Belonging and choosing related material

Q: I do advanced english and i need some help choosing my related texts. I’ve
chosen the following texts for belonging, could you please give me some
feedback on the choices i’ve made.. thanks!
Also could you give me some suggestions on any other texts that i could use..

Freedom Writers (movie)
The Simple Gift by Steven Herrick
Chinese Cinderella
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
Memoirs of a Geisha
Little Princess

A: What’s your prescribed text? I usually make recommendations when I know that. I wouldn’t do Chinese Cinderella but you could do excerpts from Falling Leaves, the adult version that was abridged for kids. Is Judith Kerr a yound adolescent writer? If you’re doing advanced go for meatier texts.

Q: I was thinking of doing Freedom Writers and the Simple Gift by Steven
Herrick. Would those by sophisticated enough? Oh Judith Kerr isn’t a young
writer, but the book she has written “When hitler stole pink rabbit” is
about a little girl who suddenly realises that her world is changing due
to the effects of war. What about Memoirs of a Geisha?

A: Marcus Zuzak The Book Thief may be better. However, you’ve got two novels. You need to choose different text types. Just be careful. there are lots of suggestions at www.e-rudite.net.
Is The Simple Gift your prescribed text because it is on the list? You need to know this.
Memoirs of a Geisha would do the trick. It’s riveting but not great literature. That said it was hugely successful and I don’t think it would be chosen often. So it would probably be a good choice.
Freedom Writers sounds good.

Belonging and related material

Q: My prescribed text for Belonging is A simple gift by Stephen Henrick, and for related material i am thinking of doing the film Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont, and the song ‘i was only nineteen’. We need two atleast, but i am also concerned because i did Shawshank Redemption and i was only nineteen for my preliminary course yearly exam essay for individual and experience, and i got 20/20. So that’s why i am very confident with it, and i can relate it to belonging.

Also the novel Raw by Scott Monk was our prescribed text, and i also want to do this for belonging.

Can you please comment on my choices. Also, the HSC for this year asked for only ONE related text instead of two as it always does, so my teacher says that we have to get a related material and deconstruct it in depth.

Would picture books or posters be a good choice? i think it might not stand out as much to the examiner..???

I have gone through the list of the related material on the website, but i just want to have your opinion on my chosen texts, so i can take my mind off them and choose another one. Thank you so much for your help.

A: “Raw” would be a better choice than ‘Shawshank Redemption’. If you want a film, try ‘December Boys’ or ‘Little Miss Sunshine’. That way you are looking at younger people finding themselves: identity and self esteem.
If I were your teacher, I’d be a bit concerned about the double dipping: repeating Year 11 texts in Year 12, however your year 11 Area of Study seems to have in some way replicated ‘belonging’ so maybe your teacher will be OK with it. Ask. There are marks in choosing a different kind of text, more mature and, in terms of techniques, more complex. Monk’s book is young adolescent and song lyrics are usually more straigtforward that poetry for example.
Whatever you choose, you need to be able to make connections with the prescribed text. If they asked for one related piece of material this year, remember it is the first time they have done that. Your teacher wants you to be prepared hence at least two pieces. Also there can be a question that your favoured piece of related material doesn’t work well for and so you choose from one of the others you have prepared.
It’s about covering all the bases.

Q: 

Firstly thank you so much for replying so quick.

“There are marks in choosing a different kind of text, more mature and, in terms of techniques, more complex.” This is what i am after too, so that i have alot to talk about, including the techniques used to portray belonging. Raw is one of my favorite novels but do you think it’s a better choice? or should i do a picture book by Shaun Tan, The Arrival, maybe, which one is more complex and mature?

The reason why chose Shaw Shank Redemption was because of the quotes, and how prisoners are forced to belong to an institution; and the affect of that on particular individuals like Brooks. Along with good quotes there are alot of film techniques, so i have alot to talk about. I just want texts which i will be able to relate and write about alot.

I havent watched December Boys, but i will. I also like Little Miss Sunshine, and i will mostly go with this one if not ShawShank.

My friend thinks i should do Platoon, as it alot of social issues, and the main character is trying to belong in the team during the Vietnam War.

Will it be ok if i do texts of the ESL english class? I am doing Standard. Their prescribed text is Robbit Proof Fence, it’s a film on aboriginal children being forced to assimilate and as a result they escape. I think this will be a strong text, as it involves aboriginals, therefore it involves australia, so i will have alot to talk about.

Or should i do a visual text?

Sorry for writing so much, and thank you so much for your help.

A: ‘Shawshank’ and ‘Raw’ go back to a module called ‘The Individual and Society’. You will sound like your are answering those kinds of issues. I’d start fresh. You’ll get really sick of those books by the end of next year. A lot of studetns do ‘The Arrival’ and much as I love it, I’d go for something else. If you can find a copy of Stephen King’s Different Seasons, it has a short story, The Body, which became Stand by Me. (The book also contains the story that became Shawshank.) Stand By Me would be a better choice; the short story even better because less people will be likely to do it. Films can be good but they can also be the easy way out: 2 hours rather than several days to read a book.
Choose your texts so that they link in some way to the prescribed text, A Simple Gift. I’d be surprised if Platoon does it much. Once you can link you are moving into another dimension of answer – and marks.
Little Miss sunshine: dysfunctional family members all find something. It’s good; it’s different, and it’s easy to watch. December Boys is Australian but it has the Harry Potter actor if that appeals.

The concept ‘Belonging’

Q: I am terribly confused with the difference between the CONCEPT of belonging and the ISSUES about belonging, when they ask me, i feel they are asking the same thing!

is the concept of belonging something like: our sense of belonging is strongly tied to place?
and an issue of belonging: not belonging has negative effects?!

and what are IDEAS AND ASSUMPTIONS IN A TEXT?
and how would i answer HOW DOES THIS TEXT BROADEN YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD?

A: Not a good time to be confused. The concept is what belonging means in the context of your studies. The meaning of belonging that emerges from studying your prescribed text and your chosen related material. Within that meaning there will be specific issues. If you tell me your prescribed text and give me an idea of your related material I can be a bit more specific.
Every text presents ideas on the issues it treats. It also makes assumptions about it’s audience.
If you giv me your texts I can make this clearer.

Q: I am doing the secret river by kate grenville.
there are many concept of belonging? or are you implying that there is only one concept of belonging? and there are issues within that concept ot belonging?

for example is a concept of belonging: the importance of place in our sense of belonging, and issues to do with that concept is that we may be born into a place where we don’t feel belonged, or another issue, the placd we once felt belonged to is disrupted or abandoned?

the other one is a thousand splendid suns and my school text is the immigrant chronicals.
they all tie together about the importance of place and people.

A: I’m not saying there is one concept; just arrive at a definition that fits with your texts. Belonging, it seems to me, involves one’s identity and their self esteem. Who you think you are and the influences (people and environments) that have shaped you; how confident you feel about who you are; your sense of self worth. For some people these things aren’t positive. All of these apply to the poetry you’ve studied. For migrants there are the issues of language and assimilation. These affect identity and self esteem. For first generation people like Peter, these issues are different because they have migrant parents but have grown up in the new environment and feel differently about their new environment..
A Thousand splendid Suns deals with identity and self esteem but gender and ethnicity play a role here as does culture.
I haven’t read the Grenville so unfortunately I can’t comment there.

Q: for example could i say belonging is feeling comfortable and safe within our surroundings, and then address issues about how family promotes this, friendship, place, and if we loose this comfort and security we feel as if we don’t belong?

A: Yes. Area of Study is worth 40% of your marks; the Modules are worth 20% each. AoS focuses on a theme: belonging. You have a prescribed text and you choose related material that, ideally, allows you to make connections to the prescribed text. The AoS requires a study of how the composers represent their ideas on belonging which means you need to work out what they are saying about belonging and how they say it. You will probably brainstorm what belonging means and that will help.

‘Belonging’ related material

If you are studying ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ the Bardayal ‘Lofty’ Nadjamerrek exhibition at the MCA (http://www.mca.com.au/default.asp?page_id=10&content_id=7343) in Sydney would be good related material. There is a related website: http://nadjamerrek.mca.com.au/  which in itself would be related material, if you are adventurous in your choices of materials.

‘Lofty’ received an Order of Australia for his work in art but also for his work supporting indigenous culture and the land so the concept of ‘belonging’ is something he truly lived.

Worth thinking about!!

Related material: don’t leave it too late!

I am getting requests for suggestions for related material.

It is August: Trial time. It is really too late to find decent related material and deconstruct it for Area of Study or a Module. What have you been doing?

There are suggestions on http://www.e-rudite.net. Most are not a short term fix.

Trial preparation #2: answering any question

Your argument will need to include:

• a topic sentence to introduce your argument
• an elaboration or detailed expansion of that topic sentence through close reference to your text
• and include in the elaboration
  • evidence from the text (textual reference)
  • quotation – brief but most appropriate
  • reference to technique

Trial preparation #1: paper 1

Paper 1 revolves around the Area of Study.It is in three sections:

1. Reading
2. Writing
3. Area of Study

The Reading section involves answering scaffolded questions on 3 – 4 passages relating in some way to the Area of Study, one of which usually includes visual material and there is often a poem or a song lyric.

The questions begin with something straightforward and move onto increasing complex tasks following something like this order:

• knowledge – finding a piece of information from the text; identifying something
• comprehension – demonstrating understanding of an aspect of the text or identifying a technique
• analysis – looking into the meaning of segment of the text or deconstructing a technique for its impact on meaning
• synthesis – putting together meaning from analysis of aspects of the text or texts
• evaluation – making a personal but education judgment about one or more texts.

The questions have marks that reflect the complexity of the answer. A questions that requires you to demonstrate knowledge of a text will be worth 1 mark whilst a question that requires you to evaluate one or more texts will be worth more marks and will require a ‘mini’ essay to answer it. It will require higher order thinking skills and demand more of you in a personal response.

The Writing question is ‘creative’ and it will probably provide stimulus using quotes from each of the passages or a series of fairly generic pictures to start you writing on the Area of Study theme. You can be asked to write in one of a series of basic text types or you can be invited to choose your own. Don’t write a poem. Not a good idea under stress.

The last question, the Area of Study, will require you respond to a quotation or a proposition – an essay (or argument). You can be required to present that argument in a text type eg a feature article.

It is advisable to know:

• the exposition text type
• the discussion text type.

It is also advisable to know some common media text types such as:

• the interview
• feature article
• report etc.

Most students I know work towards 1000 word answers.