Secondary Catalogue

When writing a movie review, it is important to be able to express your opinions and conclusions precisely. This video reinforces that sometimes, it can be more effective to use simple sentences, rather than compound or complex sentences, for stronger impact and more persuasive power. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing persuasive texts. Show Less

To write a recipe that’s easy to understand and follow, it’s important to show the relationships between a series of individual instructions or directions. This video covers how to combine simple commands into compound sentences, using the coordinating conjunctions ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘so’ and ‘or’, to improve the flow of ideas. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing informative texts. Show Less

When writing a biography, article, report or instruction manual, delivering information in a clear and engaging way is crucial. This video introduces the two most common sentence types found in informative texts—statements and commands—and how to vary their length and detail so your text flows smoothly and is interesting to read. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills for writing informative texts. Show Less

A good instructional text needs to get your message across clearly and be easy for readers to follow. This video explains the difference between two sentence types commonly found in informative texts—statements and commands—and how to use them to deliver information more simply and with clarity. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing informative texts. Show Less

For letters to the editor, online discussions and essays, being able to express your point of view effectively is very useful. This video highlights that you don't have to use complicated sentences to write a good persuasive text—clear and concise simple sentences, whether statements or questions, can be impactful and get your point across. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing persuasive texts. Show Less

A well-written narrative, such as a short story, poem or script, can be exciting, tense and suspenseful. This video illustrates how short, simple sentences can be used to create a different pace and mood in narrative writing, compared to longer and more detailed sentences. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing imaginative texts. Show Less

When writing a recount, such as a diary entry, you might find yourself needing to show the relationships or connections between ideas. This video explains how to use compound sentences to describe a series of events, using the coordinating conjunctions ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘so’ and ‘or’. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing informative texts. Show Less

There's a skill to writing great science reports that are both clear and easy to understand. This video identifies the sections of a report where it can be better to use simple sentences, rather than more detailed ones, to make it easy for readers to understand the goals and conclusions of an experiment. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing informative texts. Show Less

Being able to give your reader an insight into your character's mind is a valuable skill in writing narratives. This video explains how questions can be used to reveal what characters are thinking, whether genuine or rhetorical, and from a first-person or third-person perspective. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills writing Imaginative texts. Show Less

Characters are an essential component of many narrative texts, such as a novel or a short story. This video shows how you can use a variety of sentence types—statements, questions, and commands—in your narrative writing to develop characters that are memorable and interesting to read about. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing imaginative texts. Show Less

"Stereo. Type.", written and performed by Luka Lesson. Before they lock you in a stereotype speak words so deep they’re like burial rights write lines that unite every side of the fight so when you speak all they get is your STEREO. TYPE. See I don’t care about your lyrics I mostly care about your spirit our words are just vessels to help our souls grow coherent That’s why plastic conversations just keep people in their places boxes and cages staying locked in a maze These days a raised eyebrow in suspicion can draw a straight line to a conviction A country so conditioned by racism those most judged by skin colour and appearance end up filling up our prisons And you’re pissed off when a shock-jock gets paid just to be a bigot but our taxes have been paying for the same shit since the beginning They pigeon hole us into body types traditional dress sexual preference or exotic sound bytes and they use every media stereotype to amplify their agenda as their political stereo mic So we’re stuck in the battle of the headlines on the war of the magazine shelf they’ve taught us to see each other as caricatures of our real selves From Cronulla to the Herald Channel 7 - the whole cartel the media mafia's making sure News Corp gets the sell But the complexity of our lives doesn’t fit in their headlines so they need bite-sized pieces of our bodies to feed on between dinner and bedtime So when we see each other on the street those headlines in our head sets become headnotes become death stares become death threats become the next steps towards our best friends’ necks becoming breathless To divide and conquer we need a clear set of enemies falsified identities combined with our short term memories They poison our communities to keep us preoccupied so while we’re fighting each other - more land gets occupied More services are cut Adani gets up another open cut mine another refugee gets stuck That’s why we need to take back the narrative speak our own languages keep our identities multifaceted don’t simplify it for their arrogance You are not all savages you are not all parodies to be used as their front page embarrassments So before they lock you in a stereotype speak words so deep they’re like burial rights write lines that unite every side of the fight so when we speak all they get is our STEREO. TYPE. Show Less

The Romantic movement grew out of the Age of Enlightenment, nurturing the idea of the importance of the imagination — and then letting it run wild. This video explains the historical context behind the poetry of Romantics including Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats and Byron, discussing historical events, recurring themes and how the movement was received during its time. It provides a valuable accompaniment for senior secondary English students. Show Less

The Victorian era can appear starched, overly refined and repressed, but it was also a time when turbulent reforms were sweeping across Europe. This video explains the historical context behind the poetry of Victorian including Tennyson, Arnold, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, discussing historical events, recurring themes and how the movement was received during its time. It provides a valuable accompaniment for senior secondary English students. Show Less

The early 20th century was one of the most volatile periods of history and poetry exposed the true nature of World War I. This video explains the historical context behind the poetry of war poets including Pope, McCrae, Brooke, Owen and Sassoon, discussing historical events, recurring themes and how the movement was received during its time. It provides a valuable accompaniment for senior secondary English students. Show Less

"A Letter to My Daughter", written and performed by Luka Lesson. You are the sound of a birds wings unfurling the twitching of feathers hovering above the shadows Shimmering light reflecting off the waves in the bay of hope And when you are born and you grow up I will have to bring to you a warning There will be men who bring shotgun tongues into peaceful houses who drink just to float with the empty bottles above their own histories who carry manhood like a dead wolf slain across their shoulders Men who say that the shortest distance between two opinions is a clenched fist Who frequent bars just to speak to each other in voices louder than their own demons no man can shout louder than his demons My daughter there will be men who take maximum credit for making minimum effort My daughter if history teaches us anything Your great-great-grandmother visits me in dreams she is always wearing black she appears to me with the ghosts of women who were stoned in the villages who were burned in the town squares abandoned by their husbands or exiled by their fathers women who had to raise sons who they knew would one day raise their fists against the town’s daughters ? ??? ??? ?????? ??? She tells me every man must face his forefathers sins wilfully unpack the boxes of the false prophets unpick the patterns of power un-ball his fists decorate his own palms in heritage and humility or risk a forced reckoning My daughter I’ve seen my own karma as a man frozen like a tsunami mid-surge above the roof of our house I’ve seen the wounded inheritance the hurt I’ve caused etched beneath my skin my mistakes sit like sediment heavy in my lungs and I’m still learning how to speak them But you you’re the sound of a bell chiming the sound of the universe turning in a spiral Your great great grand-mother visits me in dreams she’s always wearing black but she is always turning soil sowing seeds in the dirt for you helping us cultivate a clean tomorrow Show Less

"What Will Become of Us?", written and performed by Luka Lesson. We ask ourselves this question in the midst of this mess as our loneliness lowers our standards and we start to search for answers in the cynical speeches of political ventriloquists spewing out their old falsified syllabus blaming anyone but themselves from their own scientists to immigrants ignoring the warnings of Indigenous Nations and their limitless resilience and patience We must ask ourselves this question: what will become of us? And across billions of screens and millions of live streams I have found no answers So I switched off I sat in the dirt I turned to the earth and I asked her: what will become of us? And she answered in a breath of wind in a million new shoots growing from the ashes of the bushfires She answered in the death of a deer soon to become food for the forest floor She answered in the jet white crows lined up in rows guarding the clouds from their eucalyptus branches She answered in a full-bodied and pregnant sunset with her orange lipstick and bright pink cheeks ready to give birth to the stars... I asked her this question and she answered: "What will become of us?" she said "whatever you decide to make of us" And when she said that the people stood up they felt her rumbling within their bones bushfires finally burning within their rib cages hearts in their fists sparks on their tongues their breath hot with the songs of revolution eye sockets luminous and lasered backs straight ancestors hands resting upon their shoulders spirits high and rising high enough to see the links between: Ecocide and genocide herbicide and homicide occupied territories and those most terrorised women’s rights, civil rights Trans Lives, the climate strike Problems being globalised solutions becoming localised marching through the belly of the beast the underbelly of severe oversight so it is time for us to decide What will become of us? Whatever we decide to make of us Through our actions the future will be revealed. Show Less

This video examines common ways of creating fake news, such as maintaining a website that hosts misleading articles and using social media accounts and chatbots to increase traffic. It also explores the common reasons Fake News is generated and demonstrates how deliberate design and language choices can be used to trick and confuse people. An essential resource for boosting secondary students’ digital literacy skills. Show Less

The way in which news is delivered and consumed has changed rapidly over time and continues to evolve today. This video examines some of the issues that have arisen from this, defining fake news and explaining and providing examples of hoaxes, scams, clickbait, jokes, advertising, spin, propaganda, satire and sensationalism. An essential resource for boosting secondary students’ digital literacy skills. Show Less

This engaging video tests what students have learned from the ‘Fake News’ series by checking their ability to distinguish real news from fake news. It includes ‘news’ such as clickbait from ELLE magazine, Russia releasing lions into the streets and the use of misleading images by news outlets. An essential resource for consolidating the knowledge about digital literacy that secondary students have gained from the rest of the series. Show Less

People frequently make important decisions about their health, families and political issues based on news, without knowing whether it is fake or true. This video shows how making, consuming and sharing fake news about events that never took place or conspiracy theories about prominent people and provocative topics can have extremely serious consequences. An essential resource for boosting secondary students’ digital literacy skills. Show Less

This video equips students with strategic skills to analyse and easily spot fake news. It explores how to perform a visual check of an app or website, conduct reverse image searches and look for unusual domain extensions or misspelled words and poor grammar to verify whether news is real of fake. An essential resource for boosting secondary students’ digital literacy skills. Show Less

This video explores the factors that make fake news easy to believe. Case studies, including the story of Pope Francis endorsing Donald Trump for president and dolphins in Venice during the COVID-19 pandemic, illustrate how modern busy lifestyles mean we are prone to falling for fake news, making it an extremely powerful communication tool for governments, organisations and individuals. An essential resource for boosting secondary students’ digital literacy skills. Show Less

The period following World War I was an era of widespread prosperity in the United States. Long Island, New York, became the playground of the privileged, exemplifying the excesses of the Jazz Age. This video investigates how the concept of the American Dream inspired and influenced F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel ‘The Great Gatsby’. It provides a valuable accompaniment to students studying this text. Show Less

By the mid-20th century, New Orleans had gone from a city modernised by the Jazz Age to a hub of poverty and crime. While middle-class Americans thrived, poor and marginalised segments of the population continued to struggle. This video explores how the idea of the American Dream inspired and influenced Tennessee Williams’ play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. It provides a valuable accompaniment to students studying this text. Show Less

The economic prosperity that swept the United States post-World War II changed lifestyles and attitudes greatly. The tragic murder of the Clutters, the epitome of the ideal American family, showed how the American Dream could go terribly wrong. This video delves into how the notion of the American Dream influenced Truman Capote’s ‘In Cold Blood’. It provides a valuable accompaniment to students studying this film. Show Less