Encountering Conflict Through Text Tremors

What are your thoughts Yr 12?

2011-07-12T07:01:00.003-07:00

Your S/N Task - Encountering the Context

2011-05-31T01:49:00.001-07:00

Aim to create four posts for The Secret River . You need to complete a post for the Picture Panic, Text Tremors, Film Flogging and Music Matters areas of the blog.

The posts will discuss articles of your choice. Your discussion should consider the article in relation to the context of Encountering Conflict and highlight any connections between The Secret River and the article. Include an idea for a piece of writing the material could inspire - note the form and audience for the piece.

So, have a go. Don't panic about doing it right or wrong, in this case it's about the discussion we can generate and the ideas that will put us in a strong position from which to tackle the SACs and exam. If you see something put up by someone else that gets you thinking leave them a comment. If you come across something that inspires you in regards to The Rugmaker put a post up about that too. Good Luck.

2011 STARTS HERE!

2010-12-16T01:57:00.001-08:00

A Pertinent Latin Quote

2010-09-01T02:44:00.001-07:00

Cuiusvis hominis est errare; nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare
Any man can make a mistake; only a fool keeps making the same one

Martin Luther King - I Have A Dream...

2010-09-01T01:45:00.000-07:00

During classes recently we have discussed the literary device anaphora. It was a term new to all of us and while researching its meaning I found that Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech was a working example of anaphora.

Anaphora is the repetition of a sentence or phrase throughout a piece of information. It works to highlight a point and make a strong impact on the audience. Without doubt it worked magic for Martin Luther King, I have a dream is arguably the most memorable speech of all time so far.

So, it was quite incredible to discover that many of us had never heard of the I have a dream speech. It is worth considering this part of history in terms of our Encountering Conflict Context. Find the speech embedded below for you to listen to and view at your own leisure. You will find that there are many links between the issues King addresses and our set texts, The Rugmaker and The Secret River. Leave comments about links you can see and/or what you think in response to the speech. Some of you might be inspired to do some background research into King's battle against racial injustice in America during the the 1950's and 1960's and post your own response to an area of our blog.

It is through educating ourselves, remembering and learning from the past that we work towards creating an all round better world in the future. It has been said that the civil rights movement in America was started by Rosa Parks. One day, she decided she would like to sit at the front of the bus...incredibly, this was a choice that changed the world!

Text Tremours: Artemis Fowl

2010-07-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

I used to be a bookworm and so I have read quite a collection of books, though most of them were fiction related. There was this particular series which was called “Artemis Fowl”, and it was about Artemis Fowl, a 12-year-old human genius, trying to steal “fairy technology” so he would get rich and get his family out of monetary problem. The fairies weren’t particularly fond of the humans and the Artemis wasn’t very fond of the fairies either. They had a big fight at the start of the series but became friends later on. Artemis became a really good friend of the fairies who would often lend the fairies a hand when they were in a pinch and vice versa.
I think Artemis Fowl relates to the Secret River on the fact that both texts had two different races and neither side liked the other. Though Artemis Fowl had a good ending where the two sides compromised with each other, I think that there was a big connection between the two. Well, the white settlers and the aboriginals are now coexisting with each other in present times so I guess there is still that similarity.
Again, Artemis Fowl further shows that even though there are differences between two organisations, both parties could still have a good relationship as long as they compromise these differences and try to work with each other.

THE LIEUTENANT

2010-07-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

The Lieutenant is also a Kate Grenville book and faces many of the conflicts that arise in the Secret River. Much like the Secret River focuses on William Thornhill, the Lieutenant focuses on the Daniel Rooke, and English Lieutenant and astronomer who comes to Australia in search of new discoveries. Like the Thornhill family, Rooke sets himself up away from the original settlement. This attracts many native aboriginals who explore his area. Although in the Secret River they also find the new settlement of the English. Like Blackwood in the Secret River, Rooke finds a new friend ship in the natives. Especially in Tagaran, a native aboriginal girl, this resembles that of Scabby Bill. Rooke forgets where he is from, in terms of his job and this is much like what happens in the Secret River with William Thornhill who forgets has was once poor and has robbed the Native Americans of their land and their culture. Although William Thornhill and Daniel Rooke have different takes on the aboriginals, it is the little details that make the Secret River and the Lieutenant similar.

By Nick

Surviving Sydney Cove

2010-07-14T18:40:00.001-07:00

A few years ago, I read the book ‘Surviving Sydney Cove’, a story about a young English girl, who is sent to Australia, after being wrongly accused of stealing. I find the storyline of the book similar to the text ‘The Secret River’, and their conflicts faced.
Not only are both the main characters of each book, William Thornhill, and Elizabeth Harvey, exiled to Australia, they both recount their experiences of their journey to their new country, and the differences between their old home, and their new homes.
Both characters encounter conflicts, such as personal conflicts, missing their old home and families, interpersonal conflicts with other Australians, and cultural conflicts with the ‘Blacks’.
Elizabeth came out to Australia with the 1st fleet, (April 1790), at the age of 13 which is much earlier than William. Her story is set in the format of a diary, while Will’s is set as a narrative. Her story lasts only 2 months, while Thornhill’s lasts many years.

By Steph

BHS Encountering Conflict Blog

2010-03-20T06:37:00.000-07:00

Check out text response activies and sample writing on The Secret River at this blogspot by Balwyn High School. There is also a fantastic cache of uselful links that provide background and discussion on the text.

THE GLOBAL POETRY PROJECT

2009-12-03T18:08:00.000-08:00

Here is a chance to explore and expand your understanding of the context in a meaningful way. The Global Poetry Project 'aims to provide a space for members to expand upon their cultural views through the writing and reading of poetry'. Visit this site and register as a member of the global community so that you can expand your ideas on the Context and use the thoughts you encounter there to inform yourself with a variety of perspectives that you could possibly draw on for your SAC and exam pieces of writing.

Write poetry that explores an understanding of culture in terms of the theme that is changed monthly - consider the theme as you would a prompt that you are given for a SAC or exam. Upload your poetry to The Global Poetry Project as well as well as the prompt response section of our blog.

2009-12-03T17:38:00.001-08:00

TEXT TREMORS
CLASS OF 2010
LET'S BEGIN

Nicholas Sparks

2009-10-01T04:52:00.000-07:00

Nicholas Sparks

2009-09-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

At the start of this year I read a book called "The Lucky One", I dont really remember it much in depth, but enough to relate it back to "The Line". The lucky One is a story about a soldier, who went to war in Afghanistan (I think - it was a war somewhere around there), in his travels with war he found a picture of a girl, he picked it up and got people to ask around to see if anyone had lost a photo. To his surprise, he noticed that he became extremely lucky when he had the photo with him. He won money when he played betting games with other soldiers, he escaped many very near death experiences. So when he come back home from war, he decided to try and find the girl in the photo. Amazingly he found her, with basically no information about her at all. he talked to her for a while, and she gave him a job at her dog training school. Cut a long story short, they fell in love. He didn't tell her about the photo, and soon enough she found out. she got a bad impression, and they had a big fight. he tried to explain to her, that the photo was lucky, but she didn't believe him. After her calming down, she talked to her nanna, and her nanna told her that many strange things happen in war, and you just don't know how it causes people to react. "Perhaps he did feel lucky when he had your photo" she said
She told her that you just don't know how war can change people, and make them believe different things, if you don't go to war you will never understand what they go through. After a while her nanna convinced her to give him a second chance.

I think the nanna, relates the book back to the line when she tells Beth* that you never know what the war can do to people, and how it can change them.

Wordles

2009-09-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

Use Wordle to create or find word clouds related to the Context ‘encountering conflict’. We can use them as idea generators for writing pieces during exam preparation. Visit the Wordle website to brainstorm a topic/idea/theme, save it in the Wordle gallery, then retrieve the html to upload to our blog.

THE LINE - S/N activity

2009-09-08T18:54:00.000-07:00

When you study The Line by Arch and Martin Flanagan you will need to make connections that go beyond the set text, just as you did with The Secret River. The connections you make are about exploring the set context, Encountering Conflict, and building a pool of ideas to inspire writing pieces that are underpinned by themes, ideas and literary devices used in the set text.

To begin this process you are going to source four texts (a picture, a written text, a song and a film) that you can see are about Encountering Conflict and can be linked to The Line in some way. In these explanations make clear:
- the conflict/s you can see
- the links with the set text
- the ideas for possible writing pieces

An area for improvement from our The Secret River blog posts:

Enhance your digital writing by including links to information on sites that supports your commentary. Also, where possible, incorporate a relevant visual with your post. For example, if you are writing about a novel in the Text Tremors section of the blog, import a picture of the novel’s cover.

The Gypsies

2009-07-21T00:52:00.000-07:00

The Year The Gypsies Came by Linzi Glass
I found this book in the library one day when I was just looking around. It is a very emotional, loving, sweet, painful and confronting all at the same time. It tells the tale of a girl named Emily Iris and her rather dysfunctional family which is composed of her mother Lily, father Bob and sister Sarah.

The family isn't much of a family at all. Even though they are blood related there is a lot of conflict that exists within the family. Lily isn't much of a mother in ways. She likes to spend money, argue with her husband Bob and is known for tomcatting. In simple terms, tomcatting means she is said to be sexually active with more than one man (so men other than Bob). Bob, the father, works long hours and attempts to make friends with his daugthers on many occasions. He also sells chocolates. Emily is kind of a tomboy. She hates the colour pink, wearing dresses and doesn't like playing with dolls at all. Emily is very insecure about herself and tends to think she is invisible. She only has one friend at school but her most important, secure and compassionate relationships is the one she shares with her sister Sarah. Sarah is the glue that holds the family together. She is a very gentle, loving girl who always tries to see the best in everyone and everything even when they are at there worst. Sarah is more of a mother figure to her little sister than their own actual mother.

Other important characters that take a significant stand within the story is Buza. He is an elderly zulu man and a storyteller who's role within the family is the night watchman/gate keeper. However, he also takes on the much needed role of being Emily's surrogate parent. He is more of a guardian then her parents and takes great pride in educating her in his culture and ways of life.

One of the biggest of the conflict within the family are Emily's parents. They have a very fiery relationships and these fights that they have start over the smallest things, such as chocolates, and then escalate to much bigger things. The sad part is that the only time Lily and Bob seem to have a normal relationship is when they are in the company of other people. So when Bob comes home from one of his walks one day with news some gypsies he has meet and invite to stay in their trailer on their estate, the two girls are ecstatic.

The gypsies aren't really gypsies but are more so travellers. The gypsies consist of Peg and Jock Mallory (the parents) and their sons, Streak and Otis. Otis is the older of the two and suffered from head damage when he was a baby. This damage made him a bit slower than others and because of his slow capacity to learn things, people tended to not bother with him so Otis tended to not know what was right or wrong. Streak is a bit hasty and high spirited. He also has trust issues. The parents of the boys live a strenuous lifestyle due to Jock being a wildlife photographer. The family travel a lot and therefore the boys have never really had the chance to socialize with other children their age. Clearly in any situation this is bound to bring up problems in their life.

It is because of the lack of education that the boys, especially Otis, cause such a disruption within the family. At first, Emily thinks Jock is bad guy and she becomes scared of him. It is not until a faithful night where her fear is re-directed and her life and her sister's life changes forever. I believe it is because of the conflict between parents of the girls and the ignorance of both parents that this event happens. The event could have been inevitable if Otis had of been given them time to be taught what is right and what is wrong. For those you interested read on to find out what actually happens but those who want to read the book for themselves, I don't want to spoil the ending. Therefore stop reading here.

Anyways because of Sarah's loving and compassionate nature, she takes a shine to Otis. She teaches him things and takes the time to talk to him and understand him. No-one else has ever really done this. Sadly, Otis (due to lack of socialization and education) misreads her good intentions. That night, the night that changed everything, Otis rapes Sarah. It is one of the most saddest bits in the book but it gets worse. As I said earlier Sarah is the glue that binds the family and without things fall to pieces. The gypsies leave, Sarah's parents remain ignorant but Emily knows something is wrong. It doesn't take her long to figure it out. The ending of this book was extremely sad and just goes to show that if we don't provide our generation with the love, care, education and support they need, bad things happen. Sarah goes to wash herself in lake as she feels dirty and she unfortunately drowns. It was hardest on Emily and after this her parents finally began to see what their constant cause of conflict and disruption in their girls life has done to them.

This book is very heartfelt and very confronting as things like this do happen in the real world and it isn't just some nightmare that disappears when we wake. Family is one the most strongest forces on this earth. They can make or break a person and completely mould someone's life. Parents are generally role models for their children and they only know what is wrong and what is right by what their parents teach them. There isn't much need to re-explain the types and amounts of conflict in the book as they are very easy to see.

Constant Falling

2009-07-11T22:21:00.002-07:00

ooo! It works now! I don't know what i did.
These holidays i have been reading a book called "The Brain That Changes Itself". It is quite an interesting book, for anyone who is looking for a book to read this year, I strongly recommend this one!
It is a book that explains how the brain works. It is not the book itself that conveys conflict but a short story inside the book displays internal conflict. The story inside is about a lady who was prescribed a drug called gentamicin to help with a health problem. After continual use of the drug she found that she was starting to loose her balance. She always felt like she was falling, even when she was sitting down, she would feel like a trap door would open underneath her and she would again fall. She went back to the doctor and the doctor informed her that the 'balance part' of her ear had almost completely gone, due to the use of the drug. In fact only 2 percent of it remained. The doctor told her that, she would remain in this state for the rest of her life, she would always feel like she was falling. You can't imagine what kind of internal conflict she would encounter everyday, just living. She would need assistance with everything that she did. But her internal conflict had a happy ending. After 5 years of this lady having to live with this a scientist made a discovery that would help her to walk again. Instead of her ears helping her to balance the scientist discoved a way she could balance with her tongue. The scientist made a contraption that would help her to balance again through her tongue. She had to start off using the contraption a few times a day, but as the pathways through her brain became stronger and stronger she had to use the contraption less and less. She now only has to use it about every 6 months. She can now live a normal life. I like a conflict with a happy ending!

Don't forget about your S/N task

2009-07-06T01:35:00.001-07:00

Hope the study break is going well for all of you. Remember, I will be checking to see if you have made your 4 'The Secret River' posts asap after the break. Alert notices will go home if the task is not completed. You need to complete a post for the Picture Panic, Text Tremors, Film Flogging and Music Matters areas of the blog.

The posts will discuss articles of your choice. Your discussion should consider the article in relation to the context of Encountering Conflict and highlight any connections between The Secret River and the article. Also, include an idea for a piece of writing you think the material would inspire noting the form and audience for the piece.

So, have a go. Don't panic about doing it right or wrong, in this case it's about the discussion we can generate and the ideas that will put us in a strong position from which to tackle the exam. If you see something put up by someone else that gets you thinking leave them a comment. If you come across something that inspires you in regards to The Line put a post up about that too. Good Luck.

An interesting ANZAC day article by Martin Flanagan that addresses the context

2009-04-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

View this article in full at Real Footy by The Age.

Next weekend is the Anzac round, its highlight being Essendon and Collingwood playing at the G. Among his many ideas, this stands as one of Kevin Sheedy’s most successful (and certainly better than telling the Tigers’ faithful they had the team to win a premiership this year).

One of my brothers has a painting by Martin Tighe of two footballers, one Essendon, one Collingwood, playing it out on the MCG. The players in the painting don’t look like modern footballers. They look like Essendon players of John Coleman and Dick Reynolds’ time and Collingwood players of Lou Richards and Albert Collier’s time. They’re sort of eternal figures in terms of their clubs. Round the ground, where advertising banners customarily hang, are place-names like Gallipoli, Villers Bretonneux and Kokoda each written in a vivid, distinctive way as if to remind us each battle has a character entirely its own...