Summary Of A Different Drum By Simon Tong

The teaching resource selected to support diverse literacy and language learning in a grade one classroom is a children’s book ‘I’m Australian Too’ written by Mem Fox and illustrated by Ronojoy Ghosh (Fox, M. (2017) ‘I’m Australian Too’ Australia; Scholastic Australia). The book is available for purchase both online and at ‘Readings’ stores in Hawthorn, Carlton, Malvern and St Kilda for $19.99. It can also be accessed as an audio copy from http://memfox.com/books/im-australian-too/. The book details all the multiple cultural identities that can be found across Australia. It poetically details that no matter where our families come from, or the hardships that may have faced, we can all find a home in Australia. The resource is useful in

This novel is a suitable text for a stage 4 class as it addresses a relevant and multicultural issue that students are able to relate to. It is an Australian novel that addresses two cross-curriculum priorities that are set out by the New South Wales Board of Studies (2012):

In the novel Bang the Drum Slowly, author Mark Harris tells the tale of two baseball players, Henry Wiggen and Bruce Pearson. Henry Wiggen, who also happens to be the story’s narrator, is the star pitcher for the fictitious New York Mammoths baseball team. Bruce Pearson, Henry’s roommate and the third-string catcher for the Mammoths, happens to be terminally ill. While the story of Bang the Drum Slowly is immersed in baseball, it is not a baseball story per se.

A world once filled with Asian friends and neighbors crashes harshly as Jin is left stranded in a white dominated school. Stereotypes and teasing are quickly placed on him from his racial background. Still new to the area, Jin presumes, “The only other Asian in my class was Suzy Nakamura. When the class finally figured out that we weren’t related, rumors began to circulate that Suzy and I were arranged to be married on her thirteenth birthday. We avoided each other as much as possible” (Yang 31). Embarrassment clouds Jin as he realizes that he’s not like the other kids in his class. With distinct features and his native tongue, Jin felt like a reject surrounded by his Caucasian classmates. He was entirely alone amongst his peers, and he didn’t like that one single bit. In this way, it’s clear how both Junior and Jin felt like outcasts in these two oceans of white students and teachers.

Charlie articulates how he “never understood why you would ever feel the need to shoot the fish in the barrel… (if) they’re in a barrel, you’ve already caught them… they can’t escape... why bring guns into it?” Silvey’s use of characterisation and first person point of view portrays Charlie’s realisation of the community’s racial prejudice towards ‘the other’. The “fish” is symbolic of Charlie and how he is different to the people of Corrigan; who are like vultures – constantly seeking the chance to attack those that are considered the ‘minority’. Charlie’s close friend, Jeffrey Lu, is a gifted and committed cricket player who persistently tries to get himself in the local team, however, due to his Vietnamese background, “he’s ruthlessly bullied and belted about by the boys at school.” The emotive imagery and alliteration of “bullied” and “belted” further depict Charlie’s internal conflict in addition to his realisation of the community’s racial prejudice towards the peripheral of society. The use of emotive imagery positions readers to realise the extent to which powerful words can have; causing readers to recognise how crude and harrowing humankind can be towards the marginalised. Thus, Silvey effectively conveys to the reader how the indigenous race were isolated from ‘white Australian’ society; how intelligent individuals were ostracised; and, how groups of people with racially different backgrounds were isolated from mainstream Australian society.

In the autobiographical short story “A Measure of Freedom” by Jade Snow Wong, Jade experiences many conflicts. But, there are two conflicts regarding her Chinese culture and the American culture and her teacher and herself that are very significant in the story. Through these two conflicts, Jade shows that she understands more about where her personal boundaries lie in comparison to her cultural boundaries; she also learns that to prove herself to others, she must stand up for herself and stick to what she believes is just.

On the other hand, Nguyen talks of the language difficulties that she experienced being a Vietnamese in the United States. At first, she is enrolled to a school far from home as it offers bilingual education to help her integrate with the system of learning. She works hard to raise her academic performance with hopes of falling in favor with the teacher. However, as the teacher knows her Vietnamese origin, she manifests her stereotype on Nguyen’s comprehension in literature readings. For instance, while it was her turn to read, the teacher would interrupt her making sentiments such as “you are reading too fast….things she did not do to other students” (Nguyen, 35). She also faces a “school-constructed identity” together with her sister with all sorts of jibes thrown against them. As Vollmer puts it, “such assumptions affect the interpretations made of student behavior and school

Migrants and immigrants are from a whole different world, although many authors in Growing up Asian in Australia were born in Australia and while their customs and traditions are seen as the norm to them they are seen as different by many Australians. These cultural traditions and practices are far from what the majority are used to and so are neither known nor understood. This result usually in people misunderstanding migrant’s individuality and can cause unfair exclusion. Governed was horrified when the school bully accused her of wiping her “butt with her hands” on the terms of her Indian background and as a result had to deal with constant teasing and taunts

Belonging is a complex, multi-faceted concept encompassing a wide range of different aspects. The need to belong to family and culture is a universal human need which provides a sense of value and emotional stability, and in many respects forges one’s identity. Alienation and disconnection often creates feelings of isolation, depression and loss of identity. A struggle with cultural identity is evident in Peter Skrzynecki’s poems ‘Migrant Hostel’ and ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’, where he examines a division between his pre-war Polish heritage and his newfound Australian way of life. The movement away from his European cultural heritage towards a more Australian identity created disorientation for Skrzynecki, and these feelings of disconnection

His day started in the worst way possible. As he entered class everyone called him a Chinese know it all. When he heard all the comments like math genius, he felt depressed and like the whole world was making fun of him. This boy’s name was Leo and he was an Asian-American. Leo was a victim of stereotyping.

Within the stories “Compatriots” by Emma Lee Warrior and “Traplines” by Eden Robinson, it is shown through further examination that both stories share similar concepts. Both stories demonstrate prominent examples of loss of Aboriginal culture, identity, and the use of stereotypes. Loss of Aboriginal Culture is shown throughout both stories, showing the lack of respect and love the characters in Compatriots and Traplines go through. In Compatriots, identity is a major factor the characters within the story deal with, as it touches about the question: What does it mean to be a true Aboriginal? In Traplines, the struggle to find one’s identity is shown throughout the main character Will, and his journey, as he finds it difficult to figure out where he belongs.

Ring~~~! (Silence…) Weeeeha! Followed by the signal of bell and the applause of students, a dozens of international students quickly gather outside the hallway like a swarm of bees. The school is over! As if college students just finish their final, the joy of going home is inexpressible. Getting excited to discuss about their next plan, they start off talking with an odd but familiar language, a language people could often hear but do not understand. It is Chinese. They go on murmuring about their activities after school while neglecting the people who are different from them. From an instructor’s perspective, they fear the language barriers as if they are trying to isolate themselves from the others, and therefore, continue to live within their own ethnic group. However, amongst the group of these international students, there is a shy, tiny teenage girl who hesitates to speak, as if she is trying to lead the conversation using another language, English. This is only her first year studying in a strange, new environment, but there she is, trying to adapt. She is someone special. People called her Cassandra, and she has

As we have seen in class, primary documents extend far beyond diaries and records of battles that fill dusty tomes, and everyday objects often provide a window through which historians can glimpse at life in the past and draw relevant conclusions. Whether it be a piece of eight that ties together social, political, and economic forces, or an astrolabe that unifies cultural and religious systems that are often pitted against each other, common objects often tell a story of their own. Rather than using a similar item, I chose to go through slave databases in an effort to find an object used by slaves, allowing me to get a sense of life through the eyes of those who often lacked the opportunity to record their experiences. The primary document I settled on was the “Talking Drum” from the “Asante of Ghana” (‘Talking Drum’, Understanding Slavery), since it was a cultural item from the African mainland, but served a variety of purposes on European plantations.

These words from Jae, an artist who I greatly admire, reverberate with me constantly. As a kid, I liked to follow the flow, and I despised the unusual, awkward kid in the group: the quiet girl that never did her homework, and the boy who seemed to come from a dumpster. That was until I became the different one. When I arrived in the United States at age eight, attending 3rd grade in Brooklyn, NY, and not even knowing the alphabet. I was relieved to find the majority of my peers in the school also spoke Chinese. Other students and many teachers offered me much assistance. But I struggled knowing that I would no longer be the high achiever and needed to depend on my classmates to get through the school day. It was a torture. On my first meeting with the bilingual ESL teacher, she commented that a snail would learn English quicker than I do. Instead of recognizing her comment as permission to go slow, as the young and naive kid, I let the comment shatter my confidence. So much for a new school, new friends, and a new language. And then, just when I thought nothing could be worse, I moved again.

Simon is an unkempt slouch, in his ‘extremely dirty tennis shirt’ whereas Sorel is much more conscious of her appearance and, as Coward states, is ‘more neatly dressed.’ Simon’s interest during the extract is preparing his cartridge paper for more drawing, while Sorel seems to know enough about literature to discern that the collection of poetry that she was given by her friend is no more than mediocre. Simon is situated in low culture, while she is situated in high culture. Furthermore, although it is not specified how far into adulthood either of them are, Simon is much more childish and immature, whereas Sorel seems to have this slightly more adult awareness. But their differences are not confined to their appearances or to the things with which they occupy themselves. The siblings each have different attitudes as to how they have been brought up, and they have clearly responded differently to whatever it was that they learned from their parents, if anything.