English: key texts and background resources for senior studies, including the area of study Belonging. Helen Sykes has been an English teacher, a bookseller, a publisher, and an author and editor of resources for English teaching. She is a life member of the English Teachers Association of New South Wales.

1. Belonging
Helen Sykes

2. Area of study
 Common course for all Standard and
Advanced students
 The first of 4 modules in each course
 ESL course – same Area of Study, but
different text selection and different exam
 The first of 3 modules

3. What is the Area of Study?
 the exploration of a concept that affects
our perceptions of ourselves and our
world.
 students explore the concept through:
 close study of ONE text
 responding to and composing a wide
range of related texts

4. Advanced and standard
14 prescribed texts

5. Prescribed texts – prose fiction
or non-fiction
 The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
 The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
 Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
 Swallow the Air by Tara Winch
 Romulus, My Father by Raimond Gaita

6. Prescribed texts – drama or film
or Shakespeare
 The Crucible by Arthur Miller
 Rainbow’s End by Jane Harrison
 Strictly Ballroom directed by Baz Luhrmann
 Ten Canoes directed by Rolf De Heer
 As You Like It by William Shakespeare

7. Prescribed texts – poetry
 Immigrant Chronicle by Peter Skrzynecki
 Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson
 The Simple Gift by Steven Herrick

8. Resources for prescribed texts
 Gale HSC list available to libraries who
have a subscription to the Literature
Resource Centre or to those who have a
SLNSW card
 Nelson Belonging: a text for senior english
students by Dwayne Hopwood

9. Prescribed texts – ESL
Prose Fiction
The China Coin by Allan Baillie
Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Swallow the Air by Tara Winch
Drama
Educating Rita by Willy Russell
Rainbow’s End by Jane Harrison

10. Prescribed texts – ESL
Poetry
Immigrant Chronicle by Peter Skrzynecki
Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson
Nonfiction
Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung

11. Prescribed texts – ESL
Film or Multimedia
Rabbit-Proof Fence directed by Phillip Noyce
Billy Elliot directed by Stephen Daldry
Multicultural Programs Unit, NSW Dept
of Education and Training, Making
Multicultural Australia
www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au

12. The concept

13. Choosing related texts
 Quality texts
 Texts that give you an opportunity to
discuss language features and
conventions
 A variety of texts
 Texts with similar ideas to those in your
prescribed text
 Texts with contrasting ideas to those in
your prescribed text

14. Graphic novel
 The Arrival
 Shaun Tan

15. Picture book
 Mirror
 Jeannie Baker

16. Picture book
 Vampyre
 Margaret Wild
and Andrew Yeo

17. Picture book
 Shake a Leg
 Boori Monty Pryor
and Jan Ormerod

18. Picture book
 The Dream of the
Thylacine
 Margaret Wild and
Ron Brooks

19. Picture book for older readers
 The Island
 Armin Greder

20. Graphic novel
 The Sacrifice
 Bruce Mutard

21. Picture book for older readers
 Woolvs in the
Sitee
 by Margaret
Wild, illustrated
by Anne
Spudvilas

22. Multimodal text for older readers
 Requiem for a
Beast
 Matt Ottley

23. Picture book
 Ziba Came on a Boat
 by Liz Lofthouse,
illustrated by Robert
Ingpen

24. Graphic novel
 Tyranny: I Keep
You Thin
 Lesley Fairfield

25. Graphic novel
 Ubby’s Underdogs:
The Legend of the
Phoenix Dragon
 Brenton E.
McKenna

26. Verse novel for young adults
 Nine Hours
North
 by Tim
Sinclair

27. Poetry anthology
 The Penguin
Anthology of
Australian Poetry
 edited by John
Kinsella

28. Non-fiction anthology
 Growing up
Asian in
Australia
 edited by
Alice Pung

29. Autobiography
 The Happiest
Refugee
 Anh Do

30. Picture book
 The Little Refugee
 Anh Do and
Suzanne Do
 Illustrated by Bruce
Whatley

31. Picture book
 The Peasant
Prince
 Li Cunxin and Anne
Spudvilas

32. Non-fiction for young adults
 The Glory
Garage
 by Nadia Jamal
and Taghred
Chandab

33. Adult short stories
 Interpreter of
Maladies
 Jhumpa
Lahiri

34. Adult short stories
 A Thousand
Years of
Good Prayers
 Yiyun Li

35. Short stories for young adults
 Town
 James Roy

36. Short stories for young adults
 Ten out of
Ten: A
collection of
short stories
 Allan Baillie et al.

37. Television drama
 Jane Eyre
 directed by
Sandy Welch

38. Television drama
 Sense and
Sensibility
 scripted by
Andrew
Davies

39. Film
 Skin
 directed by
Anthony Fabian

40. Adult novel
 Jasper Jones
 Craig Silvey

41. Young adult novel
 The Bridge
Jane Higgins
Post-apocalyptic
novel
New Zealand author

42. Young adult novel
 The Ink Bridge
 Neil Grant

43. Young adult novel
 The Adoration of
Jenna Fox
Mary E. Pearson
Science fiction novel
American author

44. Young adult novels
 The Spare
Room
 by Kathryn
Lomer

45. Young adult novel
 The Reformed
Vampire
Support Group
 Catherine Jinks

46. Young adult novel
 Liar
 Justine Larbalestier

47. Young adult novel
 Mice
 Gordon Reece

48. Young adult novel
 Little Brother
 Cory Doctorow

49. Young adult novel
 Sprout
 Dale Peck

50. Young adult novels
 Auslander
 by Paul
Dowsell

51. Young adult novel
 Exposure
 by Mal Peet

52. Young adult novel
 Destroying
Avalon
 by Kate
McCaffrey

53. Young adult novel
 In Ecstasy
 by Kate
McCaffrey

54. Young adult novel
 Does My
Head Look
Big in This?
 Randa Abdel-
Fattah

55. Young adult novel
 Ten Things I
Hate About
Me
 Randa Abdel-
Fattah

56. Young adult novel
 The Astonishing
Life of Octavian
Nothing
M. T. Anderson
Historical novel
American author

57. The first ever young adult
novel?
 The Catcher
in the Rye
 by J. D.
Salinger

58.  Over a certain age, people who grew up
and went to school in Western countries
can be conveniently divided into two
groups: those who read The Catcher in
the Rye and found it whiny, pretentious,
and self-involved, and those who read The
Catcher in the Rye and found it
meaningful, revolutionary and life-altering,

59.  only to realize later, once the really scary
hormones got washed out their system,
that it is, in fact, whiny, pretentious, and
self-involved.
 From an online review of King Dork –
http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com

60. Young adult novel
 King Dork
 by Frank
Portman

61. Young adult novel
 Spud
 by John van
de Ruit

62. Young adult novel
 Big Fat
Manifesto
Susan Vaught
High interest teen
title for girls
American author

63. Young adult novel
 Deadline
 Chris Crutcher

64. Young adult novel
 Just in Case
 Meg Rosoff

65. Adult novel
 The Secret
River
 Kate
Grenville

66. Adult novel
 The Reluctant
Fundamentalist
 Mohsin Hamid

67. Adult novel
 Ransom
 David Malouf

68. Adult novel
 The Vagrants
 Yiyun Li

69. Adult novel
 Montana
1948
 by Larry
Watson

70. Adult novel
 The Help
 Kathryn Stockett

71. Adult novel
 Butterfly
 Sonya
Hartnett

72. Novella
 Metamorphosis
and other
stories
 by Franz Kafka