Trinity Catholic College

Auburn / Regents Park

YEAR 9 ENGLISH
Assessment Task 1
Truth, Courage, Community

YEAR 9 ENGLISH
Assessment Task no. 1: Language is Power
th
Date Due: Term 1, Week 8 Monday 20 March

Student name Syllabus Component Course Weighting

Component 4 15%
Pastoral Care Class
Reading
Component 2 10%
Teacher
Writing

Your Assessment Task is:

Part 1: Reading Task (15 marks: 15%)

You will be given an extract from a speech. The extract is taken from Deng Aduts Australia
Day Address in 2016. The speech explores issues encountered by immigrants in Australia.

You are to read the extract as often as you wish in preparation for this assessment task.

On the day of the task, you will be provided with a copy of the extract.

You will be required to answer a series of multiple choice and short answer questions
about the speech covering content, as well as devices of rhetoric.

Part 2: Writing Task (15 marks: 10%)

You will write a response evaluating the effectiveness of this speech, using the extract
provided.

You will be given the question with this notification and required to prepare a response
at home

A scaffold has been attached to this notification and may be used in your preparation for
this task.

General Instructions:

Part 1: Reading Task (15 marks) weighting = 15%

You will be provided with the same extract on the day of the task.

You will be provided with 5 minutes of reading time.

You will answer all questions in the space provided.

No notes are to be brought into class.

Part 2: Writing Task (15 marks) weighting = 10%

A scaffold is attached to this assessment notification. This scaffold may assist you in your preparation for

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 this task. You will not be permitted to bring this in on the day of the assessment.

If you are absent on the day of the task you must submit a show cause form in line with the Colleges
Assessment Policy. If you are absent on the day of the task you must submit a show cause form in line
with the Colleges Assessment Policy.

Syllabus Outcomes to be Assessed:

EN5-2A effectively uses and critically assesses a wide range of processes, skills, strategies and
knowledge for responding to and composing a wide range of texts in different media and technologies.
EN5-5C thinks imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and critically about information and increasingly
complex ideas and arguments to respond to and compose texts in a range of contexts

You will be assessed on how well you:

Read in order to identify the orators purpose, rhetorical techniques, target audience and themes.

Use language to develop a sustained, persuasive argument.

Evaluate the effectiveness of a speech, considering rhetorical techniques and modes of delivery.

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 Trinity Catholic College
Auburn / Regents Park

YEAR 9 ENGLISH
Assessment Task 1
Truth, Courage, Community

SPEECH EXTRACT

2016 NSW Australia Day Address- Deng Thiak Adut

'Today, as we mark the beginning of Refugee Week, it is important to remember that all
non-Indigenous Australians are immigrants to this land.'

She continued, 'From the perspective of thousands of years of Aboriginal

custodianship, the rest of us are newcomers'. I wonder what the Gadigal people in
1788 thought as they watched sailing ships coming up their harbour? Did they realise
that their civilisation was about to be uprooted? Did they watch with interest and
wonder? How soon did that interest turn to mortal fear?

It has been a 200-year journey for their descendants to reassert the right to be free of
those fears, to acclaim pride in their traditions. That's a long wait.

The theme of this year's Australia Day address is that freedom from fear is very special
to all of us. To appreciate the value of freedom one must first be denied it. To know real
fear gives special meaning and yearning to being free of fear.

So what does 'freedom from fear' entail for you and me as Australians, or those who
'want to be Australians' in 2016?

Let me share with you parts of my story. It may be unfamiliar to those who have been
born and grown up in a peaceful Australia. To those who have come as refugees from
the world's trouble spots, parts of this story will be too familiar. A point of this story is to
emphasise how very lucky we are to enjoy freedom from fear, and how very unlucky
are many, many others who neither choose, nor deserve their fate.

I was born in a small fishing village called Malek, in the South Sudan. My father was a
fisherman and we had a banana farm. I am one of eight children born to Mr Thiak Adut
Garang and Ms Athieu Akau Deng. So the parts of my name are drawn from both my
parents. My given name is Deng, which means god of the rain. In those parts of this

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wide brown land that are short of water my name might be a good omen. I have a
nickname: Auoloch, which means swallow. Alas I couldn't fly and as a young boy,
about the age of a typical second grader in Sydney, I was conscripted into an army.

As they took me away from my home and family I didn't even understand what
freedoms I had lost. I didn't understand how fearful I should have been. I was young. I
was ignorant. I lost the freedom to read and write. I lost the freedom to sing children's
songs. I lost the right to be innocent. I lost the right to be a child.

Instead, I was taught to sing war songs. In place of the love of life I was taught to love
the death of others. I had one freedom the freedom to die and I'll return to that a little
later.

I lost the right to say what I thought. In place of 'free speech', I was an oppressor to
those who wanted to express opinions that were different to those who armed me, fed
me, told me what to think, where to go and what to do.

And there was something else very special to me that was taken away. I was denied
the right to become an initiated member of my tribe. The mark of 'inclusiveness' was
denied to me.

I had to wait until I became an Australian citizen to know that I belonged.

As an Australian I am proud that we have a national anthem. It's ours and to hear it
played and sung is to feel pride, pride that we are a nation of free people. It has a
historical background that is familiar to those who grew up here, but which is not easily
understood by newcomers. I found it useful to take some lines from our anthem to bring
together what I want to share with you.

To be here today, talking about freedom from fear, about the rewards that come from
thinking 'inclusively', rather than thinking 'divisively', is to achieve something that the
child conscript Deng could not imagine.

I came to Australia as an illiterate, penniless teenager, traumatised physically and

emotionally by war. In Sudan, I was considered legally disabled, only by virtue of being
black or having a dark skin complexion. As you can see I am very black and proud of
my dark skin complexion. But in the Sudan my colour meant that my prospects could
go no further than a dream of being allowed to finish a primary education. To be a
lawyer was unthinkable. Australia opened the doors of its schools and universities. I
would particularly like to thank the Western Sydney University where I received my Law
degree and the University of Wollongong where I obtained my Masters degree in Law

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an experience which enabled me to realise my dream of becoming a court room
advocate. Australia educated me. How lucky I became. How lucky is any person who
receives an education in a free land and goes on to use it in daily life.

In 1987, the year before the Australian Bi-Centennial celebrations, I was among many
young children forcibly removed from their homes and families and marched to
Ethiopia, for reasons that were unknown to me at the time. I walked thousands of
kilometres without shoes or underwear.

What do we take for granted as Australians? Free education, food, clothing (more than
shoes and underwear), shelter, health care and personal safety. We take those things
for granted until we don't have them.

***

What seems new for we Australians is that the physical barriers to terror such as
distance and sea are now irrelevant. But this is just the shortness of memory. These
barriers became irrelevant for the traditional owners of this land when the winds and
the currents brought the ships of the First Fleet up this Harbour. More recently these
barriers were no barriers at all when a midget submarine entered Sydney Harbour
during the Second World War.

Then as now freedom from fear is something that must be fought for. It can never be
taken for granted. Fighting must sometimes be physical and our War Memorials are
testament to those who fought and gave their all. But the first line of defence against
consuming fear is always our collective hearts and minds.

And collectively what makes this Nation one to be proud of is the willingness of most in
our communities to be accepting, tolerant, inclusive and welcoming. Our anthem
speaks of the courage needed to let us all combine. Now is the time.

***

Last but not least, my gratitude is to fellow Australians for opening the door, not only to
me but to all the other migrants like me. Without your spirit of a fair go, my story could
not have been told.

We acquire our community wisdom from our collective, shared experiences.

It's that wisdom, which underlies our entitlement to sing in joyful strains how proud we
are today to be Australians.
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Let's look at the future. My guru told me to live so that I can build a living memorial for
my departed loved ones. There will be a charitable foundation in the name of my
murdered brother, John Mac. We will raise funds and take action to alleviate poverty,
bring education and better health to the lands where I was born and he died.

I will try to follow in the footsteps of a man who wanted to make things right.

I hope that I can be like my friend Geoff, giving less fortunate people a fair go.

I hope that all of us, each in our own way, will strive to understand and help others.

I wish us all a Happy Australia Day.

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 Trinity Catholic College
Auburn / Regents Park

YEAR 9 ENGLISH
Assessment Task 1
Truth, Courage, Community

PART 2: WRITING TASK

Question:

How lucky is any person who receives an education in a free land and goes on
to use it in daily life. Deng Adult

Write an exposition that argues how language can be powerful. In your response
make reference to the speech and its language features.

Exposition Scaffold/Plan

INTRODUCTION

Outline your arguments (What are your reasons for your opinion or perspective)
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BODY

Argument 1 (What is your first reason in support of your opinion?)

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Expansion/Elaborate (Provide evidence, facts or examples.)
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Argument 2 (What is your second reason in support of your opinion?)
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Expansion/Elaborate (Provide evidence, facts or examples.)

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Argument 3 (What is your third reason in support of your opinion?)

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Expansion/Elaborate (Provide evidence, facts or examples.)

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NOTE: Continue this process if you have more than three arguments.

CONCLUSION

(This is your final statement where you restate your arguments.)

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