As you can see, I’m not very creative with the title of this blog, but that’s intentional. This particular area of study in the new study design is one your teachers haven’t taught before and is slightly different from the Crafting texts AOS in Unit 1 English. I’ve spent a lot of time going over the study design and deciphering what exactly it means and I hope that I’ve been able to make it easy for you to understand as you approach this study during Unit 3 English in 2024.

Unlike the previous study design where students were required to write creatively in response to a text in Unit 3, this time you are required to write an idea with a clear audience and purpose in mind. It is also going to be examined. In the exam, you will be required to respond to stimulus material and write for a particular purpose with the appropriate use of language features, structures, and vocabulary for an intended audience and context. You do not need to reference the mentor texts directly, but you will be inspired by the ideas within them and how they have been constructed for a particular purpose.

But the exam is ages away and what you need to focus on is how you will approach the SACs for this area of study. I’ll talk about the exam once it gets closer. The SACs will be set up according to what your school decides, but in order to effectively prepare for the exam, I’m sure one of the tasks will be to write to a stimulus in exam conditions, but that is entirely up to your school and how they will approach this outcome.

To ensure that you are assessed accordingly and there is consistency for this study design you will be exploring a framework of ideas as outlined through the study design. Your school will be choosing which one you will be studying, but the four are:

• Protest
• Play
• Personal Journeys
• Country

When you study the specific framework, you will look at the mentor texts and engage critically with them by exploring how the language features, structure, vocabulary, and conventions ‘interweave’ to create an engaging text. These elements will be explored when studying the mentor texts.

The mentor texts are used to inspire your writing. You do not need to emulate the text that you studied, but you will be able to draw ideas from the text and be aware of the way that the writer has been able to effectively create a piece for a specific audience and purpose that influences and shapes their writing and eventually shapes your writing as well.

Framework of Ideas

Writing about Protest

In this framework you will look at the ideas associated with protest such as conflict, why people protest, what types of protests people engage with, the value of protest, outcomes of protests, and struggles of people in countries that are involved in conflict.

You will be studying the mentor texts prescribed by VCAA.

The prescribed mentor texts are:

• Gillespie, Mark, ‘Friday Essay: On the Sydney Mardi Gras March of 1978’
• Pankhurst, Emmeline, ‘Freedom or Death’
• Vonnegut, Kurt, ‘Harrison Bergeron’
• Wyatt, Meyne, Monologue from City of Gold

Writing about Personal Journeys

The focus of this framework is exploring people’s stories and their experiences. Understanding history and ‘life’ and what makes someone’s story. Key events in people’s lives and how they shape them, or a community society, or group of people. Using biography and autobiography.

The mentor texts include:

• Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi, ‘The Danger of a Single Story’
• Duong, Amy, ‘The Red Plastic Chair is a Vietnamese Cultural Institution, and My Anchor’
• Hodge, Maya, ‘bidngen’
• López, Matthew, Walter’s speech (end of Part 1) from The Inheritance

Writing about Play

This particular framework looks at the concept of play through different cultures and experiences. You could explore reality versus appearances, what represents the real world or an imagined world. How is play explored through games, acting, sports, images, and the personal connections made to those through different experiences? You could also explore adherence to rules or breaking the rules.

The mentor texts include:

• Gay, Virginia, Monologue from Cyrano
• Roffey, Chelsea, ‘An Open Letter to Doubting Thomas’
• Russon, Penni, ‘All That We Know of Dreaming’
• Winton, Tim, ‘About the Boys’

Writing about Country

This framework focuses on the idea of place and belonging, looking at physical location and how that can impact individuals through personal connections, hardships, climate change, migration, and conflicts. Experiences connected to country through cultural connections, but also exploring the Australian traditional understanding of Country through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives.

The mentor texts include:

• Chekhov, Anton, ‘Gooseberries’
• Clarke, Maxine Beneba, Chapter 2, The Hate Race
• Kassab, Yumna, ‘The Conquest of Land and Dream’
• Lynch, Cassie, ‘Split’

Purpose?

What you may notice is that these mentor texts are not full novels or films. They are shorter texts such as excerpts from texts, monologues, speeches, or essays. Each one will have a different purpose and those purposes that you will need to consider for your own writing are:

• Explain – explore the cause and effect and consequences of actions, events, experiences and/or ideas.
• Express – explore recounts, storytelling, and narratives to engage with actions, events and/or ideas
• Reflect – explore experiences of personal discovery that shape their understanding of the world
• Argue – explore a point of view and propose a solution or change.

You can explore more than one purpose in your writing and as you are studying the mentor texts, you may find that they are not solely focused on just one, but can do multiple. For example, an essay could explain and argue at the same time. This may suit your style of writing and if so, that’s an avenue that you can experiment with in your writing.

Hope this doesn’t seem too confusing, but what you need to remember is that you are using the mentor texts as a way to inspire your writing and how you use the features of the text to appeal to a specific audience, for a purpose, and responding to the main idea that is the focus of the framework of ideas that you studied.

How will you be assessed?

Each school will do this differently, so I’ll just go through what the study design outlines and obviously, you will need to clarify with your teacher what the parameters around the SACs will be.

You will be required to write two texts that demonstrate your ability to respond to a specific context and audience and achieve a stated purpose.

Your school may ask you to write two pieces for different purposes responding to a specific idea through stimulus material such as a prompt. One may be crafted over a period of time, and the other could be in timed exam conditions. Each one is worth 20 marks for your Unit 3 mark.

You will also be required to write a commentary that is a reflection of your writing process explaining how you have used the mentor texts to inspire your writing, the language features, vocabulary, structure and conventions of the specific form that you have chosen that justifies how your writing is aimed towards a specific audience for the intended purpose. This will also be worth 20 marks.

All together this area of study is worth 60 marks of your Unit 3 score.

Remember that your teachers are going to determine the best way to assess this and that each school may be approaching it differently, so trust the process.

What might the SAC look like?

I’ve put together a sample of what your SAC may possibly look like based on the information provided recently at a conference where representatives from VCAA discussed the draft ideas for the exam. This may not be how the exam will look like for this section, but it has provided some guidance for teachers as to how to structure the SAC. (This is only part of the overall outcome and does not include the commentary or the other response that you will be required to write)

This sample is for the Framework of Country.

Resources

I’ve attached a couple of resources that you can download and use including a table to organise your thoughts and journal the ideas connected to the mentor texts. There is also a guide to writing your commentary and what to include for this written reflection.

The advised marking criteria that have been published by VCAA are also downloadable here.

I really hope this gives you some clarity as you approach this area of study. Just writing this post, it has given me a better understanding of what is required, and therefore will be able to pass on the knowledge to my own students. The unknown scares us but also excites us. There is a lot more freedom with this task so don’t be afraid to experiment with your writing. Ask your teacher for feedback and be willing to take risks with your writing. Add your creative license, and give your writing a voice that is distinct. The beauty of this area of study is that you can do that whereas previously students were not really provided the opportunity to express themselves with their own voice. Make the most of this opportunity and take the risks.

I will continue to post over the course of the year, but as always remember to get in touch if you have any questions. I know I always say ‘keep it zesty’ as it is my catchphrase and I’ve been saying that to my students for years, I am very aware of what ‘zesty’ means in the other sense of the definition, but my definition of zesty is to give your writing something extra so it stands out. With that in mind, remember to keep it zesty, and good luck with your SAC for this area of study.

I also just want to acknowledge that I have referenced the VCAA English study design for accreditation Units 3 and 4: 2024-2027 which can be found on the VCAA website.

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSFYGRooB/

Watch my TikTok video on how to making creating texts a piece of cake

Ronnie