Free Lesson Plan: Unpacking the patriarchy in context (Year 10 English)

Posted in Book Reviews, Human Rights, Teaching tips by

This is a lesson plan I wrote in 2024, to align with the F-10 Australian Curriculum for an English class. I wrote the plan for one of my university assessments, so I’ve put the research receipts down the bottom of the page if you want to look closer into the background information.

I’m just a student teacher studying my Master of Education, so please feel free to provide kind, specific feedback. 😎

How to use this lesson plan: I designed this with multiple parts that you can mix and match if you want to run a single lesson … or you can run all parts over a few classes or a double period.

Duration (mins): 70 minutes per class, designed for 2 class sessions or a double period.

Resources needed:

  • PPT and projector
  • Downloaded video clips (for when the WiFi fails us)

Before we get into the lesson plan, though, I just want to clarify one very important question…

Why learn about the patriarchy in English class?

Understanding how the patriarchy perpetuates domestic and family violence (DFV) in Australia is a key part of being an active and informed citizen in 2024. Students are learning empathy as part of the personal and social capability general capability (GC) in the Australian curriculum, and we know that students can build empathy and advocate for others by learning about past and present human rights violations. And because adolescent students are often having their first romantic and sexual experiences, talking about the red flags of abusive relationships helps to protect them from harm.

In a future post, I plan to show you a lesson plan for a Year 10 Psychology class, about how harmful messages in patriarchal societies have affected most people’s implicit biases. Learning to spot our own implicit biases is one of the easiest places to start when learning self-awareness and learning to create psychological safety in our society.

Content for today’s lesson

This lesson focuses on spotting and analysing literary devices and understanding how audiences view a text differently depending on their social and political context. We’ll look at the song Labour by Paris Paloma, which I love as a teaching tool for two reasons.

image shows thumbnail from YouTube video for the official music video of the song Labour by Paris Paloma, posted March 2023.

See YouTube for the official music videos for
labour and cacophony (labour)
by Paris Paloma

First, many students already know this song because it went viral on Tiktok (and then on the rest of social media). So they’re familiar with some of the lyrics, making more brain space available to do the “thinking” analysis tasks of this lesson.

    Secondly, it’s often easier to spot literary devices in poetry texts than in prose like articles or novels, and song lyrics are a highly-effective form of poetry. So teaching Labour as a poetry text means again, students can put more energy towards learning or remembering the content.

    If you’re an education student like me, this reasoning provides evidence of you meeting Australian Professional Standards of Teaching (APST) number 2: knowing the content and how to teach it.

    Learning intention

    We are learning how an audience is influenced by language, multimodal features, and the context of the society they live in, when they read a text.

    We are learning to find and use different literary devices such as motifs, archetypes, rhyme, euphony, and alliteration.

    Content descriptors (Australian curriculum F-10, Year 10 English)

    1. AC9E10LE03: “Students learn to: analyse how the aesthetic qualities associated with text structures, language features, literary devices and visual features, and the context in which these texts are experienced, influence audience response”

    2. AC9E10LY06: “Students learn to: plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts, organising, expanding and developing ideas through experimenting with text structures, language features, literary devices and multimodal features for specific purposes and audiences in ways that may be imaginative, reflective, informative, persuasive, analytical and/or critical”

    Achievement standards

    By the end of Year 10, students listen to and create spoken and multimodal texts. They create written texts, including literary texts. They read, view, and comprehend a range of texts created to inform, influence and engage audiences. They analyse the effects of language features, including literary devices and multimodal features.

    General Capabilities (GC) and Cross Curriculum Priorities (CCP)

    • GC: Critical and creative thinking
    • GC: Personal and social capability

    Success criterion for Assessment for Learning (AfL)

    • Students create a Venn diagram comparing how our texts for this unit represent the patriarchy.
    • Students create a Y graph analysing how different literary devices are used.
    • Students write a text making a representation of the patriarchy.

    Students can use the Venn diagram and Y graph in a portfolio for evidence of learning. You can also make notes during the whole-of-class discussion to gather evidence of students’ language skills. The solo writing exercise could be included in the portfolio or used for summative assessment at the end of a term.

    Contextual information:

    • Other lessons in this unit could cover other texts for this unit – my suggestions are No Boy Summer by Amy Spalding, and You should’ve asked by Emma.
    • My class completes a start-of-year classroom survey about learning preferences, to create psychological safety.
    • My class creates a social contract for our classroom, including our agreement about how we treat each other in whole-of-class discussions.

    Lesson plan: Unpacking the patriarchy in literature

    Activity 1 – marking attendance with a roll question:

    For today’s roll question, answer yes or no when I get to your name: “Do you know your Mum’s birthday? Or if not Mum, do you know the birthday of a girl or woman close to you, like a sister, Grandma, or friend?”

    Reassure students – I’ll record how many say yes/no so we can talk about it, but not who says what.

    Explain learning intention:

    Put learning intention on the projector / the board.

    Today, we’re learning to identify and use literary devices, and learning how audiences are influenced by language and context.

    Ask who can explain some of these literary devices we may already know?

    • Motifs: repeated ideas or words throughout a text
    • Archetypes: story stereotypes (e.g. archetypes of women in texts include maid, mother, crone, wicked stepmother)
    • Rhyming: words ending with the same sound
    • Alliteration: words with the same starting letter
    • Allusion: talking about something indirectly

    Introduce new literary device:

    • Euphony: words that are pleasing to the ear.

    Offer memorisation strategies for the new literary device, euphony:

    • If you enjoy how someone says something, you might joke, “You funny!” which sounds like “euphony”.
    • Say the word together.
    • Write the word together.
    • Take notes on the meaning.

    Why teach memorisation strategies specifically? Research shows high school students don’t use the most-effective study strategies on their own, and that not every school directly and explicitly teaches the most-effective strategies.

    Activity 2 – read the text together:

    This is the song lyrics of Labour by Paris Paloma, which you probably already have heard on Tiktok or Threads or somewhere.

    Who can read aloud for us, maybe one verse or stanza each?

    (If no one volunteers, check start-of-year survey for any students who indicated they’re confident to be called on.)

    One, two, three

    Why are you hanging on so tight
    To the rope that I’m hanging from?
    Off this island, this was an escape plan (this was an escape plan)
    Carefully timed it, so let me go
    And dive into the waves below

    Who tends the orchards? Who fixes up the gables?
    Emotional torture from the head of your high table
    Who fetches the water from the rocky mountain spring?
    And walk back down again to feel your words and their sharp sting
    And I’m getting fucking tired

    The capillaries in my eyes are bursting
    If our love died, would that be the worst thing?
    For somebody I thought was my saviour
    You sure make me do a whole lot of labour

    The calloused skin on my hands is cracking
    If our love ended, would that be a bad thing?
    And the silence haunts our bed chamber
    You make me do too much labour
    You make me do too much labour

    Apologies from my tongue, and never yours
    Busy lapping from flowing cup and stabbing with your fork
    I know you’re a smart man (I know you’re a smart man), and weaponise
    The false incompetence, it’s dominance under a guise

    If we had a daughter, I’d watch and could not save her
    The emotional torture, from the head of your high table
    She’d do what you taught her, she’d meet the same cruel fate
    So now I’ve gotta run, so I can undo this mistake
    At least I’ve gotta try

    The capillaries in my eyes are bursting
    If our love died, would that be the worst thing?
    For somebody I thought was my saviour
    You sure make me do a whole lot of labour

    The calloused skin on my hands is cracking
    If our love ends, would that be a bad thing?
    And the silence haunts our bed chamber
    You make me do too much labour

    All day, every day, therapist, mother, maid
    Nymph then a virgin, nurse then a servant
    Just an appendage, live to attend him
    So that he never lifts a finger
    24∕7, baby machine
    So he can live out his picket fence dreams
    It’s not an act of love if you make her
    You make me do too much labour

    All day, every day, therapist, mother, maid
    Nymph then virgin, nurse and a servant
    Just an appendage, live to attend him
    So that he never lifts a finger
    24∕7, baby machine
    So he can live out his picket fence dreams
    It’s not an act of love if you make her
    You make me do too much labour

    The capillaries in my eyes (all day, every day)
    Are bursting (therapist, mother, maid)
    If our love died (nymph then virgin)
    Would that be the worst thing? (Nurse then a servant)
    For somebody (just an appendage)
    I thought was my saviour (live to attend him)
    You sure make me do (so that)
    A whole lot of labour (he never lifts a finger)

    The calloused skin on my hands (24∕7)
    Is cracking (baby machine)
    If our love ends (so he can live out)
    Would that be a bad thing? (His picket fence dreams)
    And the silence (it’s not an act of love)
    Haunts our bed chamber (if you make her)
    You make me do too much labour
    – Paris Paloma, © Sony Music Publishing (UK) Ltd.

    Make safety comment before beginning discussion:

    Analysing representations of the patriarchy can be triggering. As always, it’s a high-level discussion; we’re not talking about individual experiences. If you need to take a quick break, just give me a wave and get a drink of water at the bubblers. Our school counsellor is free to talk during or after class.

    This contributes towards meeting Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) 1 (know students and how they learn) and APST 4 (create and maintain a safe learning environment).

    Activity 3 – think, pair, share:

    How does this song’s representation of the patriarchy compare to our other texts, No Boy Summer and You should’ve asked? In a pair or a trio, we’re going to create a Venn diagram together of the similarities and differences.

    Start 5-minute timer.

    If the students we know are socially-anxious hesitate to join a group, suggest they pair up together. If possible, help scaffold their discussion until they’re working well together.

    Wander the classroom, listen to discussion, and offer feedback if needed. (This suits the “meddler in the middle” model.)

    After 5 minutes, regain attention.

    Whole-of-class discussion: Ask a representative from each group to identify one of the similarities and differences. Affirm each response. Ask clarifying questions if needed.

    Activity 4 – create a Y chart:

    In the same pair or trio, create a Y chart for “looks like, sounds like, feels like”. We’re going to use this to list out the literary devices we can see in this song.

    Examples:

    • Looks like:
      • Motifs – e.g. repeated idea of “labour”.
      • Archetypes – e.g. maid, mother, nymph.
    • Sounds like:
      • Rhyming – words that end with similar sounds, e.g. “virgin … surgeon”.
      • Euphony (if any) – words that are pleasing to the ear.
      • Alliteration – repeating words with the same starting letter, e.g. “mother, maid”; “nymph … nurse”.
    • Feels like:
      • Allusion – talking about something without mentioning it directly, e.g. “escape this mistake”.
      • Metaphor – e.g. verses 1 and 2.

    Start 5-minute timer.

    After 5 minutes, regain attention.

    Whole-of-class discussion: Groups share examples of literary devices from their Y graphs. Affirm each response.

    Activity 5 – watch videos using this song:

    Play downloaded videos.

    While we’re watching, we’re looking for the different modes of communication they’re using to tell their story – e.g. writing, voice, still and moving visuals, sounds, and gestures.

    Whole-of-class discussion: What different modes of communication did we see in these videos? Why these modes? What effects do they create?

    Activity 6 – discuss context and audiences for the Labour text:

    Paris Paloma wrote this song in the UK, about men devaluing women and making them do extra labour in heterosexual relationships. This song became famous in Australia in late 2023 and early 2024 because of our context: a national epidemic of domestic and family violence (DFV) that’s doubled since 2022:

    • 2 in 5 Australian women aged 15 and up have experienced violence against them (Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2023).
    • 72 women were killed by men in 2023, and 35 women have been killed by men so far (1 January to 2 May 2024). That’s one woman killed by a man every 4 days, a huge increase from 1 every 9 days in 2022 (Bricknell, 2023).
    • 13 women per day were hospitalised by domestic violence in 2022 (Australian Institute for Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2023).
    • Women are 3 times as likely to be attacked by a partner than a stranger (ABS, 2023).
    • Laws in Queensland prohibit victims from speaking about DFV protection orders, and victims of sexual assault (SA) in every state but Tasmania can be sued for defamation by the perpetrators.

    Whole-of-class discussion: So if we look at our other texts as well, what is the different social context behind each of these texts? And follow-up question, how does this affect how their audience interprets representations of the patriarchy?

    Examples:

    • Labour by Paris Paloma – UK-based song based on historical and ongoing misogyny in western cultures.
    • No Boy Summer by Amy Spalding – YA novel with bisexual heroine, set in America.
    • You should’ve asked by Emma – webcomic and memoir about French parental leave, featuring POC illustrations.

    Strategies to defuse if emotions run high during whole-of-class discussion:

    • Redirect to the data – put the stats about DFV back on the projector.
    • Interrupt and talk about our social contract that’s on the wall.
    • Use brain break early.

    Activity 7 – brain break:

    Play Shake It Off by Taylor Swift. This is our routine that lets students take 2 minutes out to stretch, exercise or dance, or even just put their head down for a rest.

    Activity 8 – quiet writing time, or homework, or assessment:

    Write something on your own, including one of the literary devices we’ve discussed.

    On projector, list example writing options:

    • Write an essay analysing how Labour has empowered the DFV protest movement.
    • Write an article reporting on the latest DFV news in Australia.
    • Write a video script for social media, listing ways to advocate for victims.
    • Write a letter/email to a Queensland politician, asking them to change the laws that silence victims.
    • Write a speech launching a program that promotes women’s rights.
    • Write a short story representing the patriarchy.

    Activity 9 – mindfulness wrap-up:

    Play video for background visuals.

    Read script for guided mindfulness meditation in a gentle tone of voice: “Visualise a bubble of feelings rising up in front of you. All feelings are allowed. I have compassion for myself for what I feel, and compassion for what others go through. I can let the bubble of feelings stay, or I can blow it away.”

    I’ll wait at my desk if you have questions about today’s lesson.

    Say goodbye as each student leaves.

    © This lesson plan was written entirely by TJ Withers, 2024. Please feel free to use this for teaching purposes or personal learning. Do not copy any part of this text for academic work or assessment purposes (this would be plagiarism)

    Reference list used to research this lesson plan

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