Enriching literacy development through linking a fictional story/text to a geographical, historical or citizenship learning context

For our joint English/HASS Unit this term, our year four students will be looking at including themes of sustainability in narrative texts and writing their own texts with themes of sustainability. Using the below outcomes from the Australian Curriculum: HASS Key learning area, in the Knowledge and Understanding strand, Geography sub-strand (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2016b) as guiding points for this unit, we will be looking at what makes an environment and how humans are sustainably and unsustainably using resources found in environments.

Figure 1: Australian Curriculum: HASS - Geography outcomes (ACARA, 2016b)

In line with the outcomes of the English Key Learning Area (KLA) of the Australian Curriculum (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2016a), students will be looking at a number of different aspects of this KLA, to develop skills in planning, drafting and publishing narrative, as well as using Information and Communication Technology to create their final works.  

Figure 2: Australian Curriculum: English outcomes (ACARA, 2016a)

To engage the students in this task, we will be using the Dr Seuss story, The Lorax as our main example of a text relating to sustainability. The Lorax, while written in 1971, is a story told from the perspective of a creature, the Once-ler, that used all of the Truffala trees in existence, because they made the softest Thneeds.

Figure 3: The Lorax (1971)

We will analyse the structure of this narrative text, building upon knowledge developed in previous years of schooling (ACARA, 2016a). Using the knowledge that the students have developed in year 3, specifically their understanding of the different text types structures, students will plan their story using narrative structure as such as that shown below:

Figure 4: Plot Sequencing for narrative writing (Teach Starter, 2017)

The stories that the children plan will show how the overuse of a particular natural resource will cause problems for the habitat that it creates and instead of the habitat no longer existing, students will need to suggest a solution and how it will resolve the problem.

Students will need to produce a plan an entertaining but informative story that is well researched, with relevant pictures for this unit and will therefore be completing some parts of this task at home in the place of homework. To support your children, we ask that you provide them with the technology or supplies required to create their story books, as well as any assistance that they need. This may include a computer or tablet device, art supplies or simply assistance. The aspect that students have struggled with in past years is the choice of a real environment that has resources being overused. It has commonly occurred that students create a fictional environment with little to no relevance to any real-world problems. Students also fail to include a potential solution for their chosen issue and use The Lorax’s ending. Given that there will be a portion of this task being completed at home, assistance may be requested in steering your child in the right direction. It is hoped that upon completion of this task that students will use the knowledge that they develop and take action in their own lives to sustain resources.

Word count: 499

References

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016a). The Australian Curriculum: English (Version 8.3), Year 3-4. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/english/

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016b). The Australian Curriculum: HASS (Version 8.3), Year 4. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/

Seuss, D. (1971). The Lorax. New York: Random House.

Teach Starter. (2017). Narrative Plot Structure Diagram. (2nd ed.). Ashgrove, Queensland. Retrieved from https://www.teachstarter.com/teaching-resource/narrative-plot-structure-diagram-version-2/

Citizenship learning in the context of an aspect of Australian History

Looking at the impact of the arrival of the First Fleet on the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their way of life, our year four students will be learning about this important part of Australian History, and at the same time looking at what the impact of their arrival was and how we, as citizens, can learn from how they were treated. An important aspect of this unit of learning is allowing the students to develop their own opinions about the history of Australia’s European settlement. We will also look at what has been done to repair the relationship between Aboriginal people and European Australians. This line of study will allow students to meet the desired outcomes of the Australian Curriculum in the HASS key learning area (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2016). Building upon the students’ learning of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture from year 3 HASS learning (ACARA, 2016), they will be focusing on the European side of history. We will be undertaking a unit focusing on stories of the First Fleet. Our unit is sourced from Teach Starter (2018), a website that provides a variety of resources, all targeted at the various areas of the Australian Curriculum.

The unit plan covers a number of Australian Curriculum outcomes within the HASS Key Learning Area and allows students to investigate a number of aspects of the British Colonisation of Australia. The lesson targeted and investigating the impact of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians will allow students to develop an understanding of how the colonisation affected the lives of the group of people that they have previously investigated. Students will work in pairs to investigate one impact of the below in detail and present their findings to the whole class.

The different impacts of British Colonisation on Indigenous Australians, Teach Starter (2018)

Students will then look at what the impact of these things has been in more recent history, and what has been done to apologise to the community of Indigenous Australians. The goal of the study of British Colonisation and the impact of it on Indigenous Australians, is for students to develop an opinion on this part of Australian History, and want to take action for reconciliation. One way that this could occur is through the creation of a Reconciliation Action Plan, with the assistance of the resources provided by Narragunnawali (Reconciliation Australia, 2016). This way the students can create a school community working towards reconciliation.

Parents can support their children by ensuring that they provide un-biased support. This topic has two names specifically because students will need to make their own decision about what to call it. Outside bias should not influence how they view a topic. It is important that students develop their own opinions on an issue such as colonisation/invasion. When teaching historical units, ensuring a non-biased approach allows students to look at all perspectives of historical events, and allowing them to form their own opinions on it. 

Word count: 499

References:

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016). The Australian Curriculum: HASS (Version 8.3), Year 3-6, all curriculum elements, all curriculum dimensions. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/

Reconciliation Australia. Reconciliation Action Plan. (2016). Narragunnawali. Retrieved from https://www.narragunnawali.org.au/raps/what-is-a-rap

Teach Starter (2018). The First Fleet and the British Colonisation of Australia Unit Plan Unit Plan. Teach Starter. Retrieved 30 March 2018, from https://www.teachstarter.com/unit-plan/first-fleet-british-colonisation-australia/