Blueback – Chapter Questions



Blueback

By Tim Winton

This Term’s novel work will have a focus on:

• Summarising

• Exploring your reactions and interests

• Developing your ability to form opinions about characters and themes in a novel

• Developing your knowledge of the sea

• Developing your word knowledge

TASK 1: Cover page: You will create a cover page for your photo album using the written names of fish mentioned in the novel, especially the first few chapters. Accompanying some of the names you need to put pictures. We will book the library for two sessions in order for you to look up books and use the internet. You may sketch, trace, or print out pictures, but be sure to know which fish is which! Take care to design an appealing album cover.

• Hint: page 8, 62-3, 133, and 149-50 are good! /5

TASK 2: Summaries: You will demonstrate and develop your summarising ability this term, by writing a summary for each chapter. The skill will be to write a summary in only one or two sentences. When you summarise, the skill is to:

• Only include important/main details

• Leave out minor details

This will be the 2nd and 3rd pages of your photo album. You will need to calculate according to the size of your Chapter heading and handwriting, whether you will need more than two pages. There are 16 chapters, so you will need to write 16 summaries. We will do the first three summaries together. If you are away from school and miss a summary, you must catch up either in the next class, or at home. /16

TASK 3: Developing your word knowledge:

• The 4th page of your photo album will be a “Word Collection” or “Word bank” page. This is for you to fill up with words that you find interesting or new. Make this page look like a poster for interesting words. You must find at least two words from each chapter. /3

• You will also be learning about three language techniques – similes, metaphors, personification. This will be done on a sheet handout. /5

TASK 4: Chapter work: For this section of your photo album, you will be alternating between Picture pages and written-answer pages. All your answers MUST be in full sentences (that means NO sentences starting with “Because…”) Also, DO NOT begin your answers with “it” “he” “she” – write the name of the character, make it clear who/what your are talking about.

• Note: if a question asks for a certain number of sentences in your answer, you will have points deducted if you write less. Some questions are THINKING questions, and require you to look beyond your first thoughts, into a deeper understanding.

• Make sure you number your answers according to the numbers given on this sheet.

Chapter One

1. Picture page! Collect 4 or more quotes which help build up a picture of the mother. Now use these quotes to draw a picture of her. Put in a “talking caption” of something she might be saying to Abel. /3

2. Why are they collecting abalone? /1

3. How are they careful to protect the abalone population when they fish? /1

Chapter Two

4. Why do you think there is no body buried under Abel’s father’s cross? /1

5. Picture page! Use pages 19 & 20 to draw how you imagine Longboat Bay to look /2

Chapter Three

6. Picture page! Draw a picture of Abel daydreaming as he writes out his punishment lines. /2

7. What things can you learn from the rings in a karri tree? /3

8. Some people say that daydreaming is a sign of a rich imagination. Do you agree with this, or do you think daydreaming just means that the person is easily distracted from what is going on in front of them? (THINKING QUESTION: your answer must have at least four sentences). /4

9. Look up the meaning of these words in the dictionary, then write your own sentences using the words in a meaningful way:

- dinghy - sediment - luminous

- Jetty - Pilchards - mantelpiece /6

Chapter Four

10. Would you say that everyone should experience being on a boat on the sea at least once in their life? Why/why not? (THINKING QUESTION: your answer must have at least four sentences) /4

11. What colour is Mad Macka’s boat? /1

12. Mad Macka valued his solitude (time alone) more than his safety. Do you enjoy have time by yourself or are you the kind of person who always wants friends and family around you? (2 or more sentences) /2

Chapter Five

13. How old was Abel when he went away? /1

14. Describe the town Abel moves to. (page 52) /2

15. When was the last time you felt homesick? What did you do to feel better? /2

Chapter Six

16. Why is Abel’s mum worried about the new abalone diver? p59 /1

17. What does Abel’s mother tell him about the Jackson family? p62-63 /1

18. Write down anything you know about your family history, where they originated from and what they did. /2

19. Look up these words in the dictionary and copy down the meanings.

20. - Wily - gluttonous - catamaran

21. - Grouse - shrine - plankton /6

Chapter Seven

22. Why is Costello so deeply disliked? /2

23. What would you have done, in Abel’s position, watching Costello haul up net after net of fish? /2

24. List all of the possible things that could have gone wrong when Abel and his mother went out on the sea to stop Costello. Come up with at least 15. /4

Chapter Eight

25. What happened to Costello? /1

26. Write a paragraph of what Abel might have written in his diary after seeing the shark dying, and being able to do nothing. (minimum 6 sentences) /4

27. What did Abel learn at the end of the chapter? /1

Chapter Nine.

28. How did Abel feel at school? (first page) /1

29. Use the Venn diagram page to make a comparison of how the business developers saw Longboat Bay compared with how Dora and Abel Jackson saw it. Think about what the developers valued compared to what the Jacksons valued. /3

30. Write down some of the things developers thought tourists could do in the Bay /3

31. What are some of the annoying things that started to happen? /3

32. Why does Abel describe the “sea, the bush, the house” as being “like food” to Dora?

/2

Chapter Ten

33. What did Abel wish Blueback could tell him? /1

Chapter Eleven

34. What does Abel go to university for and why does Dora find this funny? /2

35. Who does Stella have to share Abel with? /1

36. Do you think it is possible to have a relationship with an animal as strong (or stronger) than a relationship with a person? (THINKING QUESTION: your answer must have at least four sentences). /4

37. Stella says “You seem to be able to talk to each other without saying anything”. What does Dora Jackson reply? /1

38. Picture page! Draw a ‘photo’ of the feast they have after their dive. See p113 for the details. /2

Chapter Twelve.

39. What jobs do Abel and Stella have? What does this job entail? /2

40. Why does Abel’s mother say in her letter that she is worried? What is she worried about? Why is she worried about that, what could it lead to? ((THINKING QUESTION: your answer must have at least four sentences) /4

41. Picture page! Use the description on page 119 to draw the burning oil tanker and the surrounding oil slick on the ocean. /2

42. Write a definition for: a)atolls b)estuaries /2

Chapter Thirteen

43. What strange things happened each season? /3

44. Describe the destruction of the storm /2

45. Picture page! Draw what Dora Jackson sees after the storm (pg 125) /2

46. What does Dora decide to do for the bay? How? /2

47. What is the outcome? /1

Chapter Fourteen

48. What happens to Abel’s mother when she falls? /1

49. Why does she cry? /1

Chapter Fifteen

50. What does the story Abel’s mother tells about when he was a baby tell us about the Abel and the sea? /1

Chapter Sixteen

51. Who does Abel think knows the secrets of the sea? /1

Blueback

Language Sheet

Language Glossary:

IMAGERY – the writing creates a picture in the reader’s mind. For example, “The yellow flower was bending with the wind” Colours are useful for creating imagery.

SIMILES – comparison – when one thing is compared to another thing, using the words “like” or “as”, for example, “The Year 7’s are as hard-working as bees making honey”. Similes create a strong picture in your mind (imagery)

METAPHORS – comparison – when one thing is compared to another thing, but NOT using the words “like” or “as”, for example, “The Year 7’s are busy bees”

PERSONIFICATION when things that are NOT human, are given human qualities, for example, “the river was angry” – anger is a human emotion, water does not feel angry, but the use of personification makes the river more animated, the words create a strong picture in our mind (imagery)

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE – when the objects are NOT really there. Figurative language includes metaphors, similes, and personification. In the example of the Year 7’s and the bees, the Year 7’s were really there (literal language), but the bees were not really there (figurative).

LITERAL LANGUAGE, in which words mean exactly what they say: the objects are really there. "He ran like a hare down the street" is the figurative way to describe the man running and "He ran very quickly down the street" is the literal way to describe him.

Using the glossary above, label these following examples. Tell me what is literal and what is figurative. Then tell me if it’s simile or metaphor, and whether there is personification. The first one is done for you:

|Example from Blueback |Literal |Figurative |simile? metaphor? |

| | | |personification? |

|“a cloud of bubbles swirled around him, clinging to his skin |bubbles are really there |pearls are not there |it’s using a simile |

|like pearls.” pg5 | | | |

|“where his mother was already gliding like a bird” p6 | | | |

|“she looked like a scarred old seal in that thing.” p6 | |there is no seal there | |

|“the shellfish grew round and silver, like tiny hubcaps” p7 | | | |

|“above them, on the rippling shiny surface, the boat hung |the boat is really there | | |

|like a kite” p23 | | | |

|“if you cut down a karri tree…you could..see… the good years | | | |

|written into its heart.” p28 | | | |

|“the ducks…looked like silly fat businessmen in white suits. | | | |

|They shook their heads like bankers.” p30 | | | |

|“His mother floated nearby, her hair like kelp above her.” pg| | | |

|31 | | | |

|“her red fins flashed like a siren light.” pg 44 | | | |

|“a cloud of gulls hung over the two boats” pg 45 | | | |

|“the old fish’s eye was like a turning moon.” p53 | | | |

|“Blueback flitted around them, insistent as a dog at the | | | |

|dinner table.” p60 | | | |

|“he felt like…a bubble on the sea, left by a breaking wave, | | | |

|here for a moment, and then gone.” pg67 | | | |

|“through the wobbly glass of the waves” p68 | | | |

|“he saw the sun melting like butter.” p68 | | | |

|“Blueback swam down to his crack in the reef and looked out | | | |

|with moon eyes” p70 | | | |

|“Bubbles smoked back from his head so that he looked like a | | | |

|dragon.” p80 | | | |

|“He was as big as a barrel.” pg 80 | | | |

|“Took off like a rocket.” p84 | | | |

|“It swam like a ghost of itself.” p90 | | | |

|“To them [Longboat Bay] was a goldmine, a fortune waiting to | | | |

|be made.” p97 | | | |

|“She was stubborn as a tree, and just as strong.” p99 | | | |

|He looked as fat as an opera singer.” pg112 | | | |

|“He still felt like a boy with a snorkel” p117 | | | |

|“Surf hammered against the shore and chewed it away.” p124 | | | |

|“[The whale bones] stood like posts and broken teeth and | | | |

|tombstones where the storm had exposed them” p125 | | | |

|“She floated in Longboat Bay like seaweed” p128 | | | |

|“his tail swinging like a gate.” p129 | | | |

|“her hair was white as the sand on the shore” p144 | | | |

ANALOGY compares two things, which are alike in a number of ways. We often use analogies to help our own understanding of difficult ideas. For example,

and he makes an analogy between a karri tree, and people’s stories.

p21 she said every engine was just a puzzle to solve (analogy)

familiar as old friends (analogy) p 31

they tied his mind up in knots p33

in his high school years Abel felt like he was holding his breath p95

home throbbed in him like a headache p53

Chapter 9, Questin 29 Venn Diagram

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES OF LONGBOAT BAY

How the developers see Longboat How the Jacksons see Longboat Bay.

Bay. What do they value? Can you What do they value?

think of similarities

between the way the

Jacksons and the developers

see Longboat Bay?

[pic]

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You will create a Blueback photo album according to the following instructions:

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