The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif

 Your Context is everything to do with responding to the experience of Conflict  Unlike text response, Encountering Conflict will be the substance of your essay – not Rugmaker  You will learn about your Context through a text - Rugmaker  With your class, you will extract the Key Ideas that relate to Encountering Conflict from the text  Your final piece will be on the Context and these Ideas – the text is secondary

Context Encountering Conflict Textual EvidenceExternal Evidence Key Ideas

 Five types of prompts:  Categorising prompts is a great preparation technique  This allows you to simply ‘tweak’ your plan to suit any prompt. This is an essential skill for the exam Prompts Causes of conflict Nature of conflict Consequences of conflict Reactions to conflict Resolving conflict

Evidence is what you use to support your comments on the context’s key ideas. Textual evidence comes in many forms:  Character’s experiences  References to particular settings (Afghanistan, warzones, asylum boats, detention centres etc.)  Specific quotes from the text  Themes from the text  Structural elements  Language features More suited to creative texts

This needs to be authentic, educated, high-level stuff. Nothing obvious (e.g. Hitler, 9/11 – all students fall back on these!) Collecting stand-out external evidence is a year-long process. Smart students record examples of evidence as they come across them in a Context journal.  No need to stuff your pieces full of evidence (this makes it found forced and awkward)  Essential that external evidence flows naturally into your piece  Your own personal reflections about the Context/Key Ideas  References to particular events  Evidence from media articles or journal articles  Aspects relating to the Context or Key ideas from your other current or past subjects

Avoid superficial external links. It’s better to have no links in your piece than a forced link for the sake of it Good external evidence does not include:  Shallow pop culture references  Song lyrics  Lame blockbuster movie references  Sporting heroes and/or teams  School yard fights  Unnecessarily personal information about your family/boyfriend/girlfriend (the sympathy effort will get you nowhere) We’re talking about sophisticated, educated, informative insights that add depth and complexity to your written piece

 Explore the implications of the prompt  What does it mean?  What does it imply?  What does it assume?  What does it suggest?  DO NOT mention the text – this isn’t a text response essay!  Show originality  Quotes, scenarios etc.

 The basic expository structure is similar to text response but with key differences: Topic sentence: A key point relating to the context and the prompt (no mention of the text) Elaboration: Elaborate on your key point with reference to key ideas Textual Evidence: Examples from the text that support the point you’re making External Evidence: Further supporting your point (only if applicable) Link: At the end of your paragraph, make a clear link to the prompt and context (again, no mention of the text)

 The best topic sentences build on each other, rather than having random separate ideas ‘The way conflict invades our hearts and minds is the most powerful of its effects’ 1. What makes internal conflict so potent is its ability to induce the intrinsic emotion of fear within us 2. An individual’s beliefs and values are deeply embedded and carefully nurtured throughout one’s life 3. When conflict possesses the power to invade our consciousness it can create the foundations for deep inner turmoil  Elaboration: The elaboration needs to be thoughtful and authentic – not a regurgitated mess of key ideas  Text evidence: Use evidence from the text (Rugmaker) carefully to support ideas while revealing complex knowledge of the text  External Evidence: Used sparingly and incorporated naturally to support ideas

 What is the key message/moral/lesson about the prompt that you are trying to communicate in your essay?  Again, no mention of the text

 Pros –  Clear and explicit links to the text and prompt  Can add depth and broaden discussion with external examples  Explicit structure that you can follow  You know how to do essays – this is familiar to you  Safe option  Cons –  Perhaps less inspiring and potentially less of a ‘wow’ factor than creative  Challenges in Authorial Intent – audience, language devices etc.