ENGLISH
Welcome back to all our lovely new and returning English students. The year ahead is hopefully going to be a great one where we take back what we may have lost in the year that was. I want to take this opportunity too, to thank our amazing English faculty and ES support staff involved at each year level – their dedication to their students and work is commendable and I could not be more proud of the team. Thank you!
Starting the year off with some momentum, we have our seniors channelling their creative writing skills to read and produce a short story akin to the authors Tim Winton and Cate Kennedy in years 11 and 12 respectively. With a slight hiccup of remote learning, I am sure students will feel at ease in their attempts to provide rich environments and relatable characters within their stories. We wish them all the best in their first official VCE SAC!
Year 9 English students have crawled into the world of Edgar Allan Poe, via his crime short story ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’. To truly capture the frightening atmosphere and gruesome events of Poe’s writing, we agreed as a class to shut the blinds, turn the lights off and play ‘scary/frightening’ music on repeat in the background. It was quite the experience and students were noticeably engaged and some even admitted to being acutely afraid. This was followed by their own chance to write horror fiction where they were tasked to write a two-sentence horror story.
Some examples shown:
“The decaying body lay lifeless and bare in front of me, as though it had been struck down and forgotten years ago. In my mind however, I hear the dusty, growling voice of it whisper, “You will not leave this place alive…”.
Tyrone Ingham
For this brief interlude prior to a return to remote learning, Year 7 English students have been hard at work engaging in both creative and self-analytical projects. Students have been considering their own experiences and replicating documented narratives of their lives in the form of autobiographies. Additionally, classes have been diligently working at creating “Zines” – short, flipbook style comics with a focus on tight narrative structure. We press on throughout the term, with much to come – two-point perspective writing, fables and many more explorations of narrative structure!
Andy Nyhuis
Year 12 Literature students were treated to a journey amongst the rocks as part of their studies for “Picnic at Hanging Rock”. Being able to visit the setting in real life helped to provide context and appreciation for the magnificence of the novel and the place.
English Recommendations:
Film: Over the Moon
TV Shows: WandaVision
Novel: Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
Prue Bon
Year 12 Literature Teacher
Introducing Neologism of the month…
A neologism, from Greek meaning ‘new speech/utterance’ is a relatively recent or isolated word or phrase that is emerging into common or frequent use.
February Neologism: ‘Cottagecore’
This neologism has become quite popular in recent times. This term is all about living your life and decorating your home in a whimsical, nature and quaint countryside inspired type of way. Those that live within a suburban or city area are frequently drawn to this type of living as it may provide a sense of ‘escape’.
Tyrone Ingham
English KLA Leader