3 Cloze activities on Stasiland: Biography Anna Funder Investigative Journalism Theme: Resilience

Book review by Janet Maslin from the New York Times and student activities.

Information report assessment task on the novel, Mister Pip. The task is: Select one of these themes from the text: fantasy vs reality, living in a warzone, tradition vs modernity, hybridity, strangers in a strange land, storytelling. How does the text help the reader to understand the theme? Give examples to support your report.

Analysis of scenes from the film version of Mister Pip. Students analyse details of the scenes, notably atmosphere, colour, gestures and poses and camera angles.

Grace represents the tragedy. Her fall from a life of promise to the ravages of major depression foretell the tragedy of the village’s fall from idyllic paradise to being ravaged by the redskin army. This resource includes background notes on Grace, key passages from the text and student activities.

Ezine article from The Monthly entitled ‘From Frogmore, Victoria’ and written by Helen Garner. She describes a visit to the sites in the text, Romulus, My Father with the author and the reactions of Raimond Gaita and herself to each of the sites in the light of the events that took place there. Student activities included.

Activity that requires students to read the character profile and to select which character is being described.

3 Cloze activities related to the text, Romulus, My Father: Memoirs Raimond Gaita Yugoslav migration to Australia

Student activities for Sections 1-5 of Lloyd Jones’ novel, Mister Pip.

Sequencing activity of key events in the non-fiction text, Stasiland.

This set of resources includes a map of Papua New Guinea and the surrounding countries of the Solomon Islands and Australia and gives details on how the novel mentions each country. A map of Bougainville shows where the Australian copper mine and base for workers was located and the likely location for the village from the novel. Students use the internet to identify the geography, flora and fauna and marine resources of Bougainville and then investigate problems of living on such a resource-rich but isolated island.

Topic summary for the novel, Mister Pip. Includes themes, symbolism, structure and style, characters, comparative texts, setting, key quotes, metalanguage, author and genre.

Student activities for Sections 6-10 of Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip.

Students must identify if the 30 statements relating to Raimond Gaita’s memoir, Romulus, My Father are true or false.

True or false activity for the non-fiction text, Stasiland.

Absent father of the protagonist, Matilda, Joseph is compared to Pip’s deceased father. He also has a Mr Jaggers figure in his life who changes his future by offering him the chance to go to Australia. Hated by Dolores, his religious wife who is left behind, Mr Laimo represents support for the redskins whilst Dolores represents support for the rambos. This resource includes background notes, key passages from the novel and a student activity.

Analysis of a film review by Sandra Hall - A Sting in the Tale.

Quotes activity from the novel, Mister Pip.

Ezine article by Kristian Lasslett, Bougainville: Australia’s Secret War, published in Arena. This is an excellent assessment of Australia’s role in supplying the Papua New Guinea Defence Force with weapons and military hardware during the civil war on Bougainville in the late 1980s/early 1990s. Includes student activities.

Explanation of the concept of intertextuality and student activities based on the explicit, implied and inferred intertextual connections inJackie French’s novel, Hitler’s Daughter.