Author Mentors: Kate Veitch and Discursive Writing

This is the fourth and final part in a series on 'Author Mentors'. Each of these lessons utilise a short extract as a model to encourage student engagement in the same vein as the writing-focused modules of the NSW senior courses (Reading to Write in Year 11 and Craft of Writing in Year 12). In order, these have been:

• Context - Kurt Vonnegut
• Structure - Yuri Herrara
• Theme - Ellen Van Neerven

and now, as a means of promoting a more extended response:

• Discursive Writing - Kate Veitch

1. Using Authors to Create. The first thing to do here is to walk students through some broad steps for creating their own piece of writing. I will note here that I'm not too hung up on ensuring that the writing is 'discursive' per se, this part of the lesson is just about prompting some thinking and eliciting a response. In using a model text to create their own piece of writing, students should consider each of the following:

• Inspiration: An essential step with using any text as a model for one's writing is to read the text and examine the way that the author writes.
• Construction: The next step is for the student to craft their own writing in a similar fashion to the author (our mileage may vary here as it depends on what aspect of the author's work we choose to focus on).
• Imitation: The student looks at connecting their own writing to an author's and developing an awareness of similarity or areas of inspiration.
• Reflection: The final stage of this process is to reflect and use correct terminology while explaining how one's own writing works, and integrating an awareness of the previous steps.

Now that students have an idea of what they can do, practise with a short stimulus as a mini-lesson. I like this quote from The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same colour as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.

Students use the stimulus to do a miniature version of the Inspiration, Construction, Imitation, Reflection schema from above. Instructions follow:

Read the sentence above, craft your own line of description in the same way, describe which parts are similar, and reflect on how the sentence works. 

We're not looking for a long or especially creative piece here. A student who is adept at creative writing does not necessarily need this level of scaffolding. We're looking, however, at ways in which we can work with all Year 10 students - which includes students who may not be confident with composition and reflection. By reducing the task to a single sentence and scaffolding it, we allow such students the opportunity to walk through the process with guidance and to learn exactly what they'll need to do when they eventually get to Year 12. 

2. Extract - First Impressions. Now we'll look at an extract from a great non-fiction essay by Kate Veitch called 'Small Eye'. In NSW English parlance, this could be called 'discursive' writing. 

• 'Small Eye' extract.

We'll then contextualise the piece by starting with some general questions that ensure students have a grounded understanding of what they're looking at. Here are four such questions:

1. What is the text about?
2. What motif appears throughout the text?
3. How does this connect to the theme of the text?
4. Find one phrase/word choice with positive connotations and one phrase/word choice with negative connotations.

3. Explanation - Non-Fiction or 'Discursive' Writing. This is as good as any opportunity to introduce students to discursive writing. In giving an introductory overview of this genre of writing, we'll outline just a few key features rather than going too in-depth. I would start with:

• Written from the writer's personal perspective (first person point-of-view)
• Focuses on a subject or topic that the writer wants to discuss.
• Use of anecdotes, facts, history, humour to entertain and educate the reader.

Students then use the above as a guide to brainstorm the ways in which 'Small Eye' fits the description of discursive writing. 

4. Examining the Text. In continuing what is essentially the 'inspiration' stage, it's useful to now get students to look more closely at the text to consider how each element is used by Veitch with specific purpose. A worksheet is included here:

• Examining 'Small Eye'. 

Students work through the examples to identify and explain each of the techniques/non-fiction devices used. This includes:

• Adverbs, Ellipsis, Humour, Word Choice: How does the author control the way the reader feels about the text?
• Anecdotes: How do the little stories told by the author add detail to their ideas?
• Epigraph: How does the introductory quote make the theme clearer to the reader?
• Logos: In what way are facts figures, and/or logic used to make the writing more convincing?
• Repetition: In what way does the repeating of ideas or words help to tie the text together?

5. Construct and Imitate. Students should now have some preparatory knowledge that allows them to embark upon their own piece of writing with a similar theme. Provide some images along with the instructions below (two stimulus images are included in the PowerPoint at the end of this blog). I will mention here that, at this point, the 'lesson' may stretch into multiple lessons. 

Create your own piece of personal non-fiction writing. You must:

• Write 300-500 words
• Use at least one of the images as a thematic prompt - what can you say about one (or both) of these things? [Note: One image prompts discussion of travel, the other photography]
• Use 2-3 of the techniques featured in the Examining 'Small Eye' worksheet from the previous part of the lesson. 

6. Reflection. With the growing emphasis on 'reflecting' on one's own composition that has arisen over the last two decades in the Australian curriculum and NSW syllabuses, it becomes necessary to explicitly teach this as part of the compositional process. In effect, it's basically just an integrated way of getting students to engage in analysis - albeit focused on their own writing. 

Step 1. Examine Your Writing. Highlight and annotate parts of your text that might show:

• Where you have taken inspiration from Kate Veitch's 'Small Eye'.
• Where you have used techniques such as: similes, metaphors, motifs, anecdotes, allusion, alliteration, imagery, effective verbs, carefully-chosen adverbs, etc. 
• Where you have described things.
• Where you spoke really clearly about the main idea.

Step 2. Explain Your Writing. Write a paragraph 'reflecting' on one aspect of your writing. You can do this by following this formula:

1. Introduce the example you are talking about.
2. Quote the example.
3. Identify the reason why it was highlighted during your annotation.
4. Explain why or how you used this example. 

And there you have it. Some or all of the above might seem too explicit but I really do think there are a lot of students in Year 9 or 10 who need to be shown exactly what it is we're looking for, especially as we live in a society that increasingly swims in a stream of online data that can leave the younger generation feeling a bit adrift when it comes to more traditional forms of writing. 

The Author Mentors sequence is designed to walk students back through the steps of analysis and composition. This is hopefully done in a way that leaves no stone unturned when it comes to a student's own comprehension of what it is that Year 12 requires from them in terms of composing their own imaginative or discursive writing. There's no harm in repeating things that students have already been taught, it's this sort of repetition that's so effective in Maths pedagogy and helps to build student automaticity. Creative writing is a hard ask for students who feel uncreative or (dare I say it) just aren't interested in creative writing and probably never will be. By breaking it down into constituent parts and using discrete extracts that reduce the cognitive demand of reading, we can hone in on explicitly teaching some key skills.

It all works as scaffolding. If we start in junior grades then it becomes easier to lift this scaffolding away for Years 11 and 12. 

The above lesson(s) can be found as a PowerPoint here.

Acknowledgement: The following material has been adapted and modified specifically for this blog. I would like to acknowledge some of my colleagues - Ashleigh Galea, Lauren Hage, Amra Winter - who helped develop some additional material not included here.   

Practising the Craft of Writing

Some useful resources to assist you with practising the Craft of Writing on your journey towards the HSC Examination. 

Copy of the 2025 Version of the PPT: The Craft of Writing.

Example of a longer discursive piece - Grand Final Fever.

Prescribed Texts:

• The complete list of Standard English Craft of Writing Prescribed Texts with some brief summaries and analysis of each text. Please note that this was originally written for English teachers to read - it should still be useful in giving students some ideas for critically engaging with their Prescribed Texts.
• The complete list of Advanced English Craft of Writing Prescribed Texts with brief summaries and analysis. Also originally written for English teachers but still useful for students.

Writing techniques - ideas, examples, explanations.

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

A schematic scaffold that can be used to revise and analyse a text:

• Scaffold for revising Prescribed Texts

Author Mentors: Yuri Herrara and Structure

English in the 21st century is a strange beast. For older generations, there will be an awareness that the current subject of English taught in Australia is not the English that was taught 50 (or even 25) years ago. The rise of the new version of English in 1960s and '70s academia, with its focus on culture, contextual elements, and new media, would really only truly be felt in the NSW syllabus circa 2000. 

As someone who finished school in 1997 and then didn't come to teaching until 2010, this shift in the English discipline was a bit of a shock. The English essays I had written in Years 11 and 12 were decidedly formalist - focused on the structural purposes of the text, with the idea that the text was 'closed' and that everything you needed to know could be found within the text alone. Come 2010, The History teacher and Postmodernist in me loved that English had developed into something much more wild - that we can trace contextual elements and examine their impact on the text and audience, and that we can also look at the endless ways in which the same text can be read, or the ways in which the reader brings themselves to the text and reads it differently to their peers. 

But, that said, the English of the 20th century hasn't been replaced by this newer English. The two Englishes live alongside one another in our syllabus; you can see elements of both within the outcomes. You can also see them both within the diverse teaching methods of a powerful workforce of English teachers with their own myriad experience and wisdom. Some English teachers thrive on the idea of alternative readings and context, others prefer examining how a text is constructed and what this means. If you're teaching the bulk of the secondary English syllabus you'd be hard-pressed to completely avoid one side in favour of the other. 

Anyway, my point is that, while Part 1 of this series focused on the author and the role of context in shaping a text, today's entry (Part 2) focuses on the structure of the text. I think it's important that we teach students (without necessarily using fancy words like postmodernism and formalism) that reading and writing is a complex process with different 'ways in'. It works as a form of differentiated practice because some students will react better to a contextual study, whereas others will prefer looking at structural elements.

Structure

The author used for this structure lesson is Yuri Herrera, a really interesting Mexican writer who gained some attention in the 2010s for his novellas. Before looking at an extract from his Romeo & Juliet-inspired text The Transmigration of Bodies, it's useful to prime students by giving them an overview of some of the structures we use when writing. This can be done by checking for understanding with the following activities:

Mechanics. Write a bad example of each of the following:

• Punctuation
• Grammar
• Spelling
• Sentence Structure
• Paragraphs

Techniques. Also called 'literary devices', these are figurative, persuasive, and sound-based techniques used to make an impact on the treader.

• List some examples.

Conventions. The motifs or recurring elements that help the reader identify the type or genre of text.

• Give an example.

Writing Choices. Pick one below and discuss why it's important.

• Word Choice
• Point of View
• Tense
• Themes
• Being conscious of controlling how the reader sees your text

Editing. Pick one of your previous answers and re-write it using one of the methods below.

• Re-reading
• Drafting
• Sharing for feedback
• Using criteria
• Polishing

After these opening activities, have students read an extract from The Transmigration of Bodies and then consider some of the elements that have been used. In particular, ask students to look at its 'mechanics' and techniques by answering the following:

1. Find and highlight the following punctuation: comma, dash, colon, capitalisation of a proper noun. 
2. What reason is each one used for?
3. Explain the impact of the following techniques used by the writer:
1. Repetition of the word 'everyday' three times in one sentence.
2. The irony/dark humour of the line "Occasionally, his teeth fell out."
3. The metaphor "Eyeing (...) with venom."

Authors also used various conventions when writing in their chosen genre. A reader's familiarity with these conventions (also called motifs) allows them to better understand the ideas or style of the story. Have students make notes on three of the motifs featured in the extract (a depressing setting, blood, and a less-than-heroic lead character) and then ask them to identify which of the following genres the text fits into:

• Comedy
• Crime
• Romance
• Science Fiction

The lesson then focuses on writing choices. Herrera has a talent for using verbs in fascinating and memorable ways - ask students to locate the following verbs in the extract:

• Trickled, scamper, cricked, dreaming, managed, fell, buzzing, tethering, attempting, rammed, leaned, sucking, blew. 

Students can then answer the following questions. Some of these break away from a strictly formalist approach but we'll keep that to ourselves.

1. What is the impact of using particular verbs?
2. Whose point of view is the text written from?
3. How does the writer want the reader to think of the main character?
4. How does the writer want the reader to think of the setting?
5. What would you change if you wanted to introduce some more drama in the first paragraph?

The above lesson can be found here in these resources:

• PowerPoint on Structure (this walks students through the lesson step by step).
• Suggested extract.

Acknowledgement: The following material has been adapted and modified specifically for this blog. I would like to acknowledge some of my colleagues - Ashleigh Galea, Lauren Hage, Amra Winter - who also developed some additional material not included here

Author Mentors: Kurt Vonnegut and Context

One of the more interesting developments that occurred in Stage 6 NSW English these last few years was an increased and specialised focus on writing craft. This is encapsulated within the Year 12 Craft of Writing and Year 11 Reading to Write modules, which encourage students to use quality texts as models for their own writing. When we look at these modules closely we can see the way in which they build upon previous wisdom about student writing whilst adding some new parameters. In particular, the idea of providing a focus on creative writing has re-arranged itself around a need to include the disciplines of persuasive and discursive writing, which prompts further reflection when it comes to backward mapping some core skills and ideas into earlier years of high school.

Like many others, I've had to think about the idea of using Stage 5 as a formative ground for considering authors in this same way. I've summarised this as the somewhat dorky term 'Author Mentors', which can be extended into a short unit of work. This approach takes students through four different authors, with each one used to explore and model writing in relation to one of four stages of approaching texts:

1. Context
2. Structure
3. Discussion
4. Create

Context

The author used for the context lesson is Kurt Vonnegut (from whose work I took the title of this website, funnily enough!). The purpose of this lesson is to explore what context is, how it works, and how students can use their understanding of this concept to approach a text (the text in question being an extract from Vonnegut's famed science-fiction/war novel Slaughterhouse-Five).

Context is a tricky beast because it can sometimes feel like it pulls time away from studying the actual text. With this in mind, it's useful to frame context in general terms and to also approach it (in this case) in a way that Year 9 and 10 students will understand. This means communicating to students the way in which the 'background' of a text can help the reader understand what a text is about. The reader can draw useful conclusions about a novel by connecting the text to the life and times of the author. Examining context will typically involve the following four elements:

• When: When was the text written and/or published?
• Where: What society was the author living in when they wrote the text?
• Who: What sort of person was the author and what were the key events that shaped who they were?
• Why: What reasons or events prompted the author to write the text?

After considering the above, students should then be asked to read an extract from Slaughterhouse-Five. I like to use a small part of the text that comes about 15-20 pages before the end of the novel. This is accompanied by some straightforward comprehension questions to help orientate the reader and ensure they have a general understanding of the extract, as well as priming them for more in-depth discussion of context afterwards. Questions are as follows:

1. What is happening in this text?
2. What is the setting?
3. What is the backstory for the protagonist (main character)?
4. What elements of the story let you know these things?

The next step is to look at some contextual information about Kurt Vonnegut. Students read a brief overview of the context of Vonnegut and Slaughterhouse-Five and then rewrite/summarise some information using a basic schema. This means they read the overview and then gather together information that corresponds to the following:

• When?
• Where?
• Who?
• Why?

The final part of the lesson asks students to reflect upon and consider Vonnegut's context more specifically in relation to the novel. It also requires them to make some connections from text to self and text to the wider world. Ask students to respond to these questions:

Reflect: Look back to your answers to the questions of 'When, Where, Who, Why'. How do they stack up in comparison to what you learned from the novel's context?

Considering Context:

1. Why do you think this novel is considered by some to be a classic?
2. Do you think American schools are right to ban it?
3. What did the extract from Slaughterhouse-Five have to say about war?
4. What do you think about war? Write 400 words explaining your thoughts.

The above lesson can be found here in these resources:

• PowerPoint on Context (this walks students through the lesson step by step).
• Suggested extract.
• Context overview.

Acknowledgement: The following material has been adapted and modified specifically for this blog. I would like to acknowledge some of my colleagues (who I no longer get to work alongside but miss all the same!) - Lauren Hage, Ashleigh Galea, and Amra Winter - who also developed some additional material not included here. Hi! :)

Creating Worlds - Setting in Imaginative Writing

Imagined and literary worlds are always, in some way, a reflection of the world around us. The bedrock of worldbuilding is a keen awareness of setting - and students need to understand that setting has a precise function if they are to use this element well. When I read a great book or short story, I will find myself transported to that setting and sometimes it will be the one thing that stays with me longest after  I finish reading.

An effective setting will do some or all of the following:

• Remain constant in the reader's impression of the story, even when it isn't being explicitly mentioned. This can be achieved through the consistent use of detail and ensuring that nothing occurs in the narrative to contradict the setting.
• Make use of a set of rules - is everything we read a logical extension of the setting? If the setting is an unusual one, then this needs to interact with the characters and narrative in a way befitting this. 
• Be aware of time and place. A setting should have a particular geography but there also needs to be an awareness of the time of day and year, which may shift according to the progression of the narrative. If it is the height of an Australian summer, for example, then the characters need to act in a way that reflects the constant and often oppressive heat that comes with this.
• Reflect theme or a key idea. The most effective setting will often interact with characters in a way that reveals a concept or message that the writer seeks to explore. 

When we teach setting within a schooling context we need to also think about the syllabus. By all means, students should be encouraged to write for pleasure and to explore their imagination without limit, and time can be spent on this in the junior grades or (if your school has them) English creative writing electives. But if we're looking at the pointy end of the curriculum (in my case, NSW), we do need to teach students how to write within the scope of the Craft of Writing module for the HSC, or for  English Extension 1. This means having the ability to write a short piece within 25-50 minutes (depending on the HSC question and course).

So with this in mind, I would ask students to also think of setting in the following way:

• The previously mentioned dot points still largely apply.
• Come to a decision about whether character or setting will take precedence. Both should reflect the idea the student wants to explore, but if the amount of examination time is particularly short (for example, a double-barrelled Craft of Writing question that requires a reflection as well as a piece of original writing) then I think a student will struggle to give ample space to both characterisation and setting. 
• If focusing on setting, consider how it relates to the idea we want to explore. How does the setting reflect genre? Why is the writer writing about this setting? What is the purpose? How can we ensure that the detail included is consistently relevant to the idea or theme? 
• Don't fall into the trap of fantasy worldbuilding - there is limited space in an HSC examination and we need to consider the stimulus and the parameters of the question. It's great to write an evocative setting but this isn't the place to delve into said setting's extensive history and geography.  

What follows is an activity that uses real world locations to provide inspiration. In NSW it could be used for Years 7-10 English, Year 11 Reading to Write, Year 12 Craft of Writing, or Extension English Literary Worlds. 

Students are taken on a tour of 20 slides - 2 for each setting - and asked to respond to them in a way that will get them started on the above journey. The questions below aren't fixed, they're just a way to get students thinking descriptively and, more importantly, conceptually. 

1. Describe what you see in as much detail as possible.
2. Boil it down to just one key idea that could be used in a piece of writing.
3. What sort of short story could you tell in relation to this setting?
4. What would this short story be about in a single word? (EG. Desperation? Survival? Hope? Secrecy?, etc.)

The slides can be found here - Creating Worlds.

Happy writing!

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

Creative Writing: Reinforcing an Idea

One of the challenges of teaching Year 7 is that we often have to determine the level of understanding that a class is at. We may often find that this varies wildly from year to year. Students in metropolitan secondary schools are often drawn from a range of primary schools, and this variation in context can lead to ever-shifting permutations of Year 7 classes where students sitting alongside each other have come from different primary schools where curriculum has been interpreted and delivered in many different ways. 

In short, we can't really assume too much. 

Instead, we utilise assessment for learning - informal evaluation of student ability gathered through activities that act as a litmus test of classroom efficacy. We watch how students react and work with certain activities to gauge their ability level. We check for understanding. And then, after this, we engage to some extent in a process of universal design - re-adjusting how we pitch the lesson so that all students can access it in some way. 

Sometimes, or oftentimes, the general ability level of a mixed ability Year 7 class requires us to start from scratch so we can better understand what's happening inside the learning of our students. The activity in this blog is borne from such a context. It speaks to the idea that one needs to go back to basics to ensure that an intellectually-diverse collective of students are brought onto the same page. Even high-performing students with gifts for critical thinking will benefit from having things broken down to their components as this allows for new approaches that they may not have considered, or explains things they may have subconsciously wondered about. In the task below we are looking at one aspect of imaginative writing. With Year 7, or any mixed-ability class, I often find that it's much more effective to only focus on one skill or idea at a time.

In this case I'm aiming to teach the use of increased vocabulary to reinforce a theme or idea. This means that I won't get bogged down in spelling, or grammar, or sentence structure, or punctuation, or any number of other things. I want to look at this skill in a vacuum. I want to quarantine it off so I can examine it in on a plate of glass in the cold unyielding light of a microscope. And so students, who are looking at this microscope slide alongside me, can better understand how to "show their working" (to borrow a phrase from Maths). The time for synthesising a range of disparate skills is a whole other lesson - we simply just can't teach everything at once all the time; it's overwhelming for both the teacher and the student. 

Here is a PowerPoint that breaks down this skill through the use of a modelled paragraph - Make Your Idea Stick.

1. The goal is to get students to come up with an idea or theme and to then explore and reinforce this using a variety of words.
2. First, we model this with an excerpt from an age-appropriate novel. In this case, I've used Victor Kelleher's Taronga. The idea is that he wants to show his audience a version of the future where society has broken down and everything we know has been destroyed.
3. Give the students a copy of the paragraph from the PPT.
4. Students highlight any words that show that things have broken down, gone wrong, or been destroyed. Direct students to look for nouns, adjectives, verbs that demonstrate this. This will create a visual guide to a subject-specific set of vocabulary within the paragraph.
5. After students have had a chance to find their words, work together as a class to construct a highlighted version on the board with the 3rd slide of the PPT. The 4th slide of the PPT then has a completed one for the class to compare their collaborative version to.
6. Students then draw arrows from each word to the next, creating a text chain that ties the paragraph together and again visually demonstrates how subject-specific vocabulary has conveyed Kelleher's idea. 
7. The final step is for students to then write their own paragraph. If they're stuck for an idea it will up to the teacher to pick one for them, something different to the Kelleher model. It could be something like: a character is amazed by something they've seen or a character feels a sense of immense dread related to their surroundings or depict a world where modern technology was never invented. The possibilities are endless.

I'm a big fan of teaching students these text chains. The real name of this grammatical element of writing is 'lexical chain', and it exists in texts as a reflection of said text's overall cohesion. Well-developed or expert use of lexical chains improves clarity for the reader and 'builds the field' of a topic that is being explored. Teaching this isn't restricted to just English, I've used it also with History and Aboriginal Culture classes, and have seen it used really well in Science.  

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

Ursula Le Guin's famous short story 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' is a text with an endless lifespan in relation to the classroom. It's relatively short, which means that it's accessible to a range of readers. It has depth and a certain ideological ambiguity, which means that it's provocative in terms of forcing the reader to take a position on the ideas its raises. And it works as an exercise in analysing generic conventions and the impact of context. Simply put - it's beautiful and timeless.

It can be used with Year 8, Year 9, Year 10, and Year 11 students, and its the sort of text that will provoke some interesting and highly disparate responses from students. In order to cater for a range of responses and abilities, the text can be unpacked in a variety of ways:

1. Start by getting students to respond to some comprehension questions.
2. This can be followed by some critical analysis - students can begin identifying some techniques, thinking about authorial purpose in relation to writing craft, and the story's overall design.
3. Students can then look at evaluating some of the 'big ideas' that Le Guin explores. This also ties into her use of genre and the purpose behind her choice of subject matter.
4. Lastly, with some information about Le Guin's context provided, students can then look beyond the story and start making some connections between the text and Le Guin's world, and the text and their world. 

I've included some examples of the above in a PowerPoint that can be used (after reading through the story): 

Omelas Analysis.

WARNING: There is a paragraph in the first page or so that focuses on some very 1960s concepts in terms of 'free love' and sexual liberation. I think, perhaps dependent on the year group, the story works better without this element as it can shift the focus a little too much. I would simply chop this bit out altogether, it's quite easily edited out with minimal impact on the larger narrative. I have no problem with bowdlerisation if it allows for a smoother lesson without distractions!

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). 

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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!

Stage 6 Writing Craft 2: Craft of Writing

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

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

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

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

Craft of Writing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Assessment Portfolio

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

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

Peer assessment is valuable because it: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stage 6 Writing Craft 1: Reading to Write

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

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

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

The first of these are the Prescribed Texts.

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

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

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

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

Reading to Write

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Assessment Task here.

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

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

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