Modelling Essay Writing

Earlier this year I had the pleasure to write a student resource textbook on The Merchant of Venice for the HSC 'Texts and Human Experiences' Common Module. I wrote this at the invitation of Into English (the book can be found here [digital e-book] and here [print edition]). It was something I did separately to my teaching as I actually taught my 2019 Year 12 class Nineteen Eighty-Four for the Common Module, and this means that I haven't had much of a chance to reflect on the module from a Merchant of Venice standpoint. Anyway, long story short, I've received some questions over the last few months about essay writing for The Merchant of Venice and this prompted me to write a sample paragraph. 

This paragraph can be viewed as supplementary material in support of one of the sample questions in the Into English book. The question itself isn't too important as the piece is predominantly designed to just demonstrate the components of a paragraph addressing human experiences, and can hopefully be used as a model for students to look at.

Here's the paragraph in question:

Sample Paragraph

The Merchant of Venice, through its exploration of the way in which people respond to appearances, reveals particular inconsistencies inherent in the human condition. This is perhaps best exemplified by the Prince of Morocco's observation that "All that glisters is not gold", an aphorism in which the deceptiveness of appearances is rendered concisely on multiple levels. Primarily, this remark is made in response to the false selection of a gold casket in the test for Portia's hand in marriage. It also doubles, however, as a metaphor for one of the play's key themes, wherein society often projects a shiny veneer that covers uglier truths. The antipathy that exists between Antonio and Shylock similarly conveys this context, with Antonio using the simile "like a villain with a smiling cheek" to describe Shylock's offer to loan him money, highlighting the apparent act of kindness as being inherently deceptive and evil. The inability of Christians and Jews within Renaissance-era Europe to see each other's true nature is further reinforced by Shylock's rhetorical identification of Antonio's hypocrisy, exemplified by the line "You called me 'dog' - and for these courtesies I'll lend you thus much money?" From a 21st century context, the audience is positioned to give equal weight to both the Christian and Jewish standpoint, and Shakespeare's depth of understanding becomes clearer from this more enlightened vantage point. In his examination of deceptive appearances, Shakespeare utilises these discussions to bring to the surface a range of inconsistencies in human behaviours and attitudes in order to demonstrate how conflict originates in such duplicity.

Annotated Paragraph

To assist with breaking up the above paragraph into its constituent parts, I have also attached an annotated version below.

Here it is: The Merchant of Venice and Human Experiences

I wanted to put the annotations up here directly but I couldn't figure out how to do it within a blog. I mean, to be honest, it's the end of the year and I'm feeling pretty exhausted so I didn't really invest too much time in trying to figure out how to convey annotations in the blogging format. 

Okay, look, if I'm really honest I didn't invest any time in figuring out how to convey annotations here. It's been a long year.

I would like to add that I wish you all the best over the upcoming holiday break!

Texts and Human Experiences: The Merchant of Venice

Not too long ago I had the opportunity to present some material relating to The Merchant of Venice within the context of the HSC Texts and Human Experiences Common Module. These resources are a small part of the textbook The Merchant of Venice, which I wrote for Into English at the beginning of this year.

With kind permission from the publisher, I have uploaded these presentation materials here for anyone potentially considering The Merchant of Venice as their Common Module text when teaching Year 12 English next term. This was initially presented in 2019 at the ETA NSW Conference. The version below is an updated/adjusted version that was presented to Aurora College for their HSC Seminar Day in 2022.

• Texts and Human Experiences: The Merchant of Venice - PowerPoint Presentation
• The Merchant of Venice - Resources
  

The textbook can be purchased digitally or in material form from the following places:

• Into English 
• Australian Curriculum Supplies 

The play itself is, as expected, an incredibly rich and layered text and is actually perfectly crafted as expression of human experiences.

See, Think, Wonder

A lone gum tree in Bega, photo from abc.net.au

Today I had the pleasure of attending an Into English professional learning session on the HSC Advanced English Module A comparative study of 1984 and Metropolis in Burwood, Sydney. Aside from being a nice day of collegial discussion and delivery of English guru-dom from Emily Bosco and Anthony Bosco, I found it especially useful as a jumping off point for an idea that I could use beyond the comparative study. 

This quick, simple and flexible activity that seems like it could endure a multitude of contexts is the See Think Wonder routine, developed by Harvard Project Zero as part of their Visible Thinking framework, and regularly touted by Into English as a reliable way to get students to externalise their process for text analysis.

The model is brilliantly straightforward:

• What do you see?
• What do you think about that?
• What does it make you wonder?

This can be applied in so many different ways, and for multiple KLAs at multiple stages of student development.  

By the time Emily Bosco had demonstrated an example for analysing Metropolis I had already started applying it to things I was currently teaching.

I'm currently doing Belonging as the Area of Study with my Year 11 Advanced class, with Skryznecki's Immigrant Chronicle as the Prescribed Text. In a week or so from now the class will be longing at an example of a Related Text, so I'll give them some guided questions in the See, Think, Wonder fashion.

SEE: What characteristics of belonging do you see in this text?

THINK: What perspective of belonging do you think is being communicated in this text?

What elements of context do you think may have influenced the composer of this text?

WONDER: In what way might this text relate to Skryznecki's treatment of belonging in his poetry?

The activity is effective because it pushes students towards incorporating observations into the thinking process and owning the answers to the questions. It shouldn't come as a surprise to most teachers reading this, but half the battle in helping students find success is getting them to take risks when it comes to learning. The See, Think, Wonder routine acts as a scaffold to encourage ownership of the analytical process.

Here's another example I'm toying with for use with Year 9 in their current study of indigenous poetry. It relates to the Oodgeroo Noonuccal poem Municipal Gum. 

SEE: What characteristics of Australian society do you see in this text?

THINK: What perspective of Australian society do you think is being communicated in this poem?

What do you think the context of the poet and poem might be?

WONDER: How might this poem relate to other poems we have looked at this term?

I hope to try it this week, so we'll see how it goes!

You can check out Into English here. They provide great professional learning on a range of HSC English modules, and I recommend them unequivocally.

For more on Harvard Project Zero's Visible Learning (particularly in regards to See Think Wonder), follow this link. This is also a great resource.