Forward December 2014 | Page 18

SENIOR SCHOOL English English: Reading? Writing? Speaking? Listening? Viewing?...THINKING! This year, the English faculty has tried to focus on guiding our students to understand and think about the concepts and ideas associated with texts. With this in mind we have been encouraging English students not only to remember the characters or settings of texts but understand what that text might reflect about our society, or consider how and why the creator of a text might be trying to persuade us to think something. One excellent way to do this is to meet those involved in the texts we study. Earlier this year many students had the fortunate opportunity of meeting and listening to Michael Gerard Bauer, the author of the very popular text, Don’t Call Me Ishmael, studied by our Year 8 students. He was able to explain his inspiration for some of the very amusing anecdotes that he included in the narrative. Students were able to witness first hand \