Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Women’s football in the media

25 minutes

Find Out: Facts and opinions

20 minutes

Take Action: Correct the internet

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will:

compare media articles about women’s football in Australia across time.

Students can:

identify the context of an article
explain how the context is reflected in the article
compare two articles from different contexts.

Tune In: Women’s Football in the media

Preparation

If you have completed Lesson 1 and Lesson 2 in this unit, you can skip this section and go to Step 1. Today, we’re going to look at a group of people who are working to break down barriers.

Watch Trailblazers

Trailblazers (https://clickv.ie/w/INpy)

Step 1

Ask students to identify some of the keywords or phrases they see in the articles in the clip from the film ‘Trailblazers’.

Show two short sections from the ‘Trailblazers’ film (3.55-5.30 and 6.38-7.55).

It may be helpful to pause the video to help students focus on the writing.

Students can share some of the things they noticed with the class. Why do they think it was written that way? What is the context/what was the world like?

Step 2

Ask your students if they think the ban on football and women returning to football would be reported in the same way today. Why, or why not? What would be different? How has the context changed?

Find Out: Facts and opinions

Step 1

Show your students this ‘Correct the Internet’ video:

Correct the Internet on Vimeo

This video talks about our ‘bias’. As a class, create a definition for the word ‘bias’.

Step 2

Let’s take a look at how bias can be present in media. Using the ‘Women’s Football in the Media’ visual explainer, look through the different newspaper articles about women’s football over time.

As you review each article, students can discuss and fill in the worksheet about the following:

Facts – are there any facts in the article? E.g. They sold 2000 tickets.
Opinions – are there any opinions (right or wrong)? E.g. Women should not play football
Bias – is there a bias or viewpoint? Who wrote the article? Can you tell what they think? E.g. It seems like they don’t think women should play football.
Context – when was the article written? Who wrote it? E.g. It was soon after the ban.
Quote/Language – write a quote or some keywords from the article that stood out. E.g.‘The referee ordered, no squealing, fighting or pulling of hair.’

Students only need to write a few keywords for each box, the main aim is the discussion about the article.

Step 3

The last page (page 8) of the visual explainer is of one recent and one historical article.

Ask students to compare and contrast the two articles, thinking about the facts, opinions, bias, context, etc.

Take Action: Correct the internet

Step 1

Refer back to the ‘Correct the Internet’ video.

Let’s explore how the internet shows bias. Ask your students to navigate to Correct the Internet | Correct The Internet - Help make sportswomen more visible

Ask your students to choose some of the search questions and explore how the internet displays a bias towards men’s sports.

This project began in January 2023. For some of these search terms, we are starting to see changes in the results that different search engines provide. Discuss the impact of this project with your students!

Step 2

Choose 1 of the 3 articles from the ‘Rewrite the Article Worksheets':

Learning support: 3 different articles have been provided to allow for differentiation.

As a class, identify the parts of the text that are influenced by the context they are written in. Ask students to read through the article and

underline any words or phrases that are no longer commonly used (e.g. the Australian girls).
highlight sentences expressing ideas they feel would be expressed differently today (e.g. Women in shorts play snappy soccer game).
draw a line through sentences or words they think would not be included in an article today (e.g. ~~Two married women, Mrs Nellie Doherty and Mrs Martha Sheldrick, took part~~).

Step 3

Looking at the parts they have identified, ask students to re-write the article to suit today’s context.

Learning extension: Provide the students with a recent newspaper article discussing women’s sport. Ask students to look at the language used and how the event is reported and consider what might be outdated in 20 years… in 50 years? Considering what we have covered and discussed, re-write the article to reflect the changes in society you would like to see.

Reflection

Ask students: “Why is it important to consider the context of a piece of media”? They could complete this task as an exit ticket.

The Changing Face of Women’s Football

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Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables

In this lesson