences in a variety of structures, use of appropriate vocabulary in a high modality, use of a wide and subject-specific vocabulary (IE. Metalanguage), the use of a paragraph structure that makes internal sense whilst also operating within the wider context of an essay, and memorisation of detailed content that can be recalled in essay-writing contexts that may not allow for notes to be on hand.  
• In order to get students to even start doing the above, I need to remove some of those skills from the playing field. I need to zoom-in on just one or two things and make sure students are confident with these first, and I need to do it in a way where students have the ability and confidence to complete the task whilst also still learning new things (that zone of proximal development we're all familiar with from our university pedagogy days).
• In this particular task below, students are being taught TWO things - the ordering of information within a paragraph, and how to generate a concept based on two different examples from a text. 

The task:

1. Students are given this worksheet.
2. Students pick two pieces of evidence from the worksheet that they think are similar, or that they like the look of. Higher ability students can fill in details about the point being made by each piece of evidence.
3. Students think of something they could say that brings these two pieces of evidence together. What common idea is within them? How are they similar? What argument do they both support? This is then written onto the top of the sheet.
4. Students then write a paragraph that starts with the concept statement they have created and copy the two examples in after it. This is done under timed conditions (9 or 10 minutes for Year 9, 8 minutes for Year 10).

There are three things to watch for when students construct the paragraph. These are things we may take for granted, or things that have not been explicitly taught to students before.

• Make sure the students are putting their sentences one after the other in the paragraph. Some students will start a new line for every sentence which makes the paragraph look like three small separate paragraphs. It can mean a couple of things when students do this, the most worrying of which is that they may not think of all these separate sentences as being part of something cohesive that belongs together. Some students won't learn this through being told ahead of the task, they will need to physically write it wrong first and then have the teacher correct it in front of them in person. 
• The two examples will need some adjusted wording or a connective clause of some sort between them. EG. Additionally, In addition to this, A further example of this is, Moreover, etc. Not all students will instinctively know this, especially if they haven't done a lot of (or any) academic reading. 
• For students who have no trouble assembling the paragraph quickly and understanding all of the above, this could be the time where you introduce the idea of a linking sentence at the bottom that consolidates the concept of the overall paragraph and ties things back to a bigger idea (the thesis). Stronger English students will be able to do this quite well in Stage 5.  

Happy paragraphing!

Disclaimer: The above resource was created specifically for this blog in my own spare time. 

Documentary Techniques in Blackfish

Not a long blog today, just thought I'd share a resource that relates specifically to the film Blackfish and more generally to studying documentaries. It's something I would use with Stage 5 (Year 9 or 10)... I created it a couple of years ago and meant to put it on the blog but forgot in the chaos of 2020's pandemic. 

Anyway, it's a glossary activity that serves a dual purpose:

• It lets students express their understanding and/or learn about a range of techniques used in the construction of documentaries (you'll note the inclusion of anthropomorphism - this is because it's particular to Blackfish).
• The teacher can use this as an opportunity to gauge student understanding of a range of techniques that they may or may not have learned prior to this study. As teachers we often find ourselves teaching students that we might not have taught in previous years - these students no doubt have already been taught a range of techniques relevant to the study of English, but no two English teachers cover the exact same things so it's always useful to check-in and see what the students know.

Anyway, it's not a complex activity. Students are shown a range of definitions and must then match them to the technique names. 

1. Give students this worksheet. 
2. The teacher walks the students through this PowerPoint so they can see a range of definitions. Students are to write the definitions in on the worksheet where they think they fit.  
3. Students can then either A) Numerically order the techniques in order of familiarity, or B) Give each one a score out of 3 in terms of how familiar they are with them. 

The last step is important to teachers as it provides an opportunity for Assessment for Learning, and can help identify areas that will need introduction or reinforcement with the class. 

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

Film History: Early Editing #1

One thing I that find endlessly fascinating is the development of film as its own specific art form. The earliest experiments in film go back way further than we might initially imagine; if we consider the invention of moving imagery as the first step in the direction of cinema then film history has its roots in a piece of 5200 year old pottery recovered from an archaeological site in Iran called Shahr-i Sukhteh.

When spun, the patterns on the outside of the pottery create the short animation above. But how did humans first come up with the idea of combining images to create movement? The answer to this perhaps goes back even further...

It's been theorised that some of the early European cave paintings, such as the Trois Freres paintings (which are estimated to be somewhere between 14 000 and 40 000 years old) may have been deliberately transformed into animations when they were lit by flickering fire. For a demonstration on this, see the video above.

Eventually, of course, the combination of this long-held knowledge with the 19th century invention of photography led to cinema itself - see here for a lesson based on the very first 'proper' films from 1875.

Experiments in Editing: Life of an American Fireman

We take a lot in filmmaking for granted now but there are certain editing techniques that didn't come naturally to the first directors and editors. It was their innovations in the earliest days of silent cinema that created the film grammar we now rely on to create narratives on the screen. 

Below is Life of an American Fireman, a six minute film directed by pioneering American director Edward S. Porter in 1903. 

In the film, a group of firemen respond to a call and rescue a family from the second floor of their burning house. Porter wanted to depict the action from multiple perspectives, showing the helpless family inside the house as they were rescued by the firemen and the firemen as they climbed up the ladder outside and brought the family down to safety. 

Today a director would show these multiple perspectives by cross-cutting back and forth several times. Porter, however, lacked access to this technique as it hadn't been invented yet. Often referred to as 'parallel editing', the idea of portraying concurrent sequences at the same time by cutting between them did not really solidify on film until 6 years later with D.W. Griffith's A Corner in Wheat. 

Porter attempted to solve the issue in Life of an American Fireman by first showing the events within the house and then replaying the events afterwards from the outside.

It isn't the best way to show things happening at the same time. A modern audience finds it jarring to see events repeated in this way, and so it doesn't really work for us when creating a narrative. We can, however, see Porter attempting in his film to grapple with the concept of parallel editing. Even though he would not be the one to invent the technique of cross-cutting, Porter at least realised that - unlike the theatre - the medium of film had the potential to show events in multiple locations and to suggest that they were happening at the same time.

Film critic Mark Cousins calls this concept the 'meanwhile' of film grammar; we see something happening meanwhile something is also happening somewhere else. It was a radical jump in the crafting of film narratives as previously films had been content to portray events in a strictly linear fashion. This was the 'and then' of film grammar - it meant we would see one scene cutting to another to suggest that something happened and then something else happened next.

Students: Purpose and Methods

Getting students to understand film grammar is an intrinsic part of learning how to craft a film narrative. And understanding the history of this helps to highlight why taken-for-granted techniques such as cross-cutting are so important. One effective way of exploring film grammar with students is to have them film a relatively simple series of events (silent is better... introducing dialogue just makes things too complicated at this point). Students then edit their raw footage in multiple ways to show their understanding of cross-cutting and the differences between 'meanwhile' and 'and then'. By reflecting on this afterwards, students are able to develop their ability to articulate some of the terminology and reasoning behind editing and narrative-writing in general. 

It's beneficial for students to learn this for a range of reasons, and not just for the sake of developing their understanding of film or visual literacy. In terms of writing, the formulation of a narrative in this medium forces a degree of reflection that helps develop imagination and critical thinking. 

For More on Film Grammar

See also: The 180 Degree Rule.

See also: The Close-Up.

See also: Teaching Film as Language.

Mise En Scene - The Sapphires

When teaching film there are a range of things that are considered essential in terms of metalanguage and key skills and understandings. The base understandings seem to be:

• Camera Angles
• Shot Sizes

And that's where it ends in terms of consistency. Each teacher, faculty, school tends to deviate from this point with their own idea of how and what should be taught in relation to film. You get things like the following, but it's by no means a prescriptive or universal list:

• Costuming
• Set design
• Editing
• Camera Movement
• Lighting
• Sound Design

Anyway, I'm not seeking to codify Film Studies for NSW schools in this blog post, I just think it's interesting that the approach can vary so much. Another major element in addition to the above list is, of course, mise en scene, and this is something that many teachers do indeed touch upon when teaching film. 

Here's a breakdown of how we could approach mise en scene in the classroom:

Mise en Scene

This is a word used to describe what a director decides to put into a shot. It includes everything - where characters are placed in a scene, what objects feature, how much of the environment can be seen, etc.

Mise en scene can determine power relationships between characters. By placing a character in the centre of the foreground it suggests that they are confident and in power, that they are in charge of the scene, or are important. In contrast, by placing a character in the margins of a scene, or in the background, it suggests that they are not important or without power over their own situation.

Most directors place great importance on mise en scene as it is an essential part of a film's visual language.

(The above summary can be found here as a worksheet with a rudimentary graphic to demonstrate the components - Mise en Scene notes.)

Examples

After students are familiarised or refreshed with the above, you can then look at some examples from The Sapphires (I think this would be a useful film to use with Year 10 for a range of reasons). First, I would look at a modelled response to a screenshot, and then I would ask students to write their own analysis of other shots. Ideally, this would then be linked to some of the themes the class would have looked at in an overall unit on Aboriginal-focused texts (things like cultural identity, experiences of racism, kinship, new experiences, etc.) and used to construct analytical paragraphs. 

Here's the first screenshot I would look at:

Here's the modelled analysis, in which the goal is to get students thinking about the steps towards analysis as much as the analysis itself, as this is something that higher order thinkers can sometimes fail to articulate (IE. Show your working!):

Observations:

1. Gail is placed in background against curtain, a little to the left.
2. She is partially obscured by out of focus figures in the audience, and Cynthia is blocked out completely.
3. The camera has been placed in a way so that the white pub audience is between the viewer and the protagonist.

Analysis: This suggests that Gail is not in a position of power. The out of focus audience makes the shot feel uncomfortable and claustrophobic, and symbolises the restrictions put on Indigenous people trying to perform in this era. Gail is also placed towards the back and to the left, suggesting that she is not of important to this environment (a pub filled with white people).

Here's the screenshots students would then analyse independently:

Here's some notes I made for the above screenshots that could be used to support teachers and students after they'd finished with the analysis section:

Observations:

1. Julie, Kay and Gail are all placed to the right side of the shot, sharing equal space with the environment.
2. All three figures are placed in the back of the shot with the camera at a slight low angle.
3. Julie's shadow is cast to her left as a fourth figure.

Analysis: The slight low angle places the three characters into a position of power (albeit a small one), and the fact that they are standing up against the door represents that they are in the process of being kicked out of the pub. They have been deliberately placed into the boundary of the shot to symbolise their exclusion from the establishment. The shadow could represent the dark, ugly nature of the situation, or even foreshadows the fourth member of the group still yet to appear.

Observations:

1. Kay and Gail enter into a room, the backs of their heads are placed in the foreground of the shot in close-up.
2. The rest of the room is filled with bodies moving about - some in the background, and one on either side of the frame (both are only partially visible).
3. Not all of the environment can be clearly seen.

Analysis: The lack of a close-up on the girls' faces means that the viewer's attention is focused elsewhere, and the number of people all engaged in various activities means that the viewer's focus is split numerous ways - representing the excitement of the party. The partially obscured figures on either side of the frame create a cramped feeling, giving the impression that the party is full of people. 

Observations:

1. The band is placed in the background of the shot but are brightly lit and spread across the entire frame.
2. The backs of heads are seen in the bottom foreground of the shot, in silhouette/shadow.
3. There are no walls on either side of the frame.

Analysis: The crowd is placed low enough in the frame for the viewer to still focus on the band in the background, and the lighting helps direct the viewer's attention in this way as well. The lack of walls/barriers on either side of the frame makes the environment seem more open / pleasant. The heads in the foreground give the impression of a large, engaged audience (compare/contrast to the audience in the modelled shot at the start of this exercise).

Observations:

1. The car is placed in the centre and foreground of the shot.
2. The camera is at a slight high angle and far enough away from the car for the car to only take up the lower half of the frame, meaning the environment is easily seen.
3. The building can be seen on all sides of the car, people have been placed on either side, and the vegetation is almost symmetrical.

Analysis: The viewer is encouraged to put themselves in the place of the car. It's placement in the shot suggests for the viewer to take on the perspective of the girls as they enter the hotel for the first time. The arrangement of the building and vegetation on all sides (and above) the car makes the character seem small in comparison to the environment, suggesting feels of awe and luxury that may connect to the hotel's immense size.

Observations:

1. Gail and Dave are placed in the centre and foreground, so close to the camera that they are slightly out of focus.
2. The camera is at a slight low angle, looking upwards at Gail's parents from between Gail and Dave.
3. Gail's parents are placed almost in the centre of the background looking down towards Gail and Dave, and are in focus. Gail's dad leans up against the post on his verandah. 

Analysis: The audience is put in Gail and Dave's shoes as they face Gail's parents as a couple for the first time. Gail's parents are placed in a position of power, standing higher up in the frame and looking down on Gail and Dave, symbolising the discomfort of the situation and the upper hand they hold in deciding whether they'll accept Dave into their family or not. The verandah takes up the entire background, suggesting its importance in this scene, and Gail's dad leans against the post - which represents that he is connected to this environment, that this is his land and his place. The camera is also focused on Gail's parents because it is their reaction that the viewer is waiting for. 

Here's the above as a worksheet that could be used: Mise en Scene Analysis.

Disclaimer: All the above resources have been created specifically for this blog in my own spare time.