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Date: Feb 3, 2008
THE ARTICLEAustralia to apologize to AboriginesThe Australian government has said it will take the long overdue step of apologizing to the "stolen generation" of Aborigines. The “stolen generation” means the 10,000 Aboriginal children who were forcibly removed from their parents and adopted by white families. Babies, toddlers and youngsters were often snatched from their mother’s arms or secretly kidnapped. The idea was to “breed out” the Aboriginal colour, which was based on the belief that Aborigines were a doomed race. This policy of integrating mixed-race children into white society started in 1910 and only ended in 1969. Forty years after it ended, newly-elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will make the formal apology in a parliament address on February 13. Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin said it would be a “bridge to the future”.
Aborigines were delighted with the historic news. Christine King from the Stolen Generations Alliance said February 13 would be an extremely significant and emotional day. She said: "Older people thought they would never live to see it, so it's very important." The wording of the apology has been agreed with indigenous leaders and is being kept under wraps. It is not known whether Mr Rudd will say the word "sorry", a subject of much controversy. All previous governments refused to make an apology for destroying the lives of so many Aborigine children and families. They believed it was impossible to say sorry for actions of the past. Australia’s opposition party leader, Brendan Nelson, echoed the policy of previous governments by saying rising petrol and food prices were more important than the apology. WARM-UPS1. AUSTRALIA: Walk around the class and talk to other students about Australia. Change partners often. After you finish, sit with your original partner(s) and share what you found out. 2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.
Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently. 3. APOLOGIES: Talk with your partner(s) about the differences in apologizing to these people. Rank them in order of the most difficult person to apologize to. Share your ideas with others. a. _____ your best friend b. _____ a younger brother or sister c. _____ the school / office bully d. _____ your neighbour e. _____ the cashier at the checkout counter in the local supermarket f. _____ me g. _____ your partner h. _____ a parent 4. NATIONAL APOLOGY: Make two lists of all the things your country needs to apologize for - the first list contains apologies to your country’s citizens, the second contains apologies to other countries. Talk with your partner(s) about the lists. Change partners and share your findings. 5. ABORIGINE: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘Aborigine’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. 6. QUICK ROLE PLAY: Student A strongly believes that all indigenous populations should receive apologies from colonizers; Student B strongly believes that today’s governments shouldn’t have to apologize for the wrongs of previous generations. Change partners again and talk about your roles and conversations. BEFORE READING / LISTENING1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):
2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:
3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):
WHILE READING / LISTENINGGAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.
LISTENING: Listen and fill in the spaces.The Australian government has said ____________________ overdue step of apologizing to the "stolen generation" of Aborigines. The “stolen generation” means the 10,000 Aboriginal children ____________________ from their parents and adopted by white families. Babies, toddlers and youngsters ____________________ their mother’s arms or secretly kidnapped. The idea was to “breed out” the Aboriginal colour, which was ____________________ Aborigines were a doomed race. This policy of integrating mixed-race children into white society started in 1910 ____________________. Forty years after it ended, newly-elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will make the formal apology in a parliament address on February 13. Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin said it would ____________________. Aborigines were ____________________ news. Christine King from the Stolen Generations Alliance said February 13 would be an extremely ____________________ day. She said: "Older people thought they would never live to see it, so it's very important." The ____________________ has been agreed with indigenous leaders and is being kept under wraps. It is not known whether Mr Rudd will say the word "sorry", ____________________ controversy. All previous governments refused to make an apology for destroying the lives of so many Aborigine children and families. They believed it was impossible ____________________ of the past. Australia’s opposition party leader, Brendan Nelson, echoed the policy of previous governments ____________________ and food prices were more important than the apology. AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘say’ and ‘sorry’.
2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.
3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…? 4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings. 5. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:
STUDENT APOLOGY SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about apologies in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.
DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
-------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGECORRECT WORD: Put the correct words from a–d below in the article. The Australian government has said it will take the (1) ____ overdue step of apologizing to the "stolen generation" of Aborigines. The “stolen generation” means the 10,000 Aboriginal children who were (2) ____ removed from their parents and adopted by white families. Babies, toddlers and youngsters were often snatched from their mother’s arms or secretly kidnapped. The idea was to “breed (3) ____” the Aboriginal colour, which was based (4) ____ the belief that Aborigines were a doomed race. This policy of integrating mixed-race children into white society started in 1910 and only ended in 1969. Forty years after (5) ____ ended, newly-elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will make the formal apology in a parliament (6) ____ on February 13. Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin said it would be a “bridge to the future”. Aborigines were delighted with the (7) ____ news. Christine King from the Stolen Generations Alliance said February 13 would be an extremely significant and emotional day. She said: "Older people thought they would never (8) ____ to see it, so it's very important." The wording of the apology has been agreed with indigenous leaders and is being (9) ____ under wraps. It is not known whether Mr Rudd will say the word "sorry", a subject of much controversy. All previous governments refused to (10) ____ an apology for destroying the lives of so many Aborigine children and families. They believed it was impossible to say sorry for actions of the past. Australia’s opposition party leader, Brendan Nelson, (11) ____ the policy of previous governments by saying (12) ____ petrol and food prices were more important than the apology.
WRITING:Write about Aborigines for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ HOMEWORK1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word. 2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find out about the apology. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: Make a poster about different indigenous peoples from around the world. Include the problems and disadvantages they face. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. STOLEN: Write a magazine article about one of the Stolen Generation. Include imaginary interviews with him/her and an Australian official who was involved in the “stealing”. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down new words and expressions. 5. LETTER: Write a letter to Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Ask him three questions about the Stolen Generation. Give him three suggestions on what he should do to make a stronger bridge to the future. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: Australia to apologize to AboriginesThe Australian government has said it will take the long overdue step of apologizing to the "stolen generation" of Aborigines. The “stolen generation” means the 10,000 Aboriginal children who were forcibly removed from their parents and adopted by white families. Babies, toddlers and youngsters were often snatched from their mother’s arms or secretly kidnapped. The idea was to “breed out” the Aboriginal colour, which was based on the belief that Aborigines were a doomed race. This policy of integrating mixed-race children into white society started in 1910 and only ended in 1969. Forty years after it ended, newly-elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will make the formal apology in a parliament address on February 13. Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin said it would be a “bridge to the future”. Aborigines were delighted with the historic news. Christine King from the Stolen Generations Alliance said February 13 would be an extremely significant and emotional day. She said: "Older people thought they would never live to see it, so it's very important." The wording of the apology has been agreed with indigenous leaders and is being kept under wraps. It is not known whether Mr Rudd will say the word "sorry", a subject of much controversy. All previous governments refused to make an apology for destroying the lives of so many Aborigine children and families. They believed it was impossible to say sorry for actions of the past. Australia’s opposition party leader, Brendan Nelson, echoed the policy of previous governments by saying rising petrol and food prices were more important than the apology. LANGUAGE WORK
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