Year 9 - Seven billion people

_


Above: Photo reproduced with permission of the Kerin Family

This unit gives students experiences of listening to, viewing and reading the life stories of a range of diverse individuals including an Aboriginal artist, a local environmental activist, a rollerblader, a female AFL star, a Sudanese refugee and a street kid.

Students will be supported to achieve Year 9 standards through an approach that combines explicit teaching, scaffolded analysis, an exploration of ethics, and step-by-step support to produce and share a life story in print or digital form. Students will interact with individuals in their lives and with their families.... Opportunities have been created to engage all students, from those not yet at Year 9 standard through to those achieving well beyond the standard. Assessment tasks are designed to enable all students to achieve success in receptive and productive modes. The final sequence provides an authentic opportunity for students to share and enjoy the life stories they have constructed.


Lesson Sequence

Australian Curriculum: English Year 9

Sequence 1: What is a life story?

Sequence 2: The rights and wrongs when sharing a life story

Sequence 3: Questions and finding the angle in a story

Sequence 4: Our lives in the public gaze

Sequence 5: Different media, same life

Sequence 6: Establishing the context of a life story

Sequence 7: Analysis of a life story

Sequence 8: Breaking down stereotypes and exploring the unexpected

Sequence 9: The images, sounds and language of life stories

Sequence 10: Getting it right

Sequence 11: Giving your life story a dress rehearsal

Sequence 12: Life story showcase


Duration and pathways: Using this unit in the classroom

This unit is designed to take up to between four and six weeks of Year 9 English classroom time, although to allow students sufficient time to capture and produce the life story required by Assessment task 2, it may be useful to extend this time frame. An alternative, creating additional out-of-class interaction time between students and their subjects, would be to insert another short English unit after Sequence 10 and then returning to Sequences 11 and 12 after a short interval has allowed all students to complete Assessment task 2.

Such a break may be useful to those students who interview subjects who wish to withdraw from the project or become unavailable, and those who need more time to master technology or who rely on more intensive teacher support. While not necessary, the extended time frame may support stronger achievement standards across the cohort of students, from the most independent and adept to those with particular learning, social or access needs.

While this unit, presented as a whole, encompasses close analysis and appreciation of life stories (receptive mode) and the production of a print or digital life story (productive mode) across 12 sequences, alternative pathways through the sequences are offered. While you can pick and choose to suit the students’ context, suggestions are made based on taking out a stand-alone sequence or combining two or more sequences to create smaller sub-units.

For a stronger information and communication technology focus, students could instead be required to construct a biopic trailer for their subject: the focus here would be on getting to really know that character and creating just the trailer to enthral an audience.

Unit Writer

Rosie Kerin is a freelance writer and education consultant. Her 15-year career as a teacher of English, and as a curriculum and school leader, spanned middle, secondary and senior secondary schools in South Australia. While a literacy consultant for Catholic Education South Australia, Rosie completed her doctoral research exploring the changing practices and identities of mid-career English teachers as they mastered and integrated digital technologies within their professional contexts. From 2006 to 2012, she taught English and Literacy courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the University of South Australia. Her teaching and research interests include the ever-changing scope and field of English teaching, particularly in relation to the integration of evolving texts and digital technologies. Rosie loves written language and visual arts, and has a passion for creative writing, reading and film

Rich assessment tasks:

This unit includes two rich assessment tasks: one receptive and the other productive. Assessment task 1: Analysis of a life story allows students to select and carry out a critical analysis of a life story. Assessment task 2: Sharing a life story engages students in researching, composing and sharing a short life story of a person of their choice.

· E4AC Home ·