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    All learning programs

    Behind the Lines

     

    Artwork by 2021 Political cartoonist of the Year, Glen Le Lievre

    Investigate the function of the media through exploration of the annual Behind The Lines exhibition and our engaging workshop.  

    Students will participate in a collaborative, hands-on workshop activity to unpack the role of political cartoons and the techniques used to convey meaning. Your students will develop their media literacy skills and explore how freedom of speech and freedom of expression are exercised within out democracy.

     


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    *Australian Curriculum V8.3 – Curriculum Learning Areas

    HASS

    Year 5

    • Develop appropriate questions to guide an inquiry about people, events, developments, places, systems and challenges (ACHASSI094)
    • Examine different viewpoints on actions, events, issues and phenomena in the past and present (ACHASSI099)
    • Evaluate evidence to draw conclusions (ACHASSI101)

    Year 6

    • Develop appropriate questions to guide an inquiry about people, events, developments, places, systems and challenges (ACHASSI122)
    • Examine different viewpoints on actions, events, issues and phenomena in the past and present (ACHASSI127)
    • Evaluate evidence to draw conclusions (ACHASSI129)

    Year 7

    • Construct significant questions and propositions to guide investigations about people, events, developments, places, systems and challenges (ACHASSI152)
    • Analyse primary and secondary sources to identify values and perspectives on people, actions, events, issues and phenomena, past and present (ACHASSI157)
    • Evaluate and synthesise evidence to draw conclusions (ACHASSI159)

    Civics and citizenship

    Year 7

    • Identify, gather and sort information and ideas from a range of sources (ACHCS055)
    • Critically analyse information and ideas from a range of sources in relation to civics and citizenship topics and issues (ACHCS056)

    Year 8

    • The freedoms that enable active participation in Australia’s democracy within the bounds of law, including freedom of speech, association, assembly, religion and movement (ACHCK061)
    • How citizens can participate in Australia’s democracy, including use of the electoral system, contact with their elected representatives, use of lobby groups, and direct action (ACHCK062)
    • Identify, gather and sort information and ideas from a range of sources (ACHCS069)
    • Appreciate multiple perspectives and use strategies to mediate differences (ACHCS071)

    Year 9

    • How citizens’ political choices are shaped at election time, including the influence of the media (ACHCK076)
    • The influence of a range of media, including social media, in shaping identities and attitudes to diversity (ACHCK080)
    • Critically evaluate information and ideas from a range of sources in relation to civics and citizenship topics and issues (ACHCS084)
    • Account for different interpretations and points of view (ACHCS085)

    Year 10

    • The Australian Government’s role and responsibilities at a global level, for example provision of foreign aid, peacekeeping, participation in international organisations and the United Nations (ACHCK091)
    • The challenges to and ways of sustaining a resilient democracy and cohesive society (ACHCK094)
    • Account for different interpretations and points of view (ACHCS098)
    • Recognise and consider multiple perspectives and ambiguities, and use strategies to negotiate and resolve contentious issues (ACHCS099)
    • Reflect on their role as a citizen in Australian, regional and global contexts (ACHCS102)

    History

    Year 7

    • Identify a range of questions about the past to inform a historical inquiry (ACHHS207)
    • Draw conclusions about the usefulness of sources (ACHHS211)
    • Identify the origin and purpose of primary and secondary sources (ACHHS209)

    Year 8

    • Identify a range of questions about the past to inform a historical inquiry (ACHHS150)
    • Draw conclusions about the usefulness of sources (ACHHS154)
    • Identify the origin and purpose of primary and secondary sources (ACHHS152)
    • Identify and describe points of view, attitudes and values in primary and secondary sources (ACHHS155)

    Year 9

    • Identify and select different kinds of questions about the past to inform historical inquiry (ACHHS166)
    • Evaluate and enhance these questions (ACHHS167)
    • Identify the origin, purpose and context of primary and secondary sources (ACHHS169)
    • Evaluate the reliability and usefulness of primary and secondary sources (ACHHS171)
    • Identify and analyse different historical interpretations (including their own) (ACHHS173)

    Year 10

    • Identify and select different kinds of questions about the past to inform historical inquiry (ACHHS184)
    • Evaluate and enhance these questions (ACHHS185)
    • Identify the origin, purpose and context of primary and secondary sources (ACHHS187)
    • Evaluate the reliability and usefulness of primary and secondary sources (ACHHS189)
    • Identify and analyse different historical interpretations (including their own) (ACHHS191)

    Year 11 and 12

    • Identify links between events to understand the nature and significance of causation, change and continuity over time (ACHAH001)
    • Formulate, test and modify propositions to investigate historical issues (ACHAH003)
    • Frame questions to guide inquiry and develop a coherent research plan for inquiry (ACHMH004)
    • Identify the origin, purpose and context of historical sources (ACHAH007)
    • Evaluate the reliability, usefulness and contestability of sources to develop informed judgments that support a historical argument (ACHAH009)
    • Analyse and account for the different perspectives of individuals and groups in the past (ACHAH010)
    • Evaluate contested views about the past to understand the provisional nature of historical knowledge and to arrive at reasoned and supported conclusions (ACHMH012)

    English

    Year 5

    • Understand that patterns of language interaction vary across social contexts and types of texts and that they help to signal social roles and relationships (ACELA1501)
    • Understand how to move beyond making bare assertions and take account of differing perspectives and points of view (ACELA1502)
    • Understand how texts vary in purpose, structure and topic as well as the degree of formality (ACELA1504)
    • Show how ideas and points of view in texts are conveyed through the use of vocabulary, including idiomatic expressions, objective and subjective language, and that these can change according to context (ACELY1698)

    Year 6

    • Understand how authors often innovate on text structures and play with language features to achieve particular aesthetic, humorous and persuasive purposes and effects (ACELA1518)
    • Understand that cohesive links can be made in texts by omitting or replacing words (ACELA1520)
    • Make connections between students’ own experiences and those of characters and events represented in texts drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts (ACELT1613)
    • Identify, describe, and discuss similarities and differences between texts, including those by the same author or illustrator, and evaluate characteristics that define an author’s individual style (ACELT1616)
    • Compare texts including media texts that represent ideas and events in different ways, explaining the effects of the different approaches (ACELY1708)
    • Analyse how text structures and language features work together to meet the purpose of a text (ACELY1711)

    Year 7

    • Understand how accents, styles of speech and idioms express and create personal and social identities (ACELA1529)
    • Understand how language is used to evaluate texts and how evaluations about a text can be substantiated by reference to the text and other sources (ACELA1782)
    • Identify and explore ideas and viewpoints about events, issues and characters represented in texts drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts (ACELT1619)
    • Compare the ways that language and images are used to create character, and to influence emotions and opinions in different types of texts (ACELT1621)
    • Analyse and explain the ways text structures and language features shape meaning and vary according to audience and purpose (ACELY1721)
    • Use comprehension strategies to interpret, analyse and synthesise ideas and information, critiquing ideas and issues from a variety of textual sources (ACELY1723)

    Year 8

    • Understand how rhetorical devices are used to persuade and how different layers of meaning are developed through the use of metaphor, irony and parody (ACELA1542)
    • Analyse how the text structures and language features of persuasive texts, including media texts, vary according to the medium and mode of communication (ACELA1543)
    • Understand and explain how combinations of words and images in texts are used to represent particular groups in society, and how texts position readers in relation to those groups (ACELT1628)
    • Recognise and explain differing viewpoints about the world, cultures, individual people and concerns represented in texts (ACELT1807)
    • Identify and evaluate devices that create tone, for example humour, wordplay, innuendo and parody in poetry, humorous prose, drama or visual texts (ACELT1630)
    • Analyse and evaluate the ways that text structures and language features vary according to the purpose of the text and the ways that referenced sources add authority to a text (ACELY1732)
    • Explore and explain the ways authors combine different modes and media in creating texts, and the impact of these choices on the viewer/listener (ACELY1735)

    Year 9

    • Investigate how evaluation can be expressed directly and indirectly using devices, for example allusion, evocative vocabulary and metaphor (ACELA1552)
    • Identify how vocabulary choices contribute to specificity, abstraction and stylistic effectiveness (ACELA1561)
    • Understand how spelling is used creatively in texts for particular effects, for example characterisation and humour and to represent accents and styles of speech (ACELA1562)
    • Explore and reflect on personal understanding of the world and significant human experience gained from interpreting various representations of life matters in texts (ACELT1635)

    Year 10

    • Understand that Standard Australian English in its spoken and written forms has a history of evolution and change and continues to evolve (ACELA1563)
    • Understand how language use can have inclusive and exclusive social effects, and can empower or disempower people (ACELA1564)
    • Understand that people’s evaluations of texts are influenced by their value systems, the context and the purpose and mode of communication (ACELA1565)
    • Compare the purposes, text structures and language features of traditional and contemporary texts in different media (ACELA1566)
    • Understand how paragraphs and images can be arranged for different purposes, audiences, perspectives and stylistic effects (ACELA1567)
    • Evaluate the impact on audiences of different choices in the representation of still and moving images (ACELA1572)
    • Refine vocabulary choices to discriminate between shades of meaning, with deliberate attention to the effect on audiences (ACELA1571)
    • Compare and evaluate a range of representations of individuals and groups in different historical, social and cultural contexts (ACELT1639)
    • Analyse and explain how text structures, language features and visual features of texts and the context in which texts are experienced may influence audience response (ACELT1641)
    • Evaluate the social, moral and ethical positions represented in texts (ACELT1812)
    • Analyse and evaluate how people, cultures, places, events, objects and concepts are represented in texts, including media texts, through language, structural and/or visual choices (ACELY1749)

    Year 11 and 12

    • Explaining how texts are created in and for different contexts (ACEEN001)
    • Evaluating the choice of mode and medium in shaping the response of audiences, including digital texts. (ACEEN003)
    • Evaluating the impact of description and imagery, including figurative language, and still and moving images in digital and multimodal texts. (ACEEN007)
    • Purpose, taking into account that a text’s purpose is often open to debate (ACEEN008)
    • Personal, social and cultural context (ACEEN009)
    • The use of imaginative, persuasive and interpretive techniques. (ACEEN010)

    Visual Arts

    Year 5 and 6

    • Explore ideas and practices used by artists, including practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, to represent different views, beliefs and opinions (ACAVAM114)
    • Explain how visual arts conventions communicate meaning by comparing artworks from different social, cultural and historical contexts, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks (ACAVAR117)

    Year 7 and 8

    • Develop ways to enhance their intentions as artists through exploration of how artists use materials, techniques, technologies and processes (ACAVAM119)
    • Analyse how artists use visual conventions in artworks (ACAVAR123)

    Year 9 and 10

    • Present ideas for displaying artworks and evaluate displays of artworks (ACAVAM129)
    • Evaluate how representations communicate artistic intentions in artworks they make and view to inform their future art making (ACAVAR130)

    Media Arts

    Years 5 and 6

    • Explore representations, characterisations and points of view of people in their community, including themselves, using settings, ideas, story principles and genre conventions in images, sounds and text (ACAMAM062)

    Years 7 and 8

    • Analyse how technical and symbolic elements are used in media artworks to create representations influenced by story, genre, values and points of view of particular audiences (ACAMAR071)

    Years 9 and 10

    • Experiment with ideas and stories that manipulate media conventions and genres to construct new and alternative points of view through images, sounds and text (ACAMAM073)
    • Evaluate how technical and symbolic elements are manipulated in media artworks to create and challenge representations framed by media conventions, social beliefs and values for a range of audiences (ACAMAR078)

    Years

    5-67-89-1011-12

    Minutes

    60
    (depending on year level and program objectives)

    Group size

    5-30

    Requirement

    Presenter led – 1 supervising adult per 10 students

    Themes

    Media LiteracyPolitical cartooningFree speechContemporary issuesVisual artEnglish

    Useful resources

    Behind the Lines
    Political cartooning - resources
    Australian Curriculum learning areas

    Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House

    18 King George Terrace, Parkes, ACT 2600, Australia

    PO Box 3934
    Manuka ACT 2603

    9am to 5pm daily 
    Closed Christmas Day

    ABN: 30 620 774 963

    Telephone: 02 6270 8222

    Enquiries:
    info@moadoph.gov.au

    Please note: video surveillance is used 24 hours a day around and throughout the building and may be used for research purposes

    Visiting

    • Planning your visit
    • Families at MoAD
    • Access
    • Group bookings
    • Cafe
    • MoAD Shop
    • UNSW Canberra Howard Library

    What's On

    • Events
    • Exhibitions

    Collection

    • The building
    • Objects and rooms
    • Highlights
    • Oral histories

    Learning

    • Teachers
    • Students
    • Parents

    Democracy

    • Exploring democracy
    • Documenting a democracy
    • Australian democracy
    • Defining democracy
    • Democracy 2025

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    The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House is a Corporate Commonwealth Entity within the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts