Close Study of a Song – “Every Step of the Way”

Lesson overview

Learning Area:English Life Skills
Age Group:Stages 1 – 3

Learning intention

Students will gain a deeper understanding of contemporary Australian socio-political events with a focus on racism in sport. Students will explore how music can provide a voice to minority groups.

Success Criteria

Students can make connections between their local context and contemporary socio-political events.

Introduction

These resources have been developed to support delivery to students accessing a Life Skills curriculum across stages 1-3.

Worksheets and teacher notes

  1. Activities 1-4 are supported by slides on the associated PowerPoint. See the notes section of individual slides for more information and discussion prompts that can be used with the class.
  2. Worksheets: Feelings and Emotions Cards to be used in Activity 02.
  3. Lyrics: visit https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/paulkelly/everystepoftheway.html for a copy of the lyrics for Activity 03 Close Study of Lyrics.

Suggested Activities

Below are a range of suggested activities to explore the concept of racism in a stage 1-3 Life Skills educational setting.

Lesson Materials

In this activity, ask students to come to the board and select – by pointing or circling with a whiteboard marker- words that describe the impact of music. Select students to justify their answers.

Distribute blank Feelings and Emotions Cards and pencils and support students to draw a face corresponding to each emotion on the card. Play a selection of age-appropriate songs and ask students to stop, listen and think about how the song makes them feel. Prompt students to select the appropriate card and hold it up to show their feelings.

Finally, play “Every Step of the Way” by Paul Kelly, and do the same.

Present slides to class, read sections and answer the questions on the slides.

  1. Who is Paul Kelly
  2. Who is Eddie Betts
  3. Word/phrase match activity
  4. Create actions to stanza 4 (“Thousands smile when I go through my paces…”)
  5. Highlight/circle phrases that summarise what this song is about.

In closing, students are prompted to share how they would respond if they witnessed racism in the community (e.g. at a football game). Some prompts have been provided on the slides.