HWM-01: When Crime Does Pay
Crime is one of the most successful genres in books as well as on TV and film. Crime has a structure, a puzzle format, and can incorporate forensic science and logical reasoning. Then again, it can be set in any time in history or in the future. It can be realist or pure fantasy, based on a real event or entirely imagined. This unit takes students through the writing process from creating a character and plot through to writing a full mystery story, using the crime genre as the basis. (level: Medium)
HWM-02: Reality Rocks – writing non-fiction
The vast majority of writing is non-fiction. Magazines, newspapers and vast proportions of every bookshop are full of it. This unit asks the student to take any passion they have and develop it into the basis for various forms of magazine and newspaper articles, and plans for a narrative book. Narrative non-fiction is the biggest growing area of publishing. Drawing on their personal interests, the students can discover that writing non-fiction is a great way to write. (level: Medium)
HWM-03: From Character to Plot
The writing of many students is strong on plot but weak on character. This unit starts the story writing process from character, building it up until the characters write the story themselves. Many authors tell of how the characters guide the writing and object if the writer gets it wrong. Using anecdotes from the unit writer’s own novel, students will be guided to find their characters, get to know them so well they become real, and only then, start to write their story. (level: Medium)
HWM-04: From Idea To Bookshop – the publishing process
Writing the story is only the start. This unit takes the student through the entire process from idea to draft, to proposal to manuscript. Then the publisher moves in: from content editing, to copy editing, to production, publication and marketing. Drawing on her own experience of thirteen books in three distinct genres, the unit writer helps students model the entire process. (level: Medium)
HWM-05: Writing In Unreal Worlds – fantasy and science fiction
Fantasy and Science Fiction are two of the most popular genres for page and screen – lots of different types of pages and lots of different types of screens. Science fiction is not the same as fantasy. The two genres abide by different rules and take a wide variety of formats in an every growing range of media. Exploring these genres using well known examples, students will go on to write in the genre and format of their choice. (level: Medium)
Social Issues
HSI-01: Change: getting answers in the information age
It is only 20 years since the Internet and electronic resources changed the way we get information. Our students do not appreciate just how different this is. This unit explores the nature of resources. With two sets of matching questions to be answered, they must work in two ways. Set One is to be answered without the internet or any other form of electronic resources. Set Two has matching questions, but different enough to require searching again, and can be done in any way the students like. They will then analyse the nature of information resources in the information age. Things are changing fast! (level: Introductory)
HSM-01: Justice: right and wrong isn’t black and white
Sometimes there just isn’t a clear right and wrong. Through a series of scenarios presented from the perspective of a range of participants, students will get to debate just what would be justice in these cases. As each character tells their side of the story, the waters become murkier. Five different scenarios from at least four different perspectives gives a great deal to argue about. The law can’t always help us with what is right and wrong. (level: Medium)
Archaeology
HAM-01: Sifting through time
This unit addresses the reasoning behind archaeology. We read about the incredible findings of archaeologists, but how do they think? How do they interpret evidence? How reliable are those interpretations? Students are asked to look at their own bedroom. What would remain for archaeologists to study in 1000 years? What can we see from 1000 years ago? How likely is it that our interpretation is correct? Archaeology is about hard thinking with very little evidence! (level: Medium)
HAA-01: Arguing early man
Like a lot of areas of human endeavour, it’s the people and politics which dominate the field. Through the fierce arguments between great paleoanthroplogists like Richard Leakey and Donald Johansson, the theories on our human ancestors will emerge. Through studying this unit, students will learn about the first humans, from australopithecines to Home sapiens. But it is far from facts set in concrete – this is where the hypotheses fight it out. (level: Advanced)