Outcomes and Skills
These outcomes describe what students should be able to do by the end of the unit. They are formative: use them to plan, self-check and give feedback. They do not rank students or record results.
Knowledge
- Know the novel's publication context, its 1900 setting and its relation to the 1975 film.
- Know how the novel is structured, including its frame and its unresolved ending.
- Know how narration, focalisation and gaps shape the reader's uncertainty.
- Know how the school, the Rock and the colonial setting produce meaning.
- Know the difference between a technique, an effect and a claim.
Skills
| Skill | What it looks like | Next step if it is not yet secure |
|---|---|---|
| Close reading | Selects a short quotation, describes what it does, and explains how it shapes the reader's understanding. | Annotate one sentence at a time: verb, image, gap, effect. |
| Structural analysis | Connects a choice of sequence, frame or omission to the novel's meaning. | Ask: what would change if this scene came earlier, later or not at all? |
| Character analysis | Explains how a character is constructed by voice, action and the responses of others. | Track one character's descriptions and note how they change. |
| Contextual judgement | Uses historical or critical context to sharpen a reading, and says why it matters. | Write one sentence beginning "This context matters here because...". |
| Critical writing | States a claim, embeds evidence, explains effect, and answers a counter-reading. | Rewrite one paragraph so every quotation is followed by an explanation. |
| Creative and oral response | Makes a deliberate transformation or spoken walkthrough and explains the choices. | Name the effect you wanted, then change one choice to achieve it more clearly. |
Formative success criteria
- I can explain what the novel reports and what it only implies.
- I can name a structural choice and explain what it does to the reader.
- I can use a short quotation accurately and explain its effect.
- I can connect one character's fate to the novel's wider argument.
- I can use context to sharpen a claim rather than replace analysis.
- I can explain how the ending shapes the meaning of the whole novel.
- I can respond creatively or orally and explain the choices behind the response.
What progress looks like
Progress is visible when a student moves from asking "what happened?" to asking "what does the novel do with not knowing?" A stronger response usually has a narrower claim, better-chosen evidence and a clearer account of the reader's experience. The move from "the ending is mysterious" to "the novel makes the reader share the community's need for an explanation, then withholds the consolation of one" is the learning.
Teacher note
Choose two criteria for a feedback lesson rather than all seven. Model the difference between "the novel is ambiguous" and "the afterword replaces one mystery with another by destroying the records that might explain it". The second sentence is the learning.