Focus question 2: How do you make a federation work?

ESL activities

Teacher instructions

Conduct activities 1, 2, 3, 4. Activity 5 is optional.

Activity 1 | Activity 2 | Activity 3 | Activity 4 | Activity 5 | Assessment task

Activity 1: Comparing the Australian and American Constitutions

Vocabulary: constitution, convention, eligible, delegates, republic, amendment, Senate, lower and upper houses (of parliament), legislature, Congress, Bill, House of Representatives, referendum, executive government (parliamentary), governor-general, head of state.

• Discuss the purpose of a constitution.
• For 1a, read and discuss the comparisons with the class, clarifying difficult vocabulary.
• For 1b, place ESL learners in small groups, say three, with students who have better spoken English. Take group responses regarding their true/false lists and finalise a single list.
• Conduct 1c as a class discussion.
• Conduct 1d to 1g in small groups.

Activity 2: Why Australia does not have a Bill of Rights

Vocabulary: Bill of Rights, oppressive, common law, warrant, due process, liberty, provision, grossest injustice, persecute, alien, descent, discrimination, responsible government, nominee, violate fundamental human freedom, brought to account.

• Discuss 'A Bill of Rights' with the class.
• Conduct this activity as a whole-class exercise, explaining difficult vocabulary. Alternatively, explain to ESL learners why Australia does not have a Bill of Rights.

Activity 3: The powers of the States and the Commonwealth

Vocabulary: environment, foreign affairs.

• Replace 3a and 3b as follows:
• Explain the powers of the Commonwealth and States in 1901, writing the following on the board:

	-	In 1901 the Commonwealth Government was responsible for: banking, immigration, weights and measurements, navigational taxation, defence, customs, post, laws, foreign policy, trade, telegraph.
	-	In 1901 the State governments were responsible for: police, railway, agriculture, taxation, education, health service, industry, land laws, roads, social service, Aboriginal welfare.

• Students copy the information in their workbooks.

Activity 4: Powers of the Commonwealth

Vocabulary: referendum, social security, communication, consumer affairs, equal opportunity, human rights, industrial relations, primary industry, veterans' affairs, High Court, interpret, fullest possible meaning, taxation, conditions, overrule, treaty, alliances, expanded.

• Place ESL learners in pairs with students who have better spoken English.
• Discuss briefly changes to the powers of the Commonwealth since 1901.
• Instruct students to add the following to their list of Commonwealth powers: social security (1946), Aboriginal affairs (1967).
• For 4a, instruct students to use the information from Activity 3 and the list in the students' book to complete the exercise.
• For 4b, discuss with the class 'How the Commonwealth Government has become more powerful', clarifying difficult vocabulary. Students complete 4b in pairs.

Activity 5: Research project - States and Territories (optional)

Conduct parts 5c and 5d only.

• For 5c group ESL learners with students who have better spoken English. Make the teams larger, say 5, so that all members work on preparing the speeches but only some participate in the actual debate.
• For 5d, the groups construct a summary of conclusions.

Assessment task

• Explain the questions to ESL learners who work in pairs. Limit the number of questions as appropriate.

Back to 'Making a Nation - At a glance'