Easter Holiday Homework

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The following homework needs to be completed over the Easter holidays. The purpose of this homework is to keep your writing skills up while you are not at school, continue to build you familiarity with the analysis of media texts, and to prepare you for our context study of ‘future worlds’, particularly our study of the novel Fahrenheit 451.

 

Task 1: Read (and reread) Fahrenheit 451

We only have 5 weeks to complete the novel study section of our context, with severe disruptions in weeks 1 and 2. If you come to school next term without knowing Fahrenheit 451, you will get left behind VERY quickly!

Once you have finished reading the novel, you should consider which of the following tasks would be beneficial for you to complete.

 

Optional Fahrenheit 451 tasks:

To ensure a comprehensive understanding of the novel, I have assembled a series of comprehension questions that can be used to guide your reading of the novel and help you pick out key information. You can download a copy here:

You can download a copy of the answers to these questions below. Be warned that they will not make much sense if you have not read the novel – they are most definitely not a substitute for reading!

 

If you are feeling confident with the novel, I have assembled some extension questions regarding symbolism and imagery, along with some practice essay topics, in the following document. They will help you to further develop your understanding of the text, and will also allow you to continue practicing and honing your essay writing skills:

 

Finally, as an extension exercise, you can read the following article (‘Some Social and Cultural Context for Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451’ by Garyn Roberts) for some more in-depth discussion of how the novel is responding the the political and social contexts of its time. This is more advanced, but will hopefully open up your reading to some new ideas. Only consult this article after you have finished reading the novel:

UPDATE: These next couple of articles really are extension materials. They discuss some interesting ideas, but make sure you have a sound understanding of the novel if you want to tackle them. If you are feeling up to is, reading and engaging with these types of opinions is a great way to further your understanding of the novel, its context, themes and ideas.

 

 

Task 2: Write a Media Text Analysis Essay

Now that we have been studying media texts for two weeks, you should begin applying your analytical skills in a longer, structured, essay-style response. You will need to use your knowledge of different print texts, persuasive devices, language and tone to analyse an article in a structured and ordered manner.

Use the following article as the source material for your essay:

Use the following structure to write your essay, drawing upon all of the things we have studied over the past two weeks:

You should also look at the following useful ‘tips’ for writing a language analysis essay:

Don’t forget to refer back to the relevant sections of your Using Language to Persuade textbook for more details on the devices and text types we have been studying.

Post your completed essay to Showbie once it has been completed. It is due on the first day back next term. 

 

Optional Media Analysis Tasks:

Look through the newspapers and find other articles that you can analyse and write an essay response on.Pay particular attention to editorials, letters to the editor and opinion pieces, as these are often the best types of articles to analyse from the perspective of persuasive techniques.

Bonus Level! Analyse (or tear apart) an article that has been written by ‘Australia’s Most Read Columnist’ Andrew Bolt over at the Herald Sun.  He has recently been convicted of racial vilification because of his articles.

 

 

Task 3: Prepare for the Context

How do we think the future will turn out? How have our stories about the future changed over time? What do the stories we tell about the future reveal about the worlds we live in: our society, or hopes and our fears?

Context studies require you to form a broad understanding of a topic, and you will need to be able to approach it from a variety of different perspectives.

Over this holidays you will need to do the following:

  • Find AT LEAST ONE (and preferably several) articles which deal with the future of our world. This may refer to issues to do with science, technology, medicine, climate change, international relations, society, and so on.
  • Your article(s) can come from any newspaper, magazine, blog, website or other online source.
  • Post your article to the following Padlet wall. Make sure that you include your name with your post!
  • You can post as many times as you like if you find multiple good articles. However, you MUST post at least one before the end of the holidays.