AOS: Belonging

The Area of Study is the only common element of the HSC English Advanced course. By ‘common’ I mean that it is studied by Advanced, Standard and ESL. This means at some point all HSC students will stop and think about what it means to ‘belong’.

As part of the requirements of the AOS, you must study ONE prescribed text as well as a VARIETY of related texts – these will be chosen by your teacher (me) and by you.

The prescribed text that I have chosen for you is Ten Canoes directed by Rolf de Heer. Below is the trailer for the film:

Not only will we spend time in class analysing, evaluating and discussing the film Ten Canoes, we will also spend time responding to a variety of other texts exploring belonging as well as writing imaginative pieces focused on this concept.

Of course you will be wondering about how the AOS will be assessed … after all many of you will (unfortunately but understandably) see the HSC as a stepping stone to your future university career. The AOS makes up 30% of your in-school assessment  mark and 45/105 marks for the external HSC examination mark (see past paper here). As you can see, developing a strong understanding of ‘belonging’ is imperative for success in HSC English!

Have a question about the AOS? Post a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer it!

Ms Hewes :0)