Crossword based on key words, characters and concepts in Susan Cooper’s King of Shadows.

Book review and student activities based upon the review. Students analyse teh features of an effective review.

As a journalist, Anna Funder is very capable of creating a highly evocative visual description of people and places using as few words as possible. This activity provides examples of Funder’s use of descriptive language by analysing passages from the text. Students are then asked to look for the common features of her descriptive writing and to analyse a passage from the text for themselves.

Worksheet for the Deutsche Welle video clip, Talking Germany. Talk with Roland Jahn, Head of Stasi Archives. The interview looks at Roland Jahn’s role as a journalist and dissident in East Germany, his expulsion from the country, work to expose former-Stasi officers since the reunification of Germany and his work managing the Stasi archives. Excellent resource for teh teaching of Stasiland.

Metalanguage activity involving matching the key words and concepts from John Marsden’s text, Tomorrow, When the War Began.

Analysis of the 2010 film review by Lyden Barber, ‘Unsettling echoes of yesterday, when the yellow peril hysteria began’.

Analysis of book covers of Lloyd Jones’ novel, Mister Pip using the principles of visual literacy.

Stasiland - Activities for Chapters 13-18

This ezine article on the building of a secret tunnel beneath the Berlin Wall links to Chapter 22 of Anna Funder’s nonfiction text, Stasiland where there is a failed attempt to rescue people from East Berlin via a tunnel beneath the wall. Students use both sources to examine the difficulties in building tunnels beneath the most militarised border in the world, why there needed to be the utmost secrecy in doing this and the motives of the people who built the tunnels.

Stasiland - Activities for chapters 19-24

Mister Pip - Activities for Sections 11-14

Timeline documentary, Uncle Hitler examines the family of Adolf Hitler, their relationship to him, what happened to them after the war and the controversy of who should benefit from royalties earned from sales of Mein Kampf. I have used the video and worksheet in teaching Jacqui French’s fictional text, Hitler’s Daughter.

At the end of his life Dorrigo Evans compares himself to Charon the Ferryman. It is a recognition that as a doctor in a prisoner of war camp with no medicine he was not actually healing people, merely preparing them for death. This activity provides background on the legend of Charon, the significance of the obol symbol that appears in the novel and links to examples from the text. This resource is part of a unit of work on Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Jimmy Bigelow is an ordinary man living in the extraordinary world of the prisoner of war camp on the Thai-Burma Railway. Richard Flanagan uses the character to explore many of his themes, particularly memory and trauma. This resource is part of a unit of work on The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Students must decide if the 30 statements about the novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North are true or false.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Activities for Book 4 Chapters 8-13.

Explanation of the concept of intertextuality and an explanation of the explicit references to Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007, the Apsara from Hindu religion and mythology, the implied references to Ian Serraillier’s The Silver Sword and the inferred connections to the range of recent texts dealing with the issue of a child refugees journey to safety and a new life, including the picture book Oskar and the Eight Blessings, feature film First They Killed My Father and novel When Michael Met Mina. Students research the nature of these related texts and look for the common themes.

Worksheet for the Special Broadcasting Service Australia/Journeyman TV documentary, A place in the sand: Life inside the world’s largest refugee camp. The video is available on Youtube and examines life in a refugee camp on the Kenya-Somalia border, including why people have moved there, services (or lack of them) in the camp and factors that keep the refugees in the camp.

3-minute Associated Press film from the Khmer Rouge era (1975-9) of a border crossing, refugee camp and medical treatment for refugees. The resource is an excellent tie-in to Allan Baillie’s novel, Little Brother as it shows refugees fleeing Cambodia, conditions in the refugee camps and medical staff at work. There is no commentary. The worksheet examines scenes from the film and looks at where they are described in the novel.

Worksheet to accompany the 6-minute mini-documentary, Former Khmer Rouge soldier faces up to the past. The video is an interview with Chin Meth, a former-Khmer Rouge soldier who explains why she joined the Khmer Rouge, her experiences as a soldier then as a prisoner, her testifying against Khmer Rouge officials placed on trial for war crimes and her coming to terms with her life in the Khmer Rouge. This video is suitable for late primary/early secondary students. This video is available on Youtube.