Adolescence to Adulthood: Unit Standard 12419
Teacher Cindy Ford - Unit Standards Writing Group (Teacher Professional Development, Victoria University)
| Year
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NCEA Level
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Suggested duration
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| 12
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2
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2-3 weeks
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| Achievement Standard Being Assessed
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Achievement Criteria
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| Unit Standard 12419 version 3: Read poetic written text closely
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- 1.1 At least one main idea in the text is explained with reference to at least one relevant section of the text.
- 1.2 The significance of a main idea in the text is analysed with reference to at least one relevant section of the text.
- 1.3 Five examples of language features are identified using appropriate terminology, and an effect of each example is analysed.
- 1.4 A technique used to shape the text is identified and analysed with reference to at least one relevant section of the text.
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Guidelines for use
This activity provides a teaching and learning framework for Unit Standard 12419, around the theme Adolescence to Adulthood. An assessment task is included, using the genre of short story.
A second assessment task, based on a different text, must also be completed in order for students to achieve this standard.
For this unit standard assessment can use texts from the same category (for example two novels or two poems) as long as they are in different styles or forms. Teachers are reminded of the need to consider 'inclusiveness' (special note 4b) with regards to text selection.
It is assumed that the class has had prior teaching on aspects of style, such as sentence structure and language techniques.
Links can be made to
Conditions
Teachers must be satisfied that the close reading work is the student's. Students should complete close reading activities under teacher supervision. If the close reading activity is to be used for summative assessment, teachers should ensure that the extent of teacher input does not compromise assessment validity; in other words, it is the work of the student.
Teachers should actively guide students through the teaching and learning tasks which lead to the summative assessment. However, any summative assessment opportunity should be completed under teacher supervision to ensure all student work is their own.
For best practice in the summative assessment task, teachers should choose a text not previously studied or an extract that has not been studied in any depth.
Students should have multiple opportunities during the year to develop their close reading skills.
Resource requirements
- The Paper Parcel, by Owen Marshall
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Thinking of Bagheera, by Owen Marshall
[The Best of Owen Marshall's Short Stories ISBN: 1-86941-336-9]
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Dustbins, by Witi Ihimaera
[Ihimaera, his best stories ISBN: 0-7900-0900-5]
- Resources A to J
Possible local adaptation
Where local adaptations are made, teachers and schools should ensure that they have:
- checked that the adapted assessment validly assesses the standard;
- checked the copyright status of any material imported into the assessment resource;
- compiled with all internal and external quality assurance requirements.
Teacher background reading
Teaching and learning activities
Select and adapt these learning activities to best meet the needs of your students, and to fit the time available.
To explore and analyse published writing, students must first take on the role of 'writer' themselves. In doing so they experience:
- selecting and shaping material to communicate idea/s;
- making language choices to create deliberate effects.
This experience provides the platform for the analysis of ideas, context, language and shaping techniques.
Student instructions
The path from infancy to adolescence, and adolescence to adulthood, is timelessly travelled, and yet the direction of each new set of foot prints is unique - the journey is always original.
In this study you will explore the experiences implicit in the journey from adolescence to adulthood, reflecting on your own life. You will write about your own experiences and read published writing that recounts particular moments of understanding and personal growth in a young person's life.
After studying the idea/s and their significance, language and shaping techniques of various texts and/or extracts in class, you will complete a close reading assessment.
You will be assessed on how well you:
- Explain one main idea in the text, with reference to at least one specific detail and/or event from the text.
- Analyse the significance of a main idea, with reference to at least one specific detail and/or event from the text. (The significance could be linked to a social, historical, physical, political or personal context.)
- Identify and analyse the effects of five language features, using correct terminology
- Identify and analyse one way the text is shaped (eg. through structure or narrative technique), with reference to at least one specific detail and/or event from the text.
You must successfully complete two close reading assessments in total, before you can be awarded Unit Standard 12419 Read poetic written text closely.
Assessment
Assessment schedule (
resource_j (RTF 20KB)
)
Note: This assessment fulfils one of the two text styes/ forms required for achievement of this standard. A second assessment, based on a different genre, must be successfully completed before you can be awarded Unit Standard 12419 Read poetic written text closely.
Thinking of Bagheera, by Owen Marshall.
Read Owen Marshall's short story, Thinking of Bagheera, independently and complete the questions that follow. You can make notes on the short story as you read. You may refer to the exemplar assessment schedule on 'Dustbins' (
resource_i (RTF 20KB)
) throughout the assessment. Make sure you support all of your answers with specific details from the text.
Bagheera is named after the powerful, sleek panther in The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. Bagheera, in Kipling's story, forms a lasting friendship with the boy child, Mowgli, and becomes his chief protector in the jungle.
Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path; for he was as cunning as Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down.
The boy pushes his father to shoot Bagheera. Explain the idea that Owen Marshall is exploring around this decision to kill Bagheera, thinking specifically about how the boy and father differ in their view of the situation.
Refer to specific moments/ lines from the story to support your comments.
Owen Marshall explores the idea of relationships between humans and animals through the relationship the boy holds with Bagheera. The boy's relationship with Bagheera is a powerful and lasting memory that he carries with him, even into adulthood.
Analyse the personal significance of this relationship for the boy, thinking specifically about what Bagheera symbolised for the boy. Refer to specific moments/ lines from the story to support your comments.
Identify the language techniques in the table below, and analyse the effect each creates.
Set you answer out in the form of a table. The last column needs to be explained in some detail.
Note: Language features can include figures of speech such as simile, metaphor, personification; sound devices such as alliteration, onomatopoeia; choice of words; irony; symbolism; grammatical usage such as simple and minor sentences; and punctuation.
| Technique
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Example
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Analysis of effect
What is created/ understood as a result of the technique
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In the jungle of the potato rows or sweet corn I would hide, waiting for him to find me
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Bagheera’s black hide flowed like deep water
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I talked to him for more than an hour, and he crawled bit by bit towards me
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His breathing made a sound like the sucking of a straw at the bottom of a fizz bottle
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Each time I looked, his eyes would be blazing there, more fiery as his sickness grew
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The shot was not loud, a compressed, hissing sound.
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Just for one moment he raced ahead of death, just for one moment left death behind.
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The gaping, yellow mouth and slender stamen nodded and rolled like a processional Chinese dragon
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Analyse how the story is told. Think specifically about the introduction and narrative point of view.
Refer to specific moments/ lines from the story to support your comments.
