Post-visit learning: student activities, project ideas and questions

Think, Share, Pair

See Collaborative Learning

THINK

Allow students time to consolidate their Mount Morgan Experience independently. Each student should have developed a perspective that is uniquely their own.

They can use this time to draft their introduction for their anthology, taking care to describe their thoughts and impressions of Mount Morgan and provide a rationale for their perspective on its people, places and history.

Students may find it useful to develop their photo essays at this time, using the visual images they made to create an individual expression of their very own Mount Morgan Experience (Worksheet 5).

Time may be spent investigating events discussed and stories told by the guides (and others) using the Internet and/or the School’s Resource Centre for verification and to provide detail and perspective.

PAIR

At this point, students may like to participate in discussion with a partner about their experiences and impressions. Introductions for their anthologies and outlines for poems can be discussed and reviewed.

Students should them write their own anthology of poems and bush ballads expressing the themes they found to be most representative of their impressions of Mount Morgan. Peer review and discussion could be used to help students edit their work. Suggested themes for the poems/ballads could include:

• The 1909 Mine accident
• The Mount Morgan fires
• Life in a Mining Town
• The pollution caused by mining in Mount Morgan
• The old School of Arts Hall
• The Mine payroll robbery attempt
• The women of Mount Morgan
• The aborigines of Mount Morgan
• The running of the cutter
• The Leichhardt (or other) Hotel
• Morgan Street
• The characters of Mount Morgan

At this point the introduction for their anthologies should be finalized.

SHARE

Students should swap their anthologies and allow them to be read by others in the classroom. Then students could write an evaluation of their work asking such questions as:

• Are my descriptions vivid enough for people to see what I see?
• Did I use a range of poetic forms and techniques?
• Is my anthology a balanced view of life in Mount Morgan?
• Did I focus on one aspect of Mount Morgan alone? Why did I choose to do that?
• Were my perceptions influenced primarily by what I was told or by what I saw for myself? What limitations does this create in my thinking?
• If my anthology were the only written evidence of the life Mount Morgan, would historians have an accurate view? Does this matter? Why/why not?

Students could then choose one of the poems/ballads that they have written, which lends itself to a dramatic presentation. Perhaps a Bush Poet’s Breakfast could be arranged, where students could display their photo essays as well as perform their poems for an audience of their peers.

Some explicit teaching needs to be done here with respect to oral presentations of poetry (Worksheet 6). If students were unable to see a bush poet perform in Mount Morgan, perhaps a visit by a local poet could be arranged. A recommended website to refer to is 'Poetism'.

Critical discussions could ensue regarding:

• How literature frames our perceptions of places and people
• How our life experiences can affect our perception of things/people around us
• How the pen can indeed be mightier than the sword