Transcript Teaching Fat Books Again - Association of Independent Schools of
The retreat from critical literacy in the Australian Curriculum Association Independent Schools Annual English Conference Sydney, September 2011 David Hastie, St Paul’s Grammar School
From the Board of Studies English K-10 Syllabus Draft, 1 August, 2011 (stage 4) 4.22 spelling – understand how to use knowledge of the spelling system to spell unusual and technical words accurately, for example those based on uncommon Greek and Latin roots 4.19 nominalisation – understand the effect of nominalisation in the writing of informative and persuasive texts
Anachronistic A term of symbolic violence But familiar A test case http://horrortree.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/attack-of-the-50-ft-book.jpg
CURRENT NSW Critical Literacy/ emancipatory NEW AUS. CURRICULUM soft canonical Sceptical/ de authorizing knowledge Transcendent/ hierarchical knowledge
1911-1971: Skills/ Cultural Heritage
1971- 1999: Skills/ Cultural Heritage/ Personal Growth
1999- 2011: Vocationalism/ Cultural Heritage/ Aesthetics/ Emancipation
◦ Foursquare ‘hybrid’ curricula ‘Emancipatory’ Cultural heritage Aesthetics Vocationalism http://www.rat-race-escape artists.com/images/education_cart oon.jpg
• Arnold: ‘the best said and done’ • Aesthetics Leavis: the text as authority http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/feb/17/reading-overrated-rick gekoski
• • Reader-response theory • 1967 Dartmoor Anglo- American conference of English the ‘New English’ • • neo-marxisms, feminist, queer, postcolonial, discourse, New Historicist, psychoanalytical theories radically democratic/ libertarian http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/emancipation-day
• Human Capital Theory • Karmel, 1962 Buntine Oration • Regan/ Thatcher • Metherill/ Dawkins • Naplan/ MySchool
Cultural heritage Aesthetics Personal Growth ‘Canonical’ Emancipatory/ Critical Literacy ‘Language Skills’ Vocationalism
Literature strand The store-house of ‘correct’ language in the language strand The retreat from Critical literacy “Literature is... valued for their form and style and are recognised as having enduring or artistic value.” (AEC 2010) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/ 4/48/ShakespeareQuestion.jpg
BOS stages 1-3 “The syllabus emphasises the development of Critical Literacy. This involves students in questioning, challenging and evaluating the texts that they listen to, read and view. Critical Literacy enables students to perceive how texts position readers to take a particular view of people and events.” BOS stages 4-5 “identify bias and attitudes such as sexism and racism in texts...identify cultural assumptions in texts including those about gender, ethnicity, religion, youth, age, sexuality, disability, cultural diversity, social class and work.” And much more......
Every year , k-10 students must experience ◦ “texts which are widely regarded as quality literature” ◦ Retaining mandatory Shakespearean text in stage 5.
◦ “a widely defined Australian literature, including texts written from the perspective of and about Aboriginal[s] ◦ ◦ “a wide range of literary texts from other countries and times” students to explore and appreciate the rich tradition of texts from and about the people and countries of Asia
In stages 4-5, (although not stages 1-3) students must experience: “a wide range of cultural, social and gender perspectives, popular and youth cultures” outcome 6.4-6.5 in stage 4-5; 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.11 and 7.15 (some of the wording from the existing BOS documents is used). Also stage 5, 1.12 and 7.4-7.13: notions of ‘positioning’ retained.
◦ ◦ Federal AEC K-10 “standard grammatical terminology within a contextual framework” and “structure ( syntax ) and meaning (semantics) at the level of the word, the sentence and the text .” (AEC K-10) Reversion to pre -structuralism (hence pre-functional, pre-deconstructionist, pre-critical linguistics etc) The BOS draft has done away with such silly meta- grammatical terms But a massive ‘technical’ shift dominates the content of the (168 page) draft = ‘authoritative’ rather than ‘critical’ language approaches
Bloom ‘the hermeneutic of complaint’(1991): “This intolerance, the self-congratulation, smugness, sanctimoniousness, the retreat from imaginative values, the flight from the aesthetic. It's not worth being truly outraged about. Eventually these people will provide their own antidote, because they will perish of boredom.” http://www.thenewdorkreviewofbooks.com/2011_05_01_archive.html
Ranters: left wing (Turner 2008; Slattery 2008a, 2008b); right wing (Donnelly 2006, 2008; Divine) et al.
Famous recanters: Eagleton (2008); Said (1991); Derrida: “[deconstruction doesn’t mean simply destroying the norms or pushing these norms to utter chaos...[if deconstruction causes] neglect of the classical authors, the canonical texts, and so on, we should fight it.”
‘dumbing down’ of English?
Adele Horin and the pre prepared exam paper controversy
Sarah Golsby-Smith (2007): ◦ “the practical implications of the literary theories [of] Stage 6 2000 Syllabus are, ironically, the reverse of what the theories intend. They intend to open up a space for the ‘other’, but in doing so set the theory up as an untouchable ontology, and thus shut out questions and conversations that might threaten the sovereignty of that central ontology. The ‘other’ becomes almost inaccessible’.
The ubiquity of canonicity: Epic of Gilgamesh; the Wizard of Oz; the Bible; Shakespeare; dreaming stories of West Arnhem Land; Cloud Street, etc.
Global habits of reading Film going Literary awards ceremonies Film awards ceremonies
◦ Draft ‘Essentials English’: social class reproduction?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/mar/19/readers-recommend-television-social class-songs
• ‘Grammar’ as a form of social control: Bordieu: “linguistic ‘sense of place’ governs the degree of constraint which a given field will bring to bear on the production of discourse, imposing silence or a hyper-controlled language on some people, while allowing others the liberty of a language that is securely established.”
◦ ◦ The AEC, in ‘textual requirements’: “each text will be ‘worthy of close study’; and ‘reflect community standards and expectations’ Teachers as agents of social dissent? http://wtpotus.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/wisconsin teachers-protest-sign.jpg
Change in Zeitgiest Ambiguity fatigue http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://hollyarmishaw.com/Silencieux/sli des/16_Depression Despair.jpg&imgrefurl=http://hollyarmishaw.com/Silencieux/slides/16_Depression
The familiar/ The unfamiliar Grammar David Mitchell rants about bad spelling http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kge9ZzjsfW8 Grammar Ninja http://www.kwarp.com/portfolio/grammarninja.html
Historical approaches to language Generic resources: can be used years 6-12, in bite size pieces, and built into all many of programmes McCrum, R. (1984). The story of English. BBC McCrum, R. (2010). Globish: How English became the world's language. London. Bragg, M. (2003). The adventure of English: The biography of a language. London. The Australian English Curriculum David Hastie TTA 2011
Historical approaches to language Some Specific resources Bill Bailey on Chaucer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNEWatD0viw&feature=related of fun Chaucer prologue in Middle English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE0MtENfOMU&feature=related Chaucer prologue rap http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc8XPv_qstA&feature=related Beowulf in old English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L7VTH8ii_8&feature=related ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y13cES7MMd8&feature=related lots The Australian English Curriculum David Hastie TTA 2011
Idiom and specialization Teen culture idioms: Skating: Screenplay Inc. (2001). Dogtown and Z boys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPpUKen7Cwg&feature=relat ed http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi866255129/ (this is V cool) Australian idiom: Carey, P. (2000). True history of the Kelly Gang. Brisbane. University of Queensland Press. This is a must-It Original Jerilderie letter online at http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/our collections/treasures-curios/jerilderie-letter The Australian English Curriculum David Hastie TTA 2011
The Australian English Curriculum David Hastie TTA 2011
Parker, M & Morrison, F. (2006). Masters in Pieces. Sydney. Cambridge http://www.cambridge.edu.au/go/resource/?pid=1053 Harold Bloom's impressive lists of great books from (1994). The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages. http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/grtbloom.html
. Edward Said, E. (2000). Identity, authority, and freedom: The potentate and the traveller. Transition. No. 54 (1991), pp. 4-18. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2934899 ; (2004). Humanism and Democratic Criticism . Columbia University Press.
Dr Seuss V Shakespeare Epic Rap Battles of History http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3w2MTXBebg The Australian English Curriculum David Hastie TTA 2011
T.S. Eliot http://www.bartleby.com/200/ George Orwell on language http://www.george orwell.org/Politics_and_the_English_Language /0.html
Seamus Heaney on Eliot ( http://www.bostonreview.net/BR14.5/heane y.html
) and Hopkins ( http://lisa.revues.org/89 ).
The Australian English Curriculum David Hastie TTA 2011