Number of Units: 2
Exclusions: English Standard, English Studies
Method of Delivery: St Luke’s
External Assessment: Exam
Contribution to ATAR: Yes
Course Description:
In the English Advanced course, students continue to explore opportunities to investigate complex ideas in challenging texts, to evaluate, emulate and employ powerful, creative and sophisticated ways to use language to make meaning, and to find enjoyment in literature.
Students refine their understanding of the dynamic relationship between language, texts and meaning. They do this through critical study and through the skilful and creative use of language forms and features, and of structures of texts composed for different purposes in a range of contexts. Through study of the course modules students continue to develop their skills to question, reconsider and refine meaning through language, and to reflect on their own processes of responding, composing and learning.
Why study this course?
Students who select English Advanced have a passion and love for English. These students enjoy reading and analysing challenging texts including classics and Shakespearean texts. This course is academically challenging and requires students to read regularly, beyond the minimum requirements of the course in order to think critically, express their own ideas and articulate their emerging thoughts in response to the rigorous demands of the course. A typical candidate in English Advanced is motivated, able to independently research and take initiative in their own learning. Students who undertake this course are required to work independently and exercise the ability to identify a wide range of literary techniques. This course prepares students for the academic rigour of tertiary study by engaging with concepts that are both challenging and complex.
Students who undertake English Advanced have the option to select English Extension 1 in Year 11 (1 unit ATAR). There is also the opportunity to undertake an additional unit of English - English Extension 2 in Year 12 (1 unit ATAR). This pathway is designed for the more creative students who wish to pursue further study in the Humanities.
Topics
YEAR 11 Topics:
Content common to the English Standard and English Advanced courses is undertaken through a unit of work called Reading to Write: Transition to Senior English. Students explore texts and consolidate skills required for senior study.
Two additional modules: Critical Study of Literature, and Narratives that Shape our World in which students explore, examine and analyse the ways in which texts and contexts shape and are shaped by different attitudes and values.
YEAR 12 Topics:
The HSC Common Content consists of one module Texts and Human Experiences common to the HSC English Standard, the HSC English Advanced and the HSC English Studies courses where students analyse and explore texts and apply skills in synthesis.
Three additional modules emphasise particular aspects of shaping meaning and representation, questions of textual integrity and ways in which texts are valued.
Post School Options:
Given that 2 units of English are necessary in order to achieve an ATAR, universities and other tertiary institutions require 2 units of English to be studied (regardless of level). There are no prerequisites for courses that mandate English Advanced. Students who elect to study English Advanced could pursue courses in writing, the Arts, Humanities etc.