Just finished Year 11? Don’t just sit around freaking out about next year. There are heaps of things you can do now to get organised and give yourself the best chance of VCE English success!
Here’s my to-do list to prepare for 2015 English:
Organise your notes (even though you haven’t started them yet!)
Think about how you will organise your notes because if you are following my advice you will be starting them before you even start classes! A clearly organised notebook that actually contains good notes can be the biggest asset a VCE English student can have.
I recommend:
A folder with the following tabs labelled OR/ a notebook for each of these instead
- AOS 1 Text 1 ( actually write the name of the text etc Year of Wonders)
- AOS 1 Text 2
- Context (AOS 2)
- ULTP (Using Language to Persuade)
You could even split these categories up further:
- AOS 1 Text 1 ( actually write the name of the text etc Year of Wonders)
- Theme 1
- Theme 2 etc
- Character 1
- Character 2 etc
- Motifs
- Language and Literary devices
- Practice essays
- AOS 1 Text 2
- Context (AOS 2)
- Ideas about the context
- Ideas from the text
- Writing ideas
- Sample prompts
- Practice writing tasks
- ULTP
- Glossary of Language techniques (Metalanguage Glossary)
- Sample articles
- Practise analysis questions
Organising your notes before you start the year will really help you stay focussed on what is important and to ensure that you are making notes on all of the right things. If you don’t do this you might find that you have focussed a little too narrowly on one or two themes or characters.
Read all of next year’s texts (twice!)
I can’t stress enough how important it is to read the texts before the start of the year. This is especially important if you don’t like reading because if you wait until classes have started you will just keep putting it off as other things get in the way!
The first time you read the texts you are reading for understanding. Take notes on your first impressions of the characters and on what you think the themes are. The second time you read the text you already know what is happening so this is when you make all your notes on themes and characters. This second read may happen during the year as you study the text in class.
Read what others say about your texts.
It can be a great help to google your texts and read a bit about themes, characters and what other people think about your text. This doesn’t mean you are always going to agree with what they write but it can help to know what you are looking for when you are reading. You may do this before you even start reading your text, but you should definitely do it between the first and second time you read. This way your second reading is more focussed and you know the notes you should be taking and the quotes to look out for. You should have a section in your notes for each theme and each character and as you come across interesting quotes as you read, you should note them down.
Start collecting everything you can that relates to your context.
A context is a broad theme, idea or issue and as you will have to create your own piece of writing on your context it is never too early to look for inspiration and ideas.
Look in
- newspaper articles
- song lyrics
- poetry
- experiences and memories
Read the newspaper and start looking at issues in the media and how they are portrayed.
Most schools get you to do a persuasive oral presentation arguing your beliefs about a current issue in the media. You can start thinking about this early and cutting out or saving articles of interest now.
Doing these simple things between now and the end of January will mean you will start the year feeling much more organised and will help you focus on what is important in your VCE English studies.
