Activity Introduction
Students think about how perspectives and storytellers can influence our understanding of history and the impacts of this into the present and the future. They begin by exploring their understanding of what stories are, why they are important and why it matters who gets to tell our stories. They then look at the role of primary and secondary sources in the presentation of historical perspectives. Students then participate in a group activity aimed at demonstrating how our personal perspectives influence the ways we interpret sources and how this affects the histories we tell. Finally, students speculate on the implications of the perspectives that are chosen to be shared by watching a clip from an IMAGI-NATION{TV} interview with Bruce Pascoe. Finally, students are asked to create a piece to communicate their ideas around the issue of history, storytellers and different perspectives.
Find all the IMAGI-NATION{TV} episodes on AIME’s YouTube channel.
Time required: 120 minutes
The content in this lesson may be new and surprising to many students (and teachers). Create an environment of safety for your Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students by first discussing your intentions behind this lesson with them and their families/community members. By focusing your conversations on primary and secondary sources you can remind students that knowledge and histories can be biased and hopefully draw them to the idea that new histories can, indeed, be true (sometimes even more so than the ones we are used to hearing).
Learning Intentions:
- Students understand what a story is and why they are important
- Students recognise that there are alternative perspectives of history
- Students understand the differences between primary, secondary and tertiary sources.
- Topics: Indigenous Education
- This lesson is part of a wider program: IMAGI-NATION{TV}
- Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – facilitate and mediate class discussions, lead students in group work tasks.
- Syllabus outcomes: HT5-1, HT5-2, HT5-3, HT5-4, HT5-5, HT5-7
- General capabilities: Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking, Intercultural Understanding
- Cross-curriculum priority (optional): Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures (OI.5, OI.9)
- 21st Century skills: Critical Thinking, Communicating, Cultural Understanding.
Australian Curriculum Mapping
Year 9 History
- Identify the origin, purpose and context of primary and secondary sources (ACHHS169)
- Evaluate the reliability and usefulness of primary and secondary sources (ACHHS171)
- Identify and analyse different historical interpretations (including their own) (ACHHS173)
- Develop texts, particularly descriptions and discussions that use evidence from a range of sources that are referenced (ACHHS174)
Year 10 History
- Identify the origin, purpose and context of primary and secondary sources (ACHHS187)
- Evaluate the reliability and usefulness of primary and secondary sources (ACHHS189)
- Identify and analyse different historical interpretations (including their own) (ACHHS191)
- Develop texts, particularly descriptions and discussions that use evidence from a range of sources that are referenced (ACHHS192)
- Device capable of presenting a video to the class
- Online Search Strategies
- Student Worksheets – one copy per student
- Understanding Evidence And Sources Of Information.
Background Information
AIME created IMAGI-NATION{TV} & the IMAGI-NATION{CLASSROOM} experience to put a mentor in the home every day during the tough times of COVID-19 and beyond. It’s a daily TV show broadcast live on the internet, and it’s a gift for teachers, parents and kids to help make sense of today and imagine tomorrow.
The pursuit is to elevate knowledge; every guest we bring on knows something and has wisdom to share. This show is not just about entertainment to pass the time. We want to remake the mould for the modern hero – from beauty to brains, from selfies to self-knowledge, from hashtags to hope. IMAGI-NATION{TV} is seeking to unlock the best in every single one of us; to inspire a generation of heroes in the form of mentors who fight for a fairer world.
 This lesson has been developed in partnership with AIME. AIME is an Imagination Factory that since 2005, has been creating pop-up Imagination Factories on university campuses around the world to unlock the internal narrative of marginalised kids, taking them from a world that tells them they can’t to a world that tells them they can. Kids who experience the Imagination Factory have gone on to achieve educational parity, rise up as entrepreneurs, and take on a whole new mindset that prepares them for success. |
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Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.
Teacher Preparation
