2009 Year 9 English Evaluation

2009 was a year where i further developed my english abilities and expanded my knowledge to write and understand different forms of english. At the conclusion of this year I am confident that my work and abilities have made a significant improvement and I will be able to continue my improvement in the following years.

My favourite unit of work throughout the year was the work we did no the novel 'Tomorrow When the War Began' by John Marsden, who is one of my favourite authors. I love the book because it shows teenagers in a different light and the way it is written allows the reader to fully understand the characters and situations. The piece of assessment we did for this unit was a non-literary analytical essay in which the task was to outline the way in which teenagers are portrayed in the novel through discussion of the different characters. I do not usually enjoy in class essays as the preparation for the test can leave you unprepared, but because i knew the task, I feel I wrote a well structured piece and this was reflected in my mark for the piece, as I went really well.

My least favourite unit of work throughout the year was the work we did on protest poetry. I feel as if the assessment piece for the unit was thrust upon us, and I didn't feel like I was well enough prepared. This could also be because of the fact that I was away for a portion of the unit. We only had a little over a week to write the piece which was to be presented in the form of a comparable task about poetry being a vehicle for social protest. In hindsight, I think that I would have enjoyed the unit much more if we had more time to prepare.

My strengths in 2009 english were the feature article completed as our final assessment piece of the year and the in class essay about tomorrow when the war began. These were the two pieces that I enjoyed the most and because I enjoyed them the most, I went well in them in terms of marks.

Dramatic Monolouge

Scenario: At my cousins wedding, her to be husband accuses her of being unfaithful and leaves

I can’t believe he had the nerve to do that! Who does he think he is, embarrassing her in front of the hundreds at the wedding! My poor cousin, all she has ever wanted is a big white wedding and now it has been completely ruined. He’s such a moron; doesn’t he know a good thing when he has it? I guess not! My poor cousin is distraught; just wait till I get my hands on him.

She has never been anything but faithful to him. He has absolutely no proof, just the word of mouth of an unnamed friend of his, great evidence. My cousin is my best friend, so if he hurt her, he hurt me. I look over now and see her lying on her back, like she has been doing for the past three days. She is in some kind of trance, reminiscing about when they were happy.

He’s a smart guy, one day I know that he will realize his mistake and beg her to take him back. Even when he was confronting her he looked unsure. I just hope that when it happens, that she remembers how she is now and won’t let herself be hurt again. I want him to suffer, lonely for the rest of his life because of how he tore her word apart.

Beatrice - Character Relation

The play ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, written by William Shakespeare hosts a variety of characters and the one that I feel I can relate to the most is Beatrice.

Beatrice is a beautiful young woman, the niece of Leonato who is an important man in Messina. Beatrice speaks her mind and isn’t afraid to say what she thinks. Her attitude can get her in hot water. She is witty and possesses a fiery personality. She enjoys reading and poetry which I also enjoy. Beatrice develops a romantic relationship with Benedick, the young, handsome soldier who comes to Messina with Don Pedro and Claudio. She is an extremely independent woman and doesn’t believe that she needs to marry “I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me”.

However, they do not experience love at first site. They have a raging war of the wits, each constantly attempting to out do the other. When first meeting, there is chemistry between them but they don’t like each other, constantly competing. AT the masked ball in particular, Beatrice greatly offends Benedick. “Will your Grace command me any service to the world's end? I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on. I will fetch you a hair off the great Cham's beard, do you any embassies to the Pygmies, rather then hold three words conference with this Harpy. You have no employment for me?”

This later develops into love, with each admitting that they have feelings for each other. “Good Lord for alliance! Thus goes everyone to the world but I, and I am sunburnt; I may sit in a corner and cry 'heigh-ho!' for a husband.” This quotation form Beatrice shows how she did not want to marry, but she still fell in love with Benedict who has a similar outlook on love. They are the perfect match. Benedick and Beatrice fall in love, as shown in the following quotation from Benedick to Beatrice “I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is that not strange?”

Beatrice lives with her cousin Hero and her uncle Leonato. Beatrice and Hero are close friends and Beatrice stands up for Hero when she is beginning accused of being unfaithful. They are very close, even sleeping in a room together.

I relate most to this character because of her personality and show she acts in ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. I can relate to her because of her mannerisms and characteristics. She is witty and says what she thins without considering the consequences. I have been known to do this on multiple occasions. Although she is very sharp when thinking on her feet, Beatrice has a softer side as well. Beatrice does find love with Benedick and has a close friendship with Hero.

Rating Scheme

My rating scheme is out of ten points and I use the method by marking out of five for enjoyment and five for information learnt/how well written.

Goals For Term Four

My main goal for term four is to go well with my assessments. I am aiming to stay focused and organized this term. A main part of this will be just being organized for each lesson, doing homework and remembering my wide reading novel for each lesson. Another part of this will be time management when it comes to bigger tasks, such as large homework tasks and assessments.I I am trying to be more organized because I think it is really important and not leave anything to the last minute. 

As we are studying Shakespeare, I am going to try to get into it. I have never looked into it before and I am looking forward to that.  

'Millie and the Night Heron' Book Review

'Millie and The Night Heron' is a novel by Catherine Batesman. It focuses on a young girl called Milllie and how she deals with moving town, leaving her best friends, her mums new boyfriend, the new love interest, being 'the new girl' and her new found love of photography.

The book is sweet and portrays the relationship between Millies mother and her really well. However, the book was quite dry and boring for me as I was not the ideal audience. I began reading the book, thinking that I would be able to relate with this girl who seemed to be around my age. Midway through the book however, I realized that she was not my age at all and was in year seven. This book was not at all suited to my age group and I did not enjoy it that much. 

As a result of this, I don't think that my review of the book is particularly fair. Someone younger would have a very different opinion of the book ad they could enjoy the story immensely. 

I give this book 3.5/10 to those in my age group and strongly suggest that they do not read it. 

Evaluating Protest Poetry Unit

I found the protest poetry unit recently completed in year nine english class interesting and different as I had not done anything similar. It gacve me a different perspectuve when listening, reading or hearing protest poetry. I enjoyed the unit and I enjoyed the information. I though the way tht the information was presented however, was quite dry. Analysing poem after poem was a good way to learn, but I would also have liked a different way incorporatied into the unit. I particually enjoyed the song big yellow taxi.

Through out the unit I learnt many new things. The main thing that I will take from the unit is the different techniques used. I can now recognize different techniques when they are present in a piece of protest poetry. I can analyze a song or poem and draw conclusions from it. 

I though the assessment was rushed on us though, and I didn't feel as if I was prepared enough to write a speech. The time limit was also extremely short and I would have pprefered a longer time limit. I had to work on the piece every night to finish it within the one week. The fact that Mrs Pignier and I were both absent on occassions during the time was also frustrating.

The rating scheme that I have decided to use for this piece is by considering the enjoyability of the unit and the information/abilities that the unit as taught. I have decided to give the unit a 7/10 as it was moderately enjoyable and I learnt a lot. 

Have Your Say Protest Poetry Speech

The social messages conveyed by the song ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ by Bob Marley and the poem ‘Civil Rights’ by Aldo Kraas, are the issues of oppression, standing up for your rights and racial injustice. Both poem and song are vehicles for social protest, and when used effectively are successful at getting across the message to a reader or listener although they express their messages in slightly different ways.

The song 'Get Up Stand Up' is a song which discusses the importance of standing up for your rights because no one else is going to do it for you. Don't wait, and expect god to make everything right, get up and do something to help yourself and others. “But if you know what life is worth, you will look for yours on earth, so you better stand up for your rights”. This line is an example of how the song talks about how if you don't do it yourself, things aren't going to happen. It discusses how one has to take responsibility for themselves and do something, thus the title of the song.

The poem 'Civil Rights’ focuses more on stating what everyone in the world deserves, what they are entitled to have or do. The line “Every body deserves the same treatment, everybody deserves the same education” is an example of a typical line of the song, as it is followed by ten lines which are extremely similar. The song ‘Get Up Stand Up’ focuses on God in all verses. An example of this is the line “Almighty God is a living man.” The poem ‘Civil Rights’ also mentions religion in the line “Everybody has the right to go to church”. The difference is that god and religion is a major focus of the song ‘Get Up Stand Up’ while the poem ‘Civil Rights’ only mentions the issue and doesn’t discuss it to the same extent as the song does. However, this is the only main difference and the two pieces have basically the same message even though they convey that message in different ways.

Bob Marley knew the issue of rights and respect well. As Marley's music career took him to many places, such as America and London, he was exposed to many, who could have thought less of him, or treated him differently because of the colour of his skin as he was a black man from Jamaica. Although Marley’s race is not actually discussed in the song, it is assumed that readers will realize this and there is a message beneath the lyrics. Aldo Kraas has a different situation, and he simply wrote about this issue as he felt it needed to be expressed. One of his opening lines is “It was made for everybody, it includes White, Black, and Yellow” which sets up the rest of the poem with the idea of racial issues. Both pieces discuss this issue although there is a deeper message in Marley’s song.

The purpose of both pieces is to raise awareness and inform the readers of the issues. Although they have similar purposes, Bob Marley is more direct with his song, actually stating what he wants to achieve. The poem 'civil rights' simply states many things that should be, but not actually discussing what the desired result is.

The song 'Get up stand up' is written with a positive attitude. It is very upbeat and is almost optimistic in the way that it attempts to convey the message. It urges listeners to make a difference and do something about the problem. It doesn't approach the problem in a negative way and try to scare people into action as some songs do and this is one reason why it is effective. The lyrics are so strong that it is obvious how Bob Marley feels about what is happening and that the issue is very close to heart.

It makes people want to act out, an example of this is the line 'come on now, get up, stand up!' The punctuation in this line makes this line energetic and the backing tracks help build this up. The poem 'civil rights' is very different, and it shows great passion from Kraas. No strong language or punctuation is used which results in the poem being somewhat dry, although it is evident that the poet does feel strongly about the issue.

Both pieces use craftsmanship, using different techniques to express the message. The song 'Get up Stand up' uses imagery to convey the messages, particularly when the subject of God is discussed. ‘Great god will come from the skies’ is an example of imagery. When one reads or hears this line, an image is created in their head as the line is describing an actual event. Repetition is also used as the chorus is repeated often throughout the song. It is repeated many times which results in the chorus being easily remembered. The poem civil rights doesn't use imagery to create images, and there are actually very few techniques used. The main technique which is quite obvious, is repetition, in that the last twelve lines have the same beginning, all starting with 'everyone'. Apart from that one technique, there are no others.

The voicing used in 'Get up stand up' is more effective as it is a recording, and multiple voices are used and the layering adds more depth to the song, something which can't be expressed through poetry. Some of the lines in the song require one to think about the lyrics, and there are multiple ways they can be interpreted. “We sick an tired of-a your ism-skism game -Dyin n goin to heaven in-a Jesus name, lord.” This can be interpreted as an anti religious remark, or simply a hint to get up and do something. The language used in the poem 'Civil Rights' is very easy to understand, unlike that in the song ‘Get Up Stand Up’.

Both the song 'Get Up Stand Up' and the poem 'Civil Rights are vehicles of social protest and convey their messages clearly. However, of the two pieces I believe that the song 'Get up stand up' is the more successful piece at conveying the message of racial injustice and standing up for your rights. The poem ‘Civil Rights’ by Aldo Kraas is not well known and recognized as a piece of effective protest poetry. The song ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ has been played on television, radio, multiple CD’s and could potentially appear in movies. It comes across in a more memorable and influential way as it uses a wider variety of techniques and is a stronger piece. It is famous around the world as a protest song because of its effectiveness.