An Anthology on the concept of power :for Advanced

English Preliminary.
Poem
Shelly,P(1820) Ode to the West Wind https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45134

Short stories
Marquez,G One of these days http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/ootdays.html

Kafka,F(1918)In the Penal Colonyhttps://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/kafka/inthepenalcolony.htm

Advertisement
Apple 1984 commercial(1984) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axSnW-ygU5g

Photograph
Tankman (1989) https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qq8zFLIftGk/hqdefault.jpg

Rational
Power is the influence of people and their environment as an agent of change .The nature of Power has
two primary distinctive forms human and natural .Human power a social construct, this power can be
constructed through collective relationships or created on an individual level through individual action. The
moral nature of how humans gain power is diverse as, power is an amoral construct that can be used for
good, evil or even lay dormant and make no moral action at all. Students will developed an understanding
that power can be challenge individuals and groups in order to gain a sense of autonomy, which in its self a
form of power. The second way in which power is represented is the uncontrollable power of nature. The
area of study looks students will looks at physical nature of this world and how it exhibits power over man.
These events humble mans sense of power and place within the world. While at the time students will
discover that these two different manifestations of power interlink as man has increasingly sought to
dominate the power of nature through new ideas and invention. However Nature continues to defy mans
will therefore providing a constant reminder of its power.

The text chosen for the anthology allows for students to interact and interpret the depth of concept of
power in a variety of ways. The 1984 Apple advertisement text gives students an insight into how a power
can be challenged through an individual act .This feature is achieved through the composers bright
costuming of the protagonist in contrast to the dull clothing of the wider group to highlight the power of
individual contrasting to the collectivize slavery the protagonist is seen to oppose. Furthermore the
protagonist symbolic act of destroying the giant television set shows the resisting the power of technology.
However Students will develop as they understand the context of the medium advertisement. This text is
being used to sell apple computers to the audience. The composer shows the real power of marketing to
buy their product you resiting the status quo through the consumption of its products .Therefore
reinforcing a power of cultural consumerism. Students will therefore gain and understanding of how the
composers intent behind the text can shape the audience receiving it.
Similarly to the Apple Advertisement the tankman photograph provides additional perspective different
resistance power. While the apple advertisement shows power is terms of a violent struggle act that of
smashing the TV screen, the tankman photo highlights how nonviolent action of stoping a tank column by
stepping in front of it can provoke equally if not greater powerful responses and can challenge existing
constructs of power. However while one message is commercial the tankman photo is a political act. The
intent of the photographer was to report a current event. Through this investigation students will
therefore understand how historical and cultural construction of text shape shapes its meaning, as power
is shaped that through other peoples responses towards the text.

The importance of contextual nature of power relationships is also shown within the anthology .Through
study of the Franz Kafka In the penal colony coupled with the short story One of these days. In the
penal colony students the composer uses the traveller as an independent body shapes the audiences
understanding of how the power structure is portrayed. The reason for this is it provides objectivity
towards analysis the cultural construct of power. This allows students to see the power that controls the
guards is cultural and relevant to the individual. Since the traveller is an outsider there was little the
foreign observer figure could to prevent this relatively bizarre behaviour. The contextual nature of power is
further shown within the short story One of these days when mayor of the town is requires to do illegal
dental surgery. The roles of power are reversed to suite the contextual situation the dentist is the one
making demands on the mayor therefore exerting an influential force. This reinforces for students that the
concept power is not limited to a political apparatuses.

The interaction human and natural is a constant presence within the anthology of text. This relationship is
built upon through student studying of Shellys poem Ode to the west. Shelly draws upon the romantic
idealism of nature in its raw power to create and destroy life. Students can contrast this depiction of the
natural state power with the other text which is devoid of natural environments. Students can showing
demonstrate how these have constructed human environments in order to control the natural
environment. Thereby man is challenging the power of the natural world man is creating a new power.
 (Text etc) Lesson 1

Class: 11 Advanced Time:

preliminary english 60minutes

Teacher: Objectives for self

To
To 1. A student demonstrates
To Understanding of how relationships
Between composer, responder, text
Syllabus Outcomes for students and context shape meaning.
Preliminary/ HSC Standard English Outcome:
Materials
Power point presentation
Poem handout power quotes
Exit slip

Procedures
Time Organisation Teaching/ learning activities
10 Show the class at the power presentation on the
Whole class
concept and the different ways it can be represented

This power point will cover 4 areas

indiv -Defining the concept of power
/(indiv/whole
-Showing the variety of ways power can be represented
class/groups
through different mediums.
Showing how different syntactic forms can shape our
understanding of power.
15 Whole Class Create a mind map of the Different ways power can be
represented

20 Whole class Class room discussion asks the following questions to

prompt discussion within the classroom surrounding the
concept of power.

Where do you see power in your life?

-do you believe there is a social hierarchy at school. If so why do

you believe this hierarchy exists?

-Do you believe that power can be used for good?

What are the benefits of having power structures

30 Groups 3-4 Break students into groups of 3-4

Hand out list of 5 power statements on the power of

nature. From the poem Ode to the west

Get students to rank which statement has the most power

relative to the other. While at same time get students
about the imagery that these create

Get students groups to provide reasons as to why they

justify ranking these statements.
 40 Classroom Do you think that nature is more powerful than man? How does
Shellys poem show this argument?

Draw on the board a score board listing reasons which is more

powerful.

55 Individual How does and

Handout Shellys poem
collect show
exist slipsthis argument?

These exit slips will get students to write stating what they believe
power means them.

Homework

Evaluation/ Extension
There needs

In retrospect

In retrospect the power point presentation needs more interactive elements. Perhaps
imbedding some of the discussion topics into the power presentation would increase
student engagement within the first 15 minutes of the lesson.
 The power of nature quotes
1 If I were a dead leaf thou mightiest bear;

2 Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!

3 For whose path the Atlantics level powers cleave themselves into chasms

4 The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

5 thy congregated might of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh, hear

Exit slip resource

I believe power is
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
____________________________________________ Power point presentation
resources
 (Tankman photo,1984 Apple advertisement video) Lesson 2

Class: 11 prili Time:

60 minutes

Teacher: Objectives for self

To include critical literacy targets
To
1.A student demonstrates understanding of how
To
relationships between composer,responder, text
Syllabus Outcomes for students and context shape meaning.
Preliminary/ HSC Outcome:
2.A student describes and explains relationships
among texts.

Materials
Photo of tank man https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qq8zFLIftGk/hqdefault.jpg
Apple 1984 advertisement video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axSnW-ygU5g
Apple 1984 advertisement worksheet

Procedures
Time Organisation Teaching/ learning activities
0- Play the youtube clip of the 1984 apple advertisement.
(Indiv/Whole
10mi class/ Groups)
ns Give students a contextual information as to who this add was
directed towards .
indiv -tell students about the inter textual references towards the
/(indiv/whole novel 1984
class/groups

10- Classroom/indi Handout a selection of frames from the clip and ask students what
20mins vudal is powerful about these individual frames.

Get to highlight/Mark images which they think displays an aspect

of the nature of power in the worksheet provide.
20- After work sheet is completed gets to reflect on their answers and
30 open up the class for a wider discussion.

Why is it powerful for an individual to stand up the collective

group?

Focus attentions towards the students of the use of technology

within the text particularly the TV screens.

How does technology control our own lives?

What is the motive behind the advertisement?

30- Bring out the photo of tank man.
40
Ask students as to why this photo is powerful?

How is photo represents power

Provide a little context stating that this man was part of a wider
democracy protest within china.

What is the motive behind taking the photograph of the standing in

front of the column tank?

40- Divide the class into 2 groups and get them to debate the
50 proposition.

Who is more powerful the man or the tank?

50- Group Get students to write reflection on does the motivations of the
60 composer effect how we perceive those who challenge power?

Ask them to draw upon ideas mentioned within the classroom

discussions.

Homework

HW read the Fran Kafkas short story the penal colony and the short
story one of these days

Evaluation/ Extension
And terms within the text relating to power.
In retrospect
1984 apple advertisement resource
How does the giant television screen
invoke a symbol of power?

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________
How does the composer create an of
power ?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________
Create list of ways these individuals are
represented be powerless?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________
Tankman resource
(Text etc) Lesson 3

Class: Year 11 Time:

English Advanced 60minutes

Teacher: Objectives for self

To Teach comparative writing skills
To Help students understand the relational structure of power
To

Syllabus Outcomes for students

Preliminary/ HSC Standard
Materials
Short story: One of these days
Extract from the penal colony
1.A student demonstrates understanding of how
Outcome:
relationships between composer,responder, text
and context shape meaning.
2.A student describes and explains relationships
among texts.

Procedures
Time Organization Teaching/ learning activities
5 Whole class Introduce the notion of relational nature of power. How do the
circumstances and culture values may shape power dynamics
within our world.
indiv
/(indiv/whole
class/groups

10 Hand the short story

(Indiv/Whole
class/ Groups)
Get students to read the short story in class and highlight the
words that create a image of power .

20 Groups of 2 Think pair share activity. Ask students who are more powerful
within the short story the dentist or the mayor?

Use the highlighted words phrases as a basis for for your answer

Share with your class as who is more powerful figure

30 Classroom 20-40 group discussions compare the representation of relational

wide aspect of power in Kafka Short story the penal colony and the
short story of One of these days.

What is the difference in actions between the two characters? How

does this difference in action change how we perceive the text?

How does the different context of power shape the meaning in the
text?
40 Individual 40-60 minute writing activity comparing Kafka representation of
relational nature to that of the shot story

Model a comparative power relationship paragraph for students

55 Discuss with the class how there model paragraphs demonstrate

and compare the relational nature of power

Homework Continue working on your model paragraph

Evaluation/ Extension

In retrospect
Short story resource

One of These Days

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1928-2014)
Approximate Word Count: 994

Monday dawned warm and rainless. Aurelio Escovar, a dentist without a degree, and a very
early riser, opened his office at six. He took some false teeth, still mounted in their plaster
mold, out of the glass case and put on the table a fistful of instruments which he arranged in
size order, as if they were on display. He wore a collarless striped shirt, closed at the neck
with a golden stud, and pants held up by suspenders He was erect and skinny, with a look that
rarely corresponded to the situation, the way deaf people have of looking.
When he had things arranged on the table, he pulled the drill toward the dental chair and sat
down to polish the false teeth. He seemed not to be thinking about what he was doing, but
worked steadily, pumping the drill with his feet, even when he didn't need it.
After eight he stopped for a while to look at the sky through the window, and he saw two
pensive buzzards who were drying themselves in the sun on the ridgepole of the house next
door. He went on working with the idea that before lunch it would rain again. The shrill voice
of his elevenyear-old son interrupted his concentration.
"Papa."
"What?"
"The Mayor wants to know if you'll pull his tooth."
"Tell him I'm not here."
He was polishing a gold tooth. He held it at arm's length, and examined it with his eyes half
closed. His son shouted again from the little waiting room.
"He says you are, too, because he can hear you."
The dentist kept examining the tooth. Only when he had put it on the table with the finished
work did he say:
"So much the better."
He operated the drill again. He took several pieces of a bridge out of a cardboard box where
he kept the things he still had to do and began to polish the gold.
"Papa."
"What?"
He still hadn't changed his expression.
"He says if you don't take out his tooth, he'll shoot you."
Without hurrying, with an extremely tranquil movement, he stopped pedaling the drill,
pushed it away from the chair, and pulled the lower drawer of the table all the way out. There
was a revolver. "O.K.," he said. "Tell him to come and shoot me."
He rolled the chair over opposite the door, his hand resting on the edge of the drawer. The
Mayor appeared at the door. He had shaved the left side of his face, but the other side,
swollen and in pain, had a five-day-old beard. The dentist saw many nights of desperation in
his dull eyes. He closed the drawer with his fingertips and said softly:
"Sit down."
"Good morning," said the Mayor.
"Morning," said the dentist.
While the instruments were boiling, the Mayor leaned his skull on the headrest of the chair
and felt better. His breath was icy. It was a poor office: an old wooden chair, the pedal drill, a
glass case with ceramic bottles. Opposite the chair was a window with a shoulder-high cloth
curtain. When he felt the dentist approach, the Mayor braced his heels and opened his mouth.
Aurelio Escovar turned his head toward the light. After inspecting the infected tooth, he
closed the Mayor's jaw with a cautious pressure of his fingers.
"It has to be without anesthesia," he said.
"Why?"
"Because you have an abscess."
The Mayor looked him in the eye. "All right," he said, and tried to smile. The dentist did not
return the smile. He brought the basin of sterilized instruments to the worktable and took
them out of the water with a pair of cold tweezers, still without hurrying. Then he pushed the
spittoon with the tip of his shoe, and went to wash his hands in the washbasin. He did all this
without looking at the Mayor. But the Mayor didn't take his eyes off him.
It was a lower wisdom tooth. The dentist spread his feet and grasped the tooth with the hot
forceps. The Mayor seized the arms of the chair, braced his feet with all his strength, and felt
an icy void in his kidneys, but didn't make a sound. The dentist moved only his wrist.
Without rancor, rather with a bitter tenderness, he said:
"Now you'll pay for our twenty dead men."
The Mayor felt the crunch of bones in his jaw, and his eyes filled with tears. But he didn't
breathe until he felt the tooth come out. Then he saw it through his tears. It seemed so foreign
to his pain that he failed to understand his torture of the five previous nights.
Bent over the spittoon, sweating, panting, he unbuttoned his tunic and reached for the
handkerchief in his pants pocket. The dentist gave him a clean cloth.
"Dry your tears," he said.
The Mayor did. He was trembling. While the dentist washed his hands, he saw the crumbling
ceiling and a dusty spider web with spider's eggs and dead insects. The dentist returned,
drying his hands. "Go to bed," he said, "and gargle with salt water." The Mayor stood up, said
goodbye with a casual military salute, and walked toward the door, stretching his legs,
without buttoning up his tunic.
"Send the bill," he said.
"To you or the town?"
The Mayor didn't look at him. He closed the door and said through the screen:
"It's the same damn thing."
References

Shelly,P (1820)Ode to the west Wind https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-

poets/poems/detail/45134

Marquez,G One of these days http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/ootdays.html

Kafka,F(1918The penal colonyhttps://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/kafka/inthepenalcolony.htm

Apple 1984 commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axSnW-ygU5g Tankman

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qq8zFLIftGk/hqdefault.jpg

(2010)https://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/english-syllabus-
from2010.pdf

(2015)http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/english-prescriptions-2015-
20.pdf