Language A: language and literature Internal Assessment

Student outline form

Global issue: impact of social norms on the formation of identity

Texts chosen
Literary work: Touching of Wood by Ali Smith
Non-literary
body of work: Dead Poets Society by Peter Weir

Notes for the oral (maximum of 10 bullet points) :

- The panning shot of the boys walking; how it demonstrate's Mr. Keatings' lesson
and his allusion to theThe Road Not Taken

- The camera angle Mr. Nolan is shot from; how it builds his character and role as the
one enforcing conformity

- The shot of the poets and how they are made prominent despite not being the center
of the scene, and how they wear their uniforms speak about conformity

- The deliberate use of wide shots to represent societal pressure and how its used
whenever teaching a lesson regarding conformity

- The character of Charlie Dalton within the scene and in the wider context of the film

- The queercoding in Touching of Wood and how conformity comes evident as they
must make sure not to traumatize any "ordinary" families

- How the stone carried by the narrator symbolises their identity under the societal
pressure and its contrast to wood

- The liveliness of the narrator's partner and their symbolism; how their
relationshipwith wood represents the unwillingness to fully conform

- The significance of cameras in representing the characters' need to be seen and the
want to photographareas which are not accessible to the public

- The wider context of the story, how the last scene represents the narrator's acceptance
of self and the journey to go against the societal norms

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