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Unit of Work
The Achievement Standard of the Year 10 AUSVELs strand outlines
that by the end of Level 10, students refer to key events, the actions of
individuals and groups, and beliefs and values to explain patterns of change and
continuity over time. They analyse the causes and effects of events and
developments and explain their relative importance. Students explain
the significance of events and developments from a range of perspectives
(Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2014). This unit, Rights and
Freedom (1945 Present) will incorporate the guidelines prescribed by AUSVELS
through a range of activities which support varying learning strategies, cross
curricular teaching, image based teaching and inquiry based learning. The unit
will conclude with a final assessment in the form of a written report,
incorporating information gathered throughout the depth study.
Lesson one of the unit Rights and Freedoms (1945 Present) will
focus mostly on students prior knowledge of the topic and discussion of how they
define equality. The lesson will begin by engaging students with a video of Martin
Luther King Jr. I have a dream speech. The intention behind the inclusion of a
short extract from the video clip is to act as a hook and encourage students to
become interested and critical of the topic from the beginning. The inclusion of a
video as a hook as well as a primary source is to enable students to become
critical thinkers with all multimodal texts by interpreting sources and considering
context (acara, 2014). This is supported by Anita Jetnikoff, who identifies that the
use of technologies and new media within the classroom is an increasing
curriculum initiative across Australia (Jetnikoff, 2009, 55). After having viewed
the short youtube clip, the students will undertake a think, pair and share
exercise which will involve them firstly independently writing their own
knowledge of Rights and Freedoms in the US and the world at the time, the
purpose of the speech and why it was significant. The students will then form
into pairs to discuss their answers and then lastly re-join as a class, where I will
create a mind map on the whiteboard of all the students opinions. Following this
activity, students will be placed in groups and are to read the handout of the UN
Declaration of Human Rights (ACDSEH023) and identify which of the articles
would have been misused in the context of Martin Luther King Jr. speech and
which are still being abused today. Their answers will need to be supported with

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justifications when presenting their poster of the key articles theyve chosen to
the class.
Lesson Two of the unit will focus on the US Civil rights movement
and the key figures and events involved at the time (ACDSEH205). This lesson
will only cover a standard 50 minute period, and although this appears to be a
limited time frame to cover such a vast topic in itself, my reasoning behind it is
to introduce students to other equality struggles in various contexts in an
attempt to build their understanding and ability to compare and identify
American civil rights movement to what occurred in Australia at the time. The
students will begin their first task of the unit, a profile booklet, which they will fill
in relevant information about key figures and movements from both the US and
Australia at the time. This task will be completed during class as I go through a
power point of the US civil rights movement, but will also be completed as
homework. This task acts as a formative assessment which is learner driven,
allows for teacher and self-assessment and will help students with their final
assessment. After having discussed as a class the US civil rights movement,
students will undertake a jigsaw activity, where each student from a table group
will be moved into another group where students can discuss what information
they have gathered and compare notes with each other. This is supported by
Paul Black and Dylan William in Inside the Black Box when they assert that
discussion and activities within the classroom needs to be thoughtful, reflective,
focused to evoke and explore understanding, and conducted so that that pupils
have an opportunity to think and to express their ideas (Black & William, 2001,
1).
Lesson Three of the unit will focus on the background struggle of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people before 1965, including 1938 day of
mourning and the stolen generation (ACDSEH104). I will begin the lesson by
going through a power point presentation of the content which students will be
provided with a detailed fact sheet that corresponds to the power point. Students
will also be told to write down notes of what they are learning as a method of
collecting their information for the profile booklet task and the final assessment.
The content of the class is complex, but through the use of different multimodal
texts, I aim to simplify the content for a year 10 standard by regularly placing
discussion throughout the presentation in an attempt to assess students
understanding. This idea is reiterated by Elizabeth Ryan who identifies that it is
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the teachers task to manage the delivery of complex content and regularly
check student understanding (2013, 59). The ability to read and critically
analyse the historical narratives of others is essential to understanding the
interpretive nature of history (Hoefferle, 2007, 41). In order to develop students
historical thinking skills, I will then instruct them to visit the stolen generation
testimony website, where they will have to watch the personal testimonies of Bill
Simon, Frank Byrne, and Eileen Moseley. Whilst viewing these videos, students
will have to fill out a corresponding worksheet, which asks students where were
they born, when were they removed, life now and then, key words and phrases
that describes the situation, and key message. Allowing 20 minutes for the
students to work independently on this task, afterwards they will be placed into
groups where they will have to make a poster under the three headings:
Connect, Extend, Challenge. The purpose of this activity is for students, using the
information they have gathered, to make connections between new ideas and
prior learnt knowledge after having watched the personal testimonies. It also
allows students to discuss ongoing questions, puzzles and difficulties as they
reflect on what they are learning (Harvard College, 2009, 13) and to identify
and analyse the perspectives of people from the past and present (Victorian
Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2014).
Lesson four of the unit will focus on the key movements and figures
(ACDSEH205) of the Indigenous Australian civil rights movement. The lesson will
begin with a powerpoint presentation of the key activists and movements during
the Indigenous Australians civil rights movement. Once again, this will not be a
lecture but an interactive discussion in order to constantly assess students
understanding of the topic and to build their own interpretations of the content
displayed (VanSledright, 2004, 230). Following this, I will introduce an imagebased inquiry activity, where students will each be given a photograph of the
Student Action for Aborigines freedom rides. They will have to analyse the
photo by answering the corresponding questions in attempt to encourage greater
understanding of the methods used by civil rights activists to achieve change.
The necessity to place a high importance on this activity is its ability to tie in
image-based learning into the classroom. As a teacher this activity
accommodates for a new generation of students who are constantly surrounded
by visual texts (Evans, 2002, 1). According to Evans in the article The Filter
Generic Image Dataset, pictures interact with text to produce levels of
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comprehension and memory that can exceed what is produced in text alone
(2002, 1). That is my intention with the inclusion of the image, for students to
analyse the key features of the photo and compare it to its American
counterpart. Students need to use knowledge they have attained during class as
well as their own interpretive skills to identify the origin, purpose and context of
primary and secondary sources (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority,
2014). After having critically analysed the image, the class will come together to
discuss the source and its importance in the context of the time. I will transport
their answers and opinions onto the whiteboard as a mind map, allowing for the
students who are visual learners to develop a better understanding of the task.
Lesson five of the unit will focus on the final assessment of the depth
study. Students are to write a report 500 word report of a key figure, movement,
or event actively prominent during the Indigenous Australian civil rights
movement, using the information gathered in the profile booklet. The aim of this
activity is not for students to display their research skills, but instead their ability
to process and synthesis information from a range of sources [provided in class]
for use as evidence in an historical argument (Victorian Curriculum and
Assessment Authority, 2014). As a summative assessment, this task is content
driven, testing students overall understanding and allows for deeper historical
thinking and is an essential part of constructivism (Wiersma, 2008, 116). As the
teacher, I will monitor students progress in class, aid when needed, but
essentially allow students the ability to independently interpret what they have
learnt. The students will only have the 50 minute period to complete this task,
and will submit both their report and profile booklet at the end. I will be
assessing their ability to gather key and relevant information through the use of
the profile booklet, and their ability to interpret this information within a report
with the inclusion of justifications and explanatory statements. Throughout the
unit I have assessed each students progress through discussion, posters, and
image-based learning. This task allows for further consolidation of their
understanding, a higher-order thinking task to conclude, and my final
assessment of what they have learnt.
The unit, Rights and Freedoms (1945 Present) has aimed to present
a cross-curricular depth study which allows for students to develop the ability to
compare the contexts of different countries over a period of time. Students have
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begun with developing an initial understanding of the term equality, and have
further developed this through the use of collective research, discussion,
comparison and interpretation. Focusing on the Indigenous Australians civil rights
movement, as a teacher I have allowed for students knowledge to be broadened
to the history of their own country. Furthermore, including the US civil rights
movement in a brief portion of this unit, I have encouraged students to develop
their inquiry and interpretive skills, and the ability to make connections between
the change and continuities between countries and the influence they have on
each other.

Appendix A

Stolen Generations Testimonies

Bill Simon

Frank Byrne

Eileen Moseley

Born

Removed

Life then

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Life now

Key words and

phrases

Key message

Have they found

a resolution?
Discuss

Appendix B

In groups of 5, you must make a poster under the headings:

CONNECT, EXTEND, CHALLENGE, and using the information you
have gathered from the personal testimonies, make connection s
between new ideas and prior learnt knowledge

CONNECT: How are the ideas and information presented

CONNECTED to what you already knew?
EXTEND: What new ideas did you get that EXTENDED or
pushed your thinking in new directions?

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CHALLENGE: What is still CHALLENGING or confusing for you

to get your mind around? What questions, wonderings or
puzzles do you now have?

Appendix C Image Based Teaching

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Who is protesting?
__________________________________________________________________________________
Why are they protesting?
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
Is this similar to the American Freedom Rides? Explain
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
How is it different? Explain

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
Bibliography

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Hoefferele, C. (2007). Teaching Historiography to High School and
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