Biographies, Autobiographies and Memoirs

In this unit, students will analyse films, conduct online research, and engage in creative writing to explore biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Inspired by the stories of Ballardong Noongar Elders, they will learn about life in 1960s Western Australia. Students will then write and publish their own biography, autobiography, or memoir, focusing on themselves or someone they value, deepening their sense of identity and understanding of others.

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Cross Curriculum Priorities

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures

Country/Place

Culture

A_TSIC1
First Nations Australian societies are diverse and have distinct cultural expressions such as language, customs and beliefs. As First Nations Peoples of Australia, they have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural expressions, while also maintaining the right to control, protect and develop culture as Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property.
A_TSIC2
First Nations Australians’ ways of life reflect unique ways of being, knowing, thinking and doing.
A_TSIC3
The First Peoples of Australia (Aboriginal Peoples) belong to the world’s oldest continuous cultures. First Nations Australians demonstrate resilience in the maintenance, practice and revitalisation of culture despite the many historic and enduring impacts of colonisation, and continue to celebrate and share the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures.

People

A_TSIP3
The significant and ongoing contributions of First Nations Australians and their histories and cultures are acknowledged locally, nationally and globally.
A_TSIP1
Australia has 2 distinct First Nations Peoples; each encompasses a diversity of nations across Australia. Aboriginal Peoples are the first peoples of Australia and have occupied the Australian continent for more than 60,000 years. Torres Strait Islander Peoples are the First Nations Peoples of the Torres Strait and have occupied the region for over 4,000 years.

Curriculum Links

Year 5 English

AC9E5LA01
Understand that language is selected for social contexts and that it helps to signal social roles and relationships
AC9E5LE02
Present an opinion on a literary text using specific terms about literary devices, text structures and language features, and reflect on the viewpoints of others
AC9E5LE03
Recognise that the point of view in a literary text influences how readers interpret and respond to events and characters
AC9E5LE04
Examine the effects of imagery, including simile, metaphor and personification, and sound devices in narratives, poetry and songs
AC9E5LE05
Create and edit literary texts, experimenting with figurative language, storylines, characters and settings from texts students have experienced
AC9E5LY01
Describe the ways in which a text reflects the time and place in which it was created
AC9E5LY02
Use appropriate interaction skills including paraphrasing and questioning to clarify meaning, make connections to own experience, and present and justify an opinion or idea
AC9E5LY03
Explain characteristic features used in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to meet the purpose of the text
AC9E5LY05
Use comprehension strategies such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising, monitoring and questioning to build literal and inferred meaning to evaluate information and ideas
AC9E5LY06
Plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts whose purposes may be imaginative, informative and persuasive, developing ideas using visual features, text structure appropriate to the topic and purpose, text connectives, expanded noun groups, specialist and technical vocabulary, and punctuation including dialogue punctuation