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
Hi Sophie,
ReplyDeleteGreat inclusion and involvement of parents right from the start, while also reminding them why it's important to be involved. The image is great for this too. I read on the discussion forum that we don't need to do in-text referencing. I think it was in response to one of Shara's posts. I think Ian said it takes up too much of the word count. Let me know if you find something that says we do have to - and I'll put mine back in.
Putting my parent hat on now - when my children were in primary school, I would have needed HASS expanded out to say Humanities and Social Sciences in the blog, end even then I wouldn't have understood which subjects this includes. I also used to hate it when my children's teachers would give me wording from the Australian Curriculum because it didn't mean anything to me. It felt disconnected from my child. I just wanted the teachers to tell me what my children were doing in class. For these reasons I would suggest the Australian Curriculum images go at the end of your post.
Also, the word pedagogies is not one that parents use...maybe "the way I will teach this..." or "the way we will learn about this..." would be more accessible language for parents.
I love your images through this section.
I think you could choose a more positive way to say "not important". As a parent, I would question why my child would be asked to do something in class that is not important. Would a phrase like "focusing on less controversial topics" be a more descriptive one that could replace "not important"?
Your spacing of paragraphs and images makes this post easy to read. The breaking up of chunks of text with images is a great strategy.
Cheers,
Lea
Hi Lea,
DeleteThank you for your feedback. I think I saw that you do not have to provide in-text references if you add a link to them, otherwise it was my understanding we still had to in-text reference.
Sophie
Hi Sophie,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading through your blog. You had mentioned in your comment on my blog that some more images may be useful to break up the text and I can see from your blog how this has been achieved whilst adding extra meaning to what you are saying.
My only point to make when reading through the blog is some of the language choices. Pedagogies is a word that I believe most parents would not know the meaning of, perhaps a better choice may be "I will teach this through..."? Also if i was a parent, seeing the phrase "focusing on topics that are not important" might seem a little concerning to me. I think the actual sequence of learning you have included is great and makes sense, but again maybe there is a better way to word that phrase.
Overall, it is a really pleasing and informative blog post.
Regards,
Reuben.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Sophie,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! I think you did a very good job. You have articulated what the students will learn, and what pedagogies that you will use and why it is important for the parents/carers to be involved in their child’s learning and how to support their child’s learning. Also, I like the way you embedded the images in your blog, it makes the blog a lot more attractive for audience.
There are some small suggestions here.
1. When you first mention HASS, I think you should use the full name, and add [HASS] after the full name, and then use HASS in the rest of your blog.
2. I think it is better to use the in-text references for the images as well.
3. If you have a look at the AT1 Rubics, the criterion 1 says ‘Demonstrate knowledge of how HASS content, concepts, skills can be integrated with CCPs and GCs for teaching and learning and addresses a sensitive and/or controversial issue’, so I think it might be better to use a couple of sentences to show the audience how you will integrate CCPs and GCs with teaching and learning.
Kind regards
Mary