Stage 6: Writing Tasks for specific purpose and audience

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Promote a culture of feedback:

Develop skills in giving and receiving feedback Encourage specific feedback Develop a culture of demonstrating where the feedback has been used to build refinement

Task

1. Academic Essay

Very useful for Module B.Establish a bank of HSC style questions Adapt previous HSC questions to specific textStudent choice on which essay to write

2. ReflectionEstablish a culture of regular reflection in verbal and written forms on how the texts and classroom experiences shaped your perspective or challenged your way of thinking

3. Multi modal exhibition or displayCurate an exhibition and compose the explanatory notes for display or for catalogue This could be static notes or a digital format eg Prezi, PowerPoint, Sway with sound and images Consider App for touchscreen, wall display and barcodes for further detail

4. Opinion editorialOpinion Editorial on a topic and how specific texts and composers have shaped and influenced ideas.Particularly valuable for, Common Modules in Year 11 and 12, Module A in Standard and Advanced.

Preparation and skillsUnpacking questionsHow to structure?What is the criteria?Collaborative writing of introduction and body paragraphsAnnotating modelsColour highlighting

Metalanguage of reflectionFirst personGive phrases as a scaffold e.g. Until I saw xxx or read xxx I had not realised that….Listening to xxx helped me develop my understanding of ………

Experience an example e.g. art gallery, war memorialBrainstorm the specific places this could be an authentic event and purposeHow to use technology to enhance the viewer’s experience. Use students as IT experts for those who are not. Students to try a skill they are not familiar with.

Embed such texts into units of work.Read and evaluate features of this form: layout, images, headings, structure, modality, word choiceModels: Elizabeth Farrelly, Peter Hatcher, Peter Fitzsimons, writers for online eg The Guardian

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of sections of the essay which link to question, rubric, textual detail

Task5. Podcast

ScriptCompose a Script for a podcast for a specific program e.g. Radio National, The Podcast Network, SBS podcast, Itunes Podcast App, Hamish and Andy podcast

6. Feature ArticleCreate an online or print feature article which explores the diverse ways texts can represent connections in personal and public worlds. Online text could can include hyperlinks to Youtube trailers, interviews, further reading, associated sites. Print version to include features of a feature article including images, captions, formatting and references

7. Digital essayRespond to a specific question or quest.Create an online digital essay which explores the question/quest and embeds key features of the Module and its texts. Online text could can include hyperlinks to Youtube trailers, interviews, further reading, associated sites.Establish the purpose, audience and potential publication point

8. Critical analysisCritical analysis suitable for a theatre program or theatre website to explain the relevance and value of the play to contemporaryaudiences.Consider the context of the play and the playwright and its performance history, and how it has been received by different audiences and why it continues to resonate

Preparation and SkillsIncorporate podcasts into lessonsWhat is a podcast?Form and features of the podcastListen to podcasts and respond as an aural text and/or read printed

Incorporate feature articles into unit from online and print.Identity and evaluate the features of the form and its effectiveness in exploring the ideas, topic.Create a list of conventions which must be included and

Explore the form through existing digital platforms eg Snowfall:http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunnel-creekExplore the ways different media and technologies influence the experience of the textConsider as a collaborative task where each student or subgroup is responsible for different

Incorporate theatre reviews and program material into exploration of any drama or film text.Students and teachers collect theatre programsfrom theatre companies or create a folder of theatre websites for student exploration.Analyse the ways the language

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transcriptDecide on purpose and audienceEstablish specific parameters eg language register, ways in, whether to embed music/SFX, lengthEncourage rehearsal and feedback

ones which are optionalMark against criteria of conventions as well as clarity and engagement of topicNeed to establish purpose of the article and the publication point for audience.

elements of the topic or question.What multimodal elements could be used to enhance the essay?Assess the effects of using multimodal and digital conventions including navigation, sound and image

features, text structures and stylistic choices represent perspective and influence the reader and the audienceDevelop creative and informed interpretations of the play supported by close textual analysis.

Task9. Chapter

Compose an online or print chapter for a new edition of a Stage 6 teaching resource appropriate for students.

10. ResourcesCreate print and/or electronic resources for a writers’ festival which focus on a genre or theme or composer

11. ArticleCompose an article or text to be included in an anniversary or commemoration of an event e.g. end of WW1, death of an author, fantasy/science fiction conference, new edition of a canonical text.

12. ScriptCompose a 5-8 minute script for the opening panel of a writers’ festival or Festival of Big Ideas or Ted Talk could have divergent views on a text or way of thinking or some of the big ideas of a chosen module

Preparation and skillsExplore a range of print and online HSC resourcesAssess the effectiveness of the resources in terms of information, layout, register,

Attend a writer’s festival or explore such events online.Decide on the genre or theme or composer.Establish purpose and audience e.g. biographical background, exploring others works by the same

Explore similar commemorative editions.Group or individual to choose the anniversary or commemoration.Consider the purpose and audience.Research the context or author.Decide on textual detail to include.Consider different formatting, layout and incorporation of images and further

Experience festival or visit online websites.Discuss purpose, form and audience of such eventsChoose the topic and decide on the purpose eg overview, establish some textual detail for subsequent speakers to challenge or affirm.

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Use the rubric to unpack the key elements appropriate to the text.Establish writing and editorial groupsDecide on the focus or allocate a different focus to different groups.Consider features of layout to ensure continuity across groups and appeal to audience.Establish referencing techniques.Assess the effectiveness of each other’s text and incorporate critical feedback.Publish and issue copies to future students.

author, history of the genre. reading/references.

Task13. Speeches 14. Speeches 15. Persuasive speech 16. Performance Poem

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Series of 5-7 minute speeches on an idea or topic or concept by different poets from different times e.g. 21st century e.g. Kate Tempest, Ali Cobby Eckerman, Luka Lesson20th century Judith Wright, TS Eliot, WB Yeats. 19th century: Robert Browning, John Keats, Assume their voice and incorporate textual references to their work

Series of 5-7 minute speeches on an idea or topic or concept by different composers from different mediums: Consider:Film-maker e.g. Ang Lee, Stephen Daldry, Tim Burton, Peter Weir.Or poets, playwrights on a specific concept e.g. authority, identity and culture.

Persuasive speech of 5 minutes to a panel of text selection experts as to why 1-3 texts should be included in a prescribed reading/viewing list for Australian young adults.Consider presentation to next Stage 6 cohort for them to assess the speeches on specific criteria. Purchase the most popular texts for use with that next cohort.

Compose and perform performance poem of 5 minutes on a specific topic or exploring a concept through literature e.g. how poets, playwrights and artists have explored war and its impact.Performance could include sound or music.Performance could be live or recorded.

Preparation and skillsConsider if class focus will be the same poet or will have choice.Consider an anchor for the speech e.g. influences and context of poet, recurring themes and images.

Consider if class focus will be the same composer or will have choice.Consider an anchor for the speech e.g. influences and context of composer, how the composer has explored the concept through the conventions of their medium.

Consider the purpose and audience.Decide whether close focus on one text would be more effective than 2 or 3. Multi texts could be valuable for a discussion of genre or textual form eg verse novel.Select textual detail to best convince the text’s selection.

Watch and listen to a range of performance poets.Read their work.Understand the language forms and features of poetry and performance poetry and use these features to compose own poem.Choose the concept or if doing the same concept choose the most relevant composers and their most appropriate

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Select the most appropriate detailed textual evidence from 2-3 poems.Practise delivery and the conventions of effective voice control

Select the most appropriate detailed textual evidence from 2-3 poems.Use the metalanguage of the medium e.g. voice-over, flashback, musical score.Practise delivery and the conventions of effective voice control

texts to explore how their works explore the concept. Incorporate feedback to improve fluency, rhythm, imagery, ideas.Rehearse and receive feedback for own reflection.

Task17. Short Story

Individually or in groups compose a short story set in a time and place to be researched. Specific details of that time and place to be included.Students have the choice of a specific time and place e.g. August 1917 St Petersburg, RussiaSeptember 12, 2001 New YorkAugust 6, Hiroshima, Japan

18. VignettesA series of 4-6 vignettes of about 400 words set in specific seasons with images.

19. VignettesWrite a series of 4-6 vignettes of real events in your town, suburb or street. re-imagined as fiction. Each vignette to be 350-450 words. Include with each vignette a visual to enhance the story e.g. front doors.

20. Ficto-criticismCompose Ficto-criticism (These texts often tell a story while making an argument)using composers or characters from a text in a fictional setting e.g. International conference of gothic writers and characters from a range of gothic texts speak at the conference or as interior monologue justifying their importance in the gothic genre using writers as models

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February 15, 1942, Singapore Preparation and skillsEstablish a research quest for the event and context: sources, parametres?Consider what features of the event to incorporate into the context of the story.Establish the features of the story: narrative perspective, character, the ending.Appoint editing team for drafts, feedback and refinement.Publish with 2-3 appropriate images of the event.

Read The Last Welsh Winter in HSC Young Writers Showcase 2015 by Beatrice Wardhough.Read and view other texts or extracts which are set in a range of seasons in different places.Consider how to incorporate the season as setting.

Using a range of sources research the history of your town, suburb or street.Consider interviewing residents, researching archives including local newspapers, council documents, local history group.Consider a thematic link between each vignette or a separate focus in each.

Explore examples of fictocriticsm and the features of its form to enable students to transfer their knowledge of language and literary devices to engage with unfamiliar textual forms.Discuss the context for the story for the fiction elements.Establish the genre or characters or texts to use as the core of the critical component.

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Task21.Paintings and people

Write a short story or vignette whose main character is a minor character in a painting.

22. Images that move us

In verse capture the context of the image.

23. Images that move us: the onlooker

Compose an imaginative text which explores the perspective of an onlooker to an iconic event.

24. Verse novel

Compose a verse novel on your topic. Research an event or situation in Indigenous Australian history.Use the event as the basis for an imaginative exploration to celebrate the resilience and strength of those First VoicesConsider:Stories in Bringing Them Home report or The Stolen children; their Stories (Bird)Massacres of Indigenous Australians e.g. Appin, Bathurst, Myall Creek

Preparation and skillsExplore how writers use well known paintings as contextual or thematic reference in their texts e.g. poetry of Rosemary Dobson, WB Yeats, WH Auden.Choose a painting with a number of

Explore a selection of iconic images which represent a significant historical event or personality.Students to choose one image or find another. Research the context.Create a powerful titleWrite a verse narrative.Examples of images:

Kim Phuc 9/11 Twin Towers

Explore a selection of iconic images which represent a significant historical event or personality.Students to choose one image or find another example. Research the context.Create a powerful titleWrite a short story or narrative or poem from the perspective of an onlooker to this event or situation.Examples of images:

Kim Phuc

Explore the form and features of contemporary verse novels: OneYou Come ApartSister HeartWatch interview with Sarah Crossan on the features of a verse novel and her preference for this form.Research the context and events of the focus topic.Choose which aspects of the event to showcase in the verse novel.

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characters.Research the background to a painting.Choose a minor character for your short story or vignette. Incorporate the minor character’s perspective of the event or other characters in the painting.

Atomic explosion in Hiroshima

Iwo Jima Saigon student Tiananmen Square Charlie Hebdo

murders Blowing up Stalin’s

statue Dismantling Saddam

Hussein’s statue Workmen having

Lunch on Sydney Harbour bridge

Syrian child on Turkish beach

9/11 Twin Towers Atomic explosion in Hiroshima Iwo Jima Saigon student Tiananmen Square Charlie Hebdo murders Blowing up Stalin’s statue Dismantling Saddam Hussein’s statue Workmen having lunch on Sydney

Harbour bridge Syrian child on Turkish beach

Task25. Poems influenced by poetsChoose 5 different poets and compose five different poems in their style.

Preparation and skillsChoose the poets.Explore the form of the poets and the specific and distinctive language features of the poet.Consider a specific topic or theme to explore through the different style of the poets.Possible poets:Chaucer, Shakespeare, Donne, Keats, Coleridge, Wordsworth , Browning, Yeats, Eliot, Auden, Dickinson, Tempest, Dawe

Imaginative Re-creation Tasks

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From the MarginsChoose a minor character from the text. Writing from their particular point of view, critique the behaviour, attitudes and words of a major character. Justify your critique by close reference to the text.

Different) Points of ViewSelect a significant event from your text. Comment on this event from 3 different points of view: a senior citizen in a retirement village; a local charity worker; and a student in Year 10Eye WitnessYou have just witnessed a major event from your text and the police require a written account of what you just saw. Construct this account explaining who, what, when and how the event occurred.

What Did You Really Think?You are a major character in your text. Write an interior monologue that reveals your honest thoughts about an event, character or location from the text, which contrasts with your ‘public’ statements/actions. In your monologue, provide an explanation as to why your secret thoughts vary from your public ‘self’ and why you did not act according to those thoughts.

Please Let Me Explain, Your Honour…You are a major character in your text. You have been summoned to court to explain and justify your behavior and attitudes to a court of law. This will take some carefully considered persuasive language … and a preparedness to divulge all of the gory and specific details of your co-charactersOops! Wrong EndingYou have recently submitted your completed text to your publisher but you have just realised that you have an improved ending that you’d like to use. However, you know your publisher will require a detailed explanation of why you propose to change the ending with a solid justification. Use your prescribed text as the basis of this explanation/justification

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