Stimulating, engaging and promoting thinking beyond the lesson of the day - that's the support material I seek to produce in the English, Maths and Humanities areas. As a resource manager and classroom teacher for over 30 years, I want to offer practical, get-to-the-point material to broaden, challenge and deepen understanding, provide for a range of skill levels, and make teaching and learning stimulating and enjoyable.
Stimulating, engaging and promoting thinking beyond the lesson of the day - that's the support material I seek to produce in the English, Maths and Humanities areas. As a resource manager and classroom teacher for over 30 years, I want to offer practical, get-to-the-point material to broaden, challenge and deepen understanding, provide for a range of skill levels, and make teaching and learning stimulating and enjoyable.
This is a complete unit of study for students studying Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World,’ in the form of a 20 page, highly visual analysis of the novel covering all elements of the plot, characters and themes, engaging students in wide ranging activities including crossword, vocabulary building, text comprehension, extended writing and visual literacy tasks. In addition, there are activities in paragraph writing, comparative literary analysis using Orwell’s ‘1984,’ practice essay topics and personal response questions about the contemporary relevance of Huxley’s warnings.
The study guide aims to extend students by engaging students in a range of enquiry and writing skills in designated sections - justifying, researching, comparing and contrasting, identifying cause and effect, drawing conclusions and making inferences.
This is a practical work unit that uses eye appealing graphics and a graduated level of difficulty to enable students through a guided close analysis of the literary elements of the novel to be able to make their own substantiated conclusions to the writer’s themes and purpose.
Powerpoint covering
1. What distinctive elements make up the distinctive Australian sense of humour - irreverence / class difference / city and country perspectives
2. Case Study - Classic Australian cartoon (“Stop Laughing this is serious!”)
3. Case Study - The Bush Comic (George Wallace)
4. Political correctness and Australian humour
The material can be used in whole or part as the basis of a single lesson.
There are lots of opportunities for direct note taking practice, class discussion and debate over whether there really is an Australian style of humour, and whether political correctness has eroded its distinctiveness
This study guide is a complete unit made up of ten pages of varied activities. It is a practical resource for educators who want self-explanatory, stimulating analysis and well targeted questions presented in a visually interesting handout. For the teacher with a classroom with a variety of reading and writing aptitudes, this study guide takes the student through the plot, characters and ideas of “A Christmas Carol” so that they can progress at their own pace. The handout is intended for approximately two to three weeks work.
It is made up of
1 Background context to Dickensian England
2. Dicken’s purpose in writing / the process he followed in composition
3. Activities and close analysis of the plot and characters of each stave
4. Vocabulary and spelling tests throughout
5. Close reading comprehension testing at varying levels
6. Grammatical exercises using the text
Those who have taught “A Christmas Carol” are well aware that engaging students can be a challenge - the story is so well known yet the original text requires application. For learning purposes, this guide gives step by step instruction in reading for meaning, enabling students to grasp Dickens’ plotting, comprehending characters, and appreciating the Victorian era style. This handout provides the necessary background to give students the social context, class issues, and the concept of mass poverty and its implications. Using a chronological stave-by-stave analysis with detailed comprehension, the study guide provides plenty of back up explanation in vocabulary and terminology, and practice in identifying word meanings and applications for usage.
EDITORIAL CARTOONS – A COMPLETE UNIT
This is a unit on editorial / political cartoons, ready to teach for approximately three weeks, made up of daily powerpoints covering all aspects of editorial cartooning (see full list of content at bottom of page), culminating in explicit step-by-step teaching of paragraph and essay response writing to editorial cartoons. The package is made up of daily powerpoint lessons, step by step activities to check for understanding, annotated exemplars of paragraph and essay responses, and scaffolding handouts to assist in the practice .
Please note - the cartoons have been chosen to be on universal topics like the environment and technology and are not reliant on culture-specific knowledge of politicians and localised systems for understanding. Those cartoons included in the material that relate to historical events are accompanied with snapshot explanations and brief context details.
CONTENTS IN FULL package is
(i) Teacher Master PPT (answers for all questions on pp) / Student copy of PPT minus answers
I. Definitions and Purpose of editorial cartoons
II. Targeting
III. Prior knowledge test of cartoon commentary
IV. Prior knowledge test of key terms to be used in unit
V. Satire – purpose and impact
VI. Three case studies from history in editorial cartoon satire
VII. Application of understanding – test identifying the cartoonist’s purpose
VIII. The Techniques of Editorial Cartooning – The Visual Element
a. Exaggeration b. Caricature c. Positioning d. Symbolism e. Test on knowledge of classic symbols f. Allusion and Parody g. Analogy h. Metaphor i. Irony
j. Stereotypes k. Stereotypes, accuracy and fairness l. National stereotypes
m. Juxtaposition n. Comparing and contrasting
IX. The Techniques of Editorial Cartooning – The Written Element
a. Cartoons with no written text b. Labels in cartooning c. Dialogue in cartooning
X. Editorial Cartooning around the world
a. Censorship and taboos b. Placing limits on cartooning in democracies
XI. Writing an Extended Analysis of An Editorial Cartoon
a. Deconstructing the cartoon b. Writing the introduction c. How to write the analysis in full – pp exemplar d. Practice writing using analysis scaffold template
XII. Putting It All Together
Essay Exemplar – Annotated essay on David Low’s ‘RENDEZVOUS’ (pp. explanation and student handout for close reading)
XIII. Editorial Cartoon Analysis test – Student handout
Cartoon Analysis Scaffolding - Student Handout
XIV. Essay Writing Practice Questions – Student Handout
Essay Writing Task from Power Point Stimulus (‘Techno Generation’’) – PPT and Handout
Essay Scaffolding - Analysing an Editorial Cartoon – Student Handout
Year 10- 12 Term Unit to guide students in close literary analysis of the novel through a variety of visually engaging activities on plot, characters, themes, setting, literary and language elements, vocabulary building, comparing and contrasting with other texts, extension exercises for able students, crossword with answers, and individual chapter summaries each with comprehension questions.
27 page student study guide - activities on each numbered page - answers for
all questions in teacher powerpoint. Material is cumulative to develop
understanding from literal to metaphorical, and unit can be used as a self-
directed program with students working at their own pace or as teacher
directed learning for whole class progression.
Teacher powerpoint contains all answers to all activites
One Master Powerpoint for teacher - contains answers to comprehension
questions.
One powerpoint - crossword answers
Class activity (pre or post reading task)
‘Personal Reflection - Issues in LORD OF THE FLIES’
to connect student experience with understanding of concepts & themes in
the novel.
Study Guide Contents (each section containing text comprehension testing
with answers for all questions in teacher powerpoint
(i) Background to the Novel
(ii) Language and vocabulary - terms to know
(iii) Setting in the Novel
(iv) Charcter Analysis (a) Ralph (b) Jack (c) Simon (d) Piggy
(v) Literary Techniques (a) symbolism (b) foreshadowing
(vi) Themes and Ideas in the Novel
(vii) Extension activity - Where Is the Beast? Neuroscience and the novel
(viii) Revision Crossword
(ix) Extension activity - Poetry on the theme of Lord of the Flies
(x) Chapter Questions - Separate analysis for each of the twelve chapters
