AY+-+TWTWB+assignment

Tomorrow When The War Began Bottom of Form John Marsden was born in Victoria, Australia in 1950. He went to many different primary schools, and from an early age enjoyed the journeys into magical worlds that reading could provide. His teachers in Grade 4 and Grade 6 encouraged him to write, and at the age of nine he decided he wanted to become an author. For seven years he attended The King's School Parramatta, a strict military school in Sydney, and from there went on to the University of Sydney. However, he soon decided that a career in law looked too boring, so he dropped out and drifted around for nearly 10 years, trying different jobs, and earning just enough money to support himself. When he was 28, he began a teaching course, which he loved from the start. Embarking on a teaching career, he also became more and more interested in writing, and in 1987 succeeded in getting his first book, **//So Much to Tell You//**, published. A string of huge hits followed, highlighted by the **Tomorrow** series and **The Ellie Chronicles**. John has now sold more thantwo and a half million books in Australia alone, but is also an international best-seller, with many major awards to his credit. John's interest in education has never waned. In 1998 he bought the Tye Estate, 850 acres of natural bush, on the northern edge of Melbourne, and later added the property next door. For eight years he ran enormously popular writers' courses and camps at Tye, before starting his own school there, Candlebark, in 2006. Candlebark is a P-8 school, which has been described by John as "somewhere between Steiner and The Simpsons". Its friendly lively and positive atmosphere has resulted in such early success that it has a four-year waiting list. www.johnmarsden.com.au THEMES
 * Author: John Marsden **
 * Biography **

War
War comes unexpectedly in this novel. Wirrawee appears to be a peaceful rural town in Australia when the friends head off for a camping trip. There are however, hints that all is not well. There’s a report that’s overheard where a politician is railing that the Prime Minister is acting like **Neville Chamberlain.** However, no one seems to take the threat of invasion seriously – would you? That’s a serious question because Marsden has set his novel in modern day Australia and it is a group of high school aged students whose experience he tracks. You as readers are meant to feel that this could be you. War, when it comes always interrupts people’s lives and disrupts their plans. The teenagers find that, not only are they alone and in charge of their own lives, but that they have to make extremely complex **moral** **decisions**. To an extent war can change the normal rules and morals we follow. Ellie murders people and leaves them to die; interestingly at the end of the novel they take Corrie to the hospital run by the ‘enemy’ and hope that they will save her life. A section explaining the terms/concepts that are raised in each of the different tasks. ==The purpose of this substantial assignment is to test your ability to analyse and take meaning from a text that you have read. This is a key skill that you will need to use more and more as you get into the latter years of secondary school. It is probably the most important skill you will learn in English in your junior years. This assignment has been designed so that the questions get harder to analyse, the further you go into this assignment. You will need to think and reflect DEEPLY in order to come up with strong answers to the latter Tasks on this assignment. Below I have explained the terms that have been used in each of the Tasks, as they are VITAL terms for you to learn over the next few years. ==

CONTENT: Your ideas, thoughts and reflections on a particular question. Your analysis of what is the right answer.
==STRUCTURE: How you express your ideas, ie. Do you put this in full paragraphs? Do you have an introduction and a conclusion? Do you dot point them? ==

HYPOTHETICAL SITUATIONS: Situations that YOU make up/imgaine that COULD have realistically happened.
==EXAMPLES/ TEXTUAL EVIDENCE: Where you talk about or QUOTE/CITE something that happened in the text to make your answer stronger. This is a vital skill in DEVELOPING an argument/idea. == ==COMPLEXITY/DEPTH: Essentially this means how strong your answers are.To do this well, you need to really extend your answers beyond the obvious and then consider lots of different views and perspectives on the question. It’s all about moving on from a simplistic YES/NO answer to one that challenges the reader (and me marking!) == ==CLEAR TOPIC SENTENCES: The first sentence of each paragraph must clearly state what your argument or idea is. However, you need to express it more cleverly than <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“My first argument/idea is….” ==

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">THIRD PERSON: When you are analysing or writing from the perspective of an outsider, where you are not personally involved at all.
==<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">FORMAL LANGUAGE: A pretty simple one – make sure you don’t write like you are writing a text message. Pretend you are writing to an adult. Be formal, don’t use slang, or words that sound informal or immature. == Task 1 – Approximately 300 words in total. The assessment criteria for this section **are all about ideas**. You are required to answer the following questions. There are no ‘right answers.’ However, those answers that show that they have considered the questions carefully will be rewarded. Life is not simple and neither are these questions. You only have to theorise about these questions. The characters in the novel had to live out the answers to these questions and with the consequences of their actions. It’s possible that your answers will become a little convoluted (a little bit all over the shop!). Remember the **key assessment criteria for this task is content,** so if you need to sacrifice structure a little in order to express all your ideas, then go for it. Complete the following questions. Use **examples** from the text and **hypothetical situations** to illustrate your ideas. 1 Homer puts three choices to the group; try to rescue their families (even though it is very dangerous and unlikely to succeed) inflict damage on the ‘enemy’ or sit tight and stay alive. In your opinion what should the group have done? 2 Ellie is relieved that she ‘probably’ has not killed anyone in the bridge explosion. However, she understands that her intention was ‘to do whatever was necessary’ and therefore it was only luck that resulted in no lives being lost. Is murder wrong in war? 3 Ellie killed people when she caused the first explosion and when she ‘saved’ Lee. Would the enemy have been justified if they had refused to treat Corrie because of this? 4 Robyn ‘could understand’ why the ‘enemy’ had invaded. They claimed they were “addressing imbalances within the region.” They had very little. Australia had a great deal. They were going to ‘divide up the farms’ for their people and give Australians the ‘menial’ jobs. This would have resulted in a role reversal. Is that role reversal any less fair than the original situation where Australia was ‘rich’ and wouldn’t ‘share’ their wealth? LOYALTY, FRIENDSHIP, LEADERSHIP and COURAGE. Initially a group of friends head off for a camping trip. Ultimately this group have to depend on each other for their lives. Ellie comments on how much they are changed by their experiences. A contrast to the group is Bertram Christie. He had lived alone and been shunned by society. Ellie finds evidence of what he had done. She finds it hard to judge him; she cannot even bring herself to tell the others about her discovery. Task 2 – Approximately 250 words in total. In this section the **assessment criteria** is on **complexity of thought and also correct use of appropriate textual evidence.** You will remember from your __Blueback__ work last year, that you need to use short **quotes**, smoothly incorporated into your own writing. You can always go back and look at the example in last year’s __Blueback__ assignment if you have forgotten. 1 Who is the leader of the group? 2 Who, in the group, shows remarkable courage? __You can talk about more than one character here.__ 3 Ellie is concerned by Chris’ morality; she’s concerned that if the romantic relationship breaks up there will be tension in the group. What tests of their friendship did you observe in the novel? THE STRUCTURE OF THE NOVEL The novel is told in the first person. Ellie is the narrator and she tries to be as honest as she can. However, she cannot know everything that is happening and so the reader gets a biased view of the action. Ellie can explain to us what motivated her when she acts as she does; because the reader understands her actions we tend to look at her actions with more understanding and acceptance. However, this means that the reader becomes more emotionally attached to Ellie than they do to the other characters. Ellie likes Homer and so the reader tends to also; Ellie is suspicious of Chris and so the reader wonders about him too. Marsden uses lots of foreshadowing in this novel. The group talks about ‘World War Three’ before they discover it has happened; you hear about Homer’s petrol trails before one is used in the guerrilla attacks and Ellie reflects on what she thinks the future holds for each character before we see them face the tests ahead. Task 3 – Approximately 100 to 200 words In this task the assessment criteria are: **the complexity of the ideas; the appropriate use of textual evidence AND the appropriate style for literary analysis. You will remember that this means you must write in the third person, use the past tense and use formal language to express your ideas.** (I told you it would get harder.) 1 How reliable do you think Ellie is as a narrator? Why do you think Marsden chose her as the narrator? 2 Find out what the term **foreshadowing** means in relation to novels. Write down an explanation of what you understand it to me. Then list as many examples of foreshadowing as you can. (Make sure you work with your friends on this question, as it is a tough one and you’ll need to help each other come up with different examples). CHARACTERS While Ellie, as narrator, is the central character, all the characters are well drawn and distinct in their personalities. Novels are explorations of characters and the changes they undergo in their ‘journey’ through the events of the novel**.** Task 4 – Approximately 300 to 400 words In this task the assessment criteria are really complex: you need to **write in the appropriate style; use textual evidence; include complex and thoughtful ideas AND have clear topic sentences.** 1 Which character do you think undergoes the most change? Explain the journey that your character underwent during the novel? 2 Ellie at one stage outlines what she sees as “Homer’s genius” – was Homer a ‘genius’ for coming up with the plans to ‘rescue’ Lee and to destroy the bridge? 3 Ellie worries that she might become ‘like a war criminal’ because of the acts she’s committing. She says she uses “a sense within [her]” to determine what was “good or bad”. Was Ellie a ‘good’ person? 4 When Ellie finds Chris asleep on sentry duty she loses her temper with him. She understands why sleeping sentries should be ‘shot’. She becomes ‘logical, cold-blooded and merciless’. Later she says that “I **guess** he atoned.” Did Chris belong in the group? = = LANDSCAPE = = = = = = = =

The landscape of this novel is really beautiful. It’s ironic that it’s called “Hell’ because it’s so beautiful. Sometimes Ellie feels that she could just “blend in” and become part of the landscape. She feels she belongs. The landscape and the natural surroundings make Ellie question what happens in the ‘human world.’ The dragonfly is neither good nor bad when it eats the mosquito it just is. Death is not the ‘opposite of life’ in the natural world it is merely an extension of it. The natural world provides a very stable background to the changing lives of the characters. The landscape has been shaped before by a human Bertram Christie had used it as a place to hide, but he’d also created beauty in his bridge. It had offered refuge before to someone for whom the world was a dangerous place. Task 5 – Approximately 100 to 150 words The assessment criteria here give you the chance to consolidate your skills in the last section. **Write in the appropriate style; use textual evidence; include complex and thoughtful ideas AND have clear topic sentences.** **Make sure you finish each paragraph strongly as well!** 1 What role does “Hell” play in the novel? 2 Does the novel suggest that people can ‘belong’ to the land? CLOSE READING – A FOCUS ON ONE SECTION =<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Often one section of the text can be incredibly important in unlocking a novel and learning lots about the characters that exist in a book. In this task, you will focus on Chapter 7 which is one of the first instances in the novel where the characters actually take control of a situation and be proactive, rather than wondering what they should do. Read this section closely and analyse deeply. =  Task 6 – Approximately 300 words The assessment criteria for this section include all the areas assessed in Literary Criticism; **content, structure and style. Use the knowledge you have gained of what these terms mean and be sure to demonstrate your command of these in your answer.** Read Chapter 7 from “So, at last we knew.” And then answer the following questions: 1 What inspires Ellie with the idea to use the ride on mower as a bomb? 2 What techniques does Marsden use to create tension in this scene? 3 Marsden is careful not to let the reader strongly identify with the people who die. How does he achieve this and why does he do this? 4 Why do we not condemn Ellie for the murders? EXTEND YOURSELF Task 7 - Approximately 100 words Marsden refers to a number of other texts in this novel – well, he is an English teacher. The first ones are pretty light hearted but they get very serious – the texts reflect the action to a large extent. Select yourself one of these texts; **locate a summary of it**, read it and then write a paragraph to explain why Marsden might have referred to it. You may use Wikipedia for this task if you have to, but I’d like you to seek out other sources of information. The further you go down the list the harder the novel becomes – some are pretty challenging. **Set yourself a task that reflects your interest and ability.** The assessment criteria here are completing the task and showing **insight** into why Marsden used the text. __The Secret Seven__ by Enid Blyton (These novels – it’s a series – are about a group of friends who find adventures and mysteries close to home and solve them when the adults around them can’t. They are written for young children.) __The Famous Five__ by Enid Blyton (These novels were written for children early last century. In them a family of children go away on holidays together and have adventures. They always end happily) __My Brilliant Career__ by Miles Franklin (an Australian classic a sort of autobiography about a girl in the late 1800s who refuses to be constrained by gender roles.) __The Scarlett Letter__ by Nathanial Hawthorne (an American novel set a Puritan society about a woman who breaks her society’s very strict social codes) __The Heart of Darkness__ by Joseph Conrad (we’re talking seriously hard here! A story about a man journeying into Africa and about arrogance and finding out what is at the ‘heart’ of everyman) __The Bible__ (this text is made up of “The Old Testament” which is the story of the Israelites and is the older of the two sections and “The New Testament” this section was written sometime after the death of Jesus and recounts his life and works and the development of the early church. This is the best-selling book of all time! Lots of people have opinions about it, bt very few people have read it.) CREATIVE RESPONSE Another way of showing an understanding of a text is respond to the text creatively. This does not mean that you respond in any way that you like. It means that you try to copy the style of the author and demonstrate that you have understood the text by writing in the style of the author and using the techniques that they use. In this case you will need to construct a text that is in keeping with the information given in the text; that it is written in the first person; that the tension is created by sentence length the way that Marsden does and that alliteration and also conversation to create impact. Task 8 – Approximately 500 words The assessment criteria for this task are that: **your response is true to the information in the text; that it is written in the first person; that the audience comes to care for the character; that the moral choices are not clear cut; that conversation and alliteration are used.** Write the story of Bertram Christie and focus on one of the key challenges that he faced in his life. __Re-Read through Chapters 15 and 16 to prepare you for this task.__ READING ALOUD Task 9 – instructions are below You will need to choose a section of the novel that interests you (approximately ONE PAGE) and practice your reading of this. Your final assessment in this section will be to read a section of the text aloud to the class with clear expression and a variance of tone in your voice to ensure you maintain the audience’s attention. WRITING A LITERARY ESSAY You have already had the chance to write an essay this year on a topic (Feudalism) and this is your chance to learn the art of the Literary Essay (**an essay that deals with a deep question on a novel that you have read**). This is a skill that will be developed and used in senior English classes. This is your first chance to experiment with this style of essay writing. Your teacher will show you examples and discuss with you how to do this. As a class you will work on an essay plan and construct a 500 – 600 word response to a question. Task 10 – 500 to 600 words Answer the following essay question. “Loyalty, courage, goodness I wonder if they are human inventions too, or if they just are.” What does __Tomorrow When the War Began__ suggest that loyalty, courage and goodness are?