Our Founder

Dr Samantha Lin (BSc/BA, MA, PhD) is the founder and head teacher of Shakespeare Academy.

Her dynamism and infectious enthusiasm combined with her passion for literature and language are the foundations for the Academy's success and reputation. She is a published author and winner of multiple literary and film awards. Her experience in teaching and sharing English literature includes everything from tutoring children 1:1 to teaching post-graduate levels to lectures at literary events in Australia and the UK. She is also highly proficient in both the fields of creative writing and film analysis.

Dr Samantha Lin

Samantha Lin

PRINCIPAL AND DIRECTOR OF
SHAKESPEARE ACADEMY

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Suitable for: Years 11-12
Prerequisites: Poetry for Beginners OR Poetry 2A.
Duration: 3 hours a week for 5 days; 15 hours total

About:

You know the adage: sequels are always better than the originals. If you loved Toy Story 2, The Godfather Part II, and Terminator 2, you’ll love HSC Paper 2. (Ok, maybe not, but thank God it isn’t a trilogy!)

Each section of Paper 2 is different, so if you think you can memorise an essay and succeed, you’re kidding yourself. What you need is methodical preparation and critical marking. That’s what you’ll get in this course as we cover study skills, exam preparation, and practice papers.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • • Full essays based on the HSC Modules A, and B
  • • Imaginative, reflective, persuasive, and discursive writing based on the HSC Module C.

Student Learning Objectives:

  • • Planning and writing under exam conditions
  • • Demonstrating understanding of your texts and the HSC modules
  • • Analysing, explaining, and assessing the various aspects of your texts
  • • Developing responses to a range of text types and questions.

Suitable for: Years 7-11
Prerequisites: A content course at Shakespeare Academy (e.g. Poetry for Beginners)
Duration: 3 hours a day for 5 days; 15 hours total

About:

Had a bad exam at the end of term? Need to improve your essay writing fast? In this course students refine all aspects of their essay writing: they learn how to structure their essays and practice answering a range of essay questions.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • • Introductions, body paragraphs, and conclusions based on texts the students have read before;
  • • Full essays answering a range of essay questions; and
  • • Reviewing and redrafting essays

Student Learning Objectives:

  • • Planning essays
  • • Developing essay structures
  • • Writing essays
  • • Reviewing and redrafting essays

Suitable for: Year 11
Duration: 2 hours a for 10 days; 20 hours total

About:

Writing Skills 301 is a Year 11 course designed for students to brush up their skills before embarking on the HSC. Through reading sample writing and peer review, students learn to finesse their writing process, and prepare them for the new HSC Module C: The Craft of Writing. Students will review and write in the text types below.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • • Essays
  • • Speeches and multimodal presentations
  • • Personal essays
  • • Persuasive writing
  • • Discursive writing
  • • Creative writing
  • • Reflection statements

Student Learning Objectives:

  • • Learning and practising a range of text types as required by the current HSC syllabus
  • • Structuring essays and creative writing
  • • Reading and considering a range of texts from the perspective of a writer
  • • Refining exam skills for different types of writing
  • • Giving feedback about peers’ writing
  • • Editing and re-drafting after peer and tutor feedback
  • • Reflecting on the writing process, and writing reflection statements

Suitable for: Years 9-10
Prerequisites: Poetry for Beginners OR Literary Techniques (one-day crash course)
Duration: 2 hours a for 10 days; 20 hours total

About:

You're great at writing essays, are you? What about speeches? What about narratives? What about reflection statements? In this course we will revise and refine our essay-writing skills and develop our skills in other forms of writing. We will analyse some great essays, speeches, and reflection statements, and learn how to achieve the same level of greatness in our own writing.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • • Essay introductions, body paragraphs, and conclusions based on texts the students have read
  • • Full essays based on texts the students have read, including essays comparing two or more texts
  • • Full speeches based on techniques and structures found in notable speeches from history
  • • Creative writing in response to a stimulus
  • • Reflection statements based on students’ own creative writing.

Student Learning Objectives:

  • • Reviewing and redrafting analytical and creative writing
  • • Structuring essays and creative writing
  • • Taking notes which can easily be converted into analytical essays
  • • Refining exam skills for essay and creative writing
  • • Giving feedback about peers’ writing
  • • Editing and re-drafting after peer and tutor feedback.

Suitable for: Years 7-10
Duration: 3 hours every day for 5 days; 15 hours total

 About:

This course covers poetry analysis and comprehension. Students learn the vocabulary for analysing poetry, and put these to use by studying and analysing a range of poems from the 16th century to now. There are 28 poems included for study in the course. At the end of the course, students are equipped to analyse a wide variety of poetry, including Shakespearean sonnets.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • • Original poetry inspired by the poems studied in class;
  • • Opinion pieces about the poems studied in class; and
  • • Analytical paragraphs or partial essays about the poems studied

Student Learning Objectives:

  • • Understanding and applying an extensive list of techniques for poetry analysis;
  • • Critically evaluating a range of poems based on structure as well as meaning;
  • • Studying poems by Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Donne, Whitman, Wyatt, Surrey, Spenser, Poe, Kipling, Angelou, Henley, and more; and
  • • Having the tools to analyse and write about poems in opinion pieces and essays

Course Outline

  • • Lesson 1: Introduction and the Language of Literature
  • • Lesson 2: ‘We Real Cool’
  • • Lesson 3: Life, Death, and Between
  • • Lesson 4: Sonnets
  • • Lesson 5: Sonnets and Nature

Suitable for: Years 9-10
Prerequisites: Poetry for Beginners OR Literary Techniques (one-day crash course)
Duration: 2 hours a week for 10 weeks; 20 hours total

About:

Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and caldron bubble. This isn’t the latest episode of Masterchef, it’s Shakespeare’s Mac – wait! Don’t you know it’s bad luck to say the title of this play? And the bad luck in this Scottish tragedy is more than just burning your haggis – think ghosts, madness, and blood. Lots of it.

But what is the source of this bad luck? Is it the famous witches, or our main character’s desire to gain power no matter what? Did you fail your last exam because it was too hard or because you didn’t prepare? Don’t leave your next exam up to fate – join us at Shakespeare Academy!

In every lesson, students read extracts from Shakespeare’s text and then analyse how the literary techniques create meaning and explore the themes of the play. Each week, students are asked to provide written responses for homework, including essays, opinion pieces, and creative responses.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • • Opinion pieces about the extracts and characters studied in class;
  • • Analytical paragraphs or partial essays about the extracts studied; and
  • • Full essays about the themes and concerns of the play.

Student Learning Objectives:

  • • Reviewing and consolidating an extensive list of techniques for literary analysis;
  • • Understanding Shakespearean language;
  • • Understanding the characters, themes, and context of Macbeth;
  • • Having the tools to analyse and write about Shakespeare’s plays in opinion pieces and essays;
  • • Considering the similarities and differences between people today and people in Shakespeare’s time;
  • • Organising and writing literary notes in preparation for essays and exams; and
  • • Evaluating Shakespeare’s responses to questions we still have today.

Suitable for: Years 8-10
Prerequisites: Poetry for Beginners OR Literary Techniques (one-day crash course)
Duration: 3 hours every day for 5 days; 15 hours total

About:

This course covers poetry analysis and comprehension for students who have already studied a bit of poetry. Students revise the vocabulary for analysing poetry and refine their skills by reading and analysing a range of poems from the 16th century to the present. Students will also practice their essay writing by responding to the poems studied in class.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • • Opinion pieces about the poems studied in class; and
  • • Analytical paragraphs or partial essays about the poems studied

Student Learning Objectives:

  • • Understanding and applying an extensive list of techniques for poetry analysis;
  • • Critically evaluating a range of poems based on structure as well as meaning;
  • • Studying poems by Shakespeare, MacNeice, Tennyson, Yeats, Houseman, Dickinson, and more; and
  • • Having the tools to analyse and write about poems in opinion pieces and essays

Course Outline

  • • Lesson 1: Techniques revision and Nature Part 1
  • • Lesson 2: Love and War
  • • Lesson 3: ‘Song of Myself’
  • • Lesson 4: Nature Part 2
  • • Lesson 5: Poetry mishmash

Suitable for: Years 11-12

Prerequisites: Poetry for Beginners OR Poetry 2A.

Duration: 3 hours a week for 5 days; 15 hours total

About:

Imagine I’m Shania Twain. Okay, so your notes are great? That don’t impress me much. What is impressive is being able to turn those notes into beautiful essays under the pressure of exam conditions.

Now that I think about it, that’s too easy. You should also be able to answer unseen questions based on the format of the HSC’s Paper 1. If you join our course, you’ll be able to write slick essays and tight short-answer responses under exam conditions. And unlike Brad Pitt, you might impress Shania Twain.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • • Full essays based on the HSC Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences
  • • Short-answer responses to questions related to the Common Module
  • • Analytical paragraphs based on unseen texts.

Student Learning Objectives:

  • • Planning and writing under exam conditions
  • • Demonstrating understanding of human experiences in texts
  • • Analysing, explaining, and assessing the portrayal of human experiences
  • • Comprehending unseen texts
  • • Developing responses to a range of text types.

Suitable for: Years 11-12
Prerequisites: Poetry for Beginners OR Poetry 2A.
Duration: 2 hours a for 5 days; 10 hours total

About:

Your notes are perfect, your essays slick, and you can quote from your text backwards. Well, can you answer questions about texts you’ve never seen? In this course you will learn how to do just that. Over three days you will attempt a range of practice papers based on the format of the HSC’s Paper 1 Section 1. During this course you will learn how to develop short-answer responses to unseen texts in various text types.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • • Short-answer responses to questions related to the Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences
  • • Analytical paragraphs based on unseen texts.

Student Learning Objectives:

  • • Demonstrating understanding of human experiences in texts
  • • Analysing, explaining, and assessing the portrayal of human experiences
  • • Comprehending unseen texts
  • • Developing responses to a range of text types

Suitable for: Years 7-10
Duration: 2 hours every day for 5 days; 10 hours total

About:

Shakespeare Academy is excited to present you with one of our favourite and most popular courses: English Grammar! You'll learn everything about nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, punctuation marks, adverbs... You already know all this?

Oh, okay then – you'll also learn about participles, cases, transitive (and intransitive, while we're at it), modality, distributive numeral adjectives, the subjunctive mood, misplaced modifiers (you don't want to use one of those!), adjuncts, and more!

Yup, we love our grammar – and by the end of the course, you'll love it too (or at least be much better at it)!

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • • Sentences revising the grammatical knowledge covered in class
  • • Sentences and paragraphs refining grammatical concepts and English expression

 Student Learning Objectives:

  • • Understanding and applying English grammar
  • • Understanding and applying English punctuation
  • • Learning and applying the English parts of speech
  • • Recognising common mistakes and learning how to avoid them

Suitable for: Years 11-12
Prerequisites: Poetry for Beginners OR Poetry 2A
Duration: 2 hours a week for 9-10 weeks; 18-20 hours total

About:

Few poets of the twentieth century have been as influential as T.S. Eliot. But if he’s so influential, why is he so hard to read? In this course we will dispel the fog that lingers around Eliot and Modernism. The first half of the course is based on close readings of Eliot’s poetry and writing paragraphs analysing it. The second half of the course is based on essay writing; after considering the ideas of various scholars, students write essays about Eliot’s poetry and its context. Students will also learn about Modernism and how Eliot’s poetry explores its concerns while also giving us an insight into the present day.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • • Opinion pieces and partial essays based on the poems read in class;
  • • Full essays comparing two or more of Eliot’s poems; and
  • • Full essays discussing Eliot’s poetry in its Modernist context and its reception in the present day.

Student Learning Objectives:

  • • Reviewing and redrafting essays;
  • • Analysing poetry within its context;
  • • Evaluating how Eliot’s poetry can illuminate the present; and
  • • Responding to literary scholarship and incorporating its ideas into analytical writing.

Suitable for: Years 7-9
Prerequisites: Poetry for Beginners OR Literary Techniques (one-day crash course)
Duration: 2 hours a week for 10 weeks; 20 hours total

About:

Fairies! Love Potions! A donkey’s head! Shakespeare’s comedy tells a fantastical story while making us think about love, marriage, and transformation. In every lesson, students read an extract from Shakespeare’s play. After reading each extract, students are asked to analyse how the literary techniques in the passage create meaning and explore the themes of the play. The students are then asked to share their analyses with the class and to write analytical paragraphs. Students are given two notes booklets on themes and characters, which they fill out throughout the term, and which they can use as their final study notes for any school exams. At the end of the course, students are equipped to analyse Shakespeare’s other plays.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • • Opinion pieces about the extracts and characters studied in class
  • • Analytical paragraphs or partial essays about the extracts studied
  • • Notes booklet

Student Learning Objectives:

  • • Reviewing and consolidating an extensive list of techniques for poetry analysis
  • • Understanding characters, themes, context of Dream
  • • Understanding Shakespearean language
  • • Having the tools to analyse and write about Shakespeare’s plays in opinion pieces and essays
  • • Considering the similarities and differences between people today and people in Shakespeare’s time
  • • Evaluating Shakespeare’s responses to questions we still have today
  • • Organising notes

Vanessa Vu

We’re delighted to spotlight Vanessa Vu, one of our fantastic students with a passion for writing. Vanessa started learning with us from 2018, and graduated from Year 12 in 2020. Her English HSC subjects were Advanced and Extension 1 English. She loves writing poetry, stories, and other musings – she always submitted lots of written work for our feedback, and was particularly keen on creative writing homework!

Vanessa will be studying a Bachelor of Psychology at the University of Sydney. She also has a writing blog: http://scribblesandblotts.com/

Suitable for: Year 12
Duration: 2 hours a week for 9-10 weeks; 18-20 hours total

About:

‘The Craft of Writing’ is a new HSC module that focuses on…well, the craft of writing. Specifically, we’ll be looking at writing types beyond your argumentative essays: creative/imaginative stories, discursive writing, persuasive writing, and personal essays. Additionally, we’ll be working on reflection statements, which are a special type of literary essays where you analyse your own writing.

Throughout the course, students are given a range of HSC prescribed texts to study, analyse, and emulate in their own writing. Students learn about the various writing types that are required for the HSC, and practise their writing skills on a range of topics. By the end of the course, students are equipped with the required knowledge and skills to tackle this new HSC module.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • One full creative/imaginative piece;
  • One full discursive essay;
  • One full persuasive essay;
  • Elements of personal essays; and
  • At least three full reflection statements.

Student Learning Objectives:

  • Reviewing and consolidating techniques for analysing the craft of writing;
  • Employing various literary techniques in own writing;
  • Understanding how a range of prescribed Module C texts are crafted;
  • Developing unique written voices and styles;
  • Having the tools to analyse and write about prescribed Module C texts and students’ own writing; and
  • Practising writing skills under exam conditions.

Suitable for: Year 11 | Duration: 2 hours a week for 9-10 weeks; 18-20 hours total
Prerequisites: Poetry for Beginners OR Literary Techniques (one-day crash course)

About:

You love gossip. Don’t try to deny it. Who doesn’t like hearing about a scandal? Ever talked to your friends about what your other friends are doing when they say they’re “busy”? Maybe they’re shopping. Maybe they’re on dates. Maybe they’re part of an international spy organisation. Or maybe you should mind your own business.

The tragedy Othello, written by our man Big Billy Shakes, shows us the dangers of gossip, as the sly, cunning Iago causes the downfall of a military general, Othello, by doing little more than creating and spreading rumours. Furthermore, Othello, one of the first black protagonists in English literature, struggles with the racist remarks of those around him.

In every lesson, students read extracts from Shakespeare’s text and then analyse how the literary techniques create meaning and explore the themes of the play. Students are also given a range of secondary readings that present alternative perspectives of the play. Each week, students are asked to provide written responses for homework, including essays, opinion pieces, and creative responses.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • Opinion pieces about the extracts and characters studied in class;
  • Analytical paragraphs or partial essays about the extracts studied; and
  • Full essays about the themes and concerns of the play.

Student Learning Objectives:

  • Reviewing and consolidating an extensive list of techniques for literary analysis;
  • Understanding Shakespearean language;
  • Understanding the characters, themes, and context of Othello;
  • Having the tools to analyse and write about Shakespeare’s plays in opinion pieces and essays;
  • Considering the similarities and differences between people today and people in Shakespeare’s time;
  • Organising and writing literary notes in preparation for essays and exams; and
  • Evaluating Shakespeare’s responses to questions we still have today.

Suitable for: Years 8-10 | Duration: 2 hours a week for 9-10 weeks; 18-20 hours total
Prerequisites: Poetry for Beginners OR Literary Techniques (one-day crash course)

About:

Shipwrecks, cross-dressing, lost siblings, unrequited love, drinking and duelling, and the ultimate prank: yes, this is none other than Shakespeare’s festive comedy Twelfth Night! Beneath the play’s comic surface lies a range of more serious issues: class differences, gender inequality, and how much ‘fun’ is too much. You’ll get to discuss them all here at Shakespeare Academy!

In this course, you will learn about both the joy and melancholy of Twelfth Night. In every lesson, students read extracts from Shakespeare’s text and then analyse how the literary techniques create meaning and explore the themes of the play. Students are also given a range of secondary readings that present alternative perspectives of the play. Each week, students are asked to provide written responses for homework, including essays, opinion pieces, and creative responses. At the end of the course, students are equipped to analyse, understand, and appreciate Shakespeare’s other plays.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • Opinion pieces about the extracts and characters studied in class;
  • Analytical paragraphs or partial essays about the extracts studied; and
  • Detailed literary notes organised in booklets based on characters and themes.

Student Learning Objectives:

  • Reviewing and consolidating an extensive list of techniques for literary analysis;
  • Understanding Shakespearean language;
  • Understanding the characters, themes, and context of Twelfth Night;
  • Having the tools to analyse and write about Shakespeare’s plays in opinion pieces and essays;
  • Responding creatively to a range of scenarios related to Twelfth Night;
  • Considering the similarities and differences between people today and people in Shakespeare’s time;
  • Organising and writing literary notes in preparation for essays and exams;
  • Evaluating Shakespeare’s responses to questions we still have today.

Suitable for: Years 10-11 | Duration: 2 hours a week for 9-10 weeks; 18-20 hours total
Prerequisites: Poetry for Beginners OR Literary Techniques (one-day crash course)
Additional Material Fee: $20 (one text)

About:

It’s alive! Have you ever created a monster? We don’t mean a bad essay; we mean something that has a life of its own and frightens people. How would you react if you did create a monster?

Maybe you have never made a monster. Maybe you have written a bad post on social media? Made a bad video? We all know about ideas that initially sounded good and then went beyond everyone’s control. Initially a ghost story, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a novel about one of those interesting ideas that went horribly wrong. The novel asks if technological advance always improves human lives and asks how humans relate to their families and societies.

If you’re worried about the advances of technology (and at least one of our teachers is terrified by them) then Frankenstein is the novel for you. Costumes are optional.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • Opinion pieces about the chapters studied in class;
  • Analytical paragraphs or partial essays about themes in the novel;
  • Full essays about the novel;
  • Creative responses to the themes and concerns expressed in the novel.

Student Learning Objectives:

  • Reviewing and consolidating an extensive list of techniques for analysing novels;
  • Understanding the mindset and challenges of people from a different period of history;
  • Having the tools to analyse and write about novels in opinion pieces and essays;
  • Considering the similarities and differences between people today and people in the 1830s; and
  • Evaluating the novel’s explorations of questions we still ask today.

Suitable for: Years 7-8
Duration: 2 hours a week for 9-10 weeks; 18-20 hours total

About:

This course covers poetry analysis and comprehension. Students learn the vocabulary for analysing poetry, and put these to use by studying and analysing a range of poems from the 16th century to now (at least 3 poems studied per lesson). At the end of the course, students are equipped to analyse a wide variety of poetry, including Shakespearean sonnets.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • Original poetry inspired by the poems studied in class;
  • Opinion pieces about the poems studied in class; and
  • Analytical paragraphs or partial essays about the poems studied.

Student Learning Objectives:

  • Understanding and applying an extensive list of techniques for poetry analysis;
  • Critically evaluating a range of poems based on structure as well as meaning;
  • Studying poems by Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Donne, Whitman, Wyatt, Surrey, Spenser, Poe, Kipling, Angelou, Henley, and more; and
  • Having the tools to analyse and write about poems in opinion pieces and essays.

Course Outline

  • Lesson 1: Introduction to Poetry
  • Lesson 2: The Language of Literature
  • Lesson 3: ‘We Real Cool’
  • Lesson 4: Life, Death, and Between
  • Lesson 5: Invictus
  • Lesson 6: Sonnets – A History
  • Lesson 7: Shakespearean Sonnets
  • Lesson 8: Sonnets after Shakespeare
  • Lesson 9: Nature
  • Lesson 10: Conclusion

Suitable for: Years 8-9 | Duration: 2 hours a week for 9-10 weeks; 18-20 hours total
Prerequisites: Poetry for Beginners OR Literary Techniques (one-day crash course)
Additional Material Fee: $40 (two texts)

About:

Ah, the 20th century. Your grandparents helped shape it, your parents have lived through it, and you’ve learnt about some of its major historical events. But did you know that literature from the 20th century explores issues and ideas very similar to today’s? In this course students will study and analyse prose fiction from the 20th century, including works by George Orwell, Franz Kafka, and James Joyce. Students learn how to analyse and interpret texts based on context, and how to write essay and creative responses to the material studied. At the end of the course, students gain a thorough understanding of 20th century prose fiction and how the literary ideas have carried on into the 21st century.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • Opinion pieces about the texts studied;
  • One short story (creative writing); and
  • Analytical paragraphs or essays about the texts.

Student Learning Objectives:

  • Reviewing and consolidating an extensive list of techniques for analysing prose fiction;
  • Understanding the mindset and values of people from the wider 20th century;
  • Having the tools to analyse and write about prose fiction in opinion pieces and essays;
  • Considering the intersection between literature and politics;
  • Analysing the literary uses of allegory and anthropomorphism; and
  • Evaluating the relevance of 20th century fiction today.

Suitable for: Years 8-10
Prerequisites: Poetry for Beginners OR Literary Techniques (one-day crash course)
Duration: 2 hours a week for 9-10 weeks; 18-20 hours total

About:

Romeo and Juliet might be Shakespeare’s most famous play, but how well do you know it, really? Do you know what it means to bite your thumb at someone? What is an apothecary? In this course we will answer these questions while asking what Shakespeare’s tale of star-crossed lovers can tell us about love, marriage, and listening to your parents. In every lesson, students read an extract from Romeo and Juliet and then analyse how the literary techniques in the extract create meaning and explore the themes of the play. The students are then asked to share their analyses with the class and to write analytical paragraphs. Students are taught effective note-taking techniques and fill in two notes booklets based on characters and themes, which they can use as their final study notes for any school exams. At the end of the course, students are equipped to analyse Shakespeare’s other plays.

Student Writing Outcomes:

  • Opinion pieces about the extracts and characters studied in class;
  • Analytical paragraphs or partial essays about the extracts studied; and
  • Detailed literary notes organised in booklets based on characters and themes.

Student Learning Objectives:

  • Reviewing and consolidating an extensive list of techniques for poetry analysis;
  • Understanding Shakespearean language;
  • Understanding the characters, themes, and context of Romeo and Juliet;
  • Having the tools to analyse and write about Shakespeare’s plays in opinion pieces and essays;
  • Considering the similarities and differences between people today and people in Shakespeare’s time;
  • Organising and writing literary notes in preparation for essays and exams; and
  • Evaluating Shakespeare’s responses to questions we still have today.

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