YEAR 7 GUIDE TO BALLY BOYS
ENGLISH
TEACHER INTERVIEW
What do you enjoy about teaching Year 7 English?
The thing I like about teaching Year 7 English is that I get to teach a range of different topics and texts. Every term there is something different going on in English and the students get exposed to a wide array of texts and writers. Another great thing about English in Year 7 at Bally is the multimedia task completed in Term 3 where the boys are able to put their film making skills to the test!
Do you want your students to study?
Yes absolutely, study is important as practice makes perfect. I give my boys homework and I expect it to be done, anything that I give to the boys will be important to them further down the road. Study and revising helps you to become better readers, writers and overall students. The studying skills you learn in junior school will not only serve you well in your later years of schooling, but also for life.
What do you hope the students will achieve when they finish their first year of English?
I like to think that Year 7 English is an introduction to the later years of English here at Bally. I hope that they get a good grasp on English techniques and be able to write nice papers but I just want them to have fun and walk out at the end of the day, having achieved something themselves, which is why you have school.
What types of books will you get your students to read?
Year 7 students study a range of novels in their first year of high school. Perhaps the most interesting is the crime stories studied in Term 3. Classes look at detective fiction, and read novels such as Sherlock Holmes, Holes, Framed and even some Edgar Allan Poe short stories! I also encourage my students to read for fun as well. At Bally, we have the Premier's Reading Challenge which encourages students to widen their reading repertoire.
How do you like to make your teaching fun?
I think you’ve got to have a variation and not do the same thing twice in a row. Group work is a favourite activity of mine because it gets the students interacting with each other but also lets them control their own destiny and learning. We are always striving to make lessons fun and engaging for our students so expect a lot of variation when you walk into an English class at Bally!
How do you discipline your students?
Well, discipline isn't something I often need to engage in here at Bally because the expectations are always so high of the boys. The most I have had to do is the odd lunchtime detention, other than that- it's pretty smooth sailing here at Bally.
What is your favourite genre and will you be teaching it soon?
My favourite genre is the crime and mystery genre we do in term 3. It’s just fun, surrounded by Edgar Allan Poe and Sherlock Holmes. It just keeps everyone on their toes. I really enjoy the 'Whodunnit' aspect of crime fiction. I really like figuring out who the bad guy is, even if I get it wrong 9 times out of 10. At least I have fun trying to put all the pieces together along the way. Fantasy is also another favourite of mine. The worlds that you are exposed to in those texts are just so amazing and so different to any other. You can really let yourself go and just get lost in a good fantasy text.
TOP 10 TIPS FOR SUCCESS IN ENGLISH
1. Don't stress about homework and assignments, if you give yourself a good amount of time, you will be okay.
2. Reading regularly will give you a better vocabulary and give you better literacy skills, such as comprehension and spelling.
3. There is no harm in studying for an upcoming test. Try not to leave your studying until the day before. If you do a bit at a time it will soon amount to a lot later on.
4. When your teacher gives you a book to read you should remember this, the start might not be entertaining, however if you read on it will start to become interesting and you will soon finish the book in no time.
5. Try to make friends in your English class, so when you get a group-assignments, you will be able to trust your partners more.
6. When your teacher tells you about an upcoming test or assignment, make sure you note it in your diary or somewhere else where you will remember, that way you wont forget until the day of the test.
7. Try not to miss school. Everyday, your teachers will give you advice and knowledge which you don’t want to miss. This information will most-likely be important for the next day.
8. Try to get along with your teacher as then you will feel confident asking for advice when you’re stuck.
9. Even though games these days can make your day a blast, you should complete your tasks and homework when told so.
Your homework will usually be the things you did at school so it shouldn’t be difficult at all. Doing your homework will also jog your memory, no one can remember everything they learnt that day, especially in English.
10. You may be dreading high school, however if you stop and relax you’ll see that it isn’t really a hard road in year 7 and you should try to enjoy it while you can.
PERSONAL REFLECTION
I imagined that this school’s English would be tough. The ATAR marks said it all. The idea of writing pages as long as elephant’s trucks and constructing elegant poems made me feel very intimidated. Although, I didn’t think I would be the most imaginative or articulate guy in the class I knew had to to try. I found that even though everyone in my English class did have great knowledge I could still manage to keep up.
My first challenge was writing my own myth or legend, which was on our topic of term 1. It was our first assignment. It was thought-provoking to write an epic story. In the end I got an average mark in my class and I was expecting more.
However, later in the year my proudest moment in English was when I I handed in my poetry assignment, which was our second topic of study. It was a very simple task, write your own poem and analyse it. I wanted to get a high mark. After waiting for the results, my marks were finally and handed back and I achieved 19/20, the second best in the class! It was then when I learnt my most valuable lesson, when you put in the effort, you will achieve, the same as the school motto.
The best advice I could give to future students is that the best way to get a good mark is to put in your best effort, no matter how good or bad you think are at writing or reading.
CREATIVE WRITING
We were all reading our book as a class, it was Friday. On Fridays, we use a special gadget. It’s huge, dusty and not very clean, but it is one of a kind. The gadget lets us immerse ourselves into the universe of the book. It lets us breathe, smell and see the world of the literature.
Today we chose Edgar Allan Poe. He was a famous and classic writer of the mystery genre.
“OK students, we are going to study the classic setting of the mystery genre, the British alleyway.
We opened the first page of our book, it was the start of our adventure.
Together with my class, I stepped into the big machine again and closed my eyes.
Suddenly, we were in the alleyway. It was a dark and smoky night. There was a very strong smell of tobacco and petrol everywhere. I could hear my footsteps as I slowly walked around. The lamppost was very dim and didn’t give off much light.
“This is the setting for our story,” said the teacher. His voice echoed through the alleyway. “Take out your notebooks, and jot down some notes as we walk around.”
It was very chilly, and the wind was biting at my face. It was colder than the many winters I have been through. Whilst viewing and studying the setting, an antique car drove past. It was as if an old man was walking down the road, but it looked very flashy compared to the other cars.
After a few more minutes, we got out of the spine-chilling alleyway and onto the main road. There were more lampposts and our hands were actually visible.
“Thank you, boys for focusing on the task,” said the teacher. “Now as a treat, we’ll move on to another place, we shall go on to Greece, in the time of the Gods!”
We returned to the alleyway and entered the special gadget, and once again we went through and I closed my eyes.
A golden, clean temple with a lightning bolt at the top of it filled my vision backlit by a beautiful, light-blue sky decorated with white puffy clouds. It was a much more elegant and elaborate place than Britain, cleaner and more orderly. We looked around to see many wide, big buildingsl, temples and altars, and lavish tributes to the gods.
After walking through the main street, we cautiously entered a temple. There were dozens of people clothed in white praying on the ground. A stone monument, mounted on a tall pillar reigned over them. The stone monument was Poseidon, the water god, shadowing a man below the pillar, who was softly chanting Ancient Greek.
We exited the temple and started to head back to the special gadget. Silence resounded as we found that it wasn’t there! Instead, there lay a note, written in English.
“Go to the temple of Hephaestus.”
It was a big clue to lead us to where the machine was. However, we had no idea where we were, but the clue could lead us somewhere. Our idea was to look for a temple with a hammer symbol. We walked for hours on end, but with no luck. No-one had any idea where it could be by now.
The sun was now setting and the only sounds were our watches, counting down towards our doom. The streets and buildings were all very quiet. We got to the end of a lengthy road, there was a small temple, but it looked more like a hut. It had a small wooden symbol of fire, composed of rusting metal and wood. A massive piece of cloth covered a very big object. We ran quickly towards the object in question, and pulled the cloth.
It was there, our special gadget, not a dent, not a scratch, but why here? It had nothing to do with Hephaestus.
Suddenly the teacher entered, smiling.
“And now you know kids, that Hephaestus was not only a god of crafting and building but also a god of fire, consider today as a valuable lesson.”
Everyone thought that it was unnecessary to hide the gadget like that, but we were just too relieved to argue. We entered the gadget, returned to the modern world, and exited the English classroom.