The Oasis - Building Empathy Through Creative Writing

Australian Curriculum content descriptions:

Year 9 English:

• Interpret, analyse and evaluate how different perspectives of issue, event, situation, individuals or groups are constructed to serve specific purposes in texts (ACELY1742)
• Explore and explain the combinations of language and visual choices that authors make to present information, opinions and perspectives in different texts (ACELY1745)
• Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that present a point of view and advance or illustrate arguments, including texts that integrate visual, print and/or audio features (ACELY1746)
• Review and edit students’ own and others’ texts to improve clarity and control over content, organisation, paragraphing, sentence structure, vocabulary and audio/visual features (ACELY1747)

Year 10 English:

• Identify and analyse implicit or explicit values, beliefs and assumptions in texts and how these are influenced by purposes and likely audiences (ACELY1752)
• Create imaginative texts that make relevant thematic and intertextual connections with other texts (ACELT1644)
• Create literary texts with a sustained ‘voice’, selecting and adapting appropriate text structures, literary devices, language, auditory and visual structures and features for a specific purpose and intended audience (ACELT1815)
• Review, edit and refine students’ own and others’ texts for control of content, organisation, sentence structure, vocabulary, and/or visual features to achieve particular purposes and effects (ACELY1757)

Year 11 English:

Unit 1

• explaining the ways language features, text structures and conventions communicate ideas and points of view (ACEEN004)
• evaluating the impact of description and imagery, including figurative language, and still and moving images in digital and multimodal texts. (ACEEN007)
• using appropriate form, content, style and tone for different purposes and audiences in real and imagined contexts (ACEEN011)

Unit 2

• analysing the ways language features, text structures and stylistic choices shape points of view and influence audiences (ACEEN024)
• experimenting with text structures, language features and multimodal devices (ACEEN033)
• developing and sustaining voice, tone and style (ACEEN034)

Year 12 English:

Unit 3

• analysing language, structural and stylistic choices (ACEEN041)
• making innovative and imaginative use of language features (ACEEN051)
• using and experimenting with text structures and language features related to specific genres for particular effects (ACEEN052)

Unit 4

• undertaking close analysis of texts (ACEEN060)
• analysing content, purpose and choice of language (ACEEN063)
• exploring other interpretations and aspects of context to develop a considered response (ACEEN065)
• using appropriate language and stylistic features to sustain a personal voice and point of view (ACEEN069)
• using nuanced language (ACEEN070)
• using strategies for planning, drafting, editing and proofreading (ACEEN074)

Syllabus Outcomes: EN5-1A, EN5-2A, EN5-3B, EN5-5C.

General capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking, Ethical Understanding, Literacy.

Unit of work: THE OASIS – English

Time required: 90 minutes

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – facilitate discussion.

• Student Worksheet – one copy per student OR computers/tablets to access the online worksheet
• Device capable of presenting a website to the class
• Access to THE OASIS documentary on Vimeo 

This resource has been adapted from ‘Teaching Social Issues Through English’ developed with the English Teachers Association NSW and the ‘Youth Homelessness Matters Resource’ developed by Janice Atkin. You can find these resources here.