Founding the ALP

• Students should research and respond to the following questions:

1. What is a political party?
2. What do political parties aim to do?
3. Who were the original founders of the ALP?
4. How many ALP prime ministers have been elected in Australia?
5. Who is the leader of the ALP today?

• Use the websites below to find information about the ALP:

1. The Australian Labor Party, http://www.alp.org.au/labor-history
2. Labor History, http://www.laborhistory.org.au/home.html

• Students could create an A5 election flyer to elect the first ALP Prime Minister in 1904, JC Watson.

Student Activity Sheet H12.4: What is the ALP?

• As a class discuss the question: Why was the Australian Labor Party (ALP) formed and who were the founders trying to help?

• Hot seat role-play is a strategy where students research and analyse a character from the episode. Through their observations they find out who the person is, their importance to the story and what differentiates them from other characters. Once students understand the character, they can pretend to be them and answer questions from other members of the class while remaining in character.
• Students choose a character from the episode. In small groups, students can develop a storyline for their character, creating a drama in which the character interacts with other characters based on a given scenario.
• Each scenario listed below relates to the hard times experienced by workers in the 1890s.

1. Brickworks employee gets ill and faces his boss about the situation. He gathers others who are ill to support his case.
2. Local publican hosts secret meetings for the unemployed brickworks employees at the back of his pub.
3. Unemployed workers have a meeting to discuss the problems they face. Some of them agree that they should join the ALP and others feel scared.
4. Bosses and company owners talk about not paying out money to ill workers. They are faced with having to deal with locals getting together for secret ALP meetings.

Student Activity Sheet H12.5: Hot seat role-play

• Ask students to reflect on what they found out about the formation of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from viewing the clip. They should respond to the following questions:

1. What historical information was presented?
2. How did the filmmaker present this information to the audience?

• Ask students to reflect on what they saw and heard in the clip, particularly the way the characters interact, and discuss pertinent issues.

• As a class, discuss what point of view (POV) the clip presents regarding the actions of the ALP to support workers' rights.
• Ask students to pretend they are either a worker or an employer in 1898. Have them design and create a half-page flyer that advocates for or against workers' rights. They should use text and images to explain their POV. The episode stills could be useful for this activity.

Student Activity Sheet E12.6: A point of view

• In this clip, Rowley is surprised to learn from his mother that his father could neither read nor write. Ask students to discuss the implications for Rowley's family of his father's illiteracy? What does literacy enable one to do?

• In Australia at this time, universal education was becoming a reality for working-class children. It was a time when there was a call for public education. Ask students to write a letter to the editor of an 1898 newspaper, advocating universal education. In the letter, they should state the reasons why they believe everyone deserves the right to be taught to read and write. They may cite examples of stories from the My Place series to support their argument.

Student Activity Sheet E12.7: Reading and writing

• As a class, discuss what Rowley's mother might have meant when she told him, 'Heroes don't put food on the table.'
• Ask students to think about this and what it may mean for the way the story is being told so far? Have students answer these questions:

1. What constitutes a hero?
2. Was Rowley a hero? Why or why not?
3. Why do some people think that Rowley's father is a hero?
4. Do you think he is a hero? Why or why not?

• Ask students to explain why they think Rowley's mother is so angry with her husband. Have students think about and look for clues in the clip that might explain how she is providing for her family now that her husband has gone.

• Write a dialogue between Rowley's mother and the brickworks' manager, describing the effects of the absence of her husband on her family during the past few years. Have the manager take the point of view that he is not responsible for their problems.
• Students could also research what support would be available for a single parent supporting their family today and compare these support systems with what was available in 1898. Have students think about why these conditions may have changed over the past 100 years.

Student Activity Sheet E12.8: Supporting the family