Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Part A: Sharing A Message

30 minutes

Part B: Using A Feature Film To Share A Message

15 minutes

Part C: Challenging Racist Attitudes And Behaviours

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students understand...

there are a range of ways in which people learn and receive messages about social issues
that feature films can be an effective tool to challenge and change attitudes and behaviour
that The Final Quarter provoked different reactions and perspectives on racism in Australia
the importance of challenging racist attitudes and behaviours to create social change.

Students can...

identify ways in which messages and points of view are shared about social issues
explain how a feature film can share a social message and change attitudes and behaviours
analyse different perspectives and points of view
ideate in pairs and small groups to create possible social actions
reflect on parts of society that influence their understanding of social issues.

Part A: Sharing a message

Step 1

Introduce the lesson by inviting students to think about how people, governments and/or organisations share their messages with the public. Consider, in particular, when they might want to encourage others to learn more about a cause or social issue/concern. For example, anti-smoking TV advertisements that have graphic content or wearing a white ribbon to promote awareness of domestic violence against women.

Step 2

Ask students to form small groups of three or four and provide a piece of butcher’s paper and markers to each group. Encourage groups to list the ways people receive messages and note any real-world examples to support their ideas.

To help students expand their lists, the following prompts can remind them where different messages might be coming from:

Family values/upbringing
School and education
Government policies/political views (local, state and federal)
Sporting codes and community groups
Religious organisations
Digital and print media
Art projects

Step 3

Allow groups 3-4 minutes to write down their ideas and examples on their piece of butcher’s paper, before bringing the class together to share their responses.

Step 4

Invite groups or individual students to share their responses and record some on the board.

Once a range of ideas and examples have been recorded, invite students to discuss in their groups which ways are most effective to share a message when people, governments and/or organisations want to encourage others to learn more about their cause or social issue/concern.

Explain to students that it is important to think deeply and discuss the effectiveness of each strategy as they will need to justify their group’s choice/s to the class. It might be useful for students to consider the messages that have had the greatest impact on them personally, and why.

When students are considering the messages that have had the greatest impact on them, get them to focus on the methods used to spread the messages, rather than any personal stories behind their reactions. This will help provide greater safety for students.

Step 5

Invite each group to share their effective messaging choices and justifications with the class.

Part B: Using a feature film to share a message

Step 1

Explain to students that they will soon watch a trailer for the documentary The Final Quarter, which is a film that documents the final three years of First Nations AFL player, Adam Goodes’ career. It is made only using archival footage and aims to highlight the emotion, attitudes and behaviours of different people.

Step 2

Show students the trailer:

The Final Quarter Trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8KJ0_bdUDU)

If students haven’t seen the full film, it may be useful to show the clip once and allow students to discuss what they thought the film was about with the person next to them. Then show the clip a second time to allow students to think more critically about the film and its purpose.

Step 3

After viewing the clip, facilitate a brief class discussion to explore the purpose of the film and the possible impact that a film such as this could have on changing attitudes and behaviours about racism in Australia.

The following questions may be used to help promote discussion:

What is the film about? (Or, What do you think the film might be about?)
Why do you think the filmmaker wanted to make this film?
Why do you think it only uses archival sources? What is the value in doing this?
How do you think a film can change attitudes or promote action?
How do you think different people in society would react to this film? E.g. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, non-Indigenous people, older Australians, youth, migrants, non-AFL supporters, etc.

Optional: Read The Final Quarter Directors Statement to further understand why the film was made and for what purpose.

Step 4

Invite students to form groups of three or four and provide each student with a Student Worksheet. Explain to students that they will use the six sources listed on the Student Worksheet (included below) to investigate how people have reacted to the film and how the film challenged their perception of racism in Australia.

1	School screening response	'Too confronting': Students hope Goodes film will teach next generation about racism Article and video https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/too-confronting-students-hope-goodes-film-will-teach-next-generation-about-racism-20190925-p52uuj.html
2	AFL Commentators Response - AFL 360	AFL 360 co-hosts Gerard Whateley and Mark Robinson discuss moving Adam Goodes documentary Article https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-360-cohosts-gerard-whateley-and-mark-robinson-discuss-moving-adam-goodes-documentary/news-story/81e90b584a8fd6010c26a2077a6a85f2
3	Indigenous Players Alliance Statement	AFL players release statement on Adam Goodes documentary Article https://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/patrick-dangerfield-laments-issues-adam-goodes-went-through/news-story/b1c07b621f7b9ea5afd24bc4f41dd20b
4	Opening Night Public Response	'A hard pill to swallow': Boos, hisses and a standing ovation at premiere of Goodes film Article https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/a-hard-pill-to-swallow-boos-hisses-and-a-standing-ovation-at-premiere-of-goodes-film-20190607-p51vt0.html
5	Young Aboriginal Women's Response	What Adam Goodes taught me about the Australia I was growing up in Article (Last 7 paragraphs, from “Considering the power of his actions then...”) https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2019/06/13/what-adam-goodes-taught-me-about-australia-i-was-growing-1
6	Compilation of Public Responses	Anger, shame, tears: Your reactions to the Adam Goodes doco 'The Final Quarter' AFL news article with names/locations of people https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-07-19/anger-shame-your-reactions-to-the-final-quarter-documentary-about-adam-goodes

Step 5

To guide the investigation, encourage students to write down their findings using the questions on the Student Worksheet.

Source:

Who is represented?
What is their reaction to the film?
Does the source suggest the film was effective in challenging racist attitudes in Australia? Why/why not?

Step 6

Invite students to work through the six sources together as a group or by dividing the sources and sharing their analysis. Encourage students to discuss each source and the effectiveness of using a documentary to share a social message.

Optional alternative activity structure: Provide each group with one source to investigate and report back to the class, encouraging students to complete the questions on the Student Worksheet for each source being presented.

Step 7

Once students have worked through all six sources, facilitate a brief class discussion using the following prompt:

Is The Final Quarter documentary an effective way to challenge racist attitudes and behaviours in Australia?

Encourage students to use evidence from the sources studied to support their response.

Part C: Challenging racist attitudes and behaviours

Step 1

Remind students that creating a documentary film like The Final Quarter is one of many ways that a social message or point of view can be received and/or challenged.

Using the ideas from the social messaging brainstorm at the beginning of the lesson as a starting point, invite students to work in pairs to list other ways in which racist attitudes and behaviours could be challenged and ultimately changed in Australia through the Arts. Encourage students to record their ideas on their Student Worksheet.

It is important that in order for students to build their ideas, they should think critically about how social messages are shared in families, schools, community groups, politically and in the media.

Step 2

Once each pair has listed eight to ten ideas in the space provided on the Student Worksheet, invite each pair to join with another pair to share their responses. Encourage students in their new group of four to continue to workshop their ideas to create one or two solid arts-based ideas/strategies that could be effective in challenging racist attitudes and behaviours in Australia.

Note: Remind students that it is often the simplest actions that can be the most effective.

Step 3

Invite each group of four to display their final workshopped idea for all groups to see. Ask a representative from each group to present their idea to the class, explaining how their idea/s will help challenge racist attitudes and/or behaviours through the Arts. For example, students may post beautifully designed quotes by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to raise awareness of the value of their contributions to society. For hard copy posters, students can also include a QR code on the poster to direct audiences to a relevant web page.

Take it further

Allow time for students to plan out their workshopped ideas further and encourage students to take action for social change. If you would like to explore social media campaigns for social action with your class in order to develop their ideas further, you might like to explore The Final Quarter - Confronting Racism - HPE - Years 9 & 10.

Reflection

Invite students to reflect on how they receive messages about social issues by rating the following influences using a 5-star rating guide (5 being extremely influential, and 0 being not influential):

Family
Friends
School/education
Government policies
Community/sporting groups
Religious organisations
Social media
Other media

Once students have rated each influence, ask them to reflect on why some areas of society have a stronger influence than others and the importance of receiving messages about social issues from a variety of perspectives.

Differentiated Learning

Extension

In Part B, invite students to read through the The Final Quarter Directors Statement to identify the reasons for making the film and the intended impacts of the film.
In Part C, students have the opportunity to take their social action idea further by planning and implementing their plan in their community.

Provisions for Learning Support

In Part B, when students are working through all six resources as a group, students can be placed in mixed ability groups so that students with stronger literacy skills can support others. Alternatively, when students are presenting one source to the class, they can be given a source that is suitable for their literacy skills, e.g. a video clip for students who struggle to read large text articles.

Teacher reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

The Final Quarter - Artistic Influence

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Learning intentions:

Students understand...

Success criteria:

Students can...

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