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There is a lot of info in this document. You are welcome to read and use what you think is valuable. Taking your own notes is important for understanding and is advised

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There is a lot of info in this document. You are welcome to read and use what you think is valuable. Taking your own notes is important for understanding and is advised

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Dialogue helps shape characterisation in the film

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Study Guide Questions whilst watching the film

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Study Guide Questions whilst watching the film

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Emma Prunty
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Context of "Billy Elliot" plus questions

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Context of "Billy Elliot" plus questions

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Watch: Short film on New Stage 6 Billy Elliot Resources

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Creating Characters: The Behavioral Paradox Questions and Creative Construction Task

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Creating Characters: The Behavioral Paradox Questions and Creative Construction Task

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What is the focus? Unpacking the rubric 

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What is the focus? Unpacking the rubric 

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Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences

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Representation-Notes/ Table and constructed image ALARM task

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Representation-Notes/ Table and constructed image ALARM task

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Representation analysis involves examining the Inter

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Here are forms to practice different writing forms.

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Here are forms to practice different writing forms.

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Related Text - Shooting An Elephant by George Orwell 

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Related Text - Shooting An Elephant by George Orwell 

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Sometimes construction can lead to understanding!  1) Read the blog and answer the questions provided. 2) Complete the creative construction task: creating an extract from a play script which demonstrates your understanding of a paradoxical character. Warning: this blog contains expletives   Understanding paradoxical characters

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Sometimes construction can lead to understanding!  1) Read the blog and answer the questions provided. 2) Complete the creative construction task: creating an extract from a play script which demonstrates your understanding of a paradoxical character. Warning: this blog contains expletives   Understanding paradoxical characters

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Creating Characters: The Behavioral Paradox

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Character or characterization has been described as contradiction. Although this is the truth, it is - crucially - not the whole truth. The first thing to understand about character is:

Character is created through exploration.

Character exploration occurs through presenting the hero with a challenging situation; a dilemma that each individual person would handle differently. The way in which the hero chooses to deal with this dilemma, characterizes him by revealing to the audience a particular virtue.

The hero normally reacts in a way far superior to that of a normal human being - with both the course of action and the execution of the chosen course. We envy them for this quality, and, as an audience, we grant them this fantastical authority because it is the making of great fiction.

Let's set-up a situation for a hero now: Our hero Howard is waiting on a busy railway platform. Opposite him, on the adjacent platform, a 9 year-old boy suddenly falls onto the track. Howard instinctively looks to see if a train is coming - there is! A train is heading full pelt towards the injured boy...

How Howard reacts to this event will tell us a great deal about him: Will he panic or stay calm? Will he be the first to act or wait for others to intervene first? If he does help how will he go about it? Will he yell to a station assistant, fall to his knees and pray to God, or jump down on the track to save the boy while risking his own life?

Each of these reactions gives us a different sense of character - a different Howard. We will be able to tell - among other things - if he is brave or cowardly, authoritative or timid, selfish or selfless. In this scenario, lets say that Howard - without hesitating - jumps onto the track, runs to the other side and lifts the young boy to safety, all in time before the train rolls into the station. From the way Howard has reacted to this situation, we can deduce that he is selfless, heroic, brave and humanitarian.

Let's say, after getting the young boy and himself to safety, back onto the platform, the following dialogue continues:
Howard pats down the Boy's dirty clothes...
BOY: Thank you so much, mister...

HOWARD: You okay there, son? You scared me a little.

BOY: Oh, Mister, I'm so sorry. I can't thank you enough.

HOWARD: Oh, that's alright. I needed waking up this morning.

BOY: But your clothes are dirty!

HOWARD: Yours too! But as long as you're okay, I am.

BOY: That's real nice of you, Mister.

HOWARD: It's good to be nice. You take care now!
Howard skips joyfully to the exit.
You probably cringed while reading the above dialogue; and I don't blame you. Bland character backed up by stale, on-the-nose dialogue... There's nothing to pique the interests of even the most ardent of story lovers. More adjectives to describe Howard: friendly, modest and humble. Essentially, more positive attributes. Our hero is good to an almost sickly level. The above exchange has not developed our hero, and certainly not made him interesting. Presently, he simply does not feel human. Let's re-run the above exchange, starting from the top: Howard gets the young boy and himself to safety, back onto the platform, the following dialogue continues:
Howard seizes the Boy by his collar and SLAPS him hard across the face.
HOWARD: The train woulda hurt a lot more!

HOWARD: How 'bout not meaning to fuck around on train platforms?

BOY: I'm sorry...I'm sorry...

HOWARD: You sorry about the state of this fucking suit? Well, are ya?

HOWARD: Explain that to the guy interviewing me...
Howard turns and stomps to the exit.
Adjective to describe Howard's actions in the above exchange: Thuggish, cruel, brutal, rude and selfish. Look back at the list of adjectives we initially assigned to the child saving man: Selfless, heroic, brave and humanitarian. It would seem that the two sets of adjectives are at odds with each other - they are in contradiction. Our hero has exhibited two conflicting character traits, two differing sides to his personality. Crucially though, as an audience, we understand why: Howard had to be brave and put his own life in danger due to the boy's carelessness, resulting in him being angry. He is frustrated that his (probably nice) suit is now dirty for the rest of the day. And to cap it off, he is late for a job interview. As Human Beings, we empathize with his feelings, even if we do not sympathize (or agree) with his actions: It's human to be selfish; it's human to be upset about dirty clothes; it's human to want to be on time for a job interview. As illustrated in the first example, it is NOT human to save someone's life and think nothing of it and it is NOT human to have no regard for your own safety - even at the expense of others. Now the character (to use a well-used term for when something in fiction 'works') rings true. His thought processes are justified, even though he has exhibited seemingly contradictory behaviors. Although the above example is rather elemental, one can still see that - apart from feeling more human - Howard is more complex, multi-layered and interesting than before. Howard's character has been developed. This is because he has behaved PARADOXICALLY - he has exhibited justified contradictory attributes:
Character is the juxtaposition of justified contradictory attributes.
The key word in the above sentence is JUSTIFIED. It is not enough for your character to exhibit solely contradictory attributes; every contradiction must be justified. The reason for this can be explained by simply looking at a dictionary definition. Contradiction is defined (for our purposes) as:
'A person, thing, or situation in which inconsistent elements are present.'
Applied to a fictional character, this 'inconsistent' approach produces an irrational, erratic and ungrounded person who no human could relate to or understand. Indeed, many poor screenplays feature this breed of 'character.'

Let us look now at the definition of a paradox:
'A seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.'
This concept should be at the heart of your hero: Apparent contradictions that when investigated (or explored) prove to be true (or justified). 'May prove to be well founded' expresses the need for a case that needs to be argued for. Indeed, this is exactly what a writer does for a character - explains (or makes a case for) the character's contradictory actions. When the audience follows the hero, the writer should lead them beat-by-beat, moment-by-moment through the character's journey and be able to track every subsequent thought process and emotional change. No matter how many contradictory attributes the hero exhibits, each one is justified from the audience's standpoint - they are never left in the dark. This is why, in its simplest terms:
Character is Paradox.
This Behavioral Paradox Theory ensures your hero is complex and interesting. Ultimately, though - as mentioned above - it ensures your hero feels human. This is because the concept is seeded in human nature: Human Beings are not categorically good OR bad, strong OR weak, intelligent OR stupid; Humans behave contradictorily. They are morally upstanding in some instances, while morally flawed in others; emotionally strong in some situations, emotionally weak in others; intelligent or skilled in one discipline, yet challenged or clumsy in others. In this way, Human Beings and fictional characters are the same. Vitally, though, there is one important difference between the two:

Human contradictions ARE NOT always justified;
Character contradictions ARE always justified.

In some instances there is no justified, rational, moral or logical reasoning for some contradictory human behavior. Nobody knows for certain why Dr Harold Shipman, a respected community doctor, turned out to be Britain's most prolific serial killer. To truly understand (or justify) why Shipman murdered (at least) 250 people in cold-blood is impossible. The same must not be said about the heroes in your stories. The audience must see and be on board with your main character throughout the entire story. All contradictory actions must be justified in order for the audience to be in solidarity with the hero. An unjustified character contradiction leaves a void, something amiss within the story world - it does not ring true.

In essence, a fictional character can commit any kind of paradox providing it is justified. The more contradictory the justified actions, the more fascinating the character - but also the more difficult the character is to write. When characters fail to exhibit fascinating paradoxes, they are described as skin-deep, one-dimensional and predictable.

The 'juxtaposition' of conflicting character attributes can manifest itself in two ways. First, as with Howard's story, they occur in succession: The hero exhibits kindness only to immediately follow with violence. Second, and similar to the first, the hero exhibits two contradictory actions simultaneously - at exactly the same time. This would occur, for instance, when a mother lies to her young son (bad) about his violent father in order to protect his feelings (good) [Dear Frankie, 2005]. Another example would be when an anti-hero robs a bank (bad) while being calm, polite and avoiding violence (good) [Out of Sight, 1998]. Or, going even further now, when a hero murders his wife (bad) in order to end her intense suffering caused by illness (good) [Amour, 2012].

Given how conflicting these 'good' and 'bad' attributes are, isn't it surprising how well they sit with each other? They feel human, deep and complex. Within the paradoxes there is a subtext - a suggestion - to the inner conflict the character is almost certainly going through.

What should also be noted from these examples is how paradoxes can exist throughout the entire 'moral spectrum'. From a relatively trivial 'white lie' to a grave murder, the paradoxes vividly portray the complex 'human' within the character.

There is a vast spectrum of behaviors and subsequent paradoxes available to a writer; below is a list of just some of them.

Although the list incorporates a number of opposites with predominately 'good' qualities on the left and 'bad' on the right, it is worth mentioning that some are more difficult to categorize than others. For instance, Liberal/Conservative, Quiet/Loud and Passive/Aggressive are not only subjectively good or bad, but require some kind of situational context in order to be classified outright. For this reason, I would encourage every writer to create their own list of attributes which they see as good and bad.

Essentially, though, the importance should not be with whether an attribute is good or bad, but actually the contradiction itself, regardless of the moral stand point. So, for example, whether being Conservative or Liberal is the 'better' attribute is not too important, as the attention should lay with the interesting paradox that arises when a character shows both liberal and conservative behavior or views. All that is required is an awareness of the many attributes and that they all have an antonym - an opposite.

Having such a list as the one presented above can be a great starting point for a writer when wondering how to develop a character further. For instance, if you have composed a scene where the hero has shown - as in Howard's case above - bravery and cruelty in quick succession, you may be wondering where to take the character from here.

There are many directions a writer can take a character - and some directions will certainly be better than others, but an interesting and contradictory turn for Howard may be for him to be tender and shy. As you will realize, these are not polar opposites of bravery and cruelty, merely conflicting; and this is all you need them to be. You then need to think about how these attributes might present themselves. Perhaps Howard is on a first date? Through his possible inexperience with prospective partners, this may cause him to be shy, quiet, nervous and overly tender. Again, this paradox hints at Howard's internal conflict and progresses his character development.

Fundamentally, a writer should always be looking for the 'B side' to a character. Every time you display a particular virtue, think about an appropriate opposing virtue and how it might manifest itself. As you see in the example above, the paradox does not have to contain two polar opposite attributes. It can be paradoxical by association, as many attributes can be put into a similar bracket. That is, instead of perhaps portraying a politician as both DIPLOMATIC and TACTLESS (as per the table above), you may decide to have him be DIPLOMATIC and VIOLENT: a top Politician who hits his wife feels like a paradox that could ring true.

Because of the infinite landscape of paradoxes available, the unique potential for a given character is huge. Which paradoxes a writer chooses and how they materialize them not only plays a role in forming the character, but also the writer's 'voice'.

So far we have discussed BEHAVIORAL PARADOXES; paradoxes that have arisen through the character's progressing inherent nature. But there is another overarching paradox present in almost all protagonists.
THE CORE PARADOX
Instead of conflicting character attributes, a CORE PARADOX is the in-built conflict between a character's 'ORIGIN' and their 'PRESENT'. A character's Origin is normally classified by their upbringing, childhood, home-life or lifestyle. A character's Present is how the character spends their days now, e.g. an occupation. The concept can be presented like this:

Core Paradox = ORIGIN (upbringing/childhood/home-life/lifestyle)
Vs. PRESENT (how the hero spends his days now; occupation)

To help illustrate this concept, here are some examples of Core Paradoxes in film and television:

Hedonistic Drug Addict/Dedicated School Teacher (Half Nelson, 2006)

Loyal Family Man/Violent Contract Killer (The Iceman, 2012)

Billionaire Businessman/Crime Fighting Vigilante (Batman)

Son of a Notorious Crime Family/Dedicated Undercover Police Officer (The Departed, 2006)

School geek / Superhuman crime fighter (Spiderman)

Mentally and Physically Challenged Student/Astronaut (Gattaca, 1997)

Teacher & Loyal Family Man / Crystal Meth Cultivator (Breaking Bad, 2008-2013)

Nazi Party Member/Jewish life saver (Schindler's List, 1993)

Conman / Police Cooperator (American Hustle, 2013)

As you can see in the above examples, the Origin and Present are essentially two conflicting identities that exist within the same being. This 'foundation' paradox is crucial for spawning organic and intriguing Behavioral Paradoxes. I would encourage you to make a list of your personal favorite films/heroes together with their subsequent Core Paradoxes. This will enable you to get a feel for the Core Paradoxes that resonate with you most.
IN CONCLUSION
Although the primary focus of this article has concentrated on the leading character, it should be understood that the same principles can be applied to all the characters in your story - no matter how small the part.

The paradox theory ensures character development, inner conflict and a distinct personality, three incredibly important facets a hero must have in order for them to be great. No matter who your protagonist is - hero or anti-hero, sociopathic killer or human savior - the paradox theory ensures your hero is fascinating to their very core. Great character is what keeps an audience engaged to the very last second. No matter how 'good' or 'bad' the character might be, if the protagonist is paradoxically complex, they will be an absorbing lead.

Paradoxes are the easiest way to get away from the expected and enter the realm of the unexpected and surprising, without going into the stupidly outlandish. The land of the paradox is the perfect playground for your imagination to run wild.

Benjamin Broomfield is a screenwriting university lecturer based in London, England. He is also a script reader for a prominent feature film finance company and writes screenplays in his spare time. You can follow him on Twitter @BenBroomfield.

Related Articles and Tools to Help:

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Creating Characters: The Behavioral Paradox

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Character or characterization has been described as contradiction. Although this is the truth, it is - crucially - not the whole truth. The first thing to understand about character is: Character is created through exploration . Character exploration occurs through presenting the hero with a challenging situation; a dilemma that each individual person would handle differently.

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video - answer the following reflective questions after watching the clip.
1. What was the purpose of this short film?
2. What perspectives and values of humanity are evident in this film, such as compassion, empathy and tolerance?
3. What is the key message?
4. How do the filmmakers use images, interviews, words and sound to convey their message about what it means to be human?
5. What is the meaning of the refrain? All we do is hide away All we do is, all we do is hide away All we do is chase the day All we do, all we do is chase the day All we do is lie and wait

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Worried about being among the first to study the Year 12 Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences? Don't be!

In this post, we're going to take you through the new Year 12 Common Module and explain what you need to know to about the Module Rubric, the kinds of assessments you'll face for it, and the sample questions that the NSW Education Standards Authority has put together. We'll also give you a comprehensive understanding of what human experience is!

What is the Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences?

The Common Module is a unit of study for English shared by most of the levels of English.

The Common Module forms the content of your first term in Year 12. All students in Year 12 will study the Common Module at the same time.

The only students who will not encounter some form of Texts and Human Experiences are those studying English Life Skills.

Students will be set one school assessment in Term 1 for the Common Module. The Common Module will also be the focus of Paper 1 in both the Trial HSC and the HSC.

What's the point of the Common Module?

The Common Module explores what makes us human and the common experiences that we share. Focusing on an idea like "human experience" enables you to find reflections of your own experiences in the texts you study.

In addition, using a universal idea like human experience enables all students to connect with the ideas in the texts set for study. It is far easier to analyse the concerns of a text if you can find aspects of your own emotional experience in the text.

Now, let's look at the Module Rubric to see what you need to do.

To ace the Common Module, you need to understand the Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences Rubric

The Module Rubric is the document that explains how you need to approach the study of the Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences and the texts for study in the Module. This document lays out all the objectives and expectations that you must address in your responses.

Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences Rubric from NESA

To ace the Common Module, you need to understand what you have to demonstrate. This is presented in the rubric.

In this common module students deepen their understanding of how texts represent individual and collective human experiences. They examine how texts represent human qualities and emotions associated with, or arising from, these experiences. Students appreciate, explore, interpret, analyse and evaluate the ways language is used to shape these representations in a range of texts in a variety of forms, modes and media.

Students explore how texts may give insight into the anomalies, paradoxes and inconsistencies in human behaviour and motivations, inviting the responder to see the world differently, to challenge assumptions, ignite new ideas or reflect personally. They may also consider the role of storytelling throughout time to express and reflect particular lives and cultures. By responding to a range of texts they further develop skills and confidence using various literary devices, language concepts, modes and media to formulate a considered response to texts.

Students study one prescribed text and a range of short texts that provide rich opportunities to further explore representations of human experiences illuminated in texts. They make increasingly informed judgements about how aspects of these texts, for example context, purpose, structure, stylistic and grammatical features, and form shape meaning. In addition, students select one related text and draw from personal experience to make connections between themselves, the world of the text and their wider world.

By responding and composing throughout the module students further develop a repertoire of skills in comprehending, interpreting and analysing complex texts. They examine how different modes and media use visual, verbal and/or digital language elements. They communicate ideas using figurative language to express universal themes and evaluative language to make informed judgements about texts. Students further develop skills in using metalanguage, correct grammar and syntax to analyse language and express a personal perspective about a text.
Source: Common Module rubric from the NESA website
It's not that easy to follow, is it? Don't worry, most people struggle to make sense of this and understand what it means.

Unpacking the Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences Rubric

To help you best understand this rubric, we've broken it down into 11 statements. Additionally, we've broken those down into a further three categories so you can understand how they group together into:

Ideas: The concepts you are asked to investigate and discuss

Skills: The skills you need to develop and display

Requirements: The actions you must take to demonstrate your understanding of the ideas and acquisitions of the skills.

Now let's look at these 11 statements and explain them to you in plain English.

Let's start with requirements.

Common Module Rubric Requirements

Rubric Statement #1
"Students study one prescribed text and a range of short texts that provide rich opportunities to further explore representations of human experiences illuminated in texts."
Analysis of Rubric Statement #1

You will study one prescribed text and then several shorter texts that will be chosen by your teacher or department. You must study all of these texts and analyse how they represent human experiences.

Rubric Statement #2
"In addition, students select one related text and draw from personal experience to make connections between themselves, the world of the text and their wider world."
Analysis of Rubric Statement #2

Based on your reading of the prescribed text, you will need to select a supplementary text. You will need to analyse this text and consider how the narrative and ideas it presents resonate with you and reflect your own experiences. You will need to draw connections between your understanding of the text, your experience as an individual, and the world at large.

Rubric Statement #3
"They examine how different modes and media use visual, verbal and/or digital language elements."
Analysis of Rubric Statement #3

You must analyse and discuss texts from a range of mediums. You will not be able to study multiple texts of the same medium or form. For example, you must not study two novels, but rather a novel and a film.

Now we've covered the requirements, let's consider the ideas in the Common Module Rubric.

Common Module Rubric Ideas

Rubric Statement #4
"In this common module students deepen their understanding of how texts represent individual and collective human experiences. They examine how texts represent human qualities and emotions associated with, or arising from, these experiences."
Analysis of Rubric Statement #4

This is a complex statement that underpins the key ideas for the Module. To get to grips with it, we need to consider some definitions:

Represent: NESA provides the following overview of "represent" in the Stage 6 glossary -

Representation: The way ideas are portrayed and represented in texts, using language devices, forms, features and structures of texts to create specific views about characters, events and ideas. Representation applies to all language modes: spoken, written, visual and multimodal.

Representing: The language mode that involves composing images in visual or multimodal texts. These images and their meaning are composed using codes and conventions. The term can include such activities as graphically presenting the structure of a novel, making a film, composing a web page or enacting a dramatic text.

Human Qualities: This is the main focus of the Module and the most complicated aspect of it. Asking, "What are "human qualities"?" is the equivalent to asking "What makes us human?" Neither English literature or philosophy - the discipline that has historically pondered this question - give us clear answers. For you, this is good. It means that the Module, and by extent your teachers and markers, cannot require a certain type of understanding from you and they, too, must embrace the ambiguity that the vague phrase "human qualities" suggests. With this ambiguity in mind, here are some potential human qualities discussed by philosophy that you may find useful for your analysis:

Considering the ideas discussed in these definitions will help guide you through the analysis of your texts and their concerns.

Bear in mind that just because Western philosophy has been prioritised, largely because of the nature, character, and history of English as a subject, it does not mean that other philosophical traditions should be excluded. Eastern ideas about human existence and other cultural or religious perspectives are equally valid and may also be worthy of consideration depending on the author and context of the texts you are studying.

The other key term from this rubric statement is emotions.

Emotions: You will be able to feel confident discussing and exploring this point because it is readily reflective of human experience. If you struggle with some of the more complex or obscure ideas associated with "human qualities," you should start with this syllabus point by focusing on your own emotional experiences and understanding as this is a very accessible window into what it means to be human.

Plutchik's Wheel of Emotion may help you visualise and interpret the emotional experiences you find in texts. The wheel provided below should help you engage with this concept as well as expand your vocabulary of emotional experience. You should familiarise yourself with the image below and see how different emotions are related.

A less conceptual approach to this idea of "human qualities" is to consider generic elements of human behaviour that cannot be classified as emotions. For example, the following concepts would also be relevant to a study of human experience:

If you consider generic ideas like these you open the door to a virtually endless array of ideas concerning human experience. While these may be more accessible, it will be easy to be overwhelmed by the variety of conceptual approaches available.

Rubric Statement #5
"Students explore how texts may give insight into the anomalies, paradoxes and inconsistencies in human behaviour and motivations."
Analysis of Rubric Statement #5

When you read texts, you are engaging with a composer's ideas and insights into human behaviour and human motivations. In your study, you need to consider what insights the text gives you.

Anamolies, paradoxes, and inconsistencies are good places to start as they illustrate the complex nature of being human.

Think about it, we are often full of contradictory emotions and ideas. Being human can be hard at times, while it can be exhilarating at others.

To help you get your head around these contradictions, consider the following definitions:

Anomaly n. something that deviates from what is standard, normal or expected.

Paradox n. 1. A seemingly absurd or contradictory statement or proposition which when investigated may prove to be well founded or true; 2. A statement or proposition which, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems logically unacceptable or self-contradictory; 3. A person or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities.

Inconsistent adj. 1. Not staying the same throughout; 2. Not compatible or in keeping with.

To nail this syllabus point, you will need to have a complex understanding of the characters in the text and their narrative arcs; the role of the narrator; and your role as the reader. You will need to contrast your emotional experience of reading with the emotions reflected and manipulated by the composer in the text.

Rubric Statement #6
"They may also consider the role of storytelling throughout time to express and reflect particular lives and cultures."
Analysis of Rubric Statement #6

This rubric statement encourages you to consider how storytelling functions in humanity and your experiences of it. There are echoes of Year 11 Module A: Narratives that Shape Our World in this point.

To understand this point thoroughly, it is essential to remember that texts are often narratives that retell earlier stories. This concept of metanarratives is illustrative of how human experience is often told and retold in similar ways with similar plots and events and often only the characters changing.

The retelling of metanarratives are often distinctive parts of a culture and can be retold in numerous ways. Sometimes these narratives focus on events, such as cataclysms like floods.

Other cultural narratives focus on important figures. Considering metanarratives is also a useful way of understanding how characters come to understand each other within narratives. Ask yourself, do these characters follow traditional narrative tropes such as the Hero's Journey.

An interesting contemporary cultural example of this is comparing the narrative of Moses in Exodus to James Mangold's X-Men . In Exodus, Moses is a hero who leads the Israelites out of Egypt to the promised land. Whereas in Logan, the X-Men character Logan, otherwise known as The Wolverine, must make amends for his past mistakes by leading a young band of mutant slaves and survivors across a dangerous landscape to the promised land, Eden.

As you can see, the story is very much the same but the narrative is very different and very much reflective of its time.

Now you know what concepts you need to focus on and the ideas you must consider and discuss, let's look at the skills you need to demonstrate.

Common Module Rubric Skills

Rubric Statement #7
"Students appreciate, explore, interpret, analyse and evaluate the ways language is used to shape these representations in a range of texts in a variety of forms, modes and media."
Analysis of Rubric Statement #7

This tells you that you need to analyse texts to understand their content and see how the composers have developed their ideas. This statement describes the standard approach you should take to textual analysis.

That is, read the text for themes and ideas, look for techniques, and discern how the composer has tried to convey meaning. If you need help with this, you should read this Part of our Guide to Acing HSC English: How to Analyse Your English Texts.

Rubric Statement #8
"Inviting the responder to see the world differently, to challenge assumptions, ignite new ideas or reflect personally."
Analysis of Rubric Statement #8

A significant part of the new syllabus is a focus on personal reflection. Reflecting on your experiences of reading and studying texts will often challenge your ideas about the world, and even yourself.

To do well in this Module, you must be receptive to the process of self-reflection and you must be comfortable writing reflections on your processes of study and composition. (If you would like to know more about this, check out our post on How to Write a Reflection Statement).

Rubric Statement #9
"By responding to a range of texts they further develop skills and confidence using various literary devices, language concepts, modes and media to formulate a considered response to texts."
Analysis of Rubric Statement #9

This is telling you that you need to do more than just analyse techniques, structures, and forms in texts, you must be able to apply them in your own writing - both fiction and non-fiction.

One of the challenging aspects of the Year 12 English Advanced Course is that it requires you to produce responses in a variety of modes. It is quite possible that you will be asked to produce a Multimodal Presentation or an Imaginative Recreation - accompanied by a Reflection Statement - rather than a traditional essay. This will require you to be able to write using a variety of registers and techniques, both rhetorical and literary.

To do well, you will need to demonstrate your understanding of these techniques, structures, and forms through your confident and competent use of them.

Rubric Statement #10
"They make increasingly informed judgements about how aspects of these texts, for example context, purpose, structure, stylistic and grammatical features, and form shape meaning."
Analysis of Rubric Statement #10

Here, you are being asked to consider how and why a composer has gone about their work. You must consider why the composers have made the compositional choices that they have - these include:

Form

Style and structure

Genre

Register

Grammatical and rhetorical decisions.

In your responses, especially your essays, you must discuss how these choices create meaning and shape the reader's perceptions.

Rubric Statement #11
"They communicate ideas using figurative language to express universal themes and evaluative language to make informed judgements about texts. Students further develop skills in using metalanguage, correct grammar and syntax to analyse language and express a personal perspective about a text."
Analysis of Rubric Statement #11

Not only must you be able to decode figurative language, you must demonstrate that you can use it yourself. We often use metaphors and metonymy to describe the world around us. As humans, we are able to describe abstract concepts and figurative language facilitates that. This means that you must demonstrate both an understanding of and the ability to use:

The common metaphors embedded in English

Figurative language in creative expression; and also

Develop skills in using metalanguage. That is, the technical ways we can talk about texts, for example, narrator, focalisation, metafiction.

In presenting these ideas, you must also consider and express your own personal perspective. They want to see your insights and understanding of the texts that you study!

How will the Common Module be assessed?

The types of in-school assessments for the Common Module will vary greatly between schools.

The NESA sample materials suggest a two-part assessment. A creative task followed by a multimodal presentation that reflects on the production of the creative. It is unlikely that you will have an essay task set as an assessment for Term 1.

However, the HSC Trial Paper 1 and the HSC Paper 1 will both include essays on the core text.

In addition, Paper 1 - for both HSC Trials and the HSC - will include a short-answer section. This section will require students to analyse a series of texts and answer a group of questions on them.

The texts in this section can be visual, prose (both fiction and non-fiction), or poetry.

The questions asked in this section will range from simple comprehension to detailed long responses. We'll examine these questions in detail later in this post.

What texts will I study?

For the Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences you will study one core text chosen by your school/ department/ teacher from an extensive list of 14:

Common Module: Texts and Human Experience

Prose Fiction

Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
Amanda Lohrey, Vertigo
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
Favel Parrett, Past the Shallows

Rosemary Dobson, Rosemary Dobson Collected
The prescribed poems are:

Young Girl at a Window

Over the Hill

Summer's End

The Conversation

Cock Crow

Amy Caroline

Canberra Morning

Kenneth Slessor, Selected Poems
The prescribed poems are:

Wild Grapes

Gulliver

Out of Time

Vesper-Song of the Reverend Samuel Marsden

William Street

Beach Burial

Jane Harrison, Rainbow's End, from Vivienne Cleven et al., Contemporary Indigenous Plays

Arthur Miller, The Crucible

William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

Non-fiction

Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb, I am Malala

Tim Winton, The Boy Behind the Curtain:
The prescribed texts are:

Havoc: A Life in Accidents

Betsy

Twice on Sundays

The Wait and the Flow

In the Shadow of the Hospital

The Demon Shark

Barefoot in the Temple of Art

Film and Media

Stephen Daldry, Billy Elliot

Lucy Walker, Waste Land

Ivan O'Mahoney, Go Back to Where You Came From
Series 1: Episodes 1, 2 and 3
and The Response

You will also study some shorter texts chosen by your teacher and department. You will also need to study one supplementary text of your own choosing.

You will not be assessed on the supplementary texts in the HSC.

What's Sample Paper 1?

Included in the materials for the new English Advanced HSC Syllabus 2019-2023 is a sample Paper 1 to help students, teachers, and parents familiarise themselves with the new HSC assessment format.

The new Paper 1 is a significant departure from what has traditionally been set for students:

It is now 1 hour and 30 minutes long, rather than 2 hours and 10 minutes

It has two sections rather than three

There is no creative (don't get too excited, the creative for English Advanced is now much harder and is part of Paper 2!)

It will be sat by English Advanced; English Standard, and English Studies, but

Only some sections of the Paper will be common to the other levels of English

It will be worth 40 marks.

Let's take a quick look at what the different sections involve.

Section 1

Section 1 is a short response section. It will include several different questions totalling 20 marks.

There will be a series of unseen texts that students must read and analyse in the 10 minutes reading time. The texts in this section can be visual, prose (both fiction and non-fiction), or poetry.

The texts for the HSC Sample Paper 1 include:

Two film posters;

The poem "Looking in the Album" by Vern Rutsala;

An extract from Hillary McPhee's autobiography Other People's Words;

An extract from Benjamin Law's The Family Law;

An extract from Neil Gaiman's fantasy/horror novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

There will be between three and four questions (and possibly more). Two of these questions will be common to both Standard and Advanced.

Students will be instructed which text to use in their responses to each question. For example:
Example A (4 marks) English Advanced only
Use Text 1 to answer this question.

Compare how each of the two posters creates a sense of shared human experience.

These are the posters:

An answer to this question will require you to offer a detailed analysis of the two posters. You will need to contrast the techniques that the different composers have used to convey meaning to the viewer. NESA has also provided a sample marking criteria and sample 4/4 response.

Common Module: Texts and Human Experience Marking Criteria (NESA)

Compares skilfully how each text creates a sense of shared human
experience

4

Compares how each text creates a sense of shared human experience

3

Describes a sense of shared human experience that is created in the texts

2

Provides some relevant information about the text(s) and/or human
experience

1

Below is the sample answer from NESA:

Both posters represent the idea that despite our diversity we are united in our capacity to share and receive stories about our experiences through film. The Sydney Film Festival poster represents a collective emotional experience through its composition of the multicoloured symmetric figures that fill the frame and this is supported by the text, or tag-line, that reinforces a shared experience with the word 'together'. The Miami Film Festival poster centres the silhouette of a single figure with symbols of film reels revealing the interiority of the individual, suggesting the power of film to express private thoughts that can be illuminating when shared through stories. While the Sydney Film Festival image represents a collective experience and the Miami Film Festival represents the personal experience, both suggest that telling stories through film is a positive human experience.

Source: NESA Website - https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/assets/english_advanced/files/sample-questions-new-hsc-english-adv-paper-1-exam-2019.pdf

The above answer addresses the 4 mark criteria because it:

Introduces the student's argument clearly and concisely

Analyses both texts for "shared human experience"

Presents that analysis to compare the two texts

Makes a concluding statement connecting the two texts back to the question and Module.

Clearly, to get 4 marks, you would need to present 3 to 4 examples and connect them back to the question. Then compare how these examples reflect the concern of "shared human experience". The response would need to be structured with introductory and concluding statements.

NESA has also said that other answers could include:

The symbol of the film reel and the colour yellow represent light shining on the open mind, suggesting the positive experience of sharing stories.

The images of butterflies that represent freedom, supported by the text 'let's stop the stigma', suggest the importance of sharing stories about mental illness.

The bright colour palette of the Sydney Film Festival poster conveys the positivity of shared experiences told through film.

There will be at least one question that is worth 6 or 7 marks. This response will require a structured miniature essay. The sample answer for the 6 mark question, for example, would be clearly structured and contain 250 words.

We recommend taking the time to look through the whole paper to get a sense of what is required.

Section 2

Section 2 is more conventional. It will contain an essay question for your text. The question may include a stimulus and will possibly include an unseen text.

It might be the case that the question is specific to your text. The sample questions focus on ideas specific to the text or techniques specific to the texts:

Example A (20 marks)
How has your understanding of the challenges of the human experience been shaped by the
director's use of mise-en-scène in your prescribed text (Billy Elliot)?

Example B (20 marks)
Analyse how the representation of the natural environment shapes your understanding of
family in Past the Shallows.

These questions will require a specific and detailed knowledge of your text. They will not be the kinds of questions that you can memorise an essay for and recite on the day.

NESA has provided some generic criteria for a Band 6 response:

Expresses deep understanding of complex ideas about human experiences represented in texts

Presents a skilful response with detailed analysis of well-chosen textual references from the prescribed text

Writes a coherent and sustained response using language appropriate to audience, purpose and context.

Unpacking this marking criteria, a Band 6 essay will require:

You to demonstrate a detailed understanding of the Module and the complexities of human experience. You must demonstrate your understanding of how these complex ideas are conveyed in the text you have studied.

Your response must be logically structured and systematically answer the question. Your choice of evidence must be consistently relevant to the question. You must discuss your examples in detail and convey their importance to your argument.

You need to produce a sustained argument. A sustained argument requires you to answer the question consistently and use signposting throughout to orientate your reader. Your response needs to demonstrate exemplary mastery of grammar and spelling.

It is important to start thinking about essay responses and practising them early in the year.

Just because you might not have an essay task for Common Module, doesn't mean you can be complacent. You will need to produce a Common Module essay for your Trial HSC and you're going to need to be on top of your short answer skills in readiness for unseen texts in both the Trial and HSC papers.

If you need help with essay writing, or would like to know more about essay structure, sustained arguments, and signposting, then read our Beginner's Guide to Acing HSC English.

Need help with writing the Common Module Essay?

Gain an in-depth textual understanding, explanations of critical analysis, and essay writing skills with Text-Based English classes at Matrix. Choose from two course options:

© Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au, 2018. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences | Matrix Education

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Worried about Year 12 Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences? Don't be. In this post, we explain human experience, unpack the rubric, & explain the Sample Paper 1. Read, this article to get the lowdown on what to expect in the new 2019 syllabus.

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Watch the award winning short film happiness and explain how the composer has portrayed the Western World’s relationship with the desire to find happiness. 

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Watch the award winning short film happiness and explain how the composer has portrayed the Western World’s relationship with the desire to find happiness. 

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Extension task:Text-Text Connections: How does this text share similar themes to Brack's painting.

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Once again, Award Winning Animator Steve Cutts hit the nail on the head about our crazy society, this time with his newly released short film, 'Happiness'...

Below the video clip I did a write up of my personal analysis, for anyone that may be interested.

Enjoy...

My Analysis

The video begins with the proverbial Rat Race, where the rodents are clearly presented in the context of human beings and their society a representation of our own.

At the train station, they crowd in uncomfortable numbers to embark on their destination to "NOWHERE." Sadly, this is precisely where most people in life are currently headed.

Countless billboards and advertisements can be seen throughout the rat's society, all of them claiming to sell happiness, which is what's behind most marketing strategies - Manipulate people's associative memory, and emotions, so that they will buy things they don't really need because they think it will bring them happiness.

There is also a can of Soma being advertised in different parts of the film. In Aldous Huxley's award winning novel, Brave New World, Soma is a drug used by the ruling class to distract and pacify masses.

The film follows one rat in particular, who is clearly in search of happiness...

He buys stuff he doesn't really need, attends black Friday, buys himself a new sports car, turns to alcohol, and then eventually pharmaceutical drugs - all in pursuit of happiness. Of course this is the modern day human.

Sadly, the rat still cannot find happiness. Refusing to give up, he begins to chase a $100 bill.

Before he can even realize what has actually taken place though (because he was so blindly focused on getting the money) he finds it is too late and he has fallen for the Money Trap, which has turned him into an unsuspecting victim of the Rat Race - like everyone else.

How Can We Guard Ourselves From The Happiness Trap?

Edward Bernays aka "The Father of Public Relations"
[Propaganda, PG. 37, 1928]

Unfortunately for us, our backwards society uses the world's best psychologists to exploit our precious minds through advertising and marketing, and instead of educating us on how we might defend ourselves from these insidious influences - that we will obviously encounter at some point in our lives - the education system is too busy teaching us how to do math equations that we will never have to even use, amongst other frivolous tasks.

Corporations manipulate our minds through a variety of different methods, but all of them are invariably rooted in the fact that they know we aren't content and truly happy within, so they find a way to exploit that. In fact, this is the root cause of many problems we face in our society today, people are simply not happy and content with their lives. They pretend, they lie to themselves, they distract themselves, and they bullshit themselves for years and years, sometimes decades, and sometimes even an entire life time - but they know deep down they aren't happy.

So what we need to actually be focusing on, is how we can simply achieve happiness, contentment and self confidence my friends. Unfortunately the education system, again, does not focus on this, and that's because - to be frank - the education system is a bunch of bullshit. It's merely a prepping facility to get us ready for the proverbial Rat Race. And that's because the main prerequisite for running the Rat Race, is being discontent and unhappy. You cannot sell people crap they do not need, unless they feel empty inside. You cannot exploit a mentally strong human being. In other words, self confidence is bad for this economy because the economy is actually built on consumerism.
Artist credit: Anthony Clarkson
So we are conditioned from a young age to replace our enthusiastic imaginations with blind conformity to authority. We are indoctrinated to surrender our curiosity and self belief in pursuing the impossible, to obedience to the status quo and what we are told we should and shouldn't do. And we are taught to follow the intelligence of the crowd, and not the intelligence of the heart. In short, we are conditioned to sacrifice our happiness to serve this exploitive system.

Then, as we try to navigate our way through this insane asylum we call society, we learn that buying things is not really going to bring us happiness, at least not long term happiness. We discover that drinking alcohol, or taking pharmaceutical pills is not the answer either. And we search and search and search, but because we are drowning in a world of manipulation and skulduggery - that is literally thriving off of our ignorance and insecurity - many of us never find it. Some of us even commit suicide out of desperation to escape our internal pain.

As my readers know, I come from a background of alcoholism, addiction, depression, anxiety and even contended with suicide in my mind. I have experienced great sadness and unhappiness in my life, but more importantly, I have experienced the journey of finding happiness and purpose. And that key lies in first realizing that we live in a society that wants to actually keep us ignorant, weak and easy to manipulate and control.

Once you become aware of this ill intent, you can begin to defend yourself intelligently.

Stop watching their programming through network television, and start watching documentaries that are going to educate and empower you instead. Stop listening to their radio broadcasts, and start listening to motivational speakers that have overcome adversity. Stop eating their bullshit foods, and start investing in your health by consuming organic based products. Stop hanging around people who are unthinking zombies that only indulge in gossip, ignorance and other forms of stupidity, and spend time with people who actually want to grow more, learn more, and see you grow and learn too. Stop consuming energy drinks and soda cans filled with bullshit, and start drinking non fluoridated water or raw juices. Stop getting shit faced on the weekends, and start spending time in Nature which has therapeutic effects. Stop polluting your brain and lungs with their toxic cigarettes, and start exercising and feeding yourself oxygen. Stop wasting your time mindlessly surfing the internet and start using it to educate yourself. Stop focusing your precious mind on all the problems in your life, and start focusing it on the solutions. Stop feeding the power of fear, insecurity and shyness by hiding from the world, and instead find an organization like Toastmasters to practice communicating and public speaking. In short, we must start making conscious choices that strengthen our minds and develop our intrinsic characters, because by default the system is setup to use us and exploit us.

So happiness is found through the development of self my friends, not in chasing material things. Stress, heart ache, and difficult circumstances are a part of life and the only thing that will keep you happy and able to overcome those things is a strong mind, which can only be built through lifestyle changes.

If you would like a very detailed explanation of how I personally overcame my struggles, and made these lifestyle changes, please read this blog HERE

It will take hard work, and there are no short cuts my friends, but if you are genuinely serious - and you follow the advice given in that blog - you can start changing your life for the better.

I sincerely hope it helps you find your way.

One Love.
Written by Gavin Nascimento, Founder of aNewKindOfHuman.com
Find me also on;

If any of the images in this article have not been credited correctly, or you are the artist and would like them to be taken down, please contact me HERE or directly at NewKindofHuman@gmail.com
All my work is open source and I encourage it to be reproduced. I only ask that you give me credit, and include my social media profiles - as listed in the EXACT FORMAT above - in an effort to help me build a formidable following of people truly intent on learning and creating positive change. If you are not willing to do that, you are NOT permitted to use my work. Comments

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Award Winning Animator's Short Film 'Happiness' Is Absolutely Brilliant

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Once again, Award Winning Animator Steve Cutts hit the nail on the head about our crazy society, this time with his newly released short film, 'Happiness'... Below the video clip I did a write up of my personal analysis, for anyone that may be interested. Enjoy...

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Extension Task: Read through this blog and let’s develop a paradoxical character in pairs. One whose behaviour appears to contradict itself. Work out the character’s flaw and decide how you might make it both a strength and weakness for that character. 

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Extension Task: Read through this blog and let’s develop a paradoxical character in pairs. One whose behaviour appears to contradict itself. Work out the character’s flaw and decide how you might make it both a strength and weakness for that character. 

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Developing Paradoxical Characters | CJ's Corner

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Making a character interesting drives the audience's desire to follow his or her goals and outcomes. The audience wants to get behind a character and cheer them on, but they must first be drawn to them in a unique way that inspires exploration of the character. This is best accomplished by using a paradox within the character's life or personality.

M.A.S.H. was known for it's paradoxical characters. Alan Alda's character of Hawkeye was diametrically opposed to war and wanted no part of it, yet every time he desired to go AWOL, the loudspeaker would announce the in coming wounded and stop him in his tracks. Hawkeye was drawn to the operating room because saving lives was more important than his hatred of war.

These two opposing drivers made his character enjoyable to watch and raised numerous questions in the minds of the audience. They needed to understand what made him tick. During its eleven seasons, people came to love Hawkeye even though they never knew what to expect next, yet his consistency was amazing.

The best way to develop an interesting character is by starting with his flaw. This flaw will have a visible action associated with it to play well on screen. To add strength to the character, it's important to never explain the flaw, but just demonstrate it. The actions should be divided up into three distinct visuals.

What the flaw causes him to do in:
1. Public
2. A small group of friends
3. Private

Once in place, the dialog can be used to create further conflict or raise additional questions with the audience. The visuals will help connect the various demonstrated flaw elements to the character in a way that the audience can understand. This makes change or growth in the character at a later point in the story much easier, as all you have to do is change the visual - Cluing in the audience that he has changed his ways.

The best way to express the paradox throughout the show is to take the flaw and determine what it might look like as a blessing. For instance, the person who can be stubborn can also persevere. Perseverance can look very similar to stubbornness, but with a positive spin. Hawkeye hated war because too many people died, yet being a surgeon kept him from leaving the war because if he left, too many people would die.

The paradox within his character was based on the same flaw, which was developed throughout his life. It was his Achilles' heel or the basis of his human condition - The part of him we all fell in love with.

Creating a person who is good and gets better by the end of the film does nothing for the audience. It's only when we see and understand their humanity and flaws that we can relate and then cheer them on to grow into a mature and rich life. We love rags to riches stories, not rich to filthy rich stories. In this case, I'm speaking of the richness of their character development, but financially speaking we would find the same to hold true.

So, try writing a flawed character that you can turn into an overcomer. Create that person who can turn their flaw into a positive. Turn that stubborn person into the one who perseveres long enough for help to arrive during the scenes of the downed airplane.

Or, maybe you want that shy person to be the only one that listens well enough to figure out the answer that spares a man's life in the eleventh hour. Or, the scrawny kid that constantly gets ridiculed until the day they are locked in a closet of a burning house and the kid is the only one to make it through the vent to get help and unlock the door to free the others seconds before affixation.

Finding a paradox gives the audience plenty of entertainment and gives the writer lots of creative thoughts worth pursuing. It is a great form of character development that every writer needs to embrace. It's also a character that can provide substantial irony for the audiences entertainment.

Copyright © 2011 By CJ Powers

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Making a character interesting drives the audience's desire to follow his or her goals and outcomes. The audience wants to get behind a character and cheer them on, but they must first be drawn to them in a unique way that inspires exploration of the character.

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Understanding how people might seem paradoxical 

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Understanding how people might seem paradoxical 

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10 Paradoxical Traits Of Creative People

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"I have devoted 30 years of research to how creative people live and work, to make more understandable the mysterious process by which they come up with new ideas and new things. If I had to express in one word what makes their personalities different from others, it's complexity. They show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an individual, each of them is a multitude."

Mihaly describes ten traits often contradictory in nature, that are frequently present in creative people. In Creativity, Mihaly outlines these:

They work long hours, with great concentration, while projecting an aura of freshness and enthusiasm.

"It involves fluency, or the ability to generate a great quantity of ideas; flexibility, or the ability to switch from one perspective to another; and originality in picking unusual associations of ideas. These are the dimensions of thinking that most creativity tests measure and that most workshops try to enhance."

But this playfulness doesn't go very far without its antithesis, a quality of doggedness, endurance, and perseverance.

"Despite the carefree air that many creative people affect, most of them work late into the night and persist when less driven individuals would not. Vasari wrote in 1550 that when Renaissance painter Paolo Uccello was working out the laws of visual perspective, he would walk back and forth all night, muttering to himself: "What a beautiful thing is this perspective!" while his wife called him back to bed with no success."

Great art and great science involve a leap of imagination into a world that is different from the present.

We're usually one or the other, either preferring to be in the thick of crowds or sitting on the sidelines and observing the passing show. Creative individuals, on the other hand, seem to exhibit both traits simultaneously.

It is remarkable to meet a famous person who you expect to be arrogant or supercilious, only to encounter self-deprecation and shyness instead.

When tests of masculinity and femininity are given to young people, over and over one finds that creative and talented girls are more dominant and tough than other girls, and creative boys are more sensitive and less aggressive than their male peers.

It is impossible to be creative without having first internalized an area of culture. So it's difficult to see how a person can be creative without being both traditional and conservative and at the same time rebellious and iconoclastic.

Without the passion, we soon lose interest in a difficult task. Yet without being objective about it, our work is not very good and lacks credibility. Here is how the historian Natalie Davis puts it:

"I think it is very important to find a way to be detached from what you write, so that you can't be so identified with your work that you can't accept criticism and response, and that is the danger of having as much affect as I do. But I am aware of that and of when I think it is particularly important to detach oneself from the work, and that is something where age really does help."

"Perhaps the most important quality, the one that is most consistently present in all creative individuals, is the ability to enjoy the process of creation for its own sake. Without this trait, poets would give up striving for perfection and would write commercial jingles, economists would work for banks where they would earn at least twice as much as they do at universities, and physicists would stop doing basic research and join industrial laboratories where the conditions are better and the expectations more predictable."

Paradoxical or not, what I have learned most is that there is no formula for individual creation. As Mihay says, "creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals." So, more than anything else, what it takes to be creative is resourcefulness and the courage not to give up.

[ Image: Flickr user Justin B]

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"To Lead Others, Learn To Lead Yourself First"

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10 Paradoxical Traits Of Creative People

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"I have devoted 30 years of research to how creative people live and work, to make more understandable the mysterious process by which they come up with new ideas and new things. If I had to express in one word what makes their personalities different from others, it's complexity.

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Questions to explore  Context, Purpose and Audience 

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Questions to explore  Context, Purpose and Audience 

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Billy Elliot - Questions Establish the context for the film – ensure your knowledge extends to each of the following questions –look up anything you don’t know

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Related Text - A Getting Of Wisdom by Craig Ashby

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Related Text - A Getting Of Wisdom by Craig Ashby

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Prose extract - "Seeing is Redeeming" and Short Film - "My Shoes."

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Prose extract - "Seeing is Redeeming" and Short Film - "My Shoes."

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photographs documenting the human experience

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photographs documenting the human experience

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Consider the range of human experiences portrayed. While viewing you are to choose one of the images and be prepared to
write a journal entry from the perspective of one of the individuals in your chosen image.
(Writing HINT: How do they feel about what they experienced?
Plutchik’s Wheel more words on emotions)

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The 60 Most Powerful Photos Ever Taken That Perfectly Capture The Human Experience

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Many of the content dot points in the English syllabus are about student agency and require students to be actively engaged in the process of meaning

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The latest from NESA -powerpoint on Human Experiences

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"Imagine you have woken up in the Australia of your dreams.What is it like?"

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"Imagine you have woken up in the Australia of your dreams.What is it like?"

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Write your own poem which represents your vision for the future. It should be entitled, "I am for..."What are you for? What do you believe in?

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Watch the trailer and answer the questions on the worksheet.

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The Human Experience OFFICIAL TRAILER - OWN IT ON DVD TODAY - Grassrootsfilms.com

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Complete this sheet

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HUMAN EXPERIENCES film trailer worksheet

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Answer the questions that follow

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English Standard Year12 Scope and Sequence 2019

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Ms.Ball's song choice for a song that conveys the joy of being human. How do the images and refrain convey joy? 

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Ms.Ball's song choice for a song that conveys the joy of being human. How do the images and refrain convey joy? 

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Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World (Lyrics)

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*Download Document to see annotation

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A close look at the character of Billy and his struggle with adversity

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A close look at the character of Billy and his struggle with adversity

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Representation of human experience struggle with adversity questions

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Unpacking ideas and symbols within Billy Elliot.

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Unpacking ideas and symbols within Billy Elliot.

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Information on the strike and Swan Lake 

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Information on the strike and Swan Lake 

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This is a good guide, but there is no hard and fast rule about how many quotes to use. You are more likely going to use 2-3  a paragraph depending on what you are commenting on and the depth of your discussion per quote.

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This is a good guide, but there is no hard and fast rule about how many quotes to use. You are more likely going to use 2-3  a paragraph depending on what you are commenting on and the depth of your discussion per quote.

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Information on writing an extended response and table to complete on formulating ideas centred on the rubric and by examples from the text.

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Daldry claims that Billy Elliot is a story that we all all know- someone trying to express themselves' Discuss this idea in relation to how this is shown in the film. 

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Daldry claims that Billy Elliot is a story that we all all know- someone trying to express themselves' Discuss this idea in relation to how this is shown in the film. 

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Extension task: iscuss this idea in relation to Jackie, Tony or Michael

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Billy Elliot is a distinctly British story about dancing, labor rights, gender, class, and sexuality. But since it first burst onto screens 17 years ago, this small, low-budget film has grown into a global phenomenon.

No one was more surprised with the film's initial success than movie director Stephen Daldry, who went on to direct an award-winning musical based on the film that's been performed across the world and in a variety of languages-the show opened in Madrid, Spain yesterday (Oct.5). Over the years, however, Daldry has come to fully appreciate how the film's message, and the topics it tackles, easily crosses borders.

The veneer of Billy Elliot is a film about a working class boy, who wants to be a ballet dancer, growing up during an historical event-the miners' strike, which was widely dubbed as "the most bitter industrial dispute in British history). But Daldry told Quartz in an interview at the One Young World Summit in Colombia about how it's so much more than that: "It's also a story we all know-someone trying to express himself or herself."

This is portrayed in the film's most memorable scene; when Billy auditions at The Royal Ballet School. Just as Billy and his father are about to leave the room, one of the judges on the panel asks Billy: "What does it feel like when you're dancing?" Billy pauses before saying, "dunno." Two judges on the panel, including the one who asked the question, look disappointed.

Billy eventually answers and in just over a minute, his broken sentences and raw description makes a powerful statement on how expression through art can set you free.

Finding a voice

The scene is particularly poignant because it literally and metaphorically represents Billy finding his voice through dance and the freedom that accompanies that discovery.

"Billy is struggling to articulate something that he has never had to articulate [before]," Daldry explains. The other young dancers, who've grown up in a more privileged setting, find it easier to talk about what they love about the art form they've chosen. However, for Billy, dance wasn't just a hobby, it saved him.

The scene is an interesting exploration of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's theory of "cultural capital," which suggests that someone's clothing, mannerism, style of speech, and taste (to name a few) not only demonstrate someone's competence, but their social position in society. Unable to initially answer the judge's question, Billy shows how limited his world has been.

"It's also a story we all know of someone trying to express himself or herself."

Billy eventually answer and says: "Dunno. It sort of feels good. It's sort of safe and that... But, once I get going, I sort of forget everything. I sort of disappear. I can feel a change in my whole body. I'm just there... I have this fire in my whole body. I'm flying... like a bird. Like electricity... Yeah, like electricity."

Though the speech is raw and not as articulate as he wants, Billy's response is "very honest and very emotional," Daldry says - the scene is "a struggle of struggle." But it's not just about Billy finding his voice, "it's about the dad as well. He has never heard his son express what he feels like."

Daldry added that the question the panel poses Billy-"what does it feel like when you're dancing?"-is a "spur" for "him to explain to his father why they are there in the first place. He [Billy] is not really telling the panel at all. He's actually telling his father what he feels like."

A snipe at the liberal elite

Freedom of expression.

The scene ends with Billy and his dad walking away, when another judge says "Mr Elliot, good luck with the strike." Daldry laughs and says the end "was a joke about the liberal, arty, vaguely left, but not really."

Billy's speech on why he loves to dance had clearly thawed the panelists, but in an attempt to show solidarity with Billy's father-who is striking alongside thousands of miners across the country-the judge ends up being "sort of patronizing," Daldry says. It's often the artistic elite who often say "'I so hope your working class struggle goes incredibly well for you.'" Though a joke, it highlights many liberals failure to comprehend just how devastating the miners strike-and the eventual loss of coal mines-was to working class communities across the country.

For Daldry, the "loss of community" is key to the film's global appeal. "It doesn't matter where you are in the world, people understand the idea that you're part of an industrial, working class group that is being discarded." And its question-of what happens to communities devastated by de-industrialization and privatization-has been thrust into the spotlight with the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump.

"I'm not suggesting that people want to be miners. Or that mining is a good idea. Or a reliance on fossil fuels is a good idea. But what I do know is a good idea is keeping those communities strong, safe, and giving them a valid means of employment," Daldry says. The consequences of not doing that, as well the destruction of the labor movement juxtaposed with the "weird kid that wants to get out," makes the message behind Billy Elliot just as relevant now.
The One Young World, which gathers 1,300 young leaders from all 196 countries to tackle the globe's most pressing issues, contributed to accommodation of the writer's trip to Colombia.

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Why Billy Elliot's most memorable scene still resonates across the world

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Billy Elliot is a distinctly British story about dancing, labor rights, gender, class, and sexuality. But since it first burst onto screens 17 years ago, this small, low-budget film has grown into a global phenomenon.

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Representation of human experience struggle with adversity questions

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How to write a reflection statement step by step

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How to write a reflection statement step by step

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Do you know how to write a reflection statement? Reflection statements are tasks that will increasingly be part of your assessments. In the past, reflection statements were only set for Extension 2. Now they will be commonplace in Advanced English for both Year 11 and Year 12.

In this post, we will demystify reflection statements and give you a step-by-step guide to producing statements that will impress your teachers!

What is a Reflection Statement?

A reflection statement is a complementary task that will accompany other assessment types. A reflection statement requires students to discuss the process of producing the associated assessment task.

In a reflection statement, students need to explain why they made the decisions they did. The reflection statement also offers the student an opportunity to say what they think they did well, or did poorly. Students can reflect on what they would change if they could do it over.

If you want to learn more about why self-reflection is such an important skill for students, you should read this excellent article by Cathy Costello at Virtual library.

Why can't you give a specific definition of what reflection tasks involve?

The exact nature of the reflection task will depend on the assessment task you've been asked to reflect on. To give you an idea of this, we'll look at some examples of the tasks that reflection statements might accompany and what the reflection statements need to address.

Reflection Statement Requirements

Assessment Task

Reflection Statement Requirements

Non-Fiction Composition:

A composition in a non-fiction form. This could be written as a journal entry, newspaper article, or something less specific like a persuasive piece

Reflect on what you were trying to achieve in your writing;

Discuss what influenced your writing style;

Discuss what influenced your choice of subject matter or subject position;

Discuss why you have used certain techniques or rhetorical devices;

Reflect on your compositional choices;

Reflect on what you found challenging about the assessment task.

Creative Composition:

An original piece of creative writing

Discuss the themes you were trying to convey;

Reflect on the compositional choices you have made;

Discuss the influences on your writing style;

Discuss why you have used certain techniques in your writing.

Imaginative Recreation:

A piece of creative writing written in response to a text that has been studied in class. For example, this might be an adaptation or a scene written from another character's perspective.

Discuss what you were trying to recreate in your composition;

Discuss what influenced your choice of genre and form;

Discuss what influenced your writing style;

Discuss what influenced your choice of theme(s);

Reflect on what you were trying to achieve with your composition;

Discuss why you have used certain techniques or rhetorical devices;

Reflect on your compositional choices;

Reflect on what you found challenging about the assessment task.

Speech:

A presentation to your class or some of your teachers.

Reflect on why you took your position on the question;

Reflect on why you chose your themes;

Discuss why you chose the rhetorical devices you used in the speech;

Reflect on what you found challenging about the task;

Reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of your speech and/or those of some / one / all of your peers.

Group Presentation:

A group presentation by yourself and several of your classmates.

Reflect on why you took your position on the question;

Discuss how you split up tasks and planned the presentation;

Reflect on why you chose your themes/ideas;

Discuss why you chose the rhetorical devices you used in your presentation;

Reflect on what you found challenging about working together to produce the presentation;

Reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of your speech and/or those of some / one / all of your peers;

Reflect on how you would improve your role in the task.

Multimodal Presentation:

A presentation where you need to mix several of the modes of learning (speaking, representing, etc.)

Reflect on why you took your position on the question;

Reflect on why you chose your themes;

Discuss why you chose the rhetorical devices you used in the speech;

Reflect on what you found challenging about the task;

Reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of your speech and/or those of some / one / all of your peers.

Listening Task :

A task where you listen to an audio clip and write a response or answer questions. This could also be a task where you listen to a peer's speech or oral presentation and you reflect on your presentation in light of their presentation.

Discuss the difficulties of the task;

Reflect on what you understood about the material you were played;

Justify your response(s) to the question(s) set in conjunction with the audio you were played;

Reflect on and discuss another student's oral presentation.

Essay Task:

A written essay

Reflect on why you took your position on the question;

Reflect on why you chose your essay structure;

Reflect on what you found challenging about the task.

As you can see, there are a wide variety of tasks where you could be asked to provide an accompanying reflection task.

How long is a reflection statement?

This will vary.

English Extension 2 reflection statements need to be 1500 words. If you're not doing English Extension 2, it is unlikely that you will be required to produce something that long.

The tasks you will be set for English Advanced will range between 300 and 800 words. Most reflection tasks will be on the shorter side of things at around the 400-word mark.

Need help perfecting your reflections for Module C?

Learn how to write insightful and constructive reflections with our structured online video lessons, quality resources, and forums to ask your Matrix teachers questions and feedback! Learn more about Matrix+ Online Courses now.

Where will I encounter reflection statements?

You will be set reflective statements throughout Years 11 and 12. They can be attached to any assessment task for any Module.

However, due to the nature of the Common Module: Reading to Write it is likely you will be set one to accompany the main writing task for that Module.

Similarly, in Year 12, Common Module: Texts and Human Experience and Module C: The Craft of Writing are the most likely Modules where you will be asked to reflect on your process of composing.

Remember, there is no limit on how many reflections you will need to produce as they supplement a larger assessment task. You may need to write as many as two in both Year 11 and Year 12.

In the HSC English Advanced Paper 2 (from 2019) and HSC English Extension 1 Paper, you may be asked to write a composition and a reflection statement.

If you study English Extension 2, this is a mandatory accompaniment for your major work. (Please note, while the process discussed in this post is similar to the one for producing an Extension 2 reflection statement, it does not discuss the research and referencing components that you need to complete for an Extension 2 work).

Clearly, it is important to be confident writing reflection statements. Matrix students learn how to produce reflection statements and get help refining them.

The secret to producing killer reflection statements is to follow a process when writing them.

What we'll do now is look at the process for how to produce ace your reflection statement.

How to write a Reflection Statement - a step-by-step guide

Like everything in English, there is a process you can follow to produce a reflection statement. Even though the specific task may vary. The process for writing the reflection will largely remain the same.

The process for writing reflection statements looks like this:

Step 1: Produce the main piece of work for the assessment

Reflection statements are never tasks in and of themselves, they supplement the main task. You will not be able to produce your reflection statement until you have completed and edited your main task.

If you are stuck on your main task and need help, you should read our Beginner's Guide to Acing HSC English for detailed advice on all aspects of Year 11 and 12 English.

This can be useful. You may well discover that your reflection statement makes you reconsider some of your choices in your main task. In the process of writing your reflection statement, you may decide you need to redraft your main work.

This is one of the key purposes of writing a reflection statement. It forces you to consider what you have produced and the process of producing it. This is a key part of editing and improving your work.

Step 2: Read the assessment notification

Once you've produced your main piece of work, you need to revisit your assessment notification. A task that involves a reflection statement will come in two sections:

Section 1 will be the instructions for the main task;

Section 2 will be the instructions for the supplementary reflection task.

Rereading the notification is important as it will help you check that you have completed the main task correctly. It will also tell you exactly what you need to do for the second part of the task.

Step 3: Read the marking criteria

For every assessment task that you are given, you MUST be given accompanying marking criteria. Marking criteria are very important. They tell you explicitly what you need to do to get full marks for a specific task.

Reading through the marking criteria at this point serves two purposes:

You can double check that you have addressed all the criteria for a Band 6 result for your main task.

You can see what you need to do to achieve a Band 6 result for your reflection statement.

Your reflection statement may have very different requirements for a Band 6 mark than your main task. It is important that you are aware of the differences.

Step 4: Unpack what the reflection statement needs you to discuss for a Band 6 result

Now you're familiar with the notification and marking criteria for the assessment task, you need to get these understandings down in writing.

To do this, you need to take a few steps:

1. Read through the instructions for the task and highlight or underline the keywords (these will usually be the verbs and nouns in the instructions).

2. Now you want to write these words down and define them. If you are unsure of a what a word means, that's okay. Look it up. This is how you expand your vocabulary.

3. Next, do the same for the marking criteria. Underline what you feel are the keywords and terms. Again, write them down and define them.

4. Now you need to write down what you need to do for a Band 6 result. To do this, write down the instructions in your own words. Include what you need to do for a Band 6 mark in this instruction. Be sure to make note of whether this is meant to be written informally or formally, in the first or third person. You must follow the instruction regarding form for these tasks.

Now you've unpacked the question. This means you are now equipped to answer the question you've been set.

Next, you need to revisit your main task so you can see what you've done and evaluate how you've put it together.

Step 5: Reread what you have produced for your main task

Your reflection statement will require you to explain the choices you've made in your main composition.

You may not have thought too much about these things when you produced the work. And this is fine. It just doesn't help you with the reflections statement.

If this is you, you need to read your work with an eye on how you have conveyed information. You must unpack how you have presented your ideas. Essentially, you need to reverse engineer your writing through textual analysis.

Some useful questions to ask yourself when doing this are:

How does my work address the assessment instructions and marking criteria?

What am I trying to convey here?

How does this part of my work address the marking criteria?

What technique have I used to convey meaning?

Why have I used that technique?

Could I have conveyed this idea differently? Would this have been more effective? Why?

Make notes while you do this. You want to be able to refer back to your findings in detail when you write the reflection statement.

Once you've finished this, you're ready to start planning. By now you should have:

A detailed breakdown of what your task requires you to discuss in your reflection statement and how to discuss it.

A detailed set of notes about the piece you have produced for the main task.

Step 6: Plan your reflection statement

As with any task, you want to plan things before you get stuck in. Planning your work forces you to consider what information you must include and how you will structure that information in your response. This is an important part of the critical thinking process.

Reflection statements need to have structure, too.

You need to ensure that you introduce your ideas clearly, then expand on them, and, finally, summarise and conclude your statement. Even if you only need to produce a 250-word paragraph, you still need to ensure that it follows the conventions of composition structure. You will lose marks for presenting idea soup.

To plan your response, you'll need to get your notes on the task and your notes on your response together. Then:

1. Read through your notes on the question. Remind yourself what you need to discuss in your reflection statement.

2. Write down what you will discuss in your reflection statement.

3. Now you need to think about what parts of your main task you will discuss. To do this, refer to your notes about your main task. Ask yourself, "which parts of my task are most relevant to what the task is asking me to discuss?"

4. Note down what you think will be the order for presenting your reflection. For example, you may want to start with your structural decisions before discussing your use of techniques or you may want to discuss your influences before discussing your ideas.

Once you've got your plan together, you're ready to write. Matrix students get advice on their assessment tasks from their Matrix Tutors and Teachers. It might be helpful to ask a peer or parent for their thoughts if your school teacher can't provide advice.

Step 7: Write your introductory statement

The length of your introduction will be contingent on the specifics of your task:

If your reflection statement is less than 400 words, you will need to produce one or two sentences.

If you are writing a longer reflection statement of more than 400 words, you will need to write a short introduction.

If you are producing an Extension 2 reflection statement, this will need to be a longer and more detailed introductory paragraph.

When writing your introduction, you must:

1. Introduce the topic you will discuss;

2. Explain how this reflects on the work that you are discussing;

3. Make reference to the Module you are studying.

Once you have produced your introduction, you are now ready to develop your discussion and discuss the specifics of your main piece of work.

Step 8: Write the body of your argument

Now you've introduced your subject matter you need to start presenting an argument. Even though you are reflecting on your own work, you still need to use examples to demonstrate how you've set about responding to the main task.

You will need to present several examples to support your argument, but the number of examples will vary depending on the length of the task you've been set.

For a shorter reflection, try to present two or three examples and discuss them in detail. If you need to produce several paragraphs, you should be aiming at around four per paragraph.

To do this:

1. Introduce the idea you were trying to convey (this might be an influence on your work, a technique you've tried to use, or a theme you've tried to explore).

2. Present an example of this idea.

3. Explain how you have attempted to use or explore this idea.

4. Explain how this addresses the instructions and marking criteria for the task.

5. Explain how this is relevant to the Module you are studying.

6. Comment on other choices you could have made and why you didn't use the other option.

7. Repeat this for each example that you need to support your point.

Once you've done this, you need to conclude your reflection.

Step 9: Write your concluding statement

Your final statement needs to address the broad idea you have discussed in your response. It will need to be at least two sentences. A longer reflection will require a longer concluding statement; if you had a separate introduction you will require a separate conclusion.

To write your concluding statement:

1. Summarise the key ideas that you have discussed.

2. Make a statement about what you have taken away from your study of the Module and the process of producing this task and reflecting on it.

Now you need to revise what you've written.

Step 10: Proof and edit your work

It is really important that you proof and edit your work before submitting. You don't want to throw away marks on typos and unnecessary grammatical errors. Proofing your work is something you must do after you finish any task.

To proof your reflection statement:

1. Reread your summary of the notification of the task and the marking criteria.

2. Read your reflection statement aloud.

3. Whenever you encounter a mistake or a sentence that sounds ungrammatical, correct it.

4. Pay attention to the logic of your argument. Does it make sense?

5. Ask yourself, have I addressed the instructions for the task?

6. Ask yourself, have I addressed the marking criteria for a Band 6 response.

7. Redraft your reflection statement in its entirety. Don't submit your first draft. Your second draft will always be better.

If you would like to know more about the editing process, you should read Part 7 of our Beginner's Guide to Acing HSC English: How to Edit Your Work.

Now you've finished a second draft you can submit. If you can, you should try and get some feedback. Matrix students get regular feedback from their Matrix Tutors and Teachers. Feedback on your work allows you to take somebody else's perspective and use it to improve your marks.

Need help perfecting your reflections for Module C?

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How To Write A Reflection Statement - A Step-By-Step Guide

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Do you know how to write a reflection statement? Reflection statements are tasks that will increasingly be part of your assessments. In the past, reflection statements were only set for Extension 2. Now they will be commonplace in Advanced English for both Year 11 and Year 12.

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Audio lesson on Beach Burial: Introduction

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Audio lesson on Beach Burial: Introduction

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Introduction to audio lesson on 'Beach Burial'

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Audio lesson on 'Beach Burial' - see introductory note above and transcript (with minor inaccuracies) below.

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Audio lesson on 'Beach Burial' - see introductory note above and transcript (with minor inaccuracies) below.

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Transcript to the recorded lesson on 'Beach Burial'

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Transcript to the recorded lesson on 'Beach Burial'

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Shorter version _ Beach burial audio lesson

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'Out of Time' activities to help build your understanding of the poem. There is creative writing skill building involved too.

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'Out of Time' activities to help build your understanding of the poem. There is creative writing skill building involved too.

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Out of Time by Kenneth Slessor; questions to help you explore and understand the poem

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India Ink, a poem on migration and cultural identity by Australian writer Eileen Chong.

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India Ink, a poem on migration and cultural identity by Australian writer Eileen Chong.

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Consider the way the metal letters of the printing press are used metaphorically to suggest the deep impression made by the language and culture of a person's family. Much about the poem is not explicitly stated but needs to be inferred by readers who are aware of the context and concerns of the writer. Keep in mind the current reality that many migrants who are well educated in their country of origin must take other jobs, like that of a taxi driver, to survive in a new land. In the poetic form this allows a writer also to use the idea of travelling, or life as an ongoing journey, metaphorically.

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Practice Essay Questions

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Art of Smart Education: HSC Tutoring for English, Maths & Science

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Texts and Human Experiences: 20 Practice Questions [2019 Edition]

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Ready to get prepared for Year 12 HSC English Texts and Human Experiences? Awesome - because that's exactly what we're going to help you do with 20 brand new practice questions! NOT: In the HSC, you might be given a question that is specific to your text.

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We've seen some great public service announcements recently which made us wonder - why not do a post on the best PSA campaigns in the last couple of years?

We scoured the internet, filtered the not-so-great ones and came up with this list of 60 hard-hitting ads that deal with social, environmental, health and other issues. From ad school assignments to Cannes-winners, these powerful visuals do more than just spread the message. Check them out below.

1. Before it's too late

2. Certain things hang on forever

3. Plastic bags kill

4. Ignore us, ignore human rights

5. Stop the violence, don't drink and drive

6. It's not happening here, but it is happening now

7. If you don't pick it up, they will

8. See how easy feeding the hungry can be?

9. Guess which one?

10. The back seat's no safer, belt up

11. Every 60 seconds a species dies out

12. Schizophrenia can be treated. Seek help.

13. Slower is better

14. Nobody's immune to breast cancer

15. If dying for your faith makes you a martyr...

16. He has his mother's eyes

17. Tailgating isn't worth it

18. For some, it's Mt.Everest

19. 1988 -

20. On the internet, somethings are not what they seem

21. Women need to be seen as equal

22. Give a hand to wildlife

23. Help before it's too late

24. Thousands of people owe their lives to organ donors

25. Sexual predators can hide in your child's smartphone

26. One click could change your life. Belt up.

27. Save paper. Save the planet.

28. If you don't feed them, who will?

29. You are not a sketch, say no to anorexia

30. Now you see it, now you don't

31. Victims are people just like you and me

32. Don't cut a dream

33. Censorship tells the wrong story

34. It should't be this dangerous. Stop for flashing red lights.

35. Sleepiness is stronger than you

36. I'll be there in a while, wheelchair

37. What goes around, comes around. Keep the sea clean.

38. The longer a child with autism goes without help, the harder they are to reach

39. If you smoke, statistically your story will end 15% before it should

40. Animals are not clowns

41. What goes around, comes around

42. Bullets leave bigger holes than you think

43. Be patient with people who stutter

44. The earth is heating up

45. Signs are there for a reason

46. The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11

47. Air pollution kills 60,000 people a year

48. Hunger kills 2.5 million children every year

49. Don't buy exotic animal souvenirs

50. Workers are not tools

51. Don't talk while he drives

52. Think of both sides

53. Stop the (animal) abuse

54. Neglected children are made to feel invisible

55. Your skin color shouldn't dictate your future

56. Same dog, different owner

57. Prevent breast cancer. Do the self examination.

58. Liking isn't helping

59. For the homeless, every day is a struggle

60. Smoking causes premature ageing

If we had to pick three, it would be tough, but no.2 (Casa Do Menor), 28 (Concordia) and 45 (Buick) would be our choices. What about you? Did we miss one that should be on this list? Share this post and join the discussion below.

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60 Powerful Social Issue Ads That'll Make You Stop And Think

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We've seen some great public service announcements recently which made us wonder - why not do a post on the best PSA campaigns in the last couple of years? We scoured the internet, filtered the not-so-great ones and came up with this list of 60 hard-hitting ads that deal with social, environmental, health and other issues.

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Introduction

Billy Elliot is Stephen Daldry's 2000 film about a boy becoming a ballet dancer, and gained acclaim for its promotion of individual identity, its challenge to restrictive gender norms and its celebration of artistic pursuits. The themes of the film may be more commonplace and well known in todays world, but in the context of the film's creation they were cutting edge and, to some, provocative.

The key to Billy Elliot is understanding how challenging ideas about the human experience - new perspectives and arguments about how we should live our lives - are delivered in sympathetic and even comedic ways.

This study guide is structured as follows:

You should always pay close attention to the rubric for any module, and this is no different. You can access the syllabus description here. Note how the syllabus emphasises an analysis of the emotions attached to human experiences, the paradoxes of human behaviour and the role of storytelling. Furthermore, your response must always consider how language and form (so in this case, the 'language' of cinema) is used to convey these notions or to manipulate the audience's experience of the text.

With respect to Billy Elliot, you will need to examine the various experiences that each of the characters face, and how these speak to broader human experiences that the audience can connect with. Often these experiences have to do with change - many of the characters are in important periods of transition in their life - but experiences of consistency or even inertia are also relevant. Consider the experiences of the miners, who spend the entire film rioting - in both foreground and background - yet who ultimately gain nothing. Relationships between emotional experiences, political conflicts, artistic expression and even experiences of the human body itself can be discussed. Themes of the film are discussed in greater detail below, but you should remember to link them back to these rubric-centred ideas.

The film is set during the 1984-85 coal miner's strike in Britain. The 80's are widely recognised as a controversial and important period of British (and global) history. Britain was experiencing a dramatic shift in political, social and economic policy towards the 'neoliberal' framework engineered by Margaret Thatcher and her US contemporary, Ronald Reagan. Crises such as the Falklands war - a brief but intense conflict between Britain and Argentina over British islands - allowed the British government to use a 'crisis mandate' to impose strict and fundamental changes to the economic fabric of society. Corporations and private interests were given greater freedoms, often at the expense of workers and the middle class.

As a result of these reforms - seen by the political elite as 'necessary' for growth, but seen by the working classes as a cruel depravation of social safety nets - divisions between classes grew. The miner's strike came about as a response to fears that Conservative Party policies would decimate the already-dwindling mining industry. Members of the NUM - the National Union of Miners - conducted massive and widespread strikes, often resulting in violent clashes with police. These clashes are frequently demonstrated in the film, and they symbolise a broader conflict between democratic or populist wills and technocratic or authoritative forces.

Other forms of authority were being challenged at the time as well, including the authority of social norms and roles. Feminist movements were focusing on the role that gender plays in society, and how certain gendered norms - such as what men and women should wear, do or pursue - were restrictive to many people. LGBTIQ communities, though heavily discriminated against at the time, were gaining more visibility and were forming organised resistance. This resistance to traditional notions of gender or sexuality is not just seen in Billy - it is expressed through his best friend Michael as well.

Close Analysis of The Text

Visual Techniques

The first shot of the film is of a record - an obvious choice given the musical connotations - but it also situates us in a specific time, right after the subtitle introduces the date. It also sets up the subjective experience of the film, something very important to note (it is discussed further in the sound techniques section).

Our first real vision is of Billy, floating, jumping in and out of frame. Slow motion combined with tightly framed shots provides the audience a dreamy, surreal aesthetic. Note the walls behind Billy are exaggerated in scale - not representative of a real space but rather how Billy 'feels' in that particular moment.

Also note the colour symbolism of yellow is emphasised. This is important to note because of its contrast to other sequences in the film where the town appears colourless and drab - such as in the coal mines.

When Billy finds his grandma in the field and escorts her away, we see riot police in the background. This compositional juxtaposition serves to indicate one of the key tensions in the film, between Billy's creative spirit and his oppressive, socio-politically wrought context.

You can also see the abundant use of natural lighting within the home - leaving much of the setting dim and sometimes hard to see. This is continued throughout much of the film

Note: Natural lighting has become more widely used in recent years as film technology has developed and artificial lights have become somewhat less necessary, but there are some earlier independent film movements and historical cinematic eras which were characterised by a similar style. For instance, Italian Neorealist films - a cinematic movement which often focused on depicting stories of working class, ordinary people in post-war Italy - often had a similar emphasis on naturalistic, unfabricated lighting.

When Billy first arrives for his boxing session, note the foreshadowing and juxtaposition employed when Daldry shows us the ballerinas - and the piano.

Billy's discomfort in the boxing sessions is made apparent through several techniques, but visually the most apparent is the POV (point of view) shot of him being punched in the face. This is an other example of a visual technique placing the audience in a subjective relationship to the character - we feel and see what Billy does, strengthening our connection to him.

And if being punched in the face is meant to disempower Billy, then the opposite soon occurs: a dolly shot (a shot where the camera moves closer or further from the subject) is used by Daldry to show Billy's steady empowerment through dance. His relative scale increases, and this subtleeffect hints at what's to come.

A dolly shot can also be used to create surprising or comedic images. For instance, when Billy first joins the dance class, a dolly shot pulls back through rows of dancer's feet, mostly girls dressed in ballet attire. It is only when Billy's legs come into the foreground, identifiable by his lack of ballet stockings and his shoes, that the audience realises he has taken up Mrs Wilkinson's offer.

Notice also the visual contrast between legs (dancing) and arms (boxing). Billy's legs are emphasised throughout the film, but particularly when he first joins the ballet class. Daldry chooses to use frequent close ups of the dancers' legs, connoting grace and self-control, which stands out against the flailing and aggressive arms of the boxing students.

Later, when Billy is speaking to Debbie, strike posters framed in the background loom over the characters, much in the same way that the strike itself looms over the events of the film. These posters reappear throughout the film, usually in the background as well.

Not all of the lighting in the film is entirely naturalistic. In keeping with the subjective experience of the film, Daldry sometimes exaggerates spaces through light - such as when Billy arrives to the gym for his first one-on-one lesson with Mrs Wilkinson. High contrast, volumetric lighting (volumetric refers to how the light appears 'solid' because of its interaction with smoke/particles in the air) is used to emphasise how daunting, and perhaps frightening, this new transition in Billy's life is.

Later, when Mrs Wilkinson takes Billy out for a drive to the lake, heavy industrial machinery in the background is juxtaposed against a serene, natural environment - which Daldry demonstrates through extreme wide shots and careful framing. These wide shots are not simply for the sake of aesthetic - they underscore the important tension between industry, capitalism and beauty that reoccurs throughout the film. Police officers staged in the background also reinforce the notion of authority imposing on Billy's identity.

Note also that the scene takes place at the setting of a lake. This has important connotations because Billy's performance at the end of the film is Swan Lake. Drawing parallels between Billy and the swan may be a useful way to explore how Daldry draws on the archetypal story and recontextualises it to connect with modern audiences.

When Mrs Wilkinson confronts Billy's family, and Billy resorts to dancing angrily to vent his emotions, the claustrophobic, brick-walled setting serves as another reminder of the various social norms and authorities that constrict Billy. This time however he fights back, eventually running free from the compound. This is short lived however, as another wall blocks Billy at the end of the street, suggesting a final barrier to his goal.

Visual techniques are also used to show us glimpses of Billy's father's transition, as he learns to accept and support his son. When Billy's father is looking to sell the jewellery, and goes to a store to do so, Daldry uses framing and composition to suggest his internal conflict. The mining strikes donation is specifically placed next to the jewellery store, and he has to chose which 'side' to align with.

Furthermore, when he travels with his son to the ballet school, his disorientation and alienation is made clear through the spiralling (combination of pan and tilt), low angle shots of the building - it's clean white surfaces and curvaceous geometry is quite unlike anything seen in the film's setting up until this point. He is clearly uncomfortable, as demonstrated by shots of him lingering outside the audition room.

These elegant and clean spaces are starkly juxtaposed against the grubby and blackened coal fields, suggesting a large tension in the broader world between different classes.

Consider when, upon returning to their hometown, Billy's father returns to the coalmines. The framing of the elevator gate in the foreground, the staging of all the miners packed together and the low-key, desaturated lighting suggests that - while Billy has experienced a transition into a brighter and more positive future - his family remains trapped and under broader authority.

Other parallels between Billy and the mining community can be seen. For example, the motif of the bus - which recurs mostly in the context of the strikes, but which also transports Billy to his new life in the ballet school. The shot of Billy's brother communicating with Billy through the window of the bus parallels many shots in the film where Billy's brother hurls abuse or throws rocks at the miners' bus windows - except this time, the moment is tender and caring. Daldry suggests that the same object - or the same idea or experience - can have vastly different meanings depending on one's personal and social context.

Editing and Sound Techniques

Music and editing are combined and used to reinforce the subjective experience of the film throughout. Daldry does not portray music as objective or separate from Billy's human experiences - it is tied deeply to his character.

The first sound the audience hears is Cosmic Dancer by T-Rex, and the lyrics ' I danced myself right out the womb' carry obvious connotations regarding Billy's character. Importantly, the music only starts when Billy positions the record - suggesting that it is diegetic and that we will experience the film from Billy's eyes (and ears).

Other instances continue this trend. For instance, smash cuts - which is when a scene very abruptly and suddenly cuts to a new location or context - are used in conjunction with sudden transitions in sound mixing to suggest that we can only hear the music when Billy can hear it. For example, when his brother rips Billy's headphones off, the abrupt muting of the music achieves this effect.

Later on, when Billy dances and runs home, his steps are in time with the music. Here, Daldry uses blocking (the movements and actions of characters within space) in combination with the editing and music to convey how Billy imagines the music in his head. Later, when Billy is exasperated and bashes his arms to the beat of 'hard' rock music, his internal frustration is made external in the sound.

The use of montage and juxtaposition also demonstrates the various oxymorons that exist in Billy's life, and the paradoxes of his experiences. For instance, as he trains to dance, Daldry simultaneously displays shots of Billy in his bathroom at home, attempting to recreate and perfect the various ballet poses. Match cuts are used to link shots of Billy performing a move with almost-identical shots of him performing the moves in his house. However, with the change in setting, the contrast between the clean, spacious dance spaces and Billy's cramped, grubby bathroom reinforces the constant tensions of socioeconomic class that surround him.

What about the hallucination that Billy experiences, of his mother? We know it's a hallucination because of the deliberate lack of continuity in the editing. She appears seemingly from nowhere - in one shot she isn't there, and in the next she is. As such, the subjective experience of the film is reinforced - we are not merely seeing what is there in the world, we are seeing the world through Billy's eyes. Thematically, Billy's mother is another type of authorityfigure in his life. The film centres on his struggles with various forms of authority - his father, the police, the government and social gender norms. However, his mother's authority is rendered in the subjective realm, and is thus made more powerful and distinct.

Production Techniques

Pay special attention to the setting, props and wardrobe employed in the film.

Clear contrasts are seen between the spacious dance rooms and the cramped, messy home that Billy lives in. Colour contrast is especially clear in these cases.

Note the connotations that imagery within the setting can convey. For instance, as discussed above, the connotations and presence of the mining strike posters convey the political tension. But even in more intimate spaces - such as in Debbie's room, where Billy experiences a moment of sexual awakening - the set design employs floral wallpaper and pillow covers to express these sexual overtones.

Note: Flower symbolism in visual arts has a long and varied history, but in Western traditions it has often been associated with fertility, life and sexuality.

More gendered contrasts are seen in two recurring props: the boxing gloves and the feet. These are matched by the visual motifs of feet and fists. The gloves (or fists) evoke the violence attached to many of the male characters in the film, while the shoes (or feet) are often shown in moments of vulnerability or elegance - particularly for Billy.

Props are also used at important moments of tension in the film. Consider when Billy's piano is being destroyed - the connotations regarding his musical identity are clear, as he feels a certain part of him is being destroyed. This, after all, was foreshadowed in one of the earliest scenes of the film when his father shut the lid of the piano abruptly to keep him from play.

Consider also the use of wardrobe in the film. The clothes of Billy's family - his brother and father in particular - are generally oversized, dark and more masculine. Billy, on the other hand, is often dressed in shorts that are freer and more expressive, or - in some cases - in ballet attire.

But perhaps the most prominent example of wardrobe comes through Michael, Billy's friend, who uses crossdressing in one particular scene as a way of expressing his sexuality. Here, Daldry uses wardrobe to convey the relationship between gender roles and aesthetics (such as fashion), and how the former can arbitrarily restrict the latter.

THEMATIC OVERVIEW

Experiences of resistance against authority

Various forms of authority exist in the film. For Billy, he feels the authority of his father - and the traditional gender roles that he promotes. There is also the authority of Mrs Wilkinson, which is stern yet nurturing and encouraging, and echoes the presence of his mother. His brother represents a more volatile, masculine type of authority, much like his father, and he acts as a foil character whose contrast to Billy further highlights Billy's rejection of 'normal' masculinity. However, these relationships are not simply matters of domination or rebellion. Rather, they form a 'push-pull' dynamic. The ending of the film suggests compromise, rather than absolute victory. For Billy, rather than overcoming his father, he manages simply to convince his father that the dancing is an important aspect of his identity.

As such, there are no real antagonists in the film - at least, not in the form of characters. There may be, as Linda Aronson notes, " mentor-antagonists", which are characters that stand in the protagonist's way at certain stages of the story, but who ultimately shape and nurture the protagonist as well. Billy's brother and father are clear examples here. Why does Daldry do this? Perhaps he wishes to demonstrate both sides of these complex experiences. Rather than focusing on one side and entirely demonising the other, he illustrates the tolls and virtues of these experiences for a wide range of people, providing a greater range of empathy and appealing to a wider base of audience experiences.

There are also broader social authorities, such as the miner's union, the police and the government. These authorities are less focused on, often demonstrated in brief glimpse, yet their presence is no less important. They drive moments of important tension in the film. For instance, Billy's father and brother are torn apart by conflicts between their loyalty to the union strike and their need to earn money to support Billy. These authorities are more faceless, perhaps even more sinister (particularly in the case of the government), and as such they may be considered the real antagonistic forces of the film.

Structure vs agency

Another important theme expressed in the film is the relationship between one's context - i.e. their 'structure - and their individual consciousness or agency. Many of the characters are seen as products of their environment. For instance, Billy's father seems to reflect the virility, rage and conventional masculinity that his mining town celebrates in traditions such as boxing and hard labour. Billy's brother also inherits this, expressing himself through violence, coarse language and spirited rebellion against the police. Another interesting example is also provided however, in a short but important scene of the film. When introduced to Debbie's father, we learn that he is a staunch conservative who despises the miner's and any left-leaning political ideology. Though somewhat exaggerated, his outlook seems to be heavily influenced by his status as a middle-class citizen in an otherwise unprosperous region of Britain.

However, Daldry does not suggest that structure controls us indefinitely. Through Billy and Michael, he displays forms of individualism that suggest that our identity comes from a more mysterious and unique source. It is clear that neither Billy nor Michael fit into the 'structure' of their time, and at times it seems like the structure may overpower them into submission. Yet it is often when Billy is alone - such as in his escape from the brick-walled compound and during his limping run/dance away from home - that Daldry emphasises his power. Individualism is celebrated as the all-powerful force of our lives, a message reinforced to the audience in the final shot of the film as a grown-up Billy leaps on stage during a production of ' Swan Lake'.

Daldry also suggests that art plays a liberating role in our lives, allowing us to transcend the boundaries of structure or context. For Mrs Wilkinson, dance and dance instruction allow her to escape the confines of a dissatisfying marriage. For Billy, dance allows him to express his 'real' identity irrespective of gender norms or cultural practices, and his description of dance as 'electricity' towards the end of the film is fitting. The human experience of creating or performing art is thus rendered as a noble pursuit, one which can allow an individual to achieve greater purpose and meaning in their life.

Gender and sexuality

Billy is ridiculed by his brother and his father, who accuse him of being a homosexual. Though his sexuality remains somewhat ambiguous in the film, Daldry suggests that aversion to an individual's expression of sexuality stems from powerful cultural forces. Billy's father reminds him sternly that boxing has run in their family for generations, yet Billy rejects this in favour of a new notion of masculinity - one focused on earnest expression and graceful physicality. This is made all the more remarkable by the fact that Billy has had no feminine role model for most of his life, at least until Mrs Wilkinson takes on the role of a near-adoptive mother. Later on in the film, when Billy is in Debbie's bedroom, he experiences a moment of sexual tension with Debbie but decides to leave. Later, when Debbie offers to perform a sexual act, Billy rejects it in a matter-of-fact tone, suggesting that he does not quite line up to what Debbie expects from boys his age.

Art and sexuality seem to have a strong connection throughout the film, and it is no accident that, per Debbie's testimony, Mrs Wilkinson uses dance to cope with prolonged sexual frustration in her marriage. They both involve expressions of identity and being through physical bodies, and as such they are both tied up in the complex politics and history of gender and behavioural norms. An overarchingly liberal view of sexuality in the film is epitomised when, before Billy's departure, Michael briefly kisses him. Billy claims that he is not gay - a somewhat defensive comment, likely influenced by the homophobic environment he lives in - but accepts the gesture nonetheless and seems to maintain a strong bond with his friend. Daldry implies the steady breakdown of rigid traditionalism that occurs between generations, a kind of social awakening that mirror's Billy's own awakening to dance. Michael's appearance at the end of the film, dressed in expressive and non-traditional clothing, and with a male partner sitting beside him, reinforces the notion of continuing and liberating social change. Just as Billy's rite of passage is complete by that point in the film, so too is his.

Conclusion

When analysing this film for the common module, it is critical that you link all your discussion back to notions of human experience, and to the formal features of the text. Human experiences may be collective, individual or a combination of both. They may include change or consistency. They may have positive or negative implications. They may be political, spiritual, cultural, personal, familial or any combination of such. You may discuss the impact of certain experiences, or the reasons that they occur, or the emotions that are associated. As you can see, there is a wide array of ideas you may discuss in your essay - but it is critical that, no matter what you select, you are as specific as possible in your terminology, and as consistent as possible in your argument. With a text as unique, wide-ranging and socially conscious as Billy Elliot, making arguments about the role of art, authority, sexuality, freedom and adolescence in human experiences should be relatively straightforward, provided you pay close attention to what the film's messages are and how they are delivered.

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Daldry, Stephen, Billy Elliot (Texts and Human Experiences) - Dux College

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Billy Elliot is Stephen Daldry's 2000 film about a boy becoming a ballet dancer, and gained acclaim for its promotion of individual identity, its challenge to restrictive gender norms and its celebration of artistic pursuits.