The+Whole+of+the+Moon+-+Important+Ideas

These are the ideas we came up with as a class when we were discussing The Whole of the Moon. You brainstormed as groups and we then decided which were the strongest ideas; the ones we could base a response to text on.

Here they are:

1. Don’t judge people based on first impressions. 2. People who love you most and truly love you will always be there for you. 3. Some people may not be what they seem, people who love you won’t ever judge you. 4. Don’t take life for granted – Importance of life – how quickly things can change – enjoy life.

These ideas were all good ones but were not as strong and not as easy to explain and find evidence for...

5. Always think positively 6. Fear 7. Friendship - relationships 8. One event can affect others

Then we teased the ideas out a bit and you all contributed evidence for them being an important idea in the text:

**__'People based' idea__** –

· One event can change peoples thoughts

· Easy to judge someone you don’t know

· Hard to find true friends

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Highlighted by Marty – Marty is so different when he gets to know her

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· You can have special connections with people who love you and you love them

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Common experience makes friendship sometimes easier

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Unsure of true friends – Kirk finds out that his best friends are the ones who understand what he’s going through. His old friend weren’t sure how to act around him

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Kirk realises he doesn’t need the ‘old’ friends as much – he learns a lesson about friendship

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Family don’t judge

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Kirk doesn’t think he belongs at first – he’s the one judging at first. Highlights the idea. He learns from this and ends up changing

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Stevie’s wig – judged him as being crazy on first impression... rather he was trying bring humour to a very unfunny place

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Kirk wouldn’t have even thought Marty came from the background she did.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Kirk thought Marty was tough but she was actually very soft and vulnerable.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**__'Don’t take life for granted' idea -__**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">What in the text tells you this is a story about not taking life for granted?

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Opportunities lost

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Words can change the way you think about life

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· The smallest thing can change your life in the most significant way

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Thoughts about life change

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· How Tory does the Escape day – tries to make Kirk feel better

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Tory visits Kirk in hospital – realises she doesn’t want him anymore

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Marty feels free on the roof

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Marty has a realisation that she is not going to live forever

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· The patients in hospital once had dreams. They had to learn not to take their lives for granted.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· The sick kids also learned they had to live in the moment and enjoy the small things they could...like Stevie and his wig. All he could do was take pleasure from the small effect he could have on people.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Kirk had the best of everything. “Kirk Meads has it all, including cancer”

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Life is going to be different now he has cancer – not at all what he was expecting, hit him between the eyes. Could happen to us all. Everything you have can be taken away from you sooooooo quickly.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Values change also. Kirk’s values change...he realised there were other important things. He couldn’t walk, had to learn to again. Being the fastest skater was no longer his focus; just being able to walk was now.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Pathways we thought we had in life can change/mutate.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· When he finds out he has cancer, he realises the things that make him want to live life are no longer realistic.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Prominent in the book because the majority of the characters, and certainly the most important characters, are close to death.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**__'Don’t judge people based on first impressions (stereotypes)' idea -__**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Specific ways it’s shown in the text – <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· When Kirk judged Stevie in his wig. K thought he was crazy when really Stevie enjoyed the fun and reactions he got when he wore it. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">“On his head was a wig. It looked like the ones on the puppets on tv. He must know it looks ridiculous.” <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· When Tory and the gang first went to the Hosp, they made comments about the kids with no hair and about Stevie with his wig. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">“On his head was this terrible wig, really pathetic and crocked. Who were his parents? I felt sorry for him” <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">“All the kids with no hair were science fiction territory and the sight shut the whole gang up” <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">“In the corridor we past two kids who had no eye brows. Their eyes were sunken and surrounded by dark rings. “Ouch” whispered Ronnie once we were out of ear shot” <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· How K judges the other boys in the race at the beginning of the story. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">“I’m next to one of the Henderson guys. A short nuggety bloke who uses his elbows”. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Everyone judges Marty as a tough cookie. She’s not. They judge her this way because she projects this image of tough, street kid. K at the start thought she was just nasty – the roll call at hospital school. She does the typical stealing, obnoxious thing. K’s first impression of M is that she was some weird Indian princess. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">“The girl simply glared at me then marched out as well. What a welcoming committee.” <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">“I could have killed Marty with my bare hands. She is pure poison and uses it against everyone.” <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">“I caught a glimpse of her under the bare light bulb, Marty was literally trembling she was so afraid.” This is during/after the fight at the toilets when they have escape. It shows us that she isn’t really as tough as she had portrayed so far. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· K judges everyone at the hospital when he first arrives. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">“I felt trapped in a ward full of sick bald headed kids.” <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Marty judges Kirk as a rich kid.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**__'Don’t take life for granted' idea -__**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Specific ways it’s shown in the text – <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· At the beginning of the book K believed he was invincible...untouchable. He even says this <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">“I’ve got the momentum, I’ve got the power, don’t ever mess with Kirk Mead. I’m invincible!” K says this after he has won the race at the beginning. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· K thinks he has anything. He has the lot, girlfriend, he’s a winner, he’s popular. It takes him a while to realise this isn’t the case, even after he learns he has cancer. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· When K has to learn how to walk again after his operation. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">“I took each step slowly...I was pacing myself” <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· K took being young, fit and healthy for granted. He took his freedom for granted, the freedom to do basically what he wanted when he wanted. His life then becomes governed by illness, chemo, physio and feeling like crap. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Because freedom was taken from them when they were diagnosed with cancer, M and K felt quite liberated when they were able to spend time on the roof free....away from beeping machines, invasive medical treatments, people telling them what to do and when to do it. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">When talking about his first chemo K says – <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif;">“this is the anxiety that Dixon told me about – only it is worse than that. A sense of despair claws slowly through your whole body.”