Stories of Chasing Asylum - Watching the Film

Australian Curriculum content descriptions: 

Year 10 English:

• Analyse and evaluate how people, cultures, places, events, objects and concepts are represented in texts, including media texts, through language, structural and/or visual choices (ACELY1749)

Syllabus outcomes: EN5-8D

General Capabilities: Literacy, Personal and Social Capability, Ethical Understanding, Intercultural Understanding.

Cross-curriculum priority:

• Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia OI.8.
• Sustainability OI.5.

Relevant parts of Year 10 English achievement standards: Students evaluate how text structures can be used in innovative ways by different authors. They explain how the choice of language features, images and vocabulary contributes to the development of individual style. They develop and justify their own interpretations of texts. They evaluate other interpretations, analysing the evidence used to support them. They listen for ways features within texts can be manipulated to achieve particular effects.

Unit of work: Stories of Chasing Asylum – access the unit overview here.

Time required: 120 minutes.

Level of teacher scaffolding: Low – set up AV equipment, set film context and supervise student viewing of film.

• Student Worksheet – one copy per student OR computers/tablets to access the online worksheet
• Device capable of audio/visual presentation to present a film to the class, projector and speakers. (A purpose-specific viewing room would be ideal.)
• You will need to access the Chasing Asylum film by streaming it from Kanopy or purchasing the DVD at the ATOM Education Shop.
• Other factsheets: Chasing Asylum – Film Synopsis, Documentary Viewing – Factsheet, Things to address before viewing and studying Chasing Asylum.

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

• Empathy
• Communication
• Ethical understanding
• Global citizenship
• Cultural understanding
• Social skills

Chasing Asylum exposes the real impact of Australia’s offshore detention policies through the personal accounts of people seeking asylum and whistleblowers who tried to work within the system. To watch the documentary, stream it on Kanopy and Clickview or purchase the DVD at the ATOM Education Shop.