Unit Orientation:

Students will sit on the carpet and teacher will show them the units focus text,
Maralinga: The Anangu Story. The class will have a group discussion about what they
think the book will be about and this is a great way to see the students prior knowledge.
The teacher will read chapter 2 Water and ask for students thoughts on whether they
were right about what the book is about. The teacher will ask students if they know what
kind of genre the text is (nonfiction).

Building Knowledge of the Field:

Students will explore and learn about Aboroginal culture and the history of certain
Aboroginal communities. Students will gain an understanding about what happened in
the early 1960s when the British came to Australia. From this content, students will
gather a respect for Aboroginal communities and develop and understanding for current
issues in the 21st century surrounding this topic.

Utilising the non-fiction text:

The focus text Maralinga: The Anangu Story is a nonfiction text that has been used to
frame learning experiences such as how to write an information report, how to research
effectively and what to look for in an information report.

Responding to texts:
Students respond to a variety of resources such as videos, literary texts, online
research and peer written work.

Exploring texts:
Students will explore a wide range of texts both online and offline. Students will
investigate the features of nonfiction texts and explore different perspectives and points
of view.

Examining texts:
Students read different chapters from the focus text as well as dissecting information
reports and exploring the structure of journal entries.

Structure and organisation

Students explore how to create information texts and how the features of text form the
overall structure.
Expressing and developing ideas
Students will learn about points of view and writing process and the importance of
perspectives and meanings in texts.

Visual and multimodal features of texts

Students have access to a wide variety of texts both online and offline

Extending beyond the focus texts including:

Students will create information reports and journal entries as a way of showing their
understanding of texts.
The Burnt Stick by Anthony Hill
A variety of online research resources ( used when creating the information report)

Assessment:
Formative: Students will complete a peer checklist in response to information reports.
Summative: Students will use their research from prior lessons to create a journal
entry from the perspective of an Aboriginal community or British colonist.

Significant demonstration of learning:

At the end of this unit students will have a sound understanding for different genres of
text, particularly nonfiction text. Students will also have investigated text structures and
features of different text types. Points of view and perspective behind texts will also be
extensively covered.