Blog Post 3

Year 3 

History

Photo sourced from pexels.com

What we are learning

Through this unit of work, your child will be learning about Australian history and building their literacy competency. Your child will be learning about “how the community has changed and remained the same over…(ACHASSK063)” (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2018a). We will also be building inquiry skills through “examining information to identify different points of view and distinguish facts from opinions (ACHASSI056)” (ACARA, 2018a). We will also be addressing literacy in this unit through using “expressive language and…composing different types of texts for a range of purposes…” (ACARA, 2018b)

Why we are learning this

This is an opportunity to create an integrated curriculum by combining history and literacy content. These subject areas are valuable for your child in their education and their future. MCEETYA (2008) highlights the importance of your child learning about history to develop their status as active and informed citizens. Literacy is an important content area as it is a lifelong skill that effects all aspects of life such as communicating with people as well as affecting employment potential. In 2006, almost half of Australians aged 15-74 were below the recommended base level of literacy required for everyday living (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2013). At the same time, a third of Australians were sitting at this required level (ABS, 2013). Considering this, literacy is a priority in our classroom and so will be endeavoured to be integrated effectively into units such as this one.

How we are learning

Photo sourced from the My Place website

This unit will be driven by the ‘My Place’ website found at http://www.abc.net.au/abc3/myplace/. We will be investigating different points in history and life for children at these times. Each lesson in this sequence will begin with exploring a year on the website, looking at the different materials provided and discussing what life was like. The materials mainly consist of visual, written and audio pieces. These variations will help your child to connect with different forms of media within their literacy learning. We will then have some writing time for each child to create their own journal entry. They will imagine how they would be living at that time in history and create a story for their life. These entries will be handwritten in a journal separate to all other work so that it can piece together the different decades in Australian history until the present.

Your role

To assist learning in this unit, I ask that you make an effort to talk about history with your child. Particularly, it would be great if you could bring your child to visit grandparents and other elderly members of your community. During these visits, please encourage conversation and stories about their past and what life was like when they were young. As you will be a part of the conversation, please drive it to include different points in history and comparisons to then and now. 

References (Minimum of 2 references in APA format – not included in Word count)

References (Minimum of 2 references in APA format – not included in Word count)

ABC. (2019). My Place. Retrieved from the ABC website: http://www.abc.net.au/abc3/myplace/

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2013). Adult literacy and life skills survey, summary results, Australia, 2006 (reissue). Retrieved from the Australian Bureau of Statistics website: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/4228.0Main%20Features22006%20(Reissue)

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2018a). HASS. Retrieved from the Australian curriculum website: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2018b). Literacy. Retrieved from the Australian curriculum website: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/literacy/

MCEETYA. (2008). Melbourne declaration on educational goals for young Australians. Retrieved from http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf