Sweet+as+Year+11

Kia-ora and Welcome to Sweet as English at Year 11!

I'm looking forward to our learning journey as we study texts focused around the Theme of a Sense of Belonging. We will be exploring texts that focus on how we find a sense of belonging as individuals and within groups in society. We'll be exploring a wide range of literature from the novel The Outsiders, poetry by Tupac and Romeo and Juliet and finding links between them all.

You may like to consider how a sense of Belonging is important to you. What groups do you belong to? Think about your family and friends, any community groups, clubs,etc. How does belonging make you feel? Connected or isolated?

Belonging has been a key idea that many writers and artists have explored. Look at the pictures below. Which one gives a greater sense of belonging and why?

L'Absinthe- by Edgar Degas Luncheon of the Boating Party- Pierre Auguste Renoir.

It's pretty obvious isn't it? Being a member of a group can give a sense of happiness and fulfillment as expressed in the lower painting. The painters of these works were members of a predominantly French school of Art known as the Impressionists, who worked within the 19th Century. For the most part they celebrated life and enjoyment. The Impressionists were important as they were said to have rediscovered light in their palette (the colours that they used to paint with). The woman in the top painting was an Absinthe drinker. Absinthe is a very strong form of alcohol that can kill you in relatively small doses, it was popular in Paris at that time, particularly among the depressed. You can see how isolated the woman is by her expression and where she is placed in the picture. As we are engaging with our texts I hope you will refer back to these images as we discover what are the situations and states of mind are, that bind and break our characters.

Task One: Fakebook Page. Choose 2 minor characters and write up a facebook style page for them, using information from chapter 1. of the Outsiders.