Students work in pairs, using James Smith’s Certificate of Freedom to develop a police identikit so that they can catch James Smith, who has absconded (again!). Click “download activity” to get the full instructions and printable handout.

Students view and discuss two images ‘A Visit to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, St. Kilda Road’ and ‘South Australian Institution Collage’ to gain information about a school at a particular time. They then create a similar art work based on their own school and arrange their work in a display to present to others.

Students create their own artwork of school life.

Socialising: Describe activities and experiences and share and respond to ideas and feelings
about people they know, their daily lives, social worlds and school community
Creating: Create or adapt imaginative texts and live or filmed expressive performances that
involve imagined experiences and feature different characters, amusing experiences or
special effects

Students compare texts to identify how they use language to include or marginalise people.

Students look at pictures of their school and old schools for deaf children.

Students analyse a text to identify how it uses language with the aim of involving and empowering people.

Students analyse a ‘manifesto’ about the value of writing for a minority group – deaf people – to identify the author’s strategies for appealing to shared cultural knowledge, values and beliefs, and the experience of marginalization.
Students then analyse 2-3 historical texts for examples of language that includes or marginalizes deaf people.

Students view and discuss two images from the Victorian and South Australian deaf schools to gain information about a school at a particular time. They then create a similar art work based on their own school and present their work to the class, describing what they like about it.