Teaching and The Advanced English syllabus.

The performance of my year twelve students was exceptionally rewarding. Not just because they engaged in the joy of learning and discovered the power of communication but because they owned all of their achievements. I did not write their essays nor did I dictate notes that could be effortlessly slotted into an essay.  I rather encouraged them, and provided them …

My perspective on the 2016 HSC English Advanced

I prepared my year 12 students for the following electives and texts this year. Section 1 –Intertextual Connections   PROSE FICTION AND FILM Virginia Woolf , Mrs Dalloway and Stephen Daldry The Hours   POETRY AND DRAMA John Donne, Sonnets and Margret Edson ,Wit   SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA AND NON FICTION William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar and Niccolo Machiavelli   PROSE FICTION …

Sample Essay Module A: Metropolis and Nineteen Eighty Four

1984 and Metropolis provide equally dystopic projections about our future and their context offers little bearing on their dystopia. Discuss.  Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis and George Orwell’s 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (referred to as 1984 from here) both provide dystopic projections about a future where the corruption of power and the oppression of technology threaten humanity. However, 1984’s future …

Module C: Representing People And Politics -the Crucible And Dogville

The Crucible by Arthur Miller (1953) Dogville (2003) directed by Lars von Trier THESIS: Effective representations of political acts reveal power as the driving force. A study of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Lars Von Trier’s Dogville provide with us with a window into the hidden and overt agendas of people in positions of power. Through authorial commentary, narrative voice …

SO WHAT’S WRONG WITH PAYING SOMEONE ELSE TO WRITE ENGLISH ESSAYS?

I cannot overlook the recent news regarding the buying of essays on line and the article entitled “ Cheating endemic among HSC students.” SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 7.6.2015.. It saddens me to think that the study of English is seen as a commodity whose sole purpose is to ensure high marks and entry into tertiary courses. Such a Machiavellian approach to …

What To Expect And How To Prepare for Discovery

The new Area of Study for the 2015 syllabus is Discovery. It is an important module as English Paper one of the HSC is entirely devoted to the student’s conceptual understanding of how discovery impacts on human identity and of course one’s understanding of the world at large. Students will need to be able to speak about the ideas of …

Sample Essay Area of Study Belonging: Romulus, My Father

Here is an example of the writing proficiency of my students after a year with me at Educare Sydney. See more sample essays. A study of Raimond Gaita’s twentieth century memoir ‘Romulus, My Father’, Euripides’ 5th century BC play ‘Medea’, reveals that if an individual’s philosophic and cultural views are incongruent to their surroundings, they are often prevented them from …

Sample Essay – Module C – Ted Hughes’ Fulbright Scholars & the film Copenhagen

Here is a sample of the writing proficiency of my students after a year with me at Educare Sydney. Hughes’ “Fulbright Scholars,” the opening to his anthology, is reflective of the struggle to authenticate memory and, how this creates conflicting perspectives surrounding perceptions of an individual. His post-modern form of poetry demonstrates the ambiguity of certainty where he acknowledges the …