Rubric Readiness
Name all the modules you have studied throughout the HSC course.
(*Hint* You've seen these written out a GAZILLION times on handouts and PPT presentations throughout the year.)
Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences
Module A: Language, Identity & Culture
Module B: Close study of Literature
Module C: The Craft of Writing
Where is Billy Elliot set?
County Durham, England
Name THREE of Henry Lawson's stories
- Loaded Dog
- Drovers Wife
- Shooting the Moon
- Union Buries its Dead
- Our Pipes
- The Past
- China ... Woman
- Reed Flute Cave
- Entombed Warriors
- Visit to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall
- Sunrise of Huampu River
- A Lake Within a Lake
What type of text is 'A Comparison' by Sylvia Plath?
Discursive
Explain TWO purposes of Module C: The Craft of Writing.
Answers from the rubric could include:
- to strengthen and extend their knowledge, skills and confidence as writers
- to learn to write for a range of authentic audiences and purposes to convey ideas with power and increasing precision
Identify two common experiences within Billy Elliot
- Miners Strike
- Loss of Billy's mother (affects his whole family)
- Dancing lessons
- Poverty
Identify a technique within this passage from 'The Drover's Wife,' and explain its significance:
Bush all round - bush with no horizon, for the countryt is flat. No ranges in the distance. The bush consists of stunted, rotten native apple trees. No undergrowth. Nothing to relieve the eye save the darker gfreen of a few she-oaks which are sighing above the narrow, almost waterless creek. Nineteen miles to the nearest civilzation - a shanty on the main road.
- personification
- descriptive language, 'bush with no horizon,' 'no ranges,' 'no undergrowth,' 'nothing,'
- creates the impression of a barren and decaying landscape. The narrator doesn't directly pass judgement, but the implication is that this is a difficult place to live.
This question has TWO parts.
(a) What part of Australia did Oodgeroo Noonuccal grow up in?
(b) What country did she visit as a delegate?
(a) Stradbroke, QLD
(b) China
What fictional genre does Ray Bradbury's, 'The Pedestrian' short story, fall under?
Dystopian fiction
Complete the cloze passage below from the Common Module rubric:
Students explore how texts may give insight into the a_______s, pa_______ and in_____________ in human behaviour and motivations.
Students explore how texts may give insight into the ANOMALIES, PARADOXES and INCONSISTENCIES in human behaviour and motivations.
Watch the following scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSTw8wOlBGY
- Identify one technique within it and explain its purpose and significance
-Music: helps create mood.
- Close up shot: demonstrates emotion.
- Juxtaposition: Billy's home life, members of the family dancing contrasted to Billy dancing. Demonstrates the power of music and importance of dance to the film. Common experience.
- Music: Stops when the door slams shut. Demonstrates a disconnect between Billy's life.
How is identity an important component in bonding the men together in 'Our Pipes?' Use the following line to help you:
"We cursed society because we weren't rich men, and then we felt better and conversation drifted lazily round various subjects and ended in that of smoking."
Many of the characters in Lawson's stories are outsiders, living on the fringes of society, living quite lonely lives. When they come together, they have this shared experience (or culture) that brings them closer together.
Read the following extract:
Billow smoke into the still air.
The sun rises over the horizon,
Streaking the river
With reflections of gold,
Heardling,
The birth of another day.
(a) what poem is this from?
(b) identify a reference to a theme(c) identify a technique
b) nature "with reflections of gold," this reminds the reader of the dazzling array of human behaviour and experience taking place.
c) imagery: 'billow smoke into the still air.'
After writing a creative piece, there are many questions you might ask yourself during the editing process to check the quality of your work. What are THREE of these questions?
Answers may include:
- Have you successfully achieved your artistic purpose?
- Have you used language forms and features to create meaning?
- Have you used symbolism, imagery, rhetoric, voice, characterisation, point of view, dialogue and tone to establish your purpose?
- Have you used simple and complex sentences to create meaning throughout your response?
- Is the meaning within your sentences clear?
- Have you proofed your spelling, punctuation and grammar?
- Have you received feedback from your peers and your teacher?
Complete the cloze passage below from the Module B rubric:
Students explore and analyse the particular id___ and cha____________s of the text and understand the ways in which these ch_____________s establish its di_________ qualities.
Students study one text chosen from the list of prescribed texts. They engage in the extensive exploration and interpretation of the text and the ways composers (authors, poets, playwrights, directors, designers and so on) portray pe____e, ideas, set_____ and sit_______ in texts.
Students explore and analyse the particular IDEAS and CHARACTERISTICS of the text and understand the ways in which these CHARACTERISTICS establish its DISTINCTIVE qualities.
Students study one text chosen from the list of prescribed texts. They engage in the extensive exploration and interpretation of the text and the ways composers (authors, poets, playwrights, directors, designers and so on) portray PEOPLE, ideas, SETTINGS and SITUATIONS in texts.
Identify TWO themes within Billy Elliot
- adversity
- gender norms
- pursuit of dreams
What is Lawson mocking in this paragraph from The Union Buries its Dead
"I have left out the wattle - because it wasn't there. I have also neglected to mention the heart-broken old mate, with his grizzled head bowed and great pearly drops streaming down his rugged cheeks. He was absent - he was probably 'out back.' For similar reasons I have omitted reference to the suspicious moisture in the eyes of a bearded bush ruffian named Bill. Bill failed to turn up, and the only moisture was that which was induced by the head. I have left ouf the 'sad Australian sunset' because the sun was not going down at the time. The burial took place exactly at midday.
Lawson is mocking the romantic stereotypes which his readers would recognise from stories and poems by people like Banjo Patterson.
He focuses on drawing his attention to how ordinary and unremarkable death in the bush was opposed to the romantic notions.
Read the following excerpt:
"Curtain going up"
Echoes and re-echoes
Through the theater.
The ghosts from the past
Push past me"
a) what poem is this taken from?
b) what is this poems significance in the suite?
c) what are the distinctive qualities of this poem?
a) Visit to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall
b) it is the final reflective poem, not only on her time but her purpose.
c) the references to some of the other poems in the collection, e.g. 'ghosts from the past,' - the past.
This question has THREE parts.
(a) What was one of the purposes of J.K. Rowling's speech delivered at Harvard University?
(b) What dominant technique is being used in Rowling's reference to Gryffindor in the following line: "Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world’s largest Gryffindor reunion."
(c) When Rowling writes, "Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places." To what human intellectual phenomenon is she referring?
(a) To motivate students; to celebrate students' academic successes; to inform students of the benefits of failure; to entertain through humour; to build student resilience through stories of hardship and courage.
(b) Intertextual reference
(c) Imagination
Complete the cloze passage below from the Module A rubric:
Through their responding and composing students deepen their understanding of how language can be used to af____, ig____, re____, ch_______ or dis____ prevailing assumptions and beliefs about themselves, individuals and cultural groups.
Through their responding and composing students deepen their understanding of how language can be used to AFFIRM, IGNORE, REVEAL, CHALLENGE or DISRUPT prevailing assumptions and beliefs about themselves, individuals and cultural groups.
Describe THREE examples of either anomalies, paradoxes or inconsistencies evident throughout the film.
- Jackie's anger and frustration at Billy wanting to dance, despite him selling his mums jewellery to get Billy there.
- Jackie preventing Billy from dancing, but upon realisation of his talen, he does everything and anything he can to enable him to attend the audition. Even by crossing the picket line.
- Mrs Wilkinson is supposed to be nurturing Billy's talent but she rarely praises him.
- Billy's actions and desires are pardoxical to his context given he is raised and socialised in a patriarchal and conservative mining community.
- Billy is an anomoly himself as he does not conform to social norms.
Lawson leaves out many voices (women, Aboriginal) of groups that were present at the time of his stories. In his context, his stories REVEALED a different unromanticised, hard life of people in the bush, however in our context, it IGNORES voices that are important to our country which to a certain extent discredits some of the stories that are being told.
identify FOUR themes of Oodgeroo Noonuccal's poetry
- Conflict
- Change
- Connectedness
- Nature
- Identity
- Past
Answer the THREE questions below - one on each prescribed text - to pass this question:
(a) Who is the protagonist in 'The Pedestrian'?
(b) What technique has Rowling employed to create humour in the line: "The weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation!"?
(c) What is the motif in 'A Comparison' by Sylvia Plath?
(a) Leonard Mead
(b) Verbal irony (sarcasm)
(c) toothbrush