Elective 2: In The Wild
this is the definition of the "In The Wild" elective and some notes on the significant words.

"Significant concern for humanity and its relationship with the natural world and nature's influence on human behaviour and human interaction"

Significant Concern- Something people focus their thoughts on and discuss the problems

Relationship - Connection, interaction

Natural World - Creation, NOT man made, nature, animals environment
- Human relationship with Natural World:
+ Whaling
+ Affect on the Ozone Layer

Nature's influence on Human Behaviour and Human Interaction -
- Weather; affects what we can/can't do
- Instincts
- Where we build infrastructure, where we reside
- Transport and its affect on the environment
- Advancement in technology; recently the affect on the environment is a main argument in the trends in current technology. Can be seen in:
+ Housings design - use less energy to build, require water tanks
+ Sustainable Designs; impact the environment as little as possible
-Transport


The Elective "In The Wild" refers to humanity and the untamed natural world before society developed into an increasingly complex civilization based on social classes determined by wealth and political power. The primitive society is seen in the savages in Brave New World compared to the civilized society of humans and the actions of the humans in Blade runner compared to the Replicants

Module A: Study of Text and Context

Blade Runner - Ridley Scott

"All those moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain"

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

"Moral education ... ought never, in any circumstances, to be rational"

Refreshing...

Hey, I am trying to get this site back to being useful again. I am going to start posting some information from our English notes and fill this site in with everything that we have done after journeys. I will also be making some other blogs, connected to this one, that will go through other aspects of other courses and try to create a myriad of information that Year 12 have at their disposal.

Cheers,
rHyS

Week 7 Stuff

Monday As I am away on Peer Support Training, you can use this period as a catch-up, to complete all outstanding work. You may also begin to complete work from “Personal response” handout, pages 70-76. Don't forget to look over the sample feature article assessment. If no teacher shows up to take my place, I am sure you will get to work on something.... Tuesday Keep working on Monday's stuff. Also, I have given a heap more handouts for you to look at: ·Some Suggestions for HSC students in answering Paper 1 Section II in the HSC exam ·Skrzynecki’s “immigrant chronicle” relevance to Area of Study ·Model Essay ·Interview with Peter Skrzynecki Have a good look at the first one on Paper 1 Section II--remember you will have a creative writing section on the exam. Wednesday Log on to WC-WAVE Moodle, Y12 Advanced English class, and continue posting. Check my responses to student posts. Thursday Last day of Area of Study--Physical Journeys!!! I think Capt. Ryan is bringing us all chocolate. Next Week: Intro to Module A

Week Six Stuff

Monday Continued with "Leaving Home". Again, bright flashes of pith everywhere. Tuesday Reality check--how is the work coming? You got questions? We got answers. We had extra time today, so we looked at the poem "Feliks Skrzynecki," Peter's paean to his father. What we are trying to do with these poems We want to try to understand the poems first, get a general sense of what each is about, then looker closer at details of the text, what they mean and language techniques used. THe next step is to develop links between the poems and the BoS description of Physical Journeys. Identify and analyse such things as movement to new places, obstacles that come as a result of this movement and the resultant extension and learning about self and the world. Wednesday One poem left to look at--Post Card. There have been many excellent comments on these texts in class. I think we should post them on moodle. Go here: http://willcarey.nsw.edu.au/moodle/login/index.php and follow the instructions under "Is this your first time here?" The course is English--I think you can find it. The enrollment key is: sally. As a teaser, I have place some lecture notes and sample responses in the forums. And Beyond! We will look at a how to do the feature article and how to analyse a song. Find the Term 4 writing assignments by clicking HERE Thursday We looked at "Post Card" today, but leading class discussion was more difficult than trying to herd a clowder of cats.... New handouts: —“Immigrant Chronicle—Peter Skrzynecki” pages 65-87 containing reasonable explications DANGER DANGER! of the prescribed poems, only to be looked at after you have firmed up your own interpretation, and a sample feature article assessment task from last year. We then looked at the various journeys that can be found in Led Zeppelin, Jake Shimabukuro and Genesis songs. Monday - Wednesday next week, I will be doing peer support training, so you will be working mostly on your own. Monday-Tuesday will be catch up and some additional readings, Wednesday will be working on Moodle. I replied to all of your comments so far, I think. Still waiting on some writing assignments.

Week 5 Stuff

Monday Discussed updates to assignments -- see Journeys Stimulus Texts post & Term 4 Writing Assignments post. Discussed what is meant by the BoS "prescribed text": this is what it means, Ghaysa, the prescribed text is the seven Skryznecki poems. We continued with the prescribed text, doing a brief analysis of Immigrants at Central Station. Activities 2-4, & Activity 11 should be done by Wednesday. Tuesday Going over learning journals. Seems that a few of you are a bit behind. Dudes and dudesses, this is not happening. You must find time to do the work. Wednesday will be a bit of a catch up day before we move forward with The Immigrant Chronicles. Learning journals will be checked and completed and discussed. Wednesday Brief look at journeys in stimulus texts. Time for work in class--ketchup. Tomorrow we continue with Skryznecki. Thursday We continue our trek onwards through The Immigrant Chronicles. Complete the following activities for Monday. Reminder: writing activity 2 is due in a week. A drive in the country Activities 12-13 Leaving home Activity 9 --complete the table only Thursday Wow! You guys blew my mind! I thought we would quickly get through two poems and give you some time in class to work on assignments, but NO! I couldn't shut you up! You guys were firing on all cylinders, making incisive, pithy comment after incisive, pithy comment. We hardly had time enough for one poem, not to mention two! I hardly got a chance to tell you what I thought of the poem. You made me feel honoured to work at WCCS. Well, I guess we will have to look at "Leaving Home" on Monday. I hope one period is time enough....

Week 4 Stuff

Monday Discussed the Interview writing assignment and how to improve it. Please see general comments posted below. Updates to http://www.saltysally.bigbig.com/. I hope to begin The Immigrant Chronicles poems this week. We will study the poems in the following order. Please read all the information in The Learning Curve: Chapter 5 Poetry: Peter Skryznecki handout and compete activities listed. This may take us some time. I don't expect you to do them all at once, but you can certainly begin. Crossing the Red Sea Acts 7-8a-d Migrant Hostel Act 10 Immigrants at Central Station Acts 2-4, Act 11 A drive in the country Act 12-13 Leaving Home No activity Post Card Act 15 Feliks Skrzynecki Act 6 a-(b) General Activities (p92)(d only) We will also be completing the What is being said and How is it being said sections of the Personal Response handout for each poem. Tuesday Catch up day. I catch up with you and you catch up on some English work. Wednesday Meet in J3 to use computers. A chance to finish up work done so far and to post and reply to posts online. This didn't work extremely well yet, but please trust me, there will be benefits for those of you who articulate your ideas on online the discussion groups and consider others' responses. Please visit http://groups.google.com/group/y12advancedenglish to contribute to conversations on the stimulus texts I have handed out in class. Please either summarise your learning journal responses to at least two of the texts or comment on specific things you think relevant to our studies in this unit. Please read others' comments and post a savvy response. Thursday Intro to The Immigrant Chronicles by Peter Skrzynecki. For Monday, read Crossing the Red Sea and Migrant Hostel and complete Acts 7-8a-d and Act 10 from The Learning Curve: Chapter 5 Poetry: Peter Skryznecki .