English Investigation – Year 6-7 Duration: 1 book each week
Took The Children away
The song tells the story of the stolen generation from a
very personal perspective . It tells the story of the good
intentions of the white people removing the children from
their families so they could be raised in the white man’s
way. They didn’t understand the incredible pain it caused
and how the impact of their actions would be so longlasting. Some of these children are still looking for their
indigenous families.
Purpose for sharing the text:
Author’s intent: Archie Roach has written this song to tell of his own personal story. His
song and the paintings by Ruby Hunter, his late wife ,give us a strong insight into the
heartbreaking experience of the Aboriginal children separated from their families.
Essential Learnings
Ways of Working
 identify main ideas and the sequence of events, make inferences and draw
conclusions based on ideas and information within and across texts
 recognise and select vocabulary and interpret the effect of literal and figurative
language
 interpret and identify that readers/viewers/listeners are positioned by aspects of texts
 Make judgments and justify opinions using information and ideas from texts, and
identify how aspects of texts contribute to enjoyment and appreciation
 reflect on and compare how the language choices made across texts include and
exclude certain groups and individuals
.
Reading and Viewing
 Words, groups of words, visual resources and images can persuade an audience to
agree with a point of view by portraying people, characters, places, events and things
in different ways.
 Comprehension involves drawing on knowledge of the subject matter and contextual
cues to interpret, infer from and evaluate texts in community contexts
 Readers and viewers use a number of active comprehension strategies to interpret
texts, including activating prior knowledge, predicting, questionning, identifying main
ideas, inferring, monitoring, summarising and reflecting.
Literacy Indicators
 reflecting on texts and evaluating them in terms of author position, quality of author’s
craft, accuracy or reliability of content and how well they meet their purpose, citing
information from texts to support their view
Assessment 1: Engaging with the text
Comparison/Retrieval Chart comparing White Man’s Intention/Viewpoint to Aboriginal
People’s Experience/Viewpoint.
Students complete the Chart finding examples of text and illustrations from the book.
White Man’s Actions/Views
Aboriginal People’s Experiences/Views
Eg Come take our hand (Caring for
Snatched from their mother’s
children)
breast( abduction)
Assessment 2. Ongoing assessment ideas
P7 “We’ll give to them what you can’t give
Teach them how to really live”
Write your interpretations of the white values underlying this statement.
How did the artists use visual images to persuade his audience ? Give examples.
Give examples from the text to show the strong emotive connection to family and land that
the aboriginal people felt.
What do you think the statement, Page 1; “Like the promises they did not keep” means?
Assessment 3. Final Assessment
Students write a persuasive letter, addressing the government of Australia (50 years ago),
persuading the government to stop their unfair treatment of the Aboriginal people
(custodians of this land).
Students may mention areas touched upon in prior discussions whilst reading/analysing the
book in class discussions eg; Aboriginal children were taken from their parents/families and put in foster homes
 Aboriginal people were not allowed to vote
 Aboriginal people were not allowed to earn a wage ie; work for money ( see other
book in series; ”From Little Things Big Things Grow”)
 Aboriginal people were classed as, ”‘Flora and Fauna “ in Australian Law
Before Reading
Before reading the text to students we suggest that the teacher should read for their own
information the Foreword by Martin Flanagan and the preface written by Archie Roach to
understand his thoughts and reasons behind the writing of this song.
Front Cover
Just using the front cover, working with a small group of three or four children, allow children
to respond to the following questions and be prepared to share.
 Who do you think has written this?
 Why do you think they have written this?
 Who is the intended audience?
 What do you notice about the writing on the front cover ?
 Why do you think it is written this way?
 What do you notice about the colours? Turn to back cover –What do the colours
represent?
 Predict what words you might find in the book
As suggested by Martin Flanagan , it is recommended that teachers play the song whilst
turning the pages of the book for the first reading.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLXzKYP1uCw
The students to work in pairs to write down some of the words that they can remember and
to discuss with the class what they think the song is about and what some of the words
mean.
The author develops the themes of heartbreak due to family separation and the loss of
identity. Write a paragraph to show your understanding of the story that is being told
through the lyrics of this song.
SHARED READING
GUIDED READING- Please note- it is very important that in Guided reading you work
with a smaller group of students e.g. 8 so that meaningful discussions can occur.
Other activities which could be conducted while you work with the smaller group could be: Responding to the shared reading task described above.
 Participating in comprehension tasks which follow on from other texts read
previously
 Conducting research about the indigenous history of their local area
 Independent reading
GUIDED READING
1. Students read the text. This time they will focus on the language features of the text.
Note repetition, rhythm and rhyme.
2. Note how the writer introduces a topic/event outlining the white man’s spoken
intentions and then describes what actually happened .eg;
“Teach them how to live they said
Humiliated them instead”
3. Focus on the language elements- the words and word groups used to describe.
Students independently reread and write down all of the words the Author used to
describe how the Aboriginal children were treated.
Literal comprehension questions
Was the author a child from the “stolen generation”. Write the part in the story that
tells you this.
Were did the “stolen children” live? Write words from the story to support your
answer.
What were the children taught at the mission?
4. Inferential level questions for discussion.
Did the Aboriginal parents want their children to be taken? Give examples from the
story to support your answer.
What were the children given as compensation for being split up again?
How do you know this and what do you think the author thinks of this ? Why?
5. Read with students the Foreward and Preface.
6.Applied level questions for discussion.
What do you think the author meant, when he says ,“ and others taught them
prejudice”
What do you think the author meant by this page?
‘ Sent us off to foster homes
As we grew up we felt alone
‘Cause we were acting white
Yet feeling black’
How do you think the author feels about what happened to him as a child? Support
your answer with words from the text.
Transcript
Took The Children Away
This story’s right this story’s true
I would not tell lies to you
Like the promises they did not keep
And how they fenced us in like sheep
Said to us come take our hand
Sent us off to mission land
Taught us to read to write and pray
Then took the children away
Took the children away
The children away
Snatched from their mothers breast
Said it was for the best
Took them away
The welfare and the policeman
Said you’ve got to understand
Will give to them what you can’t five
Teach them how to really live
Teach them how to live they said
Humiliated them instead
Taught them that and taught them this
And others taught them prejudice
You took the children away
The children away
Breaking their mother’s heart
Tearing us all apart
Took them away
One dark day on Framlingham
Came and didn’t give a damn
My mother cried go get their dad
He came running fighting mad
Mother’s tears were falling down
Dad shaped up and stood his ground
He said you touch my kids and you fight me
And they took us from our family
Took us away
They took us away
Snatched from our mother’s breast
Said this was for the best
Took us away
Told us what to do and say
Told us all the white man’s ways
Then they split us up again
And gave us gifts to ease the pain
Sent us off to foster homes
As we grew up we felt alone
‘Cause we were acting white
Yet feeling black
One sweet day all the children came back
The children came back
The children came back
Back where their hearts grow strong
Back where they all belong
The children came back
Said the children came back
The children came back
Back where they understand
Back to their mother’s land
The children came back
Back to their mother
Back to their father
Back to their sister
Back to their brother
Back tot their people
Back to their land
All the children came back
The children came back
The children came back
Yes I came back
Teachers Notes Prepared by Donna Williams & Gaynor Williams