YEAR 9 COURSE OVERVIEW 2014
YEAR 9
STUDY OF A COMPOSER: prose fiction, prose non-fiction Term 1
Rationale This unit focuses on the work of one composer, a novelist. The aim of the unit is to develop an understanding of how the writer’s work evolves,
develops and shifts over their creative career. Through the close study of key works, students develop an understanding of how this development informs
the creative life of the writer. Students learn to recognise the writer’s concerns in the broader context of their literary output, rather than in a single text.
Students learn to articulate what is meant by a style of writing and to recognise, describe and analyse the particular stylistic features of this writer. Students
are introduced to critical writing by and about the author. Students can extend their understanding by learning about notions of cohesion and textual
integrity within a text and across a body of work.
Outcomes 4 A student selects and uses language forms and features, and structures of texts according to different purposes, audiences and contexts, and
describes and explains their efforts on meaning. 6 A student experiments with different ways of imaginatively and interpretively transforming experience,
information and ideas into texts. 9 A student demonstrates understanding of the ways texts reflect personal and public worlds.
Duration: 9 weeks
Mandatory Activities
Suggested Assessment Tasks
Text(s): at least one novel and other selected
 Creative Writing with reflection/analytical
 Students create imaginative pieces
writings from one novelist. For example,
component.
inspired by and replicating the writer’s
Kafka, Winton, Poe, Malouf, Garner, Dahl,

Visual representation of major themes in
stylistic features (short story, essay,
Munro, Verne, Grenville, Orwell, Dickens, Colfer,
the writer’s work linked to expression in
opinion piece, characterisation).
Fitzgerald.
texts.
 Short answer responses about language
Additional Texts

Visual representation of the relationships
features of each text.
Essays on and by the author.
between language, text and context in the
ICT Focus
writer’s work.
Suggested Activities
Researching , formatting academic documents,
Listen to Ramona Kaval or similar book show.
creating power points, footnoted essay.
Extension Study
Then write own interview with the writer.
Essay on another composer (based on research)
Skills Focus/Modes
using various samples of their work.
Description and imaginative literature. Analysing
Read an additional major work of the writer and
and describing forms and conventions of prose
write an essay: While X’s style is evident in both
fiction. Finding evidence for and writing about
texts, it functions differently in each; it alerts the
style and what distinguishes a writer’s style.
reader to X’s thematic concerns and shows how a
Researching and examining the influence of
writer can represent similar contextual features in
context on fiction and non-fiction. Note-taking.
different ways, for different purposes.
Quality Teaching Strategies/Gifted and Talented Focus Intellectual quality will come from deep knowledge of composer, their context and the values and
ideas resonating throughout their texts. Students will demonstrate this deep knowledge and higher-order thinking through set tasks. Issues of impacts of
context on content will enhance an understanding of problematic knowledge, as well as an analysis of essays showing different receptions to the texts.
Deconstruction of common language features of composers will enhance understanding of metalanguage. Quality teaching will be evident in detailed
criteria and expectations for all tasks. Social support should be given to guide students through complex ideas and research tasks. Research and choice of
tasks will promote self-regulation. Significance can be established by exploring the personal biographical details of authors and how they affect the
individual and their works. This can be compared to students’ own contexts.
YEAR 9 ROMANTICISM: poetry Term 2
Rationale Students are introduced to and given an overview of Romanticism as an artistic movement reacting against Neo-Classicism. The unit develops students’
understanding of the key concerns and techniques of the Romantic poets and charts the development of Victorian literary movements through the study and comparison
of the representation of landscape (the natural landscape of the Romantics versus the urban landscape of the Victorians). Students revise and extend their ability to analyse
poetry and prose, using appropriate metalanguage and critical approaches. Analysis is balanced with creativity as students apply their knowledge and understanding of
Romantic poetry to create their own verse. A connection and relevance is highlighted through the analysis of contemporary texts that have Romantic or Victorian traits or
overtones.
Outcomes A student: 4 A student selects and uses language forms and features, and structures of texts according to different purposes, audiences and contexts, and
describes and explains their effects on meaning. 7 A student thinks critically and interpretively using information, ideas and increasingly complex arguments to respond to
and compose texts in a range of contexts. 8 A student investigates the relationships between and among texts.
Mandatory Tasks Essay writing practice; compose a
Assessment Whole year task. An essay about how
Duration: 10 weeks
pamphlet about the socio-historical context of
precepts of Romanticism are represented in a poem of
Text(s): The poetry of (for example) Keats, Blake,
the student’s choice and how this poem reflects the
Romanticism
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Emily Bronte,
social and literary context of Romanticism.
Tennyson (check HSC prescriptions), Arnold, G Rosetti,
Suggested Tasks reading poetry aloud;
Swinburne, Hardy. The prose of Wordsworth, Coleridge experimentation with rhythm and meter; visual
Extension Romanticism in prose fiction; the poetry of
representation of poem connecting theme, context and faith and doubt; the rise of the novel; realism and
and Shelley
language features; group interpretation of a poem;
romanticism; German Romanticism: Goethe and
Additional texts: critical writing about Romanticism
compare the development of romanticism in literature Schiller.
and/or the poetry. DVD: Romanticism and Revelation,
with that in music; compose a Romanticist poem
Strange Voyage.
observing form, stanza division and rhyme scheme;
Skills annotating, note-taking, analysis, metalanguage
create images using figures of speech.
of poetry, creative writing: composing a poem,
ICT Student power points on composers and/or
poems. Visual collages of imagery in poems
Quality Teaching Strategies/ Gifted and Talented Focus
Intellectual Quality Key Ideas and concepts from the contextual period should be investigated throughout the course. Deep Understanding: Activities and assessments on
how context affects content and how the texts create meaning. Problematic Knowledge:. Higher-order thinking: Analysis and discussion of poems will facilitate this.
Metalanguage: Through analysis of language techniques. Substantive: communication and sustained interactions through various activities and discussions.
Background/cultural knowledge/connectedness: Students background context can be used to illustrate connection between content and values/ideas. This can also be
used to look at how we read and interpret Romantic texts. Knowledge integration: can be made from previous poetry studies or even history topics.
YEAR 9
TRANSFORMATIONS: Shakespearean drama, film Term 3
Rationale Though a comparative study of a Shakespearean drama and a contemporary film version of the original text, students develop an understanding of how texts are
shaped by context and the ways in which they can be appropriated, transformed and interpreted in a different medium to appeal to a modern audience.
Outcomes A student: 5 transfers understanding of language concepts into new and different contexts 7 thinks critically and interpretively using information,
ideas and increasingly complex arguments to respond to and compose texts in a range of contexts 8 investigates the relationships between and among texts
Duration 7 weeks
Mandatory Activities
Assessment Task
Text(s)
Research the context of both composers and
Essay: How does the director of the film make the
Romeo and Juliet and/or West Side Story, Romeo
examine the ways in which the both contexts
concerns of Shakespeare relevant to a modern
+Juliet OR
impact upon the text.
audience? Discuss the treatment of two concerns
Students deconstruct dramatic and film techniques in both the opening scene and one other scene of
The Taming of the Shrew and
used in key scenes in both texts.
your choice.
Ten Things I Hate About You OR
Suggested Activities
Extension Study
In groups students analyse the development of
 View another transformation of the text.
2Henry IV and The Chimes at Midnight (Welles),
one of the key themes in the play and make an
Write about how it appropriates the major
My own Private Idaho (van Sant)
oral presentation to the class.
concerns and themes of the play.
Additional Texts
Students memorise a speech or soliloquy and
 Consider the source material for the text
Romeo and Juliet (Zeffirelli)
present it to a small group or do a rehearsed
and investigate Shakespeare’s acts of
Shakespeare Re-told (BBC); The Adventure of
reading or performance of an extract from the
appropriation.
English (Bragg)
play. Use comprehension strategies, to predict,
 Compose either a play script or a film script
infer, memorise, visualise, action and vocabulary.
of a transformation of one key scene from
Skills pre-twentieth century English; verse;
the original play to suit a modern audience.
metalanguage of drama; metalanguage/visual
ICT Using technology to make a short film
Perform this to the class.
language of film; speaking; the language of
comparison; writing analysis; creative
transformation; handwriting
Quality Teaching Strategies/Gifted and Talented Focus Deep knowledge attained by sustained focus on key ideas and concepts related to transformation
Cultural knowledge valued in the appropriation of the focus text
YEAR 9
AROUND THE WORLD IN FORTY DAYS: imaginative and non-fiction texts term 4
Rationale
Outcomes
Duration:
Mandatory Tasks
Assessment:
Texts:
Suggested Tasks
Extension:
Additional texts:
Skills:
ICT
Quality Teaching/Gifted and Talented
Year 9. World Literatures.
Around the World in 49 Days
“A Grand World Tour”
Travel Pack and Journal
Gaudiamus Travel
We love it. Because …
vita nostra brevis est
This completely new unit of work is, at present, still a work in progress for Term 4 where the Faculty will address the remaining outcomes of
The Australian Curriculum.