Term 1 – Identity and Belonging

For English in term 1 we were tasked with creating a short article surrounding the movie The Hunt for the Wilderpeople and the poem Nana Emily’s Poem. The main focus was around themes of identity and belonging, and how being stripped of culture can lead to a loss in identity. That was what my article was about anyway.

Term 2 – O-O-O-Othello

In term 2 we were given the task of watching the movie Othello, then examining the themes of the story and coming up with a creative writing piece utilizing the same themes (betrayal, jealously, etc). For my draft I chose to write about a arms dealer smuggling weapons past a border checkpoint, however due to the lack of having any social substance, I chose to change the direction for the final. For the final I wrote about a character that I had come up with for future projects and wished to write something about the character (this was right when I was getting into writing as a project idea).

In the end I really enjoyed creative writing, however I feel like my work was a little bit sloppy and I could have probably done better. It was still incredibly engaging though to do creative writing after years of not doing so.

Term 3 – The White Girl

In term 3 our assignment was to write an essay about the themes and characters from the novel The White Girl by Tony Birch. The book was interesting and while I was hesitant about it at first by the end of it I found myself having had enjoyed the book.

Our assignment involved lots of drafts and short essays on each of the characters and themes such as authority and identity present in the book. It was an interesting experience to learn about Australian culture, especially as the book was set in the 60s which isn’t even that long ago.

Term 4 – Persuasive Speech

Term 4 was a little bit chaotic when it came to English, at least for me. Because of work I was often tired and confused when coming in on the days we had English, and due to already being short on time for the term it meant a lot of it went over my head. Our assignment was to create and film ourselves giving a persuasive speech about a topic that relates to the Australian youth.

For my speech I chose to do it on the topic of AI as it is something that I find interesting. It was a very lengthy process to film the speech as it all had to be done in one take, plus I was sick while filming which made it extra difficult to get a good take.