Who has a voice?

LESSON

WEEK

Inquiry Unit for Year 9 (Australian Secondary students) Learning Domains, Art, English and Mathematics
Lesson aims / leading VicCurr Key Skills and Content
Lesson Overview / Activity
question:
Knowledge

Resources /
Equipment
needed

Who has a voice? Analyse, interpret and evaluate a range

Introduction to class about new topic
of visual artworks from different handout.
cultures, historical and contemporary
Introduce
contexts to explore differing viewpoints
students to new
Cross the line activity are you a quite
(VCAVAR046)
unit gather
person? Talkative?
prior knowledge.
Mindmapping / group work general
brainstorming about topic. Each group reads
out to the class what theyve come up with,
and one member from the group acts as scribe
to take notes and share information with the
other members, so at the end of the class the
groups have a page of notes and information
about the voice.
Overview of how the voice box physically
works.
Anatomy of the larynx.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2pLJfWUjc8
What does it mean to have a voice? / Can
you have a voice without speaking?
gathering of questions.

What is Oracy?
If we have a
voice we should

Listen to spoken texts

constructed for different
purposes and analyse how
language features in these
texts position listeners to
respond in particular ways,

Oracy what does this mean?

Students investigate the definition of Oracy
and discuss different types of oracy and write

butchers
paper,
textas,
overhead
projector

learn to use it
well.

and consider the interaction

skills used to present and
discuss ideas, or to influence
and engage audiences
through persuasive language,
varied voice tone, pitch and
pace (VCELY455)

a list of good and bad oracy skills.

What is she
saying?

Listen to spoken texts

constructed for different
purposes and analyse how
language features in these
texts position listeners to
respond in particular ways, and
consider the interaction skills
used to present and discuss
ideas, or to influence and
engage audiences through
persuasive language, varied
voice tone, pitch and pace

Students to listen to local slam poet Ebony

Moncrieff (ex UV student) and hear how she
develops her very personal poems.

Incursion with
spoken work
Artist.

(VCELY455)
Explain how authors creatively
use the structures of sentences
and clauses for particular
effects (VCELA433)
Explore how artists manipulate
materials, techniques,
technologies and processes to
develop and express their
intentions in art works

(VCAVAE041)

I slam
therefore I am
Students to start

Plan, rehearse and deliver

presentations, selecting and
sequencing appropriate
content and multimodal
elements for aesthetic and

By modelling a performance in front of the

students I am hoping that theyll be inspired as
theyll have to produce their poem, and later
well run a slam poet exhibition (assessment)
There is a worksheet that outlines Good Oracy
skills to assist the students when developing
their own performance.
Students will encouraged to look at other
spoken work artists:
Kate Tempest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32i5zfcFt8g
Sarah Kay
https://www.ted.com/playlists/87/spoken_word_fi
reworks

Students review previous incursion, and review

the good and bad Oracy skills.
They spend class time writing their own voice

outdoor /
out of
classroom
location.

(Insert work
sheet)

working on their
own voice poem

playful purposes (VCELY456)

Listen up
everybody

Conceptualise, plan and

design art works that express
ideas, concepts and artistic
intentions (VCAVAV043)

poem.

Conceptualise, plan and

design art works that express
ideas, concepts and artistic
intentions (VCAVAV043)

Developing listening skills.

Impact of speech on body.
Start with a warm up walk around exercise.
Ask the question what does it mean to be a
good listener?
Develop a list of what a good and bad listener
looks like. How does it feel when were not
listened too?
What does it look like? Students to spend 30
mins using any material (playdough / crayon /
pencil) to illustrate what not being listened too
looks like to them. They may choose to create
a short performance.

6
Listen to Me!

Review and edit students own

and others texts to improve
clarity and control over
content, organisation,
paragraphing, sentence
structure, vocabulary and
audio/visual features

(VCELY450)

Lego listening activity. One student describes

a photograph, whilst the other student tries to
listen and ask questions so that the Lego
scene is produced in the same way as the
photograph.
Students reflect on exercise what worked and
what didnt work.
For the second half of the lesson they work on

(insert walk exercise

their poem getting guidance from other

students (using presentation worksheet).
3

7
Slam Poet Exhibition

Dont say a
word!
- What does it
mean to be
voiceless?

Plan, rehearse and deliver

presentations, selecting and
sequencing appropriate
content and multimodal
elements for aesthetic and
playful purposes (VCELY456)

Students present their poems to the class*

Understand that roles and

relationships are developed
and challenged through
language and interpersonal
skills (VCELA453)

This class will be spent in absolute silence

(except for the last 15 minutes).

*Invariably there will be some students who

feel uncomfortable doing this if theyve
indicated this earlier we can consider other
options, however working towards building a
safe and inclusion learning environment I
would hope that all will participate in this
activity.

Students will have a list of activities to get

through in silence. Theyll have to organise
themselves and work with each other using
communication other than language.
Learning non-verbal skills.
Reflection on activity what did they find
hard / easy.

Who is voiceless? Explore the visual arts

practices and styles as

inspiration to develop a
personal style, explore,
express ideas, concepts and
themes in art works

(VCAVAE040)

Reviewing and discussing non-verbal skills

Braining storming / mindmapping around the
question of who is voiceless / How do we hear
those without a voice?
Animals / Refugees / People in emotionally
abusive relationships / politically imprisoned
etc.
Definition of voiceless what does this
mean?

Artist who are / were voiceless or creates

work about the voiceless and how they
gained their voice
Homework - Read the following article:
http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/breakingnews/morrissey-says-animals-lose-onlanguage/newsstory/d5ca2051c41e95e41e003be38e17a6c0
What is it about?
Do you agree with what is being said? Why?
THINK AND MAKE I keep playdough around
for students to use at certain times allows for
spontaneous creative responses.
10

Who gives
voice to the
voiceless?

Understand that roles and

relationships are developed
and challenged through
language and interpersonal
skills (VCELA453)

Student learn about advocacy, and the

situations in which people provide a voice for
those that have had their voices suppressed,
ignored or erased.
https://www.voiceless.org.au/
When are there time we need others to
speak for us?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-0307/women-erased-from-history-onwikipedia/7225556
Exercise How to improve our listening skills.
How else do we listen?

11

How to make
your voice
count

Investigate reports of surveys in

digital media and elsewhere for
information on how data were

Have our opinions or voices changed about

animal rights?

- opinion polls
and voting;
using numeracy
to illustrate
voice
(Part 1)

obtained to estimate population

means and medians

Read the article below:

(VCMSP323)

Australianfirstsurveyrevealsnationsattitudestowards
animalprotection
http://www.openforum.com.au/content/australi
an-first-survey-reveals-nation%E2%80%99sattitudes-towards-animal-protection
1. Investigate the methodology used to
come up with their rating.
2. Are there any drawbacks?
3. Have our opinions changed towards
animals?
4. What further information can you
conclude from this Voiceless report?
5. What information can we gather from our
classroom about animals and their
voices?

12

How to make
your voice
count
- opinion polls
and voting;
using numeracy
to illustrate
voice.
(Part 2)

13

How to make

Identify everyday questions

and issues involving at least
one numerical and at least
one categorical variable, and
collect data directly from
secondary sources
(VCMSP324)
Compare data displays using
mean, median and range to
describe and interpret
numerical data sets in terms
of location (centre) and spread
(VCMSP326)

Identify everyday questions

Do you know about voting?

Students to devise questions about
themselves and how much they know about
local members of parliament, state and federal
and find relatable information from
secondary sources.
They pool their information and start to collate
and collect information.

EXERCURSION

your voice
count
- opinion polls
and voting;
using numeracy
to illustrate
voice.
(Part 3)
14

How to make
your voice
count
- opinion polls
and voting;
using numeracy
to illustrate
voice.
(Part 3)

15

My voice
Learning to
listen to myself.

and issues involving at least

one numerical and at least
one categorical variable, and
collect data directly from
secondary sources
(VCMSP324)

Identify everyday questions

and issues involving at least
one numerical and at least
one categorical variable, and
collect data directly from
secondary sources
(VCMSP324)

Student to journey into Parliament house (this

could be relocated to Local Government or
Local Council) to learn more about voting).

The results are in each group presents to the

class the results of their poll, including their
interpretation. They may design their data
displays in the most creative way possible.

Compare data displays using

mean, median and range to
describe and interpret
numerical data sets in terms
of location (centre) and spread
(VCMSP326)

Explore how artists

manipulate materials,
techniques, technologies
and processes to develop
and express their intentions
in art works (VCAVAE041)
Select and manipulate
materials, techniques, and
technologies and processes
in a range of art forms to
express ideas, concepts and

Students will be asked to listen to ABCs Sound

proof, at
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/
soundproof/
(or other sound works and songs that can be
embedded online.)
Final assessable work: student to produce their
own audio sound art. They will start to
familiarise themselves with spoken work artist,
begin to write up their ideas and recording

themes (VCAVAV042)

sounds / words / noises etc.

Students will spend the next 2 lessons working
on this project.

16

My voice
cont.

Explore how artists

manipulate materials,
techniques, technologies
and processes to develop
and express their intentions
in art works (VCAVAE041)

(as Above)

Select and manipulate materials,

techniques, and technologies and
processes in a range of art forms to
express ideas, concepts and themes
(VCAVAV042)
My voice
17
cont.

Explore how artists

manipulate materials,
techniques, technologies
and processes to develop
and express their intentions
in art works (VCAVAE041)

(as Above)

Select and manipulate materials,

techniques, and technologies and
processes in a range of art forms to
express ideas, concepts and themes
(VCAVAV042)
18

Presentation and
class critique of
audio
production.

Create, present, analyse

and evaluate displays of
artwork considering how
ideas can be conveyed to
an audience (VCAVAP044)

Student present their audio sound peices to

their class.
Reflection on Unit outcomes.