Activity Introduction
Quick summary: Retired AFL star Adam Goodes is known to many for his resilient journey in the face of detrimental treatment by AFL spectators and the media beginning in 2013.
In this lesson, students focus on how they can position their audiences to motivate change. Firstly, students should consider the thoughts and feelings an audience needs to have to be motivated to change. Then, they consider how a range of mentor texts (including from The Final Quarter) seek to achieve these audience responses. With help from peer feedback, students will then write and perform their own motivational speeches.
Using only archival footage aired at the time, The Final Quarter holds a mirror to Australia and is an opportunity to reconsider what happened on and off the football field. Learn more about the film here.
We highly recommend that students view the film in its entirety before participating in subsequent lessons. Our Watching the Film lessons are designed to support you in facilitating this process. Given the content, it is also important for teachers to communicate with parents and guardians of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students before playing the film and/or engaging with the teaching and learning resources.
Note: This film may not be suitable for viewing by all young people. Teachers are advised to use their discretion when deciding whether to show this film. If teaching in a context with a high proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, it is imperative that guidance is sought from the Principal and Aboriginal Education Officer (or equivalent) prior to screening the film.
Learning intentions:
- Students understand the feelings and knowledge that inspire positive change.
- Students understand how a speaker makes choices to inspire positive change.
- Students understand how they can write and speak effectively to make positive change.
21st century skills:
Australian Curriculum Mapping
Content descriptions:
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)
- Understand how rhetorical devices are used to persuade and how different layers of meaning are developed through the use of metaphor, irony and parody (ACELA1542)
Syllabus outcomes: EN4-3B, EN4-4B
General capabilities: Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking, Personal and Social Capability, Ethical Understanding
Cross-curriculum priority: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures (OI.6, OI,9)
Relevant parts of Year 8 achievement standards: Students create texts for different purposes, selecting language to influence audience response. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, using language patterns for effect. When creating and editing texts to create specific effects, they take into account intended purposes and the needs and interests of audiences.
Topic: Learning Through Film, Social Issues, Indigenous Education
This lesson is part of the wider unit of work: The Final Quarter – Purposeful Language – English – Year 8
Time required: 70 mins.
Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – facilitate class discussion.
Resources required:
- Device capable of presenting a video to the class
- Devices with internet capability (optional)
- Student Worksheets – one copy per student.
Keywords: motivation, persuasion, speeches, nonverbal language, body language, speaking and listening, peer feedback, tone, emphasis, volume, analysis, documentary, The Final Quarter, Adam Goodes.
Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.
