M The English Teachers’ Association of NSW www.englishteacher.com.au Issue 3, 2005 e t a p h o r SPECIAL POETRY ISSUE SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE EMINEM • GWEN HARWOOD • LOVE POETRY TUG DUMBLY: PERFORMING POETRY POETRY IN OUR TIME BY DAVID BROOKS MILTON AND PERFORMANCE POETRY metaphor 1 ETA PRESIDENT 2005 ETA EXECUTIVE 2005 William SIMON, Vice President Metaphor Mark HOWIE Reddam House Work Fax 9300 8255 Penrith High School [email protected] ETA Mobile: 0419 660 089 Susan GAZIS, Treasurer Work Fax: 02 4721 2722 NSW Inst. of Teachers [email protected] [email protected] EXECUTIVE OFFICER Prue GREENE, Secretary Chifley College Mt Druitt [email protected] Eva GOLD David HARGRAVE, Vice President Work Phone : 9144 3712 Professional Development Mobile: 0419 660 021 Fairfield High School [email protected] Work Fax 9983 1237 Jeanette Hayes, Vice President Publications [email protected] Ravenswood School for Girls OFFICE MANAGER [email protected] 8.00 am – 4.00pm Monday to Thursday SAWYER, Wayne Vice President Curriculum (Office unattended Fridays) School of Education - University of Western Sydney Romana YOUNGMAN [email protected] Phone: 9517 9799 Julie WILSON, Vice President Branches Fax 9517 2652 Dubbo School of Distance Education [email protected] [email protected] 2005 Councillors Lynn Marsh Fairfield High School Matthew Bentley Sydney Church of England Darcy Moore Cambridge Park High School (Shore) School Kate O’Connor The University of Sydney (Student) Helen Clarke Knox Grammar School Stephen Plummer Cecil Hills High School Kristofer Feodoroff PLC Sydney David Stewart-Hunter Pymble Ladies College Michael Fischer Newtown High School of the John Reid Barrenjoey High School Performing Arts John Turner Concord High School Mark Ippolito Richmond River High School Kerry Underhill English Team, Curriculum K-12 Leonie Huggins Wollumbin High School Directorate, DET Sue Johnson Kinross Wolaroi School Simon Warden Narromine High School Melinda Kearns Bankstown Grammar School Karen Yager Richmond River High School Katherina Lathouras Knox Grammar School Gillan Lovell University of NSW & UTS (Lindfield) Kelli McGraw University of Sydney (Doctoral Researcher) metaphor 2 METAPHOR CONTENTS Credits ISSUE 3 , 2005 Editing, Design, Desktop Publishing and production by William Simon Proof reading: Luke Icarus Simon We request all contributions to be forwarded electronically to: [email protected] or on disc to: 59 Simmons Street Enmore NSW 2042. Contributions may include outlines or full units of work, annotated examples of students’ work (with permission), action research projects, lectures, critical text The President’s Report: Pleasure, Passion And commentary and suggested reading lists Provocation And Critical Literacy by Mark Howie .... and resources. ............................................................................................. 4 ETA offers $375 for all published Lose Yourself In The Music: The Poetry And Music contributions between 4000 - 5000 words. of Eminem by Luke Icarus Simon .............................. 7 Other units of work are paid $75 per 1000 The Left Hand of Capitalism by John Tranter ...... 12 words. This does not apply to reviews Book Review: Mood Lightning ..................................14 and letters unless otherwise negotiated. This allows ETA to post submitted work “Himself, Alone”: Coleridge in Isolation by William onto its website. An invoice will be sent Christie.............................................................................15 to contributors to complete and send to Book Review: Vitrix: Triumph in the Roman Arena, our ETA office for processing when the Goblin at the Zoo .............65 work is submitted. Reconciling the Critical and the Pleasurable by Kelly mETAphor is published quarterly and McGraw............................................................................26 is available free to all members of the Association. Poetry in Our Time by David Brooks .......................28 The opinions expressed in this journal are When Angels Dreamed Of Poets: Love Poetry by not necessarily those of the ETA Council Luke Icarus Simon.........................................................34 members. Members should exercise their A Close Contextual/Critical Reading of Gwen professional discretion when using items Harwood by William Simon ...................................... 42 published in the journal for the purposes Poetry Writing and Performance by Mark Howie and of teaching. Copyright for articles printed Eva Gold ..........................................................................54 in this journal remains with the author(s). No responsibility will be accepted Book Review: Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of for incorrect information voluntarily the Sisterhood..................................................................60 forwarded. Every effort has been made to “Colours Coming Out Of Our Mouths”: Poetry In secure copyright for graphics/texts used. Schools by Louise Wakeling....................................... 61 ETA reserves the right to edit material Book Review: The Power of Poetry, Denial .............65 for publication. On Performing Poetry, Teaching, and Literary Mr Simon receives no remuneration for Tradition by William Walker .................................... 66 editing, designing, desktop publishing Poetry and (We)blog Unit by Darcy Moore............71 and producing this journal. Book Review: Treading Softly ....................................74 Poetry: The Trouble With Non-Universal Experiences Of The ‘Universal Themes’ by Kelli McGraw...........75 metaphor 3 THE PRESIDENT’S REPORT: PLEASURE, PASSION PROVOCATION AND CRITICAL LITERACY BY MARK HOWIE Like me, I hope you began Term 3 feeling relaxed and inspired. I came with the “virus” of “outdated literary theories and “academic language”, home from the 2005 AATE / ALEA National Conference, Pleasure, which has reduced the subject to “cappuccino courses”. Passion and Provocation, on the Gold Coast energised and with We can be thankful that here in NSW both ex-Premier Carr and much food for thought. It was a very successful conference and our the current Minister for Education, Carmel Tebbutt, have publicly Queensland colleagues deserve hearty congratulations. endorsed our syllabuses - Mr Carr quite effusively in front of Of particular interest was James Gee’s keynote address, in which he the nation’s English teachers at the opening of the 2004 National outlined a series of principles for quality learning, which he believes Conference at Darling Harbour. underpin the design of video games. Gee provocatively argued that Teachers in other states have not been so lucky, with Luke Slattery’s schools run the risk of becoming increasingly alienating for students if Chicken Little -like cries of crisis causing a peculiarly knee jerk reaction teachers do not move out of the late 19th century in their approach and in Queensland. There, the newly-appointed Minister for Education clue into what young people today are beginning to understand about laughingly suggested that he was not going to allow anything to how they best learn. A strand of the online members’ bulletin board remain in the Queensland syllabus that he does not understand. What on the ETA website has been set up for the national conference. There a vote of confidence in the professional knowledge and expertise of you will find more information about what Gee had to say about the that state’s teachers! relationship between gaming and learning, as well as other items about the conference posted by Darcy Moore, Kelli McGraw and Eva Gold. The heart of Slattery’s argument, namely that the teaching of literature Darcy has provided a number of links for the keynote presenters and in schools no longer ascribes to universal and timeless truths, and that other invaluable sources of information and professional learning. critical literacy is making impossible cognitive demands of students who are barely able to read and write, strikes me as a retrograde Unlike me, I hope that you did not find your post-holiday relaxed state sideshow to the main event: preparing students for the complexities of mind disappearing all too quickly. of the modern world. The recent ‘debate’ about English teaching which has been given front Meanwhile, while English and English teachers have come under heavy page status in The Australian has left me by turns puzzled, bemused fire, we have continued to struggle to get our professional voice heard. and enraged. I have been provoked and, let me tell you, I am no longer What follows is an opinion piece I wrote with assistance from ETA taking much pleasure in it. Executive Officer, Eva Gold. It was submitted to the SMH on August The sloppy, ill-informed diatribes which have been passed off as fair 7, but was not published. In recent weeks a curious debate about comment and journalism must be called to account. how English is taught in Australian schools has been taking place. The debate has been characterised by wild claims of a literacy crisis and the It should now be evident to all that The Australian’s reporting is post-modern takeover of syllabuses. another element of what is shaping up as a sustained attack on the professional autonomy of English teachers. What has been missing from the ‘controversy’ has been any real sense of what is actually taking place in English classrooms.On Saturday Brendan Nelson’s repeated claims that the nation is experiencing a (August 6) in the Herald,