Our Community Planning a unit of work integrating

Our Community • • Planning a unit of work integrating: History Geography English Intercultural Capability

Objectives By the end of today’s session you will: • have an insight into how to plan a unit of work based on the Victorian Curriculum. • understand the relationship between content descriptions, achievement standards and learning activities and assessment.

Overview Our Community A five week unit integrating: • • History Geography English Intercultural Capability How did we get there?

The Beginning • Becoming deeply familiar with the curriculum • Reading across the content descriptions of different learning areas to find links Key question: Where are the natural synergies across different learning areas?

Explicit teaching – broad decisions Learning area Broad selected focus Overall learning intention History Continuity and change in the local community Significant places, people and events Using primary sources Students will investigate significant places, activities and events in the local community. Geography English They will build skills in evidence Features and activities of the local collection and interpretation, including through primary place Importance of places and how they source analysis and fieldwork. change They will build skills in Collecting and interpreting data interacting with others. and information Texts in context Expressing and developing ideas Interacting with others

Writing in the detail • Identifying the most prescriptive and most flexible learning areas • Tag teaming according to agreed process • Drafting initial structure and learning activities based on History • Adding Geography to History learning activities and providing additional activities • Refining learning activities to reflect identified English content descriptions • Further refinement to include Intercultural Capabilities • Formative and summative assessment designed iteratively

Mapping the curriculum • Identifying the content descriptions which will be covered specifically in the unit of work • Identifying aspects of the achievement standards that students will demonstrate in completing the unit of work • Identifying aspects of the achievement standards that students may demonstrate if they are working beyond the level

Designing teaching and learning Use content descriptions and related achievement standards to craft teaching and learning to suit, for example History: Content Description Achievement standard Teaching and learning activities Identify examples of continuity and change …in the local area by comparing past and present describe … a person, a site, or an event of significance in the local community. As a class, look at photographs of a place in the local community, one taken from the past and one taken recently. Identify the content features of primary sources Use sources to describe the significance of places and events. Suggest possible eras or dates when these photographs may have been taken. Consider how they might find out how old places are. In groups and using a template of a page with two columns labelled ‘Past’ and ‘Present’ students describe what has changed over time and what has remained the same.

Refining learning activities Example one: adding in Geography Original activity Second draft – adding Geography As a class, look at photographs of a place in the local community, one taken from the past and one taken recently. For each photograph: Work with students to identify and classify some natural features, for example, rivers or native vegetation; constructed features such as buildings or roads; and managed features such as parks or community gardens. In pairs, students find any further examples of these kinds of features (this could be recorded in a table). Ask students to suggest what activities were/are at that place, and to support their suggestions with evidence from the photograph.

Refining learning activities Example two: adding in English Original activity Second draft – adding English Use the photographs as a discussion starter to consider: Use the photographs as a discussion starter and encourage students make links to their own experience of one or more of these days. • • what the celebration looks like what the celebration sounds like how it might feel to be there why we celebrate particular days Students could use a graphic organiser, such as a Y chart or mind map to consider: • what the celebration looks like • what the celebration sounds like • how it might feel to be there • why we celebrate particular days

Refining learning activities Example three: adding in Intercultural Capability Second draft Third draft – adding Intercultural Capability Use the photographs as a discussion starter and encourage students make links to their own experience of one or more of these days, explicitly drawing attention to similarities and differences in student experience and what it might be like to experience different ways of celebrating. Students could use a graphic organiser, such as a Y chart or mind map to consider: • what the celebration looks like • what the celebration sounds like • how it might feel to be there • why we celebrate particular days Students could use a graphic organiser, such as a Y chart or mind map to consider…. (etc)

Assessment Learning Intention: Summative Assessment 1 Example achievement standard links F-2: Students will investigate significant places, activities and events in the local community. Students choose a particular celebration about which to complete a poster or book e. Book page. Their page could include illustrations, words and sentences which describe a particular celebration or commemoration and explain reflections based on discussions from Activities 1 and 2. History: describe … an event of significance in the local community. They will build skills in evidence collection and interpretation, including through primary source analysis and fieldwork. On completion, teachers could They will build skills in provide students with interacting with others. opportunities to share their work with the class or a particular group. English (Writing): … provide details about … events. . (Speaking and listening): interact in pair, group and class discussions, taking turns when responding. Intercultural capability: Students explain how they might respond in different cultural situations.

Differentiated learning Where needed and appropriate: • Using the achievement standards as a continuum to design tasks that allow students to demonstrate understanding towards, at, and beyond the level • peer mentoring • templates for some tasks

Summary In a small professional team you will decide on: • a relevant topic for your school context • which learning areas are most relevant to the topic • which aspects of the Achievement Standards could be addressed • which Content Descriptions are most suitable • assessments needed to address aspects of the standards for each learning area

Contact details Monica Bini (Geography) at bini. monica. m@edumail. vic. gov. au Pat Hincks (History) at hincks. patricia. m@edumail. vic. gov. au Jacqueline Moore (English) at moore. jacqueline. j@edumail. vic. gov. au