English / Year 9 / Literacy / Interpreting, analysing, evaluating

Curriculum content descriptions

Explore and explain the combinations of language and visual choices that authors make to present information, opinions and perspectives in different texts (ACELY1745)

Elaborations
  • identifying or commenting on the authors approaches and use of techniques, design, form and style
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
  • Personal and social capability Personal and social capability
ScOT terms

Creating texts

Video

Wuthering Heights: Who is Heathcliff?

Heathcliff is one of the main characters in Emily Bronte's classic novel, Wuthering Heights. As Professor John Bowen from the University of York notes, we know very little about this mysterious character and his apparent contradictions. Ms Bronte offers suggestions about Heathcliff's background but provides few details ...

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Considering your audience when writing

Why is it important to think about who your readers will be when you write a story? In this clip author Alice Pung explains some of the things she had to consider when writing her 'Marley' books for young readers. What does Alice say about the way she used language? And how did she convey the historical themes in her stories? ...

Video

Heywire: The slow sizzle of SFX

Without the benefit of visual images, audio texts often rely on sound effects to create a mood or to position the audience, sometimes without their realising it. Analyse how Rafiqua Fattah's sound effects affect you as you listen to her Heywire audio story, which presents her perspectives on life as an Australian who is ...

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Representing Sydney's suburbs, 1965

In this clip from the mid-60s, explore how words and images can be combined to encourage particular interpretations and influence audience response. Explore how some of the inner suburbs of Sydney have been represented in history.

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Interviews With 10 Australian Authors, Ch 10: David Williamson's The Removalists

Violence still permeates Australian society, from the actions of sporting figures, to police corruption, to high levels of domestic violence. For these reasons, David Williamson's The Removalists remains as relevant to Australian audiences as when it was first performed. Listen to Williamson speak to Tom Tilley about the ...

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BTN: Reporting from a war zone

Imagine what it would be like to report from an active war zone. How do reporters get access to these war zones and what rules do they follow to avoid becoming casualties? Find out how war zone reporters get their story.

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Powerful words: Gough Whitlam's dismissal

Gough Whitlam is the only Australian prime minister to have been sacked from office - along with his entire government. After learning of his dismissal, Mr Whitlam addressed the Australian public and uttered a line that has resonated throughout Australian politics since 1975. Words can be immensely powerful and, as you ...

Online

The Hunger Games

This is a PowerPoint resource for teachers who are teaching the film adaptation of 'The Hunger Games'. It includes definitions of film techniques and close analyses of selected scenes and themes. It also contains links to the other four resources in this series - the study guide, characters, themes and issues, as well as ...

Text

Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing

This is a very rich resource for students from the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), which gives them an insight into the art of Shaun Tan through a focus on both the book and the film of The Lost Thing. The content focuses on aspects of storytelling, including themes, techniques, forms and language, visual, ...

Video

Thinking about story themes

Noa and Francis are two young writers who've had their stories published. Listen as they talk about the main ideas they chose to explore in their stories. Find and watch the clips of Noa and Francis reading their pieces at the Melbourne Writers Festival (also found on Splash). How did they build their stories around the ...

Video

The Book Club: Class and gender roles in 'Wuthering Heights'

'Wuthering Heights' is considered by many to be a great romance novel. Jeanette Winterson, however, thinks it is anything but. What does she think the book is about? Do you agree?

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Interviews With 10 Australian Authors, Ch 4: Poetry with Robert Adamson

Australian poet Robert Adamson speaks to Tom Tilley about his extraordinary life, including his experience of being sent to a boys' home as a teenager, of his life-changing discovery of Bob Dylan, and of the spiritual connection he feels with the Hawkesbury River. The Golden Bird is a collection of his poems written throughout ...

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Heywire: Bikes, cameras and cystic fibrosis

What does it take to remain active and optimistic despite having a serious physical condition? Michael McMahon's photo story shows us that cystic fibrosis hasn't stopped him doing what he loves best. A proud resident of Warrnambool in Victoria, and with a strong family network around him, he is living life to the fullest. ...

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Characters in Woolf's 'Mrs Dalloway'

Virginia Woolf's 'Mrs Dalloway' is set in London over a period of a single day in June 1923. What other novel, mentioned in this video, is set over a period of a single day? What might be the consequences of setting a novel over such a short period of time? Other than Mrs Dalloway, name an important character in the novel. ...

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Heywire: Digging for diprotodons

Ever dreamed of finding buried treasure in your own backyard? For Natasha Camp, this is a reality. Her 'treasure' is not gold or silver, but the bones of ancient Australian megafauna. In this Heywire photo story, Natasha describes the latest dig at Floraville Station, Queensland, her family's property. It was on this dig ...

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Can We Help?: New meanings: the processes of language change

Have you ever engaged in a bit of argle-bargle? It's the original form of a colloquialism you might be more familiar with: argy-bargy. But where does this phrase come from? Etymology is the study of the history and evolution of words. In this clip Professor Kate Burridge explains the origins of this curious phrase and other words.

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How to Build Stories, Ch 2: Creating characters for your story

Great characters help us fall in love with stories. Characters need to keep readers excited, but they also need to think and feel in ways we can all understand, and they need to remind us of people in our own lives. Follow these fantastic tips to create interesting, relatable characters!

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Jennifer Byrne Presents: Anything's possible

What are writers of Young Adult (or YA) fiction seeking to achieve? What obligations do they have to their audience, if any? In this clip, listen as four successful authors share their ideas on these things.

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First Tuesday Book Club: The haunting of Manderley

'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.' So begins 'Rebecca' by Daphne du Maurier, the 1938 gothic novel set in the mysterious mansion of Manderley, with all its creepy inhabitants. Learn more about this thrilling novel and the gothic genre in this clip, which is the first in a series of two.

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First Tuesday Book Club: Lots to love about 'Cloudstreet'

Judging literature is highly personal. What one person loves about a book can drive someone else crazy. Some books, though, just seem to appeal to everyone! Well, almost everyone. Find out whether this is the case with Tim Winton's novel 'Cloudstreet'.