Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

30 minutes

Part A: Feel The Power

20 minutes

Part B: Power In The Final Quarter

20 minutes

Part C: Who Is More Powerful?

10 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students understand...

different types of power
sources of and barriers to power for individuals
how speakers construct themselves, or are constructed, as powerful
how powerful individuals are.

Students can...

identify different types of power and examples of these
explain how differing signs or symbols convey power or a lack of power
compare and contrast the power of differing individuals.

Part A: Feel the power

Step 1

Ask students to stand up and pose like a ‘powerful person’.

Step 2

Point out, or ask students to point out, how other students stood - what did they think made them look powerful?

Step 3

Discuss with students the concept of ‘power posing’ - the idea that when we pose like superheroes or powerful people we may actually feel a boost in our confidence.
Reference: https://blog.ted.com/10-examples-of-how-power-posing-can-work-to-boost-your-confidence/

Step 4

Distribute the Student Worksheets to each student and direct them to the Y chart with ‘feels like’, ‘sounds like’ and ‘looks like’ written in each segment. Ask students to complete the chart in pairs, thinking about the concept of ‘being powerful’.

Step 5

Invite students to share what they wrote and add their ideas to a whole class Y chart (displayed on a wall or board).

Step 6

Ask students to write their own definition of ‘powerful’ and then move around the room, looking for their ideas about power. Share some of these with the class.

Step 7

Ask students:

What can make an individual powerful?

Write suggested answers on the board (e.g. money, fame, authority).

Step 8

Show students this video:

How to Understand Power (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_Eutci7ack)

Step 9

Remind students that the video stated that the six types of power are:

physical force
wealth
state actions
social norms
ideas
numbers.

If you have already written any of these on the board, circle them. If there are any missing, write them up and ask students to write them on their Student Worksheet. Have students discuss, in small groups or pairs, what examples of these types of power they can think of from either their everyday life or the news. Have students share these with the class after a two-minute discussion.

Step 10

Ask students:

What were the three laws of power described in the film? (Power is never static, power is like water, power compounds power.)

Ask students to put these laws in their own words on the Student Worksheet. Invite students to share what they wrote with the class.

Step 11

Discuss as a class, or on small tables, how they have seen these laws at work in their own life.

Step 12

Invite students to add to their ‘feels like, looks like, sounds like’ Y chart for ‘being powerful’ based on what they learned from the video.

Step 13

Explain to students they will now search through the Forbes’ World’s Most Powerful People list and choose three people to read about. They should pick at least one person they have never heard of. Provide students with this link: https://www.forbes.com/powerful-people/list/#tab:overall and have them complete the following questions on the Student Worksheet:

What are some of the things you noticed about the powerful people you looked at?
What criteria for ‘powerful’ do you think Forbes has used?
What sources of power do the people included have access to?
What barriers to their power might exist?
What are some connections between these people and what the clip told us about power?

Part B: Power in The Final Quarter

Step 1

Give half of the students a copy of the Adam Goodes Profile and the remaining students the Andrew Bolt Profile. Ask them to complete this table on their Student Worksheet:

Possible sources of power	Possible barriers to power

Step 2

Invite students who focused on Adam Goodes to pair up with a student who focused on Andrew Bolt to share the sources and barriers they discussed.

Step 3

Students should work in these new groupings to complete a Venn diagram comparing the experiences of power of Andrew Bolt and Adam Goodes.

Step 4

Ask students: What are some signs and symbols of Adam Goodes’ power? What about the signs or symbols of a lack of power?

Step 5

Show students this clip from The Final Quarter and have them complete the table below:

Australian of the Year Extended (https://vimeo.com/348323005/e1ffd13736

Image/text/sound	How it projects power/lack of power

Step 6

Do the same as above, but for this clip showing Andrew Bolt:

Put Yourself in Aboriginal Shoes (https://vimeo.com/369740571/9dec6e3a7b)

Image/text/sound	How it projects power/lack of power

Part C: Who is more powerful?

Step 1

Ask students to use what they have seen and read to work in pairs to create four criteria for being powerful.

Step 2

Invite students to complete the table below, judging who is more powerful for each criterion.

Criterion	Adam Goodes	Andrew Bolt	Winner - and why
Suggested: Able to influence others	Is a popular football player and football is highly considered in Australia Is Australian of the Year	Is in a position of influence - media commentator Has a media platform

Step 3

Students are to write a paragraph explaining who is more powerful in their opinion - Adam Goodes or Andrew Bolt and why.

Reflection

Pair students and have them discuss:

How have your views on what makes someone powerful changed or grown in this lesson?
Have you changed your criteria for determining what makes someone powerful, compared to before the lesson? If so, why?
Was it difficult to decide who was more powerful? Why/why not?
The clip we watched said “Power + character = a great citizen”. What do you think this means? Does power alone make someone good or worthy of support?
How can you be more aware of the way people use their power? Does being aware of people’s power help you to push back, if you want to?

Differentiated learning

Extension

Students could write about how they saw one, or all three, of the power laws (from the first video) in action in the clips today. Students can then analyse how the different people (Adam Goodes or Andrew Bolt) were affected by the laws of power and how they used them.

Provisions for Learning Support

In Part B, students could focus on one sign of power they saw and explain how it showed the person was powerful. Alternatively, you could give students a list of common signs and symbols of power and ask them to write the name of the person who had this sign/symbol of power next to them.

E.g.

Suit
On stage
People listening to them
Speaking confidently
Associating with other powerful people

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 - Individual Power

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Summary

Learning intentions:

Students understand...

Success criteria:

Students can...

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