IMAGI-NATION{TV} - Forgiving the Unforgivable

Australian curriculum content descriptions: 

Year 9 English:

• Use comprehension strategies to interpret and analyse texts, comparing and evaluating representations of an event, issue, situation or character in different texts (ACELY1744).
• Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that present a point of view and advance or illustrate arguments, including texts that integrate visual, print and/or audio features (ACELY1746).
• Review and edit students’ own and others’ texts to improve clarity and control over content, organisation, paragraphing, sentence structure, vocabulary and audio/visual features (ACELY1747).

Year 10 English:

Use comprehension strategies to compare and contrast information within and between texts, identifying and analysing embedded perspectives, and evaluating supporting evidence (ACELY1754).

Create sustained texts, including texts that combine specific digital or media content, for imaginative, informative, or persuasive purposes that reflect upon challenging and complex issues (ACELY1756).

Review, edit and refine students’ own and others’ texts for control of content, organisation, sentence structure, vocabulary, and/or visual features to achieve particular purposes and effects (ACELY1757).

This lesson is part of a wider program: IMAGI-NATION{TV}

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – teachers will need to facilitate activities, negotiate some challenging conversation and ensure safety for all students.

Syllabus outcomes: EN5-1A, EN5-2A

General capabilities: Literacy, Personal and Social Capability, Ethical Understanding, Intercultural Understanding

Time required: 60+ minutes.

Tips for teachers: Important: Because many of the things you will be discussing in this lesson involve personal experiences and feelings, it’s a good idea to work with students to set some ground rules for sharing ideas and feelings. Use this to guide you: Handling Sensitive Topics and Issues Factsheet. Be mindful that, while this is a case study in South African Apartheid, other cultures may identify with the themes in this lesson, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Other students may also be struggling with forgiveness for various reasons. It is important that teachers subtly monitor the welfare and wellbeing of all students during this lesson and for a couple of weeks afterwards to make sure they are feeling safe and able to cope with the content raised in this lesson.

• Apartheid Factsheet
• Device capable of presenting a video to the class
• Handling Sensitive Topics and Issues Factsheet
• Student Worksheets – one copy per student

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

• Communication
• Critical thinking
• Cultural understanding

This lesson has been developed in partnership with AIME. AIME is an Imagination Factory that since 2005, has been creating pop-up Imagination Factories on university campuses around the world to unlock the internal narrative of marginalised kids, taking them from a world that tells them they can’t to a world that tells them they can. Kids who experience the Imagination Factory have gone on to achieve educational parity, rise up as entrepreneurs, and take on a whole new mindset that prepares them for success.

AIME created IMAGI-NATION{TV} & the IMAGI-NATION{CLASSROOM} experience to put a mentor in the home every day during the tough times of COVID-19 and beyond. It’s a daily TV show broadcast live on the internet, and it’s a gift for teachers, parents and kids to help make sense of today and imagine tomorrow.

The pursuit is to elevate knowledge; every guest we bring on knows something and has wisdom to share. This show is not just about entertainment to pass the time. We want to remake the mould for the modern hero – from beauty to brains, from selfies to self-knowledge, from hashtags to hope. IMAGI-NATION{TV} is seeking to unlock the best in every single one of us; to inspire a generation of heroes in the form of mentors who fight for a fairer world.