Australian "history"

The Founding of Australia, Jan. 26th 1788, by Capt. Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney Cove
Original oil sketch [1937] by Algernon Talmadge R.A.

I. Feel. Dirty.

I felt so unclean after writing that piece of drivel, that I had to partake in Yr 11's activity - we rewrote part of my original story, and made it better. Just the phone conversation.

Here's what 10 minutes got me. First drafts are always so rough, whatwhat?

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She sat in her room, fingers worrying the torn edge of her jeans. Had she done something wrong, embarrassing, that she didn't remember? Did she smell? She had thought he'd liked her...and she'd tried so hard to get his attention this week. Maybe too hard...
"Mary!" her mum yelled from downstairs. "Phone for you. It's some boy...says it's urgent!" She'd been so caught up in her depressed thoughts that she hadn't even heard the phone ring. She thudded down the stairs, and picked up the still-warm receiver.
"Hi, this is Mary," she said questioningly.
"Mary! Oh! Um, hi!" said a familiar voice hesitantly at the other end of the line.
"Max?"
"Um. Yeah. Um. Look, sorry about the short notice and stuff, but...um..."
"Yes...?" she offered, hoping he would go on.
"Well, the Prom's tonight, and, well, I was hoping you might still be going, and um, be free and...maybe I could come and pick you up...um..." he stammered.
"Wow! Really?"
"Yeah."
"Of course I'd love to go!" She tried to sound calm and confident, but knew that her excitement was shining through her voice.
"You would? I mean, that would be great! Um, cool! I'll be there at 6?"
She put down the phone with a smile. He'd sounded so nervous - maybe that's why he hadn't asked her till now!
Mary bounced up the stairs to her room, two at a time, calling out to her Mum. "I'm off to the Prom! Can I borrow your diamante purse?"

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I think the most obvious thing learned here is that once you expand out the simple story, you end up with real, live characters, not the black and white, cardboard things from my original piece of poo. Here, the audience are invited into Mary's life a little more, not kept at arm's length. By inviting them into the intricacies of the phone conversation, you're making the reader feel important. Readers want to be involved, to stand beside the characters and live their lives too.

Don't just TELL the reader what's happening. SHOW them, involve them, make them feel like they are there. That's one of the secrets of good writing, and it's easy to do.

OMG, I was bored!

So, writing creatively and engagingly is hard. But it doesn't have to be. The best thing to remember is NOT TO BORE YOUR READER TO DEATH! Give them lots of descriptions to make them feel like they are there too. A catchy opening, so that they want to keep on reading. Dialogue will make it feel realistic. And don't just recount events - BORING!

Here's a really poor short story for you to edit and make more exciting. Don't copy it out, just adapt it into your books.

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Mary was 17 and had never been kissed. It was the week of the school prom and she was hoping that her dreams would come true. That Max, the hottest guy in the school, would ask her out. Every day for a week she want to school, smiled and was friendly, wore lots of make up and paid careful attention to her hair. But he never asked her.
On Friday, she went home from school, very sad.
It was the night of the prom and Mary was thinking of not going but then the phone rang. It was Max and he asked her to go with him to the prom! Of course she said yes. She put on her best dress and her favorite shoes. She was ready for the night of her life!
She ran downstairs and he said she looked gorgeous. She'd never been so happy. It was the best night of her life.

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Urgh...it hurts to write something this bad!

Yr 11 Revision ideas

While we’re not doing any real work in class this week, it’s a great opportunity to put your energies into revision. You have less than 2 weeks before the exams start. You need to go back over EVERYTHING!
To whit:
Area of Study – Changing Self
• Re-read Gatsby and notes
• Look back over the stimulus booklet and know your texts
• Re-read your related texts
• Find your chapters assessment task
The extended response for this section will focus on how composers present their ideas of Change in their texts.

Module A: Comparison of Texts
• Re-read Taming, and your notes.
• Read your notes for 10 Things (if you can, watch the film!)
• Find and read assessment task (feature article)
You question will ask you to consider how the texts are valued in their contexts, the similarities and differences between them, and the techniques used to convey messages.

Module B: Critical Study of Texts
• Know your poems
• Know your critics
• Know your readings
The question will probably focus on your knowledge of all these things, and ask you consider how meaning is created and understood though literature.
You should probably spend more time reminding yourself about the AoS and Module A, as Keats should be recent enough for you.

We’ll look in detail at the structure of the papers when the speeches are over. Or, you may like to look at the past papers on the Board of Studies website.

Critical Theory - another perspective

I'm getting worried that one voice is not enough to teach one class how to attack literary critcism, so I went to see what good ol' Wikipedia had to say about it.
There's some good stuff - lots on the history of where the ideas some from, links to specific theories, and external links to other sites.
Including this one.
It only includes some of the theories we've looked at, but it is such a great resource!

And I love the orange!

Death-moth

This is a picture of a Death's-head Hawkmoth, taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Acherontia_lachesis.jpg

There is some intersting reading there too. I stole some:

The name Death's-head Hawkmoth usually refers to one of the three species (A. atropos, A. styx and A. lachesis) of moth in the Acherontia genus. Found throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean region, and increasingly as far north as southern Great Britain due to recently mild British winters, this moth is easily distinguishable by a skull-shaped pattern on its back.
The moth also has numerous other unique features, such as an ability to emit a loud squeak if irritated. The sound is produced by expelling air from its pharynx. It is commonly observed raiding beehives for honey. It is attacked by guard bees at the entrance, but the thick cuticle and resistance to venom allow it to enter the hive. It is able to move about in hives unmolested because it mimics the scent of the bees (Moritz et al., 1991).

La Belle Dame and Pre-rafs

Stolen from http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/E392M/cp/WindAmongtheReeds/HostingofSidhePreRaphaelite.htm

Have a read - some interesting stuff about Keats and the art movement.

Characher work

In case my other plan doesn't work!

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Taming, Ten Things
Character questions

1. Describe in three words each of the following characters in The Taming of the Shrew:
Katherine, Petruchio, Bianca, Hortensio and Gremio
2. Describe in three words each of the following characters in Ten Things I Hate About You:
Kat, Pat, Bianca, Joey, Cameron
3. Relate one incident from the play that reveals the personality of the character:
Katherine, Petruchio, Bianca, Hortensio, Lucentio
4. Relate one incident from the film that reveals the personality of the character
Kat, Pat, Bianca, Joey, Cameron
5. Describe the references to clothing that are made in The Taming of the Shrew. What does this clothing shoe you about the characters and the society that they are a part of? (3-4 references)
6. Describe the clothing worn by the characters in Ten Things. What does this say about the place of these characters in this society?
7. How have the characters changed by the end of the play?
Katerine, Petruchio, Bianca, Hortensio, Lucentio.
8. How have the characters changed by the end of the film?
Kat, Pat, Bianca, Joey, Cameron.
9. Find two quotes that reveal the personality of each character in the play:
Katherine, Petruchio, Bianca, Hortensio, Lucentio, Baptista
10. Find two quotes that reveal the personality of each character in the film:
Kat, Pat, Bianca, Joey, Cameron, Mr Stratford

SMH goes downhill

Taming Family Tree

Found this on 'net. Not sure if it makes things clearer, or more confused. You should be able to click on it and bring up a larger picture, that is easier to read.

Sadly, I've done the thing that I will always tell you NOT to do - I've lost the URL of where it came from originally.

Commedia dell'arte

It's the name of a certian kind of comedic theatre, which used stock characters and very simple plots, so that the pratfalls, slapstick, puns and jokes could be the focus.

Check out the Wikipedia description for starters.

Transformations - intro text

The Conciliation