By Sarah Jupp
Secondary English Teacher

The senior academic classes focused on short stories

Delving into structure arcs and themes in all their glories

Today we’ll summarise for you the things that we now know

And just because it’s English, we will do it with a poem.

***

The 10.2s started the year

With Tim Winton’s A Blow, A Kiss –

The plot more shocking than appears

Then ending on a gory twist.

Father and son return home from

A failed fishing trip

Darkness falls, they’re close, then meet

An unexpected blip.

Their story makes us contemplate relationships in life

Father and son, parent and child – in smoother times and strife

The most important bond presented, through the dark and fog –

Between our young protagonist (he’s called Albie) and God

We analysed the symbols and identified techniques

Plotted structures on story maps and offered our critiques

Presented findings to the class and took pages of notes

Our arms are sore from writing and folders starting to bloat.

We also read The Landlady, a story by Roald Dahl

But don’t be fooled, it’s darker than his children’s tales are

The horror genre teaches us about a broken world

Showing dangers of sinfulness and evil works unfurled.

We learned about foreshadowing – warnings of what’s to come

Discovered how central the context is to what gets done

Found out that some authors like to leave resolutions free

And worked out how to find and use techniques of irony –

… or, did we?

***

The Year 11 ATAR group have been transitioning

Working out new classes, keeping track of everything

We started our year off with Mr. Bradbury’s The Veldt

The twists shocked us so deeply that our pulses had to pelt

The Veldt tells of a family who have a wonderous home,

That takes on all the chores so that the children never moan

Technology grows so advanced they just can’t do without

Until it starts to take charge and the parents start to doubt

The brutal end warns readers to beware technology

That serving builds relationships and working makes us free

When voids are left by lack of faith we look for ways to fill

And when we worship the wrong things we can end up…

Eaten

By imaginary lions.

We also read a rather strange and startling article

That’s written by a robot that is quite an odd particle

It aims to reassure us that it’s trustworthy and safe

But when we read on deeper it warns of a darker fate.

We’ve compared and contrasted

Finding structures and techniques

Investigated contexts, and

Then analysed the scenes

We’ve considered the purposes

Our texts have been created

And written up some essays where

Our opinions are stated.

We’ve taken pages of notes about visual conventions

Like rule-of-thirds and camera angles, distance and dimensions

We’re analysing images to see how they position

So we can decide for ourselves to reject or to listen.

***

The Year 12s returned with glee to ATAR English class

Where Mrs Jupp’s amazing jokes make everything a blast

We know our techniques in and out with sureness and conviction

Especially our favourites, such as juxtaposition.

We’re pretty pro with many things, but still have more to learn

Like how complex setting can be, and why it’s our concern

We’re getting quite mature now and ceased most of our folly

We’re building our vocabulary – with words like melancholy.

We read a Winton story too – our one is called Big World

About two boys our own age living the post-high school whirl

Avoiding disappointments by escaping on their own

Until their plans all fall apart and back they slink to home.

Our narrator looks back and forward

With hope and with regret

But has to learn to stay in the

Moment in which he’s set.

Embracing what’s given to him

In its fabulous mess

Appreciating every gift

That’s for him to possess.

From their mistakes we learn we can’t escape to dream vacations

The only true choices are earned through our own dedication

In times of chaos and of calm we must learn to take rest

And contemplate the many ways in which by God we’re blessed.

We’re moving on, looking at texts

With which we don’t agree

Sometimes sticking to the question

Feels like agony

Looking at the ways in which they try to change our mind

So we can hold to our beliefs, no matter what we find.

I’m sure you’ve heard enough for now, although we’re entertaining

It’s best we leave the stage before it all becomes too draining

We hope you strive in English so you’re ready for essays,

We’ll leave you now in the good hands of lovely Mrs Nys.