Students will choose a person who has been linked to significant events in Australian history and will explore this person through a showbag. The showbag must inform and entertain an upper primary group. Another 5/6 class will come into the room and partake in the great showbag alley sharing at the end of August or after the holidays (depending on how it all goes and how busy we get). The grade 5 students will be focusing on Australia at the time of early invasion and the 100 year period after this, whereas the grade 6 students will be focusing on personalities to do with the development of Australia as a nation particularly after 1900. They need to focus on their person's achievements, how they have been represented in history (via primary and secondary documents), how we judge the achievements of "great people" and to what extent historical events have been influenced by individuals. Some of the individuals under the microscope so to speak at the moment include Edmund Barton, Henry Parkes, Mary MacKillop, Eddie Mabo, Vida Goldstein, Tuganini, Sir Douglas Mawson, Ned Kelly. Tomorrow we will discuss what could make up the contents of a showbag. Imagine the bag below entitled:
All You Need to Know About Ned But Were Afraid to Ask or
Walking on Thin Ice, or
Vida was la Vida! The possibilities for the Great Historical Show Bag Expo are endless!
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| John Flynn by OF |
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| Showbag by LS and BS |
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Vida Goldstein showbag by VL
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| Weary Dunlop by AD |
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| Peter Lalor bag by AW |
Students have all been given at least one piece of background information on their person.We have also watched two interesting DVDs, one on Sir Douglas Mawson, and one on Eddie Mabo, and also some clips from the ground-breaking documentary series called
First Australians, which clearly gives the viewpoint of the aboriginal people on what the landing of the First Fleet meant to their way of life and existence. I also read the book called the
First Fleet written by Alan Boardman and illustrated by Roland Harvey. Students have also been busy decoding graphs showing the make up of, numbers and destinations of convicts in Australia.
We brain stormed possible avenues of exploring their histotical figure as a class. Most students have begun the process with the production of a timeline in order to get an overview of their person:
timeline
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| Excerpt from OF's timeline on Sir Douglas Mawson |
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| Extract from Mawson timeline by OF |
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| Extract from Ned Kelly timeline by TR |
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| Excerpt from MH's Timeline on |
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| Timeline and preplanning by OF |
Here are some extracts from the very stunning timeline by EC on Edith Cowan:
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| Peter Lalor Timeline by AW |
diary enty about a typical day in their life
a jigsaw, drawing complete with a description (the boxes students know how to make from a previous maths lesson)
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| Truganini by NS |
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| Suffragette hat worn by Vida Goldstein by VL |
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| Well done AS: first cab of the rank so to speak |
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A very dashing Captain Arthur Phillip by GE
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an informative bookmark (students were shown some examples)
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| Bookmark by TR |
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| Bookmark by JS |
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| By VL |
We discussed generalisations and the fact that no person is entirely good or bad.
a PowerPoint of PhotoStory or an animation (if they are feeling ambitious)
Then and Now showing how every day things have changed since the time their Australian figure lived
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| By AW |
postcard
a placemat - with headings Resilience, Perseverence, Getting Along, Organisation and Confidence
We all did a practice one on Sir Henry Parkes in groups of 3 or 4 today, as a example of how to do the task. (Friday 24th August) Students had to do some research and list things he did which exemplified these qualities under the respective headings.
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| William Wentworth by MH |
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| Truganini by NS |
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| Henry Lawson by GK |
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John Flynn and the Keys to Success by OF
The face of...an inkwork with words and symbols depicting the life and times of their significant historical figure
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| The face of Eddie Mabo by KB |
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| Weary Dunlop by AD |
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Truganini
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| Add caption |
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| Mary Mackillop |
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| The face of Peter Lalor by AW |
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A brilliant representation of Vida Goldstein by VL
Plasticine model showing detail of the dress code of the day (Plasticine available, preliminary sketch and notes are essential before beginning the model)
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| Sir Donald Bradman by BS and LS |
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| Sir Henry Parkes by AK |
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| Edmund Barton by TM |
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| Edmund Barton by TM |
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| Captain Arthur Phillip by GL |
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Vida Goldstein by VL
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| Sir Donald Bradman...revamped, apparently the original was too skinny |
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| Ned Kelly by TR |
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| Sir Donald Mawson by OF |
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| John Flynn by OFW |
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| Mary Mackillop |
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| Weary Dunlop |
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| Eddie Mabo |
caricature
cartoon strip or a graphic noivel about a significant event in their person's life.
wordfind/crossword (Programs available online for these)
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| Eddie Mabo Wordfind by KB |
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William Wentworth Wordfind by MH
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newspaper article:
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| by JS |
advertisement advertising their character for sale stating their good points or
advertising their cause
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| William Wentworth by MH |
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Advertising Vida Goldstein by VL
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| This was a great idea by AW |
information poster (cartridge avialable in the classroom)
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| Poster by LS and BS |
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| By JS |
Parallel charts showing life then versus now
a menu
Students can negatiate other activities such as diaoramas for example.
Today (August 29th) we watched
Ned Kelly Uncovered and I think the students found it really brought history to life. We discussed how Kelly can be seen as both a hero and a villain and we discussed the fact that not everybody's interpretation of history is the same, even the views of eminent historians can differ quite markedly. Many of our
significant Australians currently under the microscope are complex people with varied characteristics who cannot be simply viewed as good or bad. One of the students is currently working on a Ned Kelly Plasticine model and another students helped him design the armour Kelly wore using the DVD as inspiration.
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| Sketch up of Kelly armour by BS |
UPDATE: last week of term: well done to VL, OFW, GL, AW and TM for their presentation in the end of term assembly, reporting on the showbag progress.
