Loss & Grief links to English

Understanding life changes result in loss and grief

Change - pages 22-23

Grief reactions - page 24

Grief stories (video) - page 24

Speaking and listening

• Statements, questions (including rhetorical questions) and commands can be used to identify the main issues of a topic and sustain a point of view.

Reading and viewing

• Readers and viewers draw on their prior knowledge, knowledge of language elements, points of view, beliefs and cultural understandings when engaging with a text.
• Comprehension involves drawing on knowledge of the subject matter, contextual cues and intertextuality to interpret, infer from and evaluate texts in local, national or global contexts.

Reactions to loss and change

Grief reactions - pages 25-26

‘Normal’ grief reactions (handout) - page 28

Extension activity - page 27

Speaking and listening

• Statements, questions (including rhetorical questions) and commands can be used to identify the main issues of a topic and sustain a point of view.

Reaching out, reaching in

How to help - pages 29-30

Helping yourself, helping a friend (handout) - pages 31-32

Helping a friend - page 30

Speaking and listening

• Statements, questions (including rhetorical questions) and commands can be used to identify the main issues of a topic and sustain a point of view.

Reading and viewing

• Reading fluency is supported through monitoring vocabulary and its meaning across different contexts.

Helping friends

Types of support - pages 33–34

Giving advice - page 34

Dear Dr Wright letters (handout) - page 36

Seeking help - page 35

Newspaper article (handout) - page 37

What to say - page 35

Speaking and listening

• The purpose of speaking and listening includes examining issues, evaluating opinions, convincing others, and managing relationships and transactions.
• Statements, questions (including rhetorical questions) and commands can be used to identify the main issues of a topic and sustain a point of view.

Reading and viewing

• Reading fluency is supported through monitoring vocabulary and its meaning across different contexts.

Language elements

• Paragraphs build and sustain cohesion and develop a central idea.
• Active voice and passive voice change the subject and the focus in a sentence.
• Relationships between ideas in texts are signalled by connectives to sequence and contrast ideas, show cause and effect, and clarify or add information.
• Adjectives and adverbs are used to express attitudes and make judgements and/or evoke emotions.
• Modal auxiliary verbs are selected to convey degrees of certainty, probability or obligation to suit the text type.
• Nominalisation (turning verbs into nouns) can be used to compress ideas and information, and to add formality to a text.
• Figurative language, including onomatopoeia and alliteration, and emotive, evocative, formal and informal language, creates tone, mood and atmosphere.
• Punctuation, including colons and semicolons, signals meaning.
• Vocabulary is chosen to establish roles and relationships with an audience, including the demonstration of personal authority and credibility.
• Auditory, spoken, visual and nonverbal elements, including the use of sound fades, dissolves, cuts, hyperlinks, camera angles and shot types, can be combined to position an audience.

Literary and non-literary texts

• Feature articles, current affairs and news reports, formal letters, editorials, radio programs, film documentaries, reviews, biographies, advertisements, letters to the editor, expositions, formal meetings and debates, and extended presentations are types of non-literary texts.

Feelings and fears

Different fears - page 38

Similarities & differences in our fears (worksheet) - page 40

Ranking fears - page 39

My fear (worksheet) - page 41

Speaking and listening

• Statements, questions (including rhetorical questions) and commands can be used to identify the main issues of a topic and sustain a point of view.

Grief in a zoo community: funerals and grief rituals

Exploring grief - page 42

Newspaper article (handout) - page 44

Funerals - page 43

Newspaper article (handout) - page 45

Research - page 43

Speaking and listening

• The purpose of speaking and listening includes examining issues, evaluating opinions, convincing others, and managing relationships and transactions.
• Speakers make assumptions about listeners to position and promote a point of view, and to plan and present subject matter.
• Statements, questions (including rhetorical questions) and commands can be used to identify the main issues of a topic and sustain a point of view.

Reading and viewing

• Reading fluency is supported through monitoring vocabulary and its meaning across different contexts.
• An author’s point of view about their cultural knowledge of, and their relationships with Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples can be reflected in texts.
• Feature articles, current affairs and news reports, formal letters, editorials, radio programs, film documentaries, reviews, biographies, advertisements, letters to the editor, expositions, formal meetings and debates, and extended presentations are types of non-literary texts.

Loss: a universal experience

Change and loss - page 46

Feelings - page 47

Categories of loss (handout) - page 48

Holmes-Rahe survey of loss (worksheet) - page 49

Speaking and listening

• The purpose of speaking and listening includes examining issues, evaluating opinions, convincing others, and managing relationships and transactions.
• Statements, questions (including rhetorical questions) and commands can be used to identify the main issues of a topic and sustain a point of view.

Reading and viewing

• Reading fluency is supported through monitoring vocabulary and its meaning across different contexts.

Grief is normal

Change and stress - page 50

’Normal’ grief reactions (handout) - page 52

Speaking and listening

• Statements, questions (including rhetorical questions) and commands can be used to identify the main issues of a topic and sustain a point of view.

Reading and viewing

• Reading fluency is supported through monitoring vocabulary and its meaning across different contexts.

Understanding loss in response to death

Different deaths - pages 53-54

Determinants of grief - page 54

Determinants of grief (student handout) - page 55

Determinants of grief (teacher information) - page 56

Speaking and listening

• Statements, questions (including rhetorical questions) and commands can be used to identify the main issues of a topic and sustain a point of view.

Reading and viewing

• Readers and viewers draw on their prior knowledge, knowledge of language elements, points of view, beliefs and cultural understandings when engaging with a text.
• Reading fluency is supported through monitoring vocabulary and its meaning across different contexts.

Supporting grieving friends and relatives
(2 lessons)

Grief reactions - page 57

Masculine and feminine grieving patterns - pages 58-59

Unhelpful strategies (handout) - page 60

Guidelines for being a supportive person (handout) - page 61

Speaking and listening

• The purpose of speaking and listening includes examining issues, evaluating opinions, convincing others, and managing relationships and transactions.
• Statements, questions (including rhetorical questions) and commands can be used to identify the main issues of a topic and sustain a point of view.

Reading and viewing

• Reading fluency is supported through monitoring vocabulary and its meaning across different contexts.