English Units 1/2 Tutoring online or
on campus

Module 1

Reading and Exploring Texts: Australian Stories

Lesson 1 Stories of Ourselves

• Study canonical Australian texts and reflect on their personal and cultural relevance
• Analyse contemporary stories of Australia to understand their form, purpose, and key audience
• Comment on a range of perspectives about Australia and what it means to be Australian

Lesson 2 A Poet’s Perspective

• Study poems by Evelyn Araluen from the Bundjalung nation, with emphasis on connections between biography and artistic representation
• Connect poetic techniques including typography, imagery, and tone to explore themes in Araluen’s poetry and First Nations perspectives on Australian history and society
• Understand and practise inferential reading strategies

Lesson 3 Digital Presentation

• Reflect on personal and emotional responses to Evelyn Araluen’s poetry

Lesson 4 Convicts and Colonists

• Explore Australian history, culture, and identity as told through prose and drama by British settler-colonialists and their descendants
• Focus on narratological techniques, including voice, diction, and free indirect discourse, to comment on conflicting viewpoints surrounding first contact between Indigenous Australians and British settler-colonialists
• Structure and draft an extended critical response using Kate Grenville’s The Secret River

Lesson 5 Who Owns a Story?

• Consider the role of the storyteller in shaping and influencing readers’ understanding of historical events 
• Compare Thomas Keneally’s The Playmaker and Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good to pose and discuss the question of who “owns” a story and who is permitted to adapt it for a new audience and purpose
• Continue learning about and analysing features of prose fiction, including setting, juxtaposition, and direct address
• Consider the ethical and artistic challenges authors may face in the adaptation process

Lesson 6 Tales from the Bush

• Discuss the authenticity and relevance of Australian cultural narratives for contemporary life and culture
• Study canonical Australian texts and folklore, including Banjo Paterson’s “Clancy of the Overflow” and the bushranger, Ned Kelly
• Engage in a critical study of Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang to consider the implications of canon formation for the construction of group identities

Lesson 7 Exploring Personal Connections with Texts

• Focus on central aspects of the VCE English Study Design, including forming a personal connection with a story of text
• Reflect on and discuss broad themes in the course, such as whose voices are included in the Australian literary canon and what it means to be “Australian”
• Study Melanie Cheng’s short story, “Australia Day,” and comment critically on its themes of multiculturalism and social alienation
• Compose an in-class essay on one’s personal engagement with “Australia Day”

Lesson 8 Conflict and the Canon

• Revise the structure and style of an essay
• Consider the merits and demerits of integrated and divided approaches in essay writing
• Compose an essay scaffold in preparation for the Topic Test in Lesson 9
• Revise the definition and application of literary techniques

Lesson 9 Topic Test