1. Discovery
Area of Study

2. The Experience of Discovery for First Peoples (globally)
How might this reflection shape the ways students and teachers see the potential of a broad range of texts produced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as related texts?

3. The teacher’s role
“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”- Mark Van Doren

4. Discovery is metaphor Etymology: discover
discovrir (Old French): to unroof or unveil
Image:

5. The complexity of defining Discovery (semantic exploration)
Discovery: an act or the process of finding somebody/something, or learning about something that was not known about before
Discovery as a person or a process in a legal trial

6. Rubric for Area of Study: the new Discovery rubric gently reminds us of its nature
Higher order thinking: the Syllabus rubric requires students to ‘explore’, ‘analyse’, ‘question’, ‘articulate’, ‘synthesise’, ‘clarify’, ‘develop’, ‘assess’ (or evaluate) and ‘experiment’.
Importance of synthesis: move beyond analysing
Connections between and among texts (question e of reading task and Area of Study)
Students’ responses to texts are supported by their own composition of, and experimentation with, imaginative and other texts: not just imaginative writing for Section 2 and Section 3 of Paper One e.g. graphically represent understanding of discovery

7. Key English concept: representation

8. Rubric for Area of Study: Discovery
“This Area of Study requires students to explore the ways in which the concept of discovery is represented in and through texts.”
NB: focuses on representation BEFORE it identifies the concept or subject matter
rebooting or re-emphasis of what is an Area of Study

9. Reflections on the Discovery rubric
Key verb is explore: and points to adventurous learning and an individual process determined by student’s context and perspective
Explore: the text as a vehicle for discovery- not just a means to convey ideas about discovery
Key English concept: representation
“in and through texts”: discovery through composing and discovery through responding, not just text as a means for transmitting ideas, dynamic model of discovery

10. Reflections on the Discovery rubric: modality
What is high modality?
Students are “required”/ “must”
“In their responses and compositions, students examine, question, and reflect and speculate on”:
sense of possibility, individual inquiry and questioning
What is low modality?
extensive repetition of “can” and “may”
lists of adjectives
suggests possibility and room for individual exploration by student, a less formulaic, mechanistic process of study

11. Rubric for Area of Study: Discovery
“Students consider the ways composers may invite them to experience discovery through their texts and explore how the process of discovering is represented using a variety of language modes, forms and features.”
Note parallel to Belonging rubric: inclusion and exclusion from texts
active process of discovery and
engagement with texts

12. The Impossible Hamster: animation from the new economics foundation

13. Available for free on Youtube and Vimeo

14. Balancing the Prescriptions list with related texts:
contemporary Australian, British and US drama
contemporary poetry, particularly from Australia
contemporary short stories
graphic novels (particularly memoir)
television texts (short form, fiction and non fiction)
short film as opposed to feature film
gaming as text
websites and social media

15. Imaginative writing is a “syllabus requirement”
Most students model narrative on the novel or the feature film (Disney animation model)- not the “short short fiction” that can be achieved in 40 mins allocated

16. “Short short stories” Stimulus: title limited number of characters
limited plot
limited number of ideas explored
“explodes a moment”
framed and deliberately structured narrative
Stimulus:
opening line of a piece of imaginative writing about Discovery:
“Teach me a food of your country…”

17. Discovery through The Disappearing
a free app based public poetry project from The Red Room Company that geo-locates hundreds of contemporary Australian poems to the place that inspired them
See the App stores for Apple and Android