Blue - Sea Turtle Poetry

Australian curriculum (8.4) content descriptions:

Year 7 English:

• Create literary texts that adapt stylistic features encountered in other texts, for example, narrative viewpoint, structure of stanzas, contrast and juxtaposition (ACELT1625).
• Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas (ACELY1725).

Syllabus outcomes: EN4-6C

General capabilities: Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.7, OI.9

Relevant parts of Year 7 English achievement standards: Students demonstrate understanding of how the choice of language features, images and vocabulary affects meaning. Students understand how the selection of a variety of language features can influence an audience. They create texts showing how language features and images from other texts can be combined for effect. Students make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, using language features to engage the audience.

Unit of work: Blue The Film: Our Oceans and Our Future

Time required: 90 mins.

• Student Worksheet – one per student
• Device capable of presenting a clip to the class
• Ghost Nets Factsheet
• Sharks Factsheet
• Turtles Factsheet
• Fishing Factsheet
• Poetic Devices Glossary
• A Turtle’s Life Poem
• Turtles and Ghost Nets Stimulus Images

This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:

• Communication
• Creativity
• Critical thinking
• Social skills
• Global citizenship

Level of teacher scaffolding: Low – lead students in discussion.

Blue is a feature documentary film charting the drastic decline in the health of our oceans. With more than half of all marine life lost and the expansion of the industrialization of the seas, the film sets out the challenges we are facing and the opportunities for positive change. Blue changes the way we think about our liquid world and inspires the audience to action. Find out how to screen or download the film here. Along with the film is an ambitious global campaign to create advocacy and behaviour change through the #oceanguardian movement. To become an ocean guardian, see the website.