This suite of poems from Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker)'s collection on China offers a glimpse into several famous landmarks seen through the eyes of this famous indigenous poet. The poems are linguistically and structurally very simple and can be read and studied by students from a variety of language and ability levels. Poems studied are: China…woman The Past Sunrise on Huampu River Entombed Warriors Lake within a Lake Reed Flute Cave Visit to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall This worksheet covers ‘Entombed Warriors’. The poem is examined in a separate worksheet, with questions structured around Bloom’s taxonomy of lower-to-higher-order tasks. There is also a link to another poem by Chinese or Australian poets which allows teachers to discuss differences in the manner of presenting the same place or idea. Teachers often buy these worksheets together with: the Study Notes, a complete reading of each poem, and the sample essay to a senior question for this topic. Please note - because of copyright costs the poems themselves must be downloaded free from the NESA website.

Ray Bradbury’s seminal novel is a perennial favourite for middle schoolers. This 49-page unit of work has been tested successfully with a mixed-ability Year 9 (age 13-15) class and provides material for a full school term. This unit focuses on close textual analysis. There is a mixture of tasks which gets students writing analytically, personally, and creatively, helping them to build up their own unique interpretation of the work, and eventually to express this in a formal essay. Commentary of each overarching section is given, and 70+ writing tasks cover the whole novel. The tasks cover a variety of levels from comprehension to complex inference and personal response. There is a brief, student-friendly explanation of what a close reading actually is and how to perform it, followed by a sample close reading of a short passage. Texts of Blake’s poem, ‘The Tyger’ and Matthew Arnold, ‘Dover Beach’. Practice assessment task based on short-answer questions, a close reading of a passage, and a creative question Five research tasksheets which can be done by groups during the novel study, as extension work for Gifted and Talented students, or as closure to a unit of study. The Atomic Bomb Memory Phoenix Railroads Rivers Each task comprises four sections, following Bloom’s taxonomy, and requires students to complete: a piece of contextual research, a close reading of a nominated passage, a free-form writing at length, and a creative piece. Five middle-school appropriate essay questions. There is also a presentation on book-burning which can be used with this unit.

‘Ecopoetry is nature poetry that has designs on us, that imagines changing the ways we think, feel about, and live and act in the world.’ This unit introduces students to ecopoetry and illustrates the difference between traditional nature poetry and poetry which responds to the Climate Crisis. It contains activities on: Pollution The Anthropocene Deforestation Flood Drought Species extinction Post-Human Worlds Each section comprises an introductory discussion, a selected poem about the issue with questions and creative writing activities, a list of poems to use as companion pieces, and links to further information about the issue which can be used for comprehension and discussion. This unit has been tested with a mixed-ability Year 10 group (age 15).