English (Advanced) 2 Unit

HSC English

Course Description

Preliminary Course (Y11)
HSC Course (Y12)

Main Topics Covered

PRELIMINARY COURSE (Y11)         HSC COURSE (Y12)

The Advanced course consists of three main topics in Year 11, each covering a key aspect of English.

  • Common Focus Area: Reading to Write – encompasses a broad view on our reading lives and how this connects to different forms of writing. A wide reading program is embedded into this unit, and goes on to support the Year 11 Advanced English course more generally, encouraging students to reflect on their understanding of self and others.
  • Focus Area: Narratives that Shape our World – explores the idea of how characters, key themes and aspects of narratives exist between time periods and different cultures. Students are required to explore a range of texts to support their learning.
  • Focus Area: Critical Study of Literature – examines a core text, where students develop close reading and interpretive skills. All topics aim to provide students with a strong foundation for success in their final year of high school.

The English Advanced course consists of three main topics in Year 12, each covering a key aspect of English.

  • Common Focus Area: Texts and Human Experiences – is aimed at deepening student understanding of how texts represent human qualities and emotions associated with, or arising from, a range of human experiences. This module is assessed in the HSC in Paper 1.
  • Focus Area: Textual Conversations – involves a comparative study of texts and contexts, encouraging students to consider similarities and differences between and within texts. 
  • Focus Area: Critical Study of Literature – develops analytical and interpretive skills, fostering student understanding and appreciation of a substantial literary text. Through increasingly informed and personal responses to the text in its entirety, students understand the distinctive qualities of the text, notions of textual integrity and significance. 
  • Focus Area: The Craft of Writing – can be interwoven into the study of all our texts and concepts throughout the year, encouraging students to strengthen and extend their knowledge, skills and confidence as accomplished writers.

Assessment - HSC course only

There are both internal and external assessments to support students in Stage 6 English. 

Internal assessments encourage students to develop their reading comprehension, speaking and listening, viewing and writing skills across a range of forms and contexts. These tasks are designed to help students in their understanding and appreciation of language and literature, and to prepare students for their final examinations. 

 The final HSC examination will be in two separate papers.   

  • Paper 1 focuses on the Common Focus Area: Texts and Human Experiences, and involves (i) a reading comprehension task and (ii) an extended response on a prescribed text (‘An Imaginary Life’).  
  • Paper 2 consists of three sections, focusing on Focus Area: Textual Conversations (‘Julius Caesar’ and ‘The Prince’), Focus Area: Critical Study of Literature (poetry of Louise Gluck) and Focus Area: The Craft of Writing.

More in HSC