A unit of work planned to integrate Literacy, History and Art

1. Integrated Unit of Work: Caring for Country – Now and Then Year 4
Achievement Targets (AC):
Receptive modes (listening, reading and viewing)
By the end of Year 4, students understand that texts have different text structures depending on purpose and audience. They explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used to engage the interest of audiences.
They describe literal and implied meaning connecting ideas in different texts. They express preferences for particular texts, and respond to others’ viewpoints. They listen for key points in discussions.
Productive modes (speaking, writing and creating)
Students use language features to create coherence and add detail to their texts. They understand how to express an opinion based on information in a text. They create texts that show understanding of how images and detail can be used to
extend key ideas.
Students create structured texts to explain ideas for different audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, varying language according to context. They demonstrate understanding of
grammar, select vocabulary from a range of resources and use accurate spelling and punctuation, editing their work to improve meaning.
Language Literature Literacy General Capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities
Language variation and change
Understand that Standard Australian English is one of many social
dialects used in Australia, and that while it originated in England it
has been influenced by many other languages(ACELA1487)
Language for interaction
Understand differences between the language of opinion and
feeling and the language of factual reporting or
recording (ACELA1489)
Text structure and organisation
Understand how texts vary in complexity and technicality
depending on the approach to the topic, the purpose and the
intended audience(ACELA1490)
Understand how texts are made cohesive through the use of
linking devices including pronoun reference
and text connectives(ACELA1491)
Expressing and developing ideas
Understand that the meaning of sentences can be enriched
through the use of noun groups/phrases and verb groups/phrases
and prepositional phrases (ACELA1493)
Understand how to use strategies for spelling words, including
spelling rules, knowledge of morphemic word families, spelling
generalisations, and letter combinations including double
letters (ACELA1779)
Literature and context
Make connections between the ways different authors may
represent similar storylines, ideas and relationships (ACELT1602)
Responding to literature
Discuss literary experiences with others, sharing responses and
expressing a point of view(ACELT1603)
Use metalanguage to describe the effects of ideas, text structures
and language features of literary texts (ACELT1604)
Examining literature
Understand, interpret and experiment with a range of devices
and deliberate word play in poetry and other literary texts, for
example nonsense words, spoonerisms, neologisms and
puns (ACELT1606)
Interacting with others
Use interaction skills such as acknowledging another’s point of
view and linking students’ response to the topic, using familiar
and new vocabulary and a range of vocal effects such as tone,
pace, pitch and volume to speak clearly and
coherently (ACELY1688)
Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations incorporating learned
content and taking into account the particular purposes and
audiences(ACELY1689)
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
Read different types of texts by combining contextual , semantic,
grammatical and phonic knowledge using text processing
strategies for example monitoring meaning, cross checking and
reviewing (ACELY1691)
Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred
meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking
ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (ACELY1692)
Creating texts
Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive
texts containing key information and supporting details for a
widening range of audiences, demonstrating increasing control
over text structures and language features(ACELY1694)
Write using clearly-formed joined letters, and develop increased
fluency and automaticity(ACELY1696)
Literacy
Comprehending texts through listening, reading and speaking.
Composing texts through speaking, writing and creating.
Develop text, grammar, word and visual knowledge.
ICT Capability
Investigating with ICT.
Creating with ICT.
Managing and operating with ICT.
Critical and Creative Thinking
Inquiring, identifying, exploring and organising information.
Generating ideas, possibilities and actions.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture
Indigenous ways of managing and caring for country.
Indigenous poetry.
Reading Groups Spelling Groups

2. History Arts
The Year 4 curriculum introduces world history and the movement of peoples. Beginning with the history of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander peoples, students examine European exploration and colonisation in Australia and throughout the world up to the early
1800s. Students examine the impact of exploration on other societies, how these societies interacted with newcomers, and how these
experiences contributed to their cultural diversity.
The content provides opportunities to develop historical understanding through key concepts including sources, continuity and
change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy and significance. These concepts may be investigated within a particular historical
context to facilitate an understanding of the past and to provide a focus for historical inquiries.
Key Inquiry Questions
What was life like for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples before the arrival of the Europeans?
Elaborations
 The diversity of Australia's first peoples and the long and continuous connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to
Country/ Place (land, sea, waterways and skies) and the implications for their daily lives. (ACHHK077)
 Elaborations
 examining early archaeological sites (for example Nauwalabila, Malakunanja, Devil’s Lair, Lake Mungo, Preminghana) that show
the long and continuous connection of Aboriginal Peoples to Country
 mapping the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language groups in Australia, with particular emphasis on the local
area and state/territory
 investigating pre-contact ways of life of the Aboriginal people and/or Torres Strait Islanders; their knowledge of their environment
including land management practices; their sense of the interconnectedness of Country/Place, People, Culture and Identity; and
some of their principles (such as caring for country, caring for each other and respecting all things)
 studying totems in the lives of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples and examining the differences between their
totems
Skills
Chronology, terms and concepts
Sequence historical people and events (ACHHS098)
Use historical terms and concepts (ACHHS099)
Historical questions and research
Identify questions to inform an historical inquiry (ACHHS100)
Identify and locate a range of relevant sources (ACHHS101)
Analysis and use of sources
Locate information related to inquiry questions in a range of sources(ACHHS102)
Compare information from a range of sources (ACHHS103)
Perspectives and interpretations
Identify points of view in the past and present (ACHHS104)
Explanation and communication
Develop texts, particularly narratives and descriptions, which incorporate source materials (ACHHS105)
Use a range of communication forms (oral, graphic, written) and digital technologies (ACHHS106)
Year 3 and 4 Content Descriptions
Examples of knowledge and skills
 Explore ideas and artworks from different cultures and times, including artwork by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
artists, to use as inspiration for their own representations (ACAVAM110)
 Use materials, techniques and processes to explore visual conventions when making artworks (ACAVAM111)
 Present artworks and describe how they have used visual conventions to represent their ideas (ACAVAR113)
 Identify intended purposes and meanings of artworks using visual arts terminology to compare artworks, starting with visual
artworks in Australia including visual artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (ACAVAR113)
Teaching strategies and learning experiences for Poetry
 Read, view and listen to a range of poems and songs in print, electronic and online forms.
 Explicitly identify the deliberate use and purpose of devices and word plays including neologisms, spoonerisms, nonsense words and puns
 Support students to infer meaning of unknown and nonsense words from the context of the poem.
 Identify devices and word plays within poems and other texts
 Discuss their responses to a range of poems.
 Model a poetry presentation with an emphasis on the imaginative, playful and deliberate selection of words and phrases to draw out a response from the audience.
 Give feedback on teacher presentation.
 Jointly construct a written analysis of the poem the teacher presented.

3. Exemplar Texts
Fiction
Blueback – Time Winton
The Lorax – Dr Seuss
Walking the Boundaries – Jackie French
The Dingo that Crossed a Continent – Jackie French
My Place
Dingo’s Tree
One Well – The story of water on Earth
Landslide
From Little Things Big Things Grow
Lyrebird – Jackie Kerin
The Deep – Tim Winton
Poetry
Revolting Rhymes – Roald Dahl
Songs and Verse – Roald Dahl
Let’s Recycle Grandad
Poems to Perform
Mustard, Custard, Grumble Belly and Gravy
The Owl and the Pussycat and other nonsense rhymes
Jabberwocky – Lewis Carroll
Do not go around the edges – Indigenous poetry
In the Bin
What can you do with only one shoe
Online Poem – The Earth is Crying – Maria Boland (choral reading)
Non-Fiction
Caring for our Earth
Natural Resources – The world in infographics
Songlines and Stone Axes
Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, Rethink
Ask an expert – climate change
What do we do with rubbish
Save the Planet – The Aussie Kids Guide
Rubbish and Recycling
Bush Tucker and Medicine of the … (4 different tribes, 4 different books)
Natural Resources
Literacy Components
Literacy Centres: Five sessions per week, 20 minutes per session, each group has one session with the teacher. Students work in ability based groups and complete a different activity each day of the week. Activities include comprehension strategies, before, during and
after reading practices, vocabulary/grammar focus, text structure, making connections, summarising and questioning for a variety of fiction texts.
Shared and Modelled Reading: One session at beginning of week to model focus reading strategy (Focus on different types of narratives and poetry).
Independent Reading: Students read to teacher or buddy for 5 minutes every morning before the bell. Independent reading for 10 minutes after lunch three days a week. Students take home readers each day to read and have signed for a chance to play homeworkopoly.
Writing: Three 50 minute writing sessions per week using gradual release model, including modelled writing, shared writing, guided writing and independent writing. 10 minute rapid writing/sharing sessions three times per week at start of writing sessions (five minutes
writing, five minutes sharing). These sessions will allow students opportunities to investigate text structure and language features of narratives to develop writing skills.
Class reading: Classroom novel read by teacher (Meet Grace, Blueback – Tim Winton), model reading strategies through incidental think alouds.
Spelling: Students complete daily word sort followed by a range of activities. Weekly spelling rule modelled on Wednesday, with a focus on using the spelling pattern for sentence of the day.
Sentence of the Day/Dictation: Student’s get a tick for each correctly spelled word and punctuation, capital letters. See weekly guide for language focus. Check weekly.
Vocabulary – Word of the Day, regularly add to themed word wall.
Resources
Global words sustainability Unit
Global words Indigenous Unit

4. Unit Overview – Forward Planning Document
Context/Intent Deep Knowledge and Understandings Skills Processes/Values/Attitudes
 Gain an understanding of various aspects of sustainability, how it is managed by
Indigenous Australians and other Australians.
 Write a poem about what sustainability means to you.
 Write a report about the local bush foods and medicine of a selected group of
indigenous people.
 There are many environmental issues that we are faced with (resources, water,
energy, waste, nature conservation etc)
 Some of the ways in which these issues are handled and managed
 Indigenous people’s ways of managing the land now and in the past
 Develop skills to research and compare various sources of historical information
 Describe aspects of life for indigenous Australians before European settlement
 Understand the importance of carefully managing our environment in a sustainable
way, using European and Indigenous knowledge
History English (Literacy) Maths
Making/Technology
 Worm farm
 Recycled paper
 Solar cars/windmills
 Purifying water
 Designing a sustainability innovation
ICT
 Thinglink map of school detailing sustainability efforts and highlighting potential
new sustainability initiatives
Experiencing
 Blueback puppet show
 Visit to local museum for Indigenous Culture workshops
 Local Mineng elder visit
Research
 In groups, research a group of Indigenous Australians in order to write a report and
create a diorama.
 Use town library books to support research.
Indigenous Land Management
 Investigate how Indigenous people care for country, in the past and now.
 Discuss case studies of how Indigenous people are teaming up with Government
department to use traditional ways of managing the land (Uluru introducing Mala,
fire management, Kalgoorlie area new vehicle).
 Noongar seasons, foods and language.
Assessments
 Write a recount after the museum or MIneng elder visit
 Source additional information outside of that provided to support the report
writing.
Current Events
 Students to look out for newspaper articles featuring sustainability, Indigenous
connections to country and land management to assemble a current events wall.
Reading
 Guided Reading – focus on sustainability/poetry/fiction
 Focus on successful group work and sharing of ideas, work on expanding Fab 4 to
include more strategies for comprehension.
 Fiction and Poetry – as listed in Exemplar texts
 Various fiction and non-fiction texts provided for independent reading to work on
word attack and fluency.
Writing
 Blurb – Write a blurb for one of the shared reading books, can be after reading or
before reading (prediction or summarising)
 Write a poem about a sustainability topic of interest
 Explore word play in poetry and other literary texts (spoonerisms, neologisms, puns,
nonsense words, metaphor, similes, alliteration)
 Guided Writing – Rich writing experiences for sentence construction workshops
(related to theme, eg. Making a worm farm)
 Write a report about the life in an Indigenous community.
 Handwriting lessons once a week.
Viewing
 Reading book covers – hide cover of book, read blurb to children. Ask them to
design a cover for the book, then show the original and discuss differences.
 Examine illustrations in the various books.
 Watch clips from various bookmarked Indigenous sites, sustainability clips etc.
Recycling, innovation, sustainability, water management etc.
Speaking and Listening
 Readers theatre (fluency practice) – work in groups. Use poems for the first half of
the term.
 Choral reading of poems.
Word Study
 Examine words associated with theme and add to word wall.
 Take words from some of the various class books.
Spelling
 Students are divided into five spelling groups based on their spelling stage.
 Weekly spelling generalisation lessons and follow up activities.
Volume
 Comparing weekly volumes of waste at home and school (graph)
 Volume of worm farm/compost
 Volume of packaging to reduce waste
Length
 Saving Fuel – calculating the shortest distance for a journey (Geography links)
Mass
 Mass of waste at school and home (graph)
 Mass of water compared to other liquids
Multiplication and division
 Calculating mass and volume of waste
 Calculating facts to include on an infographic about our class and home waste use
(infographic book for examples)
ARTS/TECHNOLOGY
Diorama or Glogster
 Make a diorama of a typical day in the life of an early Indigenous Australian
 Investigate possible areas that the diorama could be modelled on (link report on
different indigenous foods and medicines)
 Look online at some dioramas, both professional and student made and discuss
features and possible materials to build one.
Indigenous Paintings
 Examine different styles of Indigenous artists
 Artist studies – Albert Namatjira, David Malangi and Emily Kame Kngwarreye.
Homemade Indigenous Toys
 Technologies project?
Visual Arts
 Dot paintings
 Recycled materials structure
ICT
 Use word processing to prepare final copy of report
 Use computers and iPads to research online
 Glogster, QR code recordings of poems, poetry on class blog, infographic creation,
thinglink.
Mid Program Activity: Assessment (Week 5)
Poem showing what sustainability means to you.
 After investigating a variety of different poems, types and language features, students write a poem about a sustainability topic or
issue that is important to them.
 Publish poster of the poem and record student reading it with a linked QR code to display.
Recount/Summary of elder visit or Museum trip
End of Program Assessment
Report based on an Indigenous Australian group of people
 Closely investigate indigenous culture, how they lived.
 Choose a group of Indigenous people and write a report detailing their way of life, food medicine and culture.
 Design and construct a diorama or Glogster to represent their chosen indigenous culture.