Module B: Close Study of Text

This beginning of this term is also the beginning of a new Module. So far we have covered the Area of Study (Belonging) and Module A: Experience Through Language (Harry Lavender). We are now on to Module B: Close Study of Text.

Below is a copy the Syllabus outline for this module:

This module requires students to engage in detailed analysis of a text. It develops students’ understanding of how the ideas, forms and language of a text interact within the text and may affect those responding to it.

Each elective in this module involves close study of a single text from a list of prescribed texts.
Students engage with the text to respond imaginatively, affectively and critically. They explore and analyse particular characteristics of the text, considering how these shape meaning. They also consider the ways in which these characteristics establish the text’s distinctive qualities. Composition focuses on meaning shaped in and through the text. These compositions may be realised in a variety of forms and media.

Source: English Stage 6 Syllabus

Unlike the AOS and Modules A and C, this module only requires the study of ONE text. There are NO related texts for Module B.

Prescribed text: Cosi, Louis Nowra

Module B in ‘real words’

Close study of text, as the name suggests, requires students to look closely at the characteristics of one particular type of text. Students are to consider how the interaction of ideas, forms and language create meaning for the responder. The word ‘ideas’ refers to the subject matter, characters and themes. The word ‘form’ refers to the structural features and genre specific to the text form that is being studied; this may be a selection of poems, a novel, a film, a drama script or a non-fiction text. The word ‘language’ refers to the specific language features used by the composer to express ideas, typically the type of language used will be specific to the text form, for example the language of poetry, the language of film, the language of drama. A student must consider how each of these aspects of a text shape meaning and influence responses.

To be placed in the highest band students must:

• show extensive, detailed knowledge of how the meaning of a text is shaped and changed by context and the medium of production.
• demonstrate a highly-developed ability to describe and analyse the distinctive language forms, features and structures of the focus text.
• demonstrate an insightful understanding of the ways meaning is constructed in a text and how these decisions produce different responses to texts.

Students not only consider the meaning in the text made by the composer through a detailed analysis of the text’s particular characteristics, but also consider how meaning is shaped through the impact of the text on the audience.