Year 11 English—connected texts study
Due date: Week 2 Term 4
From the Curriculum Statement:
‘In the connected texts study each student will consider texts in relation to each other, to the context in
which they are generated, and to the context in which they are read or viewed. This will give students
the opportunity to consider themselves in relation to the texts from points of view such as gender, class,
and culture, by examining what is included in the text and what is excluded from the text.
Students will choose a minimum of two texts that are connected in some way, either by similarity or
difference and interpret each text individually, drawing out the connections between them. This
connection might be in content, theme, style, form, context, or purpose. This may be achieved by
writing an essay on two novels but could also be achieved by comparing visual or aural texts, poems,
magazines, or newspaper articles from the same or different social, cultural, or historical contexts.
Students could include a variety of text types in the texts chosen for connection and use a creative form
for their response. Oral and electronic modes could be used for the presentation of students’ findings.’
Task:
Write a response (500-1000 words) or give an oral presentation (3-7 minutes) in which you consider
two texts in relation to one another.
Choose your two texts according to your areas of interest and your aspirations in this subject (two
novels, a novel and a film, a novel and a short story, for example).
As well as considering the texts themselves, consider the contexts in which they were generated (eg
written just after September 11 2001 by a survivor), and the contexts in which they are read or viewed
(eg read just after the trial of Schapelle Corby).
You must not simply summarise the plot, though some reference to it will be necessary.
Models: (choose one)
1.
Choose an area of connection to focus on in relation to your texts (eg content, theme,
characterisation, style, form, context or purpose). Plan and write an essay that shows you
understand each text and uses your focus to intertwine discussion and interpretation of the different
ways each author has created their text. (This option is essential for students enrolling in English
for Year 12.)
2.
Decide what is the best thing to focus on in your texts (eg compare two different characters,
analyse the writers’ differing bias on the issues). Write three separate sections (total still 500-1000
words):
 discuss text one
 discuss text two
 compare the two texts.
3.
Negotiate a different response with me (eg creative: still 500-1000 words).
PTO
Year 11 English—connected texts study
Due date: Week 2 Term 4
Name:
(attach this sheet to your essay)
1st Text:
2nd Text:
Focus Question: For example: How does style ( Humorous? Tragic? Realistic? Fantastic?) affect your
response to the text’s events, characters and themes?)
Criteria for Judging performance:
knowledge
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To what extent does the student demonstrate knowledge of the texts?
understanding
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To what extent does the student show understanding of the ideas in the texts?
How effectively does the student recognise and/or explain how techniques are used by the author(s) to
express ideas?
 How well does the student recognise the values, beliefs or concerns explored in the texts?
 To what extent is the student aware of the interaction of the reader and the author(s)?
analysis
 How clearly does the student identify both similarities and differences between the texts?
 To what extent does the student connect more than one aspect of the texts?
 How well does the student analyse the features identified in the connections?
communication
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How accurate and fluent is the student’s expression?
How appropriate are the form and register for the audience and purpose?
Teacher’s Assessment:
READING JOURNAL
You are required to keep a reading/viewing journal on the two texts which is to be submitted with your
final piece as evidence of your thinking. I will assess your journal regularly so I can monitor your
progress and give you feedback. It will also allow me to help you in the framing of your question for
your final comparative piece. Read/view and stop to make entries every now and then.
Entries can include all or some of the following:
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A discussion of how you feel about events and characters – what has the author done to make
you feel like this?
A discussion on aspects of your own life the text has made you contemplate. How has you
life’s experiences affected your reading or viewing of the text and response to it?
Connections between this and other texts you have read (intertextuality). You should certainly
be making active connections between your second text back to your first, but make
connections with other texts as well, including texts we have studies in class if appropriate.
The characters – did they change? How? How effectively were they created by the author?
Which characters were foregrounded and which were marginalised in the text? What was
the effect of this on the way you responded to them?
The themes – the main ideas you saw being developed. What were particularly useful
quotations, events or images that illustrate the themes or ideas presented?
The setting(s) – both time and place. How were they communicated? How important were
they to the text’s plot and overall message?
The style of narration – use of 1st person/3rd person, use of voiceover, focus on one character
or many?
The style of text – humorous, tragic, realistic, fantastic, satirical. How does the style affect
your response to the text’s events, characters and themes?
The structure of the text. Was it a linear recount or did it use flashbacks? Was it
complicated or straightforward? What was the effect of the structure on your response to the
text?
The significance of particular events, characters and symbols in communicating the text’s
ideas.
The implied author’s view of characters, events and ideas. How can you determine this?
The ending – did you find it satisfying, frustrating, puzzling, depressing or what? Why?
What does it indicate about the author’s view of the world?
Has reading this text influenced any of your ideas? Why?
What sort of person in the implied author? What does s/he care about? Who is s/he creating
this text for? Are you one of those people or did you text to resist the reading?
To what extend can you see that your gender, socio-economic, political, cultural or ethnic
circumstances have affected your response to the text?
What view of life or ideology is presented in the text? Is it a balanced view? Where do you
stand? What is it in you that allows you to either sympathise with or reject the implied
author’s view?
Note: the author is the person who created the text. The implied author is the voice that emerges in a text – it
may not actually be the author’s view. The reader is the person who reads or views the text. The implied
reader is the kind of reader the actual reading is invited to become by the implied author.
A FEW FINAL HINTS:
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Don’t retell the plot . You should make reference to the plot so that your points make
sense to someone who has not read or viewed the text, but what you are actually focussing
on is the author’s craft in constructed the text and how it affects your response.
Keep page references of useful quotations or note when they were said in the film, so
that you will be able to find them easily again for your final piece.
Don’t start of having already chosen the focus of your texts and your topic for your
final comparative piece. This will unnaturally skew your response to the texts and cut you
off from other exciting possibilities. Sue you may have a particular theme in mind, but as
you read your first text you might discover aspects that you hadn’t even thought of that
you wish to explore and make connections with when responding to your second text. Be
open to your texts!