2015; My Year in Reading

I found myself making a lot more time for reading in 2015. In full disclosure, a large percentage of these books were graphic novels, but in my defence I'm an English teacher and we teach that literacy is multi-modal and beyond notions of high and low culture - so it's all reading, baby.

Here's the BIG LIST of 81 books.

Is History Fiction? by Ann Curthoys and John Docker

I read this on recommendation from my principal, Lisette Gorick, as I was teaching History Extension for the first time about a year ago. It turned out to be a brilliant way into historiography for my students, with an accessible overview of many of the controversies that pepper the discipline of History. 

Sex Criminals (Volume 1) by Matt Fraction and Chip Zadarsky
Rocket Girl (Volume 1) by Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder
Dragon in the Land of Snows by Tsering Shakya

 
Little White Duck by Na Liu and Andrew Vera Martinez
This relatively short graphic novel is both memoir and history lesson, giving a child's perspective of China's Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and '70s. We've used extracts from it at my school for both Year 10 History and Senior Standard English. I think the text in its entirety would make a great Asian Perspective study for either Stage 4 or 5 English.

The Aztec Empire by Shannon, Beevor and Miles
Saga (Volume 1) by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Saga (Volume 2) by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

The Conquest of Mexico by Hugh Thomas 

Another text I read in preparation for teaching History Extension. This massive 700+ page chronicle gives an exhaustive and lively account of the conquistador Cortes' devastating campaign through 16th Century Mexico. I read a few history books about the conquest/colonisation/disovery of Mexico after this but Thomas' version probably remains my go-to narrative about what happened in the New World when Cortes met the Aztecs. A very readable history book.

Saga (Volume 3) by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
The Conquistadors by Innes Hammond
A Brief History of Mexico by Lynn V. Foster
V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
Billed as the 'Australian To Kill a Mockingbird', Craig Silvey's tour de force young adult novel encapsulates so much about Australian identity and its more problematic nuances that it's hard not to consider it even more relevant that Harper Lee's iconic work. I read this so I could teach it to Year 10 in 2015, and it turned out to be a really engaging choice of class text, with lots of discussion from the students.

Tenochtitlan by Samuel Willard Crompton
Empire of the Aztecs by Barbara A. Sommerville
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartoleme de las Casas
Doctor Who: The Hunters of the Burning Stone by Tom Spilsbury and Scott Gray

Safari Honeymoon by Jesse Jacobs

I loved this little graphic novel immensely. It's written and illustrated by one of the animators behind Adventure Time but is (unbelievably) even more twisted and surreal than the cult TV series. 

Batman: The Man Who Laughs by Ed Brubaker and Doug Mahnke
Pachyderme by Frederick Peeters
Saga (Volume 4) by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Chew (Volume 1) by John Layman and Rob Guillory

Lots of people talk DC vs. Marvel when it comes to comics but I found myself increasingly drawn to the Image branding in 2015 with more askew and self-contained titles like Chew. This police procedural action-comedy follows the investigations of Tony Chu, a Cibopath (someone who can tell the personal history of something by eating it) who works for the Food and Drug Administration. Fun and tasty.

Gifted and Talented by Gary A. Davis and Sylvia B. Rimm
Y The Last Man (Volume 1) by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra
Awkward and Definition by Ariel Schrag
In Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wan
Sex Criminals (Volume 2) by Matt Fraction and Chip Zadarsky
Chew (Volume 2) by John Layman and Rob Guillory

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Yep, I finally gave in and started reading the books. And they're really good. So there you go.
 
Y The Last Man (Volume 2) by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra
Potential by Ariel Schrag
Y The Last Man (Volume 3) by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra
Doctor Who: The Cruel Sea by Scott Gray and Gareth Roberts
A Body Beneath by Michael DeForge

Aama (Volume 1) by Frederick Peeters
I fell in love with this ambitious French sci-fi comic almost immediately. The imagery is arresting and slightly disturbing, and there's something unmistakenly European about it that I can't quite put my finger on. 

Assessment of Giftedness by Julie Lamb Milligen
Maus by Art Spielgelman
Aama (Volume 2) by Frederick Peeters
Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
 

Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann

The title is very apt. I avoided this graphic novel for a while because I'm kind of over all of that bubblegum-gothic fairy-tale stuff that Tim Burton has spun into millions of dollars, but I shouldn't have been so discriminatory. This comic is fantastically cute and dark without falling prey to cliche or  bland familiarity.

Y The Last Man (Volume 4) by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra
Chew (Volume 3) by John Layman and Rob Guillory

Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba
Divergent by Veronica Roth

Superfreakonomics by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt
I love this stuff. Fascinating use of economic theory and statistical analysis to shine a light on just about everything. 

Looking for Alaska by John Green
A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow by George R. R. Martin
Aama (Volume 3) by Frederick Peeters

Revival (Volume 1) by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton
Rural noir meets the undead in this tightly-plotted small town horror-drama. Vivid imagery and memorably complex characters. I read the first 5 volumes in quick succession and can't wait to read the rest.

The Madness of Cambyses by Herodotus
Blue by Pat Grant
The Rainbow Orchid by Garen Ewing
Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Blankets by Craig Thompson

I'm late to the party on this one but I couldn't immerse myself in the world of comics in 2015 without looking at some of the 'canon' titles. A lot has been written about Blankets over the years so there's not much I can really say that hasn't already been said other than that I found it startlingly beautiful and affecting. 

Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley
A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold by George R. R. Martin
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Sex (Volume 1) by Joe Casey

Tibet, Tibet by Patrick French

I read this while researching a Modern History unit on Tibet and found it really interesting. Journalist Patrick French smuggled himself into Tibet to get closer to the country's troubled history and manages to expose some of China's more outrageous and shocking Tibetan policies.

Mao and the Chinese Revolution by Yves Chevrier
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Heminway
Y The Last Man (Volume 5) by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra

Building Stories by Chris Ware

If I had to pick a 'best' read of the last year I would, without a doubt, pick this genre and medium-defying 'comic' Building Stories. It's broken up into many parts in several different formats, which are kept in a box and can be read in any order. I interpreted the guide on the back of the box as instructions that indicated where in the house each part should be read (EG. This part in the lounge room, this one while standing at your kitchen bench, etc). As a result, it was a unique reading experience. It also helped that I found the narrative to be thought-provoking, compelling and emotionally gutting. Really worth checking out!

A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin 
Saga (Volume 5) by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Chew (Volume 5) by John Layman and Rob Guillory
Revival (Volume 2) by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton
Revival (Volume 3) by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton

Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
Kaling was hilarious in The Office, and has managed to defy several of the more despicable and conservative conventions of the American sitcom in her own show, The Mindy Project. Like her TV work, this memoir is equal parts hilarious and intelligent.

The Bolshevik Revolution (Volume 2) by E. H. Carr
Likewise by Ariel Schrag
Revival (Volume 4) by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Stalin and Kruschew: The USSR, 1924-64 by Michael Lynch

The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil by Stephen Collins
A brilliantly unique, one-of-a-kind fable about modern life and conformity. This graphic novel would be a great English text for a number of modes and grades.

Doctor Who: The Blood of Azrael by Scott Gray and Mike CollinsThe Killing of History by Keith Windschuttle
Revival (Volume 5) by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton
Chew (Volume 5) by John Layman and Rob Guillory

And that's it. Phew! 'Twas a good year. Roll on 2016. 

Socratic Circles in the Classroom

Socratic Circle configuration

Back in 2009, when Susan Boyle had the biggest selling album in the world and Australia was 4 Prime Ministers younger, I was undertaking my Master of Teaching and learning about all the ways I could engage students in their learning. A lot of this stuff was particular to my English method but one thing that transcended the subject area was Socratic Seminars.

The Socratic Seminar is a social method of teaching in which discussion and listening are used to prompt students in their critical engagement with a text or issue. Back at university I didn't really want to sit in on this activity and argue with a bunch of strangers, but it actually turned out to be a really useful way to articulate ideas and had just the right amount of structure to keep things civilised and relevant.

I filed this lesson away and didn't really think about it for a few years. I learned how to teach and had a great journey in discovering my vocation as an educator (that's a whole other story) but during those beginning years I always remembered the circles used in the Socratic Seminar. I remembered how different it was to structure a discussion in this way, but I wasn't game to try it in a classroom. As any teacher knows, those first few years of teaching are mostly about behaviour management. I tried plenty of new ideas (technically, everything was new to me at that point) but I held off on some of the more experimental things whilst I built up my organisation and administration skills.

Fast-forward to 2015, and by this point I'm making it a thing to always try something completely new with each class every term. For my Year 10 English class in Term 2 I decided it was time to introduce the Socratic Circles. I will note at this point that my current Year 10 class is impeccably behaved (thus why I was game to give the circles a try with this particular class).

I picked last period on a Thursday, when I knew the kids would be tired and not all that enthused about writing, and had them walk into a reconfigured room where all the chairs were arranged into two concentric circles. Here's how the lesson ran:

1. Half of the class are instructed to sit in the middle circle, whilst the other half sit in the outer circle.

2. I introduce a question, in this case it was: To what extent was Lady Macbeth to blame for the events in Shakespeare's Macbeth?

3. The inner circle are told to give each other their views. The outer circle's job is to listen only; they are forbidden to speak or interact.

4. After some time has passed, the circles are swapped and the discussion is allowed to continue. Only the inner circle may speak.

5. This process is repeated as many times as the arguments allow for, and new questions can be introduced by the teacher at any point.

The teacher's job is to moderate the circles and judge when a question has run out of steam. I was lucky with the Macbeth question because my students really ran with it and spent a whole 40 minutes passionately arguing about it. It helped that the question itself is something that scholars have argued over for hundreds of years, and the newness of the activity probably had something to do with the enthusiasm of the students but, suffice to say, it was a hit with my kids.

Since then, I've had Socratic Circle lessons with this class about twice a term. I think it works really well for a number of reason:

• Not all students do their best work in the form of writing. By giving students the opportunity to demonstrate their learning in alternative ways, it empowers those with speaking skills.
• Also, as any English teacher knows, the mode of Listening is one of the key areas that we have to assess on from Grades 7-12. Aside from asking students to answer comprehension questions about audio texts, or having students interview each other, there are precious few other ways to involve listening as a primary skill in an activity without it feeling tokenistic. The role of the outer circle in Socratic Seminars is therefore quite a useful way for students to practice the skill of gathering information through active listening.
• Even the best students get tired of reading or writing all the time. The use of a Socratic Seminar as a way to build critical engagement is often something that many students will gladly get on board on with.
• Probably most important of all is the fact that all students need to speak in this activity. I've observed many of my shyest students passionately defend a viewpoint in the inner circle, feeling more comfortable about speaking in this half-class environment than a regular whole class setup. 
• I think it also helps if the teacher is not involved in the discussion beyond the odd interjected question, as it forces the students to take control and move their own thoughts to centrestage.

During Term 3, I used the Socratic Seminar to have Year 10 grapple with several questions related to the text Jasper Jones, especially in regards to the roles of sport and intellectualism in Australian culture. Some of the ideas the students discussed were incredibly sophisticated and insightful, and I have no doubt in my mind that this assisted them with their essay responses later in the term.

More recently I also opened the circles up to a range of current affairs to help broaden the argumentation and elaboration skills of the students. Some of the questions I threw into the circle were:

- Is Australia's policy to 'stop the boats' fair?

- What makes someone Australian?

- Has technology changed society for better or worse?

- Why are movies better than books?

And here are some choice snippets I quickly jotted down from the discussions that ensued.

"Don't you think that everyone in the world should get access to better health before we get a new iPhone?" - Rory

"Movies aren't better than books because they're a group activity; you don't get to have your imagination of what is happening" - Elleece

"We're the last generation of sanity" - Mel (on iPhones becoming too invasive)

"Using computers to research things dumbs down our ability to use books for the same purpose" - Kodee

"You don't have a certificate to say you're human or a person, so why should you have one to say you're Australian?" - Elleece

Next year, if I get the chance to continue using the circles, I plan to have the outer circle start making notes to help them focus on the inner circle's discussion a bit more. This can hopefully be built into lessons as a way to generate ideas and continue fostering a healthy atmosphere of open discussion that's focused on curriculum.

Off With Their Heads!

Whenever I hear that phrase, I think of it as "orrrf with there 'eads!".

Here you shall find the resources that were presented by Kira Bryant and myself at the 2015 ETA Conference which, as you can see, had an Alice's Adventures in Wonderland theme.

They deal with using grammar to improve student writing. Sounds dry, right? Wrong! We've both found this stuff to be really empowering for our students within the classroom. 

This is the PowerPoint Presentation.

And here are the activity sheets.

Enjoy!

All Power to the Soviet

"The French Revolution had guillotined its enemies; the proletarian revolution would compel them to work for it" - E. H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution Volume 2, 1952

When I started teaching the HSC National Study 'Russia and the Soviet Union 1917-1941' (otherwise known by the equally uninteresting name of 'Option G') there was one thing that really bothered me. I understood that Lenin and Trotsky had wrestled power from the Provisional Government to create the world's first communist state, and I understood how they had achieved this by appealing to the masses and using the Kornilov Affair to their advantage. But what I didn't understand was how they physically changed Russia from a burgeoning capitalist Euro-state into something completely new and different. 

How was it done? Russia is a big place, how exactly do you suddenly convert all those factories and businesses into socialist organs of the state? Russia had just been through the crippling autocratic reign of the Tsar, two revolutions, and a horrendous war with Germany - Lenin was not exactly flush with the resources or manpower to achieve his communist dream. So how on Earth did he actually make it happen?

I picked up the above book by Carr in a secondhand bookstore. It's brown and smells like decay in that way that all old, unloved books smell, but it's also by E. H. Carr, who factors quite significantly into the History Extension course (which I also teach) so I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by reading it. It's a fairly dry text in every sense of the word but the content also went a long way in explaining how the Russian economy worked, and how it bent to the will to historical forces and people. 

Just what I was after!

Carr grapples with the problem of which came first (the big events of Russian history or the economic conditions?) and manages to illuminate this conundrum as much as possible by refusing to pick an order of cause and effect. Instead he alternates back and forth between the two, arguing that the economy both informed the big events and was also shaped by them. He believes that they're inextricably tied together. 

As I read Carr's treatise on this subject I quickly became conscious of the fact that there would be very little in this book that I could explicitly use with my Year 12 Modern History class. It's just too complex, and the last thing I want to do is bore or confuse them.

However, I have no qualms at all about boring or confusing YOU, the internet reader and possible fellow teacher. So here's a bit of context about Marxism before I talk about Russia, c. 1917:

Karl Marx = not Santa Claus

A Crash Course in Marxism

• Karl Marx and his good ol' buddy Engels believed that society would always organise itself in a way that would make the best use of resources. There's a belief out there that communism is something that exists as an alternative to capitalism, but that isn't strictly what Marx was suggesting when he formulated his theory. Marx believed that communism was the future in the most literal sense. He saw capitalism as a necessary step towards communism; and capitalism was merely the stage of a society's development that took place after feudalism.

• Here's a better way of thinking about it. First, a society organises itself into a feudal state so that the land-owning aristocracy can make the best possible use of a country's resources. Then, a middle class emerges - the bourgeoisie - and their amassing of capital wealth (as opposed to land wealth) gives them the means to take power from the aristocracy. This changes the society from a feudal one into a capitalist one. The bourgeoisie then better organise resources by using their extensive capital wealth to motivate the lower class - the proletariat - in going to work for them. Eventually the proletariat will realise that the real power resides with them, and the resources of the society can be spread more equitably by the ousting of the bourgeoisie class. This changes the society from a capitalist one into a socialist one. The next, and final stage, is the removal of the instruments of government - a conversion from a working class-run capitalist society into a communist society. A society that essentially runs itself through the equitable allocation of its resources.

• Or; Feudalism (aristocracy, bourgeoisie, proletariat) becomes > Capitalism (bourgeoisie, proletariat) becomes > Communism (proletariat). 

•  Marx had several rules that would help the proletariat in manifesting their power - common sense things like the abolition of child labour, free education for everyone, equal obligation to work, abolition of inheritance... then there were the harder to sell ideas of abolition of private property, state ownership of factories, and state-controlled media/communication channels.

• Once the theoretical Marxist society had re-organised itself accordingly, the perfectly functioning economy that would result from all this equitable re-distribution of wealth would render the concept of a 'state' useless. No more government. No more nations. No more borders. So that's what John Lennon was on about!

I placed this image in the centre, but maybe it should've been placed to the left.

The 1917 Revolution

Back to Russia 1917; the new Russian middle class had teamed up with the proletariat to depose their 19th century tyrant, the oddly mild-mannered but wholly ineffectual Nicholas Romanov II. This in itself wasn't that unusual. A rather 'soft' industrial revolution had moved the British middle class into co-power with their aristocracy in the 1850s, and the French had formed a democratic republic before that with more than a few dropped blades. However, what was different with Russia was that the working class and peasantry had Marxist-educated representatives who were eager to skip the capitalist stage as quickly as possible now that their Tsar had been de-throned.

Lenin spake, "We want the peasantry to go further than the bourgeoisie and seize the land from the land-owners".

What's worth noting is that there were essentially two revolutions happening in Russia at the same time. The peasants had revolted against the land-owning aristocracy, whilst the workers (and socialists) were rallying against a bourgeoisie/capitalist paradigm. The two had become bedfellows in the face of the Tsar's corrupt autocracy, but their views weren't always compatible.

In relation to this, a curious situation had arisen in post-Tsarist Russia. Two governments were in operation. The official one was the Provisional Government - a democratic and largely bourgeoisie organ that had developed from the Duma, the Tsar's previous and thoroughly unpopular attempts at reasonable governance. The other government was the Petrograd Soviet, which was a loose conglomeration of socialist groups and workers' unions. An uneasy alliance had developed between the two out of necessity but neither was in any fit state to run the country on their own. In fact, even whilst working together they weren't doing that great a job of it.

Then Lenin arrived on the scene, fresh from exile and political imprisonment, and Trotsky came back in from the wilderness to put aside his problems with the factionalism that had previously been occurring within the Russian Socialist party. Together they bloodlessly removed the Provisional Government (a fascinating story for another day) and set up a Bolshevik Government in its place.

One of the many problems of the Provisional Government was that they had no ideological motivation to re-organise Russia's resources in order to feed the starving Russian people. The factories in the Russian cities were still too closely tied to the bourgeoisie, so the Provisional Government was not willing to shake things up too much by forcibly moving resources away from the 'haves' to the 'have nots'. Instead, Kerensky's government suggested that the peasants come to a 'voluntary agreement with their landlords' in regards to food and land.

A voluntary agreement?! "Can we please have some food for free?" When has that ever worked?

The Bolsheviks were the only group to give their blessing to the peasants in regards to seizing land for themselves. Lenin put out word that all private property in land was to be abolished and placed at the disposal of the peasants (the only group he considered off-limits were the Cossacks, he said they could keep their land - a  shrewd political move that kept their muscle on his side). A further caveat was that every man was only entitled to as much land as he could work, and as much as could feed his family.

Articles 3 of Lenin's new laws; "The right to use the land belongs to him who cultivates it with his own labour".

Alongside this was a call for the workers to take control of the factories, a necessity that would draw resources and money into the control of the state.

Making Things Happen

But how did he enforce this? Much has been said of Lenin having very little power to actually make this happen... all he could do is suggest it and give the new Bolshevik Government's blessing, and hope that the peasants and workers would do the rest.

Well, one thing that Carr's book sheds light on is the role of the trade unions. They assisted in keeping order during this messy and chaotic transition process. The Soviets were more powerful than the trade unions because they had soldiers, but an alliance was still needed in order to organise the factories and the workers As you could imagine there were a lot of problems during this stage, and here are some examples:

• A series of button factories were sabotaged by the former manager who had been kicked out by the workers (he was sent to a labour camp for his troubles). 
• Some workers, once they had control of their factories, sold off all the equipment and stock for their own financial gain (I guess it had yet to be impressed upon them that capitalism in Russia was soon to be over).
• Some workers kicked out their managers and then later had to beg them to come back in order to help run the factories (this is communism in action - Marx postulated that the bourgeoisie and proletariat would eventually merge into one larger proletariat class under the new socialist model of society). 

Some communists (both at the time and in hindsight) argued that this chaos was necessary, that destroying the economy was actually part of the communist process. The workers were (unknowingly) 'smashing the economic machine' and therefore allowing for the state to be rebuilt as a socialist utopia.

Of course, as you and I know, there would never be any such utopia for Russia. Lenin's early death, Trotsky's exile from Russia, the rise of Stalin... any number of factors could be blamed, but the point remains that Russia's sheer size, string of historical tragedies, and dearth of social happiness perhaps made it impossible for such a communist paradise to ever be achieved.

Lenin felt that a state-run form of capitalism would easily supersede the form of capitalism that had arisen towards the end of the Tsar's reign. This would provide a transition phase before moving towards collectivisation; the process in which huge communal farms would become the building block for a socialist Russia.

This more 'fair dinkum' version of communism never happened during Lenin's lifetime, but Stalin would eventually have his own crack at collectivisation after disposing of nearly every other revolutionary in the 1920s communist government.

It could therefore be argued that communist Russia never really materialised under Lenin. Many have pointed to the New Economic Policy that emerged in the early 1920s as a step backwards towards capitalism, but Lenin knew he had to generate some wealth in order to nurse Russia back to health after all the damage wreaked by the Tsar, World War I, the 1917 Revolution, and the Russian Civil War. This would also buy him more time to continue the extensive reforms that were rapidly transforming the country's economy.

A New Vision for Russia

The shift from a feudal state through a capitalist one into a communist nation in just the space of a few years is incredible and astounding, especially in a country as huge as Russia. So, here is how Carr says that Lenin managed to achieve this:

1. Nationalisation of all of Russia's banks into one state-run bank. The banks responded to this by refusing to open, or to only open their doors for a few hours a day, and to give no credit. The Bolsheviks threatened imprisonment and sent soldiers to the banks, but the banks called their bluff and the boycott continued. Eventually, Lenin confiscated all their gold and bullion. After the Civil War then came and went, the banks were in so much disarray that it was quite easy for a centralised money-lending institution to be installed. 
2. Nationalisation of trade syndicates. Lenin took control of the country's big resources - sugar, iron, coal, oil - things like that. The syndicates were evidently less bourgeois than the banks as they rolled over a lot more easily.
3. Establishment of state monopolies in place of capitalist ones. This was easy once Lenin had control of the banks and all their cash.
4. Forced unification of smaller enterprises. A step towards collectivisation that sounded easier to achieve than the great melding of the farms. I'm not sure if this one was all that successful either but perhaps there was a trickle-down effect from Lenin's seizure of the trade syndicates.
5. Abolition of commercial secrecy. A nice thought.
6. Nationalisation of the factories. Fun fact: when Lenin and his Soviets sent out representatives to nationalise industry in rural areas like Turkestan, they found that it had already been done by the workers and peasants. Approximately half of all Russia nationalised on its own without direct intervention. How's that for the power of an idea?
7. Regulation of consumption. This was achieved through rationing. Once the Civil War started this was facilitated by special rural soviets of 25 peasants each, who would requisition grain from farms on behalf of the state. Prior to this, the Bolshevik government attempted to scapegoat 'bagmen' - semi-mythical capitalist pigs who exploited the countryside by buying up food and reselling it at an exorbitant price - and issued a decree that any such criminals would be shot. There is limited evidence that such men ever existed during the famine. 

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk had seen a lot of Russia's more lucrative industry ceded to Germany. This prompted a lot of German interest in Russia's commercial branches, and, after large slabs of the Ukraine had been absorbed by Germany, the Kaiser's businessmen began buying up more Russian factories on a large scale. There was a lot of worry in Russia that Germany's influence would make possible an economic invasion far more devastating than the war had been, so this prompted much quicker nationalisation of industry then would normally have been possible. It also didn't help that Russia was now also being blockaded by the Allies for making peace with Germany, so (as a result) by 1918 nearly all industries had been declared property of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic - with very little resistance.

The next step in Lenin's state-run economy was for equal distribution of wages. In Lenin's words, "he that does not work, neither shall he eat". Under socialist policy this meant equal wages to all. The salary of commissars was limited, so in this system even Lenin earned a wage that was just comparable to a skilled factory worker. It soon became apparent, however, that this idea was very hard to put into practice as a fixed rate of productivity was needed in order to guarantee everybody the same wage. And how do you regulate an industry that was, in the words of some, being 'smashed' for the benefit of tearing down the old order?

So, as you can see, the Bolshevik Government did manage to enact some kind of widespread economic change in the years that immediately followed the 1917 Revolution. Different elements were either exacerbated or lubricated by the brutal chaos of the Civil War that ravaged Russia between 1918 and 1921, and nearly all of it had been radically changed by the time of Lenin's death in 1924. 

Where things went from here were entirely up to one seemingly innocuous Georgian pen-pusher, Josef Stalin...

The Rise of China: Lesson 7

Well, here we are, at the end of a metaphorical silk road with the final lesson in my unit on 20th century China. At the beginning of the unit we looked at China circa 1900 in order to get a baseline before looking at how Mao impacted on the country between the 1950s and 1976. Over the last few lessons the students had a selected tour of the Cultural Revolution to get an idea of how Chinese society changed under the Chairman's influence, so now it makes sense to look at what came afterwards and how China reacted to Mao's passing. This final lesson looks at his successor, Deng Xiaoping, and how he assessed Mao's time and instigated various reforms.

The focus question here is Who is Deng Xiaoping and What Did He Do for China?

Step 1

Students are given a prediction activity on a slip of paper (Resource 7-1) that features a list of modal statements suggesting possible evaluations of China. On this paper they are asked to tick the things that they agree with. It should help them focus on the lesson at hand; they're required to think about what they're going to read and what they've already read. And once the students have read the text (featured in the next step) they then go back and tick which of the statements the author of the text agreed with.

Step 2

Students read Resource 7-2, an information sheet about Deng Xiaoping, which asks them to unpack (or decode) some of the trickier noun groups. It's another kind of vocabulary / comprehension activity that will help students achieve confidence when reading. It also gets them to think about what they're reading a little more - building up their concept of connotation and how noun groups can construct specific meanings that supersede the meanings of the individual words. 

Afterwards, there's some more traditional questions about source reliability that should hopefully be a bit easier for the students now that they've worked through the grammar of the text in a bit of detail. 

Step 3

If there's time left over at the end, ask the students to identify text chains in the text. They should already be able to do this from the earlier lesson on text chains, but it could also be done as a whole class activity with teacher modelling of examples on the board. This is always a useful activity because it explicitly shows students how to create a 'whole text' level of meaning rather than just word or sentence-level meaning.

Links to resources:
Resource 7-1: Prediction
Resource 7-2: Deng Xiaoping

And that brings us to the end of the unit. 

You'll note the absence of an assessment task from this program. I have one, it's a source analysis examination with an extended question on Mao's impact, but I'm not going to put it up on the blog because... well, that's probably just asking for trouble. Imagine if students found this blog and downloaded the assessment task before they had to sit it? I mean, it would show initiative and great organisational skills, but those aren't the things I want to assess.

The Rise of China: Lesson 6

This is the second last lesson in The Rise of China sequence and, as such, it starts off with an overview of some key points that can assist students for the upcoming assessment task. The rest of the lesson focuses A) Deepening student knowledge of the points covered in the overview, and B) Building up monitoring and decoding skills for use in source analysis. 

Anyway, here's the lesson itself...

Step 1

Project Resource 6-1 onto the white board and have students copy the mind map into their books so that they have some background knowledge on Chinese society (1958-1976) that they can use as study notes. 

Step 2

Following on from Step 1, students are to work on deepening their knowledge of Chinese society further by selecting a text from a wide reading set (Resources 6-3 and 6-4). I know two texts isn't really that 'wide', but in the class room I also include two other extracts gleamed from the excellent comic Little White Duck. I don't want to flagrantly break copyright law by scanning it and putting it up for download so I'll instead recommend that you purchase this comic for yourself as a class set.

Step 3

Students use Resource 6-2, a schema sheet that scaffolds deconstruction of sources, to analyse their selected text. This sheet asks a series of questions that assist the student in identifying tricky vocabulary and making sense of it, and then directs the student to drill down into the content of the source by categorising the words and evaluating their usage. 

This activity pulls in various elements from throughout the unit in order to combine the array of previously-taught skills into a literacy-based approach to source analysis. The hope would be that (as this is the penultimate lesson) students would complete this unit with a new understanding of how to decode sources and comprehend increasingly difficult text.

Links to resources
Resource 6-1: Chinese Society
Resource 6-2: Using Sources
Resource 6-3: Text #1 'Mao the Unknown Story'
Resource 6-4: Text #2 'Prisoner of Mao'

Beautiful Blueback Bunting!

Buntmania!

For the last couple of years I've been wanting to get some bunting happening in my class room. Secondary to this was finding something to feature on said bunting, and I guess the two finally clicked together this year whilst I was teaching Tim Winton's Blueback to my Year 7 class. 

Last year I did an activity with a Year 7 class where each student created a single card that visually represented one of Blueback's chapters. Prior to this, I had taught them how to summarise chapters and had them colour these summaries with a highlighter so that we would be able to easily find them in their books afterwards. This way, the students could combine their own summary with an image that represents the chapter. It worked well, and the final product looked good - a complete pictorial guide to Blueback, courtesy of the students.

Last year's group

This year I repeated the activity but instead changed the format to large triangles rather than rectangles. Huzzah - bunting!

Putting it in order

Getting there

Putting it all together on a piece of string was a little challenging for me, especially in the 35 degree afternoon heat that had swelled up in my room after a long school day, but I eventually managed to get it all hung up on the wall. 

Done!

I'm pretty happy with it, and the kids were chuffed to see it too.

The Rise of China: Lesson 5

As this unit focuses on China's modernisation during the 20th Century, it makes sense for the Cultural Revolution to be viewed as the linchpin of this era. It therefore felt worthwhile to spend another lesson on this time period, one that was partially reliant on the previous lesson's content.

The main purpose of this lesson was that I wanted to try my hand at a 'floorstorm' activity, something that I picked up from Joanne Rossbridge and the Grammar and Teaching Course she conducts with Kathy Rushton. At first glance, a floorstorm is a slightly complicated-looking series of steps that students undertake with an array of resources. On the plus side though, it should roughly take an entire 1 hour lesson, and works as a scaffold to assist students in constructing their own paragraphs about a subject they are currently immersed in.

Step 1

Verbally prime the students for the lesson by asking them what they can tell you about the Cultural Revolution from the previous lesson. Ask them how they know this. This could be done as a discussion or a mind map.

Step 2

Use Resource 5-1 (or copies of the pictures at the bottom of this blog) to create several 7-picture photo sets. Students are to work in groups of 3-5 with a set of photos for each group, and come up with a list of words that could be associated with the pictures. Give each group some post-it notes to write these words on.

Step 3

Groups classify words into a table using Resource 5-2. They choose/create the categories they want to use to classify the words. It's important that the students come up with these categories themselves as taxonomy-building is an important literacy skill that links with student grammar development. It forces the students to think about the purpose of the words they've just come up with - whether they separate them by function (verbs, nouns, adjectives), or by content (people, places, events) or some other way of their own making.    

Step 4

Reveal the title of the photo set to the students as 'Public Struggle Sessions'. Using this clue, students are to then tick the words that they think will be in an unseen text about these photos. This incorporation of a prediction activity fits in with the Super 6 Comprehension Strategies and also directs the students in further building a lexicon to work with in regards to the subject of 20th Century China.

Make a list on the board from the class' suggestions (this may help students who have been struggling up until this point - it's important to have these checkpoints where these students can 'opt in' to the lesson so that you avoid a full hour's worth of disengagement)

Step 5

Teacher reads Resource 5-3 to students (they are not given a copy). Students are to listen and highlight/circle the words from their list that show up. After this, read the sheet again and have students make notes using the scaffold found in Resource 5-4.

Step 6 

Hand students Resource 5-5. This is an annotated version of Resource 5-3 that asks a variety of grammar-related questions surrounding the text. Teacher also projects this version onto the board to facilitate discussion and instruction as students work through the sheet.

Step 7

Almost there! Students now use Resource 5-6 to pull the text apart into some pre-set categories. Specifically, students identify clauses / sentence noun groups (the teacher can help here, after all - that's what we do!) and examine them for modality and emotive language. Using this scaffolding they can then draw some conclusions from the source. 

Step 8

And now that your students have done all of this, get them to use any and all of the information to construct their own paragraph with the heading 'Public Struggle Sessions'.

I know it's a lot of steps so you will need to work at a brisk pace, moving around the room from group to group to keep students on task. A big visible timer might be helpful too! The important thing is that the students collect together all these new terms while engaging with a text and are then able to write about it.

Links to resources
Resource 5-1: Photo Set
Resource 5-2: Table
Resource 5-3: Struggle Sessions
Resource 5-4: Note Taking
Resource 5-5: Struggle Sessions Annotated
Resource 5-6: Graphic Organiser

For printing purposes, here are the pictures from the photo sets as .jpgs

 

 

Obviously I don't have copyright for these pictures but they should be okay for educational usage. If anyone thinks otherwise please let know and I'll take them down.

How to Help Students Achieve in Assessment Tasks

Today and yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the 2015 Assessment in Schools Conference at UNSW Global in Sydney. One of the key sessions that had an impact on me was Professor Andrew Martin's work on Personal Proficiency and how we can 'optimise' the academic potential of students.

Within the first five minutes of Professor Martin's seminar I felt like a great cloud in my head had been dispersed. Since becoming a teacher I've becoming very familiar with the word 'resilience'. Not in the sense that I'm expert on it, simply in the sense that I hear about it nearly every day.

"Davey McHuddlestein is a really resilient student"

"That Rita Wong has no resilience"

"I wish I was a bit more resilient whenever I hear the music of Nickleback"

It got to the point where I was hearing the word so much that it had lost all meaning. During a recent Year 10 unit on Jasper Jones we did some work around the idea of resilience but, I must admit, I let the students lead on this theme because I didn't have much to say about it. 

Professor Martin's work around optimising potential involved a framework on the personal proficiency of students that struck a beam of clarity into my overcast brain. Resilience wasn't quite what I thought it was.

He asserts, as a research psychologist and educator, that there are three major variable traits within students that regulate the way they react to external factors. By extension, this no doubt applies to non-students too. They are:

1. Buoyancy

2. Resilience

3. Adaptability

Martin states that buoyancy (or academic buoyancy) is a student's ability to deal with every day adversity - the deadlines, the poor marks, the criticism, a fight with friends or at home, etc. This is interesting because these are sorts of things often heard bandied about in connection to the 'R' word. 

Resilience on the other hand, as Martin says, "was born on the street, in poverty". This is a person's ability to deal with chronic or acute adversity... things like poverty, disability, suspensions, chronic under-achievement, poor mental health, learning, repeating a grade, etc. Heavy stuff. Martin is very emphatic in separating resilience from buoyancy. Resilience is not a student's ability to deal with every day adversity.

The third of these factors, adaptability, is someone's ability to deal with change and disruptions to routine. Things that aren't really forms of adversity but can still throw a spanner in the metaphorical works.  Some people can deal with change well, some can't.

These traits are only the smallest fraction of what Professor Martin spoke about today - he also talked in detail about adopting a multi-dimensional approach to boosting academic growth, and the various factors that impede student motivation. 

One more thing that I will mention, however, is the Five Cs of Academic Buoyancy, which Martin listed as observed elements for good academic buoyancy. These are, in no particular order:

Confidence

Coordinartion

Commitment

Composure

Control

If students can maintain these then they should have no problem 'bouncing back' from every day adversity (which is the majority of what they'll actually face in a regular school environment, as opposed to chronic or acute adversity). For non-teachers reading this, all of this stuff is just as relevant for our own lives if we want to find any kind of success. 

It makes perfect sense to me in hindsight. I guess this is the epitome of one of those moments where a light switches on in your head, where a great educator like Professor Andrew Martin illuminates something for you.   

Click here for more information about Professor Martin and his research.

The Rise of China: Lesson 4

By this point in the sequence the students should (hopefully!) have some background knowledge about 20th century China and Chairman Mao, so it's time to drill down into one of the big grey areas of history - the Cultural Revolution.

Euphemistically-named, the Cultural Revolution is one of the great largely-unacknowledged tragedies of the 20th century. Many historians have plainly said that they still don't fully understand what happened during this time; that the motivation for an entire society to systematically and brutally destroy its own culture is beyond understanding. With that in mind, how should we approach teaching it to 15 year olds?

In short; we avoid taking a comprehensive approach.

When given such a limited amount of time (my school's Year 10 History classes are spread out as 4 lessons a fortnight) it's nigh impossible to examine this event in enough detail. This is doubly relevant when we consider that most historians find it impossible to do it across an entire career, so it would have been foolish for me to even try (not that I'm always above such folly!)

Therefore, the main purpose of this lesson is to examine Mao's role in the Cultural Revolution, which should focus our attention somewhat.

Step 1

Teacher hands out sheet (Resource 4-1), which contains a five paragraph summary of the Cultural Revolution. Read through as a class (teacher either reads while class reads along, or you can have students take turns reading aloud). Students then have a go at answering the question at the end of the sheet, which asks them to begin making judgments about Mao's role in the way China's society changed in the 20th century. It also implicitly introduces the idea of a 'Cult of Personality' - something which will become more relevant and significant should students choose to do Modern History (especially if they study Russia and Stalin).

Step 2

Here's the grammar bit. Project Resource 4-2 onto your board and ask your students to examine the word bank to the side. Note the use of the phrase "some of these words". Tell the students that this is a hidden text and that they have to guess which words from the word bank would fit in a description of the Cultural Revolution. They should be able to do since they've just come hot off of Resource 4-1. As they tell you words, pick a few random but workable spots for these to go. The trick is that there is no actual hidden text, you are actually getting your students to engage in a joint text construction exercise. Once you have a few big content words up on the board tell the students to fill in the rest of the blanks to turn it into a paragraph. 

This open-ended variation on the tried-and-true cloze passage activity is a good way to build student confidence in composing paragraphs. By telling them that it is a 'hidden' text, and by doing it as a class activity, you take the risk factor out of the equation for the students. They don't have to risk looking like they don't know how to write a paragraph as this exercise scaffolds them in both a practical and a psychological way. 

Afterwards, if the majority do it successfully, you're welcome to tell them that there was no original text and that they all just wrote their own paragraph about the Cultural Revolution.

Step 3

No study of 1960s/70s China would be complete without a look at Chairman Mao's infamous book of quotations, the Little Red Book. Students should be familiar with this text from Step 1 of this lesson (it's mentioned in Resource 4-1) . Get students to work in groups examining the text, I've abbreviated it somewhat as Resource 4-3. 

Students are to choose 3-5 quotes from the Little Red Book and explain their meaning in their books. The teacher should pick a quote first and put it up on the board, demonstrating some methods to decode the meaning. This may include using text chains (which students should remember from Lesson 1), or the teacher modelling other techniques for inferring the meaning of previously unknown words (EG. Getting the gist by looking at the sentence around the word, swapping the word for other words that might fit, looking up the definition, etc). 

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Students aren't expected to read the whole text but it's important that they're given the booklet to look at rather than just one page-long extract as this places a larger degree of choice into their hands. This harks back to the Focus on Reading stuff I mentioned in the Lesson 3 breakdown - students are more likely to engage with reading if they are given some choice in the matter. With that in mind, several sections of the Little Red Book have been presented so students can pick an area that may be of more interest to them than others.

Step 4

If you have time, or have students that you want to extend, pose the discussion question, "Is The Little Red Book good or bad?" This would work well as a class evaluation and can be done on the board as a table if you have enough opinionated students. Critical engagement with historical sources like this can lead to some interesting debates within the class room.

Links to resources:
Resource 4-1: Recap of the Cultural Revolution
Resource 4-2: Cultural Revolution 
Resource 4-3: Little Red Book

Downtown Dallas (Final Day)

Downtown Dallas... they have a pretty good light rail system called the DART, that's what the cables and rails are for.

The hotel clerk told me yesterday that there was no public transport in Dallas but I didn't let this dissuade us from ditching our rental car. I just wanted to get rid of it so we could stop worrying about navigating any more of the labyrinthine freeways that riddle America's cities like wormy parasites in a piece of wood. That simile might sound a bit harsh, but they are truly nothing like anything we have back in Australia, and their intensity is no doubt compounded by the fact that we drive on the other side of the road.

I try to exercise an open mind when it comes to differences between the U.S. and Australia. Some things, like the differences in spelling, are rooted in each nation's history - the English colonised America in 1620, whereas the British colony in Australia wasn't founded until much later, in 1788. Things like that are a matter of history, so it shouldn't held against the Americans that they spell colour without a 'u' or say 'candy' when they mean 'lolly'. I guess I can understand the driving on the wrong side thing (Australia is in the minority when it comes to which side of the road we drive on) but, with all that said, one thing that I can't get behind is the way that gas (petrol) works over here. Here's how it goes:

1. You pull into a service station to get some gas.

2. You then have to go inside the service station and nominate the amount that you want to pay for gas, and then pay for it.

3. Then you go outside and fill your car up. The pump will stop when it gets to the amount you've nominated.

4. Then you have to go back inside if you want to add more petrol or get the excess payment refunded.

So inefficient! Do they just not trust anyone? Is it a way for gas stations to scam some extra money when people can't be bothered to go back in to get the few dollars change? I don't know, but it sure is annoying.

Anyway, Dallas. 

Skulls above store fronts are mandatory here.

The Old Red Museum in Downtown Dallas.

It's almost the same size as Sydney but way more industrialised and busy.  It turns out that there is public transport. There are trains and light rail and trolley cars, and we manage to work our way to Downtown Dallas from the airport after dropping the car off.

Got boots?

We learn from a nice couple in a western apparel shop that Texans pride themselves on being the friendliest people in America. I would say that this must be true, even the homeless guy outside the airport is unbelievably helpful - and that was after he realised we had no cash left on us. I would say, however, that some people are a little too friendly.

Mural inside western apparel store. Note the couple on the far right side... I think it's meant to depict a guy trying to remove a boot from his lady friend but at first glance it looks more like she's kicked him right in the crotch.

It starts at West End station, where I accidentally make eye contact with a guy wearing a purple pullover on the other side of the road. He nods at me and I take it as just more Texan hospitality. 

Nicole and I go into a steak house to get one of those famous Texan steaks but as we enter, Purple Pullover from the other side of the road follows us in. He hears us ask for a table and then starts talking to us about Australia and how much he'd like to visit. He claps me on the shoulder and wishes us a good visit to Dallas. 

Nothing particularly strange so far.

Later, I go to the toilet and Purple Pullover walks past me, pats me on the back and laughs, and goes back to standing at the restaurant's bar. 

When I come out of the toilet, he's at our table, talking to Nicole. He's halfway through a fairly detailed story about an Australian actor who was travelling to Perth from Sydney but then had to turn around to get back to Sydney because his audition for a part was successful. It sounds like someone he knows, because he talks about his sadness at this young man's passing. It's only towards the end of the story that I realise he's talking about Heath Ledger. 

Did he know Ledger personally? He talks about Ledger's young daughter as if he does, so I figure he might know the family. I listen intently as he goes on some more.

Nope. He doesn't know them at all. He's just told us the story of Heath Ledger because we're Australians. Maybe I should tell him about Johnny Depp. He rubs my shoulders a bit more before going back to the bar.

Purple Pullover chatting to Nicole. I almost didn't return to the table and briefly considered waiting for her at the airport for two days.

"Does he work here?" Nicole asks the waiter.

The waiter is confused, "Who?" We point the guy out, standing at the bar in his purple pullover. The waiter barks out a short, sharp laugh, "No". 

As we leave, Purple Pullover follows us out. It doesn't appear that he came into the restaurant for anything. He just stood at the bar the whole time we ate. That's weird, right? Once we're outside he sort of stands around a little distance away from us, as if he's deciding where he should go.

Nicole finds it hilarious that he kept grabbing or patting my shoulders but I'm starting to get a little unnerved by him. We start walking down the street and he follows, but then we change direction sharply and go into a store when he isn't looking directly at us. I watch him through the window to see what he does. He looks confused in the street, unsure where we went. I tell Nicole to take as long in the store as she wants.

The book depository from which Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK. The window in question is the only one half-open, far right and second row from the top.

Coming to Dallas isn't completely random for me. As a bit of a history nerd I was motivated to visit because I wanted to see the Texas School Book Depository and the site of John F. Kennedy's assassination. 

The book depository is now known as the Sixth Floor Museum, an educational experience centred around JFK's political career and death. It's one of those museums where you get headphones and an audio handset that explains each exhibit. I haven't experienced this before but I thought it was great... just the sight of a hundred people spread throughout the museum, standing in front of each section, listening to their handsets in relative silence... it's sombre and moving. There's a suitable dignity to it, and it grips you and holds you to each section - demanding your attention for a pre-set amount of time. More than once I found myself forced to consider the context of the photos in front of me, what it would be like to be there; to be in Jackie Kennedy's shoes as she stood next to Lyndon B. Johnson while he was sworn in as President- only a few minutes after her husband was declared dead. 

To stand just a few metres from that window and see the same view down onto Dealey Plaza that Lee Harvey Oswald had as he shot Kennedy. It's... indescribable. I literally don't have a single all-encompassing word for the way it makes me feel. This is such a big part of history... not just American history, it's world history. Kennedy's presidency was such a focal point for prominent issues in the early 1960s - the Cold War, the space race, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the clash between the right and the left in both the public and political spheres. His assassination and the resulting discrepancies that have led to accusations of conspiracy are an ongoing zeitgeist of our times. 

Photos on the sixth floor aren't allowed, however, I was able to get this pic from the floor above.

Even more than fifty years later, there's a kind of power in standing down by the street where he was killed. People flit about the plaza like bees; photographing, absorbing, reflecting. 

View from the grassy knoll. The quote on the huge plaque is from the unspoken speech that JFK would have given if he had made it through Dealey Plaza alive.

X marks the spot where the fatal headshot killed the President. Click to enlarge.

I'm not completely sure if this guy was a conspiracy nut or not, but he had his only little ramshackle stand and group of onlookers, which certainly supports such a possibility.

Plaque outside the Sixth Floor Museum. Note the emphatic underlining of the word 'allegedly'. Despite this apparent vitriol, the museum is actually pretty accommodating and balanced when it comes to the conspiracies and inadequacies surrounding the investigation into JFK's death.

Coming back to the hotel we catch our first taxi in America. There are two in the front, and I'm unsure if they're a bickering couple or just father and daughter. Initiating conversation with them seems a little difficult at first, Nicole asks if they live in the area and the driver replies with a very stoic "Yep". At a few points the woman lights up and engages with us in an upbeat fashion, but every now and again they also speak to each other in hushed, strained tones. 

Nicole and I note various fast food chains as we drive past them.

The driver says quietly to the woman, "What are they saying?"

She snaps back at him quietly, "I'm not gonna listen, that's dishonest".

They argue about whether a three-wheeled motorcycle is a trike or not. He tells her that she can't drive, and she replies back, "You don't know what I can do". He seems quietly exasperated and grouchy, "What am I gonna do with you?" and she is all sass, "You aint gonna do with nothing with me!" Then she turns the music up really loud so we can all appreciate a female rapper proudly referencing how empowered she is in terms of what she's willing to do in the bedroom.

It's a perfectly odd and entertaining way to end our visit to America. 

More Bible Belt shenanigans.

If I had to get figurative and compare the country to a fruit, I would say that the United States is like a pomegranate. Firm on the outside and seemingly uninviting, but filled with a seemingly endless array of gem-like seeds of experience, each one separate from the other. There are so many different facets to America - the 50 states each have their own character, but within that there are other forces at play. 

There are the indigenous tribes who have walked the land for their own eternity, and there are the conflicting Spanish and English histories of colonisation that intermingle and lay on top of one another. There's the American story of immigration, and the Revolutionary and Civil Wars that led to the modern nation we all know today. There's 9/11 and the War on Terror, which have shaped the country in the 21st century with its retro rhetoric of freedom and independence. There's the narratives of industry, capitalism and progress that have crafted a world wide super power. And then there's the quieter story of the decaying places that inhabit the great dustbowl between the cities, dwindling towns relegated to pockets of history that have been left behind by the huge interstate highways - a network of long sterile roads that bring the two coasts closer to one another at the expense of the folk in between. 

Even after we drove 4200 kilometres in two weeks, we still only covered parts of six states: a small segment of central California, a lonely stretch across Nevada, the picturesque south-western corner of Utah, parts of Arizona that we've built a familiarity with due to our previous visiting, the great unpopulated desert wilderness of New Mexico, and the continuously growing industry of eastern Texas. 

Train to the outskirts of Dallas, painted lovingly in the Texan flag.

I could see so much more. 

This was my second visit, and Nicole's third. Previously we'd only visited southern Califonia, lots of Arizona and a really small part of Utah. If I was to visit again I'd like to try to visit at least another six states but it's hard to fit that much in to just under two weeks. The people here are fantastic (well, to these two Australians, at least) and there is so much to see. I can't put my finger on particular highlights but what I'm gladdest of is the opportunity to walk the roads left by America's powerful history... to see Alcatraz, Chinatown in San Francisco, to revisit the Navajo Reservation and to see the seemingly ageless Zuni and Acoma pueblos even if just from afar, and to interact with the conspiracies that refuse to leave our consciousness - JFK, Roswell, Area 51. 

If there's one thing America is good at, it's mythmaking. Whilst we were in New Mexico, I noted some of the language used on the plaques about the area's history. The Spanish are referred to as 'conquerors', but Americans are 'pioneers'. It's true that history is written by the winners, but there's a real talent in this nation's ability to craft such a strong yet complex historical narrative that seemingly has the power to perpetuate itself. There's nothing official or endorsed about the histories we've born witness to here, they emerge from the people we speak to as if they were living entities.

I will miss it.