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 .

Interview Writing Assignment Comments

General comments
Most of you have presented very compelling accounts of immigrant journeys, which I think will help you understand The Immigrant Chronicles.

This activity suggests to me that you need to improve your understanding of text types.

An interview is part of the discussion text type. Here is an overview of the discussion text type:

Purpose of Discussion Text type:
· to present information about more than one side of an issue - the for and against aspects, or perspectives, of an issue,
· to form opinions and give reasons for them
· to make informed decisions about an issue and make recommendations based on evidence
· Debate, interview, newspapers articles, essay

Structure of discussion text type
· opening statement presenting the issue
· Arguments for and supporting evidence
· Arguments against and supporting evidence
· concluding recommendation, summary and conclusion
· (alternatively, argument/counter argument a point at a time)

To improve your interview:
1. Develop a better introduction.
A. Introduce guest and background/context
B. Introduce some of the issues to be explored.

2 Explore ideas in the responses of the interviewee.
A. Comment on responses.
B. Ask follow up questions.

3. Link to Bos journey.

4. Have a conclusion where you summarise insights and sign off.

Follow up activity for learning journal
A) What have you learned about the immigrant experience from your interview?
B) Analyse this person’s experience in terms of the BoS description of physical journeys.

Week 3 Stuff

Monday--Talked about this blog. Began an analysis of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. Looked at form, structure, language use, word choice and context. Seems to be about choice.

Tuesday--continued The Road Not Taken. A comment on the human condition.
We will be working on the Stimulus texts in class in the following order:

Wednesday: Left for Dead; Pact with the Devil
Thursday: Another Country; The Road Less Traveled; The Knife (if time)
Please be prepared with written responses

Wednesday--finished The Road Not Taken. Did a comparative analysis of photos from Left for Dead & Pact with the Devil.

Looked at form and structure of Left for Dead, considering the possibility of emulating the structure in students' writing. Looked at Hall's notions of journey and the link between inner journey and outer journey: Journey is essential to life, to understanding oneself and one's place in the cosmos. Life is a journey, but journey is also life.

Students sent an email to Mr Sahlstrom and were meant to respond to the writing response question on the blog, but the computers were WAY slow.

Thursday--Research Resources for HSC English in the library with Mrs Smith. I will put links to online resources on the Salty Sally website.

Students used library computers to post comments to the writing response question on journeys. Students are encouraged to respond to each other's comments.

Students also asked to post a summary of their learning journal entries for at least two stimulus texts. You might also focus on commenting on a single quote or point in detail.

Your understanding of the journey metaphor--required response

What is your understanding of "Physical Journeys" as described in the Board of Studies syllabus? How does the physical journey metaphor guide your thinking?

Please post your own personal response to this question in a comment. Please read others' posts and comment.

Journeys Stimulus Texts

Journeys Stimulus Texts Texts handed out in class. You are meant to respond to each of these texts in your learning journal and be expected to comment on your responses both in class and on this blog. The road not taken - Robert Frost The road less traveled - Kate Farrelly - Travel article Left for dead- Greg Bearup - Feature article on Lincoln Hall The knife - Judah Waten - short story Another Country - Frank Robson - Feature article on Sudanese Refugees Pact with the Devil - Tim Bouquet - Feature article on Iranian activist Responses in your learning journals should consider: · Your personal response to the text · How your own personal experiences affect and influence the meaning of the text · How the text links to the BoS descriptions of journeys; What the text says about journey; what aspect of journey is illuminated by this text · The type of journey evident in the text · The purpose, audience and context · How the text conveys meaning about the journey or journeys · The language features and structures of the text and effect on meaning · How the text develops your understanding of journeys · Similarities and differences among texts · How the medium of production affects your response Note that you do not have to specifically answer each of these questions in order to write an effective learning journal entry. Journal entries should be at least 250-500 words long.

Term 4 Writing Assignments

Task 1 Due Week 3 Imagine that you have been asked by an ABC news program to interview an individual, real or imagined, about a journey in that person’s life. Write the script for that interview focusing that individual’s experience. If possible, base your interview on the experiences of someone you know who has migrated to Australia. Task 2 Due Week 6 Write a letter to the publisher of a new anthology aimed at young adults titled Journeys, convincing them that your prescribed text (at least two poems from The Immigrant Chronicles), one text from the stimulus texts I have provided in class, (ie Left for Dead; Pact with the Devil; Another Country; The Road Less Traveled; or The Knife) and two of your own supplementary texts should be included in their collection. These supplementary texts should probably be ones you are considering using for your assessment task. Write about 700-800 words.

Week Two Stuff

We worked on activities from The Learning Curve, chapter one: Introduction to journeys and revised basic concepts of meaning, and how that is affected by form, context, audience, features, structure and register.

Students were meant to complete activities 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8.

We spent a bit of time analysing in detail Lao-tzu's proverb, "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." We looked at the effect of word choice, the composer's purpose and what this quote said about journeys, and how the conception of the journey implied in this quote might be different or similar to other notions about journeys.

We looked closely at the Board of Studies description of Physical Journeys. Students were asked to reflect on this and write their own understanding of physical journeys in their learning journal.

Stimulus texts were also handed out and students asked to read and write responses to these along the lines laid out on page 5 of The learning curve.

We began analysing "The Road Not Taken".

Week One Stuff

Introduction to the HSC
We looked at the Board of Studies syllabus documents for HSC Advanced English to get an idea of what Advanced English expects from your life.

We looked at the syllabus descriptions for the Area of Study and the modules and talked about how you are expected to know these descriptions as these provide the focus for your studies of the texts in each unit. In your assessments and examinations, you are meant to demonstrate your understanding of the set texts and texts of your own choosing in terms of these focuses.

The first assessment task was handed out and explained. Students were also given two major writing assignments to prepare them for their assessments. In addition, students are meant to keep learning journals.

As we began our journey into the Area of Study, we looked at how humans use concepts/metaphors to help to organise, understand and explain human experience. Metaphors guide our thinking and affect our understanding.

As an example of this, we looked at an extract from The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom By Jonathan Haidt to see how different metaphors of the human mind lead us to different conclusions.

Students reflected on metaphors in their learning journals. Why do we use metaphors to think? How can metaphors affect the way we think? How is a concept/metaphor like a constellation?

What I will try to do

I, Salty Sally, hereby promise to try to keep this blog up to date with the main work and texts we are covering in class.

You can also check out my web site for links to relevant stuff:

http://www.saltysally.bigbig.com/