Assessment task on Raimond Gaita’s biography, Romulus My Father. The topic is: ‘Romulus’s life is marked by tragedy and chaos. Nevertheless, he never loses his passion for living.’ Discuss. The resource includes guidance for students including structure and language features of a discussion and a marking guide (rubric) to the question. The resource is designed for Australian Stage 6 students studying the VCE/HSC

Torture and its impact on people is a recurrent theme in Stasiland. This resource provides background information on what constitutes torture, reasons for torture, the legal status of torture, its impact on individuals and on whole societies. The resource provides photographs from the Hohenschönhausen Prison Museum and extracts from the text as a means to examine the impact of physical and psychological torture on characters in the text.

Worksheet for the video, Former Stasi Agents Defend Their Deeds. Includes answers.

The Stasi used imprisonment and the threat of imprisonment to silence the people of East Germany. This set of activities includes information on imprisonment in East Germany, extracts from the text and an activity requiring students to make a mind map from the information provided.

Worksheet to accompany a 9-minute 2009 news item from Deutsche Welle television on efforts by the German Ministry of Information to piece together destroyed East German Stasi files and to allow citizens to access their files. Excellent resource for the teaching of the text, Stasiland.

Activity using the principles of visual literacy to analyse 6 different covers to the English language editions to Anna Funder’s Stasiland: colour, people, content, critical response and medium.

This activity analyses the passage from Stasiland when Miriam Weber attempts to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin over the Berlin Wall. It focuses on language, building suspense, humour, effects of light and dark, style, juxtaposing the younger and older Miriams as storytellers, and the impact of the narrrator asking questions in her narrative.

Wired ezine article, Piecing together the dark legacy of East Germany’s secret police. Excellent resource for understanding the computerisation of destroyed Stasi records and the uses of these records. Supports the teaching of Anna Funder’s text, Stasiland. The last activity involves students evaluating whether the enormous cost involved in this reconstruction process is worth the result.

Charlie Weber appears as a character in Stasiland through the memory of his wife, Miriam and through physical remains of his existence: photographs and a poem. He is a victim of Stasi discrimination, surveillance, harassment, imprisonment and (we believe) brutality that led to his death. If Miriam is the principal interviewee, Charlie is her evidence. The ghost of Charlie haunts Miriam, although there is evidence is the last chapter that Miriam is at last coming to terms with his death. This set of activities includes extracts from the text and a profile proforma. The activity is designed for Year 12 students of the VCE and HSC.

The Stasi established a surveillance network in East Germany that monitored and reported upon all aspects of life. This resource provides background details in this surveillance network, passages from the text and student activities focused around the nature and extent of the network and the impact of surveillance on the lives of the characters in the text.

Romulus is a common man, but a man of extraordinary character, craftsmanship and endurance. His resilience to the beatings at the hands of the Gestapo, migration to a new country, wife who becomes incurably insane, his own battle with mental illness and deprivations of living in poverty in rural Victoria is a testament to the human spirit’s ability to overcome at all odds. This set of resources includes background notes on Romulus, passages from the and student activities.

The Gaita family migrate to Australia after World War II, part of the massive migration of European and Middle Eastern peoples into the country in the 1950s and 1960s. They personally experience the discrimination against these “New Australians”. This resource includes background notes, passages from the text and student activities.

Word Search on the novel A Wrinkle in Time.

Revision activity for John Marsden’s novel, Tomorrow, When the War Began. Students identify if the statements are true or false.

Analysis of Chapter 1 of Great Expectations, with emphasis on the language features that creates the characters of Pip and Magwitch and the landscape of Kent. Designed as background knowledge for the study of Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones.

Analysis of book covers for Richard Flanagan’s novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The analysis uses the principles of visual literacy to examine colour, people, content and critical response.

Narrative assessment task based on Allan Baillie’s novel, Little Brother. Includes task requirements and rubric/marking guide.

Analysis of article by Mark Nicholls, published in Scotland Magazine, ‘The Scottish King (Macbeth)’.

Activities for Chapters 4-6 of Craig Silvey’s novel, Jasper Jones.

Activities for Chapters 7-9 of Craig Silvey’s novel, Jasper Jones.