For the commencement of the new 2008 VCE study design in Victoria, my school chose to begin with Outcome 2: Creating and Presenting. For this Outcome, students are required to read and respond in writing to a given theme, or ‘Context’. It is the element of the new study design that has drawn the most discussion, as it is the most dissimilar aspect between old and new.
Given that I grew up in NSW and studied for the HSC in year 12 there, and that this is my second year teaching/1st year teaching year 12, I have the (dis?)advantage of not having a great working knowledge of the old study design to draw comparisons.
I really enjoyed the concept of studying texts ‘in context’, and using this as the basis for student writing. It seemed to be a lovely way of setting up a thematic inquiry, supplementing this with ideas drawn from the text, and then capitalising on this in student-directed responses.
Given that our school started the year with Outcome 2, there may be other schools that are just commencing or are soon to commence their work on this Outcome with students. I’ll do my best to collate some thoughts, interpretations and resources on The Imaginative Landscape here over the next few days, based on our inquiries using Fly Away Peter, by David Malouf.
I’d love to hear from other Victorian teachers working with the new Study Design, regardless of the particular context that your school is studying.
Tags: VCEEnglish, Teaching, Reflection
Entries (RSS)
April 1st, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Hi Nirvana, this is most interesting. I think that teachers sharing about the way to teach this new part of the study design is one of the most exciting things to come out of the change. I hope this excitimernt and enthusiasm about writing and sharing in context hits to students as well. I know it is a good way of learning for me. I look forward with interest to what you write further about this