Pause for some stats

6,070 views so far this month.

1. Mary Shelley, "Frankenstein" — and "Blade Runner" 538 in the past seven days
2. How should I write up a Science experiment? 303
3. The "Belonging" Essay 198
4. HSC English NSW Area Study Standard and Advanced "Belonging" 1  168
5. Studying the Gothic, or Emily Bronte? 158
6. Physical journeys and Peter Skrzynecki’s poems 127
7. Belonging pages: HSC 2009-2012 125
8. NSW Module A English HSC Advanced: on not seeing the wood for the trees 83
9. Backgrounding my essay: question and resources to be used 65
10. Workshop 02 — NSW HSC: Area Study: Imaginative Journeys 49

Here are some overall stats on English/ESL:

Top Posts

1. Studying the Gothic, or Emily Bronte? 18,058 views since first posting
2. Physical journeys and Peter Skrzynecki’s poems 17,969 views
3. How should I write up a Science experiment? 13,248 views
4. Workshop 02 — NSW HSC: Area Study: Imaginative Journeys 8,274 views
5. Physical journeys and Peter Skrzynecki’s poems updated 3,144 views
6. Workshop 01 — a theme unit in four different text types: senior English Studies 2,930 views
7. ESL+ 2,840 views
8. Scaffolding 2,764 views

 

It’s not every day I sing the praises of a “crib”…

… but I am prepared to laud Maya Puiu and Lisa Edwards for their Pascal Press Study Guide for “Belonging” and Peter Skrzynecki’s Immigrant Chronicle. It really is a thorough and extremely intelligent guide.

It is in fact so good it could be dangerous for some students, if they were to draw on it too closely. Nonetheless, I do commend it and have used it myself – after my own efforts on this site, I should add perhaps. Learn from it, but after reading them search out your own quotes on “belonging” and your own supplementary texts. Use the material on the poems as part of a wider mix, including your class discussions and your own insights. Avoid the exact wording of this very helpful book, lest you and thousands of others begin to sound as if you have been cloned!

Even so, this gets a 10 out of 10 from me. It is that good!

I haven’t seen the other guides in the series, but it has been a good idea to publish comprehensive guides for each set text rather than a catch-all approach in one book.

Maya Puiu is no stranger either to ESL teaching or to Skrzynecki’s work. Some years ago she co-ordinated a book rap on the subject where there is some valuable material, even if not all the current set of poems are there.