Education for sustainability linking to both Geography and Civics and Citizenship

Dear year 4 parents/carers,

I am writing to share with you about what we will learn in Humanities and Social Science in this term. We will focus on sustainability, which is one of the cross-curriculum priorities in Australian Curriculum. Education for sustainability could lead the young Australians to develop an overall capability to contribute to a more sustainable future for present and future generations (Hopper, Cutter-Mackenzie & Gilbert, 2017). In order to facilitate the students to develop their knowledge about sustainability and become active and informed citizens, I have designed a unit of work “managing waste” which could achieve the learning outcomes in both geography and civics and citizenship (Figure1).

  
Figure 1 (ACARA, 2015). 

 Firstly, I will show the students the following picture. 



Figure 2 (Xing, 2016)

And these questions will be asked:

· What is shown in the picture?

· What will happen to the ocean creatures in the picture?

· What caused the phenomenon?

· What can we, as citizens, do to deal with this problem?

The students will think about these questions by themselves, and then they will discuss their thoughts in small groups, finally they will share what they come up with as a whole class. This collaborative learning strategy, Think-Pair-Share, is often used by teachers to let the students work together to solve problems (AdLit.org, 2019). Meanwhile, questioning is a central tool that the teachers use to stimulate students’ higher-order thinking skills and engage the students with their learning (Marsh, Clarke & Pittaway, 2014).

Next, I will put the activity ‘Waste NoT Awards’ on board. This is an activity held by the Northern Tasmanian Waste Management Groups to recognise and reward people’s efforts for re-thinking their waste and improving their waste management practices (City of Launceston, 2019). The students will do their projects in groups and apply the award on 1 July 2019. Their final products will be regarded as a summative assessment task for this unit of work.


Figure 3 (City of Launceston, 2019)

After illustrating the goal, the students will investigate and explore the knowledge and skills they need. I will ask the students to bring different waste from home and apply their ICT skills to search from internet to get a better understanding about the waste categories. I hope you can help your child to prepare the waste. In addition, I will introduce a website (figure 4) to you and your child to browse in where there are a lot of incredible statistics worth discussing and reflecting.



Figure 4 (Same-Day Rubbish Removal, 2018)

Furthermore, I will play a video (figure 5) to spark the students’ ideas about what they can do to manage waste.



Figure 5 (Jamaya, 2014)

Also, I will invite a local city council officer to the classroom to introduce the students about what role of the government plays on sustainability.

I believe, through this unit of work, the students could get better understanding about the environment and how to enhance sustainability as active and informed citizens, and improve their general capabilities including ICT capability, critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability and ethical understanding through investigating problems and creating projects.

Word count: 494



References

AdLit.org. (2019). Classroom Strategies: Think-Pair-Share. Retrieved from http://www.adlit.org/strategies/23277/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority ([ACARA], 2015). Australian Curriculum. Retrieved form https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/

City of Launceston. (2019). Sustainability. Retrieved from https://www.launceston.tas.gov.au/Natural-Environment-and-Waste/Sustainability#section-6

Hopper, B., Cutter-Mackenzie, A., & Gilbert, R. (2017). Sustainability. In Gilbert & Hoepper (Ed.), Teaching Humanities and Social Sciences: History, Geography, Economics and Citizenship (6th ed.)(pp. 428-457). Southbank, VIC: Cengage Learning.

Jamaya, B. (2014). Kitchen water recycling for garden [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L80NYz2OZ4c

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

Same-Day Rubbish Removal. (2018). How bad is Australia’s waste problem? Statistics from ABC’s war on waste. Retrieved from https://www.samedayrubbishremoval.com.au/War-On-Waste-Statistics.php

Xing, R. (2016). Plastic world, plastic nightmare. Retrieved from http://blog.nus.edu.sg/plasticworld/2016/08/23/impacts-of-plastic-pollution-on-marine-environment-in-progress/

Citizenship learning in the context of an aspect of Australian history

Dear Year 6 parents/carers, 

I am writing to share with you about what we will learn in the Humanities and Social Sciences learning area in this term. We will learn Civics and Citizenship in the context of an aspect of Australian history. Our historical topic is the ‘Stolen Generations’, which refers to many Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families as a result of the policy of Assimilation between 1910 and 1970 (Australians Together, n.d.). The intended learning outcomes are shown below (figure 1).

Figure 1 (ACARA, 2015)

Firstly, I would pose some questions to students to think, answer and share because research reveals that using inquiry-based learning method could actively engage the students in the learning, and promote students’ achievement by enabling them to plan their own investigations, gather and interpret data and cultivate their higher order thinking skills (Bhagat, 2017). The questions include:

· What if you are forced to leave your parents and live with a stranger who speaks different language and has different lifestyle from you?

· What kind of feeling will you have?

· How do you think of this kind of action?

After sharing what they think about this issue, I will elicit our focus topic ‘the Stolen Generations’ and also pose a series of questions, such as:

· When and why did it happen?

· What are the consequences?

· What happened and who made effort and decision to cease it?

· What did the Australian government do to remedy the Aboriginal people who suffered a lot from this tragedy?

· What did you learn from this period of history? 

Figure 2 (Diss, 2017)



Figure 3 (Immigration Museum, 2008)

Then the class will be divided into small groups with allocated questions that they need to research. They have up to 45 minutes to use resources from internet and library to investigate their questions and share what they have come up with in front of the whole class.

Through this activity, the students will develop the skills of collaborating with other people to solve problems and analysing the data and then be able to pick the reliable ones. In addition, history learning and historical thinking could foster the students’ sense of understanding, appreciation of their own and others’ identities and civic responsibility and most importantly, it could promote the students’ sense of empathy, which is a powerful emotion that could help children recognise, understand and appreciate diversity and empathy is also a prerequisite for achieving reconciliation across society in many countries (Brett, 2018). Therefore, the activity could assist the children to become active, informed and better citizen.

As parents/carers, I hope that you can share what you know about this period of history with your child and provide emotional support for your child because, as we know, this topic is difficult and confronting. Meanwhile, if you have any concerns about this topic or want to share your child’s special needs, feel free to contact with me.

Word count: 472

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority ([ACARA], 2015). Australian Curriculum. Retrieved form https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/

Australians Together (n.d.). The Stolen Generations: The forcible removal of Indigenous children from their families. Retrieved form https://australianstogether.org.au/discover/australian-history/stolen-generations

Bhagat, A. (2017). Inquiry-based learning: assessing students’ science inquiry skills. Retrieved form https://www.acer.org/files/ABHA-Article.pdf

Brett, P. (2018). Retrieving the civic dimension in history: creating meaningful and memorable links between history and civics and citizenship in primary classrooms. The Social Educator, 36 (No.2), 15-29. Retrieved from https://mylo.utas.edu.au/content/enforced/296741-AW_EAS_19S1_19935_0_0_0_1_1/Retrieving%20the%20Civic%20Dimension%20in%20History%20-%20The%20Social%20Educator%20article%20December%202018.pdf?_&d2lSessionVal=EpuFqPZTYRvZ7LdEUCf2wrRpZ&ou=296741

Diss, K. (2017). Stolen Generation picture collection in WA looking for new home [online image]. Retrieved Jun 15, 2017 from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-15/stolen-generation-funding/8618366

Immigration Museum. (2008). Kevin Rudd's 2008 Apology to the Stolen Generations. Retrieved from https://museumsvictoria.com.au/website/immigrationmuseum/discoverycentre/identity/people-like-them/the-white-picket-fence/kevin-rudds-2008-apology-to-the-stolen-generations/index.html

Civics and citizenship – Learning about democracy

Dear Year 3 parents/carers,
I hope you and your child spent a wonderful holiday and I am writing to share with you about what we will learn in this term in Humanities and Social Sciences learning area. This term’s topic is Civics and Citizenship and our focus will be democracy. In order to achieve the learning outcomes demonstrated on the Australian Curriculum (figure 1), I have designed a series of activities.



Figure 1 (ACARA, 2015)

Firstly, we will hold a classroom meeting to elect a leadership group of three for our class. Undoubtedly, every student has the right to be elected, so I will ask every student to prepare their election speech. That will be nice if you can help your child to prepare the speech. After everyone has their say, all of the students will vote three persons which they think could be a good leader. Then the leadership group will be formed openly and fairly according to the votes. By doing so, the students could understand how important their opinions are and what they say can make a difference. The Enrolment Statistics show that 632,953 people are missing from the electoral roll at 31 December 2018 (Australian Electoral Commission, 2019). What an incredible number! I hope our children could take their right and responsibility to vote in the future after learning through the classroom activity.

Secondly, the leadership group will work with the rest of the class to make classroom rules and consequences under my supervision and assistance. I will communicate with the leadership group in advance about what classroom rules look like, and the leadership group will hold the meeting to discuss the rules and make the consequences if the rules are broken. This process enables the students to understand the importance of making rules and consequences. Also, it provides students freedom and power on classroom issues which could eliminate some of the most significant student behavioural problems (Edwards, 2008).

Moreover, the students will apply internet and technology to investigate how government works and what they can do to contribute to their community. There is a wonderful website (figure 2) that students can use to assist their learning. Especially the ‘Kidsview’ includes a lot of different forms of resources tailored to children which is fun and practical. It will promote the students’ critical and creative thinking through doing the activities.



Figure 2 (Parliamentary Education Office, 2017)

Furthermore, we will visit the local council. This provides the children opportunity to witness how a local government works in real life and how they deal with some social issues. You are more than welcome to come along with your child if you like. After the tour, we will have a classroom debate on some community issue or school problems which could enhance their problem-solving skills and teach them how to express their thoughts clearly and firmly and comment on other people’s opinions in a nice and respectful way. I believe that will be beneficial if you can discuss some community or social issues with your child and share your opinions. Meanwhile, paying attention to the community and school issues could cultivate the children’s sense of responsibility.

Let’s collaborate with each other closely to help our children become good citizen.

Word count: 529



References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority ([ACARA], 2015). Australian Curriculum. Retrieved form https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/

Australian Electoral Commission ([AEC], 2019). Enrolment statistics. Retrieved from https://www.aec.gov.au/Enrolling_to_vote/Enrolment_stats/index.htm

Edwards, C. H. (2008). Classroom discipline and management (5th ed.). Milton, Qld: John Wiley.

Parliamentary Education Office [PEO]. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.peo.gov.au/