Language & Literature 

Year 7: Refugee journeys

by June McKenzie and Annabel Grigg, Teachers of Years 7 & 8

If, by reading, we are enabled to step, for one moment, into another person's shoes, to get
 right under their skin, then that is already a great achievement. Through empathy we overcome prejudice, develop tolerance and ultimately understand love. Stories can bring understanding, healing, reconciliation and unity.

- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The reading of Fabio Geda’s novel In The Sea There Are Crocodiles  takes us on a journey across many countries from Afghanistan to Italy and the chance of a better life. In class, students listened to the first chapters read aloud before continuing to finish the novel independently. This shared reading has provided opportunity to pause and reflect on such key terms as ‘refugee’, ‘asylum seeker’, ‘Taliban’ and other aspects of this true story. Students have been recording this information on a glossary page. They have begun to distinguish key aspects of Enaiatollah’s journey and represent this information in a creative pictorial form.

(click on the poster to enlarge the view)

In expanding our knowledge of refugees, students have watched video clips about the Taliban, aspects of being a Muslim and an episode of the ABC series, You Can’t Ask That.

Year 8: Wonder

by Annabel Grigg, Teacher of Year 8

Through close reading of RJ Palacio’s widely acclaimed young adult novel Wonder, Year 8s have been exploring the way that point-of-view can influence both the construction and the reception of texts. In particular, we’ve been looking at how reading narratives from different perspectives can elucidate not only the interactions between characters, but also our understanding of subjectivity in a general sense.

Students have completed a number of formative tasks to demonstrate their understanding, collecting, analysing and presenting key information in verbal, written and visual formats.