03

English

Modified June 22, 2022
7 min
Modified June 22, 2022

English

Course Description

In ‘How one should read a book?’ (1913), Virginia Woolf describes a library where ‘books written in all language by men and women of all tempers, races and ages jostle each other on the shelf’, and asks: ‘How are we to bring order into this multitudinous chaos and so get the deepest and widest pleasure from what we read?’ Attempting to answer this question is essentially the objective of Year 10 English at Geelong Grammar School.

The answer, in the first instance, is critical thinking, or what Roy Peter Clark (2006) has described as the technique of ‘X-ray reading’ – acquiring a ‘special vision’ that allows students to ‘observe the machinery of making meaning, invisible to the rest of us’ – or what Steven Pinker has called ‘reverse engineering’ through which students can ‘see the moving parts, the strategies that create the effects we experience from the page’. Through a close study of poetry, prose fiction, Shakespearean drama, film and media texts, English students at GGS develop skills in analysing and evaluating how language features, images and vocabulary create meaning and contribute to the development of writers’ and directors’ individual styles.

The second answer to Woolf’s question is one she supplies herself: creative engagement. She writes, ‘Perhaps the quickest way to understand the elements of what a novelist is doing is not to read, but to write; to make your own experiment with the dangers and difficulties of words.’ In creating their own texts, students at GGS experiment with language features, stylistic devices, text structures and images for different purposes and audiences. When creating and editing their texts, students demonstrate their understanding of spelling, punctuation and grammar, and vary vocabulary voices for intended effect.

The third (and final) answer to Woolf’s question rests in the fact that while reading may be a solitary act, learning is relational. The emphasis, therefore, in the English classroom at GGS is on creating a community of inquiry. Students practise their speaking and listening skills by reflecting on, extending, endorsing or refuting their peers’ interpretations of and responses to texts. They explain, in spoken form, different viewpoints, attitudes and perspectives, and plan, rehearse and deliver persuasive presentations.

The English curriculum opens with a study of topical issues in the media (like #BlackLivesMatter or social media technologies) and ways that a significant text (like To Kill a Mockingbird or Black Mirror) may help us respond to this issue. In Term 2, students complete a poetry unit of learning. Examples of these inquiry-based electives are listed below, but these are likely to change from year to year according to the interests of students and the teaching passions of our Year 10 team. Assessments for each of these electives will be common across the cohort. In Term 3, students study Shakespeare’s Macbeth with focus on the inquiry question: ‘Does achieving success mean being happy?’ In Term 4, students complete a unit focusing on the craft of creating written texts. This is undertaken with a focus on the ideas framework of ‘Writing About Adventure’ and is informed by the study of a range of mentor texts sourced collaboratively between students and teachers.  

POETRY ELECTIVES

  • What roles do nature and imagination play in your life? A study of Romanticism.
  •  The Worlds of Heroes. A study of war poetry from the ancient world to the present one.
  • Around the world in 18 poets. A study of poetry to emerge from six different continents. 

Students intending to progress to English as an Additional Language (EAL) are supported in their language acquisition and consolidation of communication competencies. Special attention is paid to students’ communicating effectively in spoken and written English for social and academic purposes. Texts are selected and electives are designed to meet these students’ particular literacy needs and to promote cultural and plurilingual awareness – that is, to build students’ understanding of the cultural conventions of language use in Australia and to draw on the knowledge and resources of students’ first languages and cultures in order to enhance learning.

ASSESSMENT – Semester 1

  1. Responding analytically (40%)
  2. Analysing and Presenting Argument (50%)
  3. Language and Grammar (10%)

ASSESSMENT – Semester 2

  1. Responding analytically (45%)
  2. Crafting Texts (45%)
  3. Language and Grammar (10%)

Literature – Giants of Literature

Course Study Semester One only

Prerequisites Nil

Course Description

The Year 10 Literature electives are an expansive exploration of the literary canon. Not only do these electives preview senior courses in literature, they equip students with the cultural capital that will benefit their future studies in English and the Humanities, and, possibly, make them interesting and popular dinner guests long into the future!

In Giants of Literature (Middle Ages, the Renaissance & the Romantics), students study a breadth of texts across key movements and genres, from the medieval epic Beowulf and Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, to the Metaphysical poets of the English Renaissance, to iconic Romantic and Gothic writers of the late-nineteenth century.

Students will be rewarded with a great bird’s eye view of how some of the big universal themes of literature have developed over time prior to the twentieth century. Students will also be invited to question how we should ‘understand’ the literary canon and the voices that are amplified and celebrated. 

ASSESSMENT 
1. Responding analytically (50%) 
2. Comparing texts (25%) 
3. Responding in spoken form (25%) 

Literature – Modern Literature

Course Study Semester Two only

Prerequisites Nil

Course Description

The Year 10 Literature electives are an expansive exploration of the literary canon. Not only do these electives preview senior courses in literature, they equip students with the cultural capital that will benefit their future studies in English and the Humanities, and, possibly, make them interesting and popular dinner guests long into the future!

In Modern Literature (20th & 21st Centuries), students study a breadth of texts across key movements and genres of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from iconic Modernist writers like W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf, to popular writers of the Cold War period and modern day.

Students will be rewarded with a great bird’s eye view of how some of the big universal themes of literature have developed over time, and how the great canon of literature continues to challenge and inspire our lives in the twenty-first century. 

ASSESSMENT 
1. Responding analytically (50%) 
2. Comparing texts (25%) 
3. Responding in spoken form (25%)