Focus: Critical Study of Text Duration: 8 weeks Stage 6 Preliminary
Karen Yager SEO2 NSR
Focus: Critical Study of Text Duration: 8 weeks Stage 6 Preliminary
Concept: Contextualisation
Question: Why does your social, historical, cultural and personal context influence the way you compose and respond to texts?Key learning ideas:
· The ways that textual details and textual features shape meaning and influence responses.
· The significance of context
· Others’ perspectives
· Using ICT to engage an audience /
Cross Curricular
LiteracyMulticultural
Indigenous
ICT
Language modes
Speaking – 15 %Listening – 15 %
Texts
Prescribed text:Robert Gray’s poetry /
Outcomes
7. A student selects appropriate language forms and features, and structures of texts to explore and express ideas and values.8. A student articulates and represents own ideas in critical, interpretive and imaginative texts.
9. A student evaluates the effectiveness of a range of processes and technologies for various learning purposes including the investigation and organization of information and ideas.
12A. A student demonstrates a capacity to understand and use different ways of responding to and composing different texts.
Rationale
This module requires you to:
· explore and evaluate Gray’s poetry
· develop understanding of questions of textual integrity[1]and examine how particular features of the poems contribute to textual integrity
· explore the ideas expressed in the poems through analysing its construction, content and language
· research others’ perspectives[2] of the poems and test these against your own understanding and interpretations of the poems
· develop a range of imaginative, interpretive and analytical compositions that relate to the study of their specific text. These compositions may be realised in a variety of forms and media
You will explore the poetry’s literary qualities and different readings of the text, and reflect on the values implied by these readings.[3]
Syllabus content / Preliminary Syllabus Content / Quality teaching
Students learn to and about:
7.1 / Students learn to communicate information, ideas and values for a variety of purposes, audiences and contexts by identifying and describing the effects of language forms and features, and structures of particular texts / Connectedness
Metalanguage
7.2 / Students learn to communicate information, ideas and values for a variety of purposes, audiences and contexts by composing and adapting texts to address different purposes and audiences. / Higher-order thinking
Deep understanding
8.1 / Students learn to compose imaginative, personal and critical texts through engaging with complex texts. / Higher-order thinking
8.2 / Students learn to compose imaginative, personal and critical texts through expressing complex ideas for a range of audiences and purposes in personal, social, historical, cultural and workplace contexts. / Connectedness
Substantive communication
8.4 / Students learn to compose imaginative, personal and critical texts through controlling a range of language features to meet requirements of composing in a range of modes and media. / Deep understanding
Substantive communication
8.5 / Students learn to compose imaginative, personal and critical texts through shaping compositions appropriately to purpose, audience, medium and context. / Substantive communication
Connectedness
9.2 / Students learn to evaluate the effectiveness of processes and technologies by using individual and collaborative processes to generate, clarify, organise, refine and present ideas. / Deep knowledge
Social support
12A.1 / Students learn to understand and use different ways of responding to particular texts by articulating the ways they approach texts. / Higher-order thinking
Deep understanding
12A.2 / Students learn to understand and use different ways of responding to particular texts by responding to and composing texts from a range of perspectives, using different images and through different voices. / Higher-order thinking
Problematic knowledge
12A.3 / Students learn to understand and use different ways of responding to particular texts by explaining the effects of different images, perspectives and voices on meaning in and through particular texts. / Problematic knowledge
12A.4 / Students learn to understand and use different ways of responding to particular texts by describing a range of ways in which particular texts can be responded to and
composed. / Problematic knowledge
Cultural knowlegde
Karen Yager SEO2 NSR
Focus: Critical Study of Text Duration: 8 weeks Stage 6 Preliminary
Week 1: Introduction to Critical Study of Text: “My parents, like the panels of a diptych, were forever separated while in proximity” R. Gray.
Content: / Learning and teaching activities / Quality teachingLessons 1 - 2: Introduction to Critical Study and “North Coast Town”
· Overview of Critical Study and expectations
· Introduction to Robert Gray: his context and poetry
· Notes on Gray’s context and ideas
· Class discussion on:
- Impact of context and times?
- Initial response to ‘North Coast Town’
· Read the poem and discuss the subject matter, the ideas and the language features.
· Notes on features of Critical Study:
- Context
- Others’ perspectives:
a. Invited or Dominant Readings
b. Resistant Readings
c. Alternative Readings
d. Critical Perspectives / Connectedness links made to real life experience
Substantive communication: students to discuss link between context and meaning
Background knowledge: revisit Others’ perspectives
Lessons 3 - 4: “Ditypch”
This poem presents Gray’s perspective of his mother and father and their distant relationship. The poem uses the idea of the ‘diptych’ – two panels of a painting that are joined together by a clasp and linked through a common theme or idea.
Exercises:
1. Form a small group, and discuss and record responses to the following:
a. What is revealed about the mother and the father.
b. What is omitted and why.
c. Gray’s relationship with his mother and father.
d. The key ideas in the poem.
e. How language is used to convey meaning.
f. The significance of the poem for responders in 2006.
g. Individual group responses to the poem.
2. An individual critical response to the poem. / Metalanguage: Using the correct terms to discuss the language of the poem
Deep knowledge: Focus on the ideas and features of the poem
Substantive communication: group discussion and notes on the poem
Week 2: “Vividness, I suppose, is what I aim for, above all. Simplicity, purity, clarity of outline” R. Gray.
Content: / Learning and teaching activities / Quality teachingLessons 1 – 2: “Poem to My Father”
This poem continues Gray’s focus on his father and their tenuous, difficult relationship. It is far more critical and troubled than ‘Diptych,’ revealing Gray’s anger and disappointment with his father’s drinking, indifference and gambling.
Exercises:
1. Form a small group and discuss the following and make notes for the class to share:
a. Why does this poem seem to be more troubled than ‘Diptych’?
b. How does Gray offer some explanation for his father’s behaviour?
c. Discuss the key ideas of the poem and how language conveys these ideas.
d. Why could some people be resistant to this poem?
e. What are the key values conveyed in this poem?
2. Read the interview with Gray where he discusses his poem.
3. Compose your own individual response to this poem drawing upon some of Gray’s comments about his poem. / Substantive communication: notes will be shared with the class and discussed
Deep understanding: the key concepts of relationships and ideas
Metalanguage: students to use the technical terms to discuss the use of language
Lesson 3: Creativity – Own Poem
Gray’s poems are very personal and reflective. He uses the vehicle of poetry to explore his life and his relationships with his family and the world. His poems rely on similes and imagery to convey his ideas and attitudes.
Exercise:
Using Gray’s approach, compose a poem focusing on an aspect of your life or the world around you. Begin by recording a series of images and ideas before you begin to create the actual poem. / Connectedness
Substantive communication: Composing original poem
Lesson 4: “9 Poems”
Gray uses a series of haikus to reflect on nature, life and the closing stages of his mother’s life.
Exercises:
1. Analyse the imagery, ideas and use of language in the poems.
2. Compose three or more haikus. / Substantive communication: Composing original haikus and a critical analysis
Week 3: “Poetry, as I understand it, is language that wants to go beyond, say more than, its words. It can’t be fully translated out of the silence after itself, where it resonates” R. Gray.
Content: / Learning and teaching activities / Quality teachingLessons 1 – 3: “Journey: the North Coast”
After an extended period in Sydney away from his family Gray’s persona journeys home to Coffs Harbour by train. His journey metaphorically reveals so much about his fears about travelling home, and his relationship with the natural world.
Exercises:
1. Form a small group and discuss and makes notes to share on the following:
a. Why is it important to understand the ideas and subject matter of ‘Diptych’ and ‘Poem to My Father’ to appreciate fully this poem? Make links to these two poems.
b. Analyse the use of language to convey the persona’s feelings.
2. Which poem do you prefer so far? Justify your choice by comparing and contrasting the poems.
3. Discuss an Indigenous reading of this poem. / Deep knowledge: focus on the key ideas of the poem
Substantive communication: sharing of ideas and interpretation
Metalanguage: analysing the use of language features using the technical terms
Problematic knowledge: Indigenous reading
Lesson 4: Context and Values
· Reflect as a class on the impact of Gray’s context on his poetry and the meanings that he conveys. Remember to consider:
- His difficult relationship with is family, especially his father.
- Growing up on the North Coast in the 1950’s to 60’s.
- Interest in Buddhism and painting
- Working as a journalist in the late 60’s
· A composer’s choice of words and subject matter convey his or her values. Identify the values that are conveyed by Gray’s poetry.
Exercise:
a. Give your personal response to Gray’s poems and his values. Refer to the impact of your context on your response. / Problematic knowledge:
Impact of context and values on meaning
Connectedness: Connecting Gray’s poetry to the world of the student
Deep understanding: Key understanding of the ideas of context and values demonstrated
Week 4: “You write with free emotion and sensuality, and criticise and shape this with cool reason” R. Gray.
Content: / Learning and teaching activities / Quality teachingLesson 1: “Byron Bay: Winter”
Gray’s other focus in his poetry is the environment. He is appreciative of its natural beauty, and highly critical of humanity’s exploitation and destruction of the natural world. It soon becomes obvious that his nature poetry reveals much about himself. This poem conveys his isolation and loneliness.
Exercise:
1. Compose a brief personal response to the poem focusing on the ideas, the values, the use of language and the meaning conveyed. / Substantive communication: sharing responses to the poem
Lesson 2: Imaginative Response
Select a place in our local area such as Byron Bay and compose an imaginative response that reflects your values, attitude to the natural world and your context. You could write one of the following:
a. Free verse poem
b. Narrative
c. A series of linked haikus
d. A postcard
e. Free choice / Background knowledge: revisiting effective writing
Higher-order thinking: Incorporating values and context into an original composition
Lessons 3 – 4: “Flames and Dangling Wire”
This confronting poem paints an apocalyptic image of the future by describing a suburban rubbish tip.
Exercises:
a. Form a small group and critically analyse the poem focusing on the ideas, the use of language, the subject matter and the meaning. Use the A3 sheet to record the group’s response. Present the information to the class.
b. Class Discussion: “We may be harming the environment, but rubbish tips are a necessary evil.”
c. Adopt a different perspective of a rubbish tip and argue why Gray’s representation is emotive and provocative.
Challenge:
Research the references in the poem such as: Charron, Raft of the Medusa. / Problematic knowledge: Consideration of others’ perspectives of the poem
Substantive communication:
Recording of shared responses to the poem and an extended class discussion
Week 5: “Free verse is structured on the lingerings in the voice, according to feeling” R. Gray.
Content: / Learning and teaching activities / Quality teachingLesson 1: Preparation for Assessment Task:
(See the information sheet)
· Discussion of quality and demands of the task.
· Different approaches considered.
· Sample of a response presented and evaluated.
· Drafts will be accepted prior to due date for suggestions / Deep knowledge: focus key concepts of the assessment task
Lessons 2 – 3: Others’ Perspectives:
People respond to texts differently depending on their context, attitudes and values.
Exercises:
a. Read the critical reviews of Gray’s poems and consider their evaluation and reading of his poems.
b. Discuss in small groups resistant and alternative readings of the allocated poems. / Problematic knowledge: Consideration of others’ perspectives
Substantive communication: Discussion of others’ perspectives
Lesson 4: Personal Analysis and Others’ Perspectives
Select one of the poems and consider how another individual could respond to the poem. Use a table with the following headings:
a. Ideas
b. Personal Comments
c. Language Features
d. Other’s perspective / Problematic knowledge: Consideration of others’ perspectives
Week 6: “Through my poems there is, subtly I hope, a consciousness of the interdependence of opposites; and an acceptance or reconciling of these” R. Gray.
Content: / Learning and teaching activities / Quality teachingLessons 1 - 4: Critical Personal Response
In your final exam you will be required to compose a critical personal response based on at least two of Gray’s poems. Compose an introduction and create a plan for the following two questions:
a. “Poetry is often a mirror of its creator, reflecting his or her context, values and experiences.”
Discuss at least two of Gray’s poems in the light of this statement and consider how one other person could respond to these poems.
b. “Justify why or why students should study Gray’s poetry. Refer to at least two of his poems. You must discuss how and why a student could be resistant to his poetry.
Now select one of the questions and compose the extended response. Complete in class this week. / Higher-order thinking: students required to synthesis and conceptualise
Substantive communication: Composing an extended response
Problematic knowledge: Consideration of others’ perspectives
Week 7: ‘Creativity is the art of seeing possibilities as vast and limitless as the grains of sand on a beach.’