Kieran Wandel

Year 9 English Lesson plan – 55-minute lesson

Australian National Identity Unit – Text annotation and article response

Class context Date Subject/sub strand Year level

Approx. 23. Mixed gender. Mixed abilities 28 November 2018 English 9

Lesson Context:
This lesson forms part of the Australian National Identity Unit which looks at the Australian Identity through Australian literature and its relevance to
modern culture. Australian literature is broken down into literary components so that students can identify structure and formation of information.
Students have learnt about annotation in the previous lesson and will incorporate this into the breaking down of information within an Australian
news article to determine the argument and the author’s perspective. They will then create a response piece countering or supporting the ideas of
the text.

Relevant Content Description/s from the curriculum

Understand that authors innovate with text structures and language for specific purposes and effects (ACELA1553)
• Experimenting with ways to present personal viewpoints through innovating with texts
Present an argument about a literary text based on initial impressions and subsequent analysis of the whole text (ACELT1771)
• Interrogating and making judgments about a text, comparing others’ ideas against the student’s own and reaching an independent decision
or shared consensus about the interpretations and ideas expressed
Learning goal/s of lesson
By the end of this lesson students should be able to:
• Demonstrate the use of annotation to break down information within texts
• Identify the points of argument by the author of the text
• Develop a response to the argument found within the text

Essential questions for the lesson

• How can we use annotation within our schooling life?
• What is the purpose of the heading of the article?
• What purpose does the picture serve in giving the author’s perspective?
• What argument or perspective is the author trying to convince the reader of?
• How could you support, or counter the author’s argument or perspective?

Pedagogical Strategies Used

• Group and whole class discussion – Think, Pair, Share
• Collaborative learning strategies
• Multimodal information provided for differentiation – paper copy and digital copy of article provided
• Question check for understanding

Differentiated Assessment Options

• Provide multimodal media and then question understanding before proceeding.
• Formative assessment submitted by Google Docs for review after the lesson.

Lesson Outline
Content Process Resource/s
Time What do I want students to learn? What will I do? What will the students do? What will be the To be used for section of
(approx.) activity? lesson

5mins Lesson objectives Settle class. Roll. Explain lesson objectives Whiteboard

Students will develop an understanding Introduce the article to the students. Allow them time to read Paper copies and digital
of the article, its contents and the the material and comprehend the information. link for online copy.
perspective and argument of the author.

10mins Students will implement their knowledge Students will break down the information within the text Article provided.
of annotation. using annotation either digitally or by hand (their preference). Coloured pencils where
They are to break it down into categories required.
• Key information – dates of progression
• Individuals the author uses to support the argument
• Key points the author is trying to make
• Arguments/Perspectives
 Kieran Wandel
10mins Students are to hear the ideas of their Think, pair, share. Students are then to bring in the arguments Whiteboard if necessary
peers and perspectives.

5mins Students are to list key ideas separately Students are to take their annotated information and put it
on a digital document into a digital document. They are then to build on this
information.

20mins Students are to develop a response to Students will use the arguments presented to build their Laptops
the arguments. response in the Google Doc that will be shared with myself as
a form of formative assessment for the classroom.

Achievement Standard aspect explored in lesson
Analyse and explain how images, vocabulary choices and language
features distinguish the work of individual authors.
They understand how interpretations can vary by comparing their
responses to texts to the responses of others
Assessment of learning – during and/or at the end of lesson
• Think, pair, share discussions
• Annotated texts
• Whole class discussions of ideas
• Formative written piece submitted on Google Docs

Details of the resources to support learning used in lesson
Article provided to the students in printed and digital formats.
Students can write their responses on their laptops of on the paper
provided.
Reflection questions for learning improvement and teacher quality
• Did the students comprehend the information provided in the
article?
• Were they able to develop an argument or response to the
argument?
• Were students able to identify critical information within the text?

Flip classroom opportunities Homework

Students have the opportunity to receive feedback and develop on Students are to complete response if not completed in the classroom.
information outside of the classroom using the collaborative Document is submitted by Google Docs
document. This opportunity for further development is offered up to
a week after the lesson has concluded
Academic rigour, journalistic flair

No longer tied to Britain, Australia is still searching for its place

in the world
January 27, 2017 6.12am AEDT

Author

Gregory Melleuish
Professor, School of Humanities and Social
Inquiry, University of Wollongong

Shutterstock

This is part of a series examining Australian national identity, especially around the ongoing debate
about Australia Day.

It is worth noting that Australia Day commemorates the dumping of a cargo of the outcasts of Britain
on the shores of the Australian continent. It was not an act of escaping religious oppression, as in the
case of America, or the founding of a new political order, as in France.

British Australia was the creation of an imperial decision. This meant that strong links to Britain, and
the British monarchy, continued well into the 20th century. There were occasional republicans who
advocated a so-called independent Australia, particularly in the 19th century, but, if anything,
enthusiasm for the British Empire increased in the first half of the 20th century.

Australians were Australians, but they were also British. There was the proud boast that Australians
were more “British” than the inhabitants of London. This, of course, was probably true given that
London attracted people from all over the empire and was cosmopolitan in a way that Australia was
not.

The early settlers were British in a very Australian way. Australianness was embedded in their
Britishness; the two were not in conflict. In celebrating Australia Day they were celebrating
themselves and their peculiar Australian way. Such celebrations could not be construed as indicating
a desire to be rid of the monarchy or the empire.

The “cultural cringe” may be important for Barry Humphries and other literary figures who attended
Melbourne private schools but, as Len Hume has argued, ordinary Australians of the first half of the
20th century had a lively popular culture, including great comic figures such as Roy Rene and Lennie
Lower.

Moreover, Australians felt a great deal of solidarity with their British cousins. Consider the following
quote:

Australians know that our future is linked with Britain, not only by ties of race and kinship,
but because of hard, practical reasons.

No, the speaker was not Robert Menzies but Ben Chifley in 1948.

Witness the massively popular reception of the new monarch, Queen Elizabeth, when she visited
Australia in 1954.

The Queen and Prince Philip wave from the royal tram in 1954.
In 1950, Britain was still taking 38.7% of Australia’s exports, which dropped to 26% by 1960. Even in
the 1950s, a strong connection between Australia and Britain made a lot of sense.

By that time, though, it had become clear that the British Empire was no longer a going concern, and
that Britain’s time as a significant world power had come to an end. The old relationship between
Australia and Britain was changing, and Australia was turning its political allegiances more to the US
and its trade to Asia.

There was no reason before the second world war to presume that, 25 years later, there would no
longer be a British Empire and that Britain would be seeking to “join Europe”.

I think that it can be argued that it came as a shock and that the history of Britain over the past 50
years can be understood, at least in part, as an attempt to deal with its loss of “greatness”. Last year’s
Brexit vote indicates that the British have not yet come to terms with their new place in the world.

The shock of the post-war decline of the British Empire was also great for Australia. Cut adrift from
empire, it had to refashion and remake itself. It most certainly continued to have a political, social and
cultural heritage derived from Britain, but it was moving away and increasingly forming its own,
separate identity.

Trade ties were diminished and large numbers of immigrants from many parts of the world arrived,
reshaping the country. The bonds of solidarity with Britain so obvious to Chifley in 1948 would only
puzzle a young Australian in 2017.

Again, like Britain, much of the history of Australia over the past 50 years has been an attempt to
come to terms with the end of empire. Many solutions have been proposed, and tried, ranging from
the new nationalism of the Whitlam years, to multiculturalism, to the idea that Australia is part of
Asia. Or even a mixture of all three. And then, of course, there is the continuing issue of the place of
Indigenous Australians.

Australia has still not worked out its place in a post-imperial world. It knows that it cannot be another
US; Australia doesn’t possess the resources to support 300 million people. It knows that the ties with
Britain will only get weaker over time. There appears still to be much anxiety about where we belong,
when what is needed is a clear, sober and realistic approach to the past and the present.

Australia Day celebrates the origins of British Australia and, in a sense, can be understood as an
imperial creation. In more recent times, it has become a celebration of Australian popular culture,
marked by barbecues and the donning of clothing marked by the Australian flag. Is this a sign that the
day has lost its relevance?
Perhaps one of the most attractive elements of Australian history since 1788 is the fact that so many of
its people, at least in the early days, were the cast-offs of British society who had to make their way in
an alien world that they were forced to call home.

Perhaps because of this, Australia developed a vigorous popular culture from the bush ballads to The
Bulletin and beyond. There is a lot to be said for celebrating Australian ordinariness, which surely
goes beyond its imperial roots.

Catch up on other pieces in the series here.

 Great Britain International relations Australia Day British Empire The Australian national identity British monarchy 
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