Activity Introduction

This lesson is designed to be completed independently by students. 

Students will gain a greater understanding of the challenges COVID-19 presents in a country other than Australia. They will begin by reading through an article and answering comprehension questions to make sense of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Next, they will complete a set of activities that uses visual stimulus from the article to develop deeper thinking. Students will then complete sets of detailed planning activities that focus on character, setting and narrative development for their own writing. Finally, students will put all of their planning together to write a narrative based on COVID-19 in India.

Australian Curriculum Mapping

Year 7 English

  • Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas (ACELY1725)
  • Edit for meaning by removing repetition, refining ideas, reordering sentences and adding or substituting words for impact (ACELY1726)
  • Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to confidently create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts (ACELY1728)

Year 8 English

  • Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that raise issues, report events and advance opinions, using deliberate language and textual choices, and including digital elements as  appropriate (ACELY1736)
  • Experiment with text structures and language features to refine and clarify ideas to improve the effectiveness of students’ own texts (ACELY1810)
  •  Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to create, edit and publish texts imaginatively (ACELY1738)

General capabilities: Literacy.

Background information

We are living through unprecedented times and our lives have been forced to change almost overnight as a result of COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic is being dealt with in varying ways by countries around the world, each with its own set of unique circumstances.

Tips for Parents and Carers

Students can feel a range of emotional responses when researching and discussing COVID-19. If you need further support for students please refer to: https://coronavirus.beyondblue.org.au/

Resources Required

[email protected] from Cool Australia

[email protected] resources are designed for parents and teachers to use with children in the home environment. They can be used as stand alone activities or built into existing curriculum-aligned learning programs. Our [email protected] series includes two types of resources. The first are fun and challenging real world activities for all ages, the second are self-directed lessons for upper primary and secondary students. These lessons support independent learning in a remote or school settings.

This lesson has been developed in partnership with The Conversation. The Conversation’s mission is to be known as a prominent and trusted publisher of new thinking and evidence-based research, editorially independent and free of commercial or political bias. The Conversation hopes teachers will use their content as a source of truthful information, and that teachers can show their students the importance of trusted, evidence-based information in understanding the world around them and making informed decisions about their actions. Please follow the republishing guidelines when using The Conversation’s articles.


Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.

Worksheets

Student Worksheet

COVID-19 Creative Writing - Activity Instructions

Learning intentions:

  • You will understand the key components of narrative writing by completing a range of planning activities on character, setting and narrative structure
  • You will write a narrative story based on stimulus material from the article and on the issue of COVID-19 in India.

Success criteria:

  • You can develop well rounded characters for your narrative
  • You can develop an atmospheric setting for your narrative
  • You can develop an exciting narrative structure
  • You can use all of your planning to write a final narrative piece based on information from the article and on the issue of COVID-19 in India.

READ THE CONVERSATION ARTICLE BELOW

India and coronavirus: lack of access to handwashing facilities among poor makes fight even harder

Christophe Z Guilmoto, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) and Thomas Licart, Université de Strasbourg


Students wearing facemasks wash their hands before atten

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