Creative Diversity in the Natural World: Wiki task
*This is the text version of the Class Wiki that students can use as a reference point for progress
with the task and for those who prefer to create a paper-based response rather than a digital
response
Name …………………………...…………………….
BioDiversity Group …………………...Teacher …………………...
Tutor Group No. ………….. Tutor ………………………...……………………….
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SACE
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Non-SACE
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ESL
Unit Overview
The Creative Diversity unit is an English Language Text Response study, with a focus on poetry and other examples of
connotative language.
The aim of the study is to give you new understandings about the power of language to communicate ideas, feelings and
sense impressions, with a particular focus on connotative language (which we will define very soon here).
You will have the opportunity to demonstrate

how well you understand the tools and techniques of connotative language, which we will study
in this topic, using this Learning Log

how well you can use connotative language to express your own ideas about some aspect of diversity in the
natural world, through creating your own product.
You will develop skills in critical literacy, ICT and information literacy through exploring collections of poems in print and
online.
You will visit the ASMS library and use the Internet to search for examples of language and visual images and you will use
these texts and images to create your own imaginative product that captures some aspects of “creative diversity in the
natural world”.
About the LearningTask
How will you demonstrate your learning at the completion of this topic?

You will contribute to the class wiki and create two “bricks” for a wall.
The bricks will capture your understanding of a single theme in biodiversity.
Each brick will be a collage/mosaic/jigsaw of images and text extracts.

You will also take the class on a tour of our gallery of bricks and talk about your own and other
creations.

The assessment rubrics can be downloaded from the ASMS portal. Please check carefully to see the different
task requirements for SACE / non-SACE / ESL.
* For SACE assessment, you also complete an additional written rationale (around 750 words). This
explains what you set out to communicate and how successfully you feel the elements of your product
convey the key concepts in this topic.
How to use this Wiki template

You need to work through the 10 Activities in the wiki that are outlines in this document. Each is
on a separate page to avoid confusion. Some will take only 5-10 minutes, others more time,
depending on your background in this area of learning. The idea is that you use the combined
skills of the class group in problem-solving.

You will read the text extracts and the questions, then discuss your ideas with others in the class.
You do not need to work with the same partners in each learning session. You can also work with
your teacher if you prefer this option for extra learning support. Groups working together
independently must be no bigger than 4 people.

You can choose to work from this paper copy in class to facilitate your group discussions. But...
the digital wiki copy will allow you much more scope in commentary and this is what is assessed.

For the assessment task, you need to experiment with different approaches to writing your
comments into the wiki, in an interesting way, to build a picture of your personal learning
outcomes (ideas, questions, images, references, useful weblinks).

At each checkpoint, ask your teacher to look at what you have written.
If you have completed the segment satisfactorily, he/she will sign off your work.
The learning has been sequenced in steps that build on each other and so it is logical but not
essential to work on the tasks in the order they are presented.
Activity 1: Is it useful to define some key concepts?
How many of the terms listed below are familiar to you?
Many of them will be explained as you work through the
following pages. At this stage, just take 5 minutes to highlight any that you know and explain what they
mean to your partner. You might also want to use the Visual Thesaurus or other paper/online dictionary to
help you.
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collage
mosaic
jigsaw
mash-up
morphing
denotative language
connotative language
imagery
personification

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simile
metaphor
symbol
motif
rhyme
alliteration
assonance
onomatopoeia
Many of these concepts relate to tools and techniques writers use for creative purposes, just as an artist
uses oil paint or clay and a scientist uses equipment and chemicals in the lab. We are all making
At the end of your
meanings from the world around us in various ways that suit our purpose.
Learning Log entries,
cometoback
and look at
In a sense, the way we make and modify meanings is BioDiversity in action and also relates
our Fertile
this list again to check
Question, which we will revisit several times in the course of the following activities.
your understanding. Also
note that you can also
use callouts like these for
your own comments in
this Log.
Activity 2: How can you think of some themes for your own
creative product?
A number of possible themes for study were introduced in the PowerPoint the amazing diversity in the
world of nature. What themes could you use for your own study, which may become the subject for the
“bricks” you produce?
*Take no more than 15 minutes on this search and discussion, as it is easy to get distracted!
Make some brief notes in your Learning Log, after a discussion with your partner(s) in which you briefly
explain your interest in the theme(s).
If you have no ideas, go back and look again at the PPT and do an internet search under the broad topic
of Biodiversity. Google will give you 18 million topic hits in less than 1 second!
Write your notes then ask your teacher to sign them off before you move to the next section.
Activity 3: How can we find out what ‘denotation’ and
‘connotation’ mean... and anyway, does it matter?
Discuss the following questions with your partner(s) and use a dictionary or the web to identify:
1. Which form of language

is a scientific language

that catalogues and categorises specimens

into a typology or taxonomy

in ways that are defined by “experts”

according to specific features that this specimen has

that are the same as or different from other specimens?
Answer …………………………..
In which kinds of texts would you expect to find this kind of language? (suggest 3 text types)
2. Which form of language

has emotional, intellectual and imaginative impact on the brain, triggered by words (or
words+images)

creates pictures, ideas, feelings and memories that words conjure up when used in certain
ways

is also called figurative language?
Answer …………………………..
In which kinds of texts would you expect to find this kind of language? (suggest 3 text types)
3. Why might understanding the difference be useful?
4. Give an example of each form of language describing the same natural object (eg a whale, an
raindrop or a mushroom, both denotatively and connotatively). Ask your teacher for help as
required.
Activity 4: How can we use words to build pictures of the
world around us?
Read all 4 questions then read the poem aloud together. Then, discuss the questions with your
partner and make your notes.
1. How exactly do particular words in this ‘concrete’ poem about cats create a vivid image of cats for
2.
3.
4.
5.
you? What do you imagine when you see/hear these words? Why does this happen?
Notice the referencing on this image. Why is it important to reference all texts and images that are not
your own creation? Can you copyright your own creations?
What is a ‘concrete’ poem? Quickly find at least one other example to put into your learning log, along
with a definition of what defines this style of poetry. Reference this example properly. Ask your
teacher if you require help with referencing.
Which words would you use in a concrete poem about a snake or octopus?
How does our relationship with domesticated animals in our homes relate to the Fertile Question?
Activity 5: How can we use words to describe the world of
nature with greater precision and power?
Read this poem aloud with your partner, then discuss the questions and make your notes.
Use a dictionary for this task if required. The questions should take about 10-15 minutes.
1.
How exactly is ‘dripping’ a different
concept from ‘splattering’ and ‘slushy’ a different
concept from ‘frigid’? What do you imagine
when you read/hear each word.
2.
List other words that you and your
partner can come up with that capture the idea of
rainy wetness or icy coldness.
3.
Does this style of poem have a name
and a special kind of design that you might follow
if you wanted to write in a similar style?
4.
Can other formats be categorised by
names, as animal species can? For example,
have you heard of haiku, sonnet or limerick?
Also see the cartoon. Is a pattern of
rhyme/rhythms all that matters and could a
robot write poetry if it knew the patterns?
5.
How do human interactions with the
natural forces that govern the weather relate
to the Fertile Question?
Activity 6: How can we use words to capture a personal
experience of immersion in the natural world?
The Surfer, by Judith Wright
Read the poem aloud with your partner.
Then discuss the following questions and
make your notes in your journal. The
He thrust his joy against the weight of the sea;
climbed through, slid under those long banks of foam—(hawthorn hedges in spring, thorns in the face stinging).
How his brown strength drove through the hollow and coil
of green-through weirs of water!
Muscle of arm thrust down long muscle of water;
and swimming so, went out of sight
where mortal, masterful, frail, the gulls went wheeling
in air as he in water, with delight.
questions should take about 20-30
minutes.
Turn home, the sun goes down; swimmer, turn home.
Last leaf of gold vanishes from the sea-curve.
Take the big roller’s shoulder, speed and serve;
come to the long beach home like a gull diving.
For on the sand the grey-wolf sea lies, snarling,
cold twilight wind splits the waves’ hair and shows
the bones they worry in their wolf-teeth. O, wind blows
and sea crouches on sand, fawning and mouthing;
drops there and snatches again, drops and again snatches
its broken toys, its whitened pebbles and shells.
Source: http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/show/35272-Judith-Wright-The-Surfer
1. What is it about the feeling of the sport
of surfing that this poem captures?
Which key words convey this feeling
and how exactly do they do this? Use
highlighter and comment function or
other tools to identify these for a reader
who might find difficulty with this poem.
2. Why does the poet say “swimmer, turn
home”? Hint: Is it just time for dinner or
does the coming of darkness imply
something about the sea?
3. How are particular words chosen to
capture the different moods of the sea?
Discuss and highlight key words that
capture each mood. Make some brief
notes about how the mood change is
achieved by the choice of language.
4. What is a simile? What is a metaphor?
Find at least one example of each in
the poem and make notes on why each
can be defined as simile/metaphor.
Add the most useful weblinks you find
to your journal.
5. How does poetry look different to prose
text on the page? Why is poetry
organised in this format?
6. Have you heard of this famous
Australian poet, who wrote a great deal
about the variety in nature? Find out
something about her and find at least
one of her other poems. Add the most
useful weblinks you find to your journal.
Activity 7: How can we tap into the richness of words to compare
and contrast objects and events?
There are two contrasting poems to read for this activity. Read them both first, aloud with your
partner, then work through the questions and make your notes. The questions should take about
20 minutes.
1. Each poet carefully selects key words to capture the movement of the wind and its sound and
visual effects. Find a way to highlight these words and show their effect in creating images in your
head. What do you notice about the way these words sound as well as the way they look on the
page?
2. Did you notice all of the –ing words in the Hughes poem? What is the effect of using verbs in this
way in a text? ( eg saying crashing,stampeding instead of crashed, stampeded)
3. What images, in particular, convey the incredible power of the storm Hughes experienced most
clearly to you? How does the poet convey his fear?
4. In contrast, Dickinson calls the wind timid - Why? This is an example of personification (of
inanimate objects)? How and why is it used here? How is personification different to
anthropomorphism? (you may need a dictionary to help you here) Why might anthropomorphism
be risky?
Wind, by Ted Hughes
The Wind,
by Emily Dickinson.
This house has been far out at sea all night,
The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills,
Winds stampeding the fields under the window
Floundering black astride and blinding wet
The wind tapped like a tired man,
And like a host, "Come in,"
I boldly answered; entered then
My residence within
Till day rose; then under an orange sky
The hills had new places, and wind wielded
Blade-light, luminous black and emerald,
Flexing like the lens of a mad eye.
A rapid, footless guest,
To offer whom a chair
Were as impossible as hand
A sofa to the air.
At noon I scaled along the house-side as far as
The coal-house door. Once I looked up Through the brunt wind that dented the balls of my eyes
The tent of the hills drummed and strained its guyrope,
No bone had he to bind him,
His speech was like the push
Of numerous humming-birds at once
From a superior bush.
The fields quivering, the skyline a grimace,
At any second to bang and vanish with a flap;
The wind flung a magpie away and a blackBack gull bent like an iron bar slowly. The house
His countenance a billow,
His fingers, if he pass,
Let go a music, as of tunes
Blown tremulous in glass.
Rang like some fine green goblet in the note
That any second would shatter it. Now deep
In chairs, in front of the great fire, we grip
Our hearts and cannot entertain book, thought,
He visited, still flitting;
Then, like a timid man,
Again he tapped--'t was flurriedly-And I became alone.
Or each other. We watch the fire blazing,
And feel the roots of the house move, but sit on,
Seeing the window tremble to come in,
Hearing the stones cry out under the horizons.
http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemlyrics/a/
The_Wind_Trappe.htm
Activity 8: How can we use words to make deeper symbolic
meanings?
The questions for both poems should take about 20 minutes.
Red Wheelbarrow,
by William Carlos Williams
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
*In reading the work of this poet, it helps to know
that he is a philosopher who looks for the deeper
cultural significance in everyday objects. Some
biographic research may be helpful here.
Read the poem aloud together and then discuss
the questions and make your notes.
Source:
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/williams/wheelbarro
w.htm
1. Why split the lines as this poet has done?
2. What else do you notice about his deliberate
formatting?
3. Why do you think this poet could feel that
“so much depends upon…”?
4. Is there a single word here that stands out in
the way it appeals to your imagination? Why?
5. What aspects of nature do you feel hold
deeper significance for you? How could you
communicate this in words? Does this relate to
the Fertile Question in any way?
Now read the next poem aloud with your partner and see if you can also find deeper meanings here.
Mushrooms,
by Sylvia Plath
Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly
Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We
Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.
Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking
Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.
Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!
Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,
Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:
We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door.
Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,
Source: http:/www.poemhunter.com/
1. Why is this an odd way to
write about mushrooms?
Do you think this writer is
an odd person?
2. Which words best capture
the movement and
processes of their growth?
3. What is a symbol?
How could mushrooms
symbolise other concepts?
Give some other examples
of symbols in everyday life.
Which symbols are most
important in your own life?
Activity 9: How can we use words to create a different way of
seeing the world?
Read the following poem aloud with your partner. Then discuss the questions and make your notes.
The questions should take about 15 minutes.
Considering the Snail,
by Thom Gunn
The snail pushes through a green
night, for the grass is heavy
with water and meets over
the bright path he makes, where rain
has darkened the earth's dark. He
moves in a wood of desire,
pale antlers barely stirring
as he hunts. I cannot tell
what power is at work, drenched there
with purpose, knowing nothing.
What is a snail's fury? All
I think is that if later
I parted the blades above
the tunnel and saw the thin
trail of broken white across
litter, I would never have
imagined the slow passion
in that deliberate progress.
Source:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/considering-the-snail/
1. Why is it “a green night” here?
2. Can you think of other colour images
we use in everyday life? (like a blue
mood?) Why do we use colour in this
way?
3. How does the poet’s choice of words
like desire, fury, passion, deliberate
change your view of a snail? What is
this technique called? (Hint: we
mentioned it earlier)
4. What is the effect of the poet
deliberately breaking the lines and
stanzas where this occurs?
5. Where else have you encountered
writers seeing the world from a very
different perspective? ( think of novels
and films as well as poems)
Activity 10: How can we use words to reflect on our place in
the natural world?
‘Evoke’ means to conjure up or stir up feelings and sense impressions. This is a key aspect of the
connotative meaning of words, especially evident in poetry and other creative writing.
Humans often reflect on their place in the world and on the implications of the forces of nature for our
survival. The first two poems here are about the inevitability of death and decay in nature. The first poem
considers human reactions to the death of a whale and the second the predator-prey relationship.
The third poem touches on our fear of other species, in this case an encounter with a snake.
Read each poem aloud with your partner. Then discuss the questions and make your notes.
The questions for all 3 poems should take about 45 minutes.
Death of a Whale by John Blight
1. Why choose the word lugubrious for the
whale’s death? (check meaning)
When the mouse died, there was a sort of pity;
The tiny, delicate creature made for grief.
Yesterday, instead, the dead whale on the reef
Drew an excited multitude to the jetty.
How must a whale die to wring a tear?
Lugubrious death of a whale; the big
Feast for the gulls and sharks; the tug
Of the tide simulating life still there,
Until the air, polluted, swings this way
Like a door ajar from a slaughterhouse.
Pooh! pooh! spare us, give us the death of a
mouse
By its tiny hole; not this in our lovely bay.
-- Sorry, we are, too, when a child dies:
But at the immolation of a race, who cries?
Design, by Robert Frost
I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth—
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth—
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.
What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
What brought the kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
2. How does he create revulsion rather than
pity with his choice of words? How could
you make this death poignant instead of
ugly?
3. Do you agree that the death of a small
creature is more pitiable? Why?
4. What point about humanity more generally
is the poet making in these last two lines,
using the symbolism of the mouse and the
whale? How does his point of view relate to
our Fertile Question?
What but design of darkness to appall?—
If design govern in a thing so small.
Questions
1.
2.
Which similes and metaphors best capture
the visual and emotional impact on the
viewer of the two creatures and the flower?
Why did you choose to highlight these?
Why are there so many questions in this
poem and how does the final line relate to
our Fertile Question?
Snake, by DH Lawrence
A snake came to my water-trough
On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,
To drink there.
In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-tree
I came down the steps with my pitcher
And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before
me.
He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom
And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of
the stone trough
And rested his throat upon the stone bottom,
i o And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness,
He sipped with his straight mouth,
Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body,
Silently.
Questions
1. How does this poet choose
precise and evocative words to
capture the snake’s
appearance and movement?
*As this is a long poem, it may
be useful to highlight these
words and phrases before you
start or copy them to the
comments document and
remember to see next page for
the end of the poem.
Someone was before me at my water-trough,
And I, like a second comer, waiting.
He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do,
And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do,
And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused a moment,
And stooped and drank a little more,
Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels of the earth
On the day of Sicilian July, with Etna smoking.
The voice of my education said to me
He must be killed,
For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous.
And voices in me said, If you were a man
You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.
But must I confess how I liked him,
How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough
And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
Into the burning bowels of this earth.
Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him? Was it perversity, that I longed to
talk to him? Was it humility, to feel so honoured?
I felt so honoured.
And yet those voices:
If you were not afraid, you would kill him!
And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid, But even so, honoured still more
That he should seek my hospitality
From out the dark door of the secret earth.
(*see next page for the end of the poem)
2. What are the ‘voices’ and how
does this question relate to the
Fertile Question?
3. Why are his feelings confusing?
He drank enough
And lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken,
And flickered his tongue like a forked night on the air, so black,
Seeming to lick his lips,
And looked around like a god, unseeing, into the air,
And slowly turned his head,
And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream,
Proceeded to draw his slow length curving round
And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.
And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,
And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered farther,
A sort of horror, a sort of protest against his withdrawing into that horrid black hole,
Deliberately going into the blackness, and slowly drawing himself after,
Overcame me now his back was turned.
I looked round, I put down my pitcher,
I picked up a clumsy log
And threw it at the water-trough with a clatter.
I think it did not hit him,
But suddenly that part of him that was left behind convulsed in undignified haste.
Writhed like lightning, and was gone
Into the black hole, the earth-lipped fissure in the wall-front,
4. Why does the poet act as
he does? How does he feel
about this event
afterwards? How does this
question relate to the
Fertile Question?
At which, in the intense still noon, I stared with fascination.
And immediately I regretted it.I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!
I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education.
And I thought of the albatross
And I wished he would come back, my snake.
For he seemed to me again like a king,
Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,
Now due to be crowned again.
And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords
Of life.
And I have something to expiate:
A pettiness
5. What is the significance of
the reference to the
albatross? (Would reading
the poem called The
Rhyme of the Ancient
Mariner help here?)
6. Why ‘expiate’, why
‘pettiness’?
7. How long is ‘a poem’?
Does the length matter?
What does matter?
Congratulations
If you are reading this, you have almost completed your Learning Log.
Final checkpoints:

Did you remember to get each activity signed off as you worked through?

Go back and look at Activity 1 again to see if you can now add further information

Make a final Learning Log entry that reflects on how well this set of activities helped you to
understand the ways in which language works connotatively and particularly in the kind of
communication we call poetry.

Check the criteria for the second task in this study topic, which is the creation of your “bricks” for
the Creative Diversity wall.