English Teachers’ Association of NSW www.englishteacher.com.au Issue 2 2009 ENGLISH TEACHERs’ CONTENTS ASSOciatiON NSW 2009 ETA Working Committees 2009 ............................................ii ETA EXECUTIVE 2009 ETA Branches .............................................................................ii Presdent: Mark Howe President’s Report Penrith High School Mark Howie, Penrith High School .......................................1 Email: [email protected] Treasurer: Susan Gazs Romanticism: Through ‘Shades of Black’ in NSW Institute of Teachers Michael Almereyda’s Neo-noir Hamlet (2000) Email: [email protected] by Shaun Colnan ........................................................................5 Secretary: Prue Greene The Fate of Love from Wimpole Street to West Egg: NSW Department of Education and Training The Great Gatsby and Sonnets from the Portuguese Email: [email protected] by Dr David Kelly .....................................................................11 Manager Branches: Jule Wlson Dubbo School of Distance Education Getting to the Point: Thinking About What It Means Email: [email protected] to Understand Theme Drector: Melpomene Dxon by Dr Jeffrey Wilhelm and Dr Michael Smith...................16 Loreto Kirribilli An Interview with Peter Skrzynecki Email: [email protected] by Mark Rafidi ..........................................................................22 Drector: Katherna Lathouras Knox Grammar School M.T. Anderson: Why I Write ................................................26 [email protected] Financial Literacy in English Classrooms Drector: Kell McGraw by Ann Small ............................................................................28 Macquarie Fields High School Email: [email protected] Teaching Shakespeare’s Plays: Not for All Time, Drector: Mark O’Sullvan but of an age by Dr Linzy Brady ...........................................30 Good Samaritan Catholic College Teacher Feature – Crossing the Border: [email protected] Shaun Mason and Ian Parr ...................................................35 Drector: Deborah smpson Abbotsleigh Sixty Lights: Exploring Ideas by Mel Dixon .......................37 [email protected] Inspiring Students to Write: The Anatomy of a Drector: Karen Yager Creative Writing Workshop by Harry Laing ....................42 NSW Department of Education and Training Email: [email protected] Pursuing Deep Understanding in the Area of Study: A Unit of Work on Belonging and Lahiri’s ETA PROFESSIONAL STAFF The Namesake by Damon L Cooper .................................. 45 Executve Officer: Eva Gold Work Phone: 4784 3377 Using Web 2.0 Tools: To Construct a PLN (Personal Mobile: 0422 214 476 Learning Network) by Darcy Moore ..................................54 Work Fax: 4782 4584 Book Reviews by Gersha Shteyman and Mel Dixon .......56 Email: [email protected] ETA OFFICE STAFF Editorial by Mel Dixon ...........................................................60 Member Servces Officer: Jay Cooper Contributions ...........................................................................61 8.00am – 4.00pm Monday to Friday None of the opinions expressed in mETAphor reflects the views of the Phone: 9572 6900, Fax: 9572 9534 English Teachers’ Association of New South Wales. ETA aims to publish Email: [email protected] a diverse range of opinions on issues of concern to English teachers. mETAphor, Issue 2 2009 Editor-in-chief: Mel Dixon Editors: Gersha Shteyman (Reviews), Cover: M T Anderson, see article page 26. Katherine Lathouras, Susan Green, Jeanette Heys, Gareth Scott (Teacher Feature) Photograph courtesy of Walker Books, Design and layout: Jill Sillar, PTC NSW www.walkerbooks.com.au mETAphor • Issue 2, 2009 ETA WORKING ETA BRANCHES COMMITTEES 2009 Branches provide funded professional development activities for teachers based on their assessment of local These committees are open to all ETA members. needs and also provide a link between country and city You do not need to have been elected to the ETA Council teachers and expertise. to become a member of these committees and contribute The ETA WEBSITE has information about Branches in to your professional Association. Please email the the Discussion Board thread entitled “Branches”. Please nominated Committee Manager for more details. post questions there for your local Branch. CURRICULUM & ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE Email contacts for all Branches are below: Wayne Sawyer – Manager, 1. Armidale – Contact: Carole Hollebrandse School of Education University of Western Sydney [email protected] Email: [email protected] 2. Border (Albury) – Contact: Richard Routley, PUBLICATIONS [email protected] Jeanette Heys – Manager 3. Far North Coast (Lismore/Ballina) – Email: [email protected] Contact: Lyn Tiernan, [email protected] PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 4. Hastings/Macleay (Port Macquarie/Kempsey) –Contact: Yvonne Emmelhainz Deborah Simpson – Manager, Abbotsleigh [email protected] Email: [email protected] 5. Hunter (Newcastle) – Contact: Annette Hughes WEB & TECHNOLOGY [email protected] Mark O’Sullivan 6. Manning (Forster/Taree) – Contact: Paul Ryan, Good Samaritan Catholic College, Hinchinbrook [email protected] Email: [email protected] 7. MIA (Griffith) – Contact: Bill Barwick mETAphor 2009 [email protected] 8. Mid North Coast – Contact: Janelle Linnane, Manager: Melpomene Dixon, Loreto Kirribilli [email protected] Email: [email protected] 9. Northern Tablelands (Glen Innes/Inverell) – Committee: Jaime Presland-Lawrence, Susan Green, Contact: Di Veersema, [email protected] Gersha Shteyman, Katherine Lathouras, Julie Wilson, Jeanette Heys and Gareth Scott 10. Orange District, Contact: Lin Eccleston [email protected] mETAphor EditORIAL BOARD 11. Peel Valley (Tamworth) – Contact: Anne Scott Eva Gold, Executive Officer ETA [email protected] John Turner – Concord High School 12. Queanbeyan (hoping to set up a branch) – Julie Wilson – Dubbo School of Distance Education Contact: Deborah Valencic Karen Yager – Northern Sydney Region Office, DET [email protected] Kelli McGraw – Macquarie Fields High School 13. South Coast – Contact: Louise Moulton Lyn Keane – Northmead High School [email protected] Mark Howie – Penrith High School 14. South West (Deniliquin) – Contact: Adam Johnston Mary Billing – James Ruse High School [email protected] Matt Bentley – Sydney Church of England 15. Tweed/Brunswick (Murwillumbah) – (Shore) School Contact: Jackie Byrne, [email protected] Mel Dixon – Loreto Kirribilli 16. Upper Hunter – Contact: Maria English Prue Greene – Curriculum Directorate DET [email protected] Wayne Sawyer – School of Education, 17. Wagga Wagga – Contact: Lydia Davic University of Western Sydney [email protected] PROJECT OFFICER, Student Days: 18. Western Plains (Dubbo) – Contact: Rosalee Whiteley, [email protected] John Reid Mobile: 0422 217 944 For all Branch enquiries and updates please contact Email: [email protected] Vice President, Branches: Julie Wilson, [email protected] Englsh Teachers’ Assocaton of NSW PRESIDENT’S REPORT Mark Howe, Head Teacher Englsh, Penrth Hgh School English teachers who truly value their professionalism would encourage a rigorous curriculum, taught with expertise, that provides all students with the best possible written and verbal communication skills and an appreciation of literature…. Only a strong curriculum, with a corresponding overhaul of teachers’ training in universities, will restore English to the status it deserves. (Editorial, The Australian, February 28 2009) fter the fall of English, as described by the editor include “cinema, television and multimedia” somehow of The Australian, what can possibly come next? enhances the very notion of literature and how it has AThere is no denying that a national curriculum been understood throughout history. Puzzled? If I weren’t for English is moving ever closer, with the actual writing so staunchly opposed to the great humanist project of process to begin in April. But can it offer salvation? Will English, being a hard line post-structuralist, just as every the national curriculum be the impetus for English and other English teacher who becomes involved in their its subjects to rise upwards in the light of a new dawn, the professional association is also supposed to be, I’d cry. harbinger of restored grace following the long, dark night After all, if I can’t turn to The Australian for a consistent of ‘postmodern English’ (cf. Lucy and Mickler, 2008)? line and a willingness to see truth as absolute and eternal, how can I ever hope to declare my sins and ask for On the terms of his own argument, the editor of The absolution? Where else might I find a moral framework Australian certainly believes that a national curriculum in this hollow, relativistic world? Once upon a time, and for English must not, as a matter of the utmost priority, not so very long ago (February 2, 2008, to be exact), it resemble any other English curriculum now being was suggested in an editorial in The Australian that implemented in Australia – his newspaper has, after the use of “popular culture” texts in English classrooms all, and for some decades now, been very critical of the amounted to serving up “drivel” to students. In this teaching of English