Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Part A: Celebrations

30 minutes

Part B: The Language Of Reporting

15 minutes

Part C: Behind The War Cry

25 minutes

Part D: Using Objective And Subjective Language

10 minutes

Reflection

Part A: Celebrations

Step 1

Take your students to an open space. Ask them to imagine the following scenarios and act them out individually (encourage them to use their voices and bodies):

You have just won a free bicycle!
You've bowled a bowling ball but missed all the pins - oh no!
You finally managed to bake the perfect scones after 18 tries.
You can only find one shoe and you're running late for school.
You've just scored the winning goal of a match!

Step 2

Bring students back into the classroom. Invite them to share what they noticed about their actions and feelings while playing out the various scenarios.

Step 3

Watch this video (just a minute or two will be enough):

Funny & Crazy Goal Celebrations ● Football Show ● HD (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY8hU2Ik6VA)

Invite students to turn and talk about what they thought of the goal celebrations they saw.

Hold a short discussion about goal celebrations using the following questions as a guide:

What do you think of goal celebrations?
Why do you think they are so popular in soccer?
Do you think goal celebrations are good to have in other sports too? Why/why not?
What makes a good goal celebration?
Is there any such thing as 'too big' of a celebration for goal or win? Where is the line?

Part B: The language of reporting

Step 1

Explain to students that they will be watching clips about a famous Australian goal celebration and how the media spoke about it.

Note: It is strongly recommended that students have participated in The Final Quarter - Safely Viewing The Film - Years 5 & 6 lesson beforehand, in which case, they will already be familiar with Adam Goodes and the film. However, if they do not know him or need a reminder, show them the Adam Goodes Profile.

Explain that the following clips show a specific event that occurred in one of a series of AFL matches in 2013, called the AFL Indigenous Round - a Round specifically designed to recognise and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players and cultures. It is from the film The Final Quarter.

WARNING: This video contains footage of, and media responses to, actual occurrences. Content relates to issues of racism and racial discrimination which some may find confronting. Please advise students of this and encourage them to seek support from an adult if needed.

Step 2

Show the start of this clip from The Final Quarter, pausing at 01:26:

The War Cry - extended (https://vimeo.com/352634304/04c4aa0c38)

Pause at 01:26 and hand out the Student Worksheet, inviting students record their initial thoughts about the celebration dance. Once students have had sufficient time to record their thoughts, share and discuss as a class.

Questions:

What round is the game featured being played in?
What does this round represent?
Adam Goodes did a unique celebration after his goal, what did you think of it?

Step 3

Continue watching the clip from The Final Quarter, starting at 01:26 and pausing at 01:50:

The War Cry - extended (https://vimeo.com/352634304/04c4aa0c38)

Pause at 01:50 and provide the following additional questions and invite students to record their thoughts again, after hearing the initial commentary.

Question prompts:

How did you feel when watching the celebration dance again with the commentary?
Did the expression of the commentators influence how you felt about what was happening? How?

Step 4

Share and discuss as a class, noting how the comments and tone of the commentary influenced their feelings and perspectives.

Discuss with students that these comments all make factual statements about what Adam was doing, emphasising that they used objective language to describe what they were seeing, stating only the observable facts.

Introduce this as 'objective language' - Objective (language): When facts are presented without the influence of personal feelings or opinions.

Statements in this clip include:

“And look at Goodesy… He’s got a bit of a dance going… A bit of a tribal dance...”
“A war cry from Adam here… Down towards the Carlton fans...”
“Goodes goes and hams it up with the crowd.”
“It looked like a… traditional warrior dance, as he headed out towards the boundary.”

Step 5

Continue watching, starting from 01:50, pausing again at 03:45:

The War Cry - extended (https://vimeo.com/352634304/04c4aa0c38)

Pause the clip at 03:45 and invite students to record and share their thoughts again after hearing further commentary, responding to these additional questions:

Did the additional commentary change the way you felt about the celebration dance? How? Why?
What was different about the tone and language used in these additional comments?

Discuss what features of the commentary influenced their feelings and perspectives this time and how/why.

Step 6

Note that many of these comments are 'subjective'. They are the opinions of commentators. Many of these opinions are formed without taking into account the full context, such as the relevance of the dance to Adam Goodes or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Introduce this as 'subjective language' - Subjective (language): When your view is influenced by personal feelings, tastes or opinion.

Show the students these statements from the clip:

MATCH COMMENTARY

HALF-TIME COMMENTARY

“I have never seen anything like that in all my life.”

“What is that?”

“It was a tribal dance.”

“Ending with a fake spear directed at the Carlton cheer squad.”

“What are we dealing with?”

“That was lovely to watch… More please.”

“That will light up over the weekend like nothing else.”

“Probably best not to do it though.”

“... on Indigenous round, he feels so proud of his heritage and he doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.”

“We’ve never seen that before, and I don’t think we ever want to see it again.”

“I don’t like to see this.”

“He’s allowed to boo if he wants… he’s paid his money.”

“The significance of these war dances. They come from another era. And they are significant in that fact that it's between two tribes who do it before they go out and want to kill each other. And I mean, want to kill each other. Now bring that forward. Is it a great thing to have in this day and age? I don’t think so.”

Invite students to decide which statement is 'objective', and which is 'subjective'.

Step 7

Add that as personal opinions, many of these comments are influenced by 'bias'.

Define 'bias' - "Bias occurs in text where a composer presents one perspective, favouring one side in an argument or discussion, often accompanied by a refusal to consider possible merits of alternative points of view". (Source)

Inform students that some people are aware that they communicate with bias, but many people do it without realising and this is called 'unconscious bias'. Bias generally happens because people have pre-existing beliefs about the world and this shapes how they see specific situations.

Step 8

Facilitate a general conversation about what they have seen in the clip so far, in terms of media reporting.

Note: There is a vast amount of content to draw on in this section of the clip. Allow the features noted by the students to guide your conversation. In some instances, not all statements will be noted, but rigorous conversation may be built around selected examples.

Some significant points that you may wish to touch on are:

There are both positive and negative comments that are an expression of personal opinion rather than factual commentary.
Comments such as “Probably best not to do it though” and “I don’t like to see this” are presented (from what we can see) without any justification for the view.
The tone in which each comment was made has a significant impact.
Dermott Brereton’s final comment may come across as harsh or negative, but he has spoken without bias (in this instance), giving information about what the dance actually is, to explain why he has formed his opinion.
“The significance of these war dances. They come from another era. And they are significant in that fact that it’s between two tribes who do it before they go out and want to kill each other. And I mean, want to kill each other. Now bring that forward. Is it a great thing to have in this day and age? I don’t think so.”

Step 9

Continue watching from 03:45 to the end of the clip:

The War Cry - extended (https://vimeo.com/352634304/04c4aa0c38)

Drawing on the questions below, invite students to record and share their ideas one final time after hearing further commentary. Again, discuss what features of the commentary influenced their feelings and perspectives and how/why.

What was Adam Goodes' response to the subjective comments of other media personnel?
Does Adam Goodes also use subjective language? Give examples.
How do you think the questions Adam Goodes was asked may have been different if the initial commentary was more positive? What might he have been asked then?

You may like to reference these statements during your discussion:

“... inspired by the under 16 Boomerang kids who taught us a little bit of a war cry… so just a little tribute to those guys.”
“...there’s nothing untowards to the Carlton supporters it’s actually something for them to stand up and go ‘Yep, cool. We see you, we acknowledge you…”
“...it’s not something that people should be getting their backs up against a wall about. Is this the lesson we want to teach our children? That when we don’t understand something, we get angry, we put our back up against a wall, ‘Oh, that’s offensive,’ No. If it’s something we don’t understand, let’s have a conversation, understand, ‘What was Goodesy doing?’”
“...it’s just something that a lot of Aboriginal people are proud about.”
“...if we’re telling our people out there that you can’t represent your culture or represent where you come from, in a round that’s specifically about acknowledging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, what are we saying?”

Part C: Behind the war cry

Show the following video up to 02:48:

Note: If students have completed this lesson: The Final Quarter - Finding Belonging In Diversity - HPE - Years 5 & 6, they may have already seen this clip.

Using the Students Worksheet, invite students to record what they See, Hear and Wonder after watching the video.

Watch the following clip from The Final Quarter:

The Flying Boomerangs (https://vimeo.com/348313022/073cc15f40)

Note: It may assist students to explain that the Flying Boomerangs is a football development and leadership program for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander football players. They perform the war cry at the beginning of matches, similar to how the All Blacks perform that Haka at their games. If students have completed this lesson: The Final Quarter - Finding Belonging In Diversity - HPE - Years 5 & 6, they may have already seen this clip.

Watch this video of the All Blacks performing the Haka (start at 0:35 and finish at 2:05):

The Greatest haka EVER? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiKFYTFJ_kw)

Ask the following questions:

What viewpoints do you think were missing from the initial commentaries about Adam Goodes’ war cry?
Do you think the commentary might have been different, had they considered this information before opinions were shared?
How does this situation show the importance of developing a thorough understanding of an occurrence or issue before making comment?

Part D: Using objective and subjective language

Step 1

Explain to students that they will now write their own news reports based on Adam Goodes’ celebration dance. Their goal is to provide a balanced report that shares facts in an objective manner and draws conclusions based on that information. While they are able to include subjective quotes in their article, they are to aim to present their own ideas in as objective a manner as possible.

Each report must include:

Introduction to the context
Key facts and details (multiple paragraphs, objectively stated)
Summary and evaluation of events.

Step 2

As students complete the task, encourage them to share their work with another student, inviting them to provide feedback guided by the following questions:

Has the author expressed opinions or written the article in an objective manner?
Does the article include multiple perspectives?
Do statements about the incident draw equally on the perspectives and information included?

If students require extra scaffolding, direct them to the Report Planner section of the Student Worksheet, which they can use to organise their ideas before writing. Students are invited to use these questions to structure their planning:

What did Adam Goodes do?
When did he do it? What round was it during? In what part of the game did he do it?
Is this type of celebration seen at other matches/in other sports?
What was the meaning of what he did to him personally and within his culture?
What are some of the things that were said about what Adam did?

Prompts below to help you write your article:

Explain the events/situation.
Explain how the media responded to what happened.
Explain the meaning and cultural significance of the war cry.
Evaluate whether it was a suitable celebration given the context.
Evaluate whether the media practiced responsible reporting.

Reflection

Reconvene the class and invite students to complete a Think-Pair-Share around the following questions:

Do you think it is fair to use subjective language in an attempt to shape/alter the perspectives and opinions of others? Why/why not?
Do you think media personalities should be able to express personal values/opinions or should their reports and discussions be neutral and factually based? Why/why not?
Why is it important to consider multiple perspectives – including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives – in Australian media?
Do you think using subjective language is an easy way for journalists to write their articles and encourage agreement with their own ideas? Do you think this is okay? Why/why not?

Think Pair Share

Think pair share is a collaborative learning strategy in which students work together to solve a problem or answer a question.

Think - students independently think about an issue or question and record their thoughts.

Pair - students work in pairs to discuss their ideas and record new thoughts.

Share - students share their thoughts with the whole group or with other pairs to reach consensus.

Differentiated Learning

Extension - Continuing from Part C: As a class, compare the articles they wrote with the types of commentary they viewed after the event. Discuss how the event might have been interpreted or reacted to differently if all media coverage had been completely objective.

Show students the right hand columns of pages 5 and 11 of the Australian Reconciliati on Barometer. Draw their attention to these statistics:

33% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have experienced at least one form of verbal racial abuse in the last 6 months (37% in 2016).
51% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people believe that Australia is a racist country (57% in 2016), compared with 38% of the general community (39% in 2016).
38% of Australians in the general community consider racial and cultural differences as the biggest cause of social divisions in Australia (37% in 2016), compared with 49% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (39% in 2016).
40% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people believe media portrayal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is balanced vs 47% Australians in the general community.
50% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people believe media portrayal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is usually negative vs 42% of Australians in the general community.

Ask the questions:

Do you think that any of the issues shown in these infographics were demonstrated in the media response to the Adam Goodes 'war cry'? How/why/why not?
Do you think that the way Adam Goodes was portrayed by the media fair in this situation? How/why/why not?
Why do you think a higher number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people reported negative media portrayal of them than other Australians in the general community?
What do you think might be a solution to this perception?

Provisions for Learning Support -

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

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

The Final Quarter - Responsible Reporting

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