Using a scaffold for extended writing to compare texts
A scaffold is a framework or structure from which you can build
something. If you prepare a scaffold before you write, you have a solid
base to begin further planning of your response.
This scaffold shows the stages and organisation of a typical comparison
response. Each box represents a paragraph.
What new insights about a sense of belonging are shown in The China Coin and one other text?
How has the composer conveyed these new insights to the responder?
Put some ideas in each box to help you plan. The notes on the right are not complete. They provide some examples for you to see how to present your argument.
The words in bold are linking words.
IntroductionMention aspect(s) of belonging
Make a statement about how this aspect is represented in the set text and one other / A sense of belonging can emerge from relationships with people and places. When people experience a strong cultural connection to a place, their sense of belonging is strengthened. This can change over time. The novel TheChina Coin and poem ‘We are going’ both have strong cultural images and personal statements. These are revealed through the composers’ use of flashback, narrative voice and descriptive language.
Examples:
• The China Coin–point and elaboration
• Other text–point and elaboration
Language/text / Notes:
Leah arrives in China, feeling she does not belong, does not want to. Negative encounter.
‘I’ve never been to China before’. Internal monologue: ‘Couldn’t the woman see …’
Also in ‘We are going’ – negative experience to where they have belonged in the past and are now strangers. ‘we are as strangers here now’. Difference is, they have belonged.
Flashbacks, narrative voice, rhetorical questions, repetition, similes/metaphors:China = bowl of warm porridge/ thunder…that loud fellow etc
Examples 2:
• The China Coin–point and elaboration
• Other text–point and elaboration
Language/text / Notes:People
CC – mother, Jade, Ke, Li-Nan and their customs.
Students feel like strangers in China of old men. Similarly, the Aboriginal people of long ago, white men, estate agents, shadow-ghosts. Who are the strangers?
Flashbacks, repetitions
Examples 3:
• The China Coin–point and elaboration
• Other text–point and elaboration
Language/text / Notes: Places
CC – Chatswood, Shanghai, villages
Australia, bora ring, the Hill, the town
Unfamiliar at the time of writing. Just as the villages are new to Leah, the bora ground isunrecognisable. The Aboriginal people belong spiritually to the land (‘we are the wonder tales…, we are nature …’).
Oodgeroo Noonuccal describes how her people have been displaced and come back, using repetition of the word ‘gone’ to evoke the sadness of the loss they feel.
Both texts use descriptive adjectives and imagery: ‘Asians Go Home’ in Chatswood, student riots in Shanghai, and the rubbish tip in Australia.
Summary
Brief summary of points made
Final statement linking back to the introduction / As you can see, ideas about belonging can be played out in different ways. Poetry is precise with its images that are built up through repetition. Oodgeroo Noonuccal describes how her people have been displaced and come back.They belong spiritually to the land but now physically they do not belong. During her journey over six weeks, Leah slowly reveals through internal monologue (‘You’re not Chinese but you’re not not Chinese either … It doesn’t matter any more’ p158) how she is engaging with Chinese culture, gaining new insights about herself and becoming closer to her mother.By contrast, she is beginning to feel she belongs.
Belonging: The China Coin
© NSW DET 20081