Unit 1&2 Literature:
Information for 2013
Welcome to Literature. This booklet contains information that
will be of help to you for the entire year.
Communication
The best way to contact me is through the school email,
Daymap will also be used to provide you with information for each class. Throughout the
year documents will be attached to Daymap or information recorded in the relevant fields
including assessment details and results.
Timeline
A term planner will be provided and attached to Daymap. We will try our best to keep to
this guide, however sometimes this is not possible so some flexibility has been built into
the timetable.
Organiser
Good use of your organiser will assist and support your organisation skills, and
contribute to success in your learning. It is expected that you will have it with you for
all classes, and that you use it to record due dates for all assessments, activities and so
on.
Literature workbook
Divide your workbook into sections to suit the way you organise yourself, and include
a section for ‘administration’ including documents like this one!
SAC’s and Exam
Assessment tasks will be completed mainly in class and within a limited timeframe. The
overall assessment program for the unit will include a variety of assessment task formats.
Each outcome will be assessed with a different assessment task.
You are required to have the set texts for each Literature. You will have to complete the
set reading and take notes. The reading and notes will be checked and included as a part
of your coursework.
Notes on note taking
 Use dot points or if you believe the information is better expressed as it is then
leave it as it is.
 Sometimes a chart, table or spider diagram may assist you in understanding the
ideas so use these if you wish.
 If you want your notes checked just ask.
 If you need guidance, again just ask.
 My final tip- always record the page number so you know where to find the
information again.
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Year 11 Literature Text List
The Rhinoceros Eugène Ionesco
Minimum of Two Tim Winton
Film (Romulus, My Father)
Hamlet William Shakespeare
The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath
Various texts TBA
Areas of Study, Texts and Assessment
Unit 1
Area of Study 1: Readers and their responses
Selected poetry
Short Stories Minimum of Two Tim Winton
Student’s own personal text selection (poetry, song, short story, novel excerpt, play
excerpt or film scene)
Assessment: Analysis and reflection task (short answer questions)
Area of Study 2: Ideas and concerns in text
The Rhinoceros Eugène Ionesco
Assessment: Essay
Area of Study 3: Interpreting non-print texts
Australian film- Romulus, My Father
Assessment: Analytical essay/scene study
Unit 2
Area of Study 1: The text, the reader and their contexts
Hamlet- William Shakespeare
Assessment: Analytical essay
Creative Response and Commentary
Area of Study 2: Comparing texts
Various texts
Assessment: Comparative essay
Examination: An examination (1½ hours) will be held at the end of each semester.
Assessment Weighting
Outcomes:
Examination
60% of Unit total
40% of Unit total
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Unit Grade: (A to E)
Satisfactory Achievement:
Combined total of marks.
‘S’ grade for all Outcomes
For each SAC students are expected to complete a range of coursework options:
evidence of note taking, research tasks, short answer questions, analytical exercises,
journals, short reports, essays, oral presentations, film reviews, biographical studies,
tests, responses to literature etc.
A minimum number of course work tasks must be completed in order to gain an S for
the unit.
Year 11 English Literature
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Course Outline 2010
Unit 1
Overview
This Unit focuses on the ways literary texts represent human experiences and the
reading practices students develop to deepen their understanding of a text. The
emphasis is on students’ close engagement with language, and involves the study of
texts in a range of forms – poetry, prose, drama and/or non-print texts. Students
respond to this range of texts personally, critically and creatively.
Area of Study 1
Readers and their responses
What is my response to this text – what does it make me think or feel? How does the
text achieve this? Is it because of its particular form or genre, and the conventions
which go with this? How do the characters, the setting and the events in the text work
to make me respond the way I do?
Outcome 1
On completion of this unit, the student should be able to discuss how personal
responses to literature are developed and justify their own responses to one or more
texts.
Key knowledge
 Ways text represent human experience
 Reading practices (such as predictions, hypotheses) which contribute to the
development of an interpretation
 The importance of characters, setting and events in shaping a student’s
response
 The structures, linguistic and literary features of particular forms of texts
 Strategies for developing an informed response
Key Skills
The ability to
 Make connections between the student’s own ideas and those represented in
the text
 Identify and comment on the significance of events and structural aspects of
the text
 Reflect on and modify their responses as the texts develop
 Use evidence from the texts to support a response
Area of Study 2
Ideas and concerns in the text
When was this text created? What are its main ideas or concerns? Love? War?
Handling change? Growing up? What character, or groups of characters, raise these
ideas or concerns? What are the author’s views? What do these ideas or concerns say
about the society in which the text was created?
Outcome 2
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On completion of this Unit the student should be able to analyse and respond both
critically and creatively to the ways in which one or more texts reflect or comment
upon the interests and ideas of individuals or particular groups in society.
Key Knowledge
 Ways in which characters and situations reflect or reveal human experience
and/or comment upon society
 Aspects of society, ideas or behaviour that texts support or question
 Techniques for creating special effects, for example the style of language, the
presentation of setting and characterisation
 Approached to developing both critical and creative responses
Key skills
The ability to
 Comment on the ways in which human experience is represented in the texts
 Reflect upon the ideas and concerns raised by the texts
 Identify and comment on some of the techniques used in the texts
 Develop critical and creative responses to the texts.
Area of Study 3
This area of study focuses on making meaning from non-print texts. How do such
texts set about creating character? Setting? How is the narrative structured? How is
the viewer positioned? Who does the positioning? What are the effects of selected
visual images, of the background music, of dialogue and silences and sound effects
generally? Has the text got a particular point of view? How is this achieved?
Outcome 3
On completion of this Unit the student should be able to analyse the construction of a
film, television, multimedia or radio text, and comment on the ways it represents an
interpretation of ideas and experiences.
Key Knowledge
 The way the text is structured
 The way the text represents ideas and concerns
 The effect of technical strategies used in the production of the text
Key Skills
 Comment on the ideas and concerns raised in the texts
 Discuss the purpose of technical strategies used in the production of non-print
texts
 Discuss how the viewer can be positioned by the text.
Unit 2
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AREA OF STUDY 1
The text, the reader and their contexts
This area of study focuses on the interrelationships between the text, readers and their
social and cultural contexts. Students reflect upon their own background and
experience in developing their response to the representation of social and cultural
concerns and values of a text from a past era. Students explore the text to understand
its point of view and what it endorses and questions. They identify the language and
the representations in the text which reflect the period, ideas and concerns of the text.
Students respond critically and creatively to reflect or comment on the text.
Outcome 1
On completion of this unit the student should be able to analyse and respond both
critically and creatively to the ways a text from a past era reflects or comments on the
ideas and concerns of individuals and groups at that time.
Key knowledge
This knowledge includes
• evidence in the language that the text reflects a particular era;
• ways in which characters, situations and ideas convey the social and cultural
concerns of a past era;
• aspects of society, ideas and behaviour which the text appears to endorse or
question;
• the extent to which the text enables the student to imagine or understand other
contexts;
• approaches to developing both critical and creative responses.
Key skills
These skills include the ability to
• identify the social and cultural contexts of the text;
• comment on how the text represents its social and cultural contexts;
• develop critical and creative responses to the text.
AREA OF STUDY 2
Comparing texts
This area of study focuses on the way two or more texts relate to each other. Students
make comparisons between the ways in which different texts are constructed.
Students also show how style, form, voice, structure and central concerns of the texts
affect the reader’s interpretation. Students consider the assumptions made in texts,
and their social and cultural values.
Outcome 2
On completion of this unit the student should be able to produce a comparative piece
of interpretative writing with a particular focus; for example, ideas and concerns, form
of the text, author, time in history, social or cultural context.
Key knowledge
This knowledge includes
• how texts may present personal, social or cultural concerns;
• ideas and attitudes the texts appear to endorse;
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• how styles of language, voice and point of view can create meaning for readers;
• techniques in identifying and presenting points of comparison and contrast.
Key skills
These skills include the ability to
• comment on the ways texts represent personal, social or cultural concerns;
• draw connections, contrasts and parallels between texts;
• explore and comment on the literary features particular to texts;
• make appropriate reference to textual detail to support a comparative interpretation.
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