Related Material for Literary Homelands

Looking for related material for the Extension 1 English ‘Literary Homelands’ module?  See the list below as a starting point.

• Things Fall Apart (novel) by Chinua Achebe
• ‘Children of the Sea‘ (short story) Edwidge Danticat
• If They Come For Us (poetry collection) by Fatima Asghar
• Girl‘ (short story) by Jamaica Kincaid
• ‘Anointed‘ (performance poem) by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner
• The Drover’s Wife (drama) by Leah Purcell
• Exit West (novel) by Mohsin Hamid
• July’s People (novel) by Nadine Gordimer
• Here Comes the Sun (novel) by Nicole Dennis-Benn
• We Need New Names (novel) by NoViolet Bulawayo
• For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf (choreopoem) by Ntozake Shange
• The Secrets I Let Slip (poetry collection) Selina Nwulu
• Mother to Mother (novel) by Sindiwe Magona
• Between the World and Me (non-fiction) by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Beloved (novel) by Toni Morrison
• Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (poetry collection) by Warsan Shire
• Homegoing (novel) Yaa Gyasi
• White Teeth (novel) by Zadie Smith

‘Accents’

I stumbled upon an animated version of ‘Accents‘ by Denice Frohman, and thought it could make an interesting foundation for a series of lessons about poetry and celebration of diversity.  Students could, for example, create a personalised version of the poem as a means of demonstrating pride in their linguistic inheritance.  Alternatively, the concept could be adapted to encompass any element of self that is distinctive.

Poetry and Film Shorts

Students can develop visual literacy, poetry and IT skills by filming a 1-2 minute short and overlaying it with poetry.  Depending on student skills, this could take the form of a narrated spoken word poem, or an overlaid typed poem.  Students could be encouraged to compose their own poem from scratch, or to create a poetic collage, borrowing lines from a range of sourced or studied poems and merging them with their own creations.

Students could then compose a reflective piece discussing their choices (both in terms of poetry and visual literacy) thus demonstrating deep engagement with the task and mastery of the requisite metalanguage.

Super Spelling

Spelling drills are not the most exciting activity that students (or teachers) engage with in the classroom.  Yet, they are nonetheless essential in ensuring that students are able to communicate clearly and precisely.  While there is not much you can do to spice up a basic spelling drill, there are exciting uses for the vocabulary.

Students can be challenged to create a poem using only the words from the list or, if you are feeling generous, the words and 10 mutually agreed additions.  Students can then annotate and, if necessary, edit their poem, making conscious choices as to how they could perform it.  If you wish to extend the activity further, students could write an analytical or reflective response comparing their two poems, demonstrating awareness of how poetry and performance poetry are different, albeit related, forms.

Another option is to challenge the student to compose a short narrative, with each line beginning with one of the spelling words.  A variation is to require the use of one spelling word per sentence of the story.  This activity encourages students to make considered choices regarding language and structure, and potentially pushes them outside their comfort zone in terms of subject matter.

Multicultural and Polyvocal Society

We have been studying the ways in which poetry expresses Australian voices.  Through our study we have moved from voices who seek to speak for all of Australia, to contemporary examples of marginalised voices.  Inherent in this shift has been a recognition that an increasingly multicultural society is also a polyvocal society.

What happens then when students are asked to listen to a speech in which a contemporary figure seeks to speak on behalf of the nation?  Some students start thinking about the pieces of the ‘Australian narrative’ that are missing, wondering why the speaker has glossed over them.  Others wonder whether the glaring omissions matter; after all, this speaker is really one of many voices that are woven together to express our identity.  A final group wonders why a contemporary figure has more in common with Paterson who, in the late 1800s, was a vocal contributor to the view that the epicentre of Australian identity is the outback, than with the advocates who proliferate the contemporary poetic landscape.

It was really exciting to see students engaging with this level of depth and insight!

A Daring Suggestion

I recently stumbled upon an interesting blog post by The Daring English Teacher about poetry pairings.  I loved the idea of pairing classic poems with contemporary pop songs, using the newer material as a means of drawing students in to explore enduring values, ideas and experiences.

It could also be interesting to add a contemporary poem to the mix, such that students are making connections across three texts, perhaps a classic poem, a contemporary slam poem and a song.  This would allow students to develop their comparative skills while also meaningfully exploring the role of textual form and medium in shaping meaning.

This activity, in the form of pairings as proposed by The Daring English Teacher, could be used as a pre-testing activity.  Alternatively, with the additional text included, it could form the basis of an extension activity for a particularly able or engaged student.

Voices

My year 9 students are finishing a unit about Australian voices.  We have, as part of this unit, discussed the myriad voices that shape and construct Australian identity.  I recently read an article about Candy Royalle, a spoken word poet, who recently passed away.  The following section of the article stood out to me:

“‘I think this is the most powerful thing about poetry,’ she said. ‘Everyone has a voice, and yet not all those voices have an avenue or a platform. Poetry is a tool to give those voices power, a place to channel trauma (and joy), a platform to be heard in a world that is often deaf to marginalised voices – those voices we actually need to hear most from.'”

I think this sentiment is one that my year 9 students did not quite understand.  When discussing the shifting landscape of Australian identity we need to appreciate that the ability to access/hear varied Australian voices is significant.  Indeed, the voices that speak to us today are not those who would have been publicised or given a platform 100 years ago.  The more voices we hear, the more able we are to accurately map who we are as a people and what we value.

Mapping Australian Poetry

I am in the process of putting together a unit of work that explores changes in the Australian voice over time.  This unit will require students to explore key examples of Australian poetry and to understand how these poems are shaped by social, political and cultural contexts.

I think it will be helpful for my students to have an understanding of Australian history (in broad and general terms).  As such, I want to show them this interactive timeline.  Hopefully students can use this as a reference point, along with specific information about the poets whose work we study, to develop their capacity to discuss the contextual frameworks that inspire and inform texts.

‘Brown Brother’

‘Brown Brother‘ is an inspiring spoken word poem delivered by high school student Joshua Iosefo.  It is a profound and emotional examination (and later rejection) of stereotypes; a reminder that honouring one’s heritage and conforming to limiting stereotypes are not the same things.

This would be a great text to study as related material in Distinctive Voices, an elective that is part of the HSC Standard English Course.  Students could engage with the ways in which gestures, tone, occasion and audience enhance the distinctiveness of the voice.

It would also be interesting to include as part of a study about identity, or perhaps as a suite of poetry engaging with the construction and representation of self.  Students could even be challenged to write their own shorter-form spoken word poem about themselves, applicable stereotypes and responses to these.

Familiar environments

Alice Eather’s poem ‘My Story Is Your Story‘ is a powerful poem about the different ways in which Indigenous and non-Indigenous people view Aboriginal land.  Through a series of haunting contrasts Eather is able to communicate the tension between connection to land and destruction for profit.

This would be an interesting text to study as part of a unit about Australian identity as it highlights the fundamental disconnect between viewpoints and, in turn, flags the callous disregard corporations can have for established and entrenched cultural connections.

It would also be an interesting text to study in AOS Discovery for HSC.  Considered alongside The Tempest, for example, it could be used to highlight how perspectives shape discovery.  Considered alongside Go Back to Where You Came From, it could be used to enrich a discussion regarding discovery, Australian identity, racism and responsibility.

The text could also be used as part of a junior AOS with a focus on change, belonging or journeys.  Here, focus would need to be on the role of context in shaping representation and value.

Eather’s poem could also be studied alongside, or as part of a suite of poetry which includes, Selina Nwulu’s ‘Home is a Hostile Lover‘. Together, the poems offer interesting representations of connection to place and the role of corporations in threatening the physicality and sacredness of place.