Qualified English Teacher, BA/BT UNE, Registered with VIT, located in Berwick Victoria 3806. Contact 0418 440 277, email contact@englishtutorlessons.com.au
This post is for Haileybury Year 12 VCE English students who are studying Units 3 & 4 Reading and Responding to Texts in 2025.
Congratulations to Kiran Year 12 at Haileybury one of my students from 2024 who achieved a perfect 50 for English and a perfect 99.95 ATAR score.
Term 1A Essays Due Term 1 SAC 2025
Stream 1 = I am teaching Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez – contact me for help with your essay preparation with final drafts due first week back at school in 2025 for SAC 1 Unit 3.
Stream 2 = I am teaching Oedipus the King by Sophocles – contact me for help with your essay preparation with final drafts due first week back at school in 2025 for SAC 1 Unit 3.
Term 3 SAC 2025
I am teaching Sunset Boulevard by Director Billy Wilder – contact me for help with your essay preparation and revision for SAC 2 Unit 4 due week 4 in 2025.
Online Tuition Using Zoom
Fees for one-on-one Lessons = $80 per 1 hour
Lessons include notes on the texts with essay scaffolding of prompts
Contact me to discuss a class tailor-made just for you:
This post is for Narre Warren South P12 College Year 12 VCE English students who are studying Units 3 & 4 Reading and Responding to Texts in 2025 and Unit 3 Creating Texts Writing about Personal Journeys.
Term 1 SAC 2025
I am teaching Oedipus the King by Sophocles – contact me for help with your essay preparation and revision for SAC 1 Unit 3 due week 7 in 2025.
Term 2 SAC 2025 Creating Texts Writing about Personal Journeys
I am teaching Creating Texts Writing about Personal Journeys – contact me for help with your creative writing on Personal Journeys preparation, understanding Personal Journeys Framework with Mentor Texts, adopting Titles and Stimulus Statements in Personal Journeys Writing and completing the Written Commentary for SAC 1 Unit 3 Part 1 due week 3 and Part 2 due week 6 in 2025.
Term 3 SAC 2025
I am teaching We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson – contact me for help with your essay preparation and revision for SAC 2 Unit 4 due week 8 in 2025.
Online Tuition Using Zoom
Fees for one-on-one Lessons = $80 per 1 hour
Lessons include notes on the texts with essay scaffolding of prompts and incorporating Mentor Texts in Writing about Personal Journeys
Contact me to discuss a class tailor-made just for you:
This post is for Alkira Secondary College 12 VCE English students who are studying Units 3 & 4 Reading and Responding to Texts in 2025 and Unit 3 Creating Texts Writing about Protest.
Term 1 SAC 2025 Creating Texts Writing about Protest
I am teaching Creating Texts Writing about Protest – contact me for help with your creative writing on protest preparation, understanding Protest Framework with Mentor Texts, adopting Titles and Stimulus Statements in Protest Writing and completing the Written Commentary for SAC 1 Unit 3 due week 6 in 2025.
Term 2 SAC 2025
I am teaching We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson – contact me for help with your essay preparation and revision for SAC 1 Unit 3 due week 6 in 2025.
Term 3 SAC 2025
I am teaching Sunset Boulevard by Director Billy Wilder – contact me for help with your essay preparation and revision for SAC 2 Unit 4 due week 9 in 2025.
Online Tuition Using Zoom
Fees for one-on-one Lessons = $80 per 1 hour
Lessons include notes on the texts with essay scaffolding of prompts and incorporating Mentor Texts in Writing about Protest
Contact me to discuss a class tailor-made just for you:
This post is for Nossal High School Year 12 VCE English Students who are studying Units 3 & 4 Reading and Responding to Texts in 2025.
Term 1 SAC 2025
I am teaching False Claims of Colonial Thieves by Kinsella and Green – contact me for help with your essay preparation and revision for SAC 1 Unit 3 due week 7 in 2025.
Term 3 SAC 2025
I am teaching Twelfth Night by Shakespeare – contact me for help with your essay preparation and revision for SAC 2 Unit 4 due week 9 in 2025.
Online Tuition Using Zoom
Fees for one-on-one Lessons = $80 per 1 hour
Lessons include notes on the texts with essay scaffolding of prompts
Contact me to discuss a class tailor-made just for you:
This post is for Sacred Heart Girls’ College Oakleigh Year 12 VCE English students who are studying Units 3 & 4 Reading and Responding to Texts in 2025.
Term 1 SAC 2025
I am teaching False Claims of Colonial Thieves by Kinsella and Green – contact me for help with your essay preparation and revision for SAC 1 Unit 3 due week 6 in 2025.
Term 3 SAC 2025
I am teaching Oedipus the King by Sophocles – contact me for help with your essay preparation and revision for SAC 2 Unit 4 due week 7 in 2025.
Online Tuition Using Zoom
Fees for one-on-one Lessons = $80 per 1 hour
Lessons include notes on the texts with essay scaffolding of prompts
Contact me to discuss a class tailor-made just for you:
This post is for St Francis Xavier College 12 VCE English students who are studying Units 3 & 4 Reading and Responding to Texts in 2025.
Term 1 SAC 2025
I am teaching Sunset Boulevard by Director Billy Wilder – contact me for help with your essay preparation and revision for SAC 1 Unit 3 due week 7 in 2025.
Term 3 SAC 2025
I am teaching We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson – contact me for help with your essay preparation and revision for SAC 2 Unit 4 due week 10 in 2025.
Online Tuition Using Zoom
Fees for one-on-one Lessons = $80 per 1 hour
Lessons include notes on the texts with essay scaffolding of prompts
Contact me to discuss a class tailor-made just for you:
My Melbourne based online English tutoring service provides the one-on-one attention that may be missing from school.
Based in Berwick in Melbourne Victoria, I can reach students all across Victoria via online classes using ZOOM.
I am a Year 12 VCE specialist with experience teaching the VCE Curriculum for English.
English does not have to be difficult
Using a tutor can help. With a strong grasp of English you can enhance your academic performance across many other subjects and this knowledge will transfer into your further studies and future career paths.
Would you like to know what makes a good essay?
Are you a Science/Maths loving student for whom English is a weak point? I can explain the correct format for essays and provide you with notes on all texts and full scaffolding of essay prompts.
Are you stressed about writing essays for Unit 3 Creating Texts & Unit 4 Reading & Responding to Texts?
My knowledge of the texts for year 12 is comprehensive. This knowledge will help you to explore the depth of skills required for Unit 3 Creating Texts Frameworks and Unit 4 Reading & Responding to Texts in 2025.
I have a proven track record of helping students to achieve high ATAR Scores in English.
Do you need help in Unit 4 Analysing Argument in Year 12 English?
I will de-mystify Language Analysis for you and give you the confidence to answer both components of Audio/Visual Analysing Argument & Article Analysis. I will help you research topics for Presenting a Point of View with an Oral Presentation.
Join me on your learning adventure to achieve A+ in English.
Contact me to discuss a tailor-made program just for you:
This Resource is for students in Year 12 studying ‘Sunset Boulevard’ Film Directed by Billy Wilder in AOS1: Unit 3, Reading & Responding to Texts, Analytical Text Response, in the Victorian VCE 2025 Mainstream English Curriculum
The Year 12 Study Guide for Analytical Texts – Context in Which a Text is Created and Read
Consider the ways in which meaning is affected by the contexts in which a text is created and read. The readers historical context shapes their response to and interpretation of a text. An Analytical text response therefore must demonstrate a close knowledge of the ‘world of the text’ that is the world literally outside the text. The ‘world of the text’ puts emphasis on historical, religious, racial, gender, social values, cultural values, attitudes, and behaviours of the period of time the text is based on.
What does the ‘World of the Text’ Look Like?
America in the 1950’s
Post-war America had entered into a period of unprecedented economic prosperity. It was a time of fiscal growth – driven by a number of factors including the rapidly developing car industry and a housing boom – increased consumerism and employment opportunities. The film industry was booming despite a repressive political climate.
HUAC Committee to Counter Communism
Politically the 1950’s was a deeply conservative decade, dominated by the Cold War and fear of communism. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) had been established to counter the communist ‘menace’ and intensified its efforts to flush out and vilify those viewed as a threat to the American way of life. A purge ensued that divided and damaged Hollywood. Right wingers testified against friends and colleagues, while directors and actors who were suspected of communist affiliations were targeted by the HUAC and blacklisted. Wilder had experienced Nazi Germany and was opposed to the overreach of the HUAC. He supported Hollywood professionals who had been targeted by the HUAC and refused to endorse the oath of allegiance proposed by the Screen Directors Guild.
Conservative 1950’s Gender Roles
In the 1950’s gender roles were clearly delineated and society was extremely conservative. Women were largely dependent on men, economically and socially. Although Hollywood was one of the few contexts in which women could have careers as actresses, all the power structures in the film were invested in men. Society was patriarchal and this male-dominated hierarchy did not start to change until the late 1960’s with the advent of the feminist movement.
How does the Context of 1950’s America Influence Sunset Boulevard?
The Film Noir Conventions in Sunset Boulevard
Noir films explore the underbelly of the human experience = Showcases a bleak, nihilistic world of moral corruption and human fallibility. Anti-hero protagonist – Joe Gillis – talented but disillusioned scriptwriter – becomes Norma’s gigolo – toy boy lover bought and sold by aging actress – has the ‘perfect’ Hollywood lifestyle of endless champagne and caviar, expensive clothes, but it’s a cliché he hates it because he has to sell his soul – “The poor dope, he always wanted a pool. Well, he got one but the price turned out to be a little high”.
Typically gloomy, oppressive settings, shadowy lighting shot in black & white to contribute to the ambience of brooding menace = The darkness of Sunset Boulevard reflected the disenchantment of the times. Pessimism and disillusionment became increasingly present in the American psyche due to the Cold War, the looming threat of atomic war, Communism “Red Scare” all manifested in a collective sense of uncertainty and paranoid behaviour. The corrupt and claustrophobic world of film noir embodied these fears.
Characters are alienated = Operate in their own bubbles rarely wanting to intersect with the outside world = in particular Norma’s reclusive lifestyle means that she seldom leaves the house, let alone Hollywood – she is tormented by her use by date – we first see Norma in the distance behind blinds with dark sunglasses covering her eyes – hence indicating both her imprisonment within her horror house and her distorted vision of the world outside. Furthermore, Wilder relates the bygone greatness of her glory days in Hollywood to a horror-inspiring confinement to the past and blindness.
Femme fatale = Norma Desmond – a grandiose dame who emasculates her male victims – juxtaposed with ‘Salome’ Biblical figure who has John the Baptist beheaded. Norma’s cigarette holder with a clip entraps her unsuspecting victims
The macabre = The chimpanzee’s macabre funeral with Norma grotesquely absorbed in the dead pet with one comic companion turning into one long nightmare for Joe – Joe recounts a disturbing dream of a monkey dancing for pennies – in a Freudian context the film noir element has alarming nightmares – for Joe he is foreshadowing his own dancing for $500 per week entrapped by Norma and his potential death – the paranoia of the 1950’s suggests the doomed ending for people under the threat of the atomic bomb
Tight concise dialogue = Use of flashbacks & voice over narrative of a dead man – Joe’s dialogue is cynical, disillusioned, and pessimistic – “Just a movie writer with a couple of B pictures to his credit”
High contrast lighting = Chiaroscuro style lighting using special placement of spotlights – juxtaposition between light and dark – film drenches dramatic moments in atmosphere – emphasises shadow and light to create dramatic tension. The darkness of the film also reflected the disenchantment of the times.
All Resources created by englishtutorlessons.com.au Online Tutoring using Zoomfor Mainstream English Students in the Victorian VCE Curriculum 2025
For Year 12 Mainstream English in 2025 I am teaching some of the selected texts from the VCAA Lists 1 & 2. I am NOT teaching every text on the 2 lists.
Congratulations to Kiran Year 12 at Haileybury one of my students from 2024 who achieved a perfect 50 for English and a perfect 99.95 ATAR score.
