Centre of the Universe

Homophones and Debating Tones August 29, 2006

THERE ARE TWO TASKS FOR TODAY, HERE’S THE FIRST:

Homophones are words that sound the same, but have different spellings and meanings, e.g.flower and flour.
Just as with Silent Letters, you’ll need to learn these words as there are no spelling rules to help you remember them.

Here is a list of common homophones.

a) Now write a post on your blog. It can be about anything you like – you might want to try writing a quick poem – but it must include 5 pairs of homophones. Good luck!

b) Once you’ve done this, complete the 3rd Level of the game here

YOU’RE NOW READY TO MOVE ON TO THE NEXT TASK. HERE IT IS:

Use the rest of this period to make sure that both your Holes talk and Debating notes are ready. You might want to use some of the time to talk with your Debating group about the research you’ve done into your topic. What will your main arguments be? What do you think the opposition might use as their main argument?

Holes Questions – the whole lot of them August 24, 2006

Those of you who STILL haven’t done your Holes Questions and have lost your sheets, you can download ALL of the questions here

Silent Letters and Talking Holes August 24, 2006

Silent letters are letters that you can’t hear when you say the word,
but that are there when you write the word. They are commonly mispelled words with no fixed rules, so it’s worth spending time learning them.

Now try out the game below:

Silent Invasion

If you have headphones, you can plug them in. Otherwise, you can play the game without sound. There are a few levels, so spend some time trying them out.

Once you’re done, there are 3 things for you to do today:

1) Finish your Holes brochure

2) Finish your notes for your Holes talk

3) Research and prepare for your Debate

If you’re debating Junk Food in schools, you might find the below links useful:

Cheaper, healthy food would help fight fat

New call for ban on junk food

If you’re debating Petrol Prices, check this out:

Pain at the Bowser (a Bowser is the machine that gives out petrol at a station)

If you’re debating School Uniforms, have a look at this:

Schools back principal in cross row

Holes Oral Task August 16, 2006

You are to tell a story from the point of view of someone sent to Camp Green Lake. You can invent a character and spend 3-5 minutes telling us:

1) Why you were sent to Camp Green Lake. What was your crime? Are you guilty or innocent?

2) Your first impression of Camp Green Lake, its Warden and Counsellors.

3) What you thought of your fellow campers. Which of them did you like or dislike? Explain yourself.

4) A story about one interesting thing that happened to you while you were there.

Jetty Rats Questions 12 – 20 August 15, 2006

1. Why does Storm say to Hunter ‘Just when I’m ready to give up on you, you go and do something like that.’

2. How has Hunter’s relationship with Storm changed?

3. What is Hunter’s plan to bring the Mulloway back to Dogleg Bay?

4. Why does Warwick ask if Hunter’s Mum has a ‘man in her life’?

5. How do you think Hunter would react to Warwick dating his mum?

1984: Fact in Fiction August 10, 2006

Today we’re conducting a bit of Internet research to find out about current privacy-related issues and debates affecting our society – in other words, current issues that echo those raised in 1984.

As there’s seemingly endless amounts of information related to this topic, you will need to limit your time searching and focus on a handful of resources that are particularly relevant. The list of sites below provides a good starting point. As you explore the sites, record your findings in the chart provided. (While you’re doing that, record the number of times Big Brother is referenced in the modern-day articles you read.)

General Privacy Issues

•     Privacy International
•     About.com: Privacy Rights

Internet Privacy Issues

• Internet Privacy and the Law
• Internet privacy links
• Internet Privacy at wikipedia

Video Surveillance

• Public Video Surveillance: Is It An Effective Crime Prevention Tool?
• The Long Lens of the Law

Drug Testing   

• Corporate Drug Testing

• International Drug Testing System
• U.S. Department of Transportation Drug and Alcohol Testing

Police Surveillance, Including Search and Seizure

• About.com: Search and Seizure:

Racial Profiling

Speed Writing August 9, 2006

Download the worksheet for Speed Writing here 

The purpose of speed writing is simply to get something down on the page. Often the hardest part about writing a story is running out of steam or getting something down on the blank page. Speed writing will give you a complete chunk of something that you can then go back and fix up. You might find this much easier than stopping and starting on your way to finishing something.

After a speed draft is done, you’ve got something you can either work with or throw away — a choice you didn’t have before.

Here are the rules:

• You must not interrupt the flow of words upon the page, even if it means taking up space with things like “OK, I’ve run out of something to say, I really don’t know where to go next, let me think, what if I tried…”

• You must not stop to reread or edit what you’ve written until the speed session is over.

Some writers, including Stephen King, like to listen to loud rock music when speed writing. Some do it standing up. Some like the feel of a number two pencil, some love the sight of a yellow legal pad. Whatever. Just start writing and don’t stop. Don’t edit. Don’t try to think about what comes next. Don’t evaluate. Don’t do anything but listen to that little voice inside your head and write down everything it says.

Do this for an entire novel and you’ve got your first stab at a plot summary. Do it for a short story or a book chapter, and you’ve got a first draft. Very rough, but very important.
This speed draft serves three distinct purposes:

1 It lets ideas connect to each other where it counts — on the page in actual sentences and paragraphs.

2 Because several speed drafts can be done in one morning, you can play around with different organizational structures without committing serious composing time to any one.

3 With the work’s overall structure in front of you, albeit in rough form, you have slain the monster of the blank page and the work now exists at least in some form. All you have to do now is to refine it and have fun playing with it.

With thanks to Beating Writer’s Block

SOME FIRST LINES TO GET YOU STARTED:

According to the tapes, my father, then about as run-of-the-mill as Joe Blow himself, didn’t want to see the thing.

– Lee K. Abbott, The Talk Talked Between Worms [1996],

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

– Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy [1979]

This is a story about a man named Eddie and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun.

– Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven [2003]

She was dead. What did it matter if icy needles of freezing rain flayed her skin raw. The young woman squinted into the wind, pulling her wolverine hood closer. Violent gusts whipped her bearskin wrap against her legs.

– Jean M. Auel, The Valley of Horses [1982] (ch. 1)

It was about eleven o’clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills.

– Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep [1939]

The pebbled glass door is lettered in flaked black paint: “Phillip Marlowe . . . Investigations.” It is a reasonably shabby door at the end of a reasonably shabby corridor in the sort of building that was new about the year the all-tile bathroom became the basis of civilization. The door is locked, but next to it is another door with the same legend which is not locked. Come on in–there’s nobody in here but me and a big bluebottle fly. But not if you’re from Manhattan, Kansas.

– Raymond Chandler, The Little Sister [1949] (ch. 1)

It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not. – Paul Auster, City of Glass [1985]

Of all the people that ever went west that expedition was the most remarkable.

– Irving Bacheller, Eben Holden [1900]

Pop! A dart flashed in the sunlight and popped a red balloon.

– Len Bailey, Clabbernappers [2005] (ch. 1)

Download the worksheet for Speed Writing here

Camp Green Lake Brochure August 7, 2006

Today we’ll be finishing off our stories on Urban Legends and starting work on brochures for Camp Green Lake. You can use Publisher to create these brochures from pictures you find on the internet.

A great place to search for pictures is here: www.alltheweb.com

Be imaginative. How do you think you could make Camp Green Lake seem appealing?

Jetty Rats Questions Chapters 9 – 11 August 7, 2006

1. Why did the Photocopies fall out with Miracle?

2. What was Miracle’s justification for changing their project?

3. Who was “Dougy”? Why did Zappo call him “crazy” and where is Dougy now?

4. What makes Hunter decide Warwick “isn’t too bad”?

Jetty Rats Questions Chapters 7 -8 August 6, 2006

1) Who are the groupies?

2) Miracle used to listen to Korn and Eminem but has given them up in order to listen to Dire Straits. What brought about this change in him?

3) Do you know anyone who has changed suddenly like this? If not, do you think it could happen? Are there any other examples in the book?

4) Who are Fish Fatteners?

5) Do you think Hunter actually is a good fisherman? Or is the Fish Fattener dad better? Explain your answer.

Arr, ye Landlubbers August 4, 2006

For no apparent reason, today is designated “Pirate Day”. Each of you is to find your pirate name here: http://gangstaname.com/pirate_name.php

Once you’ve got it, share with the rest of us on your blog.

Mine is

Ambiguous Jack Blythe

Yesterday I was a Donkey, Today I am a Rat August 3, 2006

All Year 9 students (and some Year 8 students) are invited to join an interactive novel set up by Miss Pryor, Mr Rudd and myself. This will be an extension exercise for those of you who have already finished your mini-novels and will greatly boost your mark for this semester. To join, you need to do the following:

1) Ask your teacher. You will then be added to the site as a contributor, meaning you can post entries whenever you like.

2) Complete a “Build Yourself A Character Sheet” sheet and submit it to your teacher. You need to create your own character because all of your entries will be written from this character’s point of view. Your character will be telling their own story.

3) You’ll also need to think of a story for your character. Your story will change, due to the interaction of other characters, but you should have a general idea of what your character will get up to. Read the chapters already written to get an idea of the sort of story you could tell.

4)  You’ll also need to follow these rules:

• Your character can’t kill anyone else’s character. In fact, you shouldn’t use anyone else’s character in your story unless you’ve talked to them about it first. No-one else should do anything to your character without talking to you first.
• You must read all other entries. Any large events that happen in the setting (such as a riot or a bombing etc.) need to happen to your characters as well. This will allow the stories to connect with each other.
• Use the comments to regularly give CONSTRUCTIVE feedback to the other authors. You’ll really appreciate the feedback on your own chapters – it makes you want to keep writing!
• Write regularly! These stories will be available to anyone who wants to read them. Readers will need regular entries to stay interested.
• Do research! There’s a list of resources on the site, so make the most of them.
• Have fun! (This rule is possibly the most important.)

The site is here: pulpedfiction.wordpress.com

Beginning the Novels August 3, 2006

Today we’re starting writing our Mini-Novels. Think carefully about the work we’ve done on starting a story. In particular, consider the following:

1) Is my first line an interesting start to the novel? Will it catch the reader’s attention?
2) What is the “hook” in the first chapter? What will make the reader want to keep reading?
3) Have you used descriptive writing well to establish your setting? Will the reader be able to imagine themselves there?
4) Have you written an EXPOSITORY paragraph – remember, this is an ‘information’ paragraph that tells the reader about a person, place, thing or idea. This is a really useful tool for getting the story underway. You can tell us who your character is, where they come from, where they’re going and whatever other information is necessary for the reader to understand what is happening.

All the work we’ve done on the Mini-Novels so far can be found here:

mininovels.wordpress.com

REMINDER: Your “How to Hatch a Plot” work is now due. If it isn’t in by the end of today, you’ll be given a redemption.

The work you need to do can be found by selecting the “Novel Writing Exercises” category.

Urban Legends and Tall Stories August 2, 2006

A tall story is a story that is greatly exaggerated and not entirely true. In other words, Urban Legends tend to be Tall Stories. Today we’ll look at some Urban Legends and discover a little more about where they come from. As we learned yesterday, a lot of Urban Legends have a grain of truth in them. Remember this when you come to write your own Urban Legends.

TASK:
Write your own Urban Legend in a post on your blog. If you finish, go look at other people’s blogs and comment on how believable you think their story is. Be constructive and polite!

Jetty Rats Questions Chapters 5 – 6 August 1, 2006

1) Why does Hunter call the sisters “Photocopies”?

2) Why did their mother change their name when they left the commune?

3) Why is Hunter jealous when he finds out the truth about their dad?

4) What is wrong with the “demographic” in Dogleg Bay? What happened to make Mully a more popular town?

5) What does Mr Crevada mean when he says Hunter has “the Look”?

6) Zappo says that if you grow up in the city then you should have to die there, instead of coming to Dogleg Bay to retire. Do you think this is fair? Explain yourself.

Holes on Film August 1, 2006

1) Why do you think the opening of Holes, the film, is different to that of the book?

2) Are the characters the same as you imagine them? Explain why or why not. (At least four Characters.)

3) What are some other differences between the film and the book? Why do you think these changes were made?

4) How is the story of Stanley’s grandfather told in the book compared to how it’s told in the film?

5) Do you think the story of the curse of Stanley’s family is told better in the book or in the film? Explain why. (How does the film make it clear that Stanley is carrying a Zeroni up the mountain? How do we know this “allows” Stanley’s dad to invent his deodorant?)

6) Were any of your favourite bits of the book left out of the film? 7) Do you prefer the film or the book? Explain why.