Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes – Part A: Timelines
10 minutes – Part B: Knowing Me
20 minutes – Part C: Knowing You
45+ minutes – Part D: Interview For History
5 minutes – Reflection

Part A: Timelines

Step 1.

Begin by posing the question: What is a timeline?

Invite students to share their thoughts. Clarify student understanding with the following definition:

“A timeline is a graphical representation of a period of time, on which important events are marked” in chronological order. (Source: https://www.lexico.com/definition/timeline)

Take a moment to work as a class to search and discuss different timelines on the internet. Alternatively, you could share and discuss these Timeline Examples with the class.

Step 2.

Play this video:

Welcome to AIME (https://vimeo.com/268931179)

Once complete, take a few moments to discuss with students how a timeline is a useful way of representing historical events. How does it compare to a series of facts presented in written text?

Part B: Knowing Me

Step 1.

Write the following statement on the board:

Everyone has a history.

Explain to students that no matter our age, we have a history. Within that history are significant events that influence who we are and who we will become. We can't always see how the events that are happening to us today will affect us in the future. It's only when we look back that we can see the events that were significant for who we are now.

Step 2.

Invite students to work independently for ten minutes to think of five to ten events from their own personal history that are significant to who they are now and where they are now. Students should try and organise these in order of date and record them on a blank piece of paper or in their workbooks. Alternatively, students could create an online timeline using Padlet (select the ‘Timeline’ function).

Suggested events could include:

Being born
Moving house
Starting school
Moving to a new school
Watching a favourite movie, TV show, YouTube clip, live performance or other forms of entertainment for the first time
Reading something
Meeting someone
Going on holiday somewhere
Having a conversation
Playing sport
School project
Learning an instrument

Invite students to team up with a partner to share their timelines and to select one item on their timeline to discuss in more detail, explaining how it is significant to where/who they are now.

Part C: Knowing You

Step 1.

Remind students of the statement: Everyone has a history.

Explain that they will now prepare to explore the history of someone else. They will do this by conducting an interview with someone older than them. Explain that there is an art to conducting an interview; it's not just about finding out what you want to hear, but rather about providing a space for someone to share something about themselves with you. Conducting an interview requires that you create a safe space for the person you are interviewing and that you ask questions that allow the person you are interviewing to share as little or as much as they are comfortable with.

Step 2.

Share the following clip with students, explaining that this is an example of an interview that explores key events in the life of the interviewee, in this case, Nova Peris:

Nova Peris - AIME TV Interview (https://vimeo.com/223556501)

Once complete, students can briefly reflect on this clip:

What did they notice about the interview?
What did they notice about the story that was being told?
What did they notice about the questions being asked?

Lead students to the idea that key to a good interview is creating useful and respectful questions.

Step 3.

Invite students to share what they already know about open and closed questions (for example, closed questions are those that can be answered in a single word or short sentence, open questions are those that require a deeper, longer explanation).

For example, some of the questions used in the interview with Nova Peris include:

The first-ever indigenous woman to be elected into Federal Parliament. What was that like for you, sitting there the night before, getting ready to walk in; how were you feeling?
There's a stereotype that plays out that Aboriginal kids are great at sport and art, but that maybe these corridors aren't for these youngsters. I think flipping that mentality, or that power, or that strength that you showed in that moment, I mean it's something that probably the kids on the other side can learn from. But how do you do that?
What gives you hope now?

Step 4.

Invite students to work in pairs or small groups to reflect on the three questions above (also available on the Student Worksheet) - what types of questions are they? And what answers do they allow Nova to share?

Suggest to students that the questions:

Are open-ended
Ask about her feelings rather than focusing on facts (they don’t test her knowledge of details)
Ask her advice by calling on her experience and her history
Don’t demand a particular answer
Give her room to answer in her own words and her own way
Are positive (they don’t dwell on the negative)
Are based on background research - the interviewer (JMB) has done some research into the public story of Nova Peris so doesn’t require her to go through the basics; this leaves room to explore the questions in depth.

Step 5.

Finally, share the following timeline with your students, explaining that it represents some significant events in the life of Nova. Explain that each cube represents about two years in her life and that this is another way to create a timeline.

Take a moment to discuss and reflect on these significant events, making connections to the interview they just watched and analysed.

Part D: Interview For History

Step 1.

Explain to students that they will now prepare to conduct their own interview. The person they will be interviewing needs to be of their grandparent’s generation. The end result of the interview will be to create a timeline that visually represents significant events in the life of the person they are interviewing.

To help guide students in this process, explain that the overarching question they should be seeking to answer in this interview is:

What were some significant events in your life and why were they significant to you?

The first task is to think of someone to interview. For students who don’t have a grandparent they can interview, suggest that they seek out someone else they know, such as someone else in their family, the grandparent of a friend, a teacher, a neighbour, or someone who works in a shop that they visit regularly.

Step 2.

Students could then start thinking about and planning some questions for their interview based on what they already know about their interviewee (such as where they live or work, their hobbies, their role in their life).

Once students have developed some questions they can share their questions with a peer for feedback and refinement.

Step 3.

Before students conduct their interview, ensure they consider:

Gaining consent (e.g. make sure the person you are interviewing is happy to participate, that they know the purpose of the interview, and they understand what will happen with the information you collect - that you will be creating a timeline and sharing it with the class)
How they will record the interview
How long the interview will take
Background research.

Step 4.

Allow students time to conduct their interviews. Once students have conducted their interviews, provide students with an opportunity to reflect on the process of conducting their interviews, for example:

What went well?
What would you do differently next time?

Step 5.

Students can then begin creating their timeline for their interviewee. They should:

include important information about the person they interviewed
include other relevant information about society, culture and the environment that relates to the interview responses.

Students could present their timeline as a poster, a video, or a Padlet. Depending on the information they collect during their interviews, students could create a linear timeline or grid timeline - if they create a grid they will need to decide how many years each cube represents in their timeline.

Reflection

Students could reflect on the content of their interviews by working independently to respond to the following in writing (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What was the most interesting or surprising thing I learned in my interview?
What insights did I gain from my interview that have shifted my understanding or perspective on something?

Differentiated Learning

Extension -

When creating their timelines, students could make some analyses and draw some comparisons between their own experiences and those of the person they interviewed. They will need to think creatively about how this information could be incorporated into their timeline.
Students could choose to turn their timeline into a 24-hour timeline like in the Welcome to AIME video.

Provisions for Learning Support - Students could work in pairs to plan and conduct their interview, and to create their timeline. They could divide the work up based on agreed interests or skill sets.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching practice today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

IMAGI-NATION{TV} - History in a Day

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Summary

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