Life Then & Now

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🌏 Curriculum Overview

Learning Area: Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS)
Year Level: Year 3/4 (Multi-age classroom)
Strand: History
Content Descriptions (Australian Curriculum V9):

• Year 3:

  • ACHASSK062: Days and weeks celebrated or commemorated in Australia (including Australia Day, ANZAC Day, and National Sorry Day) and the importance of symbols and emblems.
  • ACHASSK063: Community and remembrance — How changing technology affects people’s lives (at home and in the ways they work, travel, communicate, and play).

• Year 4:

  • ACHASSK083: The diversity of Australia's first peoples and the long and continuous connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to Country/Place.
  • ACHASSK084: Stories of the First Fleet, including reasons for the journey, who travelled to Australia, and their experiences following arrival.

General Capabilities:
✅ Critical and Creative Thinking
✅ Intercultural Understanding
✅ Ethical Understanding
✅ ICT Capability

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🎯 Learning Intentions

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Identify and describe key differences in Australian daily life during 1978 and 1988.
• Use visual and written sources to analyse lifestyle changes over time.
• Work collaboratively to build a shared timeline with multimedia elements.
• Connect lifestyle changes from the past to today and the future.

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✅ Success Criteria

Students will demonstrate success by:

• Accurately contributing to a class timeline with captions, sourced images, and artefacts.
• Participating in small group research and discussion, showing understanding of lifestyle differences.
• Reflecting on how life in the past has shaped the present.

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⏰ Lesson Duration

Total Time: 60 minutes
Class Size: 22 students

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🧠 Prior Knowledge

• Students have previously explored the concept of "identity" and what shapes a nation (Lesson 1).
• They have examined the meaning of "national milestones" and discussed key moments in Australia’s recent history (Lesson 2).

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🧰 Resources and Materials

• Printed 'Mini Episodes' Pack: Excerpts from 'Behind The News' transcripts from 1978 & 1988 (teacher-prepared)
• Access to short video clips (1970s and 1980s clips excerpted for F-6 use, embedded by teacher via USB/stored files)
• Large laminated class timeline (1970s–Today)
• iPads or laptops for group research (4–5 devices)
• Printable and digital lifestyle prompt cards: 'Transport', 'Leisure', 'Technology', 'Fashion', 'Music', 'School Life'
• Sticky notes and writing materials
• Assorted images, artefact cards & magazine clippings for collaging
• Connection string (stretch thread/yarn)

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🗂️ Lesson Sequence

1. Welcome and Hook (10 minutes)

• Begin with a question:
  “If we travelled back in time to 1978 or 1988, what might look and feel different?”

• Show two-minute edited mashup of iconic scenes from 1978 & 1988 (e.g. fashion, rotary phones, Walkmans, milk bars, TV shows like Young Talent Time or Neighbours beginnings).

• Encourage students to guess what year each clip belongs to, making inferences from context clues.

• Transition to purpose:
  “Today we’ll dive into how Australians lived in 1978 and 1988 – and how those years helped shape the Australia you live in today.”

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2. Group Activity: Research & Jigsaw (25 minutes)

Form 5 small groups (4–5 students each). Assign each group one of the following focus themes:

1. Technology at Home
2. Transport and Travel
3. Leisure & Music
4. School Life
5. Clothing & Trends

In teams, students will:

• Read their printed ‘Mini Episode’ pages based on their theme (from real-life sources like Behind The News archives and magazines)
• Watch a brief teacher-prepared clip (1–2 mins) that matches their category
• Use their iPad/laptop (or books if tech is limited) to gather ONE key difference between 1978 and 1988 across their topic
• Write 2 timeline cards with key captions:
  1. One for 1978
  2. One for 1988
     Add an image (drawn or printed) and an object or artefact they imagine people used.

💡 Extension: Ask higher-level groups to add a mini reflection: "How did this change affect how Australians live today?"

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3. Building Time: Timeline Creation (15 minutes)

📍 Come together as a class around the Giant Class Timeline (1970–today) laid out on the floor or pinboard.

Each group will:

• Present their two cards (read captions aloud)
• Affix them to the relevant years on the timeline
• Place their image/object beneath each caption

🧵 Once all are up, use string to connect similar themes (e.g., how ‘music’ connects across years, or how ‘technology’ affects school life).

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4. Reflect & Connect (7 minutes)

🌱 Conclude with a whole-class Circle Time:

Prompt:

“What’s one thing that surprised you about how people lived back then?”
“Do you think life will look very different in 2050?”

Encourage students to connect their research to emerging technologies or trends they recognise in their own lives.

Optional: Add a ‘2050 Future Prediction Zone’ to the timeline for tomorrow's insight tasks.

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📘 Differentiation & Inclusion

• Support:

  • Visuals and sentence stems for EAL/D and students needing language support
  • Pairing with strong readers during episode readings

• Extension (for capable learners):

  • Challenge to compare “Then, Now & Next” by hypothesising future developments
  • Invited to record a short oral explanation of their timeline card for class podcast

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🧩 Cross-Curricular Connections

• English: Interpreting historical texts and composing short informational captions
• Digital Technologies: Using tech to source and present information
• The Arts: Collage and visual communication of historical objects and trends

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📎 Assessment Opportunities

• Formative: Observations during group discussion and research phase
• Anecdotal: Contributions during timeline presentations and reflections
• Work Sample: Timeline cards and group artefact/photo contributions

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📌 Notes for Teacher

• Keep artefacts for use in Lesson 5 when students begin their “Australia Then & Now” class exhibition
• Save video mashups and timeline photo for digital portfolio
• Build on this activity in Lesson 4 where students explore "Voices from the Past" with oral history interviews

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👣 Next Steps

Upcoming:
Lesson 4 – Listening to the Past
Students explore oral histories from real Australians and begin collecting questions for class interviews.

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This lesson strives to build empathy, critical thinking, and a strong foundation in understanding how Australia’s national identity has been shaped by everyday life.