CONTEXT: Identity and belonging - Growing Up Asian In Australia

[Cinnah]

So, I was thinking about this for a while.

It's up to the assessors to connect our essay with our nominated text - we're told the links don't have to be slap-in-the-face obvious, but still have to exist.
...But the topics will always relate to the texts anyhow...right?

So then... as long as we respond to the topic correctly, we will link with the text, whether we want to or not.

Does anyone see what I mean here? It's a difficult thing to articulate,
but we all know English teachers have a habit of reading more into the texts than the author themselves intend.
How far do we really need to go to demonstrate understanding of the text, while being original at the same time, if we can do it without even meaning to by just responding to a prompt?

Relevant:

[playsimme]

LOL! Just like edie's gloves.. my teachers all zomg white gloves PURITY ANGEL SENT FROM HEAVEN!!
us: O.O

[Cinnah]

I admit my English teacher hasn't done a lot of it this year, because she focuses on language analysis... and sorta doesn't teach texts well.

[chemkid_23]

do we hav to actually mention parts of the text or witness for example, or weave in the themes they have into our writing? because there as so many instances where i dont mention the text explicitly, but the themes of it are evident in my writing......

[Cinnah]

There's so much scope with the topic
The other sections are more about writing and interpretation of text, Creating and Presenting is more about ideas, and how we've looked at 'Identity and Belonging' and discovered what it means for us.

From what I've heard, we don't need to say anything explicitly, which is the confusing part, but if someone is doing a creative piece based on witness it obviously doesn't have to be just a transcript of the film - it could be about someone religious losing faith, or someone who has no community (like Book) and goes in search of one, realizing all the bad things about it. You just have to throw your character through similar struggles, maybe reference Amish where relevant.
You could write a speech or a autobiographical piece, it depends on you.
It depends on the prompt too.

But back on topic, does anyone know what I mean?
Will the assessors create links for us, even when we haven't really made them, just like English teachers do with quotes from books?
ALL THIS SUBJECTIVITY IS KILLING ME.

[xdecay]

I went to the VATE revision day a couple of weeks ago and the lecturer told us to 'appropriate' (a bit like art) themes/symbols/anything within our essays, so I'm guessing the examiners really do have to create the 'non-existent' bridge between our own ideas and the text. He gave us an example where the mother cooked his Indian son rissoles and added their own spices into it so it turns out to be a fusion dish (don't remember what the title is, focusing more on Witness), which could be included into your piece. Except, I have a thing with not trusting the examiners. I don't believe that they will look too much into our writing (I mean there are tons of different symbols in Growing Up and you could loosely link practically anything to Witness), especially due to the fact that I do ESL, they would probably think 'nah, this student wouldn't have thought of that, maybe it's just all really literal'. Not to be bitter, but I'm just picturing the worst case scenario here.

[Cinnah]

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean, and I've been doing English my whole life xD
It's certainly not a good situation, with the exam on thursday and all...

[chemkid_23]

do we have to specifically mention our selected text (im doing witness) or do we just have to explore ideas that are portrayed in the texts?

[Cinnah]

APPARENTLY just explore. We write the name of the text on the front of our paper booklet.

[SamiJ]

(Image removed from quote.)

This made my day thank you

[CaptainAwesome]

LOL! Just like edie's gloves.. my teachers all zomg white gloves PURITY ANGEL SENT FROM HEAVEN!!
us: O.O

Which is funny, because I'm pretty sure that was just Brando and Saint improvising

I loved the little diagram, BTW. I think I'll try to make like, one obvious reference to the text (like making them struggle to fit in in a new environment like in GUAIA) and then 'explore' the text or something... IDK :S

[Cinnah]

This made my day thank you

Haha, yeah. So true though.

Well guys, now it's over. The prompt was crazy.

[neeserg]

I forgot to specify what text I am doing for context up the top, but wrote it in the essay.
Does it matter.

[xdecay]

Is it just me or was this year's identity and belonging prompt written by a four year old?
Argh, I thought it would be a lot more sophisticated than that!

[harlequinphoenix]

I didn't mind the context prompt, mainly because it basically implied that belonging = identity and so there's a thousand ways to go with that, whether you agree or not ^_^ Yeah it sounded stupid but that's all it meant in the end haha. It was the analysis that threw me... worst one I've ever read/done haha in terms of specific persuasive devices and the intended effect on the reader. Had to be the exam one didn't it... O well