Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes	Part A: An introduction to First Nations fire knowledge
20 minutes	Part B: Silent Conversations
20 minutes	Part C: Cool Burning
10 minutes	Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Explain to students that in today’s lesson, they will be reading excerpts from a modern text to improve their learning about First Nations approaches to land management and their use of fire on Country as a method of caring for Australian flora and fauna. Ask students whether they have any knowledge of these practices, and encourage sharing of experiences and ideas.

Step 2.

On the board, project this Living Knowledge Place website (livingknowledgeplace.com.au). Click on ‘Fire’, and then select a section of the map that is red to watch a video of fire being used as a land management technique. While students watch, ask them to note down what they SEE, what makes them THINK, and what they WONDER on their Student Worksheets. Depending on the time, you may watch one or more of the clips available.

If you have not presented lessons on Cool Burning before and think your class might need to acquire some foundation knowledge to support their learning, please visit Cool Australia’s website and download the following lessons: Cool Burning - S e condary.

Part B: Silent Conversations

Step 1.

Separate students into pairs or triads, depending on your class size - the goal is to have one pair/triad for each of the 11 text excerpts.

Step 2.

Explain to students that they will be conversing in their pair or small group in complete silence. This strategy helps students explore a topic in-depth, slowing down their thinking, and encouraging them to focus on the views of others. This strategy also helps engage students who are less likely to participate in an oral discussion and help hone the skills of eager contributors who might benefit from hearing other opinions.

Step 3.

Distribute to each group one of the text excerpts from either Victor Steffenson’s Fire Country or Bruce Pascoe and Bill Gammage’s Country: Future Fire, Future Farming, printed in the centre of an A3 page. Alternatively, you could provide students with a large piece of poster/butchers paper and have them cut out and stick their excerpt into the centre of this.

Bruce Pascoe and Bill Gammage’s Country: Future Fire, Future Farming (2021)

Step 4.

Explain to students that they will be reading through their excerpt together and then writing down comments on what they found interesting and any questions. Students will be focusing mainly on the following prompting questions:

What are the traditional practices
Who performs traditional land practices and management?
How are they performed?
Where can they be implemented?
Why are they important?
Is this a reliable text?
Can you select evidence from the text to show this?

Step 5.

Ask students to use different coloured pens/pencils/textas so that it is easier to track conversations. If one student in the group asks a question, someone else in the group has to answer it. They are welcome to draw lines between different ideas, and more than one person can be writing on the paper simultaneously. Check to see if there are any questions before you commence the activity, as there can be no speaking for the duration of the silent conversation. Provide students with around 15 minutes to complete their initial conversation.

Step 6.

Remaining in silence, students should then leave their groups and walk around reading the other conversations that have occurred around the room. Students can bring their pens and add questions or comments to other groups' conversations. Allow 5-10 minutes for this section.

Step 7.

Students should now reassemble at their initial table and look at the questions or comments left by others in the class. They may now discuss their thoughts verbally about the excerpt, what they read in other papers and the comments and ideas that have been raised. Ask each group to identify one comment or question that stood out to them.

Step 8.

Debrief - ask students, 'What did you learn from completing this activity?' as a starting point. Please encourage students to share the comment or question that stood out to them. Ask students to reflect on the guiding questions posed at the beginning of this activity and to jot down their thinking around these questions on their Student Worksheets:

What are the traditional practices
Who performs traditional land practices and management?
How are they performed?
Where can they be implemented?
Why are they important?
Is this a reliable text?
Can you select evidence from the text to show this?

Step 9.

Ask students to sit at their tables or find a place on the floor and write down one thing or practice that they like and how or where they, an organisation or business, might implement something similar.

Part C: Cool Burning

Step 1.

Engage a First Nations or a Traditional Owner and invite them to your school to discuss or perform a cool burning ceremony. If you haven’t done this before and would like additional information or support, please read through the Narragunnawali website (narragunnawali.org.au) for more information.

Reflection

Ask students to construct a one-sentence reflection on their learning about First Nations land management practices, identifying one thing they were really impressed with, by completing this sentence stem: “I really like….”

Differentiated Learning

Extension - Students may like access to more than the two source text. So you may like to organise copies in your school library, or online.
To extend student thinking and evaluating skills, ask students to choose a sentence or paragraph with great value and create a piece of writing that shows their understanding of the themes and their importance in our current society.

Prompting questions:

What message was the author trying to convey about Country?
Where would you like to see the changes that the author discussed implemented in society?
Who do you think is responsible for these changes to occur, and how can you be involved?

Alternatively, students can choose an excerpt and develop a creative piece in response to what they have written and are feeling. This could take the shape of a book cover, poem, song, artwork, dance, etc.

Steffensen, Victor (2020) Fire Country, Hardie Grant Publishing

Pascoe, Bruce & Gammage, Bill (2021) Country: Future Fire, Future Farming, Thames & Hudson Australia

Provisions for Learning Support - Students who have individual needs may find it beneficial to be provided with a digital version of the text excerpt to use the text to speech function to support comprehension. Some excerpts are shorter than others, so these may be more appropriate.

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?

Resilient Australia - Text Analysis - Traditional Approaches

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