Teacher Preparation

Overarching learning goal: Students will understand how an author (songwriter) can create a sense of place through the language they use. They will be able to analyse the rhetorical qualities of different text types and how those qualities achieve the text's purpose. They will understand language devices and how they can create meaning in texts. In the music section of the lesson, students will be able to identify and understand different concepts of music and how they are used in the featured songs.

Teacher content information: This lesson is based on the film Paul Kelly - Stories of Me, which charts the many lives, loves and losses of Paul Kelly, one of Australia’s most gifted singer-songwriters. His songs have been marking out the Australian landscape and its people through words and music for almost 40 years. The stories and the music of Paul Kelly explore and reflect the Australian experience, life and culture.

The film is a contemporary music documentary that allows students to explore popular culture, storytelling and how people are represented in texts. It highlights different aspects of the Australian experience and showcases how art reflects and celebrates life. The film's portrayal of Kelly's life and music covers themes such as relationships, family, culture, love, identity, death and friendship. Throughout the unit, all are peeled back, examined and applied to students' English studies.

Through Paul Kelly - Stories of Me, students consider how Kelly has lived through failure and triumph, and will experience the songs that show it. Although a very private person in a public career, Paul Kelly - Stories of Me digs deeply into what makes Paul Kelly tick, revealing more about the man and his music than ever before. The study of Paul Kelly - Stories of Me provides students with opportunities to reflect upon the human condition and critically examine their own experiences in order to creatively depict their own story.

For more information, view the following:

Paul Kelly - Stories of Me - About the Film - Factsheet
Paul Kelly - Stories of Me - Director's Statement - Factsheet
Telling a Musical Story - Factsheet
Making Up Stories Of Me - Factsheet

Before commencing this lesson, consider that often when we write about authors we frame our own expectations about the relationship between authors, texts and place. We might think that because an author writes about a social concern, a particular place or event, they create a sense of national identity. Another way to think about this is that the reader, viewer or listener layers his/her own experience on the text; sometimes a shared experience, sometimes a contrasting experience. Paul Kelly’s songs create story spaces for audiences to bring their own experiences and make their own connections, exploring their own definitions of universal ideas about love, family, social justice and identity. The selection of songs in this lesson provides a snapshot of Kelly’s interests and experiences with a view to considering the extent to which he may be said to reflect Australian life.

Teaching sequence:

55 minutes	Part A: Songs About Place
55 minutes	Part B: Songs About Social Change
55 minutes	Part C: Songs About Relationships
15 minutes	Reflection (introduce)

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: Songs About Place

Step 1.

Introduce the song "Adelaide" to students by playing the section of Paul Kelly - Stories of Me that briefly features it (31:26).

Step 2.

Invite students to create a list of five questions that they have about the song on the Student Worksheet. They could use the words/phrases/concepts below (and on the Students Worksheet) to prompt their questions about the song:

childhood
imagery
description
language techniques
repetition of words
nursery rhymes
verse
chorus
persona
emotion
story
places

Step 3.

Invite students to form pairs, and encourage them to use their list of questions to have an informal interview-style conversation to explore the song "Adelaide". Students could supplement their discussion with internet searches for specific details such as: what a wisteria is, where Kensington Road is, what the statue of Colonel Light is, or any other detail referenced within the song. Understanding the finer details may help students to better understand the context of the song, the way it creates and sense of place and how it is relatable, and therefore its appeal to an Australian audience.

Step 4.

Facilitate a class discussion to clarify student thinking. If possible, reconfigure the classroom so that students are sitting in a circle. You could anchor the discussion by writing the statement: "Paul Kelly's references to places in 'Adelaide' create a universal story of fear and longing that is specifically Australian" on the board. When discussing ideas around the statement, encourage students to ask each other any questions that help to clarify their understanding and to prompt more thinking. The discussion could cover points such as:

The places in the song refer to places that seem particularly Australian and therefore appeal more to an Australian audience.
The way "Adelaide" talks about places suggests that there is a high level of importance or meaning attached to those places.
The song makes it seem normal to attach a feeling or sentiment to a particular place.

Step 5.

Connect the idea of place with students' personal experiences. While still sitting in a circle, invite students to think about an experience that they feel strongly about or that had an impact on them. It could be something that they feel excited/happy/sad/comfortable/a sense of longing/loss/gain/pride about. Once they have an experience in mind, ask them to think about where they were when they had that experience.

Step 6.

Give out paper or ask studnets to write in their notebook, then ask students to sit in a configuration that you think would be best for a short free writing activity. Invite students to describe, in either paragraphs or dot points, the experience they recalled in the previous step as well as all of the things that they noticed around them when they were having that experience. Encourage students to think about where they were and all of the things that made that place unique - what did the place look, feel and sound like? What stands out in their mind?

Step 7.

Invite students to use their recollections to draft and refine an extended piece of writing that creates a sense of place for the reader in a similar way that Paul Kelly's "Adelaide" does for the listener. The piece should attempt to evoke in the reader the same feeling that students recalled. Their piece could be between 150-200 words long and could be prose, verse or another text type.

Part B: Songs About Social Change

Step 1.

Watch the section of Paul Kelly - Stories of Me about land rights to prompt students' thinking (1:15:57).

reconcilliation conference performance screenshot

Step 2.

Draw a table on the whiteboard that looks similar to the table below, then invite the class to complete the 'See, Feel, Wonder' visible thinking routine. Give students three sticky notes, and ask them to write a response to each of the questions and place them in the appropriate column.

What did you SEE in the clip?	What did you FEEL while watching?	What did the clip make you WONDER?

Encourage students to share their thoughts in a brief class sharing session.

Step 3.

Split students into three or six groups, depending on the number and requirements of the students in the class. Allocate one of the texts linked below to each group, and prompt students to analyse the text for its rhetorical qualities:

A web page containing a factsheet about the Wave Hill walk-off from the National Archives
A short film from Screen Australia’s National Treasures series
The YouTube clip of Gough Whitlam giving leasehold title to Vincent Lingiari, representative of the Gurindgi people

They could respond to the questions in the table on the Student Worksheet to guide their analysis of their given text:

Who has created the text and for what purpose(s)?
Which audience(s) has the text been created for?
How it has been structured to achieve its purpose?
How it has been structured to engage the audience?
What is noticeable/significant about its use of language?

Each group member should take their own notes during the activity on the Student Worksheet. The main points of each group's discussion and the conclusions that the group reached could then be shared with the class.

Step 4.

Watch and/or listen to "The Gurindji Blues" and "From Little Things Big Things Grow" (the film briefly explores the song at 35:38-36:55. The full version of the song can be found here). Ask students to compare (in the table on the Student Worksheet) the effect that each song has upon the listener's view of the issue of the Aboriginal Land Rights Claim.

Respond to the questions below for each song:	"Gurindji Blues":	"From Little Things Big Things Grow":
How is the audience's perspective of the issue changed by the song's story (balladic form)?
How is the audience's perspective of the issue changed by the song's tune?
How is the audience's perspective of the issue changed by the point of view expressed?

Step 5.

Invite students to debate the question: "Which is the more effective as a protest song?"

Do so by asking students who think that "The Gurindji Blues" is the more effective protest song to move to the right side of the room and those preferring "From Little Things Big Things Grow" to move to the left.

Students could then take turns (alternating the right side and the left) to present a point to support their case. Any class member can make a point as long as he or she stands to make it and each point is backed up by evidence from the text. Encourage students to try to convince as many people as they can to cross the floor through the strength of their argument. Ensure that the conversation stays safe and supportive and that arguments are supported by evidence (rather than being purely emotive). At the end of the discussion cast another vote, and ask students to move if they have a new perspective.

Step 6.

Revisit the 'See, Feel, Wonder' statements and discuss how students' understanding around the issue of Aboriginal Land Rights has changed, focusing particularly on whether their 'wonder' statements have been addressed. If they haven't, you could set students the challenge of engaging in some personal inquiry around their 'wonder' statements.

Part C: Songs About Relationships

Before starting this activity, ensure that you have cut up the Language Devices activity.

Step 1.

As a class, watch the section of the film that features the song "Careless" (26:28).

Step 2.

Explore how Paul Kelly uses language devices to create meaning in "Careless". Cut up the Language Devices activity print out, fold each section up and place in a container. Offer the container to each student to pick a piece of paper out. Some students will pick out a language device and others will pick out the meaning. Ask students to stand and search for the classmate who has the 'match' to their piece of paper and then sit with the students who they have matched with.

Step 3.

Invite students to consider the song "Careless" and apply their understanding of the language device to the lyrics of the song. In a table on the Student Worksheet, students are asked to describe how the device is used in the lyrics and the effect of it upon the meaning of the song.

Reflection/Homework

Students refine and publish the piece of writing about place that they began in Part A of this lesson. They could then perform their writing as a spoken piece or as a song to the class.

Differentiated Learning

Extension: Students could produce one episode of a television series called “Behind the Scenes” in which iconic images from Australian history are fleshed out with the actions and motivations of people associated with the event. Students could start with this iconic Australian image:

Students could choose one of the following people associated with the image:

Gough Whitlam
Vincent Lingiari
Lord Vestey
Workers from the Gurindji
The photographer of this image, Mervyn Bishop

Students can then use the information they have understood from the texts in Part B to develop a narrated photo essay presentation. This activity will assess student's understanding of the context of Paul Kelly's song and will demonstrate their understanding of editing for effect.

Provisional Learning Support: For the task in Part A of the lesson, students could use (their own or sourced) photos of a place that they connect with to create a recorded PowerPoint presentation that describes the place and how it affects them.

PAUL KELLY - STORIES OF ME - An Australian Voice?

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