Federation (Grade 6 Curriculum)

The recreation, equally as big

It's pretty big guys, I was surprised when I saw it in person!

Today the grade 6 students made a start on the Federation Unit. We looked at the following website and read through it together.
http://www.beenleigss.eq.edu.au/requested_sites/fed/
This child-friendly website also has excellent links to other sites.

We then did a big book sharing using the book called Australians All put out by the Curriculum Corporation and which I found hidden away in the library at 5-45 yesterday afternoon. My wonderful students took turns sharing off-the-cuff.  Each student then received some notes from the book A Children's History of Australia: Federation by David Morrissey (revered historian) as well.  Well done to TM, LS, VL, OF-W, and OF who listened so attentively and presented so well.  Students had thirty minutes reading time to digest the literature they were given and to highlight keywords which we have focused on all year. They have had time to plan their approach in their Writer's Notebook and this is tonight's focus for homework (30-40 minutes). Tomorrow they will look at their plans and they will begin their posters all about Federation. They will also be required to deliver a two minute speech to the class on the topic at the end of the unit. Plagiarism will be frowned upon! Students can use visuals and the Smart Board to aid them with their presentation, cue cards and their poster as a props, but are not to stand there just reading off their poster. This is can end up being boring delivery, try to think outside of the square. There is a display up the front of the room to help them along their way. They have also now seen the posters produced by two other  grade 5/6 classes in assembly. Meanwhile, the grade 5 girls have been working hard on their colonization posters whilst the grade 5 boys published their dustbin poetry and worked on their character studies from the film Gallipoli and continued on with the poetry terminology job.

I have suggested the grade 6 students think about the following topics when planning their posters:

What does Federation mean?

A PMI (pluses, minus and interesting) about what Federation meant for the colonies. 
(Ask your kids about the railway system or the luggage checks!)

Henry Parkes, the Father of Federation and his role in the whole process.

The Constitution/The Referendum

Edmund Barton (TM is excused from this as he did a whole historical show bag on him)

Debate over the national capital

By the way...Congratulations to all students for their behaviour and presentations in the book buddy assembly, most notably NS, GL, OF and JS.

Second lesson 
Today I tried to catch the band students up on the double lesson they missed and then all students working in pairs had to cross-correlate information to to produce a time line about Federation. Students shared their proposals and plans for their Federation posters with me and chose the card they wanted.

Working in pairs

Cross-correlating information

The Goldrush Era - grade 5 focus

This unit is firmly based on the curriculum for the grade 5 students, and as a result all grade 5 students are expected to do a talk to the picture presentation for 1-2 minutes, plus one activity. Each picture has been scanned and will be on the Smart Board (which is incidentally now safely attached to the wall and highly unlikely to fall on their teacher again) displayed in full as they deliver their speech. I sat down which each individual grade 5 student and thoroughly discussed the job and the expectations. Students chose the accompanying activity. They each have a small aspect of life on the goldfields in Australia to talk about. The presentations are sequenced from a famous historian, Peter Taylor's, book. They are working from a secondary document but can introduce a primary document if they wish. The picture scans are logically organised and allow for the selected audience to come away with a basic understanding of this aspect of Australian history. Presenters can use cue cards to aid them with their delivery and can cut their own palm cards or I will supply them with some. (paint selection cards from Mitre 10). It is not a matter of reading out the information they were given. It is more about looking closely at the accompanying picture and locating the key information (on which we have had five lessons this year)... and presenting their ideas expressively and clearly to the grade 5 and 6 students. Each student will receive an assessment from me, and from randomly selected grade 6 students. 

The grade 5 students will be assessed on:

1. content (are the main ideas from the text represented in some manner?)
2. clarity - logical sequencing, audibility
3. confidence - body stance, eye contact with the audience
4. originality (Did they research and bring any new information to the presentation?)

Now grade 6 students need not be so relaxed ...because soon it will be their turn to present on some aspect of Federation. Therefore, I would like them to have a healthy dose of  empathy for their classmates and an understanding of how these kinds of presentations need them to be a captive audience and very respectful of the presenters.

Here is the peer assessment form:

Grade 5 Australian History Presentation Talk to the Picture Assessment

I felt that I

gained very little from this presentation

gained a bit of an insight into the topic from this presentation

gained a lot of insight into the  topic from this presentation

The presentation

made little sense ( I found it hard to follow) and/or I couldn’t I quite hear most of it

seemed logical and clear to me and I could hear it clearly

was very logical and exceedingly clear and expressive

The presenter seemed

to be lacking a little in confidence

reasonably confident

very confident

The presentation

was okay but a bit boring

had me mostly interested and had something extra

had me really involved and really entertained

Model of a windlass by GK

Model of a windlass by GK