This resource offers an answer to the Sample Paper HSC Advanced English Module C question:
Guard your roving thoughts with a jealous care, for speech is but the dealer of thoughts, and every fool can plainly read in your words what is the hour of your thoughts. Use this warning as a stimulus for a piece of persuasive, discursive or imaginative writing that expresses your perspective about a significant concern or idea that you have engaged with in ONE of your prescribed texts from Module A, B or C.
This answer uses T.S. Eliot’s poem ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’ in a discursive piece about living up to your interpretations.
Check out more creative writing resources at https://thecraftofwriting.org/
Shakespeare’s play about madness and ambition is an established favourite for senior students. This 48-page unit of work has been tested successfully with a mixed-ability class and provides material for a full 10-week school term.
This unit focuses on close textual analysis. There is a mixture of tasks which gets students writing analytically, personally, and creatively, helping them to build up their own unique interpretation of the work, and eventually to express this in a formal essay.
There is a brief, student-friendly explanation of what a close reading actually is and how to perform it, followed by a sample close reading of the opening passage.
Each scene has a single-page task sheet comprising three higher-order tasks: a close reading of a nominated passage, an extended response to develop interpretative thinking, and a choice of creative writing tasks which springboard from the language and ideas in the chapter.
Ten senior-level essay questions offer a choice of arguments about character, theme, language, and context, and a sample essay discusses the following question:
I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares do more is none.
How are ideas of manly behaviour presented in the play?
Shakespeare’s tragedy about madness and ambition is an established favourite for senior students. Each scene has a single-page task sheet comprising three higher-order tasks: a close reading of a nominated passage, an extended response to develop interpretative thinking, and a choice of creative writing tasks which springboard from the language and ideas in the scene. These tasks get students writing analytically, personally, and creatively, helping them to build up their own unique interpretation of the work, and eventually to express this in a formal essay.
Gothic literature still informs many popular works of fiction, television and cinema, and the genre is still a regular part of many students’ high school literature experience.
This 135-page all-inclusive unit comprises:
An introduction to the values of the Gothic genre
Ten modules based around a classic Gothic short story or poem, which highlight one of the ten values or conventions. Each module has an introductory discussion; complete text of the story/poem; questions based on Bloom’s taxonomy
An assessment task suitable for students aged 15-16 who have well-developed reading ability
A reading list of other short stories both modern and classic from which teachers can choose partner pieces for the module stories
Shakespeare’s play about madness and family is an established favourite for senior students. This 48-page unit of work has been tested successfully with a mixed-ability class and provides material for a full 10-week school term.
This unit focuses on close textual analysis. There is a mixture of tasks which gets students writing analytically, personally, and creatively, helping them to build up their own unique interpretation of the work, and eventually to express this in a formal essay.
There is a brief, student-friendly explanation of what a close reading actually is and how to perform it, followed by a sample close reading of the opening passage.
Each scene has a single-page task sheet comprising three higher-order tasks: a close reading of a nominated passage, an extended response to develop interpretative thinking, and a choice of creative writing tasks which springboard from the language and ideas in the chapter.
Ten senior-level essay questions offer a choice of arguments about character, theme, language, and context, and a sample essay discusses the following question:
King Lear is enduringly relevant because it shows us that when we suffer from distorted perception we need others’ care, not their exploitation.
Does this satisfactorily explain the relevance of the play?
Shakespeare’s play about race and manipulation is an established favourite for senior students. This 35-page unit of work has been tested successfully with a mixed-ability class and provides material for a full 10-week school term.
This unit focuses on close textual analysis. There is a mixture of tasks which gets students writing analytically, personally, and creatively, helping them to build up their own unique interpretation of the work, and eventually to express this in a formal essay.
There is a brief, student-friendly explanation of what a close reading actually is and how to perform it, followed by a sample close reading of the opening passage.
Each scene has a single-page task sheet comprising three higher-order tasks: a close reading of a nominated passage, an extended response to develop interpretative thinking, and a choice of creative writing tasks which springboard from the language and ideas in the chapter.
Ten senior-level essay questions offer a choice of arguments about character, theme, language, and context, and a sample essay discusses how the play shows that ‘we need the Outsider narrative to help us define ourselves’.
Wilde’s Gothic novel about vanity and perdition is an established favourite for senior students. This 55-page unit of work has been tested successfully with a mixed-ability class and provides material for a full 10-week school term.
Pre-reading research tasks introduce students to the late Victorian period and the Decadent movement, before the bulk of the unit focuses on close textual analysis. There is a mixture of tasks which gets students writing analytically, personally, and creatively, helping them to build up their own unique interpretation of the work, and eventually to express this in a formal essay.
There is a brief, student-friendly explanation of what a close reading is and how to perform it, followed by a sample close reading of the opening passage.
Each chapter has a single-page task sheet comprising three higher-order tasks: a close reading of a nominated passage, an extended response to develop interpretative thinking, and a choice of creative writing tasks which springboard from the language and ideas in the chapter.
There is a discrete analysis task which shows students how to evaluate the same piece of textual evidence against three different questions, preventing them from regurgitating the same remarks regardless of question.
A guided essay which breaks an essay down into manageable steps for lower-ability students or those who struggle to form and maintain an argument. Ten senior-level essay questions offer a choice of arguments about character, theme, language, and context, and a sample essay discusses whether ‘touching the sacred things is the only thing worth touching’.
Victorian poetry regularly makes the top ten poems in public surveys, and much of our conception of what makes ‘good’ poetry was shaped by poets like Tennyson, Browning, Rossetti, and Arnold. This period formed the emotional and social attitudes which linger today – even in post-modern texts which claim to have moved beyond them. While the Romantics were read by the literati, the Victorian poets in this unit formed the core of public poetry consumption. An understanding of this period is essential for students who will read Edwardian and Modernist literature in later terms, by showing them what these writers and artists reacted against.
This activity comprises
two poems by the Rossettis with questions which require students to make a close analysis and interpretation
suggestions for extension reading to extend their knowledge of the poets
a creative writing task which helps them to engage laterally and personally with the ideas in the poetry.
Victorian poetry regularly makes the top ten poems in public surveys, and much of our conception of what makes ‘good’ poetry was shaped by poets like Tennyson, Browning, Rossetti, and Arnold. This period formed the emotional and social attitudes which linger today – even in post-modern texts which claim to have moved beyond them. While the Romantics were read by the literati, the Victorian poets in this unit formed the core of public poetry consumption. An understanding of this period is essential for students who will read Edwardian and Modernist literature in later terms, by showing them what these writers and artists reacted against.
This activity comprises
two poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, with questions which require students to make a close analysis and interpretation
suggestions for extension reading to extend their knowledge of the poet
a creative writing task which helps them to engage laterally and personally with the ideas in the poetry.
Comparative units are a great way to examine how the same preoccupations appear in different times, styles, and forms.
This senior unit of work invites students to compare Fritz Lang’s 1927 expressionist sci-fi extravaganza Metropolis with George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian novel 1984. They consider the two texts’ handling of themes, narrative strategies, and representational techniques through a side-by-side reading and viewing of the text pairing.
The unit has been designed for a 10-week term, and this resource includes:
A brief list of useful websites and readings which students should research to gain a sense of the film’s context and to give them time to read the first chapters of the novel.
A breakdown of the text-pairing over seven task-sheets corresponding to 7 weeks of a school term. Each week contains
A nominated section of the film and novel for study
Topics and questions for class discussion which students should prepare either verbally or in writing.
A writing task to consolidate the week’s work
The final weeks of term can be given over to an assessment task, which will be put up on this shop.
Victorian poetry regularly makes the top ten poems in public surveys, and much of our conception of what makes ‘good’ poetry was shaped by poets like Tennyson, Browning, Rossetti, and Arnold. This period formed the emotional and social attitudes which linger today – even in post-modern texts which claim to have moved beyond them. While the Romantics were read by the literati, the Victorian poets in this unit formed the core of public poetry consumption. An understanding of this period is essential for students who will read Edwardian and Modernist literature in later terms, by showing them what these writers and artists reacted against.
This activity comprises
two poems by Matthew Arnold and Gerald Manley Hopkins with questions which require students to make a close analysis and interpretation
suggestions for extension reading to extend their knowledge of the poets
a creative writing task which helps them to engage laterally and personally with the ideas in the poetry.
Victorian poetry regularly makes the top ten poems in public surveys, and much of our conception of what makes ‘good’ poetry was shaped by poets like Tennyson, Browning, Rossetti, and Arnold. This period formed the emotional and social attitudes which linger today – even in post-modern texts which claim to have moved beyond them. While the Romantics were read by the literati, the Victorian poets in this unit formed the core of public poetry consumption. An understanding of this period is essential for students who will read Edwardian and Modernist literature in later terms, by showing them what these writers and artists reacted against.
This activity comprises
two poems by Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning with questions which require students to make a close analysis and interpretation
suggestions for extension reading to extend their knowledge of the poets
a creative writing task which helps them to engage laterally and personally with the ideas in the poetry.
Victorian poetry regularly makes the top ten poems in public surveys, and much of our conception of what makes ‘good’ poetry was shaped by poets like Tennyson, Browning, Rossetti, and Arnold. This period formed the emotional and social attitudes which linger today – even in post-modern texts which claim to have moved beyond them. While the Romantics were read by the literati, the Victorian poets in this unit formed the core of public poetry consumption. An understanding of this period is essential for students who will read Edwardian and Modernist literature in later terms, by showing them what these writers and artists reacted against.
This activity comprises
two poems by Lear and Carroll with questions which require students to make a close analysis and interpretation
suggestions for extension reading to extend their knowledge of the poets
a creative writing task which helps them to engage laterally and personally with the ideas in the poetry.
The Middle Ages are fun and fascinating period of literature which even younger middle school students can enjoy. This complete unit of work is an easy and enjoyable survey of ten different medieval genres (including courtly love poetry, advice guides to children, frame tales, chronicles, and allegories) which will engage students of a more developed reading ability. This unit was successfully tested on a high-ability Year 8 (age 13-14) group.
It assumes no prior knowledge of the medieval period.
Contextual introduction to the period, changes to the English language, discussion of what people read and valued.
Ten short modules covering ten different text-types found in popular medieval literature. Each module includes:
introduction to the text type and a discussion of where we can see it in literature and culture today; a short focus text in modern English, either translated or retold
Bloom’s Taxonomy questions on the focus text
Stand-alone creative writing with medieval prompts
Summative thematic essay on one short text (provided) and the student’s choice of another text from the unit
Teachers can use the ten modules as a complete unit or as single modules supporting a study of another text.
Fitzgerald’s novel about ‘careless people’ and avarice in the modern era is an established favourite for senior students. This set of chapter questions comprises a single-page task sheet for each chapter. Each chapter has three higher-order tasks: a close reading of a nominated passage, an extended response to develop interpretative thinking, and a choice of creative writing tasks which springboard from the language and ideas in the chapter. The tasks lay the foundation for a critical essay at the end of the unit of study.
This substantial resource provides THREE different answers to the following question:
**A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. **Sir Winston Churchill
Use the lines above as a stimulus for the opening of an imaginative, discursive or persuasive piece of writing. In your piece of writing incorporate at least ONE example of figurative language that you have learned about through your study of the prescribed texts for Module C.
There is an imaginative, discursive AND persuasive answer so that you can show students how the same idea can be turned three different ways, to answer this question. Students can read through the answers alone or you can use the resource to test their knowledge of factors involved in good exam writing and how one mode differs from the other.
Each answer has a response to the (b) question, requiring students to **Explain how your writing in part (a) was influenced by what you have learned about figurative language through the study of your prescribed texts for Module C. **The (b) sections draw on ‘How to Live Before You Die’ by Steve Jobs, a prescribed text for Standard English, although no knowledge of this text is required to read or teach this resource.
Fitzgerald’s novel about ‘careless people’ and avarice in the modern era is an established favourite for senior students. This 30-page unit of work has been tested successfully with a mixed-ability class and provides material for a full 10-week school term.
Pre-reading research tasks introduce students to the Roaring 20s, before the bulk of the unit focuses on close textual analysis. There is a mixture of tasks which get students writing analytically, personally, and creatively, helping them to build up a their own unique interpretation to the work, and eventually express this in a formal essay.
There is a brief, student-friendly explanation of what a close reading is and how to perform it, followed by a sample close reading of the opening passage.
Each chapter has a single-page task sheet comprising three higher-order tasks: a close reading of a nominated passage, an extended response to develop interpretative thinking, and a choice of creative writing tasks which springboard from the language and ideas in the chapter.
Ten senior-level essay questions offer a choice of arguments about character, theme, language, and context, and a sample essay discusses whether we can think of the novel as a tragedy.
FREE 4 Contextual research tasks
Explanation of close reading method
Sample close reading
9 chapters with close reading, writing at length, and creative writing tasks
FREE 10 essay questions suitable for senior students
Sample essay
19th century poetry regularly makes the top ten poems in public surveys, and much of our conception of what makes ‘good’ poetry was shaped by poets like Tennyson, Browning, Rossetti, and Arnold. This period formed the emotional and social attitudes which linger today – even in post-modern texts which claim to have moved beyond them. While the Romantics were read by the literati, the poets in this unit formed the core of public poetry consumption. An understanding of this period is essential for students who will read Edwardian and Modernist literature in later terms, by showing them what these writers and artists reacted against.
This activity comprises
four poems by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson with questions which require students to make a close analysis and interpretation
suggestions for extension reading to extend their knowledge of the poets
a creative writing task which helps them to engage laterally and personally with the ideas in the poetry.
Shakespeare’s tragedy about race and manipulation is an established favourite for senior students. Each scene has a single-page task sheet comprising three higher-order tasks: a close reading of a nominated passage, an extended response to develop interpretative thinking, and a choice of creative writing tasks which springboard from the language and ideas in the scene. These tasks get students writing analytically, personally, and creatively, helping them to build up their own unique interpretation of the work, and eventually to express this in a formal essay.
Wilde’s Gothic novel about vanity and perdition is an established favourite for senior students. Each chapter has a single-page task sheet comprising three higher-order tasks: a close reading of a nominated passage, an extended response to develop interpretative thinking, and a choice of creative writing tasks which springboard from the language and ideas in the chapter. These tasks get students writing analytically, personally, and creatively, helping them to build up their own unique interpretation of the work, and eventually to express this in a formal essay.