Have started teaching the first section of our 11Ext1 'Fairy Tale' Appropriation unit which students seem to be really enjoying. As a topic, it effectively covers some of the course content and approach while developing a strong language skills focus. Looking at what students already tacitly understand about the fairytale genre, generated excellent class discussion. Recurring plotlines, characterisation and moral underpinnings in the evil versus goodness message became the trigger for a real focus on genre conventions and how and why they are used.
As is often the case however, the verbal ability to express ideas and show understanding was not readily echoed in their written responses. This is the area that really needs to be addressed in any Preliminary course.
Setting up a class website with affiliated student websites is proving to be an effective classroom tool. It allows additional resources for homework study or research to be posted and accessed from home. Posting blog writing challenges also tests student understanding and engagement with the course. Blogs are obviously a great way to post detailed teacher feedback for each post challenge. I would be interested is comparing ideas with other Preliminary Ext English teachers.
Back to trying to cope with the paperwork frenzy of first weeks of Term 1-whatever happened to the notion of a paperless office? Teachers at our school are being deluged with documentation. Barbara
This was closed due to a hacking problem and then I forgot to re-open it until requested to do so.
This text, which is on the suggested BOS textbook list, remains a wonderful Stage 4 text although I realise that it is also popular in upper primary.
With High School students it becomes a useful close Text/Context study as well as a conceptual study for 'Changing Worlds' or 'Coping with Adversity'. Rather than just a theme unit that deals with historical background and basic narrative elements, when done in depth, it really enables students to empathise and explore experience in other times and places as well as explore different text-types. Historical documents, video footage, documentary evidence and so on make it a great novel choice to develop wide-ranging literary and non-fiction resources.
I also have a weebly site with a blog page that is more focused on senior texts.
The 'Study of Rhetoric', rather than just a 'speech' oral focus, is becoming a popular, Stage 5 unit in many schools. While preparing to teach it as the first unit to my Year 10 class this year, I thought it might make a useful blog topic. It has great potential for raising student awareness of the power of persuasive language on many levels, but most importantly for teaching how language is shaped for a given purpose. In a world bombarded by advertising, political campaigning and media editoralising, it has become more important in an educational context,to raise student understanding of rhetorical purpose, context and methodology. Critical thinking skills need to be taught and students should become familiar with the ways language can be explicitly used to mould an audience's interpretive response.
Current affairs and social issues are largely communicated via a mass media conduit. This unfortunately, often comprises only 30 second 'newsbites' on television or radio or online news updates. While many 'insight' websites offer coverage with greater depth and detail, these are not going to be frequented by a large adolescent audience. Media filtered news will be the way most teenagers will learn about the contemporary world. Mass media is manufactured for a readily accepting audience. As the satiric 'Frontline' TV series demonstrated, fact and truth have become commodified products, reworked to meet industry agendas. Teaching media literacy skills and how 'rhetoric' works is an excellent way to begin a real engagement with the power of language. Many so-called 'Advertising' or 'Propaganda' units in school programs lack sufficient substance; just touching the surface; much in the same way that news and politics is communicated.
Tackling how Rhetoric functions however, gets to the more nitty gritty functionality of language itself and the many ways in which it is manipulated to sway audiences. The Ancient Greeks looked at rhetoric in relation to spoken speech but the Romans extended it to include written language as well. When viewed in this broader way, rhetoric, written and spoken, is constantly bombarding our senses. Looking at movie speeches is an effective 'way in' for this sort of unit. It allows you look at the importance of context in shaping language. Purpose + audience = register is an easy equation to use when trying to explain the relationship between what is being communicated and how it is done. You can probably get no better single online resource than that given below. It looks at rheotircal history, techniques and also has links to 'Americanrhetoric' which is a brillaint site for famous speeches from history and the movies.
There are also many sites that focus on explicit speeches by famous orators such as Winston Churchill or Martin Luther King showing analytical details and tasks. Some of the most enjoyable ways into a Rhetorical unit however is via short clips to trigger discussion about how ideas can be effectively communicated. The following ones usually engage students:
The following advertisement has also been a good way to begin a rhetorical unit in the past. Quick but effective ways to show the power of language highlights the validity of studying how it works.
If you are teaching rhetoric as a topic, I hope these suggestions and resources prove useful. If you are not currently including a rhetoric unit, give it some thought when you are re-evaluating your curriculum.
I have extensive experience as a teacher, writer and lecturer. My publisher is Phoenix Education and I present HSC English workshops for Teacher Training Australia or TTA.
Tailor made workshops school sites can also be organised.
My other sites include:
www.stannersenglishmatters.wikispaces.com
www.stannersenglishresources.weebly.com
