Who

has a voice?
Inquiry Unit for Year 9 (Australian Secondary students) Learning Domains, Art, English and Mathematics

WEEK

LESSON

Lesson aims / leading VicCurr Key Skills and Content Knowledge
Lesson Overview / Activity
question:

Who has a voice?

Introduce students
to new unit
gather prior
knowledge.

Resources /
Equipment
needed

Analyse, interpret and evaluate a range of visual

Introduction to class about new topic handout.
artworks from different cultures, historical and

contemporary contexts to explore differing
Mindmapping / group work general brainstorming
viewpoints (VCAVAR046)
about topic. Each group reads out to the class what

theyve come up with, and one member from the group

acts as scribe to take notes and share information with
the other members, so at the end of the class the groups
have a page of notes and information about the voice.

Overview of how the voice box physically works.
Anatomy of the larynx.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2pLJfWUjc8


Build you own larynx:
http://vocalprocess.co.uk/build-your-own-tiltinglarynx/



What does it mean to have a voice? / Can you have a
voice without speaking? gathering of questions.

butchers paper,
textas,

overhead
projector

Build your own

larynx
worksheet.

What is Oracy?

If we have a voice
we should learn to
use it well.

Listen to spoken texts constructed
for different purposes and analyse
how language features in these texts
position listeners to respond in
particular ways, and consider the
interaction skills used to present
and discuss ideas, or to influence
and engage audiences through
persuasive language, varied voice
tone, pitch and pace (VCELY455)

What is she
saying?


Incursion with
spoken work Artist.

Listen to spoken texts constructed
for different purposes and analyse
how language features in these texts
position listeners to respond in
particular ways, and consider the
interaction skills used to present and
discuss ideas, or to influence and
engage audiences through
persuasive language, varied voice
tone, pitch and pace (VCELY455)

Explain how authors creatively use

the structures of sentences and
clauses for particular effects

(VCELA433)

Explore how artists manipulate

materials, techniques, technologies
and processes to develop and
express their intentions in art works

(VCAVAE041)

Oracy what does this mean?

Cross the line activity are you a quite person?
Talkative?

Students investigate the definition of Oracy and discuss
different types of oracy and write a list of good and bad
oracy skills.




Students to listen to local slam poet Ebony Moncrieff
(ex UV student) and hear how she develops her very
personal poems.

By modelling a performance in front of the students I
am hoping that theyll be inspired as theyll have to
produce their poem, and later well run a slam poet
exhibition (assessment)

There is a worksheet that outlines Good Oracy skills to
assist the students when developing their own
performance.

Students will encouraged to look at other spoken work
artists:

Kate Tempest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32i5zfcFt8g


Sarah Kay
https://www.ted.com/playlists/87/spoken_word_firewo
rks

- Oracy worksheet

- outdoor / out of
classroom location.

- Performance
poetry worksheet

I slam therefore I
am

Students to start
working on their
own voice poem

Listen up
everybody

Listen to Me!

Plan, rehearse and deliver

presentations, selecting and
sequencing appropriate content and
multimodal elements for aesthetic
and playful purposes (VCELY456)

Conceptualise, plan and design art

works that express ideas, concepts
and artistic intentions

(VCAVAV043)

Conceptualise, plan and design art

works that express ideas, concepts
and artistic intentions

(VCAVAV043)

Review and edit students own and

others texts to improve clarity and
control over content, organisation,
paragraphing, sentence structure,
vocabulary and audio/visual
features (VCELY450)

Students review previous incursion, and review the
good and bad Oracy skills.

They spend class time writing their own voice poem.





Homework: to have poem ready for peers to give
feedback in two classes time.



Developing listening skills.

Impact of speech on body.

Start with a warm up walk around exercise.

Ask the question what does it mean to be a good
listener?

Develop a list of what a good and bad listener looks
like. How does it feel when were not listened too?

What does it look like? Students to spend 30 mins using
any material (playdough / crayon / pencil) to illustrate
what not being listened too looks like to them. They may
choose to create a short performance.


Lego listening activity. One student describes a
photograph, whilst the other student tries to listen and
ask questions so that the Lego scene is produced in the
same way as the photograph.

Students reflect on exercise what worked and what
didnt work.

- listening / walking
exercise

Lego activity
Analysing Oracy
worksheet

Slam Poet -
Exhibition







Dont say a word!

- What does it mean
to be voiceless?

Plan, rehearse and deliver
presentations, selecting and
sequencing appropriate content and
multimodal elements for aesthetic
and playful purposes (VCELY456)

Understand that roles and
relationships are developed and
challenged through language and
interpersonal skills (VCELA453)

For the second half of the lesson they work on their
poem getting guidance from other students (using
presentation worksheet).


Students present their poems to the class*

*Invariably there will be some students who feel
uncomfortable doing this if theyve indicated this
earlier we can consider other options, however
working towards building a safe and inclusion learning
environment I would hope that all will participate in
this activity.

This class will be spent in absolute silence (except for
the last 15 minutes).

Students will have a list of activities to get through in
silence. Theyll have to organise themselves and work
with each other using communication other than
language.

Learning non-verbal skills.

Reflection on activity what did they find hard / easy.

- Rubric to mark

- including Beth and
Toukas squared
together activity

Who is voiceless?

Explore the visual arts practices and
styles as inspiration to develop a
personal style, explore, express
ideas, concepts and themes in art
works (VCAVAE040)

Reviewing and discussing non-verbal skills

Braining storming / mindmapping around the question
of who is voiceless / How do we hear those without a
voice?

Animals / Refugees / People in emotionally abusive
relationships / politically imprisoned etc.

Definition of voiceless what does this mean?

Artist who are / were voiceless or creates work about
the voiceless and how they gained their voice

Homework - Read the following article:
http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/breakingnews/morrissey-says-animals-lose-on-language/newsstory/d5ca2051c41e95e41e003be38e17a6c0

What is it about?
Do you agree with what is being said? Why?

THINK AND MAKE I keep playdough around for
students to use at certain times allows for
spontaneous creative responses.

10 Who gives voice to
the voiceless?

11 How to make
your voice
count

- opinion polls and
voting; using
numeracy to
illustrate voice
(Part 1)

Understand that roles and

relationships are developed and
challenged through language and
interpersonal skills (VCELA453)

Investigate reports of surveys in

digital media and elsewhere for
information on how data were
obtained to estimate population
means and medians (VCMSP323)

Student learn about advocacy, and the situations in
which people provide a voice for those that have had
their voices suppressed, ignored or erased.

https://www.voiceless.org.au/

When are there time we need others to speak for us?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-07/womenerased-from-history-on-wikipedia/7225556

Exercise How to improve our listening skills. How
else do we listen?


Have our opinions or voices changed about animal
rights?

Read the article below:

Australian-first survey reveals nations attitudes towards
animal protection

http://www.openforum.com.au/content/australianfirst-survey-reveals-nation%E2%80%99s-attitudestowards-animal-protection

1. Investigate the methodology used to come up
with their rating.
2. Are there any drawbacks?
3. Have our opinions changed towards animals?
4. What further information can you conclude from
this Voiceless report?
5. What information can we gather from our
classroom about animals and their voices?

12 How to make your
voice count

- opinion polls and
voting; using
numeracy to
illustrate voice.
(Part 2)

13 How to make your
voice count

- opinion polls and
voting; using
numeracy to
illustrate voice.
(Part 3)



14 How to make your
voice count

- opinion polls and
voting; using
numeracy to
illustrate voice.
(Part 3)

Identify everyday questions and
issues involving at least one
numerical and at least one
categorical variable, and collect data
directly from secondary sources
(VCMSP324)

Compare data displays using mean,
median and range to describe and
interpret numerical data sets in
terms of location (centre) and
spread (VCMSP326)

Identify everyday questions and
issues involving at least one
numerical and at least one
categorical variable, and collect data
directly from secondary sources
(VCMSP324)

Do you know about voting?

Students to devise questions about themselves and
how much they know about local members of
parliament, state and federal and find relatable
information from secondary sources.

They pool their information and start to collate and
collect information.

EXCURSION

Student to journey into Parliament house (this could be
relocated to Local Government or Local Council) to
learn more about voting).

The results are in each group presents to the class the
results of their poll, including their interpretation. They
may design their data displays in the most creative
way possible.

Identify everyday questions and
issues involving at least one
numerical and at least one
categorical variable, and collect data
directly from secondary sources
(VCMSP324)

Compare data displays using mean,
median and range to describe and
interpret numerical data sets in
terms of location (centre) and
spread (VCMSP326)

15 My voice


Learning to listen
to myself.

Explore how artists manipulate
materials, techniques,
technologies and processes to
develop and express their
intentions in art works
(VCAVAE041)

Select and manipulate materials,
techniques, and technologies and
processes in a range of art forms
to express ideas, concepts and
themes (VCAVAV042)

16 My voice

cont.

My voice
17
cont.

Explore how artists manipulate
materials, techniques,
technologies and processes to
develop and express their
intentions in art works
(VCAVAE041)

Select and manipulate materials,
techniques, and technologies and
processes in a range of art forms
to express ideas, concepts and
themes (VCAVAV042)

Explore how artists manipulate
materials, techniques,
technologies and processes to
develop and express their
intentions in art works
(VCAVAE041)

Select and manipulate materials,
techniques, and technologies and
processes in a range of art forms

Students will be asked to listen to ABCs Sound proof, at

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soun
dproof/

(or other sound works and songs that can be embedded
online.)

Final assessable work: student to produce their own
audio sound art. They will start to familiarise
themselves with spoken work artist, begin to write up
their ideas and recording sounds / words / noises etc.

Students will spend the next 2 lessons working on this
project.


(as Above)

(as Above)

18

Presentation and
class critique of
audio production.

to express ideas, concepts and

themes (VCAVAV042)

Create, present, analyse and
evaluate displays of artwork
considering how ideas can be
conveyed to an audience
(VCAVAP044)

Student present their audio sound peices to their class.

Reflection on Unit outcomes.