Year 10 English tuition in Sydney and online

Holiday

July

T.S. Eliot's Modernist Poetry

Overview
This course introduces Year 10 students to the groundbreaking world of modernist poetry through the works of T.S. Eliot. Students will explore how Eliot’s distinctive literary style challenges early twentieth-century values and experiences. By analysing how Eliot’s work conveys post-war disillusionment and cultural fragmentation, students will deepen their understanding of how literature reflects societal change and develop sophisticated interpretive abilities, preparing them for advanced literary studies.

Course Breakdown
Day 1: Introduction to Modernist Poetry and T.S. Eliot
Day 2: Poetic Techniques in Eliot’s Works: Imagery, Allusion, and Structure
Day 3: Understanding Post-War Disillusionment and Cultural Fragmentation
Day 4: Themes in Eliot’s Poetry and Reflection on Modernist Literature

What Students Will Gain:

• Literary Skills: A deep understanding of modernist poetic techniques, such as fragmentation, allusion, and unconventional structures, enabling students to critically engage with Eliot’s work.
• Writing Skills: Enhanced through the analysis of poetic form and theme, with an emphasis on crafting essays and interpretations of complex poetry.
• Critical Thinking Skills: Developed through the examination of how Eliot’s work challenges conventional norms and reflects societal changes, encouraging students to think critically about literary expression.
• Cultural Awareness: By exploring the cultural and historical context of early twentieth-century literature, students will gain insights into the disillusionment and fragmentation of the post-war period.
• Collaboration and Communication Skills: Fostered through group discussions and debates about the meaning and impact of Eliot’s works, as well as modernist literature’s influence on contemporary thought.

Holiday

April

The songs and poetry of Archie Roach

Students will analyse the songs and poems of Archie Roach to explore how composers express their personal and cultural identity and the relationship between people and places. Students will understand how to use imagery and figurative language to create meaning and express world perspectives. Students will develop their knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures, and Sustainability.

Course breakdown

Day 1: Introduction to Nopun Kurongk, Appreciating Roach & Analysing Portraits

Day 2: Connotation, imagery & symbolism in Wash My Soul in the River’s Flow & connection to country

Day 3: Context & Comparative Analysis of Took the Children Away

Day 4: Sustainability, Native Born & creating your own Ekphrastic Poem

Students will gain:

• Critical thinking skills by evaluating perspectives and deeper meanings in the songs and poems
• Creative writing skills by developing storytelling techniques and drafting a portfolio of informative, persuasive and imaginary texts
• Understanding of Indigenous storytelling skills by understanding how Roach’s work reflects First Nations experiences
• Understanding of social justice themes and the impact of music on Australian history
• Poetic devices by examining lyrics in literary texts and reflecting on language forms, structures and features

Module 2

Imaginative Writing

Lesson 1: Introduction to Realism

• The genre and style of realism; flash fiction form.
• Identify, evaluate, and analyse realist fiction.
• Show instead of tell and write with restrictions.

Lesson 2: Realist(ic) Setting

• Setting in realist fiction; scenes in flash fiction.
• Create a strong sense of place through language.
• Construct sensory imagery to characterise place.

Lesson 3: Realism and Character

• The fluid and dynamic process of characterisation.
• Characterise people, places, and animals.
• Write idiosyncrasies into characters.

Lesson 4: Writing Real People

• The importance of verbs in creative writing; characterisation from distinct perspectives.
• Create sharper and more evocative sentences by specifying verbs.
• Creatively write scenes from different perspectives.

Lesson 5: In-Class Writing Task

• Exam skills essential for creative writing assessments.
• Brainstorm and scaffold the beginning of a creative writing response.
• Write in response to a visual stimulus.

Lesson 6: Realism and Motif

• The importance of theme and motif in creative writing; nouns as descriptors.
• Describe actions instead of qualities of nouns.
• Analyse motif in Elena Ferrene’s The Lost Daughter, and plan flash fiction through motif.

Lesson 7: Plot and Structure in Realism

• Plot scaffolding for flash fiction; structural strategies for writing a whole piece.
• Analyse how GauZ experiments with narrative structure in Standing Heavy.
• Plan and scaffold the sequence of narrative and plot for your piece.

Lesson 8: Revising Creative Writing Skills

• Creative writing clichés, dialogue tags, grammar and language techniques, and what to avoid.
• Identify clichés in writing and avoid unclear language.
• Write dialogue in original and authentic ways.

Lesson 9: Major Work

Module 3

Perspective and Context

Lesson 1: Introduction to Romanticism

• The origins, features, and values of Romanticism; six key Romantic poets.
• Analyse a painting and a poem.
• Identify features and values of Romanticism.

Lesson 2: The Sublime and Solitude

• The concept of the sublime, and the significance of solitude to Romantics.
• Distinguish Romantic vs. Realist features.
• Assess importance of contextual factors on Romantic texts.

Lesson 3: Introduction to the Gothic

• Features of the Gothic and relationship to Romanticism, Gothic elements in Wuthering Heights, and Gothic qualities such as the macabre.
• Recognise Gothic features, and reflect on different iterations of the Gothic.
• Compose a body paragraph analysing Gothic features in Wuthering Heights.

Lesson 4: Gothic Romance

• Romantic and Gothic conceptions of love, conventions of Gothic romance, and the relationship between the two.
• Analyse the poetry of John Keats and Wuthering Heights.
• Compare Romantic and Gothic representations of love; write creatively in both modes.

Lesson 5: In-Class Writing Task

• The process of analytical writing.
• Produce an extended analytical response to the Romantic and Gothic movements.
• Submit In-Class writing task for detailed feedback.

Lesson 6: Romanticising Death

• Romantic representations of death and Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale.
• Think critically about romanticised depictions of death.
• Analyse Keats’ poetry in detail.

Lesson 7: Dark Romanticism

• Features of Dark Romanticism and its relationship to Romanticism; Edgar Allan Poe and his role in both movements.
• Recognise features of Dark Romanticism
• Analyse a poem demonstrating both. movements, and appreciate literary features of place.

Lesson 8: Death in the Gothic

• Representations of death in Crimson Peak, and processes for drafting an analytical paragraph.
• Compare Gothic and Romantic texts.
• Develop a thesis statement, structure an essay, and organise evidence and analysis.

Lesson 9: Topic Test

Module 4

Adapting Shakespeare (Comedy)

Lesson 1: Shakespeare and Much Ado About Nothing

• Shakespeare, drama, and Much Ado About Nothing.
• Read, view, listen, understand, and respond to texts.
• Express ideas and compose texts.

Lesson 2: Romantic Comedy

• Genre, comedy, and romantic comedy.
• Analyse how genre shapes ideas and values.
• Experiment with genre and reflect on genre over time and values.

Lesson 3: The Play in Production

• Production and adaptation.
• Identify the processes and values of adaptation and appropriation.
• Examine how meaningful connections between texts can enrich meaning.

Lesson 4: Dramatic Structure

• Narrative, and codes and conventions.
• Use metalanguage to analyse forms, features, structures and conventions.
• Analyse how conventions vary, explain how texts adapt conventions, and explore how texts shape identities, values, and experiences

Lesson 5: Language

• Language, style, marriage and courtship in Much Ado About Nothing.
• Analyse aesthetic features and figurative language and how they shape meaning.
• Evaluate how certain styles are privileged, how form shapes meaning, and how the style of a text represents larger movements.

Lesson 6: Perspective and Context

• Understand, analyse and evaluate how interpretation, context, and perspective shape texts.
• Explain how texts affirm of refute perspectives, and appreciate how context informs texts.

Lesson 7: Developing an Argument

• Argument and rhetoric.
• Evaluate how effective arguments are constructed through form, feature and structure.
• Analyse how subjectivity and objectivity form arguments to represent perspectives.

Lesson 8: Reflecting on the Play

• Literary value and reflections.
• Analyse and evaluate aesthetic qualities and value; reflect and evaluate using technical vocabulary.
• Discuss the process of composition, evaluate effectiveness of choices, and evaluate ability to plan and revise.

Lesson 9: Topic Test