LOOK BOTH WAYSREVISION SESSION

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Exam Requiremnts

Respond to this section second, after Section C

Read and digest the topics VERY carefully, be aware of the FOCUS of the questions and what TYPE of questions they are

Your response should NOT be under 2 pages. Aim for 3-4 pages

How to score a 9 or 10

Demonstrates a close and perceptive reading of the text, exploring complexities of its concepts and construction.

Demonstrates an understanding of the implications of the topic, using an appropriate strategy for dealing with it, and exploring its complexity from the basis of the text.

Develops a cogent, controlled and well-substantiated discussion using precise and expressive language.

Focus of the topic

CHARACTER

THEMES/IDEAS

VALUES

SETTING

STRUCTURE

Types of topics

QUOTE – you do not have to repeat the quote in your response, but you MUST acknowledge its meaning and context

TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU AGREE? – Do not be tempted to include yourself or become argumentative. Don’t sit on the fence but also allow yourself to discuss multiple interpretations

Types of topics (cont’d)

HOW DOES THE AUTHOR – Asking you to reference the construction of the text, to use the novel’s conventions and author’s style as the basis of your discussion.

DISCUSS – Present the most sophisticated ideas in a discursive fashion

What not to do

Be argumentative

Be judgmental

Be complimentary to the author

Ignore parts of the topic

Retell the plot

Try and use everything you know

Example Topic 1

‘Look Both Ways’ suggests that facing up to responsibilities is a fundamental tenet of human experience. Do you agree?

Focus = Values

Type = Take a stance but acknowledge other opinions

Example Topic 2

How does the director, Sarah Watt, convey the importance of looking both ways in her film Look Both Ways?

Focus = Values

Topic = How - construction

Planning

Identify FOCUS and TYPE of topic

Identify key terms in topic

Brainstorm the MOST sophisticated ideas, not necessarily the most rehearsed or easiest

Determine paragraph ideas

Link Quotes, Values and Structural Features to your ideas

Construction

CINEMATOGRAPHY - Julia and train driver often shot from another room/outside

EDITING – Scene 5 – Young attractive woman preening in mirror – cut to Meryl watching her, possibly depressed those days are gone – cut to 2 older fatter woman changing. We should look both ways for perspective

SETTING – Adelaide not Melb or Sydney – smaller town feel. Real, normal life. Claustrophobic, ugly industrial estates, clutter. Relentless heat.

Construction cont’dDIALOGUE – Meryl talks too much – babbles. Train driver + family & Julia don’t talk but still communicate

PHOTO MONTAGES/ANIMATIONS – Be specific. Meryl’s imaginings can be broken into 3 distinct groups – Accidents/unexpected death, water-based ideas of drowning in her own life, the Indigenous boys. Similar story w Nick

SYMBOLISM – water as cleansing, refreshing, renewing

- birds – punctuate diff stories, represent freedom compared to people

- - moon – we’re all under the same moon. We all look up at it

Construction cont’d

MUSIC – lyrics often mirror plot eg. ‘Crashing’ by Gersey “If I slipped into the quiet” – shows Julia grieving

TONE – At times bleak, at times optimistic

STRUCTURE – Series of vignettes, self contained but woven together

GENRE – Watt describes LBW as a seriocomic narrative

Ideas/Issues/ThemesHONESTY – People lie and skirt round the truth for a variety of reasons.

‘But dishonesty, like excessive and corrosive grief can be a cancer that eats away at the soul’ (Sarah Watt)

COINCIDENCE, FATE, DESTINY – Meryl wonders if she has control over her own existence.

ADJACENT/PARALLEL WORLDS – Nick’s personal world of cancer is now connected to an adjacent world – death in windows, people at weddings.

Anna – depressed – walks through park – refreshed by children at play/sprinkler

GRIEF – seven stages

Ideas/Issues/Themes cont’d

FEAR IN MEDIA – Media bombards us w bad news. Marketing grief, and the reactions when it becomes more personal.

TITLE – see both sides, anticipate what’s coming, look at past and future, look at surface and underneath

COMMUNICATION – People don’t always communicate effectively

DESENSITISATION – witnessing grief and not feeling it. Being saturated by death or letting it roll off your back – neither are ideal.

Characters

Be careful not to simplify characters

• MERYL – Not merely scared of death, scared of not achieving anything, not being happy. Making the wrong decisions

• ANDY – Not just angry man. Afraid of not being a good dad. Frustrated that men are not understood in the world.

• Etc.

Values• Honesty

• Resist getting ahead of yourself or becoming overwhelmed by the big picture

• We need to control our fears/anxieties in order to live

• Suffering is inevitable but we can’t let it disable us

• Death can perhaps never be fully understood

• It is best to accept change and unpredictability

• People are linked together through common experience

Time to practise…

• ‘Julia and the train driver only have small speaking parts; however, their roles are crucial to our understanding of the other characters.’ Discuss.

• ‘The animation and photomontages mean that we learn about Nick and Meryl more than other characters in the film.’ Do you agree?

Bibliography

• VCE OXFORD ENGLISH 3 & 4

• VATE INSIDE STORIES

• VATE NOTES

• http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/look-both-ways/notes/

• http://bhs-lookbothways.blogspot.com