***Teach The Teacher Tuesday***

Term 2 begins the  week of ANZAC day and with this in mind, many teachers may prepare some ANZAC lessons to begin the Term. An excellent way to have students engage in conversations about ANZAC day is through literature. So what are some ANZAC stories you can listen to or read to support this learning in the classroom? Below are some possible texts, and Respond to Reading/ Text Response activities: 

  1. ANZAC Biscuits: This text not only highlights the difficulty war brought to families, but also sheds some light on the traditional ANZAC biscuits. Following from this story, as a class, you could make ANZAC biscuits, explore procedure texts and their structures (eg: follow or write an ANZAC biscuit recipe) and investigate which ingredients are used and why.  

  2. Roly the ANZAC Donkey: With a similar storyline to Simpson and His Donkey, this book recounts the heroic efforts of a Medical Corps Soldier and the donkey he encounters during his time at Gallipoli. A possible activity for this text is to create a Venn Diagram or T-Chart, which compares features from both of these books. For example students could compare storylines or main characters. Older students could also research to find other stories of Medical Corps Soldiers in World War 1.

  3. Untraceables : the mystery of the forgotten diggers. This Biography focus’ on the aftermath of World War One, and the effect it had on the families of the soldiers. This text can be used as a springboard for student lead investigations into soldiers from their own local area. As this text explores different ideas to many other ANZAC books, students could work through the Visible Thinking Routine: Think: Puzzle: Explore. 

  4. This Old Thing: In this text, a boy is asked to bring in something to contribute to the class ANZAC project. This book opens the door to many possibilities, such as; asking students to bring a family heirloom or artifact which tells an important family history (or picture!); Museum Victoria has suitcases on loan which students can explore and predict the use and history behind artifacts. Another Visible Thinking Routine students could use to explore objects either bought from home, or in the Museum suitcase is:  Creative Question Starts.


What other ANZAC text recommendations do you have for other teachers? Please comment below. 

Cover image sourced from: Catholic Outlook 2021

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