OLG1 - Reading Process: Using critical literacy, a variety of reading strategies and, knowledge of form and style, students will analyze, assess and synthesize information and ideas from a variety of texts.

OLG2 - Writing Process: Thinking critically, students will conduct research to develop ideas for writing tasks; they will organize and synthesize information to suit specific forms, purposes and audiences.

OLG3: Oral Communication Thinking critically, students will plan and prepare a variety of oral and/or multimedia texts, using effective communication skills that are organized, and that show evidence of rehearsal and revision.

OLG4: Media and Critical Literacy: By applying critical literacy and key media theory, students will analyze representations and techniques in a variety of media forms and use media techniques to create different media texts for specific audiences and purposes

OLG5: Metacognition: Students will reflect on their English knowledge and skills, and with the support of their teachers, take corrective measures to improve.

• How do familial relationships impact the security and/or well-being of family members?
• How do our personal experiences and/or our personal perspectives shape our view of others and our view of the world?
• What are the consequences of conflicts between a person’s individual choices and the values within the society? To what extent does power or the lack of power impact individuals and/or shape their identities?
• What is the relationship between freedom and responsibility?
• What, if any, are essential liberties? Is it possible for everyone to enjoy liberty and justice? Should people sacrifice their freedom in the interest of liberty/justice?
• How can we learn from the mistakes of the past? What does it mean to be liberated? Is it possible to achieve liberation without the use of force?
• Are human beings doomed to misuse power?
• Can people genuinely empathize with others and to what extent is empathy adequate/inadequate in the fight for freedom/liberation?
• Why do people make sacrifices for others and what are the consequences of these sacrifices?
• What does it mean to be innocent? Guilty? What are some of the mitigating factors that might be taken into consideration when deciding someone’s innocence or guilt?
• How do we balance the need to find justice for victims and punishing those that are responsible for those crimes?

I used to comfort myself with the belief that it was only certain individuals and their peculiar notions that spoilt things for the rest of us. But how many individuals does it take before it's not the individuals who are prejudiced but society itself?

I hadn't fully realized just how powerful words could be before this. Whoever came up with the saying 'sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me' was talking out of his or her armpit.

You're a Nought and I'm a Cross and there's nowhere for us to be, nowhere for us to go where we'd be left in peace...That's why I started crying. That's why I couldn't stop. For all the things we might've had and all the things we're never going to have .

Noughts... Even the word was negative. Nothing. Nil. Zero. Nonentities. It wasn't a name we'd chosen for ourselves. It was a name we'd been given.

Students will participate in a number of assessment for, as and of learning activities. They will respond accurately to general questions about the content, form, voice and style of the graphic novel.

1. The Justice Department/Ministry of Justice has been charged with re-opening the cases against Callum or Ryan. Each student will work with a group to act either as a part of the legal team (prosecution and defence teams, judge, jury, court recorder, police officers) and members of the media.

• If you are a part of the prosecution's team your job is to find evidence of guilt.
• If you are a part of the defence team, your role is to find evidence of innocence or arguments that mitigate against guilt (extenuating circumstances.
• In deciding each character’s innocence or guilt, remember to locate their actions in terms of the society in which they lived. Determine if and how any existing extenuating conditions might have led to the actions of these characters. Decide to what extent these should go to exonerate them or serve as evidence of their guilt. In examining these you might find the literary lenses useful.

Requirements:

• Each student, or group of students, is responsible for defining innocence and guilt as delineated in the novel.

1. While reading, keep detailed notes. As part of your evidence, you need police reports, witness testimony; expert opinions include using reported symptoms and possible medical conditions, motive, and opportunity. These pieces of evidence should come from the text and should be entered into evidence at the start of the trial.
2. After the trials, select and complete one of the following tasks:

• Pretend you are the judge in the trial – write your summation.
• Pretend you are a lawyer - write your closing argument.
• Pretend you are a family member of someone that died in the Dundale Shopping Centre; write a letter to the court that details your belief about Ryan’s innocence or guilt and the impact on your family.
• Pretend you are a doctor that studies the impact of marginalization on individuals; write your report about your diagnosis about Ryan’s mental health and his ability to make rational decisions.
• Pretend you are Sephy; write a letter to the court describing your knowledge of Callum - what role he played in your kidnapping and rescue.
• Pretend you are member of the jury; write a reflection about your initial thoughts about the innocence or guilt of the defendant - describe the experience. Were you pressured into changing your vote? Did you feel like you had the power to make up your own mind?
• Students may also consider writing final statements from the defendants, the prosecutors.

In your text (summation, letter or report), write a rationale for your views. In other words, using information gathered about the characters – their actions, words and effects on others, values and norms from the time in which they existed, and your knowledge of the critical lenses, write your views.