Common Module Kenneth Slessor – Human Experiences

Resource Description

Common Module (Paper 1)

Human Experience – Kenneth Slessor

Students need to:

• Deepen their understanding of how texts represent individual and collective human experiences
• Appreciate, explore, interpret, analyse and evaluate the ways language is used to shape these representations in a variety of modes
• Explore how texts may give insight into the anomalies, paradoxes and inconsistencies in human behaviour and motivations
• Demonstrate how texts invite the reader to accept new perspectives, challenging assumptions and igniting new ideas
• Consider the role of storytelling throughout time to express and reflect particular lives and culture
• Make judgements about how aspects of texts such as context, purpose, structure and stylistic features shape meaning
• Make connections between themselves, the world of their text and their wider world
• Communicate ideas using figurative language to express universal themes and evaluative language to make informed judgements about texts

Anomalies: Something that isn’t normal, standard or expected

Paradoxes: An absurd contradiction which may be found to be true

Inconsistencies: Not staying the same throughout

When analysing a poem:

Step 1: Look at the title, form and shape (stanzas)

Step 2: Think about the voice of the poem – who is the speaker?

Step 3: Think about the subject and setting of the poem

Step 4: Look at the specific words used and identify repetition. From this think about the themes

Step 5: Look at the rhyme and rhythm of the poem (e.g. iambic pentameter, ABAB)

Step 6: Identify poetic devices such as similes and metaphors and how the poet uses imagery

Step 7: Think about the mood/tone of the poem

Step 8: Consider the message of the poem and what it makes you feel