1. Week 5 – Saving Francesca
YHSC | Year 10 | 2018

2. The importance of explanation
Explanation is almost EVERYTHING in an analysis – it should be the element of TEEL that takes up most space in your body paragraphs, and it carries your interpretation, your personal ideas about the text
Explanation and evidence are inextricably linked, they are mutually dependent – without evidence, you have nothing to explain – without explanation, you just have what the text already says
It is the explanation that is the part of your essay that contains the ‘depth and detail’ of analysis that assessors are looking for in your essays – your thorough discussion of what elements of the narrative are important, and why
The reading below the surface we have been doing recently, seeing the exploration of different ideas through what happens in the story, has been practising the kind of observation that is necessary in the explanation parts of TEEL

3. Explanation is just a deep & detailed level of comprehension …
Not just know what happens, but looking carefully at small parts of the text for both significant word choices and wider underlying ideas

4. At times this can feel a bit like …

5. Activity – big idea hunt!
As you did for chapters 19 and 20 last week, you are to re- visit the content of chapter 25 with a view to making a series of statements about the most significant ideas being explored in that part of the narrative
Remember, you are not summarising – you are identifying an important scene, interaction or statement, and then writing an explanation of the ideas behind it and why it is important
Activity – big idea hunt!
(this task helps you to practise your determining importance and inferential reading skills, and your ability to explain/interpret important details from the text)

6. Discussion notes (10C)
Mothers/nurturing – that Jimmy is accepting of Mia in her current circumstances, he doesn’t challenge or question them, due to his own less agreeable situation with his “dropkick” mother
Ethics in romance – friendship can precede and interfere with the nature of a romance
The impact of an outsider – Jimmy brings something new to the family situation to which Mia responds differently – she smiles, laughs, which she hasn’t done before
In return, Jimmy gets free food and access to a mother figure - his words in ch 25 about his own mother indicate that he still has a need for that kind of connection, and misses its support
That help and different kinds of support don’t only go in the direction of adult to child, that the young people can be just as supportive in the lives of adult such as when F and friends support Mia with her paper

7. Discussion notes (10B)
The idea that the obligation to respect others’ relationships only exists when there is a friendship connection with the wronged person
Friendship can develop into romance & Siobhan suggests that Will’s connection with his current girlfriend may have grown in such a way, which makes it difficult for him to end the relationship – the idea that the friendship is harder to break, and also that a broken friendship can carry every bit as much sadness and hurt (e.g. the hurt F caused Siobhan) as a broken romantic relationship
The way that Siobhan describes the ex-Stella friends as “Body Snatchers” highlights the way that they override her authentic personality and turn her into someone else entirely
Jimmy can make Mia laugh, which is hugely inspiring for F and Luca, but jealousy-inducing and a little threatening to Bob – in terms of depression, it offers the family the glimmer of hope – in terms of family, the introduction of someone new can change the regular dynamic just enough to allow a different kind of response from Mia

8. There is a network of ideas at work in narrative writing, and these ideas relate differently to different characters, and they all incorporate a range of different aspects
The reading skills you have practised for a long time now (things like making connections, questioning, and inferring) will all help to generate a clearer picture of the overall plan and intent of the text, and the presence of and relationships between different themes, which is what you need in order to develop effective explanations.

9. The explanation parts of a paragraph should give your own views about the text
Not everyone will necessarily draw the same conclusions about the significance of a piece of evidence from the text
Different connections within the narrative might be made and, at the very least, different forms of expression will result in varied representations of relevant ideas
The important thing to do is support your view well – explain thoroughly how the evidence backs up your thinking

10. Activity – practise using quotes in explanations
For each of the following quotes from chapter 25, write a detailed explanation of what it shows about relevant characters, themes, etc.:
F: ‘We make weird friends,’ I say, instead. Jimmy: ‘I’ve never been into the F word with people.’ ‘I’m privileged then? Why me?’ He thinks for a moment and then shrugs again. ‘You’re the realest person I’ve ever known.’ ‘Is that good or bad?’ ‘It’s fucking awful. There’s not much room for bullshit and you know how I thrive on it.’
‘I don’t miss her,’ he says, thinking about my earlier question about his mum. ‘But I miss … I don’t know. Being held, you know?’ He rolls his eyes, but there’s a blush thing happening on his face.
‘I can see my mum’s mouth twitching and it give me a bit of hope. My father always seems a bit tense when Jimmy is around. I don’t know whether it’s because Jimmy’s a guy or because Jimmy gets more of a reaction out of my mum than anyone else, but his coldness makes me feel on edge.’
Activity – practise using quotes in explanations
(for an example of how to do it, look at the next slide)

11. Example explanation of a quote
‘Remember Nick Fox in my street? Best friends for years. We had the same taste in everything and I just loved talking to him and making sense of everything with him. But I realised I just wasn’t interested in him romantically so after an agonising six months I broke it off with him and he never spoke to me again. Very sad. Second time in my life that my best friend stopped talking to me’
This is a temporally complex moment in which Siobhan refers to her experience in a past relationship as a point of comparison with Will’s inaction in response to his assumed feelings for Francesca. It is a moment in the narrative that emphasises the deep impacts that friends, particularly ‘best friends’, can have on one another. Siobhan is making the comparison to suggest that Will’s romantic circumstances with his current girlfriend could be complicated by an underlying friendship that is harder for him to let go. It is understood that both Siobhan and Francesca will appreciate such a difficulty due to the further connection being made to their lost friendship from when they were younger. Siobhan describes both situations as ‘[v]ery sad’, reinforcing a sense of the deep feelings of loss that accompany the abrupt disconnection of friends, irrespective of why it occurs.
FEATURES TO NOTE:
Only parts of the quote are used, it is the most relevant bits to what is being said, and they are brief
The quotes are embedded, which uses the evidence to support my statements rather than allowing the evidence to speak for me (and avoids the formulaic, ‘This shows that …’ structure)
There is explanation surrounding (leading into and out of) the quotes
The words ‘quote’ and ‘evidence’ are not used