Liberate your words

Enter the competition online or find out more at bfm.

Gattaca resources

There are a number of online resources for Gattaca:

The Wikipedia entry (good for a starting point). Also see the Wikipedia entry for the NZ writer and director Andrew Niccol.

Rotten Tomatoes full listing of online reviews of the film. (Blocked by the School network nanny: please don't ask me why--read as many online reviews at home as you can!)

Emanuel Levy's review of the film in Variety.

A series of online clips at the Official Sony Pictures Gattaca site.

The entire screenplay by Andrew M. Niccol at the International Movie Script Database.

Richard Erlich has an interesting study guide for the film.

There are some discussion questions to help you consider some of the philosophical issues raised by the film over at Philosophical Films.

Hoot research questions

The Florida Burrowing Owl and Cottonmouth Water Moccasins are both featured in Hoot. Learn more about them by answering the following questions (warning: I'm doing the activity with you for the first time, so I also don't know the answers!). Write your answers in your exercise books and work in pairs.

Florida Burrowing Owls

A. What happened to Bobby the Burrowing Owl?
B. What is the size of an average Burrowing Owl?
C. What do volunteers in Florida do to help the Burrowing Owls?
D. List three places Burrowing Owls can be found.
E. List three things Burrowing Owls eat.

Cottonmouth Water Moccasins

F. What distinction (special fact) does the Cottonmouth have in North America?
G. How did the Cottonmouth get its name?
H. How does the Cottonmouth detect its warm blooded prey?

Go to this dictionary and find the definitions to these words:
A. environment (Choose definition 1 )
B. activism
C. conservation (Choose definition 2-B)

Forest Guardians

Find information on the Forest Guardians enviromental group which is based in Santa Fe.

B. List three states or areas that the Forest Guardians work to protect?.

C. Do you think a group like the Forest Guardians is worthwhile or a waste of time? Give your opinion with reasons.

Big Brother, Little Sister. Witi Ihimaera

Kia ora tatou



There's a number of interesting resources online for this story:

The National Library has a wonderful online version of the first 1974 print version of the story that includes a facsimile of the original publication (see image above).

There's also a list of other online works by Witi Ihimaera at the NZ Electronic Text Centre.

Witi Ihimaera also has a page over at The Book Council.

Image source: The National Library.

Your shoes. Michèle Roberts

Michèle Roberts.

Dear students

Your home work due on Friday 7 March is to answer the following questions on 'Your Shoes' by Michèle Roberts. You can use any notes you have taken during our class discussions. for each of the following questions write a substantial paragraph:

• Do you feel any sympathy for the narrator as you read the story?
• How far does the narrator reveal why her daughter might have left?
• How much do we learn from
  • what she tells us directly?
  • what we find out indirectly (things she doesn't tell us)?
• Does the narrator say any things that you think are mistaken?

If you want to revise 'Your Shoes' then the TeachIt online Study Guide is a good place to start. Teach It also provides a PDF with further discussion questions for you to consider. There's also an entry on Michèle Roberts over at Contemporary Writers.

Image source: BBC World.