About the Stage 6 HSC Area of study:
Belonging: Foundation, consolidation & revision rap
Online discussion and resources for you

This HSC Belonging: Foundation, consolidation and revision rap is available in Term 1, 2009.

The rap supports an exploration of the concept of belonging, or not belonging, for the Stage 6 HSC English Standard, Advanced, and ESL Area of study. It provides resources, activities and a discussion blog to complement the class work of HSC students, and also assist with consolidation and revision work.

HSC students will have the opportunity to ask questions of authors, Nadia Wheatley and Matt Ottley. A videoconference with Jeannie Baker will be available for NSW government schools. Class groups and individual HSC students are welcome to join the rap.

Area of study

An Area of study is the exploration of a concept that affects our perceptions of ourselves and our world. Students:

• explore, analyse, question and articulate the ways in which perceptions of this concept are shaped in and through a variety of texts
• explore and examine relationships between language and text, and interrelationships among texts
• examine closely the individual qualities of texts while considering the texts’ relationships to the wider context of the Area of study
• synthesise ideas to clarify meaning and develop new meanings
• take into account whether aspects such as context, purpose and register, text structure, stylistic features, grammatical features and vocabulary are appropriate to the particular text.

The Area of study integrates the range and variety of practices students undertake in their study and use of English. It provides students with opportunities to explore, assess, analyse and experiment with:

• meaning conveyed, shaped, interpreted and reflected in and through texts
• ways texts are responded to and composed
• ways perspective may affect meaning and interpretation
• connections between and among texts
• how texts are influenced by other texts and contexts.

Students’ responses to texts are supported by their own composition of, and experimentation with, imaginative and other texts. They explore ways of representing events, experiences, ideas, values and processes, and consider the ways in which changes of form and language affect meaning.

The Area of study and the prescribed texts are subject to periodic evaluation and review. Refer to the Board of Studies NSW for current information.

The Area of study for 2009 to 2012 is Belonging. Students should be aware of the rubric which describes the aspects of the concept which must be studied. There is a different rubric for Standard and Advanced students, on the one hand, and ESL students, on the other. Standard and Advanced students (p. 10), on the one hand, and ESL students (p. 24), on the other.

The generic descriptions of Area of Study in the English Stage 6 Syllabus for Standard (p.32), Advanced (p.50) and ESL (p.72), are also relevant.

Prescribed texts

The current list of prescribed texts for HSC English 2009 to 2012 is available from the Board of Studies NSW (pp.10-11).

As indicated in the English Stage 6 syllabus: In addition, [to the prescribed text(s)] students will explore texts of their own choosing relevant to the Area of Study. Students draw their chosen texts from a variety of sources, in a range of genres and media.

Texts of your own choosing

These texts can be drawn from a variety of sources, in a range of genres and media, such as:

 Rap texts – Multimedia (picture books)

The following picture books* will be considered during this rap:

Baker, Jeannie. Belonging
Baker, Jeannie. Window
Gaiman, Neil& McKean Dave. Signal to noise
Ottley, Matt. Requiem for a beast
Tan, Shaun. Tales from suburbia
Tan, Shaun. The arrival
Tan, Shaun. The lost thing
Tan, Shaun. The red tree
Wheatley, Nadia & Rawlins, Donna. My place

*any available edition, for example, in your school library.

Cover illustration by Jeannie Baker Cover reproduced with kind permission of Walker Books Australia Pty. Ltd., Sydney Do not reproduce	Cover illustration by Matt Ottley Cover reproduced with kind permission of Hachette Children’s Books, Sydney, Australia Do not reproduce
Cover illustration by Shaun Tan Cover reproduced with kind permission of Hachette Children’s Books, Sydney, Australia Do not reproduce	Cover illustration by Donna Rawlinsr Cover reproduced with kind permission of Walker Books Australia Pty. Ltd., Sydney Do not reproduce

Planning and programming

Syllabus outcomes Stage 6
Introductions & focus question
Rap point 1
Rap point 2
Rap point 3
Videoconference
Authors online
Wrap up

Dates

Coordinators

Lizzie Chase, Review Coordinator, and Cathy Sly, School Libraries and Information Literacy Unit, will guide you through the rap, providing professional advice, encouragement and support for rappers.

Michael Murray, CEO English, and Prue Greene, SCA 7–12, English, Curriculum K−12 Directorate, will also be available online for curriculum support during the rap.

Joining the rap

From 2 February 2009, class groups and individual HSC English students may participate in the HSC Belonging: Foundation, consolidation and revision rap by going to the HSC Belonging blog. Instructions on registering a username for your class group are available. Teachers encouraging individual students to participate, for example as a homework or revision study activity, could consider:

• registering a class username for all students to use, or
• advising students to register individually, abiding by internet etiquette.

After registering

You will receive a confirmation email from Edublogs. Make a note of the username and the password (which can be changed). Go to HSC Belonging blog to post a message in Comments from 2 February 2009.