The Garret: John Marsden

Introduction

This unit of work has been created in partnership with The Garret and accompanies Nicolas Brasch’s interview with John Marsden. Visit the website to access the interview, show notes and transcript. While the content of this unit has been developed for Year 9, some lessons may be adapted for use with Years 7, 8 or 10.

The following activities and tasks can be used in full or in part, depending on your teaching context. They have been formulated for use with a whole class, but can be adapted to suit smaller groups or individual students. Each activity is linked to a specific section of Marsden’s interview, and the relevant time stamp is noted under each heading.

Activity 1: The Catcher in the Rye

04:39–05:01

This activity is born out of the texts that Marsden read as a young adult. He cites J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye as being particularly influential for its powerful and contemporary voice; he hadn’t known that anyone was ‘allowed to write like [that]’.

Have students individually read the opening chapter of The Catcher in the Rye (they can use the ‘look inside’ feature on the publisher’s website), then form small groups to discuss.

In their groups, students should analyse the chapter, looking for examples of:

• voice (passive, active)
• tense (past, present)
• point of view
• literary devices
• emotive language, language that appeals to the reader
• any other devices or techniques you specify

Direct students to discuss the following questions within their groups once they have completed their analysis:

• What is your first impression of the narrator?
• Why do you think this book might have captured Marsden’s imagination?
• In what ways do you think this excerpt is ‘powerful’ and ‘contemporary’?

Synthesising task

Direct students to undertake a writing task to emulate or experiment with the techniques they’ve uncovered in The Catcher in the Rye.

Version 9.0: (AC9E9LA03)   (AC9E9LA08)   (AC9E9LE06)   (AC9E9LY06)

Version 8.4: (ACELA1553)   (ACELA1561)   (ACELT1773)   (ACELT1638)   (ACELY1746)   (ACELY1748)

Activity 2: storytelling and the ‘Anglo canon’

05:52–07:05

This activity derives from Marsden’s description of his school reading catalogue as mostly ‘dead white authors’. Growing up in a very Anglo culture, he rarely encountered writers of African, South American or Asian descent.

Present students with one or more excerpts from texts by culturally diverse authors. Suggestions include:

• titles in the Growing Up series published by Black Inc., including:
  • Growing Up Asian in Australia ed. Alice Pung
  • Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia ed. Anita Heiss
  • Growing Up African in Australia ed. Maxine Beneba Clarke, Magan Magan and Ahmed Yussuf
  • Growing Up Torres Strait Islander in Australia ed. Samantha Faulkner
  • Growing Up Indian in Australia ed. Aarti Betigeri
• The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba Clarke
• The Coconut Children by Vivian Pham
• I Am the Mau and Other Stories by Chemutai Glasheen

Instruct students to read the excerpt(s), searching for and noting down differences and similarities between this and another piece of writing they know (e.g. their favourite book, a story they have written themselves). Areas for comparison include:

• dialogue
• content
• plot
• character development
• context
• culture

Discuss any assumptions your students may have brought to their reading. How does this text challenge those assumptions? How does it help us to understand cultural differences?

Synthesising task

In pairs, students are to choose one of the following non-Western storytelling traditions:

• hula (Hawaii)
• shadow puppetry (China)
• Zajal (Middle East)
• rakugo (Japan)
• griots (West Africa)

Each pair will research and compile a chart or Venn diagram that illustrates the differences between Western storytelling and their chosen tradition. They should also identify THREE examples of stories from that culture. They will then present their findings to the rest of the class, explaining the key features of their chosen tradition and the plot of each story (plus any other interesting facts they have discovered along the way).

Version 9.0: (AC9E9LE01)   (AC9E9LE03)   (AC9E9LE04)   (AC9E9LE05)   (AC9E9LY01)   (AC9E9LY07)

Version 8.4: (ACELY1739)   (ACELT1633)   (ACELT1636)   (ACELY1741)   (ACELT1634)   (ACELT1772)

Activity 3: observation vs imagination vs experience

21:09–22:15

Marsden says that he writes slightly more from experience and observation than from imagination. His preference for writing realistic fiction forms the basis of this next activity.

Prepare students ahead of this lesson by asking them to brainstorm interesting stories that they have heard OR that have happened to them.

Set up your classroom for a doughnut activity:

1. Set up two concentric circles of chairs facing one another.
2. Have students sit opposite a partner. Instruct them to share their interesting stories and note down the key points that they hear.
3. After some time, at your signal, the outside circle will rotate a number of places clockwise.
4. Continue swapping stories and rotating places as many times as desired.

Afterwards, students will return to their notebooks and reflect on which story they found most interesting (and why).

Synthesising task

Students can write a short story that describes an aspect of their own culture or personal identity.

Version 9.0: (AC9E9LE01)   (AC9E9LE03)   (AC9E9LE06)   (AC9E9LY06)

Version 8.4: (ACELT1633)   (ACELT1773)   (ACELY1746)   (ACELT1634)   (ACELY1748)

Activity 4: the physical act of writing

07:06–08:10

Marsden’s texts often include the physical act of writing through letters, diaries or an urge to document experiences. In this part of the interview, he discusses ‘the posterity that writing offers’.

In pairs, students should read TWO excerpts from Marsden’s novels that demonstrate how he has used the physical act of writing. Options include Tomorrow, When the War Began, So Much to Tell You, and/or Letters from the Inside.

They can then respond to the following questions:

• What can we learn about the characters from a diary or letter that we cannot learn through plot development?
• What issues might there be with relying on letters or diaries to tell a story?
• What are the benefits of including letters or diaries in a story?

Synthesising task

Students will choose ONE of the following tasks to complete:

1. Create a character AND a set of circumstances that explain why they would need to resort to the physical act of writing in a story.
2. Create a character and, using the format of a diary entry, reveal something about their personality that may have otherwise been difficult to ascertain.
3. With a partner, create TWO characters who write to each other, and develop a storyline between them.

Version 9.0: (AC9E9LE06)

Version 8.4: (ACELT1638)   (ACELT1773)   (ACELY1748)

Activity 5: writers as ‘collectors of language’

12:10–14:55

Marsden talks at length about the importance of the writer keeping a collection of language fragments in their mind to provide inspiration for their work. This next activity stems from Marsden’s statements about the limitations of the English language.

You will need to prepare the following materials ahead of time:

• paint swatches from a local paint or hardware store (alternatively, refer to the Dulux, British Paints or Wattyl websites)
• a variety of magazines, newspapers, brochures, catalogues and other print material

First, in small groups, students should see how many words they can come up with to describe a range of emotions/feelings. You can then distribute the paint swatches and see if they can brainstorm descriptive names for the different colours.

Now direct students to look through the print material and collect examples of ‘beautiful fragments of language’. They should cut out or write down the examples for later use. They can also source fragments from famous quotations, advertising catchphrases, song lyrics, poetry, etc.

Activity 6: being a stingy writer

14:56–17:01

Marsden references George Orwell’s advice about editing in this section of the podcast. He also discusses the importance of knowing the rules and conventions of English in order to break them for effect.

Introduce students to the concept of pleonasms (the use of superfluous words or unnecessary repetitions). A good example comes from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), when Captain Barbossa gives a wordy response to Elizabeth Swann’s demand that he leaves Port Royal (it amounts to ‘no’).

Brainstorm a list of pleonasms on the whiteboard. Examples include:

• ATM machine (automatic teller machine machine)
• advance preview
• major breakthrough
• unsolved mystery

Instruct students to write a press release about an important matter at their school. The goal is to write as superfluously as possible to document the details of this matter.

When they are finished, students will swap their press release with a partner. They will read their partner’s work and try to ascertain what the matter at the school is. They will then rewrite the piece in simple and straightforward language.

Synthesising task

Have students compose a short poem using TEN of their favourite examples from the fragments of language they collected earlier.

Version 9.0: (AC9E9LA08)   (AC9E9LE06)   (AC9E9LY02)   (AC9E9LY06)

Version 8.4: (ACELT1773)   (ACELY1746)   (ACELA1561)   (ACELY1811)

Activity 7: writing without stopping

23:36–26:17

In discussing the process of writing his first novel, Marsden says that he spent so much time editing that he ‘never finished anything’. Students can see if the ‘writing without stopping’ approach is a strategy that might work with their own writing.

For this activity students will:

1. Film themselves telling a story without stopping – even if they make mistakes, keep going!
2. Watch the video back and jot down suggestions to improve the story (expression, plot, character traits, descriptive language, etc.).
3. Record the video again and swap it with a partner.
4. Watch their partner’s video and suggest which parts could be cut to improve the story, employing Marsden’s ruthless advice to ‘cut back all the time’.
5. Provide feedback for their partner’s consideration.

Culminating rich assessment task

This task is inspired by Marsden’s command of the English language, and his assertion that writers can use language to serve their motives, agendas and aims. He says:

[You need to see yourself as] a person who can make language do whatever you damn well want it to do … you are completely in charge when it comes to English. You can use verbs as adjectives, you can string 16 adjectives together in one long list, you can ignore all punctuation if it suits you to do so.

Taking inspiration from Marsden’s words, and the work they have undertaken throughout this unit, students will craft a piece of writing that experiments with and/or ignores the rules and conventions of the English language. Instead of following the ‘rules’ of composition, expression, grammar, punctuation, etc., they should consider them mere suggestions and take control of their writing to make it do ‘whatever they damn well want it to do’.

Task

Write a story OR communicate a message about a topic of your choice. Pick something you feel strongly about. Experiment with text types and play with dialogue and structure. You should aim to write 500–1,000 words.

Format

You may present your story/message in the format of your choice. Suggestions include:

You can also choose another format in consultation with your teacher.

Version 9.0: (AC9E9LE06)   (AC9E9LY06)

Version 8.4: (ACELT1638)   (ACELY1746)   (ACELY1748)   (ACELY1747)

Additional components

Your writing should be accompanied by an author’s statement of approximately 200 words. You should identify at least THREE techniques or conventions of English that you have ignored/experimented with, and explain why you chose to do so.

Version 9.0: (AC9E9LA03)   (AC9E9LE02)   (AC9E9LE04)

Version 8.4: (ACELA1553)   (ACELT1771)   (ACELT1636)

Success criteria

• Evidence of planning, drafting, and editing
• Clear evidence of straying from English language conventions
• Concise author’s statement explaining at least THREE techniques or conventions that have been ignored/experimented with