Stage 1 Human Society and Its Environment.
Unit: Families Past and Present
Foundation Statement
Students recount important family and community traditions and practices. They sequence events in the past and changes in their lives, in their communities and in other communities. Students explore the composition of a number of groups, including Aboriginal peoples, in their community and recognise that groups have specific identifying features, customs, practices, symbols, religion, language and traditions. They acquire information about their local community by direct and indirect experience and communicate with others using various forms of electronic media. Students make comparisons between natural, heritage and built features of the local area and examine the human interaction with these features. They investigate the relationship between people and environments including the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the land. Students use the language of location in relative terms and construct and use pictorial maps and models of familiar areas. Students identify roles, responsibilities and rules within the family, school and community and explore their interaction. They describe how people and technologies link to produce goods and services to satisfy needs and wants. Overview: This unit provides opportunities for students to explore, through stories told, the reasons why certain people, events and days are important to themselves and their families. The unit focuses on continuity and change in different families, looking at the value of what is retained and why changes are made. Quality Teaching Elements: During term 1 the focus for quality teaching will be Intellectual Quality and Significance. Particularly, IQ Substantive Communication and Significance Knowledge Integration Values and attitudes -Social justice -Democratic process -Beliefs and moral codes -Ecological sustainability -Intercultural understanding -Lifelong learning
Outcomes and Indicators
CCS1.1 Communicates the significance of past and present people, days and events in their life, in the lives of family and community members and in other communities. Identifies and talks about the lives of people in their family and community. Identifies the origins of significant days and events celebrated by their family and community. Retells the original stories associated with traditions of their family and community. Explains why a personal, family or CCS1.2 Identifies changes and continuities in their own life and in the local community. Communicates the value of the contribution of past generations to community life. Describes and sequences stages and events in their life and in the lives of family members, and reflects on the significance of these stages and events. CUS1.3 Identifies customs, practices, symbols, languages and traditions of
community event is significant.
Resources:
The Boards website (http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au) lists current available resources such as some selected background information sheets, websites, texts and other material to support this unit. Classroom visits by people of an older generation from either students families or within the community. Tape recorder, microphone, tapes, video, digital camera (to collect oral histories). A visit to a local museum. Artefacts from the past that have been kept in students families. A safe place for artefacts to be displayed, eg a cabinet. Photos of students families.
their family and of other families. Gives information about their own family background, including languages spoken at home, religions, traditions, practices, customs, celebrations and stories Explains ways in which family members learn from each other about customs and traditions, eg recounts, songs, dances Identifies characteristics that make another family different from or similar to their own. Links to other KLAs:
English: The structure and grammatical features of the text types students create and interpret (see above). Creative and Practical Arts: Role-playing events in the lives of people, both past and present. Representing the stories people tell through music, dance, drama and visual arts.
Learning Experiences
Week 6
Learning Sequence 1: Oral Histories What Is an Oral History? Have students brainstorm what they know about history. List their responses. Point out that we all have our own family history. Recount a family event that you remember from your past. Discuss types of events they might have experienced. Jointly constructing a recount of a past class/school event. Emphasise the importance of chronological sequencing in recounts. Record students oral presentations of their recounts. Explain to students that they are giving oral recounts of past events. Point out that this is called oral history in historical research, and that it is a useful way of gaining information about the past. An oral history is a recount rather than an interview. The person giving the oral history generally gives the information that they wish to share. It is important for students to understand that the person giving information about an event may have a distinctive interpretation of what happened. Have students construct their own recount of a family event for example- holiday, birthday etc. Read texts about different family memories. Discuss as a class how different their memories are,
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even though it was the same event.
Week 7
Learning Sequence 2: Using Oral Histories What Do Oral Histories Tell Us About the Past? Compare and discuss similarities and differences between past and present times. Were there any common events/experiences? Get children to bring in photos of their family when they were young. Have students ask their family questions- what were the differences when their parents and grandparents were young. Parents did not have allot of objects that we use today for example- they used ice crests for fridges, there were no washing machines and children used slates instead of paper etc. Using the categories, jointly construct a retrieval chart to record aspects of past and present life. Discuss objects from the past. Label or draw objects that we use today and what we might be using in the future. (Referring to the chart, ask students to write about how lifestyles have changed. Ask them to consider how lifestyles may change in the future.)
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Weeks 8
Learning Sequence 3: Artefacts How Do Artifacts Provide Information? Explain that an artefact is any object made by humans for their use. Discuss that arefacts are old objects usually found in a museum and why they are kept. Ask students to bring in artefacts that people in their family have kept from past times (not knives, weapons or dangerous goods). Discuss the value of these items and the care that must be taken in displaying them at school. Discuss tools aborigines used and the tools they might use today.
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Discuss the things from our time that may be artifacts in the future.
Weeks 9 - 10
Learning Sequence 4: Valued Stories What Date Stories Are Told in Families? Discuss any folk stories or traditional tales that are told in students families. Read some aboriginal stories How the Emu Lost its Tail etc. List some of the stories. Are some stories unique to particular families in the community (include both written and spoken texts)? Ask students about the purpose of the stories and the intended audience. Some stories have been passed down from generation to generation. Ask students why these stories are still told, for example- they entertain, because they teach a lesson. Explore examples of traditional stories that have been told/retold in different ways by different cultural groups/individuals. Use a retrieval chart to categorise these stories. Record the purpose of each story, eg to entertain, to teach us how to behave, to share cultural/spiritual knowledge. Have students compare characters, settings and events in the stories. Have students reflect on oral histories, recounts and narratives that they have heard over the course of the unit. Develop class generalisations about similarities and differences in the texts. Catch up week or revision
Evaluation
Week 11
Assessment: My Family Story (Children discuss/give an example to their class about family event that occurred before they were born this is part of their homework). Children present an oral presentation on how lifestyles have changed for their parents and grandparents. A recount Evaluation
