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Activities and suggestions for each of Flynn's
books appear below.
Many of these ideas have been successfully used
by various classes around Australia.
Other Teaching Notes for most of Warren's
books are available free of charge from the publishers via the
post or from the publisher's website. (See live
links & orders) Feedback and suggestions from teachers
and students are welcome.
GAZ
1. Make a map of the town where
Gaz lives, and show where significant events occurred.
2. Create a poster advertising one of
the vehicles mentioned in the novel.
3. Design wallpaper suitable for the
bedroom of one of the characters.
4. Create Berryl's shopping list for
one day. (Humorous or serious). Explain the reason for the
various items.
5. Imagine a famous film producer has
asked you to cast a feature film version of Gaz, using
members of your
class (or school community) as the cast. List the cast, and
provide notes for the
producer to explain
your choices.
6. Using music, movement and costume,
rehearse and present your own cyclone.
7. Write four entries in Kim's diary.
DIFFERENT
VOICES
1. Describe a type of yacht you would
like to sail on. Explain your choice.
2. Find out as much as you can about
the traditional Vietnamese food.
You might like to
prepare one dish and share it with some class members.
3.
Have a class debate on one of the following:
-
that teenagers don't care
-
that Australia is a racist society
-
that jobs are more important than the
environment
4. Write Lan's letter to Mee Ling (in Germany)
after a month's stay in Australia.
5. Compare the two covers for
Different
Voices. How do you think each contributes to your
understandings
of the novel?
6. Research one of the following
topics:
-
International Red Cross Tracing Agency
-
Immigration statistics for Vietnam or another
Asian country
-
Aboriginal Citizenship Cards
-
Landcare
-
World Vision
7. Using information from the book
and your own ideas, write a feature article OR a news story
about saving
the lake/Lot 677.
8. Learn and recite one of
e.e.cummings' poems.
GAZ
TAKES OFF
1. Make a map of Gary's journey,
and write a paragraph about the place you would most like to
visit.
OR
Create a full-colour
tourist brochure for one of the places Gaz visits. (And no, you can't just
download one
from the Net!)
2. Did you notice how often food is
mentioned in this book? Find out as much as you can about
'religieuse' (p.99)
or one of the other foodstuffs Gaz demolishes in this story. Create a poster
or a colourful recipe
page for one of them.
3. Design wallpaper suitable for the
bedroom of one of the characters.
4. Draw an 'explosion chart' for the
backpack or briefcase of one of the characters in the story. (Don't
forget to label
and explain the reasons for including each item.)
5. Imagine a famous film producer has
asked you to cast a feature film version of Gaz Takes Off,
using members of
your class (or school community) as the cast. List the cast, and
provide notes
for the producer
to explain your choices.
6. Using music, movement, costume, and
dialogue, rehearse and present a scene or two from the
novel.
7. Write four entries in Ashley's or
Tina's diary.
8. Write the last chapter of the book
- the one where Kim asks Gary to explain the postcard he's
received from Tina!
ESCAPING
PARADISE
1.
One of the main themes is articulated when Empu gives Nicki the kris, he
says, 'The people ...
the good people of the world
musth help each other.'
The phrase: 'Terima kasih',
which means 'Thank you' can be literally translated as 'to give or
receive love.'
Explore either of these ideas
in an essay.
Show how these ideals are demontstrated
in
Escaping Paradise. Also show that these themes are
universal by referring to another
text with a similar message.
2. Masterpiece
(any visual or oral presentation)
Ideas might include:
painting sculpture
dance figurine
music drawing
model construction
mixed media
Produce a masterpiece that represents
your reaction to the ideas, themes, characters, places,
conflicts or actions in Escaping
Paradise.
Once you have amazed your colleagues
with your creativity, explain:
Where
did that idea come from? How did
you do that? Why did you do
it like that?
What does it all mean?
(These
activities courtesy of David Marshall, Albany SHS.)
3. Warren Flynn has employed a wide range
of techniques to tell the story in Escaping Paradise.
He has chosen a complex
structure shaped by the numerous points of view from which the story
is told. These include
the voices of
a narrator;
the main character Nicki ;
her mother, Elaine, and at other times her father Robert;
Australian school friends, Holly and Josh;
her kidnappers, Rama and Tono (separately);
Empu, an Indonesian spiritual leader; and
Lisi, an Indonesian woman.
Even though changing viewpoints
so often can be disorienting for readers, the author chose this
technique to let us into the
thoughts of characters at first hand, rather than through the narrator's
eyes. Also, he actually wanted to
disorient the reader - just a little - to mimic Nicki's disorientation.
Discuss the inherent dangers,
and also benefits, of employing this technique! Rewrite Chapter 37,
page 122, from Holly's viewpoint.
How does your version compare with the one in the book?
4. Another, sometimes controversial technique,
is the author's realistic portrayal of accents in
Escaping Paradise. This
contributes to the characterisation, plot, themes, and setting of the novel.
For example:
Tono's English is 'hard to understand',
but you will notice that it doesn't make him a less
intelligent, or (eventually)
a less compassionate person. Although Nicki does not realise Tono is
tri-lingual, she is able to
interpret his non-verbal language (see Chapter 28, page 93). Tono regrets
that Nicki is monolingual (Chapter
40, page 130) - that they can't better comprehend each other's
situation. What are some other
ways in which Nicki's lack of knowledge of Indonesian language
and culture restrict her awareness
of her circumstances?
5. Nicki's trauma is enhanced by culture
shock. Her feeling of alienation is intensified when she
hears her language spoken
in an unfamiliar manner. This helps explain why Nicki so readily
accepts when Karsana,
who speaks with an Oxbridge accent, offers assistance.
Annika uses her knowledge of
Indonesian as a weapon.
Discuss other characters, and
how the author has portrayed their way of speaking, and
knowledge of language(s). Read
the dialogue aloud. How do the characters' ways of speaking
contribute to our understanding
of each?
6. The author uses dialogue to good effect.
Choose an event, and rewrite it as a play script to act out
with the class. Make masks
for the characters to wear.
OR
Research the Wayang Kulit
(shadow puppets) of Java. Adapt some aspects of Wayang Kulit to
present a scene or two
from the text, or to exlpore some of the major issues in Escaping Paradise.
7. Research the kind of boat which may have
been used to transport Nicki to Java. Make a model of
it, and any other forms
of transport used in Indonesia which are not found in Australia.
8. If you were a musical director appointed
to prepare a score for a screenplay for Escaping
Paradise, what
kinds of music would you include? Select two of the following chapters
and
suggest appropriate music
for each. Say why you've chosen it. Chapters: 7, 9, 10, 40, 41, 42, 58,
72.
9. Who is Empu and why does the author write
from his point of view in some chapters?
10. Re-read Chapter 56, research the
making of kris [keris] (refer to the website
http://joglosemar.co.id);
and design a kris using archetypes and symbols relating to your
own family
and/or culture.
FOR MORE DETAILED STUDY
(Each of these activities might be presented
as an essay, a talk, a seminar paper, or a
letter to the author.)
11. Explore the Australian media focus on
U.S. news "events", and examine why most Australian
media largely
ignores what is happening in neighbouring Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.
12. Discuss how the author presents gender
issues in this text. To what extent are gender roles
culturally determined?
Should one culture ever attempt to shift/change culturally imposed
gender roles in
another society? (eg Should Australian tourists cover-up more when swimming
or touring in Bali?)
13. In Chapter 39, Page 127, Rama scoffs at
the suggestions that Asians "intend to invade Australia".
Where do you
think Nicki may have got this idea? Do you think either Rama or Nicki is
correct?
Why do you
think the author raised this issue?
14. The author has said that he hopes older
students will re-read the book, because "it's a bit like a
lotus pond
- there's heaps to discover beneath the reflection." Choose a passage or
two to
re-examine
and comment on the extent to which multiple readings of texts reveal much
more
than your
initial response evoked.
15. In visiting various private schools which
purport to be founded on a religious base, Flynn has
been surprised
that so few students have commented on the theological aspects explored
in the
text through
Empu and Nicki. Explore the representations of Christian and other faiths
through
the text and
suggest some reasons for the apparent lack of attention these issues receive.
16. From the title onwards, irony is used
throughout the novel to highlight the complexities within
Indonesian society
and the complexities of interpersonal relationships. Comment on, and
illustrate several
ways in which the author employs irony to illuminate various aspects of
the
social issues he
raises.
to see an interview with the author,
and to check out other ideas, check the publisher's website:
http://www.facp.iinet.net.au/teach_escparad.html
RETURN
TICKET
1. Research the clothes of the period.
Draw (or download) some illustrations and give a short
prepared talk about
how suited the clothes were for the climatic conditions, occupations and
lifestyles of earlier
Australians. Then examine some modern fashions and 'test' them against
the
same criteria.
2. Shannon finds it hard to adjust to
the gendered role of her life in the nineteenth century.
Research some of
the things which she felt restricted her and write about the extent to
which
your life choices
are free of gendered expectations.
OR
Choose teams and debate
one of the following topics:
that life in the nineteenth century was better than today
that gender still dominates our lifestyles
that greater choice does not lead to greater contentment
3. Visit your local Chinese community
(or a virtual Chinese community if you are living in a more
remote area) and find out some
ways in which their culture has influenced the broader community.
(If there are no local Chinese people, you might
like to find out more about a different community - Cambodian,
Philippino, Italian, etc..)
4. Ask someone in your school or in
your community to come in and teach your class a little about
the local indigenous
language(s). Learn a little about how the language is structured,
names of
some local fauna
and flora, and a greeting or two.
5. Make a model of the Cobb & Co
coach, the train, or Beth's farm house or one of the other
buildings mentioned
in the book. Display your models in the library during Children's Book
Week.
6. Form teams, research some issues
the book touches on (such as political structures, the
environment, racism,
socio-economic divisions), and argue for the novel ending you think is
the
most likely to occur.
7. Draw a picture of your community
fifty years into the future, and explain to your group why you
made various choices
about what to include/exclude.
OR
Write another ending
for the novel which you think would better suit the book, or your
own
ideas of the
future.
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