Building Analytical Arguments

Overview

Students consolidate their understanding of themes in Jane Harper’s The Dry and apply it to an external unseen analytical essay task. Through close analysis, collaborative planning and timed writing, they will connect perspectives, cultural assumptions, values, aesthetic features and stylistic devices to a clear, sustained argument.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• WALT analyse how The Dry represents concepts, identities, times and places.
• WALT explain how cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs shape the text and position audiences.
• WALT analyse the effects of aesthetic features and stylistic devices.
• WALT plan, draft, edit and proofread a coherent analytical response under examination conditions.

Success criteria

• I can develop a contestable thesis that responds directly to an unseen question.
• I can select relevant textual evidence and explain its significance.
• I can connect language features and narrative choices to perspectives, values and audience positioning.
• I can structure and edit an analytical essay using precise literary vocabulary.

Curriculum links

• English as an Additional Language — developing editorial independence through planning, drafting, editing and proofreading coherent texts.
• English as an Additional Language — using text structures, grammar, language features and written features to sustain a point of view in literary analysis.
• English as an Additional Language — challenging ideas and conventions and reimagining perspectives through literary text structures and styles.
• Essential English — using appropriate language features and text structures, and applying strategies for planning, revising, editing and proofreading.

Lesson structure (210 minutes)

1. 0–15 min · Examination hook. Display the unseen-style question, “How does The Dry represent the impact of the past on individuals and communities?” using the opening examination question slide. Students complete a silent quick-write identifying a possible argument, then compare responses with a partner. Explain that the focus is not recalling a prepared essay, but adapting knowledge to a new question.

2. 15–40 min · Revisit the analytical lens. Use the criteria and analytical lens slides to review the three examination priorities: perspectives and representations; cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs; and aesthetic features and stylistic devices. Model a short analysis of a selected passage from the novel, thinking aloud through the sequence: feature or choice, evidence, effect, representation, audience position. Students annotate the model and identify where it moves beyond plot summary. Check understanding by asking students to improve one descriptive sentence into an analytical sentence.

3. 40–75 min · Evidence and theme workshop. Distribute the theme and evidence analysis worksheet. Students work in groups of four, each assigned a theme such as memory and guilt, drought and environmental pressure, community complicity, masculinity, isolation, justice or belonging. They select two or three scenes or quotations from their notes or class text and complete the worksheet: context, perspective, representation, cultural assumption or value, technique, effect and audience positioning. Groups then rotate or briefly report one strong analytical connection. Emphasise that evidence must support an argument rather than appear as a quotation list.

4. 75–90 min · Break and individual consolidation. Students take a break. On return, students independently choose the evidence and theme they understand best, then write a one-sentence thesis and three possible topic sentences. Confer with students who need support, checking that each claim answers the question and names a meaningful representation or value.

5. 90–120 min · Planning an unseen response. Present a second question through the planning and question-deconstruction slides: “How does Harper invite readers to question the values of a close-knit community?” Model unpacking the command word, key concept and scope of the question. Students use the worksheet to create an introduction plan and three-paragraph sequence. Each paragraph must include a claim, precise evidence, analysis of a stylistic or aesthetic choice, connection to values or assumptions, and audience effect. Students exchange plans and use the criteria to identify one strength and one missing connection.

6. 120–180 min · Timed analytical writing. Students write an unseen-style analytical response using their plan, class text and permitted notes according to the school’s examination conditions. Display the timed-writing and self-monitoring slides with suggested checkpoints: 10 minutes for planning, 40 minutes for drafting, and 10 minutes for editing. Circulate quietly, prompting students to return to the question, explain effects and maintain a formal analytical register rather than supplying content. Students who finish early complete the extension task below.

7. 180–210 min · Editing, feedback and exit reflection. Use the editing checklist and plenary slides. Students reread their response for thesis clarity, paragraph sequencing, evidence integration, analysis of technique, audience positioning, expression, spelling and punctuation. They highlight one sentence that most clearly links a stylistic choice to a value or belief. Students complete a brief exit response: “My strongest analytical move was …; in the next unseen response I will …” Invite two or three students to share adaptable strategies, not full essays.

Resources

• the The Dry analytical response lesson deck
• the theme and evidence analysis worksheet
• Class copies of The Dry
• Students’ quotation banks and class notes
• Exercise books or examination writing paper
• Timer or visible classroom clock
• Highlighters and pens

Assessment

• During modelling and discussion, assess whether students can distinguish plot description from analysis of representation, values and audience positioning.
• Review group evidence grids, thesis statements and peer feedback for relevant evidence, conceptual understanding and links to aesthetic features.
• Collect the timed response or photograph selected paragraphs. Use the three examination criteria to identify one demonstrated strength and one next-step target.

Differentiation

• Provide a paragraph scaffold on the worksheet with prompts such as “Harper represents…”, “This suggests that…”, “The use of… positions readers to…”. Allow students to use a teacher-approved quotation bank and a glossary of analytical verbs.
• For EAL learners, pre-teach terms including perspective, representation, assumption, juxtaposition, imagery, symbolism, narrative viewpoint and audience positioning. Permit brief planning discussion before independent writing, while maintaining individual authorship.
• Support students with literacy or processing needs through chunked time checkpoints, enlarged or digital texts, speech-to-text for planning where appropriate, and a reduced evidence requirement that prioritises depth of analysis.
• Extension students write a more nuanced thesis that acknowledges tension or contradiction, integrate an alternative interpretation, or rewrite one paragraph to analyse how the novel’s structure and withheld information shape reader judgement.