Areas of Exploration
The Areas of Exploration are broad conceptual lenses which can be addressed in many different ways, for instance in choice of text, in points of comparison or contrast, or in the way a unit of work is put together. At times, you might find yourself addressing each 'area' in isolation, but it is more likely that they will overlap, providing different ways of thinking about literary works that will, ideally, encourage students to think more critically as well as imaginatively about the value or reading, writing and talking about literature.
The attached pages delve into the meaning of each Area of Exploration, provide additional notes that will help to guide your thinking about them and make suggestions about approaches you might take in the classroom. There is obviously an almost inexhaustible range of texts and possible approaches, so material will grow in time.
Selected Pages
Areas of Exploration
Intertextuality: connecting texts
Intertextuality: connecting texts invites exploration of the connections that exist between literary works, as well as the...
Areas of Exploration
Intertextuality: 'It is Dangerous...'
The title of this poem, It is Dangerous to Read Newspapers, suggests the power and influence of texts in our lives, and...
Areas of Exploration
Readers, Writers and Texts: 'It is Dangerous...'
Rather than giving students the whole poem straight away, the following approach - whereby students are given the poem bit...
Areas of Exploration
Time and space
Time and Space is an Area of Exploration that invites consideration of the many and varied ways in which texts are written...
Areas of Exploration
The Areas of Exploration: one text, three approaches
The three areas of exploration can be seen as three different lenses through which we can explore literature, lenses which...
Areas of Exploration
Readers, writers and texts
Readers, writers and texts places emphasis on the status of literary texts as works of art. It addresses their aesthetic...