How to succeed In the AREA OF STUDY BELONGIN

							Belonging

Prescribed text - Emily Dickinson Poems
• Areas of study are, by definition, broad.
  The concept of belonging itself can be
  elusive because its understanding is
  dependent on people's perceptions.
• While there are no prescribed focuses for
  the Area of Study, certain texts and
  approaches tend to settle into frameworks
  that can direct and support student
  responses.
• This presentation is designed to help
  students’ develop a structured and relevant
  framework from which you can build your
  analysis and responses to texts.
Developing a framework…

• Being • Becoming • Belonging
• Identity • Institution • Belonging
• Institution • Identity • Multiple institutions •
  identity • belonging

• Which of these frameworks fits best with
  your prescribed text?
• Can you design your own framework?
Test the success of your chosen
framework…




Use the venn diagram on the next slide to help…
• One Belonging Framework:
• Being .... Becoming .... Belonging

• One way of looking at the concept of
  belonging is to examine people's
  perceptions of:
     what they are (being),
     how they are changing (what they are becoming)
      and
     the feelings of acceptance (belonging) that this
      may or may not generate.
Being .... Becoming .... Belonging…
& Emily Dickinson

• In the Dickinson poems set for study the
  persona reflects on the uncertain, and
  even precarious, nature of belonging.
• POEM: I gave myself to him…
       Although it reflects on the uncertain, and
        even precarious, nature of belonging, the
        poem I gave myself to him possesses a
        whimsical tone.
       What reflections does the persona offer on
        the uncertain path to belonging?

• You might like to listen to a recording of the poem from the
  audiobook The Great Poets – Emily Dickinson read by
  Teresa Gallagher
A sample response - which explores concepts about
Belonging in Dickinson’s I gave myself to him and an
extract from the film The Piano

The extracts from "The Piano” and the Dickinson poem, "I Gave..."
promote a sense of ambivalence towards perpetuating the role of
BEING a female in the 19th century. BECOMING the archetypal
"wife" figure simply by being of a particular age and culture. Then
BELONGING to not only a husband but to the powerful traditions
and paradigms ingrained in society. In Dickinson's poem, the interior
monologue reveals the persona’s reflection on marriage. The
mercantile language style suggests a metaphorical analogy of
marriage as a cold and emotionless business venture. The cynical
attitude towards marriage is expressed as "depreciation" over time.
The "hidden cargoes” metaphorically suggests that the union is
burdened by hidden flaws. The alliterative "myself a poorer prove”
depicts the persona’s lack of power in the marriage which loudly
echoes the lack of power that women possess in the patriarchal
world in which they belong.
In "The Piano", a similarly cynical attitude to marriage is
presented by the wife. Again, the use of interior monologue
introduces the private and candid thoughts of the protagonist,
revealing insights into her ambivalent and almost depricating
attitude to her betrothal. This contrasts significantly to her
seemingly cooperative and genial arrival in New Zealand,
where the reader hears no interior monologue. Her piano,
symbolises her “voice” and suggests the repressive
atmosphere she enters as she becomes a wife and belongs to
the patriarchal values and nature of marriage. Her muteness
becomes an increasingly powerful metaphor for the paradigm
of passive feminine submission in marriage. Her Piano clearly
symbolises not only the protagonists true love… but also her
sense of her true power.
The interior monologue combined with other literary techniques
used in both texts evoke powerful ideas about a woman
belonging to a husband; from being an independent woman, to
becoming a wife, then ultimately belonging to a husband and
the traditions of marriage. As each persona reaches that place
in which she “belongs” so too she becomes increasingly
submissive, passive or "mute".
Question: What skills do you need
to write successful responses in the
HSC examination?


Consider the following sections of the HSC
examination:
• Section 1: Unseen texts-
• Section 2: Creative writing-
• Section 3: Analytical writing
Creative writing-
• How to structure imaginative responses-
• Writing in different text types (journal, short
  story, speech, etc)-
• Effective use of sentence structure (variety of
  sentences, types of sentences)-
• Appropriate word choice-
• Imaginative writing-
• Appropriate paragraphs-
• Development of ideas-
• Character development-
• Narrative voice-
• Point of view (first, second, third person)-
• Type of language (formal, informal,
  colloquial)-
• Use of figurative language (metaphors,
  similes, etc)
Analytical writing-
•   Understanding of types of question-
•   Understanding of key terms-
•   Reading analytically-
•   Effective use of sentence structure (variety of
    sentences, types of sentences)-
•   Appropriate word choice-
•   Appropriate paragraphs-
•   How to structure analytical responses (thesis
    statement, developing paragraphs, thesis
    reinforcement)-
•   Development of ideas-
•   How to write about the concept of belonging
    through reference to prescribed text and related
    texts (accurate reference to elements of text,
    relevant examples, appropriate use of language
    and or visual techniques, explanation/analysis of
    text)-
•To be
 continued…