Thursday, March 14, 2019

Week 2: Civics & Citizenship Education - Democracy



(Planet Ark, n.d)


Welcome, parents/carers of 2A, your children have shown a keen interest in the environment and exploring the life cycle of trees after a discussion on how long trees take to grow. 
Over the next three weeks we will be exploring this topic through reading, discussing and volunteering. This unit is not only going to extend students’ knowledge about the life cycles of trees it is also teaching students the importance of becoming an active citizen in their community, by volunteering in a tree planting day (Department of Education, 2015). For students to become informed and active citizens they need to be participate in real world experiences. Citizenship learning is vital for students as it develops student’s knowledge and skills they will need to actively paly a role in their society (Association for citizenship teaching, 2018). Citizenship has three main components one being social, that is the social value, identity and community involvement (Tudball & Brett 2014). 

This unit will prepare students for the curriculum learning of civics and citizenship education (CCE) in Year 3 (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, [ACARA], 2019a) and covers the cross-curriculum priority of sustainability (ACARA, 2019b).

Other learning arears from the Early Years Learning Framework:
 (DEEWR, 2009). 


Student will also work towards: 
(ACARA, 2019c).


To begin, we will read 'Who will plant a tree, by Jerry Pallotta' I have attached a YouTube link below if you would like to hear the story:


(Love-Fleck, 2018)
After reading this book we will discuss the different types of trees around our school and students will sketch one. While students are sketching they will be asked to think about the following:
-          What is the purpose of trees?
-          How long do you think trees live for? 
We will then be participating in a community tree planting day; this opportunity provides students to give positivity back to the community contributing to CCE. Each year 300,000 people volunteer their time to help educate and give back to the community and environment (planet Ark, n.d). Parents you are invited to come along to this event and help your child plant a tree while discussing with your child
-          The importance of volunteering
-          How it makes them feel to give back to the community. 
In the final lesson students will use books and pictures to look at the life cycle of a tree, so they can see what will be happening to the trees they planted. When students are involved in different projects it can lead to curiosity in bigger local, national and global issues (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett, & Farmer, 2012). Students will be asked to in pairs draw the life cycle of a tree and on their life cycle write down three things that are either important about trees or what they have learnt about trees throughout this unit.

If you have any questions or would like more information in the tree planting day please don’t hesitate to contact me
Miss Adams
Year 2A


References:

Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S., & Farmer, S. (2012). Programming and Planning in Early Childhood Settings (5th ed.). Port Melbourne, VIC: Cengage Learning.

Association for citizenship teaching, (2018). About Citizenship. Retrieved from https://www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk/about-citizenship


Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2019b). Sustainability.  Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/sustainability/



Love-Fleck, H. (2018). PLTW 2.2: "Who Will Plant a Tree?" Read Aloud. [video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy0H3Eciy5g
Planet Ark. (n.d). National Tree Day. retrieved from https://planetark.org/campaigns/treeday.cfm
Tudball, L., & Brett, P. (2014). What matters and what’s next for civics and citizenship education in Australia? Social educator, 32 (2), 4-15. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=1627dc9f-b482-4788-a0a8-f44b66431676%40sessionmgr104



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2 comments:

  1. EloiseMarch 22, 2019 at 12:31 AM

    Hi Tahlia
    I just want to clarify what the students’ prior learning and interests were to make you decide this topic to teach.
    I like how you have included a class name (2A), making it more personalised. I also value how you have taken the lesson further, to incorporate the community tree planting day.
    In the second last paragraph, you may want to consider how students can initiate research projects, and considering that students are 8 years old may need more guidance, as being up to them may be too broad to reach the learning outcomes you have selected. Additionally, you could add ways the learning outlined links to cross curriculum priorities (e.g. sustainability) and general capabilities. As a last suggestion, you can state particular national or global issues to provide more information to parents and carers.
    A note on referencing: When referring to the Early Years Learning Framework, make sure to add ‘framework’ when explaining the outcome. Make sure to reference the book by Jerry Pallotta. Regarding ‘Association for Citizenship’ reference consider adding a title, adding a period and date in brackets.

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  2. Sue SeanApril 4, 2019 at 3:00 AM

    Hi Tahlia,

    I really like your idea of helping Year 2 students to become active citizens through their active involvement in the community tree planting day event. It not only helps students learn the concept through a hands-on approach but also provides them with the opportunity to make positive contributions to the community, which are the essence of Civics and Citizenship Education.

    In addition to Outcome 4, I think your unit also seeks to achieve Outcome 2 – Children are connected with and contribute to their world (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR], 2009, p.28). You might want to consider including this learning outcome in your blog post?

    I agree with Eloise that you could connect your unit with one of the cross-curriculum priorities - Sustainability. When you discuss the importance of planting trees with students, perhaps you could consider exploring the life cycle of a tree through role-play (e.g., how a mature tree grows from a seed and then gets older and dies)? This could potentially help students to understand why we need to plant new trees after we have cut down trees.

    You may also want to consider including a YouTube video of your chosen story so that it would be easier for parents/carers to understand what the story is about and consider how they can support their child's learning in this area?

    Some misspelled words (e.g., “careers” and “studnts”) and incorrect word orders (e.g., “how often will they need to be watered) are evident in your blog post. A few details have also been overlooked in your reference list (e.g., use double spacing and the hanging indent paragraph style for every new reference; use an italic font for the title of web documents, web pages and books). You may want to re-check your spelling, grammar and reference list prior to the final submission?

    Kind regards,
    Sue Sean

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