Teacher instructions

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune in: Culture and identity

20 minutes

Find out: Brenda's identity

30 minutes

Take action: Your identity

5 minutes

Reflection: How are we shaped?

Tune in: Culture and identity

Step 1. Explain to students that their task for this lesson will require them to think about five aspects of their life that are special or unique to them, things that shape who they are.

Step 2. Hand out the Culture And Identity Activity Worksheet. Introduce each of the five aspects of culture:

People - Who are the most important people in your life? Who would you make a major sacrifice for?
Place - Where do you feel you most belong or feel connected? E.g. the beach? family home?
Values - What are the most important values to you and your family that influence what you do and how you do it? E.g. show respect.
Customs - What activities / celebrations are special and unique to you, your family or your friends? These may be ongoing traditions or things you’ve created. E.g. milestones, events, ceremonies.
Language - How do you communicate through words, stories and actions to connect with the people you care about? Are there any terms or names that only mean something to you and those within your ‘group’?

Step 3. Ask students to write their answers to the questions in each column. They will come back to this sheet later. Give students the opportunity to share some of their responses and why they’re important to them.

Step 4. Invite students to return to their Culture and Identity Activity worksheet, and swap their worksheet with a peer.

Step 5. On the worksheet in front of them, ask them to cross out any two columns and hand it back to the student. Do this quickly without any discussion.

Step 6. Facilitate a group discussion and ask students:How did it feel to have the things most important to you, things that shape you who are, your culture, be taken away? Why?How does it impact the remaining columns? Would there be anything in those columns that would also be missing out because of this impact?How might your identity, your understanding of who you are, be affected by this loss? What if the same thing happened to most of your friends and family?

Find out: Brenda's identity

Step 1: Explain to students that we will watch parts of the film to better understand Brenda and her family in terms of the five aspects of culture and identity we looked in the Tune In activity. Step 2: Ask students to watch each clip and then answer the questions in their Student Worksheet.

People

The Last Daughter: Brenda 'had to go back' (https://player.vimeo.com/video/814138220?h=6b6be2bb13)

Listen carefully to what Brenda says about why she has to 'go back' and look into her past - who benefits from this? How?2. Who does she say 'leads her back' to her past? And how does her past reach into her future? (talk about this being an intergenerational issue)

Place

The Last Daughter: The Opening Scene (https://player.vimeo.com/video/814135021?h=34da5c7699)

1. List some of the places/locations in this opening sequence.

2. What do you think is the significance of the river? The childhood home? The backyard with her siblings?

Values

The Last Daughter: Nan gets her kids back (https://player.vimeo.com/video/814133167?h=a264724b49)

1. Watch this clip. Identify and explain what is important to Nan at this point in her life.

The Last Daughter: Brenda on why she needed to reunite with the Ockers (https://player.vimeo.com/video/814154356?h=2f86c4816b)

2. Listen to what Brenda says in this clip - what is important to her? What does she value?

Customs & Language

The Last Daughter: Gary and his love of singing (https://player.vimeo.com/video/814127904?h=0b4419c6b1)

1. Does Brenda's family have a tradition or custom?

2. Where /who does this tradition come from?

3. What does Brenda come to learn about the meaning of singing?

Take action: Your identity

Step 1. Explain to students that their task is to use the Culture And Identity Activity Worksheet from the Tune In activity. They are to create a hand drawn or multimodal collage, using Canva or similar program, that visually represents their own identity, based on the elements of the Culture and Identity Activity:

People
Place
Values
Customs
Language

Step 2. Instruct students to begin creating a collage using the materials they have brought to class. They can use text to explain certain elements or they may play an audio track over the top of their work. Students should be given great freedom to create something that represents them in this activity.

Step 3. Invite students to display their work in the classroom, with enough space for students to move around the room to view the work created by their peers.

Reflection: How are we shaped?

Step 1: Ask students to return to the essential question of the lesson: 'How are our identities and cultures shaped?'They may also choose to answer this question in the Student Worksheet.

Differentiated Learning

We trust that teachers are the best equipped to know how to cater to the diversity in their classes. At Cool Australia, we incorporate a variety of differentiation strategies into each lesson. Firstly, each lesson in this unit appeals to an array of different learning preferences. Learning activities can be completed in a number of different ways - if a student feels more comfortable speaking rather than writing, there are opportunities to accommodate this. In lessons that feature group work or learning stations, we trust that teachers will use their discretion in knowing how to best organise their students in accordance to positive working relationships and ability. Graphic organisers and scaffolds are often included so students can ‘visually think’ and keep a record of their work. While our lessons are designed to be 55 - 60 minutes in length, we trust that teachers will manipulate lesson and segment times according to the needs of their students.

The Last Daughter - Exploring Identities

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