Thursday, 29 March 2018

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/

1 comment:

  1. Phoebe, you have made a great start your second post. I think that the way you set it out is visually pleasing. It was good that you broke up the paragraphs with small fact like information for parents to click to find out more. This makes your blog interactive and engaging. The image of the sailor also allows parents to recognise the era being taught without reading too much either, this is an other good point. It would be helpful from a parents point of view to be more specific in how they are to support their child's learning. In addition, make sure you use easy to understand vocabulary and further explain unfamiliar concepts. Make sure that your final submission of your posts contain four references per post as required. Be careful with your sentence structures, make sure they vary. To create ease and fluency of reading. For example, your first sentence is very long, it would be beneficial to make sentences more concise or one long, one short, two long and one short, having variation in sentence lengths will help engage the reader and keep their interest.

    You have included relevant learning content that complies with the Australian Curriculum and have demonstrated how students will achieve their year level standard. Good work Phoebe.

    Kind Regards
    Maddy

    ReplyDelete

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