LEVEL: Stage 2
SACE Credits: 20 credits
LENGTH: Full Year
Recommended background: Highly successful completion of Stage 1 English Literary Studies
Content:
Stage 2 English Literary Studies focuses on the skills and strategies of critical thinking needed to interpret texts. Through shared and individual study of texts, students encounter different opinions about texts, have opportunities to exchange and develop ideas, find evidence to support a personal view, learn to construct logical and convincing arguments, and consider a range of critical interpretations of texts.
The course focuses on ways in which literary texts represent culture and identity and on the dynamic relationship between authors, texts, audiences and contexts. Students develop an understanding of the power of language to represent ideas, events and people in particular ways and of how texts challenge or support cultural perceptions.
Students undertake:
- a study of three texts (film, extended prose, drama)
- a comparative study of poetry
- a study of a range of short texts
- two text creation tasks, one transforming a text with a writer’s statement and one written, oral/multimodal text
- a critical, comparative essay (shared text and independently chosen text)
- a critical reading of one or more short texts under examination conditions.
Assessment:
Students’ performance will be determined according to the subject’s Performance Standards, as outlined by the SACE Board. Grades A+ to E- will be used for reporting purposes.
School based assessment 70%
Assessment Type 1: Responding to Texts 50%
Through their study of literary texts, students understand how readers are influenced to respond to their own and others’ cultural experiences, and how the expectations of audiences shape perceptions of texts and their significance. Students complete 4 to 5 responses totalling 5000 words (one may be oral or multimodal of up to 6 minutes).
Assessment Type 2: Creating Text Study 20%
Students create texts that enable them to apply the knowledge, skills, and understanding developed through their study of literary texts in a range of forms.
The creating texts study focuses on:
- transforming texts (1,500 words including Writer’s Statement
- creating a written, oral, or multimodal text. (1,000 words)
External Assessment 30%
The external assessment is divided into two sections, Part A and Part B.
Part A – Comparative Text Study 15% -Critical essay on one of the shared texts and one chosen independently by the student – 1500 words.
Part B – Critical Reading 15%- 90 minute Critical Reading examination of one or more short texts.