Common Module: Reading to Write | Textual Concept: Point of View| Stage 6 – Year 11 | English Standard 2018

Unit title: Point of View

Year 11 Common Module: Reading to Write – Transition to Senior English

Focus text: Into the Wild – Sean Penn + other texts in a range of modes and media

Duration

Term 1

11 Weeks

4 lessons/wk.

50 min/lesson

Approx. 39 hours

Unit description

What is the textual concept?

Point of view in a text is the position from which the subject matter of a text is designed to be perceived. In defining a point of view the writer, speaker or director of the text controls what we see and how we relate to the situation, characters or ideas in the text. Point of view may be expressed through a narrator or through a character (focaliser in a novel, persona in a poem) and because we are invited to adopt this point of view we often align ourselves with the character or narrator. The point of view constructed in a text cannot be assumed to be that of the composer.

Composers can privilege certain points of view by choosing a particular narrative stance including omniscient, limited, 1st, 2nd or 3rd person narrator. In visual, film and digital texts, point of view is indicated through such devices as foregrounding in visual images, types of camera shots or guiding a pathway of navigation through a web site. In spoken and audio texts the tone and accompanying sounds convey a point of view. Point of view therefore constructs an attitude towards the subject matter in a text which the reader, listener or viewer is invited to adopt.

Rationale - Why is it important?

Understanding point of view is a critical reading practice because point of view is often inferred rather than explicitly expressed and its exploration leads to an appreciation of the constructed nature of the text. It is a device which allows subject matter to be foregrounded or distanced and therefore it invites certain attitudes and feelings in response to the text.

Experimenting with point of view allows students to explore other ways of seeing the text.

See ‘Point of View’ at English Textual Concepts website: http://www.englishtextualconcepts.nsw.edu.au/content/point-view

Understanding Point of View is essential to an understanding of the variety of readings of texts available to an audience 

Teachers may include lessons explicitly teaching skills in reading and writing to address the particular needs of their students. Teachers may also need to differentiate the learning to suit the varied needs of different groups in the class.

This unit contains a range of resources and teaching and learning activities that are appropriate for students from Kandos High School. Kandos is located on the western side of the Blue Mountains with many of the students having had interactive experiences with their natural environment. It is also a rural, low SES community that is mostly culturally homogenous;  learning about and understanding the importance of recognising that a range of perspectives is valuable for developing social and cultural tolerance will be important for these students. Thus, they "...develop insights into the world around them, deepen their understanding of themselves and the lives of others and enhance their enjoyment of reading." (http://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/english-standard-stage6/modules/)

This unit also provides students with opportunities to compose responsive texts in a range of contexts for a range of audiences to "...further develop skills in comprehension, analysis, interpretation and evaluation." Their study of Point of View lends itself particularly well to their "...further understanding of how their own distinctive voice may be expressed for specific purposes." ((http://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/english-standard-stage6/modules/))

It is not an expectation that all texts or activities are completed in order to achieve the learning intentions of this module. Teachers may add, change or delete activities as appropriate to their context and the learning needs and interests of students.

Intended Student Responses

This unit gives students many opportunities to write on the basis of their learning about the relationship between composer, text and audience and their developing consciousness of the transference of point-of-view. The writing they produce can be critical, evaluative and analytical. As well, there are opportunities for students to produce writing that is both interpretive and creative, continuing the cycle of responder as composer.

The assessment task gives students the opportunity to write analytical and critical evaluative responses, also preparing them for their examination. Also, they have the opportunity, through their assessment task, to compose interpretively and creatively in a new context. There are also numerous opportunities for students to develop their own processes of learning through their use of the ALARM Matrix structure, annotation, tabulation and diagram.

Outcomes EN11-1, EN11-2, EN11-3, EN11-4, EN11-5, EN11-6, EN11-7, EN11-8

Essential questions

Why do I need to become a more perceptive reader and more skilful writer and how do I do this?
How can reading make me a better writer? And how can writing make me a better reader?
How does reading and writing across a variety of connected texts illuminate meaning?
What is the role of context in making meaning?
How does this translate to the range of perspectives of texts and issues in and through texts?
What is the composer’s perspective and what has influenced this perspective?
How is the composer’s perspective realised/expressed? What is the composer’s narrative stance?
How is the audience positioned to see the composer’s perspective?
What is the constructed attitude in the text that the audience is invited to adopt?
How well do the texts studied convey the attitude of the composer?

Course requirements

The Common Module must be completed as the first unit of work in Year 11.
Students must “undertake the intensive and close reading of quality texts from a variety of modes and media.”
Students “respond and compose for a range of purposes and audiences.”
Students must “investigate how various language forms and features… are used for particular effect.”

Assessment overview:

Part A: Comprehension (15 Marks)

Choose THREE texts from the stimulus booklet.
Answer the corresponding questions for each of your chosen texts.
Write 500 - 600 words in total.

Part B: Speech (15 Marks)

Deliver a motivational speech.
Use your speech to show your peers the value of making the most of their lives.
In your speech, make close reference to TWO or more of the texts you have studied in class, in order to justify your ideas.
You should speak for 7 – 10 minutes.

Introduction to Reading to Write

Unpacking the syllabus

Students are given a copy of the Common Module description from the NESA English Standard syllabus (p. 49)
Read the Module description together with the students, discussing, highlighting and annotating its main points.
Work together with the students to list the main points from the Module description that detail what the students need to learn about and to do. This could be done in a table with two columns titled Learn To and Learn About
Rubric familiarisation & making connections with the HSC.
Work with students to elicit a deconstruction of the examination rubrics for Paper 1.
Introduce HSC Glossary of question directives

Reading to Write

Students can form two groups, and with textas and large pieces of cardboard, brainstorm together; reasons why we write and reasons why we read, respectively.

The discussion of these reasons that follows should culminate in a reminder for students about the nature of writing for;

- Purpose

- Audience

- Context

Definitions for each of these should also be given as part of this, from syllabus pp. 77, 80 and 94.

Students can be engaged to discuss the ways that this also extends to the reader;

Reading for a purpose
Being part of an audience, both unconscious and conscious
The contextual experience of the reader

Introduce the students to a short text; Something from National Geographic’s short film showcase would be ideal as an engaging, text based introduction that offers a lot of stimulus for discussion to begin with.

https://voices.nationalgeographic.org/2017/01/05/short-film-showcase-top-ten-picks-for-2016/

Give the students five minutes to quickly sketch an image from the Nat Geo film that they recall as something striking or important to them. They need to keep the image they are sketching a secret and away from the eyes of their peers. They should then put this away.

Students can discuss as a group, how the text reveals ideas about purpose, audience and context for both the writer and the reader. This discussion should reveal numerous purposes of the composer.

Note the ideas the students have during the discussion on the board for the group to copy onto their handouts. They can write notes from this discussion on each side of the handout with sections for each of these.

When the students have finished completing their notes it would be worth comparing the ideas they have regarding their own reading of the text, particularly on the question of what is significant about the text to them.
Note each of their different answers for this question on the board as they read them out, to enable them to discuss and compare. They can then also reveal to the group which image from the film they have sketched; again, note this on the board alongside their previous answer.

The comparisons and subsequent discussion should give rise to the students’ realisation of the influence context has on composition, as well as the individual responder’s reading, and therefore, the meaning for the individual.

The Q&A during this discussion with the students should elicit the components for a diagram illustrating the relationship between composer, text, reader, meaning and context. This should be drawn on the board for the students to copy.

At this point, it should be explicitly pointed out that other readers may also become composers, and that the texts they have read or seen may therefore become part of their own contextual influence. As well, the students should become conscious that although a text exists as the work of the composer, the meaning that an individual may make of it can be unique.

Finally, question students to elicit awareness of the interrelationship between reading and writing (responding and composing); that by reading, we can be stimulated to write. As well, that by writing, we can discover the nuances of a variety of readings. Discuss how reading and writing support one another: we can learn to be better writers through our reading; we can learn to be better readers through our writing.

Comprehension

Students can complete the following comprehension activities from the NESA Support Materials: http://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/english-standard-stage6

Students read the poem, ‘A Loaf of Poetry’ by Naoshi Koriyama. Koriyama is a Japanese poet.

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/index.html

Quote part of Koriyama’s poem that aligns itself with what you have learned about the importance of the composer’s context? Why does it?
Quote part of Koriyama’s poem that aligns itself with what you have learned about the role the composer has as a reader? Why is it important to Koriyama?
What is he saying about writing poetry?
How can the idea be seen to apply to writing in general?
Analyse how Koriyama’s use of metaphor makes his idea clear and memorable.

Students then read the poem ‘Unfolding Bud’.

https://genius.com/Naoshi-koriyama-unfolding-bud-annotated

Quote part of the poem that aligns itself with what you have learned about a being conscious reader or audience member. What does your chosen quote suggest about the importance of being a reader or audience member?
What is Koriyama saying is the benefit of reading poetry? Explain the connection between purposeful reading and being a conscious reader.
How can the idea be seen to apply to reading in general?

What is the difference between seeing a waterlily bud and glancing at a poem? What does Koriyama suggest that they have in common? Analyse how Koriyama’s use of simile makes his idea clear and memorable.

As a class, or individually, students view the TED talk, ‘The Danger of a Single Story’. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer of novels, short stories and nonfiction.

https://ed.ted.com/on/oQQimtYK

Discuss the following questions with the group:

Adichie outlines her own contextual influences. Why is this important to Adichie’s purpose as a writer?
What is a ‘single story’? Why is the single story dangerous?
What does Adichie’s talk tell us about the power of stories, both in their reading and writing?
What responsibilities do we have as readers?
Do writers have a corresponding responsibility?
What responsibility do publishers and broadcasters have to avoid the single story?
In your view, how effectively does Adichie communicate her ideas in the talk? Why?

Assessment Task

Go through the assessment task together with the students, ensuring understanding of the relevance of the Module to the assessment task.
Also, show the students the connection between the task structure and the HSC Exam Paper 1 structure.
Allow the students to make comparisons with the Paper 1 rubric and the task marking criteria as well.
Show the students an example of a motivational speech. Salient points to ensure their understanding of the writing style include the following;

The voice is semi-formal, which allows their own creative style of writing and delivery.
A motivational speech is a kind of persuasive speech – they will need to consider their use of language and techniques that persuade.
They will still need to make close and critical reference to two of their texts to provide evidence supporting their motivational ideas.

To discuss and take note of on the board; students to copy into their workbooks, pertaining to the task:

- How is a semi-formal voice conveyed? What kinds of language or expression is appropriate / not appropriate?

- Note the persuasive language and expressions used in the Ted Talk video of Lux Narayan.

https://www.ted.com/talks/lux_narayan_what_i_learned_from_2_000_obituaries

Immersion in the Prescribed Text

For immersion in texts a general pattern is as follows: Read / view to evaluate the perspectives the text invites the reader to see; note and analyse any representational techniques effectively used; critically analyse and evaluate.

Into the Wild follows Christopher McCandless’s descent into nihilism as he rejects socially and culturally constructed ideas about society and socio-cultural mores.

There is a variety of settings where we see McCandless’s rebellion manifested, in spite of the relationships he forms. He also rejects the continuation of these relationships.

An analysis of the text, then, can be approached through the settings as individual scenes, and the relationships (and thus, perspectives) they reveal.

It will be important to also note the voiceover that at times narrates, offering the points-of-view of McCandless’s sister, Carinne, of both Chris and their parents. As well, Chris’s personal point-of-view is offered through diary extracts and letters.

Before viewing the film, students can watch a short interview with Sean Penn and note facts re: his contextual influences. At the end, the students can share these; note them on the board for the students to copy into their books, or perhaps another copy of Handout 1, where they can distil their ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEXEcZ2lzoI

Some interesting points from Penn, that perhaps resonate with the rebellious character of McCandless:

Doesn’t believe in ‘careerism’ in Hollywood; doesn’t like the industry. Says “Pimps and thieves run free” in the movie industry.
As an actor, he believes that it is important to accept roles that you believe in; that when you find your own voice you have less tolerance for the things that don’t interest you at the time.

Information from this interview can be supplemented with some biographical details of Penn’s life, particularly between 2002 – 2007, when he begins to involve himself in political activism.

Students are expected to have prerequisite knowledge of filmic techniques prior to watching the film. A YouTube video for revision is available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATDnFr25JG8&feature=youtu.be%5D

Students watch Into the Wild. As they watch, they should be given the opportunity to take notes about key scenes, characters and perspectives. Handout 3 will enable them to do this in a structured way.

Into the Wild script could be useful to teachers; http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Into-the-Wild.html

As the students view, they should be made aware of instances where the range of points-of-view are conveyed by various characters or other means. Ask the students for examples that were particularly significant to them. Good examples could include:

Chris’s graduation; his behaviour vs. his parents’ and the order of the ceremony / university tradition. Chris’s voiceover.

• The restaurant scene after graduation
• Carine’s voice over explaining her parents’ attempts to contact Chris and their discovery of the returned letters - he didn’t want to be found
• Chris hops a freight train to LA; homeless mission; beaten up by railroad security
• Chris finds his buried things; Flashback: “Kids, look what your mother is making me do”
• Carine’s voiceover with images of Chris working and travelling; Billie (mum) watching homeless people, looking out for Chris
• Chris meets Ron Franz; climbing the hill, on tram, dinner, leather work; climbing the hill; offer of adoption
• Carine’s voiceover; various perspectives of Chris’s parents
• Quote from Doctor Zhivago “an unshared happiness is not happiness...”
• Vision of Chris returning home

Work together with the students, using an ALARM Matrix, to identify and analyse the text for the variety of perspectives it offers on Chris’s decision, ultimately including Chris’s.
Through the analytical work, be sure to address the following questions for the range of examples chosen;

How do the images shown convey the point-of-view of the composer? …of the character? What values does this reveal for each character involved?
How is the audience positioned/invited to adopt this point-of-view? How is the audience positioned/invited to accept or reject the values of the character/s involved.

Ensure that students complete the Conceptualise Topic and Appreciate bands of the ALARM Matrix; they need to be aware of the way the multiplicity of viewpoints within the text enriches the text. As well, they should be able to show how their own understanding of the multiplicity of viewpoints outside of the text (composer and responders) enriches their reading of the text. We are positioned to accept a particular set of values in any given scene, while at times we are omnisciently positioned to recognise or to choose the values revealed.

Students can use their ALARM Matrix notes to write a response for the following activities;

(Note: Students may have to be shown a text sample and provided with a writing scaffold for any of the writing tasks chosen, depending on their experience with these.)

1. To what extent has Sean Penn created an authentic portrayal of the Christopher McCandless story?

Analyse elements of the film Into the Wild to support your ideas.

2. Imagine you are Christopher McCandless. Write a letter to your parents that explains the reasons for your decision to leave and what you hope to achieve by doing so. Think carefully about your viewing of the film and try to imagine Chris’s voice; how would he say it? What words would he choose?

3. Imagine you are Carine McCandless. Write a series of five diary entries that reveal your actions and emotions, as well those of your parents, now that Chris has gone.

4. Reflect on what it might have been like to have discovered Chris after he had died. Write a news report that reveals the details of the discovery. Include transcripts of interview with the person who found his body, as well as a local authority, such as a police officer.

5. Imagine you are either Walt or Billie McCandless (Chris’s parents). How are you feeling about Chris’s departure? What has this caused you to think about, in terms of the home life that Chris has had? What have you thought about upon reflection? Write a dramatic monologue that reveals what you would say to either Chris, Carine or Billie, about yourself, Chris and the situation you now find yourself in. Practise and deliver this for your peers.

6. Research YouTube for a version of The Wild Colonial Boy. Note the rhythm and rhyme pattern, and write the lyrics for your own Ballad of Christopher McCandless.

The students can summarise their understanding of the variety of points-of-view with the use of the diagram below. They should add their own notes regarding what each perspective is.

Immersion in other texts: generally, students should be questioned to deconstruct the text for ideas about point-of-view and the variety of meanings that can be implied. Particular care should be given to eliciting ideas about the world of the composer and their relationship with the subject matter of the text, and subsequently, with the audience.

Annotations should be added to the text during the course of the discussion.
An ALARM Matrix can again be used to analyse chosen related texts.

Students should be introduced to a range of other texts for analysis in class. These could include any of;

Lord Byron: Childe Roland’s Pilgrimage
Jack London: To Build a Fire, The White Silence
Margaret Atwood: Flying Inside Your Own Body, Habitation
Eddie Vedder: Rise, Hard Sun, Society
Maurice Sendak: Where the Wild Things Are
Tom Petty: Free Falling
Sharon Olds: I Go Back to May 1937
Jack London: White Fang (extracts)
Leo Tolstoy: The Death of Ivan Ilyich (extracts)
Henry Thoreau: Walden (extracts)
Joe Henry: King’s Highway
Roger Miller: King of the Road
Christopher McCandless’s belt
Leo Tolstoy: Family Happiness
Lynrd Skynrd: Simple Man
Boris Pasternak: Doctor Zhivago
Margaret Craven: I Heard the Owl Call My Name

Students may use the Internet to research elements of the text which they may not be familiar, or that they think could be interesting or important.

Discuss with the students, and note, ideas about the purpose, audience and context of the text.

Students can revisit a couple of the texts they have analysed. They should take notes about the effects of descriptive language or images through the text and compose their own introduction for a piece of creative writing that features a description of the landscape.

Assessment Task Preparation

Students use class time and teacher access to develop their assessment task responses.

Go through an ALARM Matrix scaffold with the students, ensuring that they understand how the scaffold aligns with areas of the matrix to enable their writing.

Students receive and respond to peer and teacher feedback.

Examination Prep

HSC exam composition and make-up

Skills and tips in sitting for Paper 1

Section 1 of paper 1

Section 2 of Paper 1 composition

Students to attempt one of the two sections

Evaluation/Comments/Variations

Date Commenced

Date Completed

Teacher’s Signature

Head Teacher’s Signature