Incorporating Drafting into Extended Response Assessment Tasks

With the advent of NESA's stipulations for HSC Assessment, in which students may only sit one formal examination per subject (including essays set in this fashion), there is now an increased need to senior students to practise the writing of extended responses in a meaningful fashion. Prior to the new rules, students might have written essays in assessable conditions anywhere up to 3 or 4 times across their final schooling year, but now this is no longer possible.

One way to get around this is to incorporate drafting into an assessable essay. This takes away the formalised examination context and - in the spirit of what NESA is hoping for - allows for a less stressful approach to essay writing in which students can engage with assessment as learning. 

There are two examples here for different subject areas, both of which were written for the older syllabus that ended this year. Regardless of your KLA, it's worth checking out both of them as they represent different approaches to the drafting process.

• Advanced English Example

• Modern History Example

Both tasks utilise an analytical marking criteria (as opposed to the holistic style rubrics used for HSC marking). It's a different way to mark than what we may be used to, however, it's imperative to use an analytical-styled criteria when undertaking assessment as learning as it allows the students to identify specific skills they can work on to consolidate strengths and address weaknesses. 

The holistic marking grid (in which student ability is represented in bands of grouped criteria) is specifically designed as the absolute end point of the learning process, IE. This style of criteria gets used for HSC marking because the students don't get to see how they're marked at this point. An analytical marking grid (in which specific skills are addressed with their own independent marks) is designed to offer meaningful feedback to the student, and this is often what a lot of Australian universities use for their humanities courses when demonstrating to students what criteria they need to address when submitting assignments.

Anyway! In terms of the resources attached above:

The Advanced English task requires students to submit a draft at some point before the final submission date. In terms of making their drafting visible to the marker, 5 of the 25 marks have been allocated to a reflection statement that they must attach to their final submission. 

The Modern History task strips back the differentiation of skills (it's only a 15 mark response) in order to take the pressure off students who are being asked to do multiple drafts. The drafting process is incorporated here as a non-mandatory due date, which works as thus:

• Students submit a draft about one week before the final due date. Students can't be penalised if they don't submit at this time - it isn't mandatory and it isn't the final due date.
• The teacher marks the drafts and gives them back to the students with feedback.
• Students have an option to re-submit on the final due date for re-marking. If they choose not to do this then they take the mark they've already been given instead.

Roughly half the students in this scenario re-submit a new draft for marking. The other half aren't interested in "doing the assessment task twice" and will take the mark they've been initially given. It turns out to be a remarkably efficient approach as you get to finalise marks for half the students before the final due date.  

I'll write another blog down the track once I've had a chance to develop more assessments in response to the new syllabus.

Intertextual Perspectives: Revision

This image from 1934 shows a depiction of the Italian dictator Mussolini surrounded by the word 'Yes'. Once I saw this image, I found it hard not to think of Orwell's Big Brother as an echo of it.

A little while back I posted a revision resource for Go Back to Where You Came From that I used with my Year 12 Advanced English class for the Discovery AOS. In this post I explained my thinking in providing modelled analysis to support students. In the spirit of this approach, here is a similar resource that can be used for the Metropolis and Nineteen Eighty-Four option for the Intertextual Perspectives Module.

Click here for the resource.

Here are some additional notes I also used with my students in revising the texts. Again, I'd like to stress that these are just summarised dot points designed to provide a jumping off point for students while they prepare for the HSC.

Ways of Approaching the Rubric / Thematic Concerns of the Text/s

• Surveillance
• Indoctrination
• Orthodoxy
• Sex as a political act
• The role of language
• Gender
• Class and Marxist ideology (the bourgeoisie and the proletariat)
• Dystopia
• Dehumanisation
• Cognitive dissonance
• Values of the 1920s vs. Values of the 1940s
• Historical and Cultural context (Stalin / The Soviet Union, the Weimar Republic)
• Governance (Oligarchy, Totalitarianism, Capitalism)
• Methods of Control
• Apotheosis
• Omnipresence / Ubiquity 
• Power

Techniques / Devices Used

1984

• Historical Allusion
• Allegory
• Euphemism
• Newspeak
• Invented Lexicon
• Connotation
• Rhetorical Question
• Embedded Clauses
• Truncated sentences
• Tricolon sentences
• Visceral language
• Olfactory imagery
• Metaphor
• Symbolism
• Slogans
• Personification
• Contrast, juxtaposition
• Motif
• Irony
• Antimetabole

Metropolis

• Metonymy 
• Matte Painting
• Dutch angle
• Montage
• Collage / Double-exposure
• Close-ups
• Antithesis
• Generic conventions
• Mise en scene 
• Intertitles
• Cross-cutting 
• Foreshadowing
• Set design
• Body language
• Vignetting
• Salience
• Costume
• Long shot
• Choreography
• Contrast / Juxtaposition
• Symbolism
• Religious allusion
• Establishing shot
• Expressionism

Something to consider when revising Module A is to ask each student which of the two texts they prefer or feel more comfortable with. It won't always be the text you expect, and this can help you guide specific students in concentrating more on the text they don't feel so comfortable with. 2018 is the last year we'll see this combination of texts in the HSC (at least for a while)... it's a great pairing so enjoy it while it's still here!

Characters of 1984

I haven't posted anything this month yet. The main reason for this is, well... there are actually lots of reasons for it, but they're mostly boring and you wouldn't care about them, O intrepid internet reader!

Anyway, here's a worksheet on the characters of 1984 - Character Analysis.

In said sheet, students explore the three main characters (Winston Smith, Julia, O'Brien) and find a corresponding quote from the text before answering a guided question for each one. The sheet also has summaries for the following supporting characters:

• Big Brother
• Mr Charrington
• Syme
• Parsons
• Emmanuel Goldstein

After students have been taken through each of the characters, get them to synthesise their thoughts on the supporting characters in response to one of the primary themes of the novel. This can be done through this question:

George Orwell's 1984 is primarily about the effect of totalitarianism on a society. Pick two supporting characters and discuss how they demonstrate this.

On a separate but related note, I recently had the pleasure of attending the recent stage production of 1984 created by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan. This took place at the Sydney Theatre, and the visit became possible thanks to my colleague Ashlee Horton, who organised it as a school excursion for some of our Year 12 Advanced English students.

The play starts in a somewhat disorientating manner, perhaps relying a little too much on the viewer's knowledge of the novel as various elements and characters coalesce together in a metatextual opening scene that meditates on the themes as much as the plot. From here though the production took hold of just about everyone in the audience with its arresting and inventive use of lighting and sound. Without getting too much into particulars, the experience is a wholly visceral assault on the senses that immerses the viewer in Orwell's world of surveillance and control, with the play building its own way into the story; both paying tribute to the novel whilst also making the best use of the medium of the stage.

I was left breathless by the end. It was also great to hear the students similarly inflamed and provoked by the play.

Making Feedback a Big Rock

One of my mentors, a History/English teacher named Yvette Woodrow, once told me to "Pick what you want to be good at". There's a lot to consider when it comes to being a teacher in the 21st century; first and foremost are our students - teaching them, assessing them, assisting them in their journeys through school, and fulfilling our duty of care as their legal supervisors. Then there are other elements of our job (and I don't think I could ever successfully list all of these here without missing something) so here's just a few:

• Administration pertaining to student attendance
• Programming / writing resources
• Building behaviour management protocols that can be used beyond the immediate time and place
• Monitoring and assisting in the welfare of students, also beyond the immediate time and place of the classroom
• Professional learning 
• Collecting data in support of whole school initiatives and student growth
• Timetabling classes and playground duties
• Organising excursions 
• Report writing and parent-teacher evenings
• Year Advising
• Working in conjunction for Federation to support issues such as staff wellbeing and Gonski funding
• Whole school programs separate to our assigned classes, such as: Literacy and Numeracy initiatives, supporting AIME and other diversity-specific mentoring, after-school homework assistance programs, Gifted and Talented projects, sports coaching, student-led discussion and special interest groups, Positive Behaviour for Learning, learning support, leadership programs, community links, debating and public speaking, Tournament of the Minds, music and dance and drama performance evenings, etc.

You would be hard pressed to be doing all of these things well all of the time. So when I went to the Project Zero 2017 Sydney Conference a few weeks back and was shown a particular video I found myself thinking of what Yvette said: pick what you want to be good at.

The video in question is Stephen Covey's philosophy on 'Big Rocks'...

This clip was used by Rachel Merhebi, a HSIE teacher from the Ku-ring-gai High School Action Research Team, in support of a session titled 'Making Feedback a Big Rock'. It put me in mind of Yvette's maxim because we can't do everything as teachers, just as we can't in life. We have to work out the priorities first and then make these the 'big rocks'.

Okay. Metaphor over.

Ms. Merhebi took us through a few ideas centered around feedback, some of which were influenced by the texts Power of Protocol by McDonald, Mohr, Dichter, and McDonald, and Feedback edited by Robbie M. Sutton. The driving question for this professional learning was: How can I help my students become more disposed to seeking feedback?

Part of this process is establishing the kind of feedback we want to provide for our students, and Ms. Merhebi drew the conclusion that feedback should be:

• Descriptive
• Goal-oriented
• Specific
• Actionable
• Constructive
• Timely

In the case of peer feedback, the main areas to focus on should for it to be specific and constructive. The reason for concentrating the feedback in this way is that when peer assessment is involved we want to keep in mind that it's just as useful for the student giving the feedback as it is for the student who receives it. I've found that engaging my Advanced English students in the process of giving feedback has been an effective activity in directing their focus towards discrete essay writing skills.

For the Preliminary and HSC Advanced English comparative study modules I've made use of a peer editing proforma as part of the essay writing process. These modules are: Animal Farm and Elysium for Year 11, and the 1984 and Metropolis option for Year 12. In order for students to meet the 'reflection' requirements of the assessment task (for both modules) they need to have at least two students complete peer editing proformas for their work.

The proforma they use is here.

In addition to this I was inspired by Ms. Merhebi's session to make use of one of the many strategies she outlined. This particular approach comes from Creative Cultures of Thinking educator Simon Brooks and involves running individual feedback sessions for students. The basic gist is that the student comes along to a pre-arranged appointment, receives feedback from the teacher on the spot as the teacher marks the piece of writing right there, and then walks away with specific goals.

Simon Brooks - Professional Development guru

It sounds fairly straightforward and, really, it is - but I also found it to be quite empowering for the students, and immensely practical for me.

Putting it into Practice

The reason I waited until now to write this blog (rather than writing it directly after the Project Zero conference) was that I wanted to see how this approach went.

There are so many great ideas at professional learning conferences like Project Zero that it's just about impossible to put all of these ideas into practice. This brings us back to Yvette's wisdom and the 'big rocks' approach. Whilst sitting in Rachel Merhebi's workshop I decided to zone in on just this one strategy as something I'd like to try. I picked something and ran with it, rather than tried to note all the things. That might just sound like commonsense to some of you... for me it's a piece of advice that I need to constantly keep in mind so I don't drown in trying to do too much.

Anyway, here's my recount of how this feedback approach went down:

1. I had students undertake a past HSC Creative Writing question in exam conditions during class time. It was something I wanted to provide some meaningful feedback on as I find it difficult to embed creative writing into the set modules for the HSC.
2. I collected the responses and then put made available a booking sheet where up to 5 students could book in to see me in one of six times (a couple of my lunchtimes and non-teaching periods that overlapped with their own study periods). 
3. The students then came to see me in groups of 1-5 and I sat them down independently for ten minutes at a time.
4. Before this point I didn't even read the responses. The key idea that Ms. Merhebi spoke about was that it should be assessed in front of the students so they can see what the process is. The bonus of doing it in this way is that I'm also not spending time marking responses for those senior students who aren't interested, which is very practical when it comes to non-formally assessed tasks. 
5. While sitting with the student I read the piece and talk them through what works and what doesn't, show them the HSC criteria, and give them an idea of what needs to be aimed for the next time they write a creative piece under the same conditions. Something that many of the students struggled with was to sustain their idea across at least three to four pages within the time limit given, so the advice could include a goal in the sense that they should aim to increase the length of their piece by a page each time we undertake a past HSC Discovery Creative question.

 And so ends this freewheeling account of professional learning and feedback ideas.

Metonym: Figurative Technique in Metropolis

Freder builds a bridge between Grot (the unofficial leader of the workers) and Joh Fredersen (the architect and de facto ruler of Metropolis)

Being a silent film, Metropolis is primarily a visual text - a piece of cinema reliant on the audience's ability to read film grammar. If a silent film cannot convey its narrative in this way then it will die on its feet and, thankfully, Metropolis is highly effective to this end. Visual literacy aside though, I wanted to get my students to tap into the core message of the film by examining the epigraph that precedes the action:

"The mediator between Head and Hands must be the Heart"

...which is a quote that skews towards literary analysis rather than the visual. In this case it's a piece of figurative language, making use of the metaphorical device known as metonymy.

I start by showing the epigraph to the students via a worksheet as an example of a metonym and ask if anyone would like to venture a guess as to what exactly this technique is (or how it works). I then go on to explain it on the worksheet:

Metonymy is a metaphorical/rhetorical device in which a thing or concept is not called by its proper name but instead referred to by a part of the overall whole, or something associated with the whole. In other words, metonyms are usually parts of a thing/concept that are used to stand-in for the bigger idea. 

Examples:

• Washington refers to the American Government.
• The King's Hand (in Game of Thrones) refers to an actual person designated to do the King's work, not just their hand.
• The bush refers to Australian forest. Not just one bush!
• Chili is an American dish made up on beans, mince and chili peppers, yet it is only referred to by the one defining ingredient.
• The Crown refers to the British royal family.
• A hired gun isn't just a gun, you're paying for the whole assassin who holds the gun.
• Chernobyl is a city in Ukraine but the word on its own has also come to refer to the nuclear disaster that occurred there in 1986, EG. "We don't want another Cheynobyl".

Students can examine a few more by explaining them on their own, and could even come up with some of their own identified examples:

1. 9/11
2. "Going down the street"
3. "We've got 10 000 boots on the ground"  

Then, to bring it all full circle, the big question is:

Explain the example from Metropolis, as seen in the epigraph.

Students should at first address it on the most immediate level, that the Heart refers to Freder operating as the 'mediator' (the figure foretold by Maria when she sermonises the workers). In addition to this, though, students should connect the epigraph on a figurative level to the class system in Metropolis. The Hands are the workers, with the metonym connecting to connotations associated with the working class and the sort of labour they undertake, and the Head is Joh Fredersen - a sole figure who controls all else, cold and calculating.

The worksheet can be found here.

Metropolis: Context

New York, circa 1924, when Fritz Lang saw it.

Teaching context is one of my favourite things. I know I have a lot of favourite things but I'd like to think that having several favourite things helps to make me a reasonably well-rounded individual. Hopefully that gives you some context to this blog post. 

See what I did there?

As I've mentioned several times before, the most difficult thing about teaching context is knowing where to start and where to end. As any decent student of history should know, the points where a historical narrative begins and finishes are often up to interpretation. Did WWI start with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand? Or was it the so-called 'blank cheque' that Germany had given to Austria, meaning that they would support their ally in war no matter the circumstances? Or was the rampant tendency towards imperialism that infected many European nations in the latter half of the 19th century to blame for the War to End All Wars? You can backtrack through the chain of cause and effect forever.

The same is true of English texts. How much detail do we need in order to understand the situation that birthed a text? Is it enough to know what the composer went through, and what they intended? Should we also look at the culture that created this individual? The larger events that were shaping the world at the time of the text's construction also bear examination too. An English teacher can get lost in trying to get to the bottom of where a text truly comes from. 

In coming at Metropolis, I put together a PowerPoint presentation that would help students situate their understanding within a three-tiered model examining the world context, German context, and Fritz Lang's context (in that order).

The presentation below encourages students to pick the three most significant ideas out of each slide. Discuss as a class as you move through the PPT, and then - once you get to the end - have the students consolidate their understanding into the Context Organiser sheet.

Fritz Lang is almost always pictured wearing the monocle, which helped to contribute to the stereotype of a tyrannical German director that others found hard to work with.

Significant factors to consider during discussion while getting students to formulate connections between context and text:

Slide 2: World Context

• World War I took place 1914 and 1918, wreaking the most war-related devastation that the world had ever seen up until this point.
• The nature of WWI - with its strategy of attrition and the use of shocking new technologies such as gas and tanks - had quite an affect on the lowest strata of Europe's social hierarchy (the workers) as they were the ones who were conscripted and enlisted to fight on the frontlines.
• The old order of governance in Europe, the monarchies, were collapsing after facing increasing pressure from 'below' (the soldiers and workers).
• England and America became increasingly industrialised during this period, giving rise to capitalism and liberal trade as the bourgeoisie gained power in Western societies.

Slide 3: World Context

• The workers of Europe were inspired during the early 20th century by Marxist ideology, which promised equal distribution of land and wealth.
• The first Marxist state was born in Russia in 1917 through a 'dictatorship of the proletariat', with the aim being that the workers would control the state.
• The key figures of the Russian Revolution in 1917 had been Lenin and Trotsky, both politicians and activists who fought to put the workers in power. By 1927, at the time of Metropolis' release, the leader of the new Soviet Union was Joseph Stalin, a bureaucrat who would rise as a godlike dictator.

Slide 4: Germany

• The German people felt humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles that as it laid all of the blame of WWI at their feet. They, in turn, blamed their own government and Kaiser - leading to the deconstruction of the German aristocracy and the rise of the Weimar Republic.
• Berlin was wrecked by the rioting lower classes in 1919, and Germany faced crippling poverty after WWI. 

Slide 5: Germany

• Early capitalists such as Hugo Stinnes took advantage of the situation in Germany to gain control of Germany's economy. By 1922, he owned and operated more than 60 German newspapers, and had so much influence that he introduced the idea of the 8 hour work day to increase productivity. Think Joh Fredersen in Metropolis.
• Workers' unions in Germany began to form to represent the interests of the downtrodden workers, and tensions emerged between the classes in response to poor working conditions.
• German culture saw a renaissance of sorts in the 1920s, with German cinema in particular adopting the moody style of expressionism to reflect the economic depression that had followed WWI.

Slide 6: Fritz Lang

• Born as a Jew, Lang was brought up as a Catholic by his mother (she converted through marriage).
• Lang trained in civil engineering and art, both of which are reflected in his concepts for the city in Metropolis. He also fought in WWI alongside the workers.
• Lang co-wrote all of his films in the 1920s with his wife, who eventually developed Nazi sympathies. They would later divorce.
• Lang fled Germany in the early 1930s due to the rise of the Nazi Party.

Slide 7: Fritz Lang

• Lang visited New York in 1924 and was awed by its size and industrial nature.
• Lang's concept for the city in Metropolis was also influenced by the gangster and prostitute-riddled Chicago, the 'city of sin'.
• Both New York and Chicago were symbols of capitalism; representing the best and worst that it could offer.
• The idea of liberalism encouraged industrialists and capitalists to accumulate as much power and wealth as possible (as a means to promote economic growth).  

Slide 8: Fritz Lang (Catholic influence)

• The Garden of Eden = The Eternal Garden.
• The Tower of Babel = alluded to the film through both Maria's sermon and Joh Fredersen's towering office.
• John the Baptist = Maria.

Slide 9: Fritz Lang (Catholic influence)

• Christ the Redeemer = Freder.
• The Whore of Babylon = Robot-Maria and her incitement of the bourgeoisie.
• The Seven Deadly Sins = the symbolism seen in Freder's hallucinations.

Resource: Metropolis Context PPT
Resource: Context Organiser sheet

Antimetabole: Rhetorical Technique in 1984

First thing's first: don't ask me to pronounce the name of this technique... is it an-time-tabool? An-tim-eh-ta-bol-ey? Anti-meta-burlie? Anyway, it's a mouthful, and thankfully students wanting to discuss it in an essay only need to know how to spell it rather than pronounce it.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I like to use a 'mini-lesson' approach when it comes to teaching new techniques in the classroom. This has been adapted from the work of American writing guru Nancie Atwell and WSU Education Researcher Wayne Sawyer, and allows for students to engage directly with the technique or literary device before placing it in context and developing a greater familiarity with it.

Antimetabole is a rhetorical device, and I'll note here that I've already spent significant time covering the persuasive genre of rhetoric with my Advanced English students before getting to this particular technique, which means that students already have contextual knowledge of what rhetoric is and how it works (and to what end). I cover this in passing with Year 10 students, and then in more detail when teaching Shakespearean language to Preliminary Advanced English for Othello.

At its most basic definition, antimetabole is when a phrase or clause is stated and then repeated in reverse order. A famous example is one used in a speech by American President John F. Kennedy:

"Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country"

Antimetabole can be used for a number of reasons:

• To call attention to certain key words.
• To hint that reality is not what it seems (illustrated by the reversal of words).
• To motivate/persuade an audience.
• When the first clause is spoken in a speech it may not be that noticeable, however, when the words are repeated in the next clause it immediately emphasises the elements that have been repeated. 
• It is a popular rhetorical device in political speeches, and is therefore used in literature to allude to political thought and intention. 
• It can sometimes seem confusing; forcing the listener or reader to re-examine the ideas therein.

An example from 1984, spoken by O'Brien during his interrogation of Winston:

"One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish the dictatorship"

Get the students look at the quote above and then answer the following questioning after being walked through the above definition and breakdown:

Question: What is Orwell's intention in using this rhetorical device here, and through this particular character?

Orwell actually uses a few examples of this rhetorical device in 1984, another that comes to mind is, "Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious". Rigorous teachers might also like to point out the paradoxical, Catch 22-like nature of this additional example. 

Resource: 1984 and Antimetabole

1984 and Context: Mix and Match

Once Stalin 'removed' a political enemy from Soviet society he then had all photographs of that person either destroyed or altered. The above image demonstrates the removal of a Soviet naval officer who disappeared during the 'Purges'. Orwell writes of similar phenomena in 1984.

A little while ago I posted a Preliminary HSC Advanced English resource for matching up the events of Animal Farm with examples from Soviet history; illustrating certain comparisons that show just how closely George Orwell modelled his animal characters and their farm on Russia circa 1917-1940. 

The HSC Advanced English Intertextual Perspectives module develops the analytical skills of Year 12 students further through a comparative study of Orwell's 1984 and Fritz Lang's Metropolis. In the case of 1984, totalitarian histories and culture (predominantly the Soviets and the Nazis) are reflected in the text almost as much, if not more, than they are in Animal Farm. 

The resource below collects together a series of events and elements from both 1984 and Nazi/Soviet history that could be said to correspond with one another. Students read through both columns and match up the aspects of history that fit with Orwell's dystopian classic, building up their contextual knowledge to support a more holistic understanding of the concepts that Orwell was writing about.

1984 and 20th Century Totalitarian states - Mix and Match Activity 

Here are the answers for teacher-reference:

A.  The Nazis used the euphemisms 'special treatment' or 'special lodging' to refer to those they had identified in camps for executions matches with The 'Ministry of Love' is where political enemies go to be tortured and executed. It's name, along with other government departments, is euphemistic and ironic.

B. Leon Trotsky was a Jewish-Ukrainian intellectual with a pointed goatee. He fled the Soviet Union after becoming Stalin's enemy. Stalin 'purged' millions of Russians for allegedly being Trotskyists (followers of Trotsky) matches with The number 1 enemy of the state is Emmanuel Goldstein, a 'goat-like' intellectual with a Jewish name who had fled overseas. His followers are said to be secretly working to bring the State down from within.

C. The working class is known as the 'proletariat' in Marxist theory. Due to Russia's vast area, many peasants in more remote areas are able to live with a larger degree of freedom matches with The working class are referred to as the 'proles', and are given a larger degree of freedom than Party members due to their perceived lack of civilisation.

D. The Cold War saw the nations of the world divided into three major blocks - the West Bloc (USA and its allies), the East Bloc (the Communists), and the Third World (undeveloped countries). The 'war' between the two bigger sides was never straightforward and involved complicated alliances that led to smaller wars (EG. The Korean War) matches with The nations of the world are arranged into three major groups and locked in a perpetual state of stalemate against one another, with their alliances constantly changing.

E. Nazi children in WWII were encouraged to join the 'Hitler Youth'. In the Soviet Union, children were encouraged to be loyal to the State rather than their families matches with Children are encouraged to join the Spies (a youth group) and the Anti-Sex League, where they are brainwashed and indoctrinated into obeying the State.

F. The Soviet Union and other communist East European countries frequently experienced shortages and electricity failures matches with The nation is in a constant state of disarray and inconvenience - Winston notes at the novel's beginning that the electricity rarely works.

G. Propaganda for the Soviet Five Year Plans featured the slogan "2+2=5" to represent Stalin's wish to complete the five year plan in just four years matches with As a symbol of his brainwashing, Winston is made to believe than 2 + 2 = 5.

H. The Bolshevik Party, who came to rule the Soviet Union and outlawed all political parties, were usually referred to only as the Party matches with Winston's country is ruled by a government known only as the Party.

I. Many Russian political prisoners were sent to the Gulags; harsh labour camps in remote areas matches with Reference is made to 'forced labour' camps where political prisoners are sent to work as slaves for many years.

J. The Soviet Union regularly invented statistics to demonstrate the rate of progress to Russians matches with Announcements are made regularly to remind citizens of the progress the Party has made, EG. Standard of living has improved by 20% in the last year.

K. Stalin tried to speed up industrialisation of Russia with several 'Five Year Plans' matches with The Party drives the economy with a 'Three Year Plan'.

M. The Soviet union started with the success of the 1917 Revolution and its anniversary was celebrated every ten years after matches with The 'Revolution' is alluded to as the most important event in the Party's history.

N. Britain had a history of ruling/subjugating India as a colony matches with Reference is made to a war front in Malabar, India.

O. Stalin's 'Purges' involved the arrest of many everyday people, most of whom were never seen again, and had their names wiped from all records matches with Winston describes the night-time abduction of people who would 'simply disappear' and never be referred to again.

P. Soviet workers were encouraged through propaganda to follow the example of Stakhanov, the 'perfect' Soviet worker matches with The Party invents a fake Party member, Comrade Ogilvy, to be used as a hero in propaganda.

Q. Those abducted in the Purges were made to publicly confess to their alleged crimes, even if they did not commit said crimes matches with After his capture and interrogation, Winston is broken and made to believe in the Party once again. He is allowed to re-enter society but will be executed at some point in the future.

R. The Communist Party in Russia was ruled by a Central Committee who enjoyed many luxuries. The other Party members numbered in the millions and helped to runt he Soviet Union matches with There is an Inner Party (where the ruling members enjoy many luxuries) and an Outer Party (the bureaucracy).

S. Stalin's likeness could be found everywhere in the Soviet Union during his reign - in every house and in every city - as pictures, posters, and statues matches with Posters of Big Brother are everywhere, accompanied with the phrase 'Big Brother is Watching You'.

Laying a Foundation: Context and 1984

Image from the film version of 1984

I'm about to teach the Intertextual Perspectives 1984 and Metropolis comparative study for HSC Advanced English, and boy am I excited. Studying 1984 could not have come at a more relevant time... okay, maybe that's a bit hyperbolic, the time in which 1984 was written was probably the most relevant time for it to be read, but my point is that Trump's gobsmacking rise to Presidency in the United States of America has suddenly rendered George Orwell's 1984 a lot more pertinent.  

In just the last week alone, the words 'Orwellian' and '1984' have permeated a near-unprecedented number of news articles and think-pieces, and all in connection to President Donald Trump. 

Here's a quick selection courtesy of a Google search:

2017 isn't '1984' - its a lot stranger than Orwell imagined - The Conversation

Sales of '1984' spike after Kellyanne Conway's 'alternative facts' - Sydney Morning Herald

Orwell's '1984' and Trump's America - The New Yorker

Amazon's Bestseller list takes a dystopian turn in Trump era - CNN

13 Quotes From '1984' That Are Horrifyingly Relevant in 2017 - Bustle

George Orwell's '1984' is a best-seller again. Here's why it resonates now... - PBS

I said to some of my students a few days ago that we're really lucky to have this happening right now because it links really well with what we're learning this term (dystopia, totalitarianism, power and control, etc.) Of course, America and the world in general is a lot less lucky than my classroom because Trump is now one of the most politically powerful figures on Earth. But, you know - small wins. 

My mentor and close friend Kira Bryant once told me that Advanced English hinged on context (I think her exact words were "Context, context context!") Thinking critically about where a text is coming from, the reasons why it was made, how the author intended for it to resonate with audiences, and how it actually resonates with audiences are all things that rely on a strong understanding of context. This is one of the reasons why Modern History and Advanced English are probably so beneficial to one another when students undertake both subjects. Modern History provides a lot of ideological background for texts studied in Advanced.

With 1984 there is a lot to wade through in terms of covering the values, attitudes and events that have influenced Orwell's magnum opus. I've seen various resources that cover everything from Italian fascism to emerging Cold War surveillance technology. All relevant, but all also reflective of each resource-designer's personal context. As teachers we suffer from selection-bias, just like everyone else, and what we choose is reflective of ourselves and not the population as a whole. This isn't a bad thing; our professional qualifications and ongoing professional learning put us in relatively good stead to be imparting knowledge of this kind. Selection-bias does however bear keeping in mind as an explanation for why no two teachers approach the teaching of context in the same way, especially in a subject like English. In short, there's no definitive way to approach this.

The way I prefer to look at Orwell's context for 1984 is as thus:

• Totalitarianism: Looking at this as a form of government with a particular focus on conformity, lack of freedom, and the concept of a one-party state. Students should first engage with this ideology from a relatively objective standpoint - evaluating the benefits and disadvantages of this form of governance before developing their own opinion. 
• Fascism: The terms 'fascism' and 'totalitarianism' aren't mutually exclusive despite being closely linked. It's worth mentioning that the two most famous totalitarians, Stalin and Hitler, occupied horizontal extremes on the political spectrum (with Stalin representing the extreme left, while Hitler was the ultimate in right wing politics). Defining fascism can be a bit challenging as it's a lot more nebulous than socialism, and this is partially due to the fact that it lacks a unifying manifesto like Karl Marx's theory of communism. Most simply put, fascism is both authoritarian and extremely nationalistic (whereas socialism in its purest form rejects the concept of nationhood). 
• Methods of Enforcing Totalitarianism: This is where a little case study of Stalin and Hitler (and maybe, depending on the enthusiasm level of your class, Franco and Mussolini) can come in handy. The 'personality cult' surrounding the leaders of totalitarian regimes is particularly relevant here as it links closely to the way Orwell constructs the figure of 'Big Brother'. Something else to consider is the way that Stalin used propaganda to manipulate the public's perception of Soviet history.
• The Cold War: The way that Eastasia, Oceania and Eurasia relate to each other throughout 1984 is deliberately reminiscent (and remarkably prescient) of the power blocs that emerged during the Cold War. It's no coincidence that the CIA formed just after WWII; this came about in response to the thinly-veiled antagonism that was bubbling away between the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. In terms of 1984, the Cold War's relevance is made clear with references to atomic war and the technological advances brought about by the rise of espionage - things like CCTV, the drug LSD, voice recognition systems, lie detectors, etc.
• George Orwell: Finally, it's worth looking at the context of Orwell himself. A lot of 1984 was fueled by his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, as a military policeman in the British colony of Burma, his time living as a homeless person, and even his personal health. Many allege that writing 1984 was so taxing for the chronically ill Orwell that it actually killed him, and it's not difficult to see Orwell's poor health (driven by smoking and tuberculosis) in the sickly nature of 1984's protagonist, Winston. 

Resource

Context - here is a reading/summary sheet on the wider context of the novel. I'll upload a more specific one that links Soviet history to plot points in 1984 in the next week or so. 

Metropolis: A Study Guide

Metropolis artwork by Martin Ansin for Mondo posters

Resource can be found here: Metropolis Study Guide.

Clocking in at over 2 hours, without sound, filmed in black and white, and coming from a non-English speaking country; Metropolis can seem like a daunting text for students to get to grips with. Many students have never watched a silent film before, nor do they voluntary engage with cinema made before the advent of colour. The concept of watching a film that asks for the modern day audience to put some degree of effort into engagement is, understandably, challenging for some Year 12s students. 

As the comparative companion for George Orwell's 1984, Fritz Lang's Metropolis occupies the unusual position of being a film that's older than the book that's being studied - and this is a novel that is already viewed as somewhat historical and 'old' by 21st century students. 

Theme and genre aside, Metropolis is an important text because it requires the students to work at establishing a relationship with it. It's not something that the vast majority of them would necessarily watch of their own free will (at least not at this point in their lives); it's a film that has been deliberately placed in the HSC Prescriptions list because it challenges and stretches the understanding of our students. And that's a good thing.

As a silent film in the 21st century, the mode of communication used to convey the narrative of Metropolis is antiquated but not irrelevant. In terms of visual grammar it's actually a very accessible film that conveys its plot in ways that can be universally understood. Contextually speaking, this is for a few reasons:

1. Metropolis was made in 1927, the absolute peak of silent cinema. In this same year The Jazz Singer was made, the first film to have a soundtrack that synchronised with the visuals - making it the first film with dialogue. Whilst The Jazz Singer isn't a particularly good movie it's still safe to say that film was never the same again. In the years leading up to the arrival of sound, silent cinema had developed and creatively expanded to a point in which visual storytelling had become so refined, so precise, and so imaginative that it became a new and wholly legitimate art form. You have to keep in mind that the first moving pictures had been created for audiences back in 1895, meaning that silent cinema had been evolving for 30 years before Metropolis was made. 

As you might guess from this video cover, The Jazz Singer hasn't aged well. Truth be told, it's an incredibly boring film, and the sound only features in certain musical sequences. The use of blackface is also quite problematic.

2. The first sound films were called 'talkies' because suddenly they were filled with all these actors speaking lines of dialogue. Audiences and filmmakers weren't entirely sure how to adapt to this radical change. Charlie Chaplin, one of the most famous stars of the era, refused to bring dialogue into his films for a good ten years after it became a commonplace. Other silent stars, forced to speak on camera for the first time, revealed strange voices that viewers never expected, and their careers were never the same again. For the most part, 'talkies' took their cues from the theatre and all of the creative storytelling from the silent era went out the window. They were hampered by the new requirement of including lots of speaking, and the technology needed to record this also meant that the camera (which had developed into a maneuverable instrument in the 1920s) suddenly became still again. Films became stagey and, in comparison to the grand and epic expressions of imagination that had preceded them, films in the 1930s were invariably dull. This is why Metropolis looks so good compared to many of the films that came after it.

Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times, one of the last predominantly silent films. Made in 1936.

3. There was one other significant development that changed the nature of film after Metropolis, and this was the Hays Code. Active from 1930 to 1960, the Hays Code was a form of censorship that restricted the content of motion pictures. Rules ranged from the understandable to the downright offensive: sex and violence and swearing were out, but it also became taboo to mock authority figures, show characters benefiting from crimes, or depict relationships between different races. The result was the 'Golden' era of Hollywood - a time when storytelling became highly coded and stifled. In the case of Metropolis, had the film been made after 1930, the character of 'robot Maria' would most likely be very different (or at the very least the film would never have seen release in any English-speaking countries).

The Hays Code is part of the reason why some scenes were later cut from Metropolis. The image above, portraying the city's risque night life, is from one such removed sequence where worker 11811 gets seduced by the temptations of Metropolis.

So, yes, Metropolis can be a tricky film for some Year 12 Advanced English classes undertaking the Intertextual Perspectives module. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for these students by giving them a study guide that they can use while watching it. And by 'guide' I mean just that, a document that will guide them through the film.

All this means is that the 18 page document I've attached here takes the students through the entirety of the film with a collection of significant screen shots designed to cover all of the major plot points. The shots are arranged into a table with three columns, like this:

The first column contains some brief analysis of the shot, describing what is taking place and connotations or representations implied by certain aspects. The second column is the shot itself, and the third column is blank so the student can create their own links between the analysis and one of the lenses through which they are going to connect it to 1984 - Power/Control, Resistance/Rebellion, or Dystopia/Utopia. Underneath it all is a bar that lists some of the techniques and metanarratives/ideologies contained within the shot. The idea is to frontload, meaning that the students aren't left deciphering the shots when the real aim should be getting them to get stuck into the evaluation of how these shots can be ordered under a conceptual understanding of the text.

Here's an example from the booklet:

 

Explanation/Analysis: Maria enters, surrounded by waif-like children (symbolising her characterisation as a motherly figure). In stark contrast with the 1920s-style and highly-sexualised 'flapper' women, Maria is plainly dressed and has minimal makeup. The use of clouding around the lens (vignetting) signals her salience in her introductory shot and her overall significance in the narrative to come.

Techniques: Characterisation. Symbolism. Contrast. Vignetting. Salience. Costume and makeup.

The student's evaluation could then extend into one of the three aforementioned conceptual understandings. As an example of the dystopian/utopian theme this shot quite clearly demonstrates the disparity between classes - the homely Maria and her miserable urchins contrast against the opulence and decadence of the garden seen in previous shots. This is a society of inequality, where the rich are not even aware of the existence of such wretchedness. 

Here's the document again - Metropolis Study Guide.

Elysium: To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores...

The theme of this year's English Teachers Association Conference was one of exploration and discovery. Coming off the back of the emergence of the completed English Textual Concepts framework and the oncoming new senior English syllabuses, presenters were encouraged to match the rhetoric of the Shakespeare quote "To unpathed waters, undreamed shores".

I had a few ideas for presentations but the one that fit this concept most readily was Elysium, the 2013 Neill Blomkamp science fiction film, which works rather well when paired with George Orwell's Animal Farm in a Preliminary HSC Comparative Study. 

The PowerPoint Presentation on Elysium can be found here:

Resource: ETA 2016 Elysium PPT.

The majority of the Elysium part of the Comparative Study has been included on this blog with explanations of the resources and programming. These can be found on the links below, with each resource attached at the bottom of each post:

Link: An Introduction to the Comparative Study of Elysium and Animal Farm

Link: Elysium - Comprehension and Analysis

Link: The Language of Elysium - Connotation and Invented Lexicon

Link: Elysium - Characterisation and Representation

Link: Elysium - Allegory, Allusion, and Satire

Elysium - Allegory, Allusion and Satire

This shot illustrates the contrast between the idyllic, verdant world of Elysium and the drab, dirty colours of the 'invading' refugees.

English is such a challenging subject sometimes because we have this focus on looking at how composers construct their text which, inevitably, leads us to look at the techniques they use to create meaning and connect with their audience. I've found that most students are quite responsive to learning about techniques that are new to them, however, what becomes challenging is the idea of quantifying techniques.

What I mean is, students like to be given taxonomies of things. They like to know the relationship between ideas, EG. The text reflects this particular context, and this context has produced this text type, and within this particular text type it's this genre, and this genre involves these particular codes and conventions, and in order to do all this the composers uses these techniques. And to do all this, these techniques are defined as thus.

The problem with this is that it emphasises the quantity of parts that build a text, rather than each part's potential to be a multiplicity of things. Students focus on something being a metaphor and then don't consider that it could also be visceral language (provoking a feeling of repulsion), or that it also ties to a story-wide motif (and therefore supporting larger themes).

In short, elements of a text can be defined in multiple ways. Those who express how challenged they feel by English are those who often struggle with its open-endedness. There's no wrong answer if it's supported by valid and substantiated evidence - we say this to kids all the time - but how do we teach them that there is more than one right answer, and that these correct alternatives don't always fit neatly together either?

I don't have a simple answer to this. The students who understand that meanings can be in flux, hyphenated, or pluralistic, are the ones who often do the best - grappling with ambiguity and ambivalence is something that great authors (IE. Great Englishers, yes, that's a word now!) do throughout the course of their entire careers.

The ongoing presence of drones throughout Elysium has proven to be a rather valid prediction about the enforcing of law and order throughout the world. The shot above is a 'drone's-eye view' of a battle between the film's hero and villain. The villain is blurred, indicating that the camera represents the view of his employers and their corrupt interests in protecting his identity from being recorded.

Elysium isn't a complex text, it's a film that feature multiple layers but it's also a film that was designed for Hollywood's mainstream market, so most students will be able to follow it on at least one level. In comparing it to Animal Farm as a dystopian text that's very much a product of context, students need to be able to illuminate the ways in which it makes use of allegory. This in turn leads to discussion of satire and allusion, and these things are all tied together as interconnected techniques and structural conventions. In the PowerPoint below I've divided my analysis of Elysium into allegory and satire but this is largely an arbitrary distinction as they could be looked at either way. 

Walk your students through the presentation and have them discuss the way the images and ideas link to context. There are numerous examples, including the villain Kruger as a representation of South Africa's dark history of hiring shady mercenaries, the role of the fable that the little girl Matilda tells to Max, and the subtle (and not-so-subtle) references to Max's role as a messiah for this bleak, grimy future.

There is also a sheet that students can work through afterwards, in which they are given pre-identified examples of various allusions and asked to explain them. The pre-loading of ready-made examples (IE. Techniques that have already been linked with textual evidence) forces the students to focus on explaining the significance, which is what we really want our Advanced English students to be able to do. 

Resources

Elysium and Our World - PowerPoint Presentation

Allusions - worksheet

Elysium - Characterisation and Representation of Ideas

The first shot of Max establishes a few things: the cramped nature of his house, his criminal or low socio-economic background (reflected in the Latino-styled tattoos), and the dated technology in his home juxtaposed against the robots and space station outside.

I'm a big believer in advocating for students who might not be harnessing their gifts to their fullest potential. In English, this means those students who are naturally gifted in terms of critical thinking and analysis, although they may not have the skills to formulate these gifts into the traditional modes of English communication (writing, representing, reading, etc.) So, with this in mind, I think there's still a lot of room in Preliminary Advanced English for scaffolding students. I don't want to assume that a student comes into Advanced English already knowing everything, and that includes knowing all the "how to" skills. What would be the point of that? If a student already knows what you're teaching and how to do it, then they should be skipping grades and looking for early entrance to university!

I've spoken about using Elysium as part of a comparative study on dystopian texts here, here and here, so I wanted to extend this a little further to show how students can analyse the way characterisation reflects the themes and context of the film.

My first-year teaching self would have just asked the students to look at a character and tell me what they represent. I would have left it open-ended in the belief that an Advanced English student could pour their magic mojo on it and interpret the characters independently. My time teaching a multiplicity of students and diverse student-types has taught me that this approach only achieves one thing: it gets answers out of those who already know how to do it. 

The mercenary Kruger is modeled after the notorious rogue soldiers known as 32 Battalion, who served in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. The shot above, where he uses a samurai sword to BBQ meat on a rooftop, reflects the ease and confidence in which he moves within the dangerous favelas.

In recent years I've been taking a different approach to high-achieving students. Why not just give them all the information they need, and therefore force them to focus more explicitly on the skills rather than the content? This isn't a new idea... it's reflected in flipped classrooms, project-based learning, scaffolding, etc., so it's not so much an epiphany as just a reinforcement of where I want to push the students.

The lesson below features character profiles of the major figures in Elysium - Max, Frey, Delacourt, Kruger, Spider, and Carlyle. Each profile contains some basic shot analysis, explanations of the etymology of the character's name, and additional context that links to what writer-director Neill Blomkamp was aiming for in his stylistic choices for how the characters are represented. It's all there for the students. They wouldn't know this stuff automatically; I had to arrive at the contextual knowledge through my own research and analysis so it would be silly to assume that the students could come up with this deep knowledge of content on the spot during the lesson.

The point is to instead discuss and read this stuff with the students and then get them to deconstruct the character with a higher order question (EG. 'In what way...', 'What is the significance...'). The student takes the information given to them and uses it to formulate their own response. It's okay for the information to be explicitly given to them because they're essentially doing what a university student does, which is working with a reading or text to bring a diverse array of content into their own hands as they put pen to paper. The more they do this, the wider and deeper their personal knowledge of the subject will become. It's not a radical concept; I just wanted to share the resource below and explain how it works :)

Resource - Representation/Characterisation in Elysium

Elysium - Connotation and Invented Lexicon

Digging further into analysing Elysium as part of a Preliminary HSC Advanced English Comparative Study, I think it's necessary to address the role that genre plays in the film's context and language choices. 

Elysium is a very much a science fiction text in the most conventional sense of the term. Set in the future, and featuring a high concept collision between the tropes of utopian and dystopian societies, and coming with all the hardware trimmings that modern audiences have come to expect from big screen forays into the genre, I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who wouldn't classify it as a science fiction film. 

But what is it that separates Elysium from Animal Farm in its exploration of corrupt governance when we consider genre? Well, as most sci-fi fans will know, nearly any effective piece of speculative fiction will feature some sort of invented lexicon. When composers work with invented worlds, it becomes effective for them to represent the somewhat abstract concept of an imagined space with new terms. Several techniques can come into play here:

• Portmanteaus: a combination of pre-existing words into new words to reflect new contexts.
• Loanwords: words 'borrowed' from other languages to represent the increased influence of particular cultures on one another.
• Euphemisms: softer/dishonest ways of portraying harsh ideas; used to reflect the rhetoric of oppressive governments in their attempts to propagandise and persuade.
• Connotations: the associations people bring in their understanding of certain terms.
• Allusions: references to other bodies of knowledge; be they religious, mythological, historical, cultural, literary, etc. 

Not all of these come into play in Elysium, but some quite clearly do. An example is the term 'undocumented', which is used by the Elysium citizens to refer to the ships that carry desperate Earthlings. These are people who are attempting to travel to the elite space station in the hope of accessing godlike medical technology. Whilst 'undocumented' isn't an unfamiliar term, it is somewhat euphemistic as it belies the true attitude of Senator Delacourt towards the ships (IE. She wants to destroy them). The connotation of the term also calls to mind refugees in our own context; the 'undocumented' illegal immigrants who cross the border from Mexico to the U.S.A. (which should be familiar rhetoric to any student who has seen American television and Donald Trump's recent campaigning).

The document below contains a list of examples from Elysium's invented lexicon, and some of the bigger allusions made (such as the use of favelas and the origins of the term 'Elysium' itself). Students are asked to analyse the allusions made and consider the reasons for the director's choice of imagery. Following this, students can work in pairs to explain the connotations of some of the invented terms. The sheet then finishes by asking students to bring their analysis and understanding of context together as a personal response that assesses just how successfully they think the director has built a realistic vision of the future through the use of this language.  

Resource - The Language of Elysium