A Summer Holiday Checklist for Advanced English

[darcyynic]

Congratulations! You’ve made it through an ENTIRE term of English Advanced and now it’s the Summer Holidays. The holidays are a brilliant time to recuperate, but they are also a fantastic way to get ahead and start working towards achieving your goals in Advanced English. The first step to using your holidays wisely is to actually take some time off. The first term of Year 12 is a stressful beast so make sure you take some time to go to the beach, read a non-prescribed book, watch some Netflix, go for a walk, bake a cake, exercise, and sleep!

But, once you’ve recovered, I recommend getting stuck into some holiday study for Advanced. It doesn’t have to be much, but doing anything at all for your studies over the Summer Holidays is the absolute BEST way to get ahead for the next year. If you begin studying a few hours a week now, you won’t feel as stressed + rushed when term begins and you’ll relieve some pressure from exam periods.

Your Summer workload doesn’t have to be much at all, but I know that I also found it difficult to know where to start, so here is a compiled list of the possible things you COULD (not should!) do. It is not necessary to do all of them, but if you want to get a head start on that Band 6 (or any other goal), then beginning now is one of the best ways to do so.

Read (and Re-Read!) Your Texts

English is a text based subject, so to do well, it’s pretty important to know your texts inside and out. You are most likely to have completed the Common Module by these Summer Holidays, so I would suggest rereading your prescribed Human Experience text. As you re-read it (or read it for the first time if you were slightly slack during Term Four ) make sure to make connections with what you’ve been taught so far. As well as reading your Human Experience texts, I recommend reading the next text to be studied. My school did Module A (the old one) next, so I made sure to read Pride and Prejudice during the holidays so that I had a better understanding of it before term commenced. Doing this will mean that you are more relaxed during your classes and will be more open to your teacher’s insights as you won’t have to struggle to understand.

Research!

The way I got ahead in my HSC was by reading scholarly articles and critical theory. This reading was totally optional, but by getting it done during the holidays, when there were no exams or assessments looming, I had a more sophisticated understanding of English and literature in general. Find as many articles on platforms like JSTOR as you can about your prescribed and related texts and begin taking notes, including any quotes that might be useful. As well as text-specific articles, I would suggest reading into critical theory. It is important to know how texts are positioned within the literary field and to do this, you need to know the theory. Simply look up literary theory for dummies and begin delving into the incredible (and sometimes confusing) world of critical analysis.

Complete Quote/Technique/Effect Tables

By the Summer Holidays, you should have completed at least one module. These holidays are consequently the perfect time to compile a Quote/Technique/Effect Table for the texts you have already studied. At the end of this article I have attached a blank table for the Human Experience which you can use to guide you. If you want to make your own, just make up a four columned table with the titles Sentence from the Rubric / Quote / Technique / Effect. By making this table now, you will have compiled all of the useful quotes that you’ll need as well as all of the techniques and ideas you will refer to in your future essays.

Write Context Notes

Literature is never written in isolation – it is always created in relation to the wider world. Thus, writing a brief summary of context for all of the texts you’ve studied so far is an excellent way to cultivate a deeper understanding. You can structure the notes as following:

-   Personal Context (of the author)
-   Historical Context (specific events or forces which shaped the wider society of the author)
-   Cultural Context (which relates to the artistic trends of the time)

Attempt Some Practice Questions

The Summer Holidays are meant for relaxing, so I wouldn’t recommend writing full essays (unless you want to.) Instead, I suggest that you just do brief essay plans. Compile a big list of possible questions for as many aspects of the rubric as possible and then set about answering them with a full thesis statement and then an outline of three (or four) points that you want to make with quotes to back you up. By doing this, you will enrich your understanding of the module while also beginning exam preparation.

Teach Yourself the Next Module

If you like, get a headstart on the next module. Print out the rubric and look up some resources for the prescribed text. If your module requires a related text, start brainstorming some ideas. Look up some plot summaries/analyses of the prescribed and start annotating your copy. Basically, if you feel up to it, just begin laying a foundation for next term’s content so that you are just able to rock into the new school year like a total boss!

Outline Your Goals for the Coming Year

Knowing what you actually want to achieve is another step you should take during the Summer Holidays. Write down specifically what mark you want to receive overall and outline what you’ll need in each assessment (and final exam) to make that happen. Pin it on a board or make it your home screen. Just keep it somewhere you’ll see it often because it’ll serve as a constant reminder of what you want to achieve and how to get there.

And that's all! Good luck. Feel free to send me any questions about English that you might have. Remember to take a break, eat some good food, get some sleep, and if you feel like it and want to excel, get stuck into some of the activities in this checklist and you’ll be well on your way to achieving your personal best in Advanced English.

Lots of love,
Darcy

[nishta]

Hi Darcy,

To what extent would you talk about critical theory in advanced essays? I am looking at The Tempest for Mod A, and considering integrating postocolonial theory. How would you integrate this into a paragraph?

Thanks 

[darcyynic]

Hi Darcy,

To what extent would you talk about critical theory in advanced essays? I am looking at The Tempest for Mod A, and considering integrating postocolonial theory. How would you integrate this into a paragraph?

Thanks 

Hey Nishta!

This is an excellent question.

So for Module A, the essays are comparative as the unit is called Textual Conversations. The other text for The Tempest is Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood, so you would bring up the postcolonial theory in terms of how reading the two texts together enriches the other.

For example, you could argue that Hag-Seed enlightens The Tempest's audience to the possible postcolonial readings of the play which thus adds more significance and value to both texts. For example, the possible postcolonial interpretation of the play is seen particularly when Felix is assigning roles and he asks the inmates how they would describe the character of Caliban and they give answers such as "like a savage" and "slave." You could argue that this interpretation of Caliban's character might not have been picked up by Shakespeare's audience due to the fact that the British Empire was still on the rise, but when the play is considered in a postcolonial context (which is empowered through reading the play alongside Hag-Seed) another layer of meaning and insight is given to the text.

Basically, in a Module A essay you have to integrate the theory into a paragraph about how the texts mutually reappraise each other, rather than just exploring the theory in terms of one text. Theory isn't super important in a Module A essay (I would contend that it is more important in a Mod B essay which revolves around a single text and its integrity over time) but it's certainly a way to boost your marks if it helps to answer the question.

I haven't studied the new syllabus, but I have read Hag-Seed and Mod A is quite similar to the old Mod A so I hope this advice is useful.

Darcy

[nishta]

Hey Nishta!

This is an excellent question.

So for Module A, the essays are comparative as the unit is called Textual Conversations. The other text for The Tempest is Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood, so you would bring up the postcolonial theory in terms of how reading the two texts together enriches the other.

For example, you could argue that Hag-Seed enlightens The Tempest's audience to the possible postcolonial readings of the play which thus adds more significance and value to both texts. For example, the possible postcolonial interpretation of the play is seen particularly when Felix is assigning roles and he asks the inmates how they would describe the character of Caliban and they give answers such as "like a savage" and "slave." You could argue that this interpretation of Caliban's character might not have been picked up by Shakespeare's audience due to the fact that the British Empire was still on the rise, but when the play is considered in a postcolonial context (which is empowered through reading the play alongside Hag-Seed) another layer of meaning and insight is given to the text.

Basically, in a Module A essay you have to integrate the theory into a paragraph about how the texts mutually reappraise each other, rather than just exploring the theory in terms of one text. Theory isn't super important in a Module A essay (I would contend that it is more important in a Mod B essay which revolves around a single text and its integrity over time) but it's certainly a way to boost your marks if it helps to answer the question.

I haven't studied the new syllabus, but I have read Hag-Seed and Mod A is quite similar to the old Mod A so I hope this advice is useful.

Darcy

Thanks a heap! This was super helpful 

[amal.rabbani]

Very good advice.