Ships and Cannons: The Fight for Freedom

Learning Intention:

I am learning how to use inferencing to form opinions based on factual information so that I can improve my storytelling in fact-based articles.

Success Criteria:

• I can differentiate between fact and opinion language in a text and identify the way the opinions were formed through inferencing.
• I can research a historical figure and record facts about them.
• I can write an article based on my research that also includes relevant opinions to make the story more interesting to my readers.

Oral language and communication:

Watch the video Making Inferencesungroup and discuss ways that we do this in everyday life, such as reading body language and facial expressions as well as decoding conversation (e.g. if a parent says “It’s time to grab your bag and your hat,” in the morning, the child will likely infer that it’s time to leave for school).

Explain to students that inferencing is often used to develop what is referred to as ‘informed opinions’, which is taking information you know about something and forming your own ideas about it based on that information.

Inform students that you are going to read some information about different people, and they should come up with an informed opinion based on the fact you’ve presented for each one. Begin by reading the following example to give students the kind of ideas they might extract from the facts you are going to read:

Fact: Malala began writing a blog for the BBC when she was 11 about the difficulties of life under Taliban rule.

Example opinion: Malala had felt strongly about social justice since she was a young girl.

Now read the following list of facts, one at a time, asking students what opinions they form based on each.

• Vincent Lingiari led a large group of workers in a ‘walk off’, demanding better pay for workers and better protections for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women (example opinion: Vincent felt that Aboriginal people were not being treated with fairness or respect and action was needed to make change)
• Around a quarter of a million people attended the march on Washington in 1963, where cheers rang out as Martin Luther King Jr delivered his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech (example opinion: many people wanted a better future for their children)
• Susan B Anthony was arrested in 1872 for voting illegally as women were not allowed to vote back then. She was convicted and ordered to pay a fine, but she refused to ever pay it (example opinion: Susan believed so strongly in women’s rights that she would not be bullied or intimidated by the authorities or government)

Understanding text:

Read the magazine text, or if you have a digital subscription, you may wish to listen to the audio version. Afterwards, create a two-column table on the board – one with the heading ‘Facts’ and one with ‘Opinions’. Select students to each come and write a different fact on the board from the story in the ‘Facts’ column. Collect at least ten facts for this exercise. Answers may include:

• Laskarina Bouboulina was in in a prison in 1771
• She lived on the Greek island of Spetses
• She was widowed twice and had to raise ten children on her own
• She inherited her second husband’s mansion after he died at sea in a battle with pirates
• She built three ships – the Agamemnon, Achilles and Herakles
• On April 3, 1821, when she was a fifty-year-old grandmother, she led her ships and their crews into a battle, attacking the city of Nafplion
• She continued to use the inheritance from her husband to help her people fight for independence
• Movies, books, documentaries, performances, poems and folk songs have been written about her.

Next, ask students to identify the opinions the author has included in the article, and have them write these in the opinions column. These may include:

• Nothing stopped Laskarina’s rebel heart and resilient nature
• She was the undisputed leader of her eight siblings
• Laskarina’s heart longed for adventure
• Laskarina’s life was not an easy one
• Her courageous spirit was now yearning to help them
• You can imagine the city’s harbour being filled with cannon smoke, shouting and chaos during the naval attacks.

Creating text:

Explain to students that they will be choosing a figure from history who also fought for the rights and freedoms of their people. Suggested people include:

• Eddie Mabo
• Wangari Maathai
• Dame Whina Cooper
• Mahatma Gandhi
• Joan of Arc
• Harriet Tubman
• Hannah Szenes
• Simon Bolivar
• Tawakkol Karman

Students should research their chosen person through credible sources, writing down factual information relating to their background, what rights they were fighting for, how they fought for them, what changes they influenced, as well as any other relevant information. Using these facts, students should then compose an article telling their chosen person’s story. In their article, they should use inferencing to incorporate opinions, making the story more engaging for the audience.

Assessment for learning:

Students may use the Stage 3 Informative Text Assessment Rubricungroup to guide them in their writing (with the adjustment that opinions will be included through inferencing). They should then swap their draft with a partner and use this rubric to assess each other’s work and give feedback before publishing their final draft and submitting to the teacher.