Understanding others
Films
Bhansali, Sanjay Leela. (2005) Black (Hindi film) Tells the story of deaf/blind girl, Michelle and her teacher, Mr Sahai. As she develops into a well-educated university student, her elderly teacher begins suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, resulting in a touching role reversal. Based on the real-life story of Helen Keller, this film has scoop3d up just about every Indianm film award. Look at the backstory of Michelle's relationship with her family and their power struggles with Mr Sahai as well as Michelle's coming of age. Pay special attention to the use of light and darkness as a symbol of both character's development. There is an excellent study guide to this film in Screen Education 70 (Winter 2013).
Mary Meets Mohammad is an exclusive 11min abridged version of an Award-winning documentary about Mary from Tasmania. Following the controversial opening of a detention centre in the semi-rural town of Pontville, a local knitting group are divided over whether they should make gifts of knitted beenies to make the new arrivals feel welcome – especially the Muslim ones. The story follows beanie-knitter, Mary, and her journey of discovery following her meeting of a 26 year-old Muslim. This is deeply spiritual journey, and one the film leaves open to much discussion. A rich counterpoint to core text Go Back to Where you Came From.
Source: Campfire Film Foundation [http://www.campfire.org.au/festival/senior-english-discovery]
Articles/Blogs
Popova, Maria (2015) in Brain Pickings [https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/11/03/only-whats-necessary-peanuts-chip-kidd/]. Charlie Brown was the first comic Strip to include a black character and comment on Black Civil Rights. This blog uses letters between the creator, Charles M. Schultz, and his audience to discuss the genesis and impact of the character, Franklin, a Black child. Focus on the persuasive language used by his fans to convince him to tackle the issue as well as the C21st evaluation of his work. This text would work especially well with Go back to where you came from.
Poems
Dings, Fred. (1996). Letter to genetically-engineered superhumans critiques the human fantasy of perfection, specifically our drive to "perfect the ladder of genes" without considering how this might affect the individuals born of such technology. Read this text at the Poetry foundation. It could connect to any of the texts that ask us to empathise with other people's views of the world, especially Go back to where you came from and Motorcycle diaries.
Mokobe, Lee. (2015) "What it Feels like to be Transgender" (2015 International Slam Poetry Winner). Vivid imagery tells the experience of a "girl" in growing up in South Africa and discovering that she can become anything she wants - except a man. You can listen to this poem/speech on Ted Talks [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8DwxjDrNNM] and contact him at Twitter ( Please don't Troll - it's hard enough being transsexual!). Pay careful attention to the use of structure and powerful emotive language, and the careful control of tone and rhythm to manipulate the listener. As this is a performance poem you can also analyse his use of expression and body language - what was it that made this the winning poem?
Oliver, Stephen (2013) "I'm a blackfella" (2013 Australian Slam Poetry finals) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDvUurzFJII] uses colloquial language and direct address to persuade the audience that being a "black fella" is not the same as being a "slackfella": "Noble? Maybe. Savage? No - unless you're talking about my words and the way that they flow." Ask yourself how he highlights and deconstructs stereotypes? Pay careful attention to rhythm and rhyme and tone of voice.Look at words that are wound together by rhyme such as violence/silence and what that might mean to the author and to the audience.
Mokobe, Lee. (2015) "What it Feels like to be Transgender" (2015 International Slam Poetry Winner). Vivid imagery tells the experience of a "girl" in growing up in South Africa and discovering that she can become anything she wants - except a man. You can listen to this poem/speech on Ted Talks [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8DwxjDrNNM] and contact him at Twitter ( Please don't Troll - it's hard enough being transsexual!). Pay careful attention to the use of structure and powerful emotive language, and the careful control of tone and rhythm to manipulate the listener. As this is a performance poem you can also analyse his use of expression and body language - what was it that made this the winning poem?
Oliver, Stephen (2013) "I'm a blackfella" (2013 Australian Slam Poetry finals) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDvUurzFJII] uses colloquial language and direct address to persuade the audience that being a "black fella" is not the same as being a "slackfella": "Noble? Maybe. Savage? No - unless you're talking about my words and the way that they flow." Ask yourself how he highlights and deconstructs stereotypes? Pay careful attention to rhythm and rhyme and tone of voice.Look at words that are wound together by rhyme such as violence/silence and what that might mean to the author and to the audience.
Speeches
Gay, Roxane. (2015). "Confessions of a Bad Feminist". This speech discusses the reality of living as a C21st woman with feminist ideals in an inherently sexist culture. You can read or watch it on Ted Talks [https://www.ted.com/talks/roxane_gay_confessions_of_a_bad_feminist/transcript?language=en] Look at the way she identifies certain acts as "transgressions" against her feminist ideals and the humour with which she presents the contradictions of her life, and the criticisms she makes about the way we regard feminists. What can we discover about our own lives from her confessions? What techniques does she employ to keep us listening/discovering?
Isay, Dave (2015). "Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear". This collection of vignettes (=short snippets) of people's life stories is presented by the creator of Story Corps. You can listen to him at Ted Talks [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKHk_UiQboA] or visit the Story Corps website [https://storycorps.org/] which collects conversations between ordinary people telling a meaningful stories from their lives. Both the speech and the website would give you an opportunity to discover how personal narratives enable people to record and discover each other's experiences as unique and memorable. It would work well with biographical texts such as Swallow the Air. Standard students might choose to focus on a particular person's story while Advanced students could focus on the function of Story Corps as a repository of human experience.
Novels
Andersen, Laurie. Impossible Knife of Memory. Like, Go back to where you came from, this is a case of a character choosing to find out about a particular issue, but actually finding out about herself. When Hayley returns to her hometown for her senior year after years of travelling with her father, an ex-solider suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, she discovers some disturbing memories of her own. As always in Andersen's books, pay close attention to the ways the author represents the characters' voices. Her writing is often deceptively simple. Treat it like poetry and look for all the usual literary techniques, as well as the way she uses simple and complex sentences to control pace and tension.
Cronn-Mills, Kirstin. Beautiful Music for Ugly Children. Existing at school as her birth-self, Elizabeth, Gabe develops a expresses his a male persona when he hosts the community radio show Beautiful Music for Ugly Children. Pay close attention to the symbolism of songs and to the self-discovery process reflected in Gabe's opening speeches each show. You might also wish to comment about the use of first person and internal monologue which encourages the (presumably cis-gender) reader to discover a transgender identity.
Cronn-Mills, Kirstin. Beautiful Music for Ugly Children. Existing at school as her birth-self, Elizabeth, Gabe develops a expresses his a male persona when he hosts the community radio show Beautiful Music for Ugly Children. Pay close attention to the symbolism of songs and to the self-discovery process reflected in Gabe's opening speeches each show. You might also wish to comment about the use of first person and internal monologue which encourages the (presumably cis-gender) reader to discover a transgender identity.