The What Even Is… series of worksheets explains some of the key concepts in literary analysis, with examples from familiar and popular books and films.
There is a single page explanation, with appropriate images and graphics, followed by a question which exercises students’ knowledge and understanding of the concept. Short texts aimed at different abilities and levels are given for the question.
This handout, explaining the discursive mode of writing, describes three different ways to identify and implement discursiveness. The activity uses very brief examples from six discursive works.
This unit of work brings John Wyndham’s vivid novel to life for students of all abilities, aimed at Year 9-10/Stage 5 students. The program provides clear differentiation for three levels of student: higher ability, lower ability, and Gifted and Talented, and clearly indicates core and differentiated tasks.
Activities accompany each chapter, and relevant secondary texts such as Edwin Muir’s ‘The Horses’ are included. There are a selection of news articles on genetic mutation and ‘post-human’ or far-future people which will engage students of different levels and persuasions. Brief and cogent discussions of how societies have treated difference develop students’ general and historical knowledge and sharpen their critical thinking.
This short unit of work for students in the final year of primary or first years of middle school accompanies Guus Kuijer’s short novel ‘The Book of Everything’. Chapter by chapter questions provide activities which will allow students to read, research, and discuss issues such as childhood fear, WWII and its aftermath, religious intolerance, and parental anger. A great modern short novel to accompany works like The Diary of Anne Frank, and with a male protagonist, provides a reading experience which will draw in boys too.
The unit of work concludes with a short assessment task and accompanying criteria for easy marking.
Study guide with questions and activities for every scene in the play, with plenty of room for written responses.
The guide contains activities which can be differentiated for strong and weak students and allows teachers to make use of technology through video-diary activities which students can complete using an iPad or mobile phone (this can, of course, be changed to a handwritten diary task).
You can also purchase an images-only powerpoint on the representation of Jews in Medieval and Renaissance Europe which can be used to show how the issue of anti-Semitism began and continues today.
Suitable for a broad range of students from middle school.
A thorough study of each chapter in Eliot’s short masterpiece Silas Marner. Each chapter is annotated with a short precis of the chapter’s events, so that students can quickly locate the right section, and a thematic table at the beginning lays out some of the complex philosophical and literary ideas which underpin Eliot’s morality tale. Language and narrative techniques are carefully explained, and each chapter is accompanied by a selection of quotations to strengthen students’ understanding of evidence-based arguments.
‘Tuft of Flowers’, by the American poet Robert Frost, is a perennial favourite for senior study. This set of notes gives a full analysis of the poem with a relevant image and a handy grab-box explaining the poetic techniques, and related texts which complement the poem for students who must study it in concert with one other text. Important points are in red.
A simple, one-stop analysis of this complex poem which students can work through in class or take home for private study.
'After Apple Picking’, by the American poet Robert Frost, is a perennial favourite for senior study. This set of notes gives a full analysis of the poem with a relevant image and a handy grab-box explaining the poetic techniques, and related texts which complement the poem for students who must study it in concert with one other text. Important points are in red.
A simple, one-stop analysis of this complex poem which students can work through in class or take home for private study.
'Mending Wall’, by the American poet Robert Frost, is a perennial favourite for senior study. This set of notes gives a full analysis of the poem with a relevant image and a handy grab-box explaining the poetic techniques, and related texts which complement the poem for students who must study it in concert with one other text. Important points are in red.
A simple, one-stop analysis of this complex poem which students can work through in class or take home for private study.
‘Stopping by Woods’, by the American poet Robert Frost, is a perennial favourite for senior study. This set of notes gives a full analysis of the poem with a relevant image and a handy grab-box explaining the poetic techniques, and related texts which complement the poem for students who must study it in concert with one other text. Important points are in red.
A simple, one-stop analysis of this complex poem which students can work through in class or take home for private study.
‘Fire and Ice’, by the American poet Robert Frost, has been a perennial favourite for senior study. This set of notes gives a full analysis of the poem with a relevant image and a handy grab-box explaining the poetic techniques, and related texts which complement the poem for students who must study it in concert with one other text. Important points are in red.
A simple, one-stop analysis of this complex poem which students can work through in class or take home for private study.
‘Home Burial’, by the American poet Robert Frost, has been a perennial favourite for senior study. This set of notes gives a full analysis of the poem with a relevant image and a handy grab-box explaining the poetic techniques, and related texts which complement the poem for students who must study it in concert with one other text. Important points are in red.
A simple, one-stop analysis of this complex poem which students can work through in class or take home for private study.
This is a three-part resource for students undertaking the NSW HSC Common Module Texts and Human Experience.
A generic essay plan shows students how to compose an essay suitable for Stage 6, progressing them from the simpler PEEL/TEAL models of Stage 4 and 5.
A sample essay for the prescribed text, the poetry of Kenneth Slessor, answers a sample question for this module: How has your prescribed text explored the individuality of stories about human experience?
There is also a second copy of the essay, marked up to show how it follows the plan, and with five short questions which require students to engage critically with the essay and its form.
This is a three-part resource for students undertaking the NSW HSC Advanced English Module A: Textual Conversations.
A generic essay plan shows students how to compose an essay suitable for Stage 6, progressing them from the simpler PEEL/TEAL models of Stage 4 and 5.
A sample essay for the prescribed text-pairing The Tempest and Hag-Seed, answers the 2019 HSC question: Everything is being dismantled, reconstructed, recycled. To what end? For what purpose?
To what extent is this true of the texts you have studied for this module?
There is also a second copy of the essay, marked up to show how it follows the plan, and with five short questions which require students to engage critically with the essay and its form.
This is a three-part resource for students undertaking the NSW HSC Common Module Texts and Human Experience.
A generic essay plan shows students how to compose an essay suitable for Stage 6, progressing them from the simpler PEEL/TEAL models of Stage 4 and 5.
A sample essay for the prescribed text, Miller’s The Crucible, answers a sample question for this module.
There is also a second copy of the essay, marked up to show how it follows the plan, and with five short questions which require students to engage critically with the essay and its form.
Pair it with The Crucible Study Notes for even more depth.
This is a three-part resource for students undertaking the NSW HSC Standard English Module B: Close Study of a Text.
A generic essay plan shows students how to compose an essay suitable for Stage 6, progressing them from the simpler PEEL/TEAL models of Stage 4 and 5.
A sample essay for the prescribed text, M.T. Anderson’s novel Feed, answers a sample question for this module.
There is also a second copy of the essay, marked up to show how it follows the plan, and with five short questions which require students to engage critically with the essay and its form.
This is a three-part resource for students undertaking the NSW HSC Common Module Texts and Human Experience.
A generic essay plan shows students how to compose an essay suitable for Stage 6, progressing them from the simpler PEEL/TEAL models of Stage 4 and 5.
A sample essay for the prescribed text, The Merchant of Venice, answers a sample question for this module.
There is also a second copy of the essay, marked up to show how it follows the plan, and with five short questions which require students to engage critically with the essay and its form.
This is a three-part resource for students undertaking the NSW HSC Standard English Module B: Close Study of a Text.
A generic essay plan shows students how to compose an essay suitable for Stage 6, progressing them from the simpler PEEL/TEAL models of Stage 4 and 5.
A sample essay for the prescribed text, Anna Funder’s Stasiland, answers a sample question for this module.
There is also a second copy of the essay, marked up to show how it follows the plan, and with five short questions which require students to engage critically with the essay and its form.
This is a three-part resource for students undertaking the NSW HSC Standard English Module B: Close Study of a Text.
A generic essay plan shows students how to compose an essay suitable for Stage 6, progressing them from the simpler PEEL/TEAL models of Stage 4 and 5.
A sample essay for the prescribed text, the poetry of Robert Gray answers the 2019 HSC question:
Literature reinforces or challenges our understanding of ordinary situations.
Discuss this statement, making detailed reference to your prescribed text.
There is also a second copy of the essay, marked up to show how it follows the plan, and with five short questions which require students to engage critically with the essay and its form.
This is a three-part resource for students undertaking the NSW HSC Standard English Module A: Language, Identity and Culture.
A generic essay plan shows students how to compose an essay suitable for Stage 6, progressing them from the simpler PEEL/TEAL models of Stage 4 and 5.
A sample essay for the prescribed text, One Night the Moon, answers a sample question for this module.
There is also a second copy of the essay, marked up to show how it follows the plan, and with five short questions which require students to engage critically with the essay and its form
This is a three-part resource for students undertaking the NSW HSC Standard English Module A: Language, Identity and Culture.
A generic essay plan shows students how to compose an essay suitable for Stage 6, progressing them from the simpler PEEL/TEAL models of Stage 4 and 5.
A sample essay for the prescribed text, Henry Lawson’s short stories, answers a sample question for this module.
There is also a second copy of the essay, marked up to show how it follows the plan, and with five short questions which require students to engage critically with the essay and its form