Pathways for English: HSC Standard and Advanced - Guide for teachers [Temporarily Out Of Stock - Reprinting]

Pathways for English is an essential reference for HSC teachers. Written for the new 2027 HSC Standard and Advanced English course, it is full of practical, relevant and valuable advice, content and teaching ideas.

The authors explore 29 separate HSC texts in depth. Each chapter includes:

• An overview
• The text requirements for Standard and / or Advanced courses
• Suggested pathways for Standard and / or Advanced courses
• Background and context on authors, poets, dramatist or directors
• Advice on why a teacher might choose this text for this particular focus area
• A synopsis to introduce the text
• Some ways to engage with the text/s
• Craft of writing possibilities
• HSC examination style questions.

More in the Pathways for English series

Also available are three student books:

Pathways for English HSC Standard and Advanced Paper 1 - Guide for students

Pathways for English HSC Standard Paper 2 - Guide for students

Pathways for English HSC Advanced Paper 2 - Guide for students 

About the authors

The writers, Deb McPherson and Jane Sherlock, are highly respected in the English teaching profession. Both have decades of teaching practice and significant involvement at all levels of syllabus development and implementation. They have brought their experience, passion for English and knowledge of the prescribed HSC texts to this book.

Table of contents

Part 1: The new HSC English

• 1.1 Introduction
• 1.2 Overview of the new HSC English course

Part 2: Texts and human experiences for Standard and Advanced

• 2.1 Introduction to Texts and human experiences
  • Cold Enough for Snow, Jessica Au
  • An Imaginary Life, David Malouf
  • The Penguin Henry Lawson Short Stories
  • Selected Poems, Rosemary Dobson
  • Selected Poems, Gwen Harwood
  • Love Poems and Death Threats, Samuel Wagan Watson
  • Question 7, Richard Flanagan
  • Away, Michael Gow
  • One Night the Moon, Rachel Perkins

Part 3: Standard English course

• 3.1 Standard: Introduction to language, identity and culture
  • The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
  • Swallow the Air, Tara June Winch
  • Contemporary Asian Australian Poets
  • The Perseverance, Raymond Antrobus
  • Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah, Alana Valentine
  • The Quiet Girl, Colm Bairéad
• 3.2 Standard: Introduction to Close study of literature
  • Feed, MT Anderson
  • Limberlost, Robbie Arnott
  • Collected Poems, Carol Ann Duffy
  • My People, Oodgeroo Noonuccal
  • Arrival, Denis Villeneuve

Part 4: Advanced English course

• 4.1 Introduction to Textual conversations
  • The Complete Poems, William Blake AND Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk,
  • The Complete Poems, John Keats AND Bright Star, Jane Campion
  • Hamlet, William Shakespeare AND The Complete Poems, Emily Dickinson
• 4.2 Advanced: Introduction to Critical study of literature
  • Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
  • Warlight, Michael Ondaatje
  • Poems 1962–2022, Louise Glück
  • WB Yeats: Poems selected by Seamus Heaney, William Butler Yeats
  • Othello, William Shakespeare
  • King Henry IV, Part 1, William Shakespeare

Part 5: The craft of writing