BELONGING

1. AREA OF STUDY BELONGING

2. The Concept of Belonging • Did the texts invite you to belong to their worlds? • How did the texts represent the concept of belonging? • How does your perception and assumptions about belonging compare with that of the composers you studied? • Has your perspective been challenged or altered? • How do you view the notion of belonging after your study of the texts? • What lines of argument have you developed as a result?

3. Context & Perspectives: personal, cultural, historical, social Context & Perspectives: personal, cultural, historical, social Assumptions about belonging Meaning Meaning Meaning Meaning Meaning Composer Text Responder Meaning Meaning Meaning Perceptions:interplay of recognition and interpretation and is influenced by our preconceived ideas, memories, experiences and senses Perceptions:interplay of recognition and interpretation and is influenced by our preconceived ideas, memories, experiences and senses Representation of belonging through language features and ideas Meaning

4. Belonging • Representation: You need to explore, critically analyse and evaluate why and how the texts have used textual features and forms to shape meaning and influence responses. • Contextualisation: How your personal, cultural, social and historical context affects your perspective of belonging. Integrate the significant aspects of context throughout your response. • Interrelationships:You need to find other texts that enable you to make meaningful connections with your prescribed text. These texts of your own choosing should support and challenge how your prescribed text represents belonging ensuring that you can develop a range of informed theses or lines of argument.

5. The Concepts • Perceptions: You must take into consideration the composers’ contexts and your own context to appreciate how they interpret belonging and how you respond to this perception of belonging. Perception refers to the interplay of recognition and interpretation and is influenced by our preconceived ideas, memories, experiences and senses. It can alter and even distort how we view the notion of belonging.

6. Theses or Lines of Arguments • We spend our lives trying to belong to self, a place and others, not realising that it is our perceptions and attitudes that enable us to belong or not belong. • When we begin to understand the forces that drive us to belong we develop empathy for others and personal insight. • The relationships we have with self and others shapes our perception of belonging.

7. Ideas • If don’t accept who we are and believe in ourselves then we may spend a life time searching for our identity and a place where we belong. • The simple act of unquestioning friendship and kindness nurtures the notion of belonging.

8. Ideas • We all need to find a place where we belong and we are accepted. • When individuals experience a strong connection to a place the notion of belonging is strengthened and enriched.

9. Ideas • The pressure to belong and conform has the potential to threaten individuality and independent thought. • Belonging to a community or a group is not always a positive thing. To maintain the cohesion, power and authority of the community or group, individuals could be forced to conform and suppress their individuality. Freedom and independence can become casualties of conformity.

10. Section 1: Reading Task • “Strong responses demonstrated perception and insight into the ideas embedded in the texts and supported a thesis with effective textual evidence.” • “Weaker responses simply described the content of either the written or visual without linking them” • “A discussion which focused primarily on language techniques often restricted the candidates’ opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the ideas in the texts or to develop their ideas effectively”

11. Reading Task The ideas! Composer’s purpose and attitude towards belonging How language features, form and structure represent belonging How you personally respond to the texts

12. Section 1: Reading Task • How the composer shapes your understanding of and response to the concept of ‘Belonging’ • Identify the feature • Exemplify the feature • Explain the impact of the feature • Extrapolate by discussing why the composer used the feature

13. The emotive adjective and verbs position the reader to see that the son feels alienated by colour and race. Son of Mine My son, your troubled eyes search mine,Puzzled and hurt by colour line.Your black skin soft as velvet shine;What can I tell you, son of mine?I could tell you of heartbreak, hatred blind,I could tell of crimes that shame mankind,Of brutal wrong and deeds malign,Of rape and murder, son of mine;But I'll tell instead of brave and fineWhen lives of black and white entwine,And men in brotherhood combine -This would I tell you, son of mine. The use of the possessive personal pronouns ‘my’ and ‘mine’ and the second person ‘you’ couples with the soft sibilant ‘s’ sound and the gentle simile convey a mother’s love for her child and her pain that he does not feel that he belongs. The rhetorical question at the end of the stanza reflects her frustration. Her frustration spills over into the next stanza where she lists using emotive language with disturbing connotations how her people have been alienated. These highly charged words contrast with the medium modality and repetition of ‘could’. The disjunction ‘but’ and the plosive alliterative ‘b’ changes the bitter tone to one of hope for a future when belonging and acceptance will be universal.

14. Reading Task Integrate in the last question through a line of argument Look at the value of each question! Use a range of features and details. Don’t neglect visual techniques!

15. Section II: Writing Task “They demonstrated structural complexity, cohesion, the use of an authentic, sustained and engaging voice and took advantage of the opportunity the question presented to showcase originality and perceptiveness. The mechanics of language, punctuation, sentence structure and paragraphing were applied skillfully in these responses”

16. Craft • Writing is a craft that can be learned and perfected! • Practice does make perfect! • Write from experience!

17. Writing Task Craft the writing: Imagery Sound devices Senses Poetic devices Structure Voice Syntax Extended metaphor Powerful verbs Motif

18. Suggestions Use a concept /idea about belonging Focus on the setting Focus on characterisation – the crafting of a character: voice, gestures, relationships, perception of belonging… Draw on a current event or happening Be inspired by Section 1 texts!

19. Concepts Alienation • When individuals experiences a strong connection to a place the notion of belonging is strengthened and enriched. • The simple act of unquestioning friendship and kindness nurtures the notion of belonging. • If don’t accept who we are and believe in ourselves then we may spend a life time searching for our identity and a place where we belong. Empathy Compassion

20. Consider that a place can act as an alienating or inclusive force for different individuals. Describe a place that you remember or feel close to focusing on the use of suggestive imagery and sensuous language. Evoke a sense of belonging and then disrupt that feeling through your descriptions. Ensure that your readers can ‘see’ what you are describing; don’t neglect those small details that can capture the essence of a place. • What is your concept/idea?

21. We buzz north through hours of good farm country. The big, neat paddocks get browner and drier all the while and the air feels thick and warm. Biggie drives. He has the habit of punctuating his sentences with jabs on the accelerator and although the gutless old Volksie doesn't exactly give you whiplash at every flourish, it's enough to give a bloke a headache. We wind through the remnant jarrah forest, and the sickly-looking regrowth is so rain-parched it almost crackles when you look at it. (Tim Winton, The Turning)

22. There’s a nothingness on the horizon that watches and waits. Nothing. I turn around and look back at the empty beach. There is no other place I want to be. I see a set coming. Digging deep into the ocean I gain speed and push my way onto the wave. A great force pushes me on and on. A huge rush of adrenalin kicks in as I stand up and fly down the glassy face. For that split second nothing else matters. No thoughts in my mind about school or my future or anything. All that matters is here on this wave. I don’t care what will come next…

23. We began our run, turning out of the gate at a brisk jog. I was feeling good; intently listening for strained breathing coming from my combatant. I took the leading position along the road in an attempt to set the pace at one which I could maintain, but whenever I grew too complacent he would retake the lead. He upped the stakes proposing that we do ten push-ups and ten sit-ups at every road-sign, which I, of course agreed to, realising a chance to catch my breath and increase my upper body strength. A slick sweat covered by body and the heat of the exercise inflamed a recent sunburn on my back that I thought I was over. It felt like annoying flying ants were swarming on me. I searched my brother’s face of consternation for any sign of real weakness, but his technique and spring were still great.

24. Section III: Extended Response Must demonstrate understanding of key concepts and ideas of belonging from the rubrics and through your response to the texts Develop theses or lines of argument Choose texts that connect with concepts

25. 2010 HSC Examination Rubrics In your answer you will be assessed on how well you: • demonstrate understanding of the concept of belonging in the context of your study • analyse, explain and assess the ways belonging is represented in a variety of texts • organise, develop and express ideas using language appropriate to audience, purpose and context.

26. Notes from the Marking Centre • Better responses introduced a thesis to answer the question in their introduction and maintained and supported it throughout the essay. • Better responses developed a thesis which demonstrated a strong conceptual understanding • Sustained and built on their argument, augmenting their points with judiciously chosen textual details and astute analysis of both texts.

27. Texts of own Choosing • Discerning choice of related material that enhance and strengthen your argument through subtle comparison or stark contrast. • Enable you to support and challenge the theses or lines of argument • You can easily discuss the textual features Way Home – Libby Hathorn

28. Thesis: Line of Argument Your Concepts/Ideas What ideas/understanding have you gained from your study of belonging? These ideas/concepts become the framework and drivers for your extended response.

29. Thesis: Line of Argument • Your personal response to belonging through your study of the prescribed text and related texts. • Your point of view • Your argument • Developed and supported by judicious textual analysis.

30. Developing a Thesis • Strong opening paragraphs that introduce clear lines of argument or theses that directly address the question. • A response that is driven by your thesis connected to the question. Each successive point must further your thesis through textual analysis and support. You can support or even challenge your thesis through the analysis of the text/s. • Precise topic sentences that are connected to and build on the thesis.

31. Developing a Thesis • Judicious textual support: it is better to use detailed, relevant examples from the text/s than spurious, shallow examples. • Always support the analysis of language features with examples from the text/s and evaluate their impact on the responder. Never use a shopping list of techniques!

32. Developing a Thesis • An evaluation: Appraises, analyses, considers and/or judges • A comparison: Similarities and differences, makes connections between and through texts • A personal response: Original, considered response where student voice is explicitly or implicitly evident. • An argument: Persuades and convinces – strong personal voice is explicitly or implicitly evident.

33. Furthering a Thesis or Line of Argument John Donne wrote that “no man is an island”, yet despite the most basic human need to belong, many choose to be alone. The song ‘Good Day’ by Jewell emphasises the importance of inner strength when you are forced to alienate yourself from the world: “It’s gonna be all right ‘cause I’m all right with me.” Billy leaves his home, his dog and his father to escape the abuse and the pain. His decision is not easy but he would be rather be alone than living with a father who abuses him and gives him no love. Old Billy rejects the world because of his guilt and pain. In the Indian film Slumdog Millionaire, Jamal and Salim are forced to survive without a family when their mother is shot. Jamal is loyal and caring, but his brother is selfish and hard. Jamal never gives up on his brother or his childhood friend Latika.

34. Furthering a Thesis or Line of Argument If we want to belong and be accepted it is easier to conform and comply. The Island presents unquestioning conformity and mob rule in its most ugly and destructive form. Unlike The Crucible where at least a few dare to challenge the madness, no-one on the island questions the cruel ostracism of an outsider who is shipwrecked on the island. Miller applauds the individual who stands up for what he or she believes in against the hostile tide of antipathy, but the deaths of these individuals demonstrates why so many choose to belong to the dominant group. Juno in the film of the same name defies convention. She is a free spirit, atypical teenager who displays wisdom and commonsense beyond her years. Being pregnant at sixteen alienates Juno from her peers, but she just takes it all in her stride.

35. Final Word • Develop original concepts for your imaginative and integrated responses • Integrate the HOW • There are so many texts related to belonging! • Make it personal!