Hero photograph
 
Photo by Lynley Gibson

Year 9 Humanities

Daniel O'Brien —

Year 9 Humanities 

We began our option studies where students chose to focus on a particular Social Studies unit. These topics are: Maori Land Wars and the European Invasion, Vietnam War: the bloodiest war in history, Independence: the fight for freedom and Conflict through drama, creating a performance.

In the Independence unit we are focusing on Ireland and the various stages of independence struggles from the power of Henry VIII through to the Irish famine, 1916 Easter Rising, the Civil War and on to ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. It has been a whirlwind trek through 800 years of Irish history, but an important part in understanding the cause and effect of key people and moments in the fight for freedom. The Real Assessment Task for this unit will require the students to research an independence fight of their own choosing and produce a brochure to a museum on that topic. While some might choose a tradition style of brochure, we are encouraging the students to broaden their skills and investigate other methods of displaying information such as through a podcast, film or interactive app/website.

We completed our speeches unit and the following snippet of writing by Alex McCorkindale is a fine example of a persuasive piece of writing:

It would be nice to see the forums reporting on real factual news instead of perpetrating the lies spread by so many fake news sites in this era- A quote by the former American politician, Business man and author Gary Johnson. In the society we live in today, we are blinded by lies that over cast the truth.

We don’t question the information that we are feed everyday by channels and sites that we “trust”. For example, how many of you watch the news? How many of you hear something that’s interesting and research for yourself? We are fed this ‘news’ everyday which shapes our perception on different issues, yet these are only 1 or a few opinions, presented by people who want you to think like them.

In my speech today I'll be covering three points that I think need to be discussed. The points I'll be covering are, what is fake news and why do news outlets use it? What are the effects of fake news, with an example affecting the world we live in today, hoping to show you that news companies hold the cards.