English Literary Studies - Stage 2

Mandatory: No

Duration: Full year

Description

English Literary Studies focuses on the skills and strategies of critical thinking needed to interpret texts. English Literary Studies also focuses on ways in which literary texts represent ideas, relationships, identity and how texts challenge or support cultural perceptions. There is a major focus on the study of texts in this course.

The outline of the course is:

• Assessment Type 1: Responding to Texts (50%)
  Five assessment tasks are completed for this section, called ‘Shared Studies’. As a class students study the following:
  - Film study: previous films studied include ‘Atonement’, ‘Blade Runner’, ‘Psycho’.
  - Novel study: previous novels studied include ‘1984’, ‘Never Let Me Go’.
  - Drama study: previous drama texts studied include ‘The Glass Menagerie’, ‘A Doll’s House’, ‘Pygmalion’.
  - Poetry study: poetry from a variety of authors.
  
  
• Assessment Type 2: Creating Texts (20%)
  Two assessments are completed for this section of the course.
  - One task must be a ‘Transformative Text’, where the students use a text as inspiration to ‘transform’ it into another text type. For example, to transform a painting or fable into a narrative.
  - One task must also be accompanied by a Writer’s Statement, where the student explores the choices they made as a writer in relation to text type, purpose and audience.
  
  
• Assessment Type 3: Text Study (30%)
  - Part A: Comparative Text Study (15%) Students choose a text to accompany one of those studied in the Shared Studies section of the course. They then complete a Comparative Text Study on the two texts. For example, they may pair the novel studied as a class with another novel of their own choosing, or study the class film text with a novel of their own choice.
  - Part B: Critical Reading (15%) Students complete an exam which involves a Critical Reading of texts. The exam is ninety minutes in length and students are given different texts to read and analyse in short answer form. This assessment section is externally marked.