Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Battle for equality

25 minutes

Find Out: Uncovering the bias

20 minutes

Take Action: Agitating for change

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will:

explore implicit and explicit bias as displayed in media through language and analyse how such language choices empower or disempower, include or exclude.

Students can:

identify bias in media, both explicit and implicit
examine language and determine whether it has been used for inclusivity and empowerment or exclusion and disempowerment
identify the author’s values, beliefs and/or attitudes as displayed in the piece, as well as the intended outcomes
analyse and evaluate how people, places, events and concepts are represented in texts and reflect contexts.

Tune In: Campaigning for equality

Preparation

Watch ‘Trailblazers’ with your students. This documentary will provide background information and set the scene for students for this lesson.

Trailblazers (https://clickv.ie/w/INpy)

Step 1

Show students this short clip from the film:

Trailblazers Clip - 17:35-21:50 (https://clickv.ie/w/nYpy)

This clip covers the context surrounding the Australian Women’s National Football Team’s decision to strike in 2015. At the end of watching, ensure students understand the following points:

The Australian Women’s National Football Team was the most successful football/soccer team Australia had ever had, having just made it to the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
Football Federation Australia had not organised a new Collective Bargaining Agreement for the team after the previous one expired, meaning they were not guaranteed any payment for an upcoming tournament.
The previous agreement left the players earning two-thirds of the minimum wage.

Find Out: Language matters

Step 1

For this section of the lesson, students will participate in a jigsaw task. A jigsaw task empowers groups of students to develop expertise on a specific text and then share that material with another group. It helps students understand information, retain that information and work in a collaborative environment.

Organise students into seven groups, one for each article linked below. Allocate each group an article, noting that one is an audio resource with an accompanying transcript, as a differentiated option for students who may benefit from such a form.

Explain to the groups that their role is to work together to read and understand the article they are assigned and to complete their column of the table to the best of their ability.

Before students move into independent work, ensure they understand the terminology used in the table, particularly: stakeholder, contention, implicit, explicit, bias, empowerment, disempowerment, inclusion and exclusion. Depending on the prior learning of the class, you may like to put each term up on the board with a brief definition as a reference point for the lesson.

Articles to be assigned:

Article Worksheet	Link
Awards or not the Matildas have done us proud	Source: SBS Sport
FFA chief Gallop's bitter in another swipe over dispute	Source: SBS Sport
Australian Women’s Soccer Team Fights For Respect, Goes On Strike	Source: ThinkProgress
Matildas players say pay dispute is about future of women's sport	Source: ABC Radio (audio + transcript available)
FFA agree new CBA with Matildas receiving pay increase	Source: The Women's Game
Historic CBA to close football's gender pay gap	Source: Matildas
Gender pay gap closed as parity confirmed in new Matildas deal	Source: The Guardian

Provide students 15-20 minutes to complete this first part of the jigsaw.

Step 2

Once students have developed expertise in their article, they then need to create 2-4 jigsaw groups, with a representative from each article in each group. One at a time, students should share the author and contention of their article and a brief overview of the language used to create bias, empowerment/disempowerment and inclusion/exclusion.

At the end of the jigsaw, each student should have a completed table, with all columns filled with content.

Give students 20-30 minutes to complete this second part of the jigsaw.

Step 3

Facilitate a reflective discussion about the activity and what was learned about how language communicated bias. Further, students may start to see a correlation between the contention of the text, who the author was and the implicit bias communicated.

Take Action: Use your voice

Step 1

Tell students that it is now their turn to use their new understanding of the power of language and their passionate voice, to craft a piece of writing that advocates for a right that does not directly impact themselves. They might like to advocate for animal rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, gender equality or racial equality.

Step 2

Give students time to research their chosen topic and then encourage them to use the ‘Inverted Pyramid Model of Journalistic Writing’ to help structure their response.

Reflection

Ask students to complete a five-minute free-write on the following prompt:

Why is it important to use your voice?

Digital Media: Your Bias is Showing

Go to

Summary

Lesson guides and printables

In this lesson