This is the teacher notes page identifying the outcomes addressed in these lessons. Copy each lesson link and send it to your students. For printable versions of these materials log into the teacher information section of the Department of Education.

Introduction

The resources in this booklet will likely take students more than three single lessons to complete. It is recommended that this resource is used over three-five lessons to provide students with sufficient time to engage with each task and complete it to the best of their ability. 

This overview is for lessons 13-15 within the ‘Exploring the gothic genre’ learning sequence. Students continue their work with an extract from chapter 2 of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ and examine how syntax can influence and enhance imaginative texts. Students are introduced to epistolary features and the letter text type. Through an extract from chapter 8 of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ students develop an understanding of the key forms and features of letters which assists them to form their own sample of an imaginative letter. As the sequence progresses, students are introduced to the werewolf archetype and develop an understanding of the key conventions of the werewolf. This will allow them to effectively use the werewolf archetype in their own imaginative piece as they will be writing and refining in the final lesson sequence.  

During these lessons, students will: 

• examine how noun groups, adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases can be used to enhance descriptive writing   

• apply this understanding to their own descriptive sentences  

• model their syntax off examples provided from the ‘Dracula’ extract 

• develop an understanding of the term epistolary and its purpose as an imaginative writing form  

• refine their understanding of the letter form  

• apply their understanding to the 'for' formation of their own imaginative letter 

• draw on prior knowledge and make predictions about the werewolf 

• read and view representations of the werewolf throughout history and assess the similarities and differences of the representations  

• develop a detailed understanding of the werewolf archetype.  

These lessons address the following outcomes:  

A student:  

• EN5-3B: selects and uses language forms, features and structures of texts appropriate to a range of purposes, audiences and contexts, describing and explaining their effects on meaning 

• EN5-4B: effectively transfers knowledge, skills and understanding of language concepts into new and different contexts 

• EN5-5C: thinks imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and critically about information and increasingly complex ideas and arguments to respond to and compose texts in a range of contexts

Lesson thirteen - Stoker, syntax and the vampire

This lesson follows on from lesson 12. Students continue their analysis of the extract from chapter 2 of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ by focusing on the extract at sentence and word level. Examples from the passage are used to support explicit instruction on the role of noun groups, adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases and conjunctions. Students experiment with using these parts of speech in their own writing through using Stoker’s syntax as a model for their own. 

Learning intentions

Students will:

• examine how noun groups, adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases can be used to enhance descriptive writing   

• apply this understanding to their own descriptive sentences  

• model their syntax off examples provided from the ‘Dracula’ extract. 

Outcome content 

• S504UA2: examine and evaluate the cohesion of syntax and content in familiar and unfamiliar texts 

• S503EP4: understand that authors innovate with text structures and language for specific purposes and effects 

The coding for this content point comes from the English Textual Concepts and Learning Processes resources for Stage 5 English – Stage 5.