Author: ewackett

Today you had individual feedback sessions on your context responses so far. Your ideas are shaping up nicely. Remember to consider carefully how you will use your examples. Don’t forget, you MUST refer to our film, ‘Children of Men’ in this essay and the upcoming assessment task (Thursday 15th October…next week).

Homework tonight: another paragraph of your essay. Finished practice essay due at the end of Friday’s class. If you finish it sooner, email it to me and you can have feedback in Friday’s class.

In class today we read through a sample Context Response. We noted:

-it is about your big ideas first

-film/text/historical examples are not mentioned in the intro, topic sentence, linking sentence or conclusion.

 

You started writing your own response.

Homework tonight: add another 150 words to your response. Due next lesson.

 

Have a great holiday. Remember to check previous posts for holiday homework (films and the grid to fill in).

If you want to write a practice essay, try these topics:

‘Our visions of the future represent our greatest fears.’

‘There is a warning embedded in our visions of the future’.

Remember…by the end of the holidays, you should gathered and familiarised yourself with your context examples:

Children of Men + Fahrenheit 451 + Writer/philosopher + another film/novel + another film/novel + short story (I will provide this in term 4) + historical/current events = SUCCESS!

Today we looked at headlines visible in the background of

Children of Men. An extremely detailed futuristic world is presented to us in the film. There is great detail to be found in the background shots of the film. In particular, a lot of information regarding the history of this world can be found in the headlines of the newspapers scattered throughout the film.

We organised the headlines into the three categories of conflict, immigration, infertility.

We then wrote an extended response (minimum half a page) that explained what has happened to this world over the past twenty years. You were to base your answer on the information contained in the headlines.

You should enjoy this holiday homework…watch two films! Familiarise yourself with two more references for ‘Future Worlds’ (You can watch films or read books).

A few films (and books) about the future are : Avatar; Blade Runner; The Road; iRobot; Minority Report; The Matrix; Her; Mad Max Fury Road; District 9; Hunger Games; Fahrenheit 451; Elysium; I am Legend; The Island; Gattaca; 1984 (book or film); Brave New World (book or film); Tomorrow When The War Began; Starship Troopers…and many more!

As you watch each film, fill in this grid: Future Worlds holiday homework film table PDF (If you want this table as a Word document, open this one: Future Worlds holiday homework film table)

Then, write a short paragraph for each film answering this question:

What main messages did you get about the future from this film/book and were they positive?

 

Homework tonight: https://learn.stleonards.vic.edu.au/vceeng/creating-and-presenting/future-worlds/children-of-men/resources/  (Resources on ‘Children of Men’ on STL Link). Have a look through the resources and read/view three. You will present an oral or written summary next lesson.

In class today we looked at which people (WRITERS/ EXPLORERS/ THINKERS/ PHILOSOPHERS/ HISTORIANS/ SCIENTISTS/ ENGINEERS/ ARTISTS/ FILM-MAKERS/ MUSICIANS/ OTHER PEOPLE OR INSTITUTIONS) have shaped our ‘way of thinking’ about the future.

You are to create a short presentation with the aim of teaching your classmates about WHO has played a role in shaping different ‘VISIONS OF THE FUTURE’.

Jean Baudrillaid (Jasper)

Nostradamus (Daniel)

H G Wells (Desi)

Ted Nelson (Bella)

Stephen Hawking (Chris)

George Orwell (James)

Aldous Huxley (Sophia)

Homework this weekend: finish these questions (you may opt out of three).

QUESTIONS WE WANT TO THINK ABOUT AS WE EXPLORE THE THEME OF ‘FUTURE WORLDS’

 

1. Define the general terms: what is meant by the “future”?

• What time span should be considered?
• What sort of preparations are we making and can we make for the future — technological? economic?   political? social? moral? religious?

 

2. Is there a future?

• What will it be like?
• What should it be like? Why?

 

3. How important to the future is a knowledge of the past?

• What can be learned from history?
• Does history repeat itself?
• Is it possible to break away from historical patterns?
• What preconditions would be necessary if that were to happen?

 

4. How important to a study of the future is a knowledge of the present?

• What can be learned from current events and philosophies?
• What preconditions would be necessary in order to radically alter the patterns of the present?

 

5. How important are the ideas and speculations of various writers and thinkers?

• To what extent are the views of such people determined by their own history and environment?
• Is it possible for anyone to project ideas of the future which are not somehow influenced by the present   or the past?
• Should the ideas of some thinkers and writers be given more weight than others? For example,   politicians, philosophers, poets, inventors, engineers, scientists, religious leaders, artists.
• How do you evaluate their ideas? Why?

 

6. How do considerations of the possible worlds of tomorrow reflect the different religious, ethnic, political or cultural environments of the present, if at all?

 

7. Is it inevitable that current social and power structures (patriarchies) will be the form of future social organisations?

 

8. Will the future be managed by people or will people be managed by the future?

• What will be the relationship between work and leisure, the individual and society; the people and technologies; the “village” of world community?

9. Will the future be marked by further progress, material and intellectual, or by decline? Why?

 

 

10. To what extent will technology be a benign or malignant force to be reckoned with? Why?

 

 

11. How important will each of the following technologies be: computer, micro-chip, super-conductor, laser, deep space/satellite, artificial intelligence, nuclear, natural and renewable resources? What others can you add to this list?

 

 

12. To what extent will technology influence or be influenced by national and international politics and/or national and international business interests?

 

 

13. How, and to what extent, will advanced technologies affect the lives of ordinary people? Give reasons for your beliefs, with concrete evidence (do not merely speculate — base your evaluation on present trends and known possibilities and research.)

 

 

We finished watching the film today and moved on to talking about the themes. Complete this activity for homework:  https://learn.stleonards.vic.edu.au/vceeng/creating-and-presenting/future-worlds/children-of-men/themes/

Homework: keep writing paragraphs and memorising quotes for Thursday’s LOP Assessment Task (8:20 for an 8:30 start in the KWC-bring a dictionary). I am happy to review your writing and provide feedback if you email/hand by the end of day Wednesday (within reason :-0 )

1. Look at the 109 ‘Text Response Topics’ in the LOP booklet. pp47-53. Do you notice any recurring themes? Let your quote selection be guided by these topics.

 

LOP AT is this Thursday starting at 8:30 (but arrive at 8:20) in the KWC. You may take a dictionary (check there is no integrated thesaurus). No notes etc allowed.

Homework tonight: practice essays!

Read these ideas for topic sentences. Consider what the focus of the paragraph, how you would develop the ideas from those sentences and what evidence would you include.

Here is a visual representation of the ideas in LOP: