Brendan Passmore

Whilst on placement at Middle Indigo Primary School I taught a lesson regarding European settlement in Australia. I chose to show these ideas through one of my favourite illustrated children's books, John Marsden and Shaun Tan's 'The Rabbits'. The book tells of the European settlement in Australia through the Indigenous Australian perspective. As the concepts being presented are confronting, the author chose to use rabbits as a symbol for the Europeans. Symbols are prevalent throughout the text.

 

I read the book to the students, focusing on the illustrations, colours and symbols on every page. Before and after reading, we as a group guessed what the book may be about. It was incredible that before reading the text, one young boy had already guessed the topic was European settlement in Australia. He had never seen the book before, basing his prediction solely on the illustrations on the cover of the book. This young student suffered with ADHD and was clearly a visual learner. In reflection with the associate teacher and the disability aide who was assisting, we found the predominantly visual lesson catered well for the entire class, but was specifically engaging for this student.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After reading the book, we discussed the symbolism and colours throughout the book in relation to the topic. The students went off in groups and drew their interpretations of pre-colonisation Australia, focusing on using colours and symbols we discussed. In summarising the lesson we formed a group and discussed our work. The students spoke about how they felt and interpreted the colonisation from multiple perspectives.