Connections and Cultural experiences (What is quality literature?) Kath Lathouras, TARA Anglican School for Girls Parramatta k.lathouras@staff.tara.nsw.edu.au

This presentation will focus on how to develop the complexity of ideas and arguments when thinking imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and critically about literature. This presentation is based on a reading enrichment (wide reading) unit focusing on self-selected reading across a wide range of texts. As a part of the unit, students spend time choosing books and read, so to determine if the book has enduring qualities. Students are asked to reflect if the book read could be considered for the new canon literature. In order to do this evaluation, they will have to make connection to prior knowledge of literature to identify the necessary characteristics of quality literature. Synopsis

In this unit of work, students are to spend time choosing books and read, so to determine if the book has enduring qualities. Students are asked to reflect if the book read could be considered for the new canon literature. In order to do this evaluation, they will have to make connection to prior knowledge of literature to identify the necessary characteristics and match books to these characteristics. Current unit rubric

Students will be required to reflect on the following quote (as their point of synthesis): Quote from Alberto Manguel: A History of Reading Ancient Egypt 1300BC Be a scribe! Engrave this in your heart So that your name might live on like theirs! The scroll is better than the carved stone. A man has died: his corpse is dust, And his people have passed from the land. It is a book that makes him be remembered In the mouth of the speaker who reads him. Stimulus

In this unit of work, students can use their recreational reading time to develop their skills and understandings in preparation for the demands of the reading level required in Stage 6. The ‘metareading’ focus, ‘The Immortal Witness’, has been chosen to provide a broad framework by which to develop an understanding of the enduring qualities of literature, it purpose and function, and to link this with the oral tradition – the origins of storytelling and reading. Students will compare and contrast texts and/or different perspective of a similar subject matter or event or themes. Students will explore how texts reflect different cultural experiences, beliefs and values. Significance

Key Learning Question/s: How do texts still share the traditions of narratives; from verbal to written? What texts are valued for their importance to the world of literature? What is the ‘new’ canon? Key Learning Question/s:

1. responds to and composes texts for understanding, interpretation, critical analysis and pleasure 2. uses a range of processes for responding to and composing texts 4. selects and uses language forms and features, and structures of texts according to different purposes, audiences and contexts, and describes and explains their effects on meaning 8. investigates the relationships between and among texts 9. demonstrates understanding of the ways texts reflect personal and public worlds 10. questions, challenges and evaluates cultural assumptions in texts and their effects on meaning 11. uses, reflects on, assesses and adapts their individual and collaborative skills for learning with increasing independence and effectiveness. Outcomes

Skills (core) Ask perceptive and relevant questions, make logical predictions, draw analogies and challenge ideas and information in and across texts. Respond to a range of imaginative, factual and critical texts which are increasingly demanding in terms of their linguistic, structural, cognitive, emotional and moral/ethical complexity. ICT skills Effectively crafts a sustained text in a form appropriate to audience, purpose and context; to inform, to persuade or entertain. Engage with ICT as a way of representing their ideas. Utilise the ways that modern technologies of communication are used to shape, adapt and re-present past and present cultures, including pop culture and youth cultures, for particular audiences. Skills

Links to new curriculum OUTCOME 1 (OBJECTIVE A) A student: › responds to and composes increasingly sophisticated and sustained texts for understanding, interpretation, critical analysis, imaginative expression and pleasure EN5-1A CONTENT Students: Engage personally with texts • appreciate, explain and respond to the aesthetic qualities and the power of language in an increasingly sophisticated range of texts Develop and apply contextual knowledge • analyse and explain the ways language forms and features, ideas, perspectives and originality are used to shape meaning • analyse ideas, information, perspectives, contexts and ideologies and the ways they are presented in increasingly demanding, sustained imaginative, informative and persuasive texts • explore real and imagined (including virtual) worlds through close and wide reading and viewing of increasingly demanding texts Links to new curriculum

OUTCOME 5 OBJECTIVE A A student: › thinks imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and critically about information and increasingly complex ideas and arguments to respond to and compose texts in a range of contexts EN5-5C CONTENT Students: Engage personally with texts • investigate the ways different modes, subject areas, media and cultural representation affect their personal and critical responses to texts • engage in wide reading of self-selected imaginative, factual and critical texts for enjoyment and analysis and share responses in a variety of relevant contexts, including digital and face-to-face contexts • create literary texts that reflect an emerging sense of personal style and evaluate the effectiveness of these texts (ACELT1814) • reflect on, extend, endorse or refute others' interpretations of and responses to literature (ACELT1634, ACELT1640) Develop and apply contextual knowledge • compare ways in which spoken, written, visual, multimodal and digital texts are shaped according to personal, historical, cultural, social, technological and workplace contexts • critically respond to texts by drawing on knowledge of the historical context in which texts were composed through a program of wide reading and viewing • understand how language use can have inclusive and exclusive social effects, and can empower or disempower people (ACELA1551, ACELA1564)

k.lathouras@staff.tara.nsw.edu.au