Unique resources created by an experienced Secondary English and History teacher. These are academically rigorous resources that target children between 13 and 18 years of age.
Unique resources created by an experienced Secondary English and History teacher. These are academically rigorous resources that target children between 13 and 18 years of age.
This is a worksheet to utilise with the SBS series First Australians Episode 4: There is no other law. This resource was made for use in an 11 Modern History classroom in Queensland, Australia. I have also included a scanned copy of my teacher answer sheet.
According to SBS, “First Australians chronicles the birth of contemporary Australia as never told before, from the perspective of its first people. First Australians explores what unfolds when the oldest living culture in the world is overrun by the world’s greatest empire.”
Episode 4 focuses on Central Australia 1878-1897. This episode of First Australians gives an excellent academic account of the first 50 years of contact between the Arrernte people of central Australia and the European missionaries, pastoralists and police.
Throughout the history of white settlement, individual white men, good and bad, have significantly affected the first Australians. Supported by pastoralists keen to make their fortune, the homicidal police officer Constable Willshire, brings mayhem to the Arrernte nation in Central Australia. With the authorities turning a blind eye, the telegraph operator Frank Gillen stops him. Gillen’s other legacy is keeping comprehensive records of the Arrernte people’s way of life.
Item 1: Key points from each chapter plus quotes related to moral dilemmas. This is a useful resource for teachers to save you from re reading the novel each year.
Item 2: A booklet to give students as they work through the novel. It includes key questions, some artistic activities (e.g. drawing a map from what they have read, creating a comic strip summary of a key chapter etc). Activities can be assigned for homework or completed in class.
Item 3: A word document containing quotes showcasing moral dilemmas from the novel. Can be used as a poster in the classroom.
The PowerPoint includes definitions and examples of poetic devices including rhyme, repetition, simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, assonance, symbolism etc. There are also slides with famous examples from songs (some oldies but mostly contemporary).
The homework sheet is a match the terms handout to consolidate learning.
For many decades women were marginalised from texts about life in the bush. If they were mentioned at all they were the wives waiting back at the homestead and played no real role in the text. One exception is the short story ‘The Drovers Wife’ (1894) written by Henry Lawson.
This PPT and Work Sheet guide students to read and analyse the story and the effect of its language features and descriptions on readers.
As part of a year 9 English unit investigating means to be Australian, this PowerPoint looks at one of the earliest stereotypes about Australians: that of the rugged bushman. It focuses on the bushman stereotype and poems written by Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson.
This PowerPoint was designed to teach students how to:
Evaluate the use of stereotypes in the texts
explain how the poet’s use of language helps to create meaning in the poem and positions readers in a certain way.
Explain what is accurate and what may be inaccurate about the Aussie bushman stereotype
This lesson explains the origins of this bush myth and why it was adopted by Australians. It introduces students to poetic ballads including the Man from Snowy River (which they watch a youtube clip of and must then respond to a series of questions). It also includes a summary of challenges often depicted in these poems. Subsequently, students read a Henry Lawson Poem (Ballad of the Drover) to compare the writing styles of Lawson and Patterson. Poems are included in this resource (as a handout).
This PPT also explains the link between bushmen and diggers, lists recent films which continue this stereotype etc.
PowerPoint: Watching an Australian music video to identify the various Australian identities and pastimes it features (to discuss whether these are accurate or stereotypical). Watching an excerpt of a sketch comedy program called ‘Big Girl’s Blouse’ (1994) where Kath and Kim originated. The youtube link to the sketch ''Kim's Wedding'' is included. Post-viewing questions and answers are included.
Two PowerPoints for a 10 English class.
defines satire, introduces key terms that students need to know including hyperbole, irony and parody. Introduces Daria as an example satirical text.An example clip and viewing questions.
Defining mockumentaries. How mockumentaries use satirical elements to reflect human experience. View excerpts an example mockumentary (Summer Heights High). 3 clips and responding questions.
3 resources
1) A worksheet which explains the QAR strategy. It then includes a passage (excerpt) from The Time Machine followed by a series of QAR questions.
2) some posters suitable for a year 6-9 English classroom (explaining the QAR terms)
3) a PDF explaining the QAR process for teachers.
PowerPoint. Learning about William Blake and British Colonial Expansion. They will learn about a fundamental ideology of the period: The divine right of kings. Students will read ‘A War Song to Englishmen’ which is accompanied by my annotations (which they may copy into their poetry booklets if they wish). Discuss how everything he wrote was infused with religious meaning so you will see that this poem operates on two levels. We will then compare this to another First World War poem written by American poet Robert Frost. After reading the poem, students will research Frost to gain further context. Afterwards they will highlight the poetic devices used in ‘Not to Keep.’
Venn Diagram for comparing the two poems
a table used for analysing the poems to prepare students for their exam (these will become their revision tools)
A PowerPoint presentation which teaches students how to structure a paragraph using the PEEL acronym. This will be used by students when they write their reviews of the poems they will later read. The PPT includes the words to Kidnappers by Iris Clayton which explores some of the consequences of the stolen generation. Children are asked to write a PEEL paragraph in response to a set question. Depending on the ability level of the class this can be done independently or as a group with the teacher writing their suggestions on the board. This process is repeated for another two poems.
I have also provided a handout with the words for each poem and the questions (for students who need hard copies).
Additional resource: homework handout - a three level guide (designed to prompt higher order thinking about the topic).
A lesson designed to help students to practice the skills ‘decide’ and ‘justify.’ There is a worksheet where they are given a scenario for a client they need to make recommendations for. Students were in a computer lab so that they could research the destination. They had to recommend:
a. An Accommodation option
b. A Travel and Tourism option
c. A Food and Beverage option
d. A Recreation option
A sheet of options for the destination ‘Mount Isa’ have been provided to assist teachers.
There is also a homework activity for the ‘Gold Coast.’
Resources designed for use in an 11 Hospitality Practices class in Australia (2019 curriculum). Unit 1: Introduction to Hospitality, Topic 1: Beverage operations and services. My school has 70-minute lessons. The assessment at the end of this unit was an examination (short response).
This is a history style lesson designed to help children understand the Stolen Generations before the next lesson where they will view poems about this issue and have to analyse them. It introduces students to the assimilation policy, includes images of newspaper advertisements at the time (selling half-caste children) and looks at the beliefs held at the time about this issue. It includes clips from the film Rabbit Proof Fence along with questions to help check for understanding and to develop empathy. Following this, information is provided about what the institutions were like as well as historical sources (testimonies of stolen children remembering the day they were taken). Finally, it looks at the effects and consequences of the stolen generation with information taken from the Creative Spirits website.
Additional resources: A handout with the questions for the Rabbit Proof Fence viewing activity.
A homework handout (mind mapping the effects of the stolen generation.)
Two resources from a grade 9 English unit
A list of unit specific spelling words - 24 words for each week.
PowerPoint - Looking at a few different film clips (and lyrics) in order to see how identity is portrayed in music. After each clip is responding questions. Songs include My Island Home, Land Down Under, I Am Australian and Born To Survive.
A mini lesson (10 slides) designed to introduce students to some political systems. It begins with some terms to add to their glossary: capitalism and communism. This is followed by an image which explains the following system in terms of cows - socialism, communism, fascism, Nazism, bureaucratism and capitalism. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ class struggle theories are summarised. There is a video to help students grasp this entitled “Communism vs. Socialism: What’s the difference?” There is information for students to copy about the Communist Manifesto of 1848 (notes to be copied are underlined). There are also some checking for understanding activities.
Some key points from each chapter. Some questions to check for understanding (multiple choice). An example paragraph about the moral dilemma in Chapter 7.
1) An image of the STEP UP acronym (used for analysing poems)
2) A booklet of poems from the Industrial Revolution which could be used in English or History (source analysis).
Two powerpoints used in a 8 English protest poetry unit I designed.
The first explores: What is critical literacy and why do we need these skills? How will it help us to understand protest poems? It introduces key critical literacy terms (ideology, privileged, intended reading, marginalised, silenced etc.) It includes a list of things it is important to be aware of when viewing or reading a poem/text. It also begins to introduce students to Indigenous Australian issues as these are the first series of poems to be explored. It includes poems about colonisation and questions to prompt students to analyse these poems.
The second is an introduction to poetic devices which includes definitions and examples of personification, rhyme, onomatopoeia, alliteration, simile, metaphor etc.
Additional resource: A handout I use at the end of the poetic devices lesson to check whether the students have understood what was taught (it is a matching terms activity).
This PowerPoint was designed for use in an Australian Catholic School as part of a year 9 theology unit. It introduces students to the eight beatitudes of Jesus & the ten commandments. The PowerPoint includes activities where the students consider the relevance of these and how they relate to their own lives. It also includes links to YouTube clips which further explain these concepts and a research activity where students compare these to the articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
A PowerPoint analysing the poem 'Men of the open spaces' with four questions that students have to write paragraphs responding to. There are example answers included. This is followed by the words for The Man From Ironbark and Waltzing Matilda and other post-reading questions.