BELONGING AREA OF STUDY This slides and then slides 2, 8,9,10,11,12,13…originally appeared on a Karen Yager slideshow.

Belonging (and not belonging)

To this child… “Belonging” looks, feels and sounds like happiness! (Belonging can make you happy!) The text suggests that, on a personal level, a sense of belonging is important to a child’s sense of happiness. The childish handwriting, cutesy symbols and simple language suggest that the composer is a child. The repetition of the word “happy” implies that “everyone” belonging “together” makes the child feel happy and loved.

Monday period 1 (15 marks) – At least two set poems+ ONE related texts You will be assessed on your ability to: –demonstrate understanding of the concept of ‘belonging’ in the context of your study –analyse, explain and assess the ways ‘belonging’ is represented in a variety of texts –organise, develop and express ideas using language appropriate to audience, purpose and context

Area of Study The type of question you could be asked

Area of Study 2010 ‘An individual’s interaction with others and the world around them can enrich or limit their experience of belonging.’ Discuss this view with detailed reference to your prescribed text and ONE other related text of your own choosing. * person * solo * lone * solitary * person * solo * lone * solitary * conversation * meeting * discussion * participation * conversation * meeting * discussion * participation * group * partnership * community * an individual * group * partnership * community * an individual * stall * confine * restrain * control * stall * confine * restrain * control * environment * place * culture * atmosphere * environment * place * culture * atmosphere * fertilise * develop * polish * enhance * fertilise * develop * polish * enhance * moment * process * understanding * feeling * moment * process * understanding * feeling Association Attachment Acceptance Integration Closeness Rapport Fellowship Association Attachment Acceptance Integration Closeness Rapport Fellowship

Area of Study 2009 Understanding nourishes belonging... a lack of understanding prevents it. Demonstrate how your prescribed text and ONE other related text of your own choosing represent this interpretation of belonging. * knowledge * awareness * insight * empathy * knowledge * awareness * insight * empathy * nurture * sustain * promote * foster * nurture * sustain * promote * foster Association Attachment Acceptance Integration Closeness Rapport Fellowship Association Attachment Acceptance Integration Closeness Rapport Fellowship * ignorance * blindness * apathy * hard-heartedness * ignorance * blindness * apathy * hard-heartedness * halts * hinder * impedes * hamper * halts * hinder * impedes * hamper

Lines of Arguments  We spend our lives trying to belong to self, a place and others, not realising that it is our perceptions and attitudes that enable us to belong.  When we begin to understand the forces that drive us to belong we develop empathy for others and personal insight.  The simple act of unquestioning friendship and kindness nurtures the notion of belonging.  When individuals experience a strong connection to a place the notion of belonging is strengthened and enriched.

Texts of Own Choosing Choose texts that:  you are passionate aboutpassionate  Make strong connections with your prescribed text and theses (support and challenge)  Discuss with ease the textual features and details

Aspects of Belonging  Experiences  Relationships  Notions of identity  Acceptance  Understanding

Emily Dickinson  Experiences: The death of friends and family meant that she focused on loss and transience. She lived a reclusive life but she maintained a rich epistolary relationship with friends and mentors. When turning, hungry, lone, I looked in windows… It makes us think of all the dead That sauntered with us here,

Emily Dickinson  Relationships: An independent, free spirit who stated that her only real companions were the hills, the sundown and her dog, Carlo; influenced by a series of ‘masters’. Her compressed syntactical lyrics voice ideas of independence and individualism. Her half rhyme is discordant and disconcerting.

Emily Dickinson  Notions of identity: The lyrics are highly subjective conveying a strong awareness of self.  Acceptance: THIS is my letter to the world, that never wrote to me,- Although she conveys isolation she accepted her solitude. Estrangement and belonging paradoxically operate in her poetry: The next two lines in the poem express intimacy and remoteness  The simple News that Nature told – With tender Majesty

82 I had been hungry all the years. My noon had come to dine. I trembling drew the table near And touched the curious wine. 'T was this on tables I had seen When turning hungry, I looked in windows, for the wealth I could not hope to own. I did not know the ample bread, 'T was so unlike the crumb The birds and I had often shared In Nature's dining-room. The plenty hurt me, 't was so new,-- Myself felt ill and odd, As berry of a mountain bush Transplanted to the road. Nor was I hungry; so I found That hunger was a way Of persons outside windows, The entering takes away.

66 This is my letter to the world That never wrote to me, The simple news that nature told With tender majesty Her message is committed To hands I cannot see. For love of her, sweet countrymen, Judge tenderly of me.

127 A narrow fellow in the grass Occasionally rides. You may have met him - did you not? His notice sudden is. The grass divides as with a comb, A spotted shaft is seen, And then it closes at your feet And opens further on. He likes a boggy acre, A floor too cool for corn; Yet when a child, and barefoot, I more than once at noon Have passed, I thought, a whiplash Unbraiding in the sun; When, stooping to secure it, It wrinkled, and was gone. Several of nature's people I know, and they know me; I feel for them a transport Of cordiality, But never met this fellow, Attended or alone, Without a tighter breathing And zero at the bone.

161 What mystery pervades a well! That water lives so far -- A neighbor from another world Residing in a jar Whose limit none have ever seen, But just his lid of glass, Like looking every time you please In an abyss's face. The grass does not appear afraid. I often wonder he Can stand so close and look so bold At what is awe to me. Related somehow they may be, The sedge stands next the sea Where he is floorless And does no timidity betray. But nature is a stranger yet; The ones that cite her most Have never passed her haunted house Nor simplified her ghost. To pity those that know her not Is helped by the regret That those who know her know her less The nearer her they get.

83 I gave myself to him, And took himself for pay. The solemn contract of a life Was ratified this way. The wealth might disappoint, Myself a poorer prove Than this great purchaser suspect, The daily own of Love Depreciate the Vision; But till the merchant buy, Still fable in the Isles of Spice, The subtle cargoes lie. At least 'tis mutual risk, Some found it mutual gain, Sweet debt of life each night to owe, Insolvent every noon.

154 A word dropped careless on a page May stimulate an eye When folded in perpetual seam The wrinkled maker lie. Infection in the sentence breeds. We may inhale despair At distances of centuries From the malaria.

181 The saddest noise, the sweetest noise, The maddest noise that grows, The birds, they make it in the spring, At night's delicious close Between the March and April line, That magical frontier Beyond which summer hesitates, Almost too heavenly near. It makes us think of all the dead That sauntered with us here, By separation's sorcery Made cruelly more dear. It makes us think of what we had, And what we now deplore. We almost wish those siren throats Would go and sing no more. An ear can break a human heart As quickly as a spear, We wish the ear had not a heart So dangerously near