Conflict and War: Unit Plan [English Online]

Unit Plan

TEACHER Jacqui Lucas

YEAR	LEVEL	DURATION
10	3-5	8-10 weeks

Achievement Objective Being Assessed	Learning Outcomes
Poetic writing	Process and publish one piece of poetic writing.
Transactional writing	Process and publish one piece of transactional writing.
Presenting	Combine visual and verbal features to present themes and messages in poetry.
Processes
Exploring Language	Use poetic conventions in writing poetry, then explain how it relates to our topic.
Supporting Achievement Objective	Learning Outcomes
Viewing	Respond to meanings and describe verbal and visual features in text.
NCEA Link
Assessment:	Formative
Achievement Standard:	AS90052 (English 1.1): Produce creative writing.
Achievement Standard:	AS90053 (English 1.2): Produce formal writing.
Achievement Standard:	AS90059 (English 1.8): Produce a media or dramatic presentation.

Teacher Background Reading

TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Possible Starter

Outline the unit to the students. If possible have students in groups enter the word "war" into a variety of search engines. Allocate a different search engine to each group, eg.

Have each group report back their answers to these questions.

Personal Reading

Students are provided during the study with a selection of literature based on the topics of conflict and war. These texts come in a range of reading ages to cater for a mixed ability class.

Poetry Teaching

Students work through a refresher course in poetry. This should include the language of poetry, types of poems, poetry analysis and rhyme/rhythm. A text to work through that makes poetry fun is "Enjoying More Poetry" (Sadler and Hayllar 1988). The work should be provided as a refresher and some background teaching in understanding poetry. Such features need to be taught in the context of the poems in the unit.

Introduction to War Poetry

Students should be given a background to World War One and the War poets of that time (see Poetry of the First World War and Virtual Seminars for Teaching Literature: WW1 Poetry). Look particularly at Wilfred Owen's poetry as a comparison to the patriotic poets of the time.

A selection of poems is needed, and the level of difficulty should be varied.

Assessment: Presenting a Poster

Students will present a poster based on a quote from a poem they particularly like. They must have an understanding of verbal and visual techniques such as colour, contrast, line, texture, graphology, layout, symbol and illustration. This should include pre-teaching or revising of static image techniques. Students should first plan and create a rough draft of the static image and have it evaluated by a partner prior to creating the final produce. This image can also be used to visually display a war poem that the students have written themselves.

Assessment Schedule
Exemplars

See the U.S. National Archives: War Posters or Propaganda Posters.

Group Work

Students are divided into groups of four. These should be mixed ability groups. Each group is assigned a different war. They look at the poems of the time and perform a group report back on what they found in their research. The research process should be followed:

Brainstorming topic
Deciding
Key words
Key questions
Finding
Note taking/sorting
Presenting
Bibliography
Evaluating

The Jigsaw approach would be an effective way of reporting this information.

Film Work - Gallipoli, Peter Weir

Students need to be informed of the events that took place at Gallipoli. Background notes need to be provided. Students then view the film, the teacher pausing at times to discuss what is happening. At the end of each viewing session, students should write a summary of the incidents that took place.

Group work questions - in mixed ability groups, students discuss the questions based on the film "Gallipoli" and develop a group poster of the information they come up with. A group report back is needed.

Notes on the visual and verbal features used in film are essential when studying the film. Notes on these should be provided to the students, particularly as they will need to use them to write the essay in the assessment section. A handy way to teach these skills is by using the video "Snail's Pace" by Grant Lahood and the accompanying written work for students. This can be found in the package "Take Five" which deals with short films in schools.

Song Lyrics

Students should be aware that it is not only poetry that allows people to express their views and feelings in a particular era. Song lyrics are poetry, and they have expressed the emotions and beliefs of many generations, particularly their attitudes to war. Have these attitudes changed over time? With a look at some of the lyrics used over time about war, students can make their own assessment.

A collection of these lyrics can be looked at, as well as some close reading of a few of them.

Scott, Mike. Red Army Blues
Sting. (1985) The Dream of the Blue Turtles (A&M Record Inc, Los Angeles):
- Sting. "Children's Crusade" (WWI - today)
- Sting. "Russians" (cold war)
Lynn, Vera. War songs
Bogle, Eric. And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Others can be found at Anti War Songs.

ASSESSMENT

NB - teachers may decide that they only need to use of 1-2 of the following assessments to best meet the needs of their programme.

Poetic Writing

Once familiar with the language, types, rhyme and metre used in poetry, students then write their own. They are given a selection of types to write, and from these they can select their best three to put forward for assessment. The overall topic is conflict or war, but the students can treat this however they wish.

Types of poetry
Assessment Schedule

War Story

Taking a line from the poem Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen students create their own story. This might be based on war or conflict, but needn't be strictly focused on this alone. The quote may appear at the beginning of the story, in the middle or at the end. It also might be repeated. The quote might be more than one line or less, but must fit in to the overall story.

See War Poetry Online for the text of some Wilfred Owen poems, and World War One Poetry for some other war poets such as Sigfried Sassoon and Herbert Read.

Students should have already been introduced to story writing as a skill, they should be aware of the drafting and editing process and be able to take the story through to publishing (see stylistic suggestions, notes on characterisation, structural suggestions and sentence patterns from the Writing for Publication unit). A possible publishing outlet could be Writers' Window.

Assessment Schedule
Exemplars

Essay based on the Film Gallipoli

Having learnt the necessary verbal and visual features of a film, the students need to take all the information provided, and having taken the time to look through the film (stopped by the teacher to indicate important shots, music, sound and effects), write an essay based on this question:

HOW DOES THE DIRECTOR OF THE FILM GALLIPOLI USE VERBAL AND VISUAL FEATURES TO GET A PARTICULAR MESSAGE ACROSS TO AN AUDIENCE?

Students are required to think about:

What they think Peter Weir's message is.
Analyse the effects of particular camera shots, music, etc.
Who the audience is that Peter Weir is targeting.

Students should have been previously taught the skills of transactional writing. They need to understand the use of formal language, paragraphing and sentence structure, introductions, topic sentences, statement, explanation and example, and conclusions. They should be aware of linking between paragraphs and how to quote when relevant.

See:

ASSESSMENT

RESOURCES

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