The unit 'We Are the World - No Turning Back' focuses on exploring the global issue of refugees and asylum seekers over ten weeks. Students engage with various texts, including the documentary 'Go Back to Where You Came From,' to develop empathy and understanding, and work on a project to raise awareness about refugees. The curriculum emphasizes language, critical thinking, and creative expression while students analyze different media and cultural perspectives.

1. We Are The World - No Turning Back | Stage 5 | English
Summary
Duration
This unit builds on from the "Who Am I" Year 7 unit and the "My Island Home" Year 8 unit, with
10 weeks
students now moving beyond our own boundaries to look at our place in the world. In this unit,
students explore an issue of global concern and for my class that is the issue of refugees and
asylum seekers. As part of their work they will work with students from the new arrivals class –
interviewing them to learn about their experiences and build relationships. They will build their
understanding of that issue through studying a variety of texts, particularly the documentary “Go
Back To Where You Came From” and the website “The Long Journey”. Students will learn about
the medium of documentary, extend their essay writing skills and analyse websites. The
students will finish the unit by working on a PBL style project where they develop a text to build
empathy and understanding for local refugees.
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2. Outcomes
Key concepts and Skills
Syllabus Requirements
English K-10
Concepts:
General Capabilities:
›
EN5-1A responds to and composes
Empathy
for understanding, interpretation, critical
 Intercultural Understanding
Activism
increasingly sophisticated and sustained texts
 Ethical Understanding
 Creative and Critical Thinking
analysis, imaginative expression and pleasure
›
EN5-2A effectively uses and critically assesses
a wide range of processes, skills, strategies
and knowledge for responding to and
composing a wide range of texts in different
media and technologies
›
EN5-3B selects and uses language forms,
features and structures of texts appropriate to
a range of purposes, audiences and contexts,
describing and explaining their effects on
meaning
›
Skills:
 Literacy
WHY paragraphs – The language of
argument, cohesion, transition words
Essay writing – the language of
argument, vocabulary, transition words,
cohesion
Visual literacy: documentary, websites,
picture books – elements, techniques,
metalanguage
EN5-5C thinks imaginatively, creatively,
interpretively and critically about information
Text Requirements:
 Picture Books
 Non Fiction
 Film - documentaries
 Visual Texts
 Media, multimedia and digital texts
 Texts that explore cultural and social
perspectives
and increasingly complex ideas and
arguments to respond to and compose texts in
a range of contexts
›
EN5-7D understands and evaluates the diverse
ways texts can represent personal and public
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3. worlds
›
EN5-8D questions, challenges and evaluates
cultural assumptions in texts and their effects
on meaning
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4. SYLLABUS OUTCOMES
TEACHING SEQUENCE
RESOURCES
Stage 5 - Outcome 1
The Hook:
Hook video – No Turning back
Students:
 Show the Hook video.
Engage personally with texts
 Students to write down their initial reactions to
 appreciate, explain and respond to
the video, the words used and the questions
the aesthetic qualities and the power of
asked. Let them know that we will be coming
language in an increasingly sophisticated
back to those in a couple of weeks.
range of texts
Develop and apply contextual knowledge
 analyse and explain the ways language
forms and features, ideas, perspectives
and originality are used to shape meaning
 Do a word cline on the words/terms used in the
video. Students to place in order of empathy
towards refugees – high to low. Discussion of
the impact of the different words/terms. ***
Addition – look at the recent directive for
government workers in Department of
SMH – Illegals not clients
Immigration to refer to them as “illegal
 analyse ideas, information, perspectives,
contexts and ideologies and the ways they
are presented in increasingly demanding,
sustained imaginative, informative and
persuasive texts
immigrant” rather than “client” – what is the
effect of that change in words?
 Explain to the class that we will be exploring
the issue of refugees and asylum seekers this
term through a variety of texts, especially the
Understand and apply knowledge of language
documentary “Go Back To Where You Came
forms and features
From” and a website “Long Journey”.
 identify how vocabulary choices contribute
to specificity, abstraction and stylistic
 What is a refugee? What is an asylum seeker?
Students to find a definition for the two terms
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5. effectiveness (ACELA1561)
 analyse and explain the use of
and write into their OneNote file or book.
 Our key concepts this term will be “Empathy”
symbols, icons and myth in still and
and “Activism”. Students to brainstorm what
moving images and how these augment
these mean and write down definition.
meaning (ACELA1560)
Respond to and compose texts
 explore and explain the combinations of
language and visual choices that authors
make to present information, opinions and
perspectives in different texts (ACELY1745)
 evaluate the impact on audiences of
different choices in the representation of
still and moving images (ACELA1572)
Stage 5 - Outcome 2
Students:
Engage personally with texts
 consider how aspects of texts, including
characterisation, setting, situations, issues,
ideas, tone and point of view, can evoke a
range of responses, including empathy,
sympathy, antipathy and indifference
 Ask students to use the next couple of weeks,
while we learn about documentaries, to think
more about the topic of refugees and asylum
seekers. Encourage them to ask their family
and friends about their opinions and reactions
to this issue.
The Documentary Film – booklet
What is a documentary – Introductory Activities
 What is a documentary? How is a
documentary different to a movie?
 Can they identify documentaries they have
DIY Doco
Shorts of the Week - Documentaries
Documentary Conventions Handout
Technique Table
watched - list on board. Try and group into
different categories e.g. nature, biographies,
human interest, social issues etc. What are the
different purposes of each of these
categories?
 Look at DIY Doco site – Style and Genre and
Elements tabs. Students to explore as a
homework task and take notes for use with the
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6. Develop and apply contextual knowledge
 interpret, analyse and evaluate how
following activities.
 Use the “Documentary Film” Booklet to explore
different perspectives of issue, event,
the documentary medium. Read through and
situation, individuals or groups are
discuss the information, including the
constructed to serve specific purposes in
information on the “Critical Questions to Ask”
texts (ACELY1742)
and the techniques/elements of
 evaluate the ways film, websites and
other multimedia texts use technology for
different purposes, audiences and contexts
to convey ideas and points of view
Understand and apply knowledge of language
forms and features
 review, edit and refine students' own and
others' texts for control of content,
organisation, sentence structure,
vocabulary, and/or visual features to
achieve particular purposes and effects
(ACELY1747, ACELY1757)
Respond to and compose texts
 apply word processing functions, as well
as web authoring programs, to compose
and format texts for different purposes,
audiences and contexts, including the
documentaries. Complete the activities for the
documentary “Insecurities”.
 In groups, students to be allocated one of the
“Film Festival” documentaries to analyse using
the questions in the booklet. Use the
Techniques Table to identify the techniques
used and their effect.They are to share their
analysis with the class (2 periods).
 Homework task - Watch at least ONE of the
short documentaries from "Shorts of the
Week". Work through the critical questions
(booklet or handout) for their chosen
documentary – how many can they answer?
Use the Techniques Table to analyse the short
documentary.
 Read through the Documentary Conventions
handout (also in booklet). Discuss in relation to
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7. workplace
the films they have seen.
 use increasingly sophisticated processes
of representation to respond to and
compose complex spoken, written, visual,
multimodal and/or digital texts for a wide
range of purposes and audiences,
considering and evaluating the effect of the
technology
 use comprehension strategies to compare
and contrast information within and
No Turning Back - Refugees
 Remind students that we will be watching a
documentary on the issue of refugees and
asylum seekers. Check that they can explain
what a refugee/asylum seeker is?
 Google search for definitions – record in their
OneNote file.
between texts, identifying and analysing
 What are some of the common attitudes and
embedded perspectives, and evaluating
beliefs about refugees? (Refer to the Hook
supporting evidence (ACELY1744, ACELY1754)
video as well as their conversations on the
subject in the past couple of weeks) List on the
Stage 5 - Outcome 3
Students:
Engage personally with texts
 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)
board. Are there more positive or negative
attitudes? Why?
 Students are to write down their own attitudes
and beliefs about refugees and asylum
Test Your Knowledge - SBS
seekers. They should think about how they
came to those attitudes. These do not need to
be shared with the class.
 Students are to work through the “Test
Yourself” activity on the Go Back to Where
You Came From SBS site. What did they find
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8. Respond to and compose texts
 compose and respond to a wide range of
visual texts, eg picture books, graphic
novels and films, using a range of
appropriate techniques and metalanguage
Stage 5 - Outcome 5
Students:
Engage personally with texts
 investigate the ways different modes,
out that they didn’t know? Does it contradict
Refugee Council of Australia
some of the common beliefs they identified
earlier?
 Research Activity – students are to explore the
Refugee Council of Australia and UN Refugee
Agency websites. What information did they
discover re the number of people identified as
refugees, where refugees are coming from and
where they are going etc?
 Refugee Picture Books – students to look
subject areas, media and cultural
through a variety of picture books that have a
representation affect their personal
The Island, Armin Greder
Ziba Came by Boat, Liz Lofthouse
The Little Refugee, Anh Do & Suzanne Do
Refugees, David Miller
refugee focus. For each one, students can
and critical responses to texts
Picture Books:
record the following:
Develop and apply contextual knowledge
How does the book build empathy?
 compare ways in which spoken, written,
the story? (Techniques including style,
shaped according to personal, historical,
layout, colour, images etc)
Asylum: Exit Australia
How do the visuals build on and add to
visual, multimodal and digital texts are
The Arrival, Shaun Tan
cultural, social, technological and
workplace contexts
 Optional Activity – Asylum: Exit Australia.
Go Back to Where You Came From, Series 1
ATOM Study Guide
Students individually, or in pairs, can go
Understand and apply knowledge of language
through the simulation on the experiences of a
forms and features
refugee.
 understand and use the language of
Go Back - questions
argument, eg the use of logic, evidence,
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9. refutation, ellipsis, irrelevance and
circumlocution, and analyse how it affects
responses
 understand the ways generalisations,
clichés, rhetorical devices, appeals to
authority and appeals to popularity and
public opinion shape meaning and
responses
 critically evaluate the ways bias,
Go Back To Where You Came From
 Introduce the documentary. Read through the
introduction in the Study Guide – identify the
purpose of the documentary.
 Begin watching Episode 1 of “Go Back To
Where You Came From”. Students are to work
Participants Journey Table
through the “Go Back To Where You Came
From” Study Guide and/or question sheet.
Teacher to stop at the appropriate points to
stereotypes, perspectives and ideologies
discuss student responses and build
are constructed in texts
understanding so they can answer the
 explain the ways the language of argument
and persuasion can be adapted for
different contexts
 investigate the ways web and digital
technologies use and manipulate visual
images, hyperlinks, sound and the written
word to create meaning
Respond to and compose texts
 respond to and compose a range
questions.
 Handout the “Participants’ Journey” table.
Students are to fill this in for each participant
as they watch the 3 episodes. What are our
initial reactions to the participants? How are
Creative Task Handout
they portrayed at the start – who are we meant
to like and dislike? How are we positioned to
feel this way? Look at key points on their
Documentary Technique Table
journeys where their attitudes begin to change.
Why is this change occurring? Why can they
of sustained imaginative, informative and
no longer hold on to their original beliefs and
persuasive texts which are increasingly
attitudes?
demanding in terms of ideas, arguments
 Optional Activity – Creative tasks with a focus
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9

10. and linguistic, structural, cognitive,
emotional and moral complexity
 formulate, develop and express their own
on one of the participants. (Homework task)
 As they are watching the 3 episodes they are
to fill in the Documentary Techniques Table.
ideas and beliefs creatively, thoughtfully,
Again, stop at key points to identify the
positively and confidently on issues such
different techniques and the effect in this
as sustainable patterns of living
particular scene. For example – interview with
Stage 5 - Outcome 7
Students:
Mrs Masudi, the raid in Malaysia, the refugee
camp food line.
Engage personally with texts
 explore and reflect on their own values in
relation to the values expressed and
explored in texts
 reflect on personal experience and
broadening views of the world by
responding to the ideas and arguments of
others with increasingly complex ideas and
arguments of their own
 understand that people's evaluations of
texts are influenced by their value
systems, the context and the purpose
and mode of communication (ACELA1565)
 After watching the documentary students to
answer the following questions:
1.Did the documentary achieve its desired
purpose?
2.Which participants changed the most in
their attitudes to refugees?
3.How are we meant to think about Darren
at the end of the documentary? How
does the director build our reaction to
Darren throughout the documentary?
Sample “Go Back” WHY paragraph
4.Has the documentary changed their
point of view on the issue of refugees?
WHY Planning Sheet & Peer Feedback
 explore and reflect on personal
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11. understanding of the world and significant
human experience gained from interpreting
various representations of life matters in
texts (ACELT1635)
 evaluate the social, moral and ethical
positions represented in texts (ACELT1812)
Essay writing
 Students are to revise the WHY paragraph
structure. Model a paragraph on the board on
one of the early documentaries.
 Give students the WHAT for a WHY
paragraph – The main purpose of the
documentary is to build empathy for
Understand and apply knowledge of language
refugees. Brainstorm HOW that purpose was
forms and features
achieved – techniques, examples, effects.
 analyse the ways in which creative
and imaginative texts can explore human
experience, universal themes and social
contexts
 use and analyse increasingly complex
language features to present a viewpoint
on issues such as environmental and
social sustainability
 explore and analyse ethical positions on a
current issue, including the values and/or
principles involved, in digital
communication forums
 respond to and compose sustained
imaginative, creative and critical texts that
Brainstorm WHY statements. Students to
Essay vocabulary handout
write up their paragraph and post on Edmodo
No Turning Back – vocabulary activity table
for feedback by students and teacher.
 Brainstorm the stages and ways the
documentary builds empathy – these will
become the WHAT statements that students
can choose for their essay assessment task.
 Vocabulary Exercise – building sophisticated
Transition Words Lesson
vocabulary to use in the essay. Why is the
choice of vocabulary important? What are the
types of words they could be using in their
essay – especially in each of the three
sections of the essay. Brainstorm ideas, use
the vocabulary handout and associated
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11

12. represent aspects of their expanding
personal and public worlds, for a wide
range of purposes, including for enjoyment
and pleasure
activity.
Essay planning scaffold
 Transition Words and Cohesion - How can
they add cohesion to their response both
within each paragraph and between
paragraphs using transition words?
Homework Task – watch the video lesson
Long Journey website
and look back at their WHY paragraph to see
how they can improve the use of transition
words.
 Hand out the essay planning scaffold.
Encourage students to write a draft of their
essay and submit for feedback before writing
up the essay in the assigned period.
Long Journey Website
 Revision of website design elements from
previous unit.
 Students to explore the website and follow at
least one child through all stages of their
journey to safety in Australia. For their
chosen child they are to write a summary of
their experiences and journey – starting with
their experiences in their home country and
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13. finishing with a reflection of their new life in
Australia. Optional – could write from the
perspective of the child.
 Who is the audience for this website? How do
we know?
 What is the purpose of this website? Does it
fulfill its purpose?
 Students are to identify the two “memory
stones” that they thought were the most
powerful and explain why they chose them.
 Why is it broken into four chapters? What is
the name for each chapter and why do they
think that was the chosen title?Were the
design elements of the website effective in
achieving its purpose?
 Go back to the website and use the
documentary tool to create a documentary –
what clips would be most effective at raising
awareness and empathy for refugees? How
would they put it together to achieve
maximum impact? Students to share their
documentaries with the class – discuss
similarities and differences in approach.
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13

14.  Let the class know that while they have been
doing their study of the “Long Journey” the
New Arrival class has also been studying it
and writing about their own journey.
Project Outline
PBL Mini Project:
Driving Question - How can we build empathy
for and acceptance of refugees, especially those
in our local area?

Students are to work in small groups to
create a documentary, website or
picture book to build empathy and
understanding of refugees.

Hand out the project outline. Go through
it with the students so they are clear on
what they have to do.

As part of the preparation, students are
to spend time with at least one of the
students in the New Arrivals class. They
should prepare a series of questions to
ask the student (linked to the 4 stages
found on the Long Journey website)
which must be submitted to the classes
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15. teacher beforehand to allow time for the
student to prepare their responses.

Reflection Sheet
Students to have three weeks in class to
complete their
documentary/website/picture book and
work with the students from the New
Arrivals class.

In the first lessons of Term Four
students are to present their
documentary/website/picture book to the
class and to the New Arrival Class.

Student to self assess on the marking
criteria as well as the students in the
class to peer assess.

Students to complete an evaluation of
the unit.
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15

16. Assessment overview
Evaluation
Across Year Assessment Task – essay on a documentary
In Class Assessment – short documentary analysis, documentary creative
task, Long Journey recount and PBL project.
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