Re-read the beginning sections of Chapter 10 of The Story of Australia about post-war immigration to Australia (pp. 316 – 320) and discuss its purpose.
Define historical recounts with the class and discuss their importance. Explain that historical recounts provide accounts of a particular period in the past which usually spans a significant time frame. Like personal recounts, they are ordered chronologically, but they deal with a phase or era in history. Discuss why historical recounts might be read. Look at examples of paper based and online historical recounts – note the similarities. Highlight and annotate the structural elements or stages of the historical recounts, which include:
- Background or Orientation – this stage sets the context to understand the events that follow
- Record of events or Episodes – this stage includes a recount of the events in chronological order
- Evaluation or Comment – this stage evaluates the significance of the events.
Make and anchor chart - Historical recounts.
Provide students with a section of the first part of chapter 10 of The Story of Australia which deals with post-war immigration in Australia and identify the verbs (or use another historical recount). In the introductory sections of the chapter (see the extract below), the verb groups include – sparked, allowed, became, was, attracted, decided, needed:
- An economic boom sparked by post-war conditions and new waves of immigrants allowed Australia to grow socially and culturally. The country became more active in international politics and affairs. There was movement towards greater indigenous equality. Improved technology gave rise to a consumerist culture that attracted the teenage generation.
- Immigration after the second World War, the Australian Government decided the country needed a larger population both for military defence and to create wealth through economic development. The larger the population, the more demand there would be for goods and service, and therefore employment. In 1945, the population was seven million. The government wanted 2 per cent growth or 140,00 more people each year.
Identify the verb types used – are they doing, saying, sensing and relating? Doing or action verbs (e.g. sparked, attracted, allowed to grow) are mostly used to represent the actions which occurred. Relating verbs (e.g. was) are also used in description (e.g. In 1945, the population was seven million) or to define. Sensing verbs are used to reflect the feelings and thoughts of participants (e.g. the government wanted, the government decided).
Ask students to identify the tense of the verbs and explain why the historical recount relies on past tense verbs. Identify the verbs that are irregular verbs, such as become/became and note the changes that occur to the words when the tense changes.
Identify the text connectives used in the sections of chapter 10 that show the passing of time – for example, After the second World War; In 1945; At the time; Within two years, At first; Between 1951 and 1959; In the 1960s. Discuss the importance of time connectives in historical recounts. Explain that these groups of words are prepositional phrases of time. Note the theme positions these phrases take in sentences (they are often the first part of the sentence). Move the phrases to other places within the sentence. How does this impact on the way in which the information is ordered? Discuss why these phrases usually come at the beginning of sentences in historical recounts.
Students work with a partner and take turns to orally recount their day. As one person speaks, the listener scribes the connectives of time used in the recount. Introduce students to the notion of chronology and discuss how recounts generally follow a chronology.
Provide students with cards that list three connectives of time. Student work with a partner to create an oral recount, using all three connectives. For example: In the early 1960s; A decade later; Today. Students share their recounts with the class.
Work with the whole class to model a recount of the past week. Focus on the use of past tense verbs and the connectives which will mark the passing of time.
Examine the variety of sentence structures used, in the sections on immigration in chapter 10 (or another historical recount), by underlining the verb groups and determining if the sentences are simple, compound or complex. For example:
- There was movement towards indigenous equality. (simple sentence – one clause)
- The birth rate was only producing 70,000, so the other 70,000 would have to come from immigration. (compound sentence – two independent clauses)
- Within two years, ships were regularly travelling between Naples and Australia, bringing migrants under the Displaced Persons Scheme. (Complex sentence – independent clause and dependent clause).
Discuss the advantage of using some complex sentences to provide information about time, place, condition or how something is happening (manner). Find other examples of complex sentences and classify the information that is provided by the dependent clause.
Examine the noun groups in the historical recount. Many of these are quite complex as they try to ‘pack in’ information about post-war immigration to Australia. Look for examples of noun groups which include a pre-modifier (in italics, before the Head noun,) or post-modifier underlined (also called Qualifier, after the Head noun) or both. Some examples include:
- a consumerist culture that attracted the teenage generation
- the traditional source of Australia’s immigration
- more than one million Britons
- the first boatload of 844 of these refugees
- the fare of British ex-servicemen and their families
- the biggest and best known camp
- many famous Australians whose family immigrated this way.
Discuss ways in which the noun groups contribute to building an informed account of immigration.
After reading the sections on post-war immigration in The Story of Australia, ask students what the author might think about this time in Australia’s history. Provide prompts if necessary, for example, What kinds of immigrants were deemed to be desirable for Australia? What were the benefits of this period of immigration? What were the drawbacks?
Return to the text, this time looking for evaluative words or phrases which help present a particular view of the period and the events and people involved. Model using an extract for the students.For example, from page 320 of The Story of Australia:
- The post-war immigration program provided Australia with many benefits. It brought in hard-working people who wanted to succeed, weakened the idea of ‘White Australia’, and introduced greater cultural variety. There were tensions and prejudices among some people on both sides but governments, along with organisations such as the Good Neighbour Council, churches, community groups and many individuals worked to welcome and integrate migrants into the Australian community.
In the second sentence, the author uses words to make comment on the types of people who came to Australia during this period – they were ‘hard-working people who wanted to succeed’. By using such words, the author provides the reader with a view of the immigrants as reliable, trustworthy and competent – all highly desirable attributes. The verb choice ‘weakened’ and the noun group ‘greater cultural variety’ suggest that the idea of ‘White Australia’ was no longer appropriate, and diversity was favoured because of the positive impact it would have on the country.
Students are given an historical recount of an event related to Australia’s migration history, which has been cut into sections and which they need to sequence. Once sequenced, students point out the language features which helped them to complete the task.