Indigenous Poetry: Culture and Country

Part 1: English Assessment Task Sheet

_______ State High School
English Department
Semester 1, 2017

Class: 8E Teacher Name: Mr Flanagan

Assignment Task: Multimodal Presentation (Collage and Rationale)

Date Given: 24/4/2017 Draft Due: 26/5/2017 Due Date: 02/5/2017

Brief Description of Task

Using two texts from your Indigenous poetry booklet, you are to prepare a
multimodal response which visually represents the language features and
themes of your selected poems and a rationale which justifies your creative
decisions.

Context in Which You are to Speak and Design

Genre and social Justify a created text based on your evaluation of two
purpose literary texts

Subject matter Through a collage and rationale, you will analyse two
What is the assignment literary texts (poems/songs) of your choice. Include:
about and how is the • A summary of each text
content staged? • The authors use of language features
• How these texts reflect the course themes of
culture and country in relation to Indigenous
identity
• Evaluate the effectiveness of each poem in
communicating contemporary Indigenous
issues to an audience.
Roles and You are an artist explaining your collage to an
relationships audience of potential customers.

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Indigenous Poetry: Culture and Country

Who are you? Who is

your audience? What In terms of relationships you should assume:
relationships are you • The audience does not know you personally
trying to establish • Audience has a similar knowledge of the
(power, distance, subject matter and terminology as you.
alignment of values)? • Your audience shares your enthusiasm for
Indigenous art and literature.
Mode Multimodal presentation
Written, spoken, visual,
audio, gestural or some
combination?
Medium Presented at the front of class from the 5th of May. A
How is the assignment hard copy of your rationale and digital copy of your
to be presented? collage is to be submitted on the 2nd of May as proof of
completion of the assignment.

Conditions Under Which the Task will be Completed

Unseen task or Prepared task - assignment
prepared?
Prior notice given Four weeks total.
Familiarity with Explicit teaching of rationale. Background knowledge
genre/subject matter of contemporary Indigenous issues is enhanced
through providing context for the texts.
Resources (human and Access to texts and course materials throughout the
material) allowed to unit will be made available.
be accessed and to
what extent
Authenticity • One period of class time will be set aside for
requirements planning, writing and rehearsing speeches.
• A copy of your draft must be submitted to the
teacher for adequate completion of the
assignment
• A hard copy of your rationale must be
submitted to the teacher along with the task
sheet. A digital copy of the collage must be
emailed to the teacher.
Word limit or time 3-4 minutes
length
Layout conventions Hard copy of completed rationale: 12 Times New
Roman; double-spaced. Digital copy of collage
emailed to teacher.
Referencing Not applicable
conventions expected
Other special Students may, with teacher’s permission, present
conditions (if any) their rationale in the form of a pre-recorded video.

Suggested Steps for Completing the Task

1. Complete all classroom activities.

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Indigenous Poetry: Culture and Country

2. Ensure that you understand the importance of culture and country in

relation to Indigenous identity.
3. Take on the role of an artist and form a rationale for a collage which
represents two texts from this unit
4. Use your notes and ideas from analysing these poems and incorporate them
into your rationale to justify your creative decisions.
5. Create an outline of your collage before applying any materials to it and use
the rationale scaffold to plan your ideas.
6. Submit a draft of your rationale.
7. Revise your rationale based on feedback from the teacher and your peers.
8. Rehearse the presentation of your rationale.
9. Submit a hard copy of your rationale to the teacher
10. Email a digital copy of your collage

Student Checklist
How well have I met the criteria for the task?
Yes No
(Place a tick in the appropriate column)
Genre and Purpose
1. Have I created a collage which represents two of
set texts and written a rationale which justifies
my creative choices?

2. Is the rationale written using TEEL structure?

Subject Matter
3. Have elements such as figurative language and social
context been included in the presentation?
Roles and Relationships
4. Have I written my rationale as an artist who is
explaining their collage?
Mode
5. Does my presentation make effective use of multiple
modes?
Language Features
6. Were my creative decisions reflective of the poem’s
themes and language features?
7. Did I make use of the terminology that I was
introduced to in this unit?
8. Do I appear well-rehearsed and coherent when
presenting my rationale?
9. Is my rationale between 3 and 4 minutes?

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Indigenous Poetry: Culture and Country

Part 2: English Unit Plan

Teacher’s Name
Mr Flanagan

Unit Identification
Unit Title Year Level Duration of Unit
Indigenous Poetry: 8 6 weeks
Culture and Country

Social Context of the Class (including strengths and needs of

students)
8D is a mixed ability class of 27 students, with 11 boys and 16 girls. While some
of the students (4 of the girls and 2 of the boys) are avid readers, they mostly
enjoy fiction rather than poetry. However, almost all of the students are
enthusiastic about music. 2 students, Z***** and S*****, are diagnosed with ASD
(S***** has a teacher’s aide in most lessons and receives help with his
assignments in the Enriched Learning Centre) and 1 student, A*******, has
dyslexia. Nearly all students are confident in expressing their opinion verbally
and their results from a comprehension test in a previous unit ranged from
average to good. This test did reveal that they had difficulty with identifying
figurative and evaluative language which will need to be strengthened for the
assignment in this unit. Some students have difficulty completing tasks without
teacher modelling and joint construction. Additionally, students will require
modelling of the collage component of the assignment.

Focus (Integrating Device)

This unit will focus on contemporary Indigenous issues and themes of culture
and country. Central to this unit will be a close study of 7 poems and songs about
Indigenous themes. Given the fondness that many students have for music, this
unit should provide an enjoyable means for introducing students to a range of
texts and language features which will challenge their ability to infer and
respond to poetry. The chosen texts display a range of perspectives on
Indigenous identity and issues which will challenge students as they relate to
complicated subjects in Australian society. Students will be asked to respond to
Indigenous perspectives on country, marginalisation and disconnection from
their culture. Students will be asked to consider these perspectives, evaluate the
issues represented in the texts, respond creatively with a collage and justify their
response with a rationale.

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Indigenous Poetry: Culture and Country
Learning Objectives
Language
Language variation and
change
Understand the influence and
impact that the English
language has had on other
languages or dialects and how
English has been influenced in
return (ACELA1540)
Language for interaction
Understand how conventions
of speech adopted by
communities influence the
identities of people in those
communities (ACELA1541)
Understand how cohesion in
texts is improved by
strengthening the internal
structure of paragraphs
through the use of examples,
quotations and substantiation
of claims (ACELA1766)
Expressing and developing
ideas
Analyse and examine how
effective authors control and
use a variety of clause
structures, including clauses
embedded within the
structure of a noun
group/phrase or clause
(ACELA1545)
Recognise that vocabulary
choices contribute to the
specificity, abstraction and
style of texts (ACELA1547)
Investigate how visual and
multimodal texts allude to or
draw on other texts or images
to enhance and layer meaning
(ACELA1548)
Literature
Literature and context
Explore the ways that ideas
and viewpoints in literary
texts drawn from different
historical, social and cultural
contexts may reflect or
challenge the values of
individuals and groups
(ACELT1626)
Explore the
interconnectedness of
Country/Place, People,
Identity and Culture in texts
including those by Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander
authors (ACELT1806)
Responding to literature
Share, reflect on, clarify and
evaluate opinions and
arguments about aspects of
literary texts (ACELT1627)
Understand and explain how
combinations of words and
images in texts are used to
represent particular groups in
society, and how texts
position readers in relation to
those groups (ACELT1628)
Recognise and explain
differing viewpoints about the
world, cultures, individual
people and concerns
represented in texts
(ACELT1807)
Examining literature
Recognise, explain and
analyse the ways literary texts
draw on readers’ knowledge
of other texts and enable new
understanding and
appreciation of aesthetic
qualities (ACELT1629)
Identify and evaluate devices
that create tone, for example
humour, wordplay, innuendo
Literacy
Interacting with others
Interpret the stated and
implied meanings in spoken
texts, and use evidence to
support or challenge
Use interaction skills for
identified purposes, using
voice and language
conventions to suit different
situations, selecting
vocabulary, modulating voice
and using elements such as
music, images and sound for
specific effects (ACELY1808)
Plan, rehearse and deliver
presentations, selecting and
sequencing appropriate
content, including multimodal
elements, to reflect a diversity
of viewpoints (ACELY1731)
Interpreting, analysing,
evaluating
Analyse and evaluate the ways
that text structures and
language features vary
according to the purpose of
the text and the ways that
referenced sources add
authority to a text
(ACELY1732)
Apply increasing knowledge of
vocabulary, text structures
and language features to
understand the content of
texts (ACELY1733)
Creating texts
Experiment with text
structures and language
features to refine and clarify
ideas to improve the
effectiveness of students’ own
texts (ACELY1810)
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Indigenous Poetry: Culture and Country

and parody in poetry,

humorous prose, drama or
visual texts (ACELT1630)

Creating literature
Experiment with particular
language features drawn from
different types of texts,
including combinations of
language and visual choices to
create new texts (ACELT1768)

Unit Overview

Wee Unit Stages and Lesson Topics

k
1 Orientating Phase Orientating Phase Enhancing Phase
Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3
• Introduction to • Providing context • Linking
the unit and of contemporary context to the
texts Indigenous issues themes and
• Experiencing • Joint inferring texts of the
Poetry and exercise unit.
Indigenous art • Responding
to Indigenous
issues
2 Enhancing Phase Enhancing Phase Enhancing Phase
Lesson 4 Lesson 5 Lesson 6
• Introducing • Making • Expanding
poetic connections vocabulary
language between the text
features and the themes of
• Making the unit.
connections • Considering
between Indigenous
language perspectives
features and
the aims of the
text.

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Indigenous Poetry: Culture and Country

3 Enhancing Phase Enhancing Phase Enhancing Phase

Lesson 7 Lesson 8 Lesson 9
• Expanding • Critical reading of • Personal and
critical the text critical
considerations • Comprehension responses to
through guided and evaluation of texts
practice theme
• Collaborative • Guided
analysis of discussion of
texts poetic devices
and their impact
on meaning.
• Representing the
language features
and themes of the
text visually
4 Enhancing Phase Enhancing Phase Enhancing Phase
Lesson 10 Lesson 11 Lesson 12
• Reviewing • Revising • Individual
responses vocabulary and analysis of
• Writing skills: language features text
Nominalisation • Comparing and • Reflections on
• Expanding contrasting the texts
vocabulary language features • Reading
and themes of reflections
texts aloud in class

5 Enhancing Phase Enhancing Phase Enhancing Phase

Lesson 13 Lesson 14 Lesson 15
• Explaining • Joint construction • Using
technical of a collage. planning
terminology to • Students begin materials and
justify their planning their scaffold to
collage. collage. write the
• Applying rationale.
terminology to
examples of
collages
• Review
language
features
6 Synthesising Phase Synthesising Phase Synthesising Phase
Lesson 16 Lesson 17 Lesson 18
• Planning • Revising based • Unit review
rationale and on teacher’s and
drafting. comments and submission of
• Creating peer review. assignment
collage materials.

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Indigenous Poetry: Culture and Country

Sequencing of Learning Activities

Orientating phase
Enhancing phase
Synthesising phase

Teaching Strategies & Learning Experiences Resources

Lesson 1 Booklet containing the set
• Introduce key themes of the texts; culture texts.
and country
• Teacher introduces the aims and learning Indigenous artworks
goals of the unit and addresses the
assessment Examples of collages
• Teacher provides examples of poetry
recitation, collages and Indigenous art for Poetry recital (for example,
discussion with the class to help set Tony Walsh’s This is the
expectations. Place
• Distribute the booklet with each of the texts
the class will be responding to in this unit:
This Land is Mine, Treaty, Municipal Gum,
Black Child, Took the Children Away, Bora
Ring and Oyster Cove

Lesson 2 Insight: Young Mob

• As a class, assess the prior knowledge of
students about Indigenous issues by Magnet summary with the
brainstorming what they know from the names of the subjects in
news, popular culture of their own this episode of Insight
experiences. written on the whiteboard.
• Guided screening of Insight: Young Mob
where students listen to the perspectives on
young people in Indigenous communities
and, with teacher’s guidance, infer how
these experiences are reflective of issues in
their communities.
Lesson 3. ‘How Bob Hawke killed
• Play the video clip for Yothu Yindi’s Treaty land rights’ article
as students read-along from the booklet.
• Read aloud a section of an article on the Treaty by Yothu Yindi
Hawke Government’s treatment of
Indigenous people in relation to land rights. Laminated a4 sheets with
• Explain the context of Treaty and discuss choices for cloze exercise
how the treatment of Indigenous people is
linked to the themes of the course; culture
and country.
• Model a letter to a letter to the Prime

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Indigenous Poetry: Culture and Country

Teaching Strategies & Learning Experiences Resources

Minister Hawke from a citizen of the time
with a cloze exercise with choices for the
letter that range in modality.
Lesson 4 Glossary of poetic devices
• Introduce students to figurative language
devices they will encounter in the set texts Dictionaries/devices with
for this unit and discuss the themes of the access to online
unit; culture and country. dictionaries.
• Distribute a glossary of figurative language
devices to the students. Treaty by Yothu Yindi
• Define two poetic devices for the students
and, with guided practice, create a sentence
that makes use of these poetic devices.
• After guided practice, students use
dictionaries to find the definition of each of
the terms on the glossary.
• Review student knowledge by writing
student definitions on the board and
correcting where necessary.
• Establish a colour code for each device (for
example, personification = yellow) so
students can make note of these devices
when they are working the set texts
• Review Treaty with students and, through
thinkaloud modelling, highlight examples of
figurative language used in the text.

Lesson 5 Tonight the Moon

• Screening of the first 15 minutes of One
Night the Moon; up to the section involving This Land is Mine by Paul
This Land is Mine. Kelly, Kev Carmody and
• Read aloud with the class and lead in guided Mairead Hannan
practice of responding to the similarities
and differences (for example, subject Treaty by Yothu Yindi
matter, tone, language features) of the This
Land is Mine and Treaty with a double- Double-bubble map.
bubble map.
• Discuss the structure of This Land is Mine
with students. Lead the class in a discussion
of the two perspectives of land and country
seen the text. Whose perspective is more
valuable? How are their concepts of
ownerships reflective of their respective
cultures?
• Students write a brief paragraph responding
to the poem; evaluating whose
claim/connection to the “land” is stronger.

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Indigenous Poetry: Culture and Country

Teaching Strategies & Learning Experiences Resources

Lesson 6 Vocabulary sheet

• Distribute vocabulary sheet with a list of
words they will use in their rationale
(juxtaposition, positioning). Model the
correct answer to one word. Include
morphemes, origin, synonyms, antonyms
and use in a sentence.
• Allow class to complete the vocabulary list
and review answers at of the lesson.
Lesson 7 Black Child by Maureen
• Teacher reads Black Child aloud. Watson
• Class discussion of the subject matter and
figurative language used in Black Child. SMILE breakdown sheet
• Teacher distributes SMILE breakdown
sheets to students
• Guided practice of the SMILE breakdown
sheet. Teacher and students respond to
Black Child using the SMILE sheet.
• Collaborative practice, students in small
groups respond to This Land is Mine and
Treaty using the SMILE breakdown sheet.
Lesson 8 Municipal Gum by Oogeroo
• Teacher reads Municipal Gum aloud; asking Noonuccal
students to underline words they don’t
understand. SMILE Breakdown Sheet
• Teacher reviews the words that were
underlined, defining underlined words that Blank paper/stationery
other students can’t define for their peers.
• Students analyse Municipal Gum
individually using SMILE sheets.
• Teacher reviews answers to the SMILE
sheets with students.
• Teacher introduces the collage component
of the assignment to the students.
• Teacher leads class in discussion of imagery
of Municipal Gum. Students use discussion
to guide the next task, recreating the text by
drawing it.
Lesson 9 Took the Children Away by
• Play video for Took the Children Away by Archie Roach
Archie Roach
• Students compose a brief personal response
to the song; whether they did or did not like
the text.
• Teacher volunteers students to contribute

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Indigenous Poetry: Culture and Country

Teaching Strategies & Learning Experiences Resources

their personal responses to the text.
• Teacher provides context for the song
(Stolen Generation)
• Class discussion of figurative language
techniques, theme and how the audience is
positioned to respond to the text.
• Teacher models a critical response to
Municipal Gum on the board.
• Students modify their personal response
using the teacher’s scaffold on the board to
write a brief critical response to Took the
Children Away.
Lesson 10 Personal and critical
• Review of work from the previous lesson; responses from previous
teacher and students discuss the different lesson
aims and elements of personal and critical
response. Sample sentences for
• Distribute sample sentences to students for nominalisation exercise
a nominalisation exercise. Teacher models
an example of altering verbs into nouns for Second vocabulary sheet
students. Teacher guides students through
another example and then students
individually respond to the exercise.
• After students have completed the
nominalisation exercise, distribute the
second vocabulary sheet.
• Students work in mixed ability pairs to
complete the vocabulary exercise.

Lesson 11 Jeopardy formatted

• Revision of poetic language techniques and PowerPoint presentation
vocabulary in the format of the game show
Jeopardy. Students respond to teacher’s Bora Ring by Judith Wright
questions and are given prizes (chocolate)
for correct answers. Blank three column
• Read aloud Bora Ring analysis sheet.
• Discuss Bora Ring with students and
distribute blank three column analysis
sheets.
• Teacher models a three column analysis of
the language features of Bora Ring and This
Land is Mine.
• Students use three column analysis sheets
to compare and contrast Bora Ring and
another text of their choice.
Lesson 12 SMILE breakdown sheet
• Read aloud Oyster Bay for the students.

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Indigenous Poetry: Culture and Country

Teaching Strategies & Learning Experiences Resources

• Students individually respond to the SMILE
breakdown sheet with teacher providing
assistance if needed.
• Teacher reviews student’s answers with the
class.
• After analysing each of the set texts for the
unit, students write a brief reflection on the
task in which they evaluate their favourite
text and how it relates to culture and/or
country.
• Students volunteer to read aloud their
reflections to the class.
Lesson 13 PowerPoint with figurative
• Brief review of figurative language and language review, visual
vocabulary with the class. Provide in depth elements terminology.
explanation of the effects with examples
from each text. Assess student knowledge Examples of collages
and provide further assistance if necessary.
• Teacher defines the terminology for visual
elements in the student’s collage through
use of a PowerPoint with examples of how
students can use shape, colour, texture,
space and imagery.
• Provide students with examples of collages
by Indigenous artists. In small groups
students analyse the visual elements in their
assigned collage and evaluate how these
elements convey the theme of culture or
country
• Each group presents their findings at the
front of the class.
Lesson 14 Model collage
• Following on from the previous lesson on
visual representations of culture and Class materials
country, the teacher models a collage at the
front of class that represents two texts not A3 paper
used in the booklet (My Sitting Down Place
and My Island Home). Teacher tells the class My Island Home and My
which poems they will be representing. Sitting Down Place
• Class makes suggestions about which
elements the teacher should include.
• Evaluate the collage with the class.
• Distribute A3 sheets of paper to the class
and allow them to plan their collage while
circulating to provide assistance.
Lesson 15 Rationale scaffold
• At the beginning of class, ask students to

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Indigenous Poetry: Culture and Country

Teaching Strategies & Learning Experiences Resources

name the two poems they will use in My Island Home and My
responding to the assignment. Consult with Sitting Down Place
students who still have not chosen as text.
• Handout a scaffold for planning the
rationale.
• Use two texts used when modelling the
collage in the model a response to the
scaffold with students offering suggestions
about what to include.
• After modelling, students being planning out
their rationale using the scaffold.

Lesson 16 Rationale scaffold

• Students use their notes and the writing
scaffold to write their drafts or continue Rationale draft and collage
work on their collages
• Teacher circulates to provide assistance
when needed
Lesson 17 Rationale drafts and
• Working in mixed-ability pairs, students collages
undertake peer-reviews of each other’s
rationale drafts and progress on their
collages.
• Using the feedback from teacher and during
the peer review activity, students begin
making alterations to their assignments.
Lesson 18 Completed assignments
Unit review
• Students submit their assignments; a hard
copy of their rationale and a digital copy of
their collage.
• Teacher creates a running order for
presentation of collages and rationales
• Review unit learning; ask students if they
were felt their collage or rationale was
stronger and reflect on the learning
activities.

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