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.

All Classes are online using Zoom

Check out my website for Year 11 and Year 12 Resources @ https://englishtutorlessons.com.au

The texts I will be teaching for Section A in the 2025 Exam:

• Sunset Boulevard film by Director Billy Wilder
• Oedipus the King play by Sophocles
• Chronicle of a Death Foretold novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• My Brilliant Career novel by Miles Franklin
• Twelfth Night play by William Shakespeare
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle novel by Shirley Jackson
• The Memory Police novel by Yoko Ogawa
• Go Went Gone novel by Jenny Erpenbeck
• Bad Dreams short stories by Tessa Hadley
• False Claims of Colonial Thieves poetry by Kinsella & Papertalk Green

The Frameworks I will be teaching for Section B in the 2025 Exam:

• Protest
• Personal Journeys

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:

Via email = margaretnmorris@gmail.com

This Resource is for Mainstream English Year 12 Students writing Analytical Essays for Reading and Responding to Texts AOS1 Units 3 & 4 in the SAC and VCE English Exam Section A.

It is a good idea to vary the type of words you use to write an analytical essay for Section A in the VCE English Exam. Below are helpful ways to introduce your essays, body paragraphs, conclusions and other alternative words so that your essay flows with a higher level metalanguage.

All Resources created by englishtutorlessons.com.au Online Tutoring using Zoom for Mainstream English students in the Victorian VCE Curriculum

This Resource is for Mainstream English Year 12 Students writing Analytical Essays for Reading and Responding to Texts AOS1 Units 3 & 4 in the SAC and VCE English Exam Section A.

Identifying the key elements of the topic that includes content words specify what the essay should cover. Identifying direction words (task words such as discuss, do you agree, how) tell you how to approach the essay and indicate the type of answer you should provide.

Look for limiting words – adjectives or adverbs such as ‘limited’, ‘always’, ‘essential’ and ‘inevitably’ that will have a significant impact on your response. Take these words into account when forming your opinion. Rephrase the topic in your own words and if in doubt, use a dictionary to look up words that you are unsure of, then try to answer the question.

Is there a quotation from the text in the prompt? Identify where the quotation is from in the text and who said it. What is the quotation telling you? Address the quotation in one of your body paragraphs.

Your approach to each essay will depend on what type of prompt is being asked. Regardless of whether the prompt is character/ theme/ quote/ how/ metalanguage or film technique based, you must always consider Message of Author OR Director in every body paragraph.  Does your response and contention to the prompt consider how the Author or Director feels about these issues, views and values and how they want their audience to react?

1. Discuss-based prompts:

These prompts typically require an in-depth answer that takes into account all aspects of the debate concerning a topic or argument.  It is important to have a clear Main Contention that explores your side of the answer to the topic and have a proper resolution or conclusion.  Don’t leave the discussion open-ended but make sure you conclude with a purpose.  

If you are going to challenge the prompt in your discussion, use body paragraph 2 to do this and back your challenge up with evidence from the texts.  You must demonstrate reasoning skills with this type of question, by using evidence to make a case for or against the topic/argument. It is important to note that while challenging the prompt is acceptable, do not go off topic and keep addressing the content in the topic.

2.            Character-based prompts:

These prompts focus on one or more characters if the character’s name is mentioned in the prompt.  In this case, you would most likely structure your body paragraphs based on particular characters or something in common with a set of characters.  Your examples need to be relevant to the specific character named in the prompt but also consider themes or relationships of that character with other characters.  As characters in texts are always interrelated to other, the actions of others are also connected to the themes and ideas the author is trying to convey.  Don’t forget minor characters.

3.            Theme-based prompts:

Usually your paragraphs will be based around particular themes.  For example, in this case, paragraphs may be based on ‘love’, ‘escape’, ‘horrors of war’ etc.  These paragraphs can have character discussions embedded within them in order to demonstrate how the characters represent each theme.  Discussion of the author’s choice of language such as symbols or imagery can be essential to the analysis of a theme.

4.            Quote prompts:

These prompts can be character or theme-based.  However, it differs from other essay topics because it includes a direct quote from the text.  Remember that the quote is part of the prompt, so ensure that you address it.  One of the best ways of doing so is to contextualise the quote into one of the body paragraphs and analyse it in your discussion.

5.            How question prompts:

These prompts are usually structured, ‘how does the character/event/theme do this?’  OR ‘how does the author explore the idea?’  How prompts position you to focus on the author’s writing intentions through the literary construction of the text.  This can be achieved by discussing structure, language, symbols, motifs, themes, characters and the literary techniques explored in the text and then explain how they affect the narrative and the topic in the prompt.  Use the techniques as evidence to support arguments that attack the main themes/ideas/values mentioned in the prompt.

In ‘how’ type questions in films, rather than focusing on literary construction, it is important to focus on the director’s film intentions using CAMELS = camera techniques / acting / mise en scene / editing / lighting and sound.

6.            To what extent prompts:

By asking the question “to what extent’ the prompt is asking you to discuss how one element is greater in validity than the other element.  You need to answer whether the claim is to “a greater extent” or “to a lesser extent”that the assumption in the question is valid or verifiable [provable].  Therefore, there is more than one angle to answer the question.  You need to think about your opinion but also weigh up each side to the answer and discuss both sides.  To say the question definitely was “to a greater extent” you then must build your case, support it with evidence to make it valid.  Then give the other side of the case, how it was “to a lesser extent” and support it with evidence to make it valid.

7.            Do you agree prompts:

When answering these questions, the most important thing is to work out your argument – what you think about the ideas put forward in the prompt?  Are they right, or wrong?  You need a clear Main Contention as to which way you are handling the idea behind the question.  Once you decide if you agree with the question then do not answer ‘I agree’ you must use wording that shows you understand how the author/director views this topic.  Suggested answer would be ‘the author endorses the value of [the idea in the prompt]’ OR ‘the author supports the idea that [concept from the text]’.

8.            Metalanguage or film-technique prompts:

This type of prompt is very similar to How-based prompts, specifically in the fact that the discussion of film element techniques is essential.  For this type of prompt specifically, however, the actual techniques used can form more of a basis for your arguments, unlike in How-based prompts.  Look at film techniques the Director has used to get his idea across about the character, theme or event and with the elements of the film explain how these features combine to help create the film’s overall meaning.  Suggested elements of CAMELS = camera techniques / acting / mise en scene / editing / lighting and sound.

All Resources created by englishtutorlessons.com.au Online Tutoring using Zoom for Mainstream English Students in the Victorian VCE Curriculum

This Resource is for Mainstream English Year 12 Students studying the novel ‘We have always lived in the castle’ by Shirley Jackson in Units 3 & 4 AOS 1.

Mary Katherine Blackwood (Merricat) Narrator

The opening chapter establishes Merricat as the 1^st person narrator of the novel who narrates using a mordant [harsh], sarcastic and biting tone but also grim humour from her own perspective. In her narrating she is unreliable as she can deceive readers when it suits her. She tells us from the start her relationship with her sister Constance and her opinion of the world which is clearly affected by her eccentric state of mind. “My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf” (p.1). She tells us about what she likes and dislikes “I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet (King of England in 1483 assassinated his 2 young nephews who stood in his way to the throne), and Amanita phalloides (poisonous death-cup mushroom). Everyone else in my family is dead.” (p.1)

Why is everyone dead?

Six years ago, the Blackwood family – John Blackwood (father to Merricat & Constance), Ellen Blackwood (mother), Aunty Dorothy (married to Julian, John’s brother) and Thomas (young brother of the girls) mysteriously died of arsenic poisoning at a family dinner. Julian survived but was disabled and mentally affected by the arsenic. Constance was tried for the murder of her family and acquitted, although everyone in the town believes she is guilty. What we learn late in the novel, though, is that it was Merricat, twelve years old at the time, who poisoned her family. She put arsenic in the sugar because she knew that her beloved sister Constance did not use sugar. Why Merricat poisoned her family is the strange terrain that Jackson’s novel explores. The answer is never entirely clear, although what is clear is that Jackson never gives us anything like a motive that would, from a normative [standard] perspective, to either explain Merricat’s actions or justify her family’s slaughter.

Why did Merricat poison her family?

Jackson’s Merricat shows herself to be angry, unruly, wilful, and resistant to change. She is also violent, describing her hatred for the villagers she encounters in her twice-weekly trips to the village; she imagines them suffering and dead on the ground. She also seems obsessed with punishment. What does become clear is that her family punished her for her wild behaviour, for roaming the grounds, burying objects, wielding her magic spells of protection around the sister she loves. Early on, Constance tells the one person who still visits the girls, a friend of her mother’s, Helen Clarke, that Merricat “was always in disgrace” and that she was a “wicked, disobedient child” (p.34). Later, in a scene that is crucial in illuminating her character, Merricat hides outdoors and fantasizes her parents talking about how she must never be punished, must never be sent to her bed without dinner; they tell Merricat’s brother to give her his dinner and insist that Merricat must always be “guarded and cherished” (p.96). One can only presume this is pretty much the opposite of how Merricat’s parents actually treated her.

Merricat’s parents punished her & sent her to bed without dinner

Jackson walks a fine line here. On the one hand, Merricat seems to have a primal intolerance for what seem to be quite acceptable forms of parental discipline. All we know for sure of Merricat’s past is that her parents punished her by sending her to bed without dinner. Merricat responds to these banal punishments with rage, and to the extent that she has a motive for killing her family, it seems to be precisely this intolerance for punishment. Merricat wanted revenge being sent to bed without dinner made her angry and she also did not have the loving family she wanted.

Merricat was singled out because she diverged from gender norms

There are also hints that Merricat was unfairly singled out by her parents because of her divergence from gender norms. There is no sense that her brother Thomas, who spent at least some time, for instance, climbing trees, was subject to the same discipline as Merricat. He got to eat his dinner. Merricat is clearly not a beautiful, charming young woman like Constance, and she is not a boy like Thomas. Herein, perhaps, lies some of Merricat’s rage and some of her justification.

Merricat is strange, weird, enigmatic, and possibly a psychopath or paranoid schizophrenic

Merricat is an isolated, estranged hypersensitive young female protagonist, socially maladroit [awkward], highly self-conscious and disdainful of others. At times she appears more childlike than her 18 years and behaves as if mildly retarded, but only outwardly, inwardly, she is razor sharp in her observations and hyperalert to threats to her wellbeing. Like any mentally damaged person she most fears change in unvarying rituals of her household. Merricat’s strangeness, her demonic energy, her predilection for magic and casting curses appears to be self-invented witchcraft but she does not align herself to the male power of Satan. For 100 pages she taunts readers with her sharp, teasing and at times funny voice, but tells us only what she wants us to know, and not why she has a complete absence of guilt for poisoning her family. It seems what Merricat wants is to be alone with her cat Jonas and with Constance. Is Merricat a typical product of small-town America? Much of Merricat’s time is spent outdoors. She appears like a tomboy who wanders in the woods, unwashed and her hair uncombed, distrustful of adults and of authority.

Could there be an unambiguous notion John Blackwood abused his two daughters?

One assumption for the reason Merricat poisoned her family was because their father was abusing Constance and herself. We do not know for sure that it was specifically sexual abuse, but it is only hinted at. But the absolute strangeness of Jackson’s novel, and Merricat Blackwood, is rendered glaringly familiar. At the root of it all is an abusive father: Merricat killed the abuser and the rest of the family who allowed the abuse to continue and then she saved her sister and herself. Charles’s similarities to Merricat’s father are made explicit several times in the book. He wears Mr. Blackwood’s clothes, he sleeps in his bed, he is greedy, much like Mr. Blackwood, (who kept a book full of names of people who owed him favours and cash.) Charles arrives around the same that Mr. Blackwood’s book falls of the tree, breaking Merricat’s “protective spell.” (p.53) All of this, along with a few of Merricat’s strange aspects leads us to believe that Merricat was sexually abused by her father. The rest of the family either did not know, or refused to do anything about it.

Hypothetical reasons why Merricat poisoned the family

It is never stated what Merricat did get sent to bed without supper, but if all of the previous evidence is considered, this is what might have taken place:

• Merricat is abused at least once by her father, probably fantasizing about her moon dreamhouse during the act. The mother witnesses, or is at the very least aware of the abuse, but does little to stop it.
• Merricat tells on her father to the rest of the family, who does not believe her, and she is sent upstairs without dinner. The only one who believes her is Constance, who was also possibly abused. She comforts Merricat.
• Merricat poisons the family for revenge. She chooses the sugar, knowing that Constance would not eat it.
• Constance washes the bowl immediately afterwards to hide any evidence that Merricat was the killer.
• Merricat does not just hate Charles because he reminds her of her father, she also hates him, at least subconsciously, because she fears he will abuse her the same way.

Merricat’s fantasies are alarmingly sadistic

Definitely Merricat’s fantasies are not only childish but alarmingly sadistic hating the villagers enough to see herself “…walking on their bodies” (p.10) and “I am going to put death in all their food and watch them die” (p.10). She has unmitigated hatred hoping the Elberts and their children were “lying there crying with pain and dying” (p.9). Certainly, the villagers taunt Merricat treating her like an outsider with the village children chanting a hectoring rhyme to intimidate her and embeds the notion that Constance poisoned her family “Merricat said Connie, would you like a cup of tea? Oh no, said Merricat, you’ll poison me” (p.16).

Moreover, Merricat’s hatred for cousin Charles, who has literally changed their lives when he invades the Blackwood household without having been invited, is shown clearly in Merricat’s description of him as a “ghost” (p.61) who has positioned himself at the head of the dining room table and looks like their late father. Merricat sees Charles for what he really is a scoundrel after their money and dehumanises him using her witchcraft ideas she “could turn him into a fly and drop him into a spider’s web” or she “could bury him in the hole where my box of silver dollars had been” (p.89). Merricat laughed when she found a round stone similar to the size of his head and she would bury it in the hole saying “Goodbye Charles” (p.89)

Merricat’s Confesion p. 130

Throughout the novel there is the prevailing threat of the murderous Merricat whose fantasy life is obsessed with rituals of power, dominance, and revenge “bow your heads to our beloved Mary Katherine … or you will be dead” (p.111). Certainly, it is the hideous arsenic deaths that constitute the secret heart of the novel and how could such a passive character like Constance be accused of murder when she acknowledges Merricat did poison the family on page 130. Merricat “I put it in the sugar”. Constance “I know, I knew then”. Merricat “You never used sugar”. Constance “No”. Merricat “So I put it in the sugar”. Constance sighed “Merricat we’ll never talk about it again. Never” (p.130). So, the sisters are linked forever by the deaths of their family, as in a quasi-spiritual-incestuous bond by which each holds the other in thrall.

The sisters are finally happy in their ‘castle’

It is also true that by isolating themselves after the fire from a world that hates them, treating them as others, the sisters are happy at last. Possibly Merricat who is psychologically damaged would not survive in a world of normal people and Constance helps to protect her sister from the cruel people and live in their house that had turned into a magical place transformed “Our house was a castle, turreted and open to the sky” (p.120). Against all expectations the Blackwood sisters are happy in their private paradise “on the moon” (p.133).

All Resources created by englishtutorlessons.com.au Online Tutoring using Zoom for Mainstream English Students in the Victorian VCE Curriculum

This Resource is for Mainstream English Year 12 Students studying the audio SAC assessment for Analysing Argument Unit 4, AOS 2.

Audio texts such as radio talkback shows, speeches and podcasts can be powerful forms of communication and persuasion. Listen for elements that have language choices and arguments presented along with impact of other sound elements that help to position the listener to agree.

Radio Programs / Talk Back Radio

Radio programs, especially talk back radio programs which are live to air, feature unprepared and unscripted conversations between radio presenters and listeners who call in to express their views. The radio presenters openly express their own opinions on the issues being discussed.

Audio content to listen for in relation to Issue/Arguments

• Whose viewpoint is being presented? – radio presenter – expert on issue – listeners who call in
• What is the issue?
• Does the presenter convey or openly express a point of view on the issue or story? – if so, how? – what effect does this have on the listener?
• Is the presenter open to hearing alternative points of views? – from callers on talkback – or does the presenter oppose callers and challenge their arguments?
• What persuasive techniques are presented in the discussion? – analogies / anecdotes / humour / repetition / rhetorical questions / emotive language / attacks on people or groups

Audio content to listen for in relation to speaker’s voice

SAC Assessment Criteria for Audio Content requires these audio elements to be included in your written analysis:

• Intonation – variation in pitch (note of voice) – speakers may vary their pitch depending on the response they seek to elicit from the audience – a higher pitch can be used to add additional emphasis to a rhetorical question – a lower pitch can be used to underscore that a particular argument is serious and should be carefully considered by the audience
• Pace – the speed at which a person speaks – speakers vary their pace throughout a discussion to emphasise certain points – a speaker might slow their pace to highlight a key word or concept – increase their pace to create a sense of urgency or alarm
• Pauses – breaks in the flow of the speech or conversation – intentional breaks are often used after a speaker states an important point, giving the listener time to consider what has been said – or to recall particular arguments after the conclusion of a speech
• Rhythm – a strong, regular repeated pattern of sounds – created through a pattern of stresses – steady rhythm speech can convey confidence and certainty encouraging listeners to view the speaker’s argument as strong and well founded
• Stress or emphasis – how forcefully or loudly certain words, or parts of words are said – stress can be used to emphasise words and give extra weight to repeated words – encourages listeners to give more attention to these terms and reflect on why they are important
• Tone – the mood or feeling created by word choices, delivery, and other persuasive techniques – tone helps to convey the speakers attitude towards the topic and evoke specific emotional responses from the listeners – urgent tone might position listeners to take action
• Volume – how loudly a person speaks – speakers often increase the volume of their voice to emphasise an important point or speak more quietly to encourage the audience to listen more closely in a calm reassuring tone

Sounds effects other than words

• Music – how does the music type set the atmosphere? – does the music complement or contrast with the spoken content? – how does the music convey or enhance an emotional aspect? – build suspense, express sadness, triumph, or joy
• Sound effects – do the sound effects blend or stand out? – like a jingle noise to change topics in a podcast

All Resources created by englishtutorlessons.com.au Online Tutoring using Zoom for Mainstream English Students in the Victorian VCE Curriculum

This Resource is for Mainstream English Year 12 Students studying Unit 4, AOS 2 Analysing Argument Written Text.

ANALYSING ARGUMENT = 3 elements

(1)    What is the argument the author is making?

(2)    How are the techniques used by the author & the language around arguments?

(3)    Why does this technique & language affect the audience? The author’s intention to make audience do something:

• Think something – logos – appeals to logic, research, graphs, reputable people as evidence
• Feel something – pathos – emotional response, idioms, cliches, attacks or praises, emotive language rhetorical questions
• Do something – ethos – act ethically & responsibly – call to action for the readers to actively get involved in the issue

Written Text Article Analysis = How to start annotating

• Begin at the top of the article and analyse it in a chronological order
• Look at the big picture [context] and how it may have wider considerations for the author’s arguments
• Look at the language around the arguments and how the author transitions tone and language to examine the arguments
• Do not forget all the visuals [including banners on top of websites or podcasts] and how they are relevant to the written text
• Essay start of the document is called the ‘opening strategy’ / middle is called ‘the body strategy’ and the end is called ‘the closing strategy’
• Include a brief conclusion how the author used language to persuade the audience

SAMPLE INTRODUCTION FORMAT

There is an ongoing debate about xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Context) In response to the issue is an [text form = opinion piece/letter to the Editor/Editorial/Podcast] by xxxxxxxxxx titled “xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx” published on [date] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx by the [source] xxxxxxxxxxxx (Author/Title/Source) [The author’s name] contends in a xxxxxxxx tone, that xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Tone/Contention). Her/His [text form] targets xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx positioning her/his audience with [type of language], transitioning from [example pathos to logos] (Audience). She/He bases her/his appeals to xxxxxx with “quote phrase” to stress the importance of xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Intention). The accompanying [visual form = photograph/cartoon] of xxxxxxxxxxxxx by [name of cartoonist or title of photograph] signals xxxxxxxxxxxx and endorses [author’s name] contention that xxxxxxxxx with the intention to xxxxxxxxxxxx (Visual/Intention)

All Resources created by englishtutorlessons.com.au Online Tutoring using Zoom for Mainstream English Students in the Victorian VCE Curriculum

Unit 3 AOS 2 Creating Texts Assessment = 2 Essays on the texts in consideration of audience, purpose, and form 20 marks each & Commentary on reflecting on writing process

Framework Writing about personal journeys – the texts consist of personal development as individuals have insights into their own experiences, milestones, struggles and their differences.

Within each framework there are 4 mentor texts for study:

1. ‘The Dangers of a Single Story’ (Ted Talk) by Chimamanda Ngozu Adichie
2. ‘Bidngen’ by Maya Hodge
3. ‘The Red Plastic Chair is a Vietnamese Cultural Institution and My Anchor’ by Amy Duong
4. ‘Walter’s speech’ (part 1, The Inheritance) by Matthew Lopez

Framework’s Task about Personal Journeys

The mentor texts consist of explorations of life leading into discussions about story telling. They provide a springboard for students to consider personal milestones and epiphanies or the effects of key events on your life. The texts give students the ability to draw on specific perspectives the authors develop and then use your own thoughts about personal journeys. You may want to consider the impacts of change / identity / future goals and how you have negotiated these changes that have led to life leading consequences.

Your task is to draw on the mentor texts as well as complementary texts to explore ideas and record your thoughts in a journal. You will experiment with texts, modes, writing styles and narrative perspectives. The mode of delivery of your piece will impact on your purpose and the way you convey your ideas. You must workshop and refine your pieces, taking into account contextual factors such as your audience and purpose. You will explore 4 types of writing – to express / explain / reflect or argue. You will then reflect upon your authorial choices and language features in a reflective commentary.

The 4 Mentor Texts

The mentor texts vary in tone and style. Lopez’s monologue is a heartwarming discussion about responses to the AIDs crisis during the 1980’s. Adichie’s TED Talk revolves around the nature of stereotypes and their impact upon relationships and one’s ability to control the dominant narrative. Hodge and Duong use a reflective tone and real-life anecdotes to explore their place in the family and in their physical and social environment. The texts all have an auto-biographical slant and suggest that the younger generation can learn about the journeys of trailblazers or of ancestors.

The Mentor Texts – A Brief Summary

‘The Dangers of a Single Story’ = Chimamanda Ngozu Adichie includes personal recounts about her migration experience with the perspective of a Nigerian student at an American University as the springboard for her views about stories and stereotypes. Adichie draws attention to the harmful nature of stereotypes that reduce people and their experiences to a ‘single’ flat-lined story. Adichie realises that her American ‘roommate’ is perpetuating the ‘single’ story about Africans which limits and defines their relationship as one of difference. Likewise, one of her professors does not recognise her story of middle-class professional privilege as an ‘authentic’ African story. She suggests that younger generations can learn about journeys of trailblazers or of ancestors. She refers to key African authors like Chinua Achebe who challenged European narratives of power and superiority and explored the arrogance and hypocrisy of colonial stories. Adichie broadens her narratives to criticise a political and patriarchal system that exploits and suppresses women. She considers women are devalued, reduced to sexual chattels, and conditioned to behave in submissive ways. In her multi-layered experience Adichie explores in her stories which broaden the African experience and focus on culture, courage, resilience, despair, change and dysfunction.

‘Bidngen’ = Maya Hodge includes personal recounts about her life experience with the perspective of being a Lardil person growing up on the outskirts of Mildura and her battles with racism. The story ‘bidngen’ means women and consists of 8 vignettes of Lardil women with generational racism that festers and leaves deep scars. Like Adichie, Hodge also draws attention to the harmful nature of stereotypes that reduce people and their experiences to a ‘single’ flat-lined story. She contends that to deny the diversity and enrichment of multiple stories is to limit the depth of one’s experiences and to hem people in. It is often to the power-broker’s advantage and occurs at the expense, and to the detriment of, the other. Her story focus is on the ‘Lardil girl’ and her journey as a marginalised Aborigine, whose struggle with adversity is ‘white-washed’ and her struggles for social acceptance reinforce the pain of difference. Hodge’s message is to reaffirm and recount stories of fortitude and resilience among her mother’s song lines. Her grandmother’s stories of love and commitment, continuity and belonging reinforce the uniqueness of a culture that has deep roots in their ancestral being. It is the love of her nanna who encourages her to write and share her stories, which helps her write herself into the landscape, to cherish legends that link people to place and the need to challenge stereotypes that perpetuate injustice.

‘The Red Plastic Chair is a Vietnamese Cultural Institution and My Anchor’ = Amy Duong includes personal recounts about her life experience with the perspective of being a daughter of Vietnamese migrants. Duong uses the ‘red plastic chair’ to structure her reflections. It functions as an extended metaphor from which she explores her multi-layered experience of migration. Her piece provides an example of ‘how items of cultural, historical, or nostalgic value can be used to explore personal journeys’ and broaden the significance of one’s insights. Milestones and turning points provide a springboard from which to reflect upon lifestyles and goals. They provide a chance to reset the meter and change course or to renew and refine one’s views and values. The death of her Aunty provides a chance for Amy Duong to reflect upon her cultural roots and examine the gulf between the younger generation and their elders. While she explores her sense of shame and feelings of unworthiness, the Aunt’s funeral and the mourners, each with their ‘red plastic chair’, provides a chance to reconnect with her roots. While she is emotionally challenged by her Vietnamese linguistic incompetence, there is still a sense that the language of love unites. In the end Duong comes to appreciate the sacrifices made by her relatives and the thought she should have been more grateful to them and not create a chasm within her family.

‘Walter’s speech’ (part 1, The Inheritance) = Matthew Lopez has a heightened consciousness of belonging to a generation of gay men who have lived through a sea change with his cohort seeing greyness as secretive and shameful. Lopez shows that for gay men, embracing one’s sexuality also involves loss and grief which the play reveals a silent and ongoing sense of trauma caused by the AIDs pandemic. ‘The Inheritance’ is a 2-part epic which gives a glimpse into gay life in New York, two decades after the height of the AIDs epidemic. Walter’s speech ruminates on homophobic attitudes to LGBTQI+ couples and the debilitating consequences of the AIDs virus. Lopez uses the pear tree as an extended metaphor that takes on special significance in Walter’s monologue as does the secluded setting which adds to the emotional significance of his defiance. Like the other authors who suggest that younger generations can learn about the journeys of trailblazers, Walter defends and extols the virtues and resilience of couples during the AIDs epidemic in the 1980’s. By the end of the play Lopez suggests that, despite the current political darkness, a future exists in which gay men will still be free to be themselves. His characters consider how one moves forward and puts the world back together after a calamity and the hope that the younger generation sees the future in a much more positive frame of mind that their predecessors.

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This Resource is for students in Year 12 studying Frameworks Writing about Protest in AOS2: Unit 3 Creating Texts, in the Victorian VCE 2024 Mainstream English Curriculum

Introduction to Protest

To ‘protest’ means ‘to express disapproval of’ or ‘to commit an action of dissent’. To literally stand up and be counted is to say ‘no’ or defy an order or a demand that seems unfair, unjust, or unreasonable. While protesting may begin as a personal struggle against an unjust law it invariably leads to a collective struggle as the individual is caught up in a cause beyond themselves.

According to Amnesty International, ‘everyone has the right to protest, the power to fight for justice and make a difference’.

There are 4 Protest Mentor Texts:

1. ‘On the Sydney Mardi Gras March of 1978 by Mark Gillespie
2. ‘Freedom or Death’ speech by Emmeline Pankhurst
3. ‘Harrison Bergeron’ short novel by Kurt Vonnegut
4. ‘Monologue from City of Gold’ by Meyne Wyatt

At the heart of these narratives is not just the right to protest against unfair laws and conditions as individuals push for inclusion and diversity. These authors reveal the difficulties encountered in a two-way struggle between those in positions of power who would seek to deny people their freedoms and individuals who demand their rights to seek to voice their human rights.

Assessment

2 written essay text pieces of writing considering audience, purpose and form = 20 marks each plus a commentary reflecting on the writing process

Record your Writing Process in a Journal

Students must use the mentor texts as a basis from which to explore and experiment with different text types, modes, and scenarios. Students must keep a journal in which to record their writing process and evaluate their thoughts and feelings documenting deliberate choices they have made in constructing their writing pieces.

Reflective Commentary

The reflective commentary will discuss the writing process and choices made during the process including purpose and audience of the response / form and genre / language features / impact of mentor texts on your writing / drafting and editing process and the role of feedback in shaping your decisions.

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