Education for sustainability linking to both Geography and Civics and Citizenship

Hi everyone,

Welcome back to 4b after a well-deserved Easter break! This term in the Humanities and Social Sciences curriculum we will be focusing on Geography, while still making links to Civics and Citizenship. Through this, we will be digging deeper into sustainability. By linking Geography and sustainability, we will examine what we can do as citizens to help the environment. Your child will be learning about this so they can contribute to sustainable patterns of living. Taking care of the environment is important in maintaining life and taking care of the world we live in to create a better future.

To begin this unit, we will look at sustainability and what it means. We will then look at certain types of resources and how they can be reused. In this time, students will get to experiment and create sustainable products. After this, we will focus on waste (e.g. discussions about where our waste ends up, how it effects people, how the government contributes to waste management, and waste management strategies).

I will implement authentic learning tasks to make this topic meaningful for your children. For example, I will take them for a walk around the school and local community. Students will be given gloves and bag and will need to pick up rubbish they see. When we get back to the classroom, we will empty the rubbish and sort it out, while discussing the different types of waste. This will lead into a discussion about what we could do to help our school and local community be more sustainable and take care of the environment.

I also want your children to engage in inquiry-basedlearning. I will provide them with the task to fix the problem of waste in our school, which will encourage them to use their critical and creative thinking skills. In small groups, they will need to research waste management and sustainability, and create a waste campaign. Each group will present their campaign to the class and will vote on one to try and implement at school. I will provide students with some guided questions to ensure we have covered all components (compost, paper, plastics, etc.). As a class, students will present the waste management campaign to the school. 

Your children will also work on getting the community involved and getting local waste management bins. They will need to work together to investigate how to get these approved and write letters to the appropriate people, such as the local council. They will also need to create a poster to put in the school newsletter. As a class we will brainstorm other ways we can get people involved in managing their waste.

I will give students the task of creating a waste management system at home. To do this, I will need your help. Please support your child at home and help them create a functioning system that they can stick to. You can also support your child by packing them a waste-free lunch box where possible.  

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016). The Australian Curriculum: Foundation to Year 10 Curriculum: Cross Curriculum Priorities: Sustainability. ­Sydney, NSW. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum- priorities/sustainability/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016). The Australian Curriculum: Foundation to Year 10 Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences: Year 6. (Version 8.3). Sydney, NSW. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016). General Capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking. Sydney, NSW. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/critical-and-creative-thinking/

Clean Link. (2019). Schools Respond To Student Demand For Green, Sustainability. Retrieved from https://www.cleanlink.com/news/article/Schools-Respond-To-Student-Demand-For-Green-Sustainability--23543

Curtin University (2015). Authentic Learning. Retrieved from https://clt.curtin.edu.au/teaching_learning_practice/student_centred/authentic.cfm

Cyber Smart. (2019). Authentic Learning and Creativity. Retrieved from http://cybersmart.org/workshops/smart/learningcreativity/

EnvironmentalScience.org. (2019). What Is Sustainability and Why Is It Important? Retrieved from https://www.environmentalscience.org/sustainability

Lutheran Education Queensland. (n.d). Approached to Learning: INQUIRY BASED LEARNING. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/media/1360/lutheran-education-queensland-inquiry-based-learning.pdf

Majorie Milner College. (2019). Hairdressing Sustainability. Retrieved from https://www.marjoriemilner.edu.au/hairdressing-sustainability/

Super Healthy Kids. (2018). 10 Tips for Sending Waste Free Lunches that won’t lose you money! Retrieved from https://www.superhealthykids.com/top-10-waste-free-lunch-tips/

Citizenship learning in the context of an aspect of Australian history

Hi everyone,

Welcome back to our class, 4b. I hope you all enjoyed having your children home for a couple of weeks. Once again, I am updating you on our class topic so that you can be involved in the learning process. Our next focus in Humanities and Social Sciences will be History. Primarily, we will be looking at contact between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and the Europeans.

I understand this topic can be difficult for some people to discuss due to its sensitive nature, and one that I am sure you all may have an opinion about. My goal is to encourage your child to think critically and to form their own opinions, so they can become active and informed citizens. Please support your child in their learning experience and allow them to develop their own ideas.

While engaging in the content, I aim to encourage your children to gain a sense of empathy. An example of how I will do this will involve splitting the class into 2 groups and giving them both a scenario. The first group will have a scenario from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples perspective, and the second group will have a scenario from the European perspective. In their groups, students will discuss and write down how their scenario made them feel.  

I will also extend this activity to encourage your children to use critical thinking skills. In their groups, students will need to create a debate for their scenario, even if they do not agree with it. This might be a difficult task, as they will need to put feelings aside to think critically and logically. After having the class debate, we will have a class discussion about the scenarios. 

We will begin to delve deeper into the concept of terra nullius, and I will show students the following video:

After watching the video, we will have a class discussion. We will spend the next few lessons looking at Eddie Mabo and the case. This will involve looking at land rights and native title. We will also have a look at James Cook’s secret instructions.

Students will also be engaging in inquiry-based learning throughout this unit. The reason I want them doing this is because I do not want to simply pass information on to your children. I want them to do research, think critically, and develop their own opinions. For example, the class will be put in small groups where they will choose a topic to research in greater detail (terra nullius, native title, land rights, the black war, dispossession, disease, etc.). They will need to research this topic, form their own opinions through their research, and create a presentation to share to the rest of the class.

My goal for this year has been to create a culturally sensitive classroom. I am hoping this unit will reinforce this idea, and your children will develop respect for Indigenous culture and contribute to the process of reconciliation. 

Curriculum links:

References:

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016). Civics and Citizenship. Retrieved from https://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/learning-areas-subjects/humanities-and-social-sciences/civics

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016). General Capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking. Sydney, NSW. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/critical-and-creative-thinking/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016). The Australian Curriculum: Foundation to Year 10 Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences: Year 6. (Version 8.3). Sydney, NSW. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/

Behind the News. (10 June 2014). Indigenous Australian Land Rights & Mabo Day – Behind the News. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiQ8YHDfySA

Cultural Synergies. (2016). Strategies For Overcoming Bias – Perspective Taking. Retrieved from https://culturalsynergies.com/strategies-for-overcoming-bias-perspective-taking/

Lutheran Education Queensland. (n.d.). Approaches to Learning: INQUIRY BASED LEARNING. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/media/1360/lutheran-education-queensland-inquiry-based-learning.pdf

Melbourne Child Psychology & School Psychology Services. (n.d.). Why We Need Empathy, and How We Teach it to Children. Retrieved from https://www.melbournechildpsychology.com.au/blog/why-we-need-empathy-and-how-we-teach-it-to-children/ 

Migration Heritage Centre. (2010). Objects through time. 1768 ­James Cook’s Secret Instructions. Retrieved from http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/objectsthroughtime/secret/index.html

My English Teacher. (2017). Empathy Definition. Retrieved from https://www.myenglishteacher.eu/blog/empathy-definition/

National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. (n.d.). Mabo. The Native Title Revolution. Retrieved from http://www.mabonativetitle.com/find.shtml

Learning about democracy

Hi everyone,

I would like to welcome you all to our class for this year, 6B. I think it is important to keep you updated on our class topics, so that you can be involved and engaged in the learning process. This is important so that students can share their ideas and opinions with you at home. You can support your child by engaging in conversations and reinforcing what they have been learning, and also by collaborating with me on their learning experiences and progress. Your involvement will contribute to your child's success (Gerzel-Short, 2018). 

The first topic we will focus on in the Humanities and Social Sciences curriculum will be Civics and Citizenship, learning about democracy. This will include the powers and roles that people play in society. It is important for your child to learn about this because they will have a role to play in democracy as members of society (whether it be as simple as voting or a larger role such as a political leader).

Throughout this unit, I will provide students with authentic learning tasks. For example, we will discuss the different powers and roles within our school (school representative council, students, teachers, principal, groundsman, etc.). Authentic learning tasks are important as they allow students to relate the topic to their personal lives which keeps them motivated (Clarke & Pittaway, 2014).

We will then look at this in a broader context and the class will do some research on the different roles people play in society and in the government. This will include creating a local community project (e.g. a car park or playground) and researching how to get this approved (which levels of power/ government to go to). This will allow students to engage in inquiry-based learning. Inquiry-based learning allows students to take responsibility of their own learning (Livingstone, 2004). 

Students will be encouraged to employ critical thinking skills by engaging in class debates and voting systems. Critical thinking skills are important as they allow students to "recognise or develop an argument, use evidence in support of that argument, draw reasoned conclusions, and use information to solve problems" (ACARA, 2019). I will start by focusing on topics that are less controversial. For example, we will have a class debate about liking/ disliking apples and vote on whether we should have apples at school. This will lead into discussions about what it means to vote, the responsibility of voting, and whether it is fair. I will ask questions such as: "do you think because you don't like apples, it is fair to stop others from eating them?". I will gradually link this to more controversial issues (e.g. changing Australia Day date) and discuss the importance of opinions and values in the voting process. Introducing controversial issues to students allows them to develop communication skills, high-level thinking, problem solving, questioning and a global view point (Copur & Demirel, 2016).  

I look forward to getting to know you all and working with your children this year.

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016). The Australian Curriculum: Foundation to Year 10 Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences: Year 6. (Version 8.3). Sydney, NSW. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2019). General Capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking. Sydney, NSW. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/critical-and-creative-thinking/

Copur, A., & Demirel, M. (2016). Turkish Social Studies Teachers' Thought about the Teaching of Controversial Issues. Journal of Social Science Education, 15(2), 80-95. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=erin&AN=EJ1118118&site=ehost-live

Dsouza, J. (2016). Inquiry Based Learning. Retrieved from https://medium.com/innovative-learning/based-learning-9-ibl-inquiry-based-learning-89770af4babc

Gerzel-Short, L. Igerzelshort2@niu. Ed. (2018). “We Conquered This Together”: Tier 2 Collaboration With Families. School Community Journal, 28(2), 85-112. Retrieved from https://login.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=134813992&site=eds-live

Livingstone, K. (Ed.). (2004). The intersection of inquiry, values and civics and citizenship education within SOSE. Curriculum Matters, 3(1). Retrieved from https://login.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsaed&AN=rmitplus133846&site=eds-live

Marsh, C., Clarke, M., & Pittaway, S. (2014). Marsh’s becoming a teacher (6th ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson.

Smith, D. (2018). Make It Meaningful To Me: Authentic Learning For Students. Retrieved from https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/make-it-meaningful-to-me-authentic-learning-for-students/

Social Circle City Schools. (2019). Parent Engagement. Retrieved from http://www.socialcircleschools.com/3/Content2/20272

The Balance. (2019). Top Five Critical Thinking Skills. Retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/critical-thinking-definition-with-examples-2063745