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Heywire: Woolly holiday

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Teenage girl sits at desk with computer and audio equipment
Heywire: Woolly holiday

SUBJECTS:  English

YEARS:  7–8


For Genevieve Wright, the first day of school holidays means heading to the shearing shed to spend a day of back-breaking work!

As you listen to her Heywire audio story, explore Genevieve's characterisation of herself. How does she reflect her personality through the descriptions of her actions and environment?

Could you write or record a similar story about yourself and/or your community?

The ABC's Heywire competition calls for stories from 16-22 year olds in regional Australia. Enter to get your story featured on the ABC and score an all-expenses-paid trip to the Heywire Regional Youth Summit in Canberra. More: https://www.abc.net.au/heywire/


Things to think about

  1. 1.Decide whether the following phrases show or tell information about character:
    • John loved ice-cream.
    • John gobbled the ice-cream greedily.
    • Amy was the first person on court, bouncing the ball excitedly.
    • Amy loved playing basketball.
    • Miki was an alien.
    • No matter how he tried to hide it, Miki's green skin and antennae did make him stand out in a crowd.
  2. 2.Find a piece of evidence from the story that shows us Genevieve is:
    • school-aged
    • an early morning riser
    • happy living on a farm
    • a very hard worker
    • responsible.
    • What jobs does Genevieve do in the shearing shed? What sort of place does the shearing shed seem to be? How does Genevieve feel about working there?
  3. 3.Describe Genevieve's character in your own words. What surprises you about her? Do you think she seems like a stereotypical teenager? Which sentences indicate that Genevieve knows what she is doing in the shearing shed? Which sentences tell you that she enjoys it?
  4. 4.Imagine that a cousin from the city arrives to spend the holidays with Genevieve. Write the next chapter of this story, relating the cousin's experiences on the farm. Think about the new character and how they might react to the setting. As you write, make sure you show, rather than describe, this character and how they feel.



Date of broadcast: 31 May 2013


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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