Stage 6 Writing Craft 1: Reading to Write

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

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

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

The first of these are the Prescribed Texts.

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

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

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

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

Reading to Write

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Assessment Task here.

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

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

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

Craft of Writing: Motif, Intertextuality, and Synaesthesia

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

Motif

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

Examples:

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

Why use it:

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

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

Textual Allusion / Intertextuality

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

Examples:

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

Why use it:

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

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

Synaesthesia

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

Examples:

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

Why use it:

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

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

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

• Writology Issue 9

Happy writing!

The Literary Canon: What's In It?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isn't it fun? Exclusive? Exhausting?

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

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

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

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

 Anyway... here's the list!

Peace Train Comprehension - Remote Learning, 2021

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

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

This is how it goes...

Step 1: Students watch the following clip:

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

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

• Worksheet (Word version)
• Worksheet (PDF)

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

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

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

Take care.

Using Schemas with Related Texts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Download schema here.

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

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

Women on the Australian Home Front in WW1

Part of the NSW Stage 5 History syllabus (the 'Australians at War' study) includes a dot point highlighting the role of women in WWI and WWII. I was led down a rabbit hole while researching this for WWI in particular and came up with the following lesson, which seemed to work well with my class last week. 

Anyway, here's the lesson:

1. Start with a definition activity for the word 'home front'. I actually do this for nearly all of my classes - History and English alike; I feel that improving metalanguage and general vocabulary is one of the key building blocks for learning. There's a lot of research in literacy that suggests that the best way to teach a new word is to get the students to use it in context, so I simply chuck the word up on the board and tell students to put it into a sentence, any sentence that makes sense, and I try to walk around checking on individual students to see how they've gone. It's a good settling routine.

2. After reinforcing the idea of the home front and what it is, have the class contribute to the construction of a mindmap that covers the lives of pre-war women in Australia. Branches of this mindmap could include things such as:

• Division of labour - men worked, women ran the household. In poorer families, women helped with work. It was considered important to keep the father well-fed as he was the only 'working' parent a lot of the time. 
• Women were housewives and their workload was intense - nearly all food was made from scratch and lots of clothes were too. Discuss things like the lack of refrigerators and how this might impact on home life, what would happen if clothing ripped, what a washboard was, etc.
• Women were mothers - it was common in this era to have an average of 10 to 12 children.
• Women's rights - women had gained the right to vote, state by state, only quite recently. The last state that established the right for women to vote was in 1911, only 3 years before the war broke out. 

This can then pivot into a class discussion of how the above might have changed once all the men went off to war. How would women have been impacted by this? 

3. Organise a lottery =- students draw letters (A to L) out of a hat or box [you'll need to just write these onto little slips of paper]. Students then search for their corresponding description in the following document; The Role of Women in WWI. After finding out what 'their' role might have been as a woman in WW1-era Australia, students should read the accompanying detail and respond to the following questions:

4. The Role of Women in World War I

A. What role did you get?

B. What was your role in World War I?

C. How did your role come about?

D. How helpful do you think you were in comparison to the other roles that have been listed?

E. How appreciative do you think people in Australia were of you at the time?

F. If there was a war like WWI today, do you think you would be needed in the same way? Why or why not?

G. Create a poster that advertises your role's contribution or belief. 

The above questions start at the simple and then move into the evaluative and empathy-based, with explicit regard given to context, thus highlighting continuity and change over time. 

I didn't plan it this way but this activity was timed well to coincide with ANZAC Day!

We will remember them. 

Lest we forget. 

Conversations about Hag-Seed

Epigraphs

The Advanced English Textual Conversations module provides an option to study the pairing of Shakespeare's The Tempest and Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed. It's an accessible and popular option, and there's an ever-increasing amount of material becoming available to assist teachers and students. I usually approach the pairing by having students read The Tempest in one go, and then looking at Shakespeare's text through the lens of Hag-Seed. 

One of the literary structural conceits used by Atwood in her novel is the epigraph. In this context, an epigraph is the use of a quote or phrase at the beginning of a text to 'prime' the reader. This is a form of textual allusion, which is fitting when we consider that Hag-Seed itself is a giant piece of textual allusion. Atwood isn't shy in this regard, she uses not one epigraph but three.

Here's a sheet that invites students to analyse the epigraphs: The Art of the Epigraph in Hag-Seed

In this activity, students:

• Look at what an epigraph is and how it functions.
• Consider what each epigraph specifically says about Hag-Seed and/or why Atwood has chosen this particular quote to use. 
• Take the intertextuality a step further by using a quote from either The Tempest or Hag-Seed as an epigraph for their own piece of writing.

Epigraphs are important for Advanced students to learn about because they exist as a higher order form of comprehension. They are a sophisticated (and potentially obscure) way for writers to experiment with abstraction, a way to distil the essence or thematic core of a piece of writing, or to even ironically write against the idea of a piece. 

Socratic Discussion

Another way of getting Advanced students to better comprehend the textual conversation between The Tempest and Hag-Seed is the use of Socratic circles. This allows for the generation of discussion about the texts without focusing too much on lower order skills like grammar and sentence construction. 

I've already written about this approach a while back if you're interested (Socratic circles) and, for the purposes of this blog entry, I've included some useful discussion questions below. I like to use these questions around the halfway mark in the module - they're intended to push quieter students into forming and voicing opinions, and can also give struggling writers an opportunity to demonstrate their advanced thinking. The beauty of Socratic discussion is in sparking a single comment from a more forthright student and then watching other students build on this or react to it. 

Anyway, here are the questions:

• Does Prospero have the right to enslave Caliban?
• Prospero's most prized possession is his books and he arranges to take these with him to the island, along with his daughter. What two items would you take?
• Should Prospero have forgiven Antonio? Does he have a right to revenge?
• Felix tells himself to 'trust the play' but then questions himself with 'but is the play trustworthy?' What do you think is meant by this?
• Thinking of Caliban and the inmates in Hag-Seed, which is more influential - nature or nurture?
• In what way is Miranda a product of her time?
• Prospero was overthrown by his own brother, which is indicative of a familiar thread in Shakespeare's plays. What is this theme and is it still relevant today?
• Who is more justified in his methods - Prospero or Felix?
• In what way is the theme of 'performance' relevant to our everyday lives?
• Who is 'the Other' in our society? Are they fairly represented in the media? Fairly represented in Shakespeare's time? Is Caliban a racist stereotype?
• Would The Tempest as a play be better off without the characters of Stephano and Trinculo?
• If Prospero were an allegory for Shakespeare himself, who would be the closest equivalent for Margaret Atwood in Hag-Seed?
• In what way does Hag-Seed succeed in updating The Tempest for a modern day audience?
• In what way does it fail?
• Should any text be fair game for adaptation or sequelising? 

I've asked these questions to a range of students and it's genuinely fascinating to hear the discussions that emerge, to see the way in which conversations fold over the top of each other, and the ideas that are extended through Socratic discussion. 

They could probably even work as a writing activity for individual students who need further extension.